Normally, rust adds weight, not lightness. You're adding oxygen to the iron after all.

 

You are correct (and my pile of zinc venturi shavings does get heavier as it oxidizes by probably a few grams, considering the millions of shavings and the high surface area) but I was talking about when the rusted steel starts to flake off. I don't know how rusted your old stuff is but a 20 year old exhaust I bought from a guy for my REPU was flaking a lot. And it was heavy. But either way, if you can weigh them both, it would be pretty cool.

 

For the record, the new pipe bolted up in exact-fit to where the ancient old midpipe that I bought used from Paul Aber four years ago used to be.

If it is made of stainless steel, it is made of .125" thick stainless steel. Definitely not 16 gauge like I was fearing.

And I welded the O2 bung in at work, and I bolted it on the car, and installed a NEW wideband sensor (the old one was permanently siezed in the midpipe, and also dead), turned the idle screw up a half turn, and fire the car up for the first time in... well, two months. We had a warm winter.

No more exhaust leaks forward of the axle! The exhaust still sounds "sharp" and there's a hole that something poked in the bottom of the muffler shell that I need to address (road debris? who knows) but plugging that with my thumb doesn't change the noise level much.

And as I was doing this the rain turned into snow I still have to do an oil change and some other misc. maintenance stuff before I can drive it, anyway, so I left it there for the day. It's supposed to be in the 30s tomorrow, warmer on Saturday and in the 70s on Sunday, I'll muck with it on the weekend.

 

Picked up some hard to get parts today.

1. OEM NOS first gen 13B Oil Cooler (1984/1985)
2. OEM NOS Muffler and mid pipes (1979)
3. Racing Beat 1979/1980 brake lines (no longer available)
4. Mold made from dealer installed front spoiler. This mold was made by the the original owner of the 1979 I just purchased. I will be making some new 1979/1980 front spoilers from this mold.

 

​​​Foxbody adjustable Konis and Landrum 150# springs in the rear. Still piecing together my front coilovers.

 

[IMG]https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7club.com-vbulletin/2000x1504/80-dscn0502_437321aab25eaeefa2deabd79f243d043ffea1f7. jpg[/IMGstarted running premix

 

Fixed image

 

What are the yellow straps attached to the shockeye?

 

Diy limiting straps for the axle. I was reading about people having shorter springs come off the perch and while I'm sure it won't happen to me this was easy enough to make for just in case.

 

Starting on the roll cage





also i have slammed the front so far down i will need to seriously modify the front support

 

Interesting. Only place I've seen axle straps before are the OEM ones on an Alfa Romeo Giulia.

 

 

FC subframe modified and ready for conversion. New mounting points fabricated and added to both the front and rear to shift the subframe c. 20mm further back and sloped down towards the rear to allow fitment to factory chassis mounting points for the 1st gen crossmember and steering box/idler arm, while retaining factory 1st gen axle position and ride height. This solves the geometry issues faced when people simply try to bolt on the subframe. All work performed by ACBron Motorsport who has done this conversion a number of times and perfected it.

Once I dummy fit it all and ensure it works properly, the subframe will be blasted and powdercoated black. Next step, steering column, then ACBron Ultimate adjustable coilovers (custom version with FC struts but 1st gen valving&spring rate and adjustable strut tops), then FD front brake conversion (294mm slotted and dimpled rotors and FD 4 piston calipers).

 

Had new Rota mesh wheels and Yokohama tires installed
on my 84 GSL today at Performance Alignment in Sharonville Ohio. Bill installed the tires and wheels and did a complete wheel balance. If you want the best work on your car, Performance Alignment is it.

 

Put new rubber brake line hoses in. Just doing the one back one took 6 hours. Mind you it takes me an hour to jack the car up a foot off the ground. Most of the time was spent getting the jack, getting the car ramps, the wheel blocks, the wood boards..... Climbing a flight of stairs for each trip.

It is better to be safe and slow.

I lost track of the time spent doing the two front brake hoses. At least I know everything was done right.

Now to touch up the underbody under coating.

 

Well, not much, just balanced my wheels, my front left needed 1.5oz on the outside and 1oz on the inside Also rotated them. Found out the belt is going bad on all of them, so new tires soon. Well, I'm planning to get new wheels soon so maybe not..

 

Last two saturday nights, sunday mornings were spent replacing the brake hoses. It took me about 12 hours. I got an estimate from Budget Brakes for $250. So $250 minus $17 (spent for parts) divided by 12 hours is about $20/hr for crawling under the car on cardboard on parking lot asphalt.

And $20/hr times 50 weeks/yr times 40 hours/week = $40,000/yr. But I was sore for 3 days.

 

That isn't what causes geometry issues. The geometry issues are that the FC was designed around much lower roll centers than the SA was. To truly fix the geometry issues you would need to either notch the chassis rails about 25mm to mount the subframe higher or you would need to relocate the control arms about 25mm higher on the subframe, and relocate the rack higher to suit the control arm relocation.

I'm getting tired enough of it that I'm probably going to de-convert my car, using FC uprights with Mazda 3 ball joints in the 1st-gen control arms. The recirc-ball steering never bothered me, constantly bending the weak uprights (even the "stronger" S3 units) bothered me.

The front suspension needs to be MUCH STIFFER when you just bolt the FC subframe under the rails. It doesn't feel good. It's the opposite effect of installing turn-in spacers between the steering arms and uprights with the stock suspension.

 

What I did with my car this weekend:


Not pictured: Turning a 2 hour drive home into a 5 hour ordeal as the ignition system gradually failed. At first it was just an occasional light stumble at part throttle, feels like when the terminals in the distributor cap fail (light throttle is highly dependent on good trailing ignition!), by the time I limped the car into the garage, it only ran at WOT below 3000rpm and even that was mostly running on one rotor. But I got it home

I guess this means it is finally time to convert the car to distributorless ignition. My ECU is set up for it but I never did it because the MSD/distributor setup worked well enough and you can't easily bump start a distributorless car.

 

been cleaning wiring harness ... did not take picture. but thats whats up. working on cleaning the copper contacts with a deoxidizing chemical bath. been pretty pleased this far. Oh yeah The harness is out of the car.

 

What chemicals are you using?

 

Inspected my spark plugs and noticed it was way too easy to loosen them. So I tightened them to the recommended 18-21 ft lbs and now it starts and runs smoother.

Amazing, isn't it?

 

Sprayed undercoating on the bare areas of the undercarriage. I had to use car ramps istead of jack stands because the jack stands scratched the undercoating that was already there. With the car ramps I always worry about the car rolling off and killing me. Turns out the the e-brake can hold the car when the wheels are on the car ramps sloped part.

I had the wheels blocked on the pavement, the e brake on, and the car chained to a tree. By the magic of trigonometry , the tree/chain isolated had to hold only 600 pounds to prevent the car from rolling on me.

Whew, glad this project is over!!

 

I use two sets of ramps, front pointing rearward and rear pointing forward.

 

u beat me to it.lol