10th Anniversary RHD conversion project
 

Well I have had this car for about four years now. I bought it from the origional owner. It was advertised for $4000 but when I got there I found out she had parked it two years before and of course we all know what happens when a rotary sits... So I got for $1000 with 36k origional miles. I got an engine from japan and put that in as a bandaid while Rob at Pineapple was machining my parts. 3mm hurley seals, street ported, hardened stationary gears, oil passage mods, 1600cc secondaries, 720cc primaries, Turbonetics ball bearing hybrid mounted on a tuning pros 3rd gen manifold with 40mm tial WG, controlled by a Haltech E8. Instead of a laptop in and out all the time I bought a dell and made a mini tower to hold all the components the DVD recorder/player is mounted between the seats flush mounted into the storage area.

The project really started as a small build up that turned into the most ridiculous most complete restoration I couldn't have imagined when I started it. I dropped the subframes and stripped the undercoating off the underside and inner wheel wells to prepare for the red bedliner. We sprayed from pinch weld to pinch weld from front to back and inside the wheel wells. The subframes were blasted in a cabinet that I built for the project then done in blue bedliner.

A friend of mine sent me an Initial D model and I liked it, so I decided to convert mine to RHD to match the model. I was mostly done with the project at this point and basically started over stripping the engine bay and interior again.

Every component that was steel was blasted and painted all aluminum parts were polished, every nut, bolt and the front half of the rear end was done in chrome, the rotor housings, front cover, transmission, rear of rear end, control arms, coil bases, intake manifold, throttle body, calipers, AC compressor, water pump housing, thermostat housing, and turbo housing are all polished aluminum.

We then decided to run the wires hidden from view to keep it clean under the hood. Now mostly interior things are left and I hope to be done in early May at the low low cost of $35,000 and just a few thousand hours of labor. I hope it is all worth it in the end and I hope my fellow enthusiasts appreciate the effort and time put in to the project. I have posted a few pictures here and will post more as the project nears completion.

Holy mother of god thats awesome. I can't wait to see it finished.

here are more pics sorry about the the hamburger it is actually a teriyaki mcburger from my trip to japan last year.

what are you talking about "you know what happens when rotaries sit"?? seriously not trying to be an asshole or rant on you but rotaries can sit for quite a while and still run... they dont tend to freeze up like piston engines do. my car sat for 3 years when i got it. put a fuel pump, new gas, and plugs and after a few times it fired up and its still running today. my buddies sat for 10 years (both of ours were 86's) and we did the same thing... bam! fired up and still runs like a bat out of hell today with 170,xxx miles on it currently. anway... bad ass car tho man. get it done and start driving the hell out of it!

WOW. I can't think of anything else to say that would do justice to your project.

I salute you, Sir!

I have never heard anyone say that before. I have had had two engines (this being the second one) seize from sitting a year, and everyone I have talked to says not to let them sit without rotating or properly preparing them.

I am having a hard time with getting pics in. It is my first attempt at it but I have seen nice large pics before anyone know how?

You can use photobucket...

I think it's pointless... The Initial D car is a S5, not a S4, and it's a waste of a 10AE... More power to ya though I suppose...

If you want to have pics of any reasonable size, you have to host them on a server, and then link to them on here.. you can PM me on here or in AIM (greatleper) and if you need some server space, I run one..

the first pic up there is a burger, the second is the interior before I started, the third is of the bottom from the back without the exhaust or tank in yet, fourth is the front subframe before I decided to go RHD, and the fifth is sideways it is the trans standing on end after it got polished

Nice to see you finaly got some more pics bud. Looking good. Ehh ill get back with you on AIM it's easier.

thanks 13b4me I did it mostly because it is the only real 10th in the world that is RHD

I know people might say I wrecked it blah blah blah but I dont intend to sell it so value is not the issue uniqueness is the goal here

I have some space on the website for the restaurant I recently sold so I will have to post a link to there after I upload some pics to it

Holy crap that's alot of work, not to mention alot of coin too. It's looking really good. Great job.

thanks I cant wait to get pulled over the first time cops in Chicago do not ever see RHD vehicles. I know one of them is going to try to tell me it isnt legal

I have a friend with a RHD s13 240, its soo funny when he gets pulled over, which turns out to be quite a bit. The cop always goes to the wrong side and even talks to the passanger like he was the driver.

Extremely nice setup and good luck with the car!

I've seen this car in person. The pics don't even do it justice. Lots of time and $$ have gone into this car. Its gonna be insane when its done.

thanks juiceh and drift trix I was planning on telling the cops (you know there gonna ask "why did you do that") that I converted it to RHD for theier safety because I knew I would be getting pulled over a lot and it would be safer for them to be on the "passenger" side.

here is the link. it only took me two hours to upload. HATE dial up
http://www.bestribsaround.com/matt.htm

Link to pics of 10th AE RHD conversion
 

Here is a link to the current pics of my 10th anniversary converted to right hand drive. Dont bother if you have dial up unless you are going to take a shower while it loads.

Threads merged... please only start one thread on a subject

holy patriotic symbolism batman, that car's bling!

You have alot of time effort, and money piled into this car. I can admire someone who doesn't go cheap on a Rex. But the color scheme is just.....

.....




Well it's just.... do you ever honk your nose? Or maybe wear size 33 shoes?

Last few times I seen people pulled over on the highways up here I seen the cops at the passenger windows. Illinois State Highway Patrol is ready for you!!

yeah I have seen that alot myself in IL but I just got a ticket three weeks ago on 290 and he only came to driver window. Must not have taken the class on "staying safe on the highway"