Well, I started this thread because many of the mods done to the FB/SA's are pretty common among other 1st gen owners.

I wanted to know about the mods the many people don't do as a common thing. The term "strange" is of course in the eye of the beholder. So, humor me if you can. I've come up with a few strange unconventional ideas, but just haven't implemented them yet. If you have some pictures and a short description that would awesome.

-Error402

 

i have thought about covering most of the bottom of my car in abs plastic sheets and building a diffuser for the back, I think that would be tight.

 

Theres a guy on the internet who has a 1st gen that propane powered

 

i've used expanding foam in the speaker holes for the rear speakers. basically just trying to seal off the airspace for the 6.5"s. i've noticed that they sound better and have tighter bass. you don't have to fill the whole hole, just seal off the far ends. then i used duct tape(gotta love that stuff) to seal some of the other holes in that area. i'm sure there's a better way, but for $4, i can't complain.

i've also trimmed the weather seal around the headlights, under the hood. theres a few spots where you can snip it, leaving a hole for air to come in at the base of the lights. i have no clue if it helped or hurt, but as far as i can tell, it did nothing

 

That's what I'm talking about guys. The little things that people don't notice or talk about much.

For example:

I installed new speakers and a neon blue ring around the speakers. (Very hidden, behind the panels. I got if off one of those Wal-Mart special speaker boxes with neons that thud with the bass. :rollseyes: ) Rewiring the neons to run off of a switch and the cig lighter wiring. It's actually not bad. I'm going to wire it so it is either just on or off. (I don't like the blinking feature.) Nice soft blue hue light in the hatch. Maybe I'll wire them so when I open the hatch they turn on too. ~shrugs~

-Error402

 

One of the fastest electric full body cars in the world is a 10 second FB dragster.
Is that "stange" ? here's a clip of it doing a wheelie
http://www.competitionplus.com/02_27...tric_drag.html

 

I raised my hood latch up an inch.

 

Wow! Electric drag racing. Interesting.


*laughs at Felix Wankel*

 

Hey, it cools the eninge bay off well. I do tire of people asking me why my hood is unlatched though.

 

lessee.... i also used jb weld on the lug bolts to keep the damn nut from popping off the bolt. so far so good. still can't understand why in the world mazda would make a 2 piece bolt. ohyeah, and i've got batman hanging from the rearview. best mod i've done! 'course, the dellorto ain't half bad either.

 

Mine has a flux capacitor, two nuclear cooling towers and Mr Fusion.

 

Heheheh....I have Batman floor mats to match my black and yellow interior.

 

I pulled one of those caps off each wheel when I had my 81. I don't think anyone would have noticed that they aren't anti-theft ones...

 

Really? Cool, so does mine. We should chill sometime

 

i thought about smoothing out the bottom, like 82streetracer said (i was planning to use aluminum, though), but never really thought it would be worth the time since i probably wouldn't take it to Bonneville or anything like that.

among many of my weird experiments and thoughts, i had this weird idea once, of building an intake spacer with one of those metal cookie tins ...

 

They didn't. Someone else put that on your car.

Everyone who's seen my tall-boy shifter thought it was strange. I kinda like it.

I have lots of ideas that other people might think of as strange... Like my simple idea for adapting a T2 trans - use an automatic driveshaft, and simply shift the engine/trans back a few inches until it fits. Requires some cutting/welding and new oil cooler lines and radiator hoses, but that's not really significant compared to the cost of a new driveshaft, and you have to do cutting/welding anyway. Save money AND get weight off of the nose of the car!

HMM... On the other hand, the radiator and oil cooler can also be shifted rearwards....

 

Electric dragster
I can't believe they took a nice enviromantal destroyer like a rx7 and turned it into that.
Makes my stomic turn just thinking about it.

 

The heads of the lug bolts come off. They are splined.

 

yelp I seen several like that, the reason being is so if you strip the heads out on the top, you got another chance

 

Really? Wow. That's actually pretty scary. I'll have to run out and get some VW lug bolts now.

Or maybe since I don't run SA wheels anymore, I'll finally convert over to studs and nuts.

 

I've got some funky mods. I've done alot of things to my carb, as some of you probably have read my archived thread.

