well, i decided to change the name of my project from "the mutt" to "cluster fu#K." The only reason I decided to do this to my car is that I've already been working on it for about 8 months, off and on, and Im changing the color. Everything needed pulled from my bay to get painted so I figured I might as well add hours and hours of work for hardly any reason at all. Her are pictures of my progress:

all labeled up and ready to be pulled through.
removed my dash (again) to pull all the HVAC crap and pull the harness through, this is where "cluster fu#k" came from
even with the dash out, that cluch master cyl is still a bitch to remove!

I'll have quite a few hours to work on it tonight, and should have it done (the wiring part) by thursday. This isnt my first rodeo, i used to have an integra that I wire tucked. I was young, and didnt go as into detail as i am on this car but here is a pic

 

i do have a question though, how do you remove the steering box?

 

not sure why i cant edit my post, so i have to make another one...

regarding the choke and check relay... what exactly does it do? I read that it controlls some of the idiot lights by telling when the alternator is turned on. Do i need this? what do i need to do to remove it? I'd just keep it, but I thought it was for AC/hotstart so i kinda... deleted it.

 

Love the wire tucking. I'll keep an eye on this because I might want to do the same with mine later.
As a non rotary related question, what's with the facebook page just curious?

 

thank you, i worked on it quite a bit tonigh, as well as rebuilt and painted my clutch master cyl. So far I've only had to exted 3 wires, but I have a feeling that buy the end it will be more or so along the lines of maybe 10 wires max. I'd post pics, but i cant right now plus i dont like how I routed my harness out of the car. Regarding the facebook page... I breed meat rabbits, (weird, I know) the page started out as a joke, but then I started actually selling rabbits because of it. Go figure lol wont get to work on the car tomorrow but definatly wednesday and Thursday

 

Have fun doing this. lol. You already have some experience so you probably wont have as hard of a time as me. Plus I removed all the unused wiring and changed to weatherpack connectors. It looks so much better, and is definitely worth the effort in my opinion. Good luck.

 

the wiring part is easy, its the welding all the holes shut/sanding that is going to suck. Plus, i've never done that part before. I have a friend thats a body guy, and he's actually pretty good. Its just trying to get him over to help thats the problem.

 

I didn't weld the holes up. Just the wiring. My 7 was my practice car. I'll be doing the full job on my 280ZX once I get the title worked out.

 

shouldnt the 280zx of been the practice car?! just kidding

Here is the progress I made, I spent all day yesterday cleaning the rabbit barn :/


This is my wiring all cleaned up, all the un used ones are gone, and all the ones that needed lengthened are lengthened. It was really only about 5 or 6 wires I believe, so far.

I dont like this at all. Im going to get a 2.75" holesaw and make a new hole about where the middle one is on the frame/what ever you want to call it. Plus, it will give me another foot of light harness length, and more room under the dash to run it there.

This is the new and improved (i hope) harness laying outside the car.

and this is currently what it looks like under my dash. The tranns and engine wires will be ran up and over the mount for the steering column, where the stock harness goes, and exit the car under the tranny hump.

I can't believe 215 people looked at this and only like 3 commented, figured this would be more "cool" haha

 

oh yeah, figured that since it was all apart, and me and the clutch master dont get along.. I'd rebuild my hydrolics while it was apart. The brake master was actually cheaper to buy, but the clutch slave and master I rebuilt. Here are some pics!


It took me about 20 min to get the piston out of the clutch master, but all seems* like its new!

 

What rebuild kit did you buy for the slave cylinder?

 

what ever one autozone sells lol it looked exactly the same as the parts I took out. The old fluid was reddish color and nasty.

 

lol. It would have been, but I'm having trouble getting it registered in my name. I'm not gonna put a bunch of work and money in to a car that isn't legally mine. If I hadn't had trouble with the title I never would have bought the 7 though. So something good came from it. lol.

Looking good so far. You don't have to do much lengthening until you get to the stuff that has to reach the passenger side. Then things get interesting. lol. I got pretty good at working the solder and a torch (much faster than a soldering gun/iron). Keep it up. I can't wait to see the final product.

 

Soldering wires is what I do I work in medical electronics. All the further the wires have to reach is the passenger head light. I don't have anything else over there lol

 

i just realized that i've been doing an *** load of work to my car, and no updating. So here it is (for the two people interested )


this pic was before i decided to remove all paint in the bay. Pass side all welded up


this one is after i decided leaving paint in the bay wasnt an option lol




drivers side mostly welded up


boo boo i got after catching firewall padding on fire, its about a half inch deep...


this is my little 12a getting oil pressure mods.


and this is how light a 7 is

i still have a lot of welding and grinding to do, then my one buddy is coming over to help do the actual smoothing of the bay out and then prep for paint. As I am NOT a body work kinda guy...

 

my freaking mind is in a knot. I've been reading up on paint jobs, because I dont trust anyone. I never knew there were so many different kinds of primer! When my bay is all welded up and ground down im going to etch primer it, then body filler, then filler primer it and wet sand, then epoxy primer/sealer and then paint. Sound good?

How do i remove the steering box??

 

Body filler is designed to attach to bare metal so use filler first then spray etch on and then use a filler primer (if actually needed) and then seal and paint. Dont forget to re-etch prime if you sand through.

 

i was gonna say, take that thing out! 3 bolts on the box, i think 2 on the steering column? since you're taking the idler arm too, that's 2 more bolts, the two tie rod ends and the whole steering system is out of the car

 

I pulled the steering system last night. Spent two hours sandin and shaping about a 1sqft section. This is going to take forever!

 

Yes, it's going to take hours and hours and hours and hours and hours..... and hours... etc. etc. But when your done it will look like this RX3

 

yeah that looks great! except mine with have a snail bolted to the side of it and some shiny pipes

 

wow dude lots of work there, keep up the good work

 

Are your fingers sore yet?

 

yup, especially the one that i impaled with welding wire. son of a bitch went about 1/2" into my finger. i bet i'll be pretty good with body work when im done.

 

this took me about 2 hours and i'm still not happy with it. needs redone. but it looks darn good! im just never happy lol