Wow. Your car has come a long way. This is definitely going to be a very clean build when its finished. Awesome.

 

Oh man,
It's back in one piece! Were going to be Fd blood brothers now. I just bought all of the 94 plastics out of Rich's red car that you have.

 

u could rent the tool from any local parts store, thats what I did For my fd

 

Where in MD are you? Next Friday I'm rolling up to ocean city to pick up a trailer I just bought. I thought I'd stop by and check out the FD. It might be a little late though.

BTW, I said the exactly same thing to Rich when I told him what I was going to do with his old VR, blood brothers and all, lol.

 

I'm in southern Maryland. Are you going to drive up 301 across the Potomac river bridge? If so you'll be driving right past me basically. 15 min off 301 near La Plata.

 

PAINT!!







so excited!!

 

they're not quite done with the paint but they said that they'll be completely finished on Thursday.

I won't be able to pick up the car until next week. Tomorrow I'm going to go through the mull of parts they have and take them home so I'm not paying them to put the leftover plastics in.

 

I have been watching your build....un 'build' and build again. Congrats. I know its taken a lot of blood sweat and cash by the look of it! All the best on bringing all the parts back together.

Rusty

 

Finally got her home today! So now the real project begins.









Gaps look pretty good all things considering. Even though the car was just painted, it's still really dusty from being at the shop.



I have a couple things to order from Ray before this car is actually waterproof, lol. My beltlines were shot so right now I need to cover the car until I get them.

So, now this is where I'm really going to need your guys help to wire this baby back up because I didn't take out the interior.

 

Looking good,
What's the plan for the rest?

 

Well, I'm still waiting on my turbos from BNR (had them since February), manifold to get coated, engine mock up to weld wideband bung, wiring of the PLX gauge, finish up the engine wiring harness, put all the wiring and dash back in....that's about it. Just want to get the car running well and then focus on the little things.

Still need to order:

Exedy hyper single clutch
Intercooler piping kit
Resonated mid-pipe
Cat-back
Fluids

I think that's about it. But you know how it goes.....other stuff always comes up

oh, and upgrade the f*** up audio system. Still on the weeds about what I want to do...no subs, no amp (maybe a small 4 channel) just nice clean audio in the car.

 

I pulled that dash/ engine bay harness out and re-taped it as well. Sounds like a decent list to get done.

 

Picked up the new RX7 hauler today! I was very pleased with how everything turned out with picking up this trailer. Truck towed it like a dream, no flat tires, all the lights/brakes worked, fuel economy was...decent. The guy I bought it from only used it as storage and never towed it so it's never really seen any road use.

BEAST!!

 

Holy wow... you running a race team? Looks great. You can take all your friends to the track too!

 

I primarily bought it cuz being in the military and moving a lot it definitely helps and makes it much easier to just shove everything in the trailer and roll out.

However, if I was so inclined, I could fit 3 FD in it if you remove the front bumpers. I'd be about 600 lbs over the max towing of the truck though.

 

Dam that's a big trailer!

 

I did a moving claim inspect for a guy that PCS'd to Virginia who bought a big *** trailer like that. Badass trailer! Should have called bud..

 

I would have stopped by, but I had a REALLY trying morning before I left to go pick up the trailer. I wanted to leave around noon to get there between 6-7, I still got there on time but....

A little back story unrelated to the build but interesting nonetheless:

In January I was down in Pensacola for a neat ATC class. I do all the maintenance on my truck because I'm very particular and I like to maintain consistency. I always use Mobil 1 turbo diesel truck oil and a Mobil 1 filter. ALWAYS. Well, down in Florida, my truck need an oil change so I bought the oil and filter I always use and took it to the dealer to have them perform the oil change. I perform oil changed every 5000 mile and rotate the tires at the same time, just makes it easy.

I told the dealer that I wanted them do to an oil change and rotate my tires and I brought my own oil and filter. Easy enough right? I even watched the Supervisor write that down on my invoice.

Well, the tech was a 20 yr old kid that I had to watch. Granted, I understand that the tire rotation on a dually truck might be complicated to some so I had to watch him do it and tell him which tire went where. While I was doing that, there was another guy performing the oil change. He was an older gentleman so I felt that he could do an oil change fine.

