My $600T2 project.
 

Because I have an incredibly understanding and wonderful fiancee' who loves 7s (and because I'm restoring her 'vert :)), I've been given the go-ahead on modding the T2.

Since AaronCake started the "links to members projects" thread, I figured I'd start my own.

Here she is... I have yet to name her:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...2/PC060002.jpg

She's originally a Canadian car, so when I bought her, she had 177k KMs on her.

Other than the carpets being dirty, the interior is perfect:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...2/PC060005.jpg

I bought her from a car dealer near where we got Lynn's Expedition. I drove her truck up one day to get the CD changer fixed, and saw S4 taillights. (At least I know my vision is still good.) Pulled in strictly to see if it was a T2. Saw the hood, and went inside. Luckily for me, the dealer had taken it in on trade, didn't want to put a dime into it, and sold it to me for $600.

Drove it home, no real problems, except the factory radio didn't work, and it has an irritating, surging idle. (You know, idle, idle, idle, vroooom, idle, idle, idle, vroooom)

I inspected it at the dealer. Took the bins out, no rust. Put it on the lift, no rust. There are, however, rust spots on both rear fenders, around the wheel well. Took it to my local body shop, he told me that it was repairable, but, I told Lynn it wasn't. Why? :D Widebody! :D Only other problems, the brakes look worn, and the suspension and exhaust have got to be original. It has that lovely ass-end sag we all know and adore, and it won't boost more than 3 pounds or so.

So, then I debated the way to get more power out of it.

LS1. T-04. LS1. T-04. After a lot of internal debate, shopping around for prices on various things, and checking availability of LS1s in Rhode Island (hint: there are none), and finding a nice priced T-04 kit in the FS section which came with an HKS turbo manifold, big front mount IC, turbo timer, blow off valve and some other stuff, I decided to go with the turbo.

Of course, you can't just buy a turbo and that's the end of it.

Since the car was in such great shape, I decided that I'd just bite the bullet and do it right. I started with how to get the ass up off the ground. I looked at springs, shocks, struts... Racingbeat, RX7store, whatever... Then, I saw some KSport coilovers on Ebay that would be about $150 more than new springs, shocks and struts, so I went ahead and bought 'em. I found a group buy on here for them later, and it was nice to see the Ebay price was less than the group buy price.

Also through Ebay, I bought a 2.5" intercooler plumbing kit for the NPR front mount that was included with the turbo kit I bought here. I also bought strut tower bars for both front and rear, and a Suspension Techniques bushing kit for the whole car. So, I figure the suspension is handled. Ebay is also where I bought a Walbro 255lph fuel pump.

Next up were brakes. Again, I searched Ebay and the other sites, and found a group buy here on the Club for slotted, drilled, and vented rotors. Does it need to be slotted and vented? Probably not, but what the hell. I haven't found pads to go with them yet, because I haven't looked.

I found a barely used Racing Beat full turbo-back on Ebay to handle the exhaust needs. According to UPS, it should be here tomorrow.

Then, thanks to somebody nailing snowball's car, I was able to buy a Microtech LT-8s, a Koyo rad, two 1000cc secondary injectors, HKS air filter, and an ACT street/strip clutch, thereby handling a lot of other items. I also bought an FD alternator from wonner, so I'm upgrading where ever I can.

In-car entertainment was also sourced through Ebay. I love Ebay. I bought a Ford Mustang 6 disc in-dash MP3 changer, a set of component speakers, a pair of Fosgate subs, and am currently hunting down an amp for all of it. Subs will be mounted where the bins were, and will be completely hidden so as to avoid attention. Battery will also be relocated to the back.

So, that's pretty much my project at this point. I have so many boxes of parts right now that I'm sure I left something off the list. We were having a nice, mild winter with temps in the 50's up until last week. Unfortunately, as soon as parts started arriving, Mother Nature flipped me the bird and dropped things down to the 20s, so until weather permits, no work will be done to the car. I'll post more pics of all the parts and stuff tomorrow or the next day, and hope to have everything but the big turbo and Microtech up and running by late March/early April. I have to research how to get the Microtech working and all that before I swap on the T-04.