My car is an 85 GS.
Installed another hood prop on the P side. Relocated the gas door and hatch buttons to under the steering column. (I replaced them with the appropriate rocker type from the 82, Removed the dash light rehostat and dummy switch covers.)
There's an old headlight activator rocker switch installed, as well. (It was from the 82 and just popped up the head lights for cleaning) - That's hooked up to a heater core damper control motor that pulls a cable that opens the butterfly valve in the aluminum Chrystler throttle body that is covering a gigantic hole in my exhaust. It's the coolest thing going from quiet RB header sound to "That's right, Honda...I'm comin' fer you!!"- with the flick of a stock switch.
I've removed the tach over-rev buzzer potentiometer, and wired it remotely, as well as the buzzer. I can change the RPM that the buzzer goes off. The buzzer is just hanging there for now, but eventually I will remove it and hook the wires up to something more useful that I want to turn on at any given RPM...Like say, the exhaust dump!
I made spacers and lifted the rear temporarily to accomidate my wide rear wheels, which I had to make adapters for.
I made an aluminum bracket to hold the three coils (PMDDFIDIDDLYDIDDLY) and at one point, I had beer cans as sleeves on each coil. (Just use a can opener!) It was pretty neat - It looked just like half a six pack, but I washed my engine bay and they filled with water cause I was too stupid not to put drain holes in them. - Besides, I caught alot of **** cause they were Coors Light cans!
I've used "Great Stuff" expanding foam in parts of the double skin, but am afraid to try it in the rocker panels because of possible water accumulation. (That stuff is, well...great!) Relocated battery to the P side bin. Made my own aluminum shift **** - cut my shift lever down, lathed the end, bent it and threaded it. It's about three inches tall from the consol to the top of the ****!


Still to do...
Expanding foam (or something) in the doors to make them sound more solid when they close; Brushed aluminum plate in place of the center console; Relocate the hood release to where the gas latch and rear hatch buttons were (Requires longer cable); Make aluminum plates where all those switches are under the steering wheel (Just to match the console); Get smaller, more appropriate wheels, and remove the spacers I made that jack up the car; Install oil injection midway into the exhaust for smokescreen; Make flipable rear liscence plate; Install tiny video cams...one in rear, one in front - hooked up to a tiny recorder (Imagine the look on the guys face who hit your car in the parking lot and left the scene! ); And finally...Installation of a 1,000,000 candel power xenon bulb dead center in the rear of the car for ******** who like to tailgate in their SUVs! (And ******** at the drive-in who have no regard for anyone else trying to watch the movie!)

...Mmmm Thought about the whole rocket launcher thing, and I've decided I just have too much of a temper.

 

Sterling how do you prevent the carb from going lean when you open the dump? That's the problem I was facing with mine last year.

 

My dump is not "traditional" in any sense of the word...First off, it's made from the throttle body of a Chrystler (aluminum, even!!!), and secondly, it's located after the presilencers, but before the muffler. So I'm still getting restriction from the presilencers, I would imagine.

I never really thought about having the car lean out with a dump...I guess I always thought that the exhaust ports were the most restrictive part of the the exhaust system if running a RB header sytem.
But I experience no gain in performance. It's just a noise maker to answer the usual Honda fart can! Perhaps I would reap some performance benifit if it were up front before the presilencers? Is that so?
I do run pretty rich, though. Are you running a modded Nikki? What pressure/ jets/ airbleeds are you running?

(Sorry to get off topic, Error!)

 

Ya know they actually make expanding foam just for cars. It stiffens the chassis quite a bit from what I read, much better than great stuff, although great stuff is great..........around your house!. And I want to install a vid cam just to prove I wasnt at fault, "screw no-fault judge, watch this! Roll the video tape!"...........

 

Could be because you're running lean.

I experienced barely-dfferent 1/4mi times with the dump vs. without it, after I learned that short shifting is best when running with the dump capped! Then I finally re-hooked my O2 meter up and found i was leaning bad with the dump uncapped. Upgraded the fuel pump and played with fuel pressure and I noted a BIG improvement!

My fuel pressure tuning ended up being using roughly 2-2.5psi (fudgy gauge) running through the muffler, and bypassing the regulator entirely (about 5-6psi, gauge was on reg. so I don't know) for running through the dump. And it still could have used more.

Jets and air bleeds cost MONEY. besides, I didn't feel like stripping a dozen screws trying to disassemble the carb enough to rejet it. It still had all the emissions solenoids, switches, etc attached to the carb. I wanted to leave the carb dead stock for in case I had to pass emissions with the stock carb and engine in 2004.