Keep your brake lines together when painting firewall
 

Stole this idea from the 'yota plant I work at. They use plastic clamps to hold the lines together and then snap on a stud on the firewall. Anyway cut 2 or 3 groups of four 1/2 inch holes with a paddle bit. Cut them in half at 1 inch and the piece at 2. Then just wire tie the pieces together. Bad explanation but if your good at fab and thinking in 3 dimensions the pictures will speak volumes.

My mind is still boggling at the thought of a car that needs to be painted that has brake and fuel lines that aren't getting replaced.

Replaced ? Replaced with what? Like I can walk into the Mazda dealer and buy them.

They aren't something that typically needs to be replaced unless you live in the salt belt or near the beach. Or drive your car in the dirt all the time *ahem*. Making all new ones is royal PITA. Not something I would do just for a paint job. I just masked all mine off and did my best to spray around them. But this method is pretty good. If you're going to do a partial resto with a color change, it's a good idea.

It's a roughly 5 year replacement item here. Well, it's usually a one time item, because there's no car left by the time you need them again, so you replace the car... :)

I don't. OTOH my brake lines aren't routed under the car, and I do everything I can to not drive in the winter or spring. And I bought it from so far north that they don't salt roads...

Nah, it's a peice of cake, especially on a simple car like the RX-7 where you don't have to drop subframes or anything to move the lines, they're not snaked around anything, and there's no ABS to complicate things. Nothing's in the way. Shouldn't take more than a couple hours and a couple 25 foot rolls of line. If you have a mini-saw and a punch, you can even re-use the fittings. Cut, hammer a socket over the nut, remove with a ratchet, punch out what's left of the line, file the rust out, and pop it on the new line before flaring.

Heck, I redid the lines on my Golf in 45 minutes including bleeding the brakes...

Never thought about that with the socket and the punch. Lol thats a pretty good idea!!!

This started out as a simple drop the damn motor in the car. Then my picky ass got cleaning here and there, then the areas got bigger and bigger. Then I thought while its out why not paint the engine bay? Now I'm at completely rewrapping and looming the entire wire harness. All new bolts, screws and clips.

I haven't painted the fuel lines or the brake to the rear line. I cleaned them off with a scrub pad and lacquer thinner. I think I'll go with it like that. I didn't clear the firewall. Now I wished I did :) oh well too late now. I've already into this WAAAYY deeper than I planned to go. I'm ready to start wiring up the 13b EFI, fuse block, coil packs, the power steering ECU and later the AAS suspension. My forte is not fabrication, welding or painting. I'm electronics guy. Lol

Looks like someone has the RX-7 bug again ;) looks nice Mike, I haven't been on here in forever it would seem, lol.

shipwrights disease! i'm trying to contract shipwrongs disease, for instance i know it should be a ground up restoration, but its just getting an oil change, and a wash.

shipwrongs disease =

the roof is leaking but I cannot repair it because it is raining,

when it isn't raining, the roof isn't leaking so I don't need to repair it

Looks like a pretty cool idea, and that bay will be awesome when it's completed I'm sure!

Yesterday's picture. Today was struts, knuckles steering column. And I painted the radiator and few other things. Got to get a picture of the S3 dash in there.

Hey Mike! Where did you find the new bolts, screws and clips? Do you have (or know where to find) a list of what's needed for a resto and a source for the items themselves? Seems I saw a thread where the idea was brought up to sell as a kit, but it was just an idea.

Looking good too BTW! Love the progress.

They are common to other manufacturers.

Oh sorry forgot : I get clips close to or sometimes the same at auto paint and supply place I get my paint from. They have self service display with them in baggies. Still looking for upper and lower windshield molding clips tho.