My first '7, a 1987 GXL. I picked this car up over in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho for $800, believe it or not. The original owner didn't seem to know much about rotaries, but for that matter, neither do I. I've watched many, many rebuild videos, read up a bunch, and I plan on so much more.



Since I live in Yakima, I was kindof stoked to be driving 250 miles to pick up and drive back a car in unknown condition. Driving back was fun, although I'll have to admit, I was being incredibly stupid. 112mph on a donut was suicidal. Thinking back I can't believe how dangerous that was.

It had 2 all-seasonal tires, one studded snow-tire, and a donut. (The 4th GXL rim was in the hatch.) All were < 30% tread. I saw a little bit of rust, the body isn't all that straight, the engine has 170k miles on it, and it just looks like it wasn't maintained. A perfect project.

These pics are from right when I first got it, just a few weeks after, actually. Within 5 days, I had all new Federal tires, a very decent scrubbing, AR bucket seats (I still need to devise a suitable mounting system) and just a general cleaning up. New oil, transmission fluid, differential fluid, tire balancing, PS fluid, coolant system flush, etc.

About 7 days after the purchase, I dumped the clutch @ 6000rpm and all I smelled was this horrid stench coming out from my transmission area, along with the car refusing to move anywhere.. after towing it home (thank God I still had my GMC pickup at the time) it sat in the garage for about 2 weeks, at which point in time I upgraded to an Exedy Stage 2. (Thanks, Corksport!)



She then gave me another week of happy operation, but then overheated. ****. It could be any number of things.. I then parked her and started working on other things.



A quick disecction of the engine bay, and I saw this. WTF. It looks like an entire pack of birds were living in here at one point in time. This isn't even funny.



Oil Can Henrys, thank you for that amazing coolant system flush. After less than 50 miles, the systems already a murky yellowish brown. I'm not sure whether that was radiator sediment or a fail flush job or what.



More bird nest buildup on the radiator. This disappoints me.



While she sat up there, I ordered all new cross-drilled rotors, SS braided brake lines, Hawk Pads, got all my calipers rebuilt, and attempted to remove these ******* brake rotors. It took about two weeks to remove both of the drivers side, and passengers side rear rotors. I STILL haven't gotten the passenger front rotor off yet. Corksport took a few extra days, they sent me slotted instead of cross drilled, but they were a good price, and the guy was nice. They also threw in an extra set of Hawk pads for the mistake, so I'm happy



Thanks to someone not greasing this hub, there is now aluminum buildup on it, under the rotor. Here you see why it took 3 days with a sledge just to get the drivers front rotor off.



In the meantime, I ordered a set of Tein S.Tech springs, and started fitting the rotors on the hubs that I managed to break loose. I'll admit, they're sexy.



Here's my rebuilt calipers, just looking pretty. All ready to put on, except for that rear caliper on the left, which I'm still trying to source a boot for.



While all this was going on, I removed AC, and P/S, looped the lines (till I can source a manual rack) removed the core, and all the lines, except for the ones going into the firewall. I painted the fan, alternator, and shroud. I plan on polishing everything else. Depends on what I decide to do with this engine.


Plans for the next couple of months include: Koni Adjustable Yellows, S5 radiator (I already have the radiator, I just need the filler neck), all new vacuum lines, new oil cooler (mine's pretty trashed), and just general fix-its as I find them.

All comments, suggestions, criticisms are greatly appreciated. Wish me luck!

 

Here, you see some of the old rotors. These things were BITCHES to get off. I hope I never have to do that again in my life. As you can see, there were deep ruts (the circular marks). The dings were from the trusty Silverwing hammer, and my sledge.



This here is the brake boot I'm looking to replace. Someone have one? Anyone?


The S5 radiator, isn't that better than the birdnest of a radiator I had before?



My dirty GXL rims, but otherwise free of defects. I'm not sure of what to do with them. I really liked the photos I've seen where people painted then gunmetal grey. Any suggestions? Should I just dismount them and get the rims sandblasted, or mask off, rattlecan, and gloss?

 

Installed my SS braided clutch line, tried to purge all the old DOT3 out. It was black and sludgy. JEEZ. I wonder whether it was factory original.. The brake fluid isn't much better. I found all new trim at a junkyard, I'm not sure of how to put it on though. I'm thinking just sand the area with some low-grit paper, and try to gorilla glue it. That'll be after the body work though. I'll also be re-painting the trim before applying it.

I think I need a new hood/light covers. They don't appear to line up.

Come spring, I'll finance a 2009 Yamaha R1, and park the car for the spring/summer for an engine swap or just a rebuild. Totally depends on what I find. I'm also looking for a wiperless rear hatch, and a drivers-side door handle assembly.

