I wish I had the resources to pull this off for my 10th Ann. You've inspired me to go the extra mile to correct a few small issues before they become huge burdons, though. Great job!

 

I want to watch this build, woohooo

 

Coming along well! Although you s5 doors now, i already remedy the s5 with s5 door panel speaker situation. I may go over it in my thread. Also, ever time i take a hub out, that wheel bearing race always comes out with them. I never changed wheel bearings and just put the hub back on.

 

It'd be interesting to see what you did. If those S5 doors had not become available when they did, I probably would have continued to plow through, but I was getting pretty frustrated with the whole thing. While it was an exercise in ingenuity, it ended up being nothing but a waste of time for me. I could have already had the subframe dropped and the rear suspension done if it wasn't for the time I wasted on that.

Anyhow, I haven't been out in the garage in a while, but I am hoping to get out there tonight. It's a massive mess, with doors, exhaust and suspension components scattered all over the place.

I of course keep digging myself in deeper too. The thought has now crossed my mind on more than one occasion that if I am going to have the entire car painted, why not just pull the engine and have the engine bay painted at the same time? It needs it.

My wife and I passed an RX-7 at a used car lot the other day. This was the conversation that ensued:

Me: I wonder what they want for it?
Her: You already have an RX-7.
Me: You can never have too many RX-7s.
She glares at me.
Me: How many is too many? Two?
Her: At this point, I could say one is too many.

 

I would have already pulled the engine to paint the engine bay. The engine bay is the easiest spot on the car to paint. If you have a decent air compressor you can paint the engine bay. Dont over think it, the bay has so many curves its hard to mess up

 

This is definately the mother of all restorations. It makes my restoration look like it ain't s**t lol.. Very impressive

 

Hahahahahaa @ the conversation. I've had three total, and two at the same time at most. My gf asks if I will ever buy a different car. I say yea when I have the money to afford a new Toyobaru BRZ

 

I was disappointed to find that that website is NOT Asian ****. I have to go through my garage, but I may have some s5 interior pieces I can donate to the build.

 

Wow the restoration looks great. I didnt think it was anything near to what youve done to your car when you stopped by the house to pick up the doors. Great job! Extremely clean.... Now I have a black S5 FC that Im parting out with black interior if you need more parts.


Great job man! Looks awesome.

 

Thanks for the kind words everyone. I haven't done much lately, but I did start fiberglass reinforcing some dash cracks. More on that later.

Sorry to disappoint you with the link Brian. I'm sure a quick Google search will get you what you need. I'll be in touch with you again about those wheels. I think I'm almost good with interior stuff, but if it's better than what I have, I'm game.

 

Subscribed. This is really inspiring! All I need now is time.

 

You and me both. Hopefully the summer will provide some. I should have enough done for another update soon.

 

Any updates Jerry?

 

As a matter of fact (nearly three months after you asked), yes. And no.

Work hasn't progressed all that quickly. In fact, I'd say it is nearly at a standstill. My wife and I will be having our second child the first week in June, so again, life has disrupted progress. A couple of months ago, a friend and I dropped the rear subframe so the rear trailing arms can have their bushings changed. As it turns out, it looks like the front differential mount is weak and possibly near breaking. Given the infamous nature of this mount breaking quite often on FCs, I would rather replace it now than have to drop the rear end again.

The garage is also quite a mess. I will be in and out of town the next two months as I am doing some field work in preparation for (finally!) graduating in December.

The car hasn't been on all four wheels since last March! I'm not sure how much will be done by the end of this year, but it's not as bad as it looks. The next goal is to finish up the rear suspension and brakes and get the car back on the ground. After that, there are still some rewiring of things that need to be done - mainly just running new speaker wire and a battery relocation. I'm also thinking of ditching the aftermarket head unit and getting an auxiliary input wired into an original FC head unit I have. Over the past three years, I have shifted more and more towards a near, if not completely original interior.

I'll put my conservative estimate of completion at end 2014/beginning 2015.

 

Jerry I just want to say your work are amazing,

 

Ah cool! Congrats on the 2nd child, glad the project's still in the works

I fully 100% support your decision to use a stock radio. You'll LOVE how it looks haha.

Be sure to update again as you progress!!

-Landon

 

We have too much in common.
Great work.
This is my convertible project:
https://www.rx7club.com/new-member-r...-939065/page3/

 

Incredible attention to detail on a part virtually nobody will see - I love it!

 

Honestly, I have passed this thread at least a hundred times or so since becoming a member. Tonight I opened up a couple of build threads and the first one I went to was yours. I've now been reading and researching further into all that you've done and have spent almost five hours looking back and forth between your build and websites you've linked to. Amazing restoration. Definitely subscribed and motivated to start my own build thread. Also, it may be late but congrats on the second child! Keep it up.

 

just found this, want to see how it turns out.

 

Well, how about an update? Not much today, but positive progress was made and it felt good to get something done.

The rear subframe is back in the car and no longer taking up space on my garage floor.



New Racing Beat sway bar:



And the subframe is back in:



I should have some time to work on it this weekend, and with any luck the car may be on its wheels for the first time in five months.

Work done on the rear subframe included changing the semi-trailing arm bushings and giving everything a decent cleaning.

 

Wow, just wow.

The scope and granularity of detail work is impressive but even more so is the millions of hours spent planning and organizing this project.

Slow clap.

 

Thank you! That means a lot from somebody whose work I respect and admire.

 

Oh, thank you.
You can work on my car anytime.

 

I was able to get quite a bit done today with the help of a friend. The car isn't back on all four wheels yet, but it is close.

First up was cleaning the hub carriers after all the hub, bearing and bushing were pressed out:



They make a lovely pair:



New wheel bearing, seal and DTSS eliminator bushing all pressed in:



The brake rotor dust shield was painted just as I did on the front:





After this a broken wheel stud was replaced on the right side hub and the hubs were pressed back in. Unfortunately (or fortunately, who knows?), my car is now an ABS delete car. We completely forgot to reattach the ABS wheels to the hub before they were pressed back in. I doubt the hubs can be pressed back out without the bearings snapping in half yet again. So for now, no ABS.

It looks like I should consistently have some time to work on this project each week now (with help even!), so more updates should follow much more rapidly than they have in the past year.