Put her back up on the storage skates and disconnected the battery, which always makes me feel a bit sad as it means I'm not planing on driving her for several days at least. But it must be done if I'm to use my tiny California garage for more than just her.

Tonight I will pull the trim panels behind the seats so I can finish the last upholstery bits, which means having to pull the rear carpet and the behind-seat sheet metal (bin space).

Originally I was just going to make them solid-colored grey, but I'm now leaning toward carrying the black vinyl cap and chrome stripe motif rearward from the door. A little more work, but I think it will make for a more integrated flow of lines. Not that many people even look back there.

 

and it runs better with stock ignition..

 

Guess I won't be installing the MSD after all.

fm

 

I've still got those two Blaster High-Vibration coils sitting new on my workbench to play with, as well. I didn't want to put them in before the drive to Vegas as if they do cause the ignitors difficulty, I'd rather it be closer to home.

After all the work I did on the ICU, I just kind of forgot about them in the furor of trying to get the upholstery up to snuff before WHiV.

Got about three months before JCCS, so I should get to that soon, too.

Out of interest, has anyone ever tried parallelling ignitors to increase current-handling capacity? Curious as to what that might do, heh.

 

I installed a pair of Blaster II's earlier this year, & I agree w/ the above.
Guess I was trying to convince myself it was an upgrade.

Painting new defroster vent.

 

Mike, I don't doubt it runs better on stock stuff. I've experienced that too. Sold my MSD before it had a chance to croak.

I only use stock ignitors and stock coils for DLIDFIS or otherwise. There are other areas to spend your money on upgrades that do something noticeable, like exhaust.

What did I do today? Test fitting a radiator in the rotary baja, looking at ways to build brackets for it, redoing the tail lights and wiring to fit around the tall style rad. This is getting time consuming.

 

Installed an S4 water pump housing, S4 water pump, S4 water pump pulley, S4 air pump bracket. Tapped the S4 water pump housing for 12A temp sensor and after market water temp gauge sensor. Also installed Rotary Aviation OMP adapter, Jegs aluminum tanks for OMP 2 cycle oil and one for radiator overflow. Made up -8AN lines for the OMP and radiator overflow. Also installed an Earls oil filter for the OMP. Powder coated everything several weeks ago. I'm waiting till Fathers Day to fire it up.

The wires coming out of the oil tank are from a Polaris snow mobile oil tank. It's a low oil sensor.

 

Beautiful work!

 

Pretty damn swank!

 

Kansas, I have a RA OMP kit on my RX-8 and it had hot start problems running straight 2 stroke oil in the tank. I drained it and put 20w50 in it and it runs beautifully! Hot start problem gone. Just FYI. Not enough weight to the 2 stroke oil to give good enough compression.

 

GSL-EV: Started working on the drivers side window regulator and related stuff. Door card off, glass taped in the up position and regulator removed for cleaning up. The car was repainted before I got it, probably 1998 and so doors were apart at that time. It looks like they also replaced the window regulator on the drivers side. The plastic liner is worse for the wear so I will make a new one using the old as a template. I think it is 3 or 4 mil polyethylene and I found a 3 mil drop cloth for just a couple of dollars that looks like it will work.

GSL-SE: Tried to start but flooded instantly. Seems like it is trying to run on only one rotor. I wish I had a local I trusted with the engine. I used to and I went looking for him but he has fallen off the grid. Then again he would be retired as I believe he is in his 70's now.

 

Thanks for the suggestion on the oil. I was speaking with my brother, who has a background in combustion engineering, and he had questioned why run 2 cycle oil when I could run regular oil like the factory pump does. I tried to explain to him the benefit that 2 cycle oil would burn cleaner and leave less carbon. He said there was no real benefit of running 2 cycle oil.

I'm going to take your suggestion and just run 20w50. The nice thing is that if you run out of OMP on the road, you can always find a store that has dino oil.

 

Perhaps we can find a heavier 2 stroke?

