Been busy working on the car and getting into yet another hobby (golfing..I played in high school and some in college and enjoyed it. Needed something to do in the summer so decided to get back into it)

Here are the new clubs for anyone that also golfs! Wife got me the driver (2015 Taylormade R15) and I recently picked up some Wilson D100 Hybrid/Iron clubs since my old set was old and an off brand. First time using them I improved my handicap by 10


And now car stuff time. Here is the progress on the bay




Sanding behind the strut towers is a huge pain in the ***, but it's coming along. Laid down seam sealer in the cracks behind there since I feel it would flex quite a bit and the fiberglass filler wouldnt work. I was comfortable using it elsewhere since I welded those seams, these aren't welded though


I've gone back and forth a thousand times on what power steering setup I want to go with. Plan was the mr2 setup (obviously, since I spent the money on it), but now I'm not so sure. While I make up my mind I figured I would just run the depowered fc rack that came with the car, so I cleaned it up and painted it




Well it turns out I didnt take pictures of it finished lol. But it's just black. I ordered poly fc bushings to use with the rack, but it turns out the fc rack sits lower than the fd rack using the stock bushings. So I made a spacer from a cut up sway bar bushing so the fd bushings would work. Worked like a charm! Except I accidentally drilled my hand. Fail


So...I changed my mind again on widebody. Ordered the feed style front and rear fenders. Plan is to modify my sanai side skirts to work with them. Here is a quick shop I did using the Dynotorque car

 

So I went ahead and laid down another two coats of epoxy since there were quite a few bare metal spots showing. After this I'll lay down some thin filler to smooth it out as much as I can and then I'll spray one final coat of epoxy primer and then two coats of high build. And theeeennn the end will be in sight lol.


Two coats down


Another thing I tackled over the weekend (with the help of a friend) was to weld a few things up. I only have the crappy flux core welded so I took the strut bar and camber bolts over to his shop to weld them up. Made a plate to go over the part I cut out to fit the FAST intake, so it is pretty stout now (again).



I'm going to sand it all down and smooth it out and then send it out to be sandblasted

Also welded the camber bolts as mentioned above. I went ahead and welded these myself using his machine. I didn't see the need to do a full bead all the way around...and also the welds look like poop. I'm still learning, but they are solid at least


Oh, and lastly. I've been doing mockup of where I want to mount all of my air components and think I have locations for everything. The manifold will be mounted right behind the passenger strut tower in the rear. Should fit perfectly after I make a bracket

 

It's come a long way! Keep up the great work.

 

Looking great, love the smooth engine bay.

 

Thanks guys!

 

Sooo, this has been delayed a little bit...because my son was born!!!!! He was born 3 weeks early so it was a bit unexpected, but he is perfectly healthy and the wife had an amazing and quick delivery (she pushed for maybe 10 minutes if that).

Meet Theodore Gabriel Squires already 6lbs 6oz when he came 3 weeks early!







Once we get into a routine with him work on the car will continue. I already had him out in the garage with me at 3 days old


The wife is adjusting well


Anyhow, once we get his sleep schedule lined up and I get some days off work at the end of this month I am going to knock out the rest of the bodywork on the car. Next thing will be to fix the driver door jamb completely to finish up the welding on the car so I can paint the interior.

 

Congrats man!

 

Congrats!

 

Congrats! Both of my daughters are young and they love helping we wash the rx7s and helping in the shop whenever they can.

 

I lol'd.

 

Congrats man! Its such an awesome idea to have a kid!!! My car is officially back burnered until my son is one.

 

And I'm back! Thanks everyone, it's been an awesome two months so far. Now onto some updates

 

Work has been slow over the past few months, but I have made some progress on the car. My main focus has been the door jamb area. I started by stripping down the paint all the way



I then guesstimated where I would want to make the cut at





Now that I had the plan, I worked on finding someone with a parts car that would be willing to cut out that critical part and ruin the car essentially. In the meantime I worked on some other bodywork


And also in the meantime I finally purchased some decent welders. Picked up these Lincolns in a sale ($2k for both the mig and tig welders). Too bad I didn't make this decision before doing my engine bay, would have made for a much easier job lol.

 

I finally found someone willing to cut into their car and received the piece last week



He left plenty of material around the edges so I had enough to work with. Made shipping expensive, but definitely worth it. I started by taking off some pieces of the new jamb to see where I should make my cuts on the car



Now that I had a good idea of what I wanted to do, I went for it. This part was pretty nerve racking...but it just gets worse! As the pictures show

Fuuuuuuuqqqqq

Yup

No turning back now

Reeaaallllyyyy no turning back now



So...now that I have passed the point of never returning...ever, I decided to cut the pieces off of the new jamb

 

Once I had the pieces cut I quickly laid one in place to see how the inner part would line up...and it's not so good


Soo, I will be replacing that inner part too. Ill use the spot welds for the bottom half and have the joining cut above my finger in that opening so I can make sure it's the same length before and after joining the two pieces




This is as far as I got today. Once I get some time I will cut out the piece from the car, cut to fit, and start welding everything back together

 

Now for some random stuff. First off, Thheeoooddooorreee. Love this little guy




Right, back to car stuff. Picked up the Mazdaspeed Spec R rep bumper from Shineauto since I already have the fenders coming. Figured I may as well cut down on the shipping cost and spend all of my money once again #foreverbroke


I was planning on running my OG Advan RG1s (yes, RG1s, not RG2 or RG-D) on the car as track wheels, but then someone wanted to buy them so I cleaned them up

*Sigh*...time for some pictures that bring back fond memories of my DSM. I miss that gal...a lot. Parted her out for the rx7...would love to have another someday







Right, focus, back to Rx7 stuff. I found this on one wheel when cleaning so I think I may have the crack fixed and get a pair of them widened to still use as track wheels. Until then they will be roller wheels I guess.

