Background
I have always aspired to own an RX7 ever since I first watched fast and the furious. My first real car was a 94 miata that I had for a couple years and enjoyed. It was my first introduction to the local car community and I have tons of friendships that started with that car. After seeing the local RX7’s in my area I knew that I would eventually own one. I sold the miata to move to something a bit more unique and a bit faster so I started searching for a FD. I finally bit the bullet and picked up a 93 SSM car from Texas last weekend.


About the car
Originally a California car it has 58k on the body and 4k on a rebuilt engine. Running stock twins making about 330hp. It has 1200cc secondarys, power fc with commander, front mount and a couple other smaller mods. Now onto the things that need some work; the clear coat is gone on the roof and about ⅓ of the rear bumper, leaks a little oil, idles a little high. I also had a buddy come over shortly after I got the car and he made me a list to tackle over the winter.


Future Plans
Eventually I want this car to emulate a 99 spec car. It currently has the 99 spec tails and spoiler and I plan on purchasing the 99 spec front end eventually. During the winter I want to start to dig into it just so I have piece of mind that nothing is wrong with it along with doing to preventive/ reliability mods. I have only driven the car about 50 miles so far but can't stop smiling every time I get in it.

 

Congrats on the pick up. Welcome aboard. Have fun on the journey!

 

Love these stories. Seems like you've got a solid foundation to build upon. Thanks for sharing. Take it slow and have fun!

 

wow I was looking at that one nice pick up!

 

11/13/2019 Update

Small update, Took the car to a couple meets and got a couple decent shots of it.


I then proceeded to put the car on jackstands to work on it over the winter. I took off the intercooler piping, throttle body, UIM, and intakes to get a better look at the rats nest. I also discovered some “interesting” modifications made by previous owners such as


This speaker I fished out from under the brake master



All of these ugly blue vacuum lines with plastic tees




This cover missing from the bell housing and oil lake that’s under the car




And this vacuum line with valve that’s capped




On a lighter note the car came with some Koni yellow struts




I also made a game plan on what to address over the winter and what parts I should purchase. More updates to come when more progress is made.

 

Was the moving shot taken from a drone? Looks cool. The speaker is most likely from an aftermarket alarm, and the coating on those Koni looks like it took some good beating from weather.

 

Yes that shot was taken from a drone. I figured the speaker was from a alarm, i am either going to try to trace it or just cut the speaker out. And yeah the shocks look a little worse for wear but i plan on swapping to coilovers eventually.

 

Nice find and great shots!

 

11/19/2019 Update

Unfortunately this week I learned that messing with 26 year old plastics they tend to break. Tried to pull the gauge cluster to pull the airbag bulb and discovered my broken lower AC panel (Btw i am looking for a replacement if anyone has one)

Also cracked the gauge hood unfortunately

Previous owner decided to just use self tapping screws on the upper steering column to mount the boost gauge. I plan on replacing this with a proper gauge pod

I removed the front bumper to mess with the broken horn and remove the intercooler to clean all the piping. I also discovered some clown horns lol

Last bit of unfortunate news is I removed the spoiler to inspect it and attempt to install an OEM 99 spec spoiler and the holes don’t line up for an OEM application.

On a somewhat positive note is I removed the seats to deep clean the interior of the car.



I also replaced my tail lights with some 99 spec lights that I purchased before I had the car. (Btw I got a set on 99 spec tail lights for sale)


I did receive some parts from Banzai and Atkins so hopefully next update will bring some positive news

 

I believe I have a spare lower AC panel, it has an LED on it for alarm. Is that vacuum line going to those horns? lol

 

Yes those horns had some vacuum lines going to it for no reason. Ill shoot you a message about that lower ac panel

 

Those look like some of the cheap air horns I've seen on amazon. Typically they come with a very tiny compressor that is connected to the other side of the lines.

 

12/2/2019 Update

Parts are starting to go back on instead everything coming off!!!

I went a little nuts during black friday and picked up some stuff to make my life a little easier. ½ inch impact, drill, hex driver, and 3 batteries
I installed all of my banzai stuff including the aluminum filler neck
FFE idler pulley and black aluminum pulleys
And block off plates
Also picked up a new OEM oil cap since the previous one would interfere with the intercooler piping
Bit the bullet and got a new instrument cluster plastic and installed Drakes hood clips so if I need to pull it again the hood will not shatter
Rebuilt the shifter using the IR performant kit and it feels so much better. I also splurged on a rare mazdaspeed weighted shift **** that my buddy was looking to get rid of.
A couple smaller things I also got done was replacing the fuel pump relay with a jumper and removing the random switch from the shifter surround and installed a blank from Drakes.

Lastly I noticed my rats nest box was missing so I sourced a box and also removed most of the blue lines in prep for the rats nest simplification

Im super pumped that the car is finally getting parts put back on it. I placed another order to atkins since the previous owner decided to rtv most of the gaskets so those gaskets needed to be replaced. Till next update.

 

Looking good. Do you know about ordering parts from Ray Crowe? He is a great resource for ordering OEM parts.

 

12/27/2019 Update
Car is coming together nicely. Had a buddy help me re-do the rats nest with a proper vacuum box, brass t fittings, and new black silicone hoses. This turned out amazing and am so happy on how well this turned out.


I drained the coolant to polish up some radiator piping and needed to bleed it anyways so that will be done during first startup. Also did an oil change since I had no idea when it was done last. The upper intake manifold was spray painted by the PO and was starting to flake and looked horrible so I decided to take the uim, intakes, strut bar, y pipe, charge pipe, over pipe, and some brackets to get powdercoated. When installing the y pipe i had a bit of a scare when a bolt broke off in the turbo. We were able to extract it pretty easily and installed 4 new bolts.