Only other thing I can think to add is that I ordered the 30 mm ventless fenders from Shine, and that the car will no longer be red when the fenders and all that are installed. Probably going blue, black, or a super dark metallic burgundy. Wheels will be 18 x 9 up front, 18 x 10 in the back.

That's about it.

Sell me those seats? :)

Keep us posted (WITH PICTURES! :mad: ) on the progress!

No way! I'm keeping them, they have no rips, tears, or stains. Best pair of T2 seats I've ever seen. :D

Exactly!!! :D

not to thread jack but i have a set of seats in thos same condition if u want some. also holy crap thats a nice find. got lucky there is no real damage

How the hell did you pick that up for 600$? I just dont understand...

I told the guy at the dealership it was worse than it was, lowballed him, and there ya go. They were also more of a high-end used car lot, you know, MB 500SL convertibles, Dodge Ram SRT-10s, Audi A8s, that type of thing... The FC just didn't fit in.

Score! How do you get so lucky? :D

18's are too big for an FC! otherwise all appears to be good, good luck!

Oh, and I had bought an NA FC for parts that came with an S5 T2 wing, short shifter and some other stuff, so that's going on the car, too.

And I already got rid of the stock steering wheel for a smaller Grant wheel, mostly so my legs can fit under it.

omg u are soo lucky im jelous

.........my birth day is coming soon, i'd like to see a 600$ T2 in my drive way..... :uhh:

yeah me too

awesome deal!! i haven't run across a deal like that in quite some time! any more pics of the car? seems like you have a nack for finding nice projects!

what dealer did you find that?@?@?@ i would have been alll over that. im local too.

A place up in South Easton, Massachusetts.

thats the score of the century, 600 for a drive-away T2 :cool:

LOL, you should have seen my $100 T2. It was much, much nicer.

Here's some teaser pics...


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...2/P2060019.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...2/P2060020.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...2/P2060022.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...2/P2060027.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...2/P2060029.jpg

"where does he get those wonderful toys"

Nice Joker reference. I just watched that the other day. :batman:

A batman reference, I did not see a huge wing anywhere.

Congrats on the new TII. I just bought myself a red TII :)
Yours looks to be in better shape. Mine requires some body and interior work. It's already got all the goodies ;)

ok, interior of my T2, which has 48,000 miles on it and spent most of those in the care of a rotary fanatic, doesnt look that good

i have a 12" mounted i think, perfectly in one of my bins. ill take a picture when i get home tonight and post it up if you would like. im putting 2 10" Rockfor fosgate's till i can afford my FI q 10".

OK, update time.

The RB turbo back was installed yesterday. The master cylinder decided to shit the bed, so that's going to be the next thing replaced. While I'm at it, I'm going to do the coilovers, rotors, and pads.

nice find, wish i woulda paid 600 for mine!

that probobly wont work. i just put my battery in the back and it takes up quite a bit of space, couldnt imagine 2 10s sliding along with the battery bin.
check it

http://bp3.blogger.com/_AEAL2Ej4Lgw/.../s400/rx83.jpg

Except I am completely removing the bins, including the plastic support pieces. I can build the floor up to whatever size I need.

nice find

ut oh!!!
lots of competition going on!

im glad to see it!
good luck man!
when do you hope to have it finished?

Update time:

Temps in the 70s and 80s for the past 4 days, which means I got some things accomplished! I installed the Ksport coilovers this weekend. I have to figure out the proper damping for them so the ride isn't bouncy. Last night, I decided to change all the belts on the engine, since they were screaming if I touched the gas pedal. I was only going to do the belts, and not swap on the FD alternator yet, but then, I broke the adjustment bolt on the FC alt, so I had no choice but to swap the FD alt on. All in all, it wasn't too bad of a job. I searched around a bit for a how-to on the site, and came across a link to 1300cc.com that had a good write up. I ended up changing a couple things from how he did it, but it seems to be working nicely.