Current list of things bought for Aki:
Exedy Stage 2 Clutch
Tein S.Tech Springs
New braking system
Newer coils, NGK plugs, new wires.
S5 radiator
APC Bucket Seats & Harnesses
Bosch Fuel filter
Oil filter

Problems fixed:
Oil pressure sender failed to send.
Tach would randomly fail (trailing coil connection)
AC/PS taking up extra weight.
Ugly engine bay (in progress)

 

Boost It!

 

lol, this is going to be my DD when I fix her up. My next project is a TII track car. Meth injection, huge aux port, balanced everything. I'm just getting started with an NA

 

Last I replaced the soft fuel lines, and fuel filter.

Removed the water pump and radiator hoses, air pump, alternator, and OMP.

I bought an OMP o-ring set from someone here on the forums and proceeded to rebuild it, but the diagrams are gay, turns out there was a little mistake, or I just didn't understand it. Either way, it's stupid. At least the pump is clean :P

I have a new water pump assembly in the mail, all the S5 radiator necks and hoses and caps are coming soon too, so I'll be able to use my S5 radiator instead of the original pos.

 

coming along nice keep it going.

 

Nice project man! Definitely a great start. Gotta keep us pic lovers updated dude!

 

Good job man, interesting radiator. Enjoy the car and the work.

 

Alright, I finally got the OMP rebuilt, and put back in. It was in this order:


and here it is installed:


I'm so proud of that, I hope it doesn't leak. If it does, I have to rebuild it again sadsad :[




Brake Job
This thing is PISSING me off. after a WEEK AND A HALF, the front-right rotor STILL hasn't come off. Finally I just unpacked the bearing and I'm trying to get at it this way






I'm honestly *this* close to taking it in somewhere. I wanted to do all the work myself, but this is getting rediculous.

PB Blaster just leaks through when I spray it from the back. It's so stupid. I cannot believe how hard it is just to get this rotor off the hub.

 

Jump on the rotor with a foot on either side.

 

Dude, I've tried. I've tried sledging it (with a block of wood over the top), jumping, soaking in PB, everything. I'm just stuck sanding and scraping trying to get it off.



If it comes to it, I'll buy a new hub.

 

those rotors are a complete bitch to remove once they are all rusty, i feel your pain on that. it will be nice to have everything back in and working again.

 

My dad actually took it to his work today, they have a 20-ton press he's going to have them try it on.

If it breaks the hub, then I'll just buy a new one. I don't care at this point in time.

---

I ordered a set of KYB AGX struts to go along with my Tein S.Tech springs.

List of parts to get before putting in the suspension:

New bushings
Rear camber adjustment link (due to the height drop)
New strut mounts
Sway bars

 

not bad your moviing quick i c.......my old project was a pain to remove the rusted rotors too but eventually they popped right off.

 

I move quick because I'm impatient I'm stuck daily driving a 2001 VW Passat. Automatic, FWD. I want my car back!

For what it's worth, I'm also replacing the water pump before it goes back on the road. I'll save the suspension for until I get everything and then I can tackle it in a long weekend. (Possibly Christmas week)

 

After a bit of research I've decided to hold off on the bushings and sway bars until later.

The camber adjustment link will be good enough, bushings just aren't worth the effort at this point in time.

 

Looks like its coming along nicely.

 

Thanks

I'll be sure to post pics of the suspension setup when I get it in!

 

keep us posted.

 

haha, I had similar problems with my front rotors while replacing them with powerslot rotors. I ended up breaking the passenger front rotor in multiple places with my mini-sledge to no avail. Ended up doing the same, unpacking the bearings and swapping them with the set off my parts car. Once I was done I took the rotor/hub and tried beating the hub out of the rotor, only to flare the **** out of the end of the hub, silly aluminum, lol. So, now to put my parts car back together (need to keep it a rolling chassis) I need another front hub, dangit! After that episode with the passenger side rotor/hub, I said screw it and just swapped the whole rotor/hub assembly on the drivers side without busting the rotors to put back on the parts car, grrrrrr.

Good progress on your build there, keep it up and update us whenver you can.

 

I'll post pics tonight of what happens with the press.

$50 says my dad's 20-ton presses rapes the **** out of the entire assembly. Requiring me to buy a whole new hub.

 

Bro i admire your thread
1- your new to the rotary family and admited it
2- you had made an effort in reading and learning about these cars before hand
3- you started a thread full of win, pictures, write ups, how to's are all helpfull for those who didnt read or planned ahead also its fun to see when people have headaches because we at some point went through the same ****...lol
4-fixing a old and dead 7 and bringing her back to life before posting" Does anyone know if i can bolt in a 20b in my 86gxl and i have 15k cash so i have the funds"....how many of you heard of that post!

Overall keep the thread updated , keep the pics coming , and enjoy the RX7.

Thumbs up

 

Very nice work. And I agree with the guy above me.

Keep up the good work man! I love these cars, so its nice to see them being resto'd.

 

A tip for getting the rotor off:
Put some pressure on the hub w/ the press, and start hitting it with a hammer.