Well, they get finished and I get the bill. I was charged for an oil filter. Not oil, just an oil filter. I asked the supervisor why I was charged and he said that his techs used one of their oil filters. At this point I wasn't mad about the $13 dollar oil filter until the Supervisor would not own up to his mistake. I told him that I was not going to pay for it because I specifically brought in an oil filter and if either he, or his techs had a miscommunication that it was covered in shop overhead anyways.

Well, me and this supervisor got into it...really bad. At this point I didn't care about the $13 dollar filter, I was operating on the principal of the matter and that he did not want to own up to it. He threatened to drain the oil I brought to change the filter and put their nasty dealer oil in.

In the end, I paid for the filter out of spite because this guy was seriously something else and did not understand that everything that happens in his shop is his responsibility.

Fast forward to this weekend. My truck needed an oil change in 400 miles. Well, I would hit that on the way to pick up the trailer. My oil was a little low anyways so I decided to change the oil and rotate the tires like a normally do.

I've done this before, being lazy, I can perform this job in about an hour. This time, it took me 3 HOURS!!! That dealership installed the oil filter soooo tight this is the aftermath:

My strap wrench broke trying to get it off. I used an oil filter socket cap to try but it ended up stripping the end of the oil filter so I was at a loss as to how to get it off.

I had to use a sawsall to cut the filter in half to see if it had a nut on the inside that I could grab on to, it didn't.





In the end I had to use a propane torch to melt the gasket around the oil filter. I was really weary of this but it ended up working. I only did the bottom of the filter so it was still difficult to get off.

This is why I hate dealerships.

 

I generally hate using any mechanic shop, they always act as if I'm a total moron and don't know jack **** about cars. Meanwhile my dad owned a service center for most of my life. I rebuilt my first trans on my first car when I was 15, etc.. That being said I don't always have time to get the services done on my work vehicle and wife's Denali etc.. So I have a local guy I trust but other than that I avoid dealerships or mechanics like the Black Plague.

Several years ago my wife was on me about swapping the brake pads on her Excursion that we used to own. I didn't have time so I told her to run it up the local Mr Tire. To have them put new pads on it. She called me about an hour later, "
The guy says the rear brake caliper is bad and needs to be rebuilt. Said he can do it in about an hour but it will be $850."

Which I translated into "hey man, look a blonde drives into have the brakes swapped on a v-10 excursion. She must be married to a dumb *** desk jockey who doesn't know the difference between a brake rotor and a brake line so let's take this chic to the cleaners"

Of coarse I told my wife to just get the car and leave. Made my stop for the $30 worth of new pads at Napa and did the job myself that evening. Not a single problem with the calipers.

Figures...


I over tightened an oil filter a few months ago. I have to tear the **** out of it getting it back off but I got it off so I know how it goes.

 

Planning of doing any offroading?

 

^whatcha mean? the car is riding high because there no engine or trans in it right now....

BTW, props on your build, I love the detail.

I've been working on the car lately, getting stuff done! had to order a new interior fuse box because the mounts on mine were busted.

i'll post a couple pics later after this days work is over.

 

I know, was just kidding . Look forward to seeing what else you've got planned for this car, so far everything looks great & very tasteful .

Thanks! Its slowly getting there .

 

So over the past couple days that I've had off (with gorgeous weather BTW!) I've managed to get the front harness, blower motor, evap core, heater core, oil coolers, and some other random stuff on.

slowly but surely she's coming along











I had to order a new interior fuse box because somehow (previous owner strikes again) broke all the mounting tabs and I HATE that.

Sending the oil cooler brackets to the powder coater. Also, I called Bryan at BNR yesterday and my turbos were supposed to be shipped today so that all works out.

I'm still waiting on my manifold to get ceramic coated which should be done soon as well.

Still need to order beltlines so the car will be water proof, lol

 

Went to the powder coater and the manifold was finished, slapped it on real quick.









Looking good!

 

Couple more updates:

Got the tranny back together after getting some stuff powder coated. Took me a second to figure out how to get it all back together and be able to get under it to get the bellhousing bolts back in.



A little RTV and the shim



Voila!