 

I was able to get some of the main structure replacement done on the door jamb. I think it turned out pretty well and am happy with how it's going so far

I made my cut on the car where I wanted the new piece to integrate in. I chose here so I could use the hole in the panel to line up the new piece correctly


Quick mock up of the new part after cutting...made a mistake near that top hole as can be seen. Oh well, this will be hidden anyhow


Welded in the supports that were bent



Tacked the new jamb support in place. Made sure it lined up measurement wise and that my tri point brace still fit correctly..it did


Holes for the hinge line up through all of the panels as well


More welding


And then grinding


A little more work and Ill be able to put the out jamb in finally!


And as usual this guy has taken up some of my time too :p

 

Reminds me of growing up watching my dad do the same things to mustangs, nice f*cking work brotha!

 

Anything new here? Love your project!

 

Thanks man! At the rate I'm going with this thing he will watch me build this his whole life lol

Man I wish, work on it has kind of died over the past month or so. Work had me swamped with performance reports due and low manning so any extra time I had went to other things. I'm hoping now that things have slowed down a bit I can start putting some time into it again.

 

Just to give a little update and a reason why there have been no updates...I've been busy for the month and a half, and here is part of the reason why (other than work and my son).

So to begin, I'm an idiot and don't know how to drive apparently. Got a tune and intake for my Golf R (the daily) and decided to mess around with my friend in his STI...well, I missed a shift and went from second to first. FAIL. Car started missing and I limped it to my friends house to check it out. Zero compression in one cylinder, sweet! So had it towed home and finally found the issue.




The cam lobe got scratched pretty good from the rocker arm being pinned against the head and the valve. I ended up ordering a new rocker arm and sanding the lobe slightly to smooth it out. The car ran fine after that with no abnormal noises, however, there were metal shavings in the first two oil changes (did two within 100 miles) and that freaked me out (nothing in the third one, it was shavings from where the arm rubbed against the head I believe). But anyhow, this whole ordeal left a bad taste in my mouth towards the car unfortunately. I felt like I would always be worried something would go wrong. Soo, this happened




My plan was to trade in on a truck so I could have more room and tow the rx7, but I'm dumb and have wanted a cts-v for a long time (even before I got the Golf), I just didn't get one because of the winter weather up here. While searching for a truck I saw this posted up locally at one of the dealers, so I went to check it out...and took it home after trade in. It's a 2012 auto with Recaros/No sunroof and only 23k miles on it. Honestly red was my least favorite of the color choices on the CTS-Vs, but that was all based on pictures. Once I saw the red in person I fell in love. It's one of those that pictures do no justice for and it has grown on me over the past month. I would have still loved to have a white one (my favorite), but this car showed up at the right time and with low miles so I jumped on it. AND I FREAKING LOVE IT. Everything I want from a daily and if I didn't have so much into the RX-7 I would probably have it as my project car too. Enough babbling though, this is what I love

 

Almost getting back to the tiny RX-7 update, but first! The winter beater. 95 civic with tons of rust and 306,000 miles for $500. It runs and drives well and will be perfect for the winter. It has taken up my time the past week or two with doing some routine maintenance and such on it/prepping for winter/making it look a little better. I have roughly 1k into it now with the new tires and I'm thinking I can make all of that back after winter when I sell it.


That's foam with bondo over it...had to go





I dont think the plugs were ever changed lol


Okay now the small rx7 update! Got my new kit in

Front fitment


And that's it. Hopefully Ill be able to get back to work on the rx7 in November and show some real progress.

 

You're undertaking some serious restoration, props to you Good Sir

 

Definitely didn't realize I hadn't updated this in so long. I've made some decent (not great) progress over the winter so far. Playing catch up here, but here goes.

I finally finished up the door jamb. I think it turned out pretty decent for my first time doing something like this.



Finished the welding and started grinding




Taaddddaaaaaaa! Almost looks normal. I test fitted the door and it lines up well enough. Not 100% perfect, but I think it's about the best it can be considering how bad it was before. The bottom latch area (the one I replaced) needed to come out a tad bit so I went ahead and hammered the backside to bring it out some. It was either that or use a small spacer between the hinge and body. Nobody will ever know it was jacked up besides myself and anyone that has followed this thread though lol

 

So I had a lot typed up for this next update, but apparently I accidentally hit the back button and lost it all. Not typing it all again. Here are pictures