'Amber' build thread - A Story About a S4
 

So I bought this car a few years ago, and I have never actually come up with a complete build thread; so I figured now would be a good time to do it since she is down for repairs and upgrades right now.

Here is how she was when I bought her, roughly around 2008ish sometime:

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After a little while of owning it, I decided I wanted a second one, below is a pic of the one I bought, I have since long sold it however.

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The front bumper was pretty broken up, so I actually bought a replacement from another local rx7club member.

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The old bumper was so rusted on, that I eventually had to cut it off, you can see the leftovers on the side of it still.

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I don't have pictures for quite some time after this actually, but eventually I had gotten a new hatch from another member, added a spoiler I actually bought off of here, a new antenna, and various other things.

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Some cruising:

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After some more work on her, new rims, various other fixes.

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Got some S5 taillights off of a donor car I had bought.

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Towing both of the RX-7's at the same time:

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Working on a new transmission down at FD3S Engineering.

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Got new brakes! But at this point I was still 4-lug, so still didn't have the ability to put them on quite yet.

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Both of the 7's

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Got a nearly-complete RacingBeat exhaust system off of another donor car of mine:

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...anddddd another starter bites the dust. Here is the death of the third starter I think in the car...

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Tracking down some electrical issues, and trying to find a good wiper switch:

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Labeled them even to tell which one works on what settings.

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Setting up for more repairs at this point:

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5-lug swap going on:

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GC coilovers (didn't like them much, but they were once again on a car I had):

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Ride height and test fitment with the BBS rims I bought

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2 of the BBS' were bent, so ordered 2 more off of here.

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Got new tires on all 4 BBS rims, OH! And by here I had ditched the GC's, and had got some Stance GR+Pro's. I'm also now on my 2nd engine in the car, got a Koyo radiator.... and various other mods that have been done to the car that I can't remember off of the top of my head.

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Lowered the car to match the height of the rear wheels, and then added on a little plushie I had received from someone, lmao.

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My exhaust needed to be re-hung, the metal part on the body actually fell off that holds the donut.

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As she mostly sits now.

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Right now my second engine is dead, and I will be working on building my third one here soon. The car is down for a lot of repairs and additions currently.

The car is too low to be towed without removing things, so here I am working on getting the exhaust and the bumpers off to get her up on the truck.

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While I had it in the air, I decided to see how the OEM mudflaps would look on her.

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Finally got her loaded onto the tow truck (thank god for AAA) and got Amber down to my apt, and got her in the garage. Now am starting to tear her down, and this is where the real progress will begin and updates should hopefully be frequent.

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Current shot of engine setup:

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Current mod/upgrade list:
- Auxiliary Port Sleeves
- Streetported engine
- S4 'Sport' spoiler
- Stance GR+Pro coilovers
- Turbo II brakes
- RacingBeat Exhaust
- Exedy Clutch
- BBS 'vert rims
- Koyo Radiator
- FD upper coolant filler neck
- Corksport strut bar
- SS braided clutch and brake lines
- S5 Taillights
- PD replaced with banjo bolt

May be forgetting more, but that is the basics.

Look for more updates coming soon I hope.

looks good man way too keep the fc after 2 blown motors :icon_tup:

your current engine shot doesn't show a "FD upper coolant filler neck" looks like stock S4

May have been before that was added. The "current" shot was taken a while back, but no major changes were made to the bay.

Since I've been unable to yet work on the mechanical issues wrong with the car due to money, I've been working on painting some pieces, as well as cleaning out the interior and getting it back to (hopefully) how she looked on the day she got out of the factory in 1987.

Even got the fiance to help with the car today. :D

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Lots of mess under the seats... still need to get factory floor mats as well.

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Got a shop vac finally and started cleaning up the carpets. Been pulling it out one piece at a time, scrubbing it down, cleaning it up, sewing what needs sewed, etc etc...

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Pulled the bins apart even farther and inventoried what pieces were missing, screws, etc etc... am needing quite a few pieces that apparently have fallen or popped out over the years.

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While that carpets are disasterous, at least all of my dash plastics are perfect.

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Looks like it is coming along nicely!
..But when I see post 3/pic#2, I cringe!...That is scarey!
Play safe use 4 stands!

Started more work today on checking some things off of my list. One of the things that was bugging me most was that when I bought the car, the gas tank lid had to be pried open.

I "worked" on it a while back, and it wouldn't shut period. Today I decided to rip out the entire back interior almost, and fix that issue.

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Here is how it looks right now, including the glorious previous owners "drift damage" they had done to the car:

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And I had some people on my FB saying that they liked how clean my dash was and all plastics, figured I would post one more pic of it (it's still a bit dirty, but I haven't gotten to clean it in a while):

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I likey.

Fixed the issues with the gas tank lid not closing, and since I had tore out most of the interior, I cleaned each piece and under it as stated previously. Piled it all back in tonight, and now the gas tank lid closes completely. Hopefully it stays closed once the car is in motion.

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ALSO: Does anyone know wtf these things are? They were in the back of my car and I never bothered with it until now. If it's just my stupidity in not knowing, that is fine - just kinda curious what it is.

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They are Wheel chucks(wheel chocks)..they go under the wheel when you jack the car up so it doesn't roll.
I keep forgetting I have them under the wheel after I let the jack down and roll over them all the time!..hahaha!
The other thing is a pickle fork(tie rod fork)..Used for real Big Freakin Dill pickles!

lol... I know what the other thing is, I actually use it. But no other vehicle I've ever had came with wheel chocks, and the ones I have seen, never looked like that.

I just used bricks of cement to do the job before. hah

dawww amber is just a cutie ;), how much did that 5 lug conversion run you? Iv'e been thinking about doing that to mine before i buy some wheels.

I actually got paid for my 5-lug conversion, I had bought a car for $500, sold parts off of it for a grand, and then slapped on the 5-lug for free. :D

Well, it is very slow progress working on the car due to how distracting my fiance is, she doesn't like me out there working for long.

But I finally tracked down all of the pieces I needed to make the bins fit right, and the clips that keep the interior carpet of the bins held together (mine were missing nearly half of them)

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Got them back in the car all nice finally.

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Spy shot of the other FC.

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Got the rest of the interior back in, still need to work on getting it sorted out a little bit more in terms of how the carpets meet up, and the velcro working.

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So I took a look at my fuel cutoff switch tonight, and I think I see what could be one of my issues I got with starting... burned wiring anyone?

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Well, I got up to one of my donor cars in WA, and finally got the hatch off of one of the cars.

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The old and the new.

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The fiance helping me clean the car up. :D

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ON!

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It sucks only being able to do the cosmetic things right now on her, but at least some work is being done.

Very nice.

Trying to solve the electrical issue with the starting. Already checked and cleaned a few grounds; but I wanted to double check and make sure it wasn't the ignition. Swapped in two different ignitions, and still didn't fix the issue.

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One of the only other issues with my interior left is the center console arm rest had some busted plastics. I had all of the pieces, so I got some epoxy and mixed it together, and glued together all of the pieces. Hopefully it will support itself when screwed into place again.

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The last thing I'm going to try before I seek more help on the electrical issue is to jack the car up and check all of the grounds and issues with the starter. If that fails, I may be having someone come take a look at the car once my new job catches up with my debt. lol

Hey, I know you...

I hope your revamp goes well, I'm hoping to do the same to my FC over the summer. How did the black S5 ever turn out? Your mom still driving it?