Tonight I decided to start the brake job. I was pleasantly surprised to find the pads on the car are basically brand new. I swapped the rear rotors tonight, and man, that was easy!! I had no idea it was that simple, I was able to do each side in about 10 minutes. Of course, I'm going to end up taking them off again this weekend, because I noticed some skanky areas that I want to wire wheel and paint (including painting the calipers...) but, wow, that was an easy job.

So, that's pretty much where I'm at. I'm going to be watching the forecast for a real nice stretch of weather so I can pull the nose off and install the FMIC and the Walbro.

Update time:

This weekend found me some nice weather here in RI, so I decided to completely de-skank the interior. Everyone knows that peculiar smell FCs have after 20 years of whatever, so I pulled out the entire interior to clean, soak and handwash everything. Even the seats are getting soaked to get the funk out. I figure it will take about a week for all of it to dry, so while the interior is out, I'm going to run the wires for the stereo system, mount the strut tower braces, build the enclosure for the subwoofers and all that good stuff. Once the interior is clean, dry and reinstalled, that part of the project will be basically finished, then I can focus on the turbo upgrade, FMIC install and running the LT-8s.

eee gads, is that a rising rate regulator?

To be honest with you my FC has never been thoroughly cleaned and it still smells just like new.

$100T2, you're helping me buy my next 7, right?

Yep.

You're lucky. Every FC (5 total) I've owned has had the same funky smell.

No. :D

Carpet is almost all clean, seats are all clean, just need to let them dry. Gonna hit the carpet with the steam cleaner. Starting the sound deadening install now. I swapped the KPH speedo to a MPH speedo I had in my basement, and handwashed all the interior plastics, so that's done.

My second FC, and nothing TOO funky in either of them, but there was a smell...though I'm sure it's the exhaust. :(

Nice thread so far. Needs more pics :P

changing your username to $600T2???? :D

Got any pictures of that HKS front mount unit?

Is that the old style one or the new Greddy like one.

Good looking car by the way, doing it right yo.

Why does everyone who considers a V8 swap forget about carbed 350's? I picked up a still in the crate 350 with 290hp and 326ftlbs for $900.

Anywho, A TII is my dream car. Good luck with the project.

Nah, wouldn't want everyone saying, "Who the fuck is this guy?"

Got the camera outside right now. :)

I'll throw some up later.

Thanks Jager, I'm sure trying.

As promised, here's some pics of today's progress:

Gutted:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...P5130009-1.jpg

Mayhem says, "Let's clean these parts, Dad!"
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...P5130010-1.jpg

Mayhem says, "I'm getting out of here, I don't want Mom to know I had anything to do with this! You're puttting laundry detergent in our tub????"
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...2/P5130012.jpg

20 years of skanky dirt and grime. Now, to look at them dry and in the car, you'd have no idea they had that kind of dirt.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...2/P5130013.jpg

Damn that's alot of dirt! Good thing you're doing this. I wish I had the patience/expertise to do that!

Oh well, at least your car looks rather interesting bare :p

what made you go with a rising rate regulator?

dude your dog rocks. chocolate lab? im horrible at naming different dog types.

EDIT:

<----- Demands more pics of dog with 7 in future pics!

Cool. Doing it right is nice...

looks kinda like a black lab I had when I was a kid, I miss that dog. Nice find on the TII, keep those pictures coming.

Were your alignment screws seized? Mine seem to be rather difficult to remove at the moment, and i'm wondering if you have any pointers you'd like to pass along.

It's amazing what just a rug doctor will pull out of automotive carpet once a year.

So laundry detergent huh. Any fading or bad aftereffects?