I pulled my fuel pump to check on how it was wired to make sure it wasn’t going to fail and leave me stranded, the wiring was fine but in the process I cracked a fuel line so I had to order some line and clamps. While installing that I got a good look at the muffler on the car and was pleasantly surprised to find an older style greddy muffler. I will probably end up replacing this because its very quiet and since this isn’t a daily driver I prefer to have a bit of noise to the exhaust.Received new black intercooler couplers to replace the cheap blue ones that were used. Also ordered all new worm style clamps to replace the stripped t bolt clamps that were used. Installed the intercooler and the intakes with new greddy filters and can’t get over how good this looks lol.


The car with an oil leak and wasn’t able to see exactly where it was coming from due to the entire underneath of the car being coating in old thick oil so I cleaned off most of it to try to get a better idea where the leak is coming from.

Just waiting on spark plugs to arrive to install the UIM but it getting so close. I have a new defi boost gauge on the way since I wasn't a fan of the super cheap gauge the car came with. I will be sourcing a catch can soon and then I will be ready for first start up hopefully.

 

Cool progress. Great work on the rat's nest.

 

Incredible job on the rats nest. Whoever did a lot of that for you must be a bless-ed friend.

 

Car is looking great! Don't hang around Akomix too long -- you will end up spending tons of money on new parts.

 

1/29/2020 Update

I was able to install the spark plus, coils packs, UIM, TB and all other necessary parts to get the car back together and I was shocked when the car actually started. I would of figured I forgot to plug some stuff in and it would cause me some issues being that this is my first big mechanic project. Had my buddy help me bleed the coolant and brakes and the car was ready to go.


I was able to use an add a fuse and install the defi boost gauge in the drakes gauge pod and seems to be reading correctly

I picked up some goodies from JP3 Motorsports (Highly Recommend) including a efini key, throttle cable bracket, alternator boot, and fan relay bracket.



I replaced the cheap ebay catch can with a Mishimoto catch can with a breather.

I painted the front calipers a flat black then sanded the Mazda logo and cleared the caliper and i think it turned out pretty good having not painted many things

Ever since I saw the ad of the car I wanted to replace the wheels with some “real” wheels. I was shown a set of 17 inch BBS RZ?? wheels for a very good price. I bit the bullet and had them shipped and had the little imperfections fixed and powder coated a grey color. The color looked better on the web site (lol) so I may not keep the color for that long but it will work for the season. I decided to get them mounted on some Nitto NT05s 235/45 in the front and 255/40 in the rear. Also had the fenders rolled which chipped the paint (just another reason to get the car resprayed).


Now the car is sitting on the ground running it will stay like this and let my bank account recover a bit. I plan on saving for coilovers, 99 spec front end and then paint. Hopefully future updates will just be pictures of the car out at events and it not broken (fingers crossed)

 

3/11/2020 Update

Nothing too exciting has happened, mostly been enjoying the car. I installed a fire extinguisher and the sakebomb passenger seat mount. I also picked up some paint matched rear guards.

I have put about 450 miles on the car with basically no problems so far (knock on wood lol) I currently have some fortune auto coilovers coming for the car since the tires currently rub on the liners on hard corners. Other mod plans include a different steering wheel, 99 spec armrest, and different exhaust

Some smaller projects I would like to tackle would be fixing the broken clips on the driver door panel, doing a complete brake fluid flush, paint the rear calipers to match the front, paint the air intake cages black and try to track down the small coolant and oil leak.

Other than that I have been debating what to do for the exterior wise of the car. Originally I wanted to make it a 99 spec clone and even purchased the 99 spec spoiler before I even had the car and I got the license plate “99 spec”. I will probably end up going 99 Spec simply because it is more affordable of the other option I was considering (RE amemiya AD-GT). Either way I plan on saving this season for paint and body work since the clear coat on over half of the car is missing. Fingers crossed for more problem free miles. Still loving all the reactions I get on the road

 

Very nice. Looking forward to updates!!

 

I like the wheels. How do you like the extinguisher mount?

 

I really like it. It was an easy install and its not in the way plus its easy to get to if i ever need it

 

4/28/20 Update
Quarantine has provided me with some time to work on the car. I was able to install the fortune auto coilovers and dial in the heights. When I took it to my local shop to get it aligned on the test drive the car died and had no power when turning the key. I checked all the fuses but didn't see anything out of the ordinary other than the battery and positive cable were very warm. My dad helped me trailer the car back home and got to trying to figure out the issue. Turns out when the previous owner relocated the battery to the rear the positive cable was a bit too short so he extended it using a bolt and another cable. The bolt shorted against the frame rail causing no power to get to the fuse block. I was pretty lucky it didn't cause a fire in hindsight. I spoke with a buddy who relocated his battery correctly and ordered all the necessary parts and a new battery. When all the parts arrived I was able to complete the job and the car had power again.
(Pic of coilovers)

(Pic of old battery cable)

(Pic of new Battery setup)

Since I am working from home at the moment it gives me plenty of time to look at parts and find deals, in return I was able to source a HKS Hi Power cat back, a New Grip Royal steering wheel, new led headlights, some 99 spec bumper lights, and a new JP3 motorsports bracket.
(Pic of steering wheel)

(Pic of cat back)

(Pic of headlights)

(Pic of bracket)

Next project is going to be trying to clean up the rusty frame rail, I have a good plan and just have to wait on the materials to arrive. After that I hope to give my wallet a break and save for a 99 spec bumper.

 

Very scary regarding that wire.