 

Put the drivers side door all back together on the GSL-EV. The drain holes were all clear but there was a little bit of dried mud in the bottom of the door. Probably this is just the result of 30 years of dust and moisture collecting there. Only thing that is being reluctant in going back together is the door lock button trim piece. It does not want to snap into place. I am going to try it again later today when everything is hot and more flexible. Window goes up and down much better which was the whole point.

I also stopped by one of the local paint shops and they were able to make me a rattle can and bottle of touch up paint (H1). So I have some work to do learning how to do touch up.

 

Pulled the 79 from hibernation. While i was vacuuming the interior, i found the original full spare with bridgestone RD-106 tires. Stil in brand new condition and never been used. I say this coz the nut that secured it to the trunk is scratch free and the wheel inserts are very shiny. So even tho one tire is flat, im leaaving it as-is.

 

Newly washed water only. Orig paint with a ding on PS fender. 80s RB full exhaust, sp 12-a, direct fire, 5.0 radiator. Just need to instal my extra 48 IDA tomorrow and its a done deal

 

ding ding

 

'Bout time you got yourself back into an SA, Mel!

That double-chrome stripe on the interior seems to mostly show up only on the early-build cars I've seen, but I see you have the later left-side hood prop. What's the build date on that one, do you know?

I started work on the behind-the-seats side panels. Cut new tempered hardboard for them, even though the older ones were still pretty OK. Now working on the cover pattern. Originally solid black vinyl, I'm planning to carry the black-chrome-grey motif from the door edge rearward, but only if I can get the dividing line to match up nicely. Otherwise it'll just go solid grey.

 

Built 78, and I'm the 4th owner. I actually picked it up back in mid-90s for $250 in running condition but i gave it to my brother and he gave it back to me about 4 years ago. I havent been at the yard lately but i may pick up a free SA (80) as parts car..complete but no motor or tranny. Currently have 9 cars including our DDs so no room for another car.

Just like you, I prefer a SA over any RX-7 but I'm not as strong as you are as I cant keep the drivetrain 100% stock. Thats the reason why I always give you a hard time (aka constructive criticsm) to keep the originality lol. It takes a lot of ***** to resist the temptation but I will settle for the stock look lol.

The FB is heading to Phoenix since my 15yo nephew should be getting his license soon and i hope to deliver it as his christmas present.

 

Speaking of not being able to resist the modification bug. I finally more or less finished off my sheet metal work on the inner fender wells today.

left and right wheel wells by GySgtFrank, on Flickr

 

GSL-EV: Finished putting drivers door card back in. Pictures attached. As previously mentioned I took it apart to clean and lube the window regulator. Works great now. Replaced the inner and outer glass seals but not the edge seal. Cleaned the mud out of the bottom of the door. Painted the door card. Replaced the vapor barrier. I used 3 mil poly and it would have been better to use 4 or even 5 mil material but I would have had to buy a 100 ft roll. Cleaned all the glass. Used Silicone/Teflon lube on the door mechanisms. Note the dent near the door latch. I think this might have been from closing the door with seatbelt buckle between the door card and the seat. The fiberboard material of the door card is torn. I didn't try to fix this so the dent will remain until I have to pull the door apart again.

I have a new in bag door pull cup. Black Dragon and Mazdatrix no longer have them. I am going to pull a mold from the new parts for both sides. I started a thread last year and I will go back to work on that.

First photo shows the windshield tape in place with the vapor barrier hanging by tape and the door hardware that originally penetrated it.

The second photo shows the vapor barrier held in place with the windshield tape around the left, bottom, and right sides.

The third photo is a closer shot of the vapor barrier near the front of the door.

The final photo shows the door card back in place only missing the door pull cup. I should probably paint the leather the next time I pull it apart.

 

Very cool! I gots me one of those too! No original tire left on it though. Nice project
you grabbed.

 

Dropped the jets down a size in my Holley, solved so many issues.

 

I installed a mallory 4309 today.

 

I still love my Mallory fpr, enjoy Jeff