I installed (with the assistance of a friend) a new RB seat cover on the passenger-side seat. It turned out great, now to do the driver's side!



https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generati.../#post11741368

 

Went for a "Victory lap" to visit a few folks who provided support before the last show, & let them see the finished result.

Beautiful day for a drive here, too. Overcast, low 70's, no wind.

 

I test ran the dead-gutted turbo housing in the brown car; the one with the cover plate over where the CHRA normally sits. It was actually quieter than I expected. The plan was to maybe drive it around the block to test but I'm out of gas and understand that it won't have the performance of a header and won't have the power of a turbo. Decided to pull it back off once it was cool enough to handle and went back to the actual turbo.

Why swap it back so soon? Because it's too darn good. I love this setup! The best I've ever done in a 1st gen.

 

I take her out for a spin and give her the first bath after painting...

 

Today i continue going nuts waiting for my engine. Last word i got was all the machining has been done but they're waiting on the WASHERS that go with the stud kit of all things.

 

The 85 GSL-EV is my daily so taking it for a drive is nothing special. But I did drive it to the car wash and then the auto parts store to buy some cleaning supplies. I had never tried a clay bar and I am now sold. Did about half the car and put a good coat of wax on that part. Never has it felt so clean!

 

Got me a pair of minty-ish looking doors to replace my rusted out doors. Didn't even get charged for the glass!

Gonna have to strip these down as they've been painted but it looks like original color was silver. I hope they're not too rusty to use, but I can tell already they're not nearly as bad as the ones that are original to the car. My drivers door has been broken into also as the glass track has been pried out of shape. Never would have been able to straighten it out. Check one more thing off my "parts needed" list!

 

I was skeptical about claybarring too, until I tried it. Makes an amazing difference in the smoothness of the paint. Like the difference in feel between plastic, and glass.

 

rebuilt the Nikki, stripped off the vacuum secondaries, used the zinc plated piece of metal that is at the end of the shutter valve mechanism , with hogged out screw holes, to cover up that vacuum circuit on the carb where that vac pot was. stripped the primary throttle shaft down to bare necessities and that means nothing pointing towards the front of the car. cut a notch into the secondaries linkage outermost arm ( that IS the final word on butterfly position) and used the thin spring from spare parts on the primary throttle shaft to mechanically work the secondaries. needed the spring because at full movement it did not comply, and "hard linking" the parts wasn't going to jive.

spent an hour trying to find the 150 psi-rocket-fired brass check weight from the accelerator pump outlet and just made one from cut-off brass tube that was once the OMP oil inlet tubes. I cut those back to get them out of the way of the venturi/carb opening.

waiting to decide on 20mm freeze plugs, or OG O rings, plus a new header gasket. NOTHING is in parts stores anymore. will never do another one of these without a full gasket set for everything before I start in on it. ordered a gasket "set" for intake, didnt come with the o rings, that are totally shot to hell. meanwhile, polishing out the stock 13" wheels and custom fabbing an exhaust setup that is respectable waiting on parts. might just drive to summit racing and get them, hell with waiting on shipping from washington state.

 

fabricated a side mount alternator bracket

 

I was careful not to hit it when parking in the garage tonight. Time for a lil tween-projects downtime.

 

I finished the center section in a long primary. Then wrapped it with the new DEI so called titanium wrap. It's actually lava rock made so thin it's woven like fiberglass wrap but no where nearly as anoying to handle. At first I thought I needed gloves, but nope. Handle with bare hands. Nice. Looks kinda cool but I hope it keeps the floor cool next to a fuel line.

 

It's time to install that altitude sensor/adjuster that I bought last winter. Went to O'Reilly's and couldn't buy a gasket to use for replacing the carb, I really don't want to remove it until I'm setup to reassemble what I disassemble. Down time... must shorten. I have to buy a full rebuild kit to get the gasket. This sure looks Nikki, anyone want to reassure me? the rebuild kit is universal.

 

thats a Nikki, why don't you try getting gasket paper.

 

i washed it, many spiders were displaced

 

I tried to get O'Reilly's to sell me some, and they all swore that none of the materials they had would withstand fuel. We do have a performance parts shop....

Thanks, I called Zeke's already... They've got a roll for $6.

 

It was 2 days ago......but I bought my FB. I am currently making my list of repairs and modifications.

 

I received my OMP rebuild kit in the mail on Friday.so Saturday morning I was up early taking it apart.

 

Applied brake quiet to my hawk pads which were squealing like a stuck pig at low speeds.

Took it for nice drive around my test circuit.

Fixed now.

 

I bought my wife a new car, so I could finally get my garage-door transmitter back for the -7.

 

The things we have to do for our 7's!


Last Saturday I did an EV related update to the GSL-EV that is probably of no interest here and took it for a drive afterwords. It was a warmish day so I lowered the windows. When I got home I tried to put the windows up and the drivers side was its normal slow but went all the way up. The passenger side went up until it was opened about 4 inches and then kind of went sideways and pivoted a little and then jammed. I enlisted aid and was able to get it to go up. On Sunday I took the door apart to fix this situation. Spent most of the day figuring out how to take it apart and then cleaning and lubing the slides and pivots. A friend badgered me into taking the motor apart and that was a mistake. Brush springs go flying and I spent far too much time finding them and then figuring out how to get it back together. And there wasn't any point. Everything inside the motor looked good. I put the regulator back in the door, replaced inner and outer window seals and it goes up great now, probably better than it ever has. It goes down great now too until it gets to the last couple of inches of travel where it slows down as it works against the counter balance spring.

I have not put the door card back in and I will probably mask and paint the vinyl later today.

The GSL-SE had not been driven for a few weeks so I jumped in and expected it to be a trial to start but it wasn't bad at all. Drove it about 20 miles. I commented at the time that it sure seems gutless when compared to the EV conversion. But that makes sense since the GSL-EV has twice the torque.

 

I read this as attitude sensor and for a few seconds all I could think of was "What is an attitude sensor?" and why would you need an attitude sensor when you are driving your 1st gen around.

My attitude is always good when I am driving a 1st gen.

Did you get that gasket you needed?

 

Maybe an attitude sensor senses how awesome you feel while driving one of these cars.

 

Today: Crimped & Soldered up all the fusible links for the voltage sensing wire and battery charge wire, the final components to the power grid! Got a few spares to tuck in the storage bin emergency kit.

Terminated the CAS and tucked the wires, its looking cleaner every minute!

Spent 2/3 the day calling shops in Seattle trying to get someone to tap my primary fuel rail to accomodate 1/4npt adapter for my new fuel system, which I also ordered. -6AN braided fuel line with black and silver hose ends. It was expensive, but in under 100 miles I managed to completely bake the "premium" efi hose from O'Reily's, have had 3 fuel leaks, and the sanctioned EFI hose clamps have backed out continuously. I'm done playing with fire, I've spent too much time and money on this project to see it go up in flames. Time to do it right.

Here's the diagram, the blue arrows point to the last piece of the puzzle, how to get that -6an onto the factory fuel rail. at this point i'm thinking of getting -6an male tapered fittings to have someone weld on.

 

Hit 150k chassis miles on the GSL-EV yesterday and actually had the presence of mind to notice it, pull over, and take some photos. This was the only one worth uploading.

Masked off the leather and carpet on the door card. Got too late to apply the coating. Photos after the paint goes on.