Open gate at the beach is always a photo opportunity

 

The silver really loves to reflect the sky!

 

Our sunset, your sunrise, over to you mate.........


White Rock, B.C., July 11, 2022 10:00 pm.

 

S hit I'm going to have get creative to top that but stay tuned.
Been working way too much to even get a drive in lately

I did get my gauge sensor mounts sorted though

 

Well been slack but away on a 2 week vacation

 

Its been six years since I last had my car "de-dinged". Bunch of us got together today to have Tom of Dentwerks go over our cars. Best $200 I have spent on the car in a while.


Keeping cool in the only spot of shade on the street.

 

I have a couple I need to get sorted on the door and fender. PDR is so good. Those guys are magicians. I love watching them work.
PDR day is an awesome idea.....

kill

 

Not a lot going on but have been playing with A pillar and moulding my own gauge pod on it.
Have a layer of glass down to fix all in place. Will now shape it up and pop it off to auto trimmer for some vinyl like OEM

 

I have a twin pod (AFR/OilTemp) and I am very pleased with the location on the "A" pillar. The obstruction of view is minimal. I have black face AEM gauges and bezel and the lighted display seems to float in mid air, like a heads up display.

 

There is not a lot of real estate around that gauges look good installed.
I agree the A pillar is the sweet spot.
Unfortunately I can not buy anything from the states as it is for the LHS pillar.
so decided to have a stab at making one.
I bought a used trim and also a new one.
So if I go double I will use the one in the car now and keep a new one spare.

I found a company in Taiwan that make a 4 in 1 60mm gauge.
oil pressure on the gauge face then a led inside that does oil temp, water temp and volts.
White face , so will see how that goes. I bought a matching boost gauge if I get keen.

 

It's a mess, but it is home to me.



The cubby cover (from a protege) closes to hide the 1.5" Volt and Oil Pressure gauges.

The Power FC Commander has a replacement screen from Michael Gagne and I have it set to show 8 parameters.

Air intake and engine coolant temps are the most frequent I look at.

 

You've managed to get way more in that cockpit than I could imagine.
so good.
I like you could resist the double din and get gauges in there. I am not that strong.
how do you like the power FC and why did you go with it and not say a Haltec ect.
I have a power FC sitting in my parts hoard

 

Power FC story is a bit long (*). But I have recently learned that there is a support group for it and that there is update programing that can self learn and adapt to your particular car's peculiarities.

Your Power FC has to match your version of FD (and is preferably a factory updated version).

Check out Apexi's site.

(* The shop wanted me to go with Haltech, but I had just bought a Power FC unit on ebay on spec, just before I blew a corner seal.)

 

Interesting there is a support group, I will have to poke about.
I dont want to install mine till I put a full exhaust on and get the new intercooler i want ( there is delays )
I do like the Haltech stuff and it has so much ability to do things with but I got the Power FC at a decent price and it was running on a 2002 but i will have to double check as people don't always get things right.
Considering I am not going to wring the life out of this engine my thoughts are the PFC will be sufficient. The learning ability sounds good.

 

Does Haltech support A/C?

I think "Link" is gaining some favour here. But again, I don't know if you lose your A/C.

Having said that there is a glitch with the Power FC for the A/C that may require running a back-up grounding wire/relay.

 

I did have a poke about and from what i can see the AC issue around the compressor that was used on some of the USDM cars. Well i hope that's the case. The JDM cars all had nipondenso compressors and less issues.
I'd have to have a look into Haltech

I did come across this for the PFC wite for Power Fc I think I will invest in one. Be awesome if i can run digital gauges on my android head unit or at very least on my phone

 

Hmmm, local guy here fixed his a/c issue on a recent JDM import by bypassing the stock harness with a direct line from the relay to the Power FC ECU. My AC has conked out, so we will try that fix next.

Or it could be that I have lost the refrigerant and the sensor is turning the system off.

 

I did see that people are bypassing the stock harness but from what i read it can create new issues as the compressor will not shut off on higher rev's and will cause damage as the compressors are not made to handle the higher revs that rotaries run at.
If the PFC gives me drama with AC I will swap it out for something that doesn't. Gets too hot here in summer not to enjoy AC, too old to not enjoy the luxury of cold air lol

 

I am getting my A/C fluids recharged on Saturday. hopefully that fixes it. Getting record temps here atm.

 

Iona Beach Park, Richmond, B.C., looking North toward Northshore Mountains, Cypress and Grouse, both ski hills in winter and partial host mountains to 2010 Winter Olympics.

 

Car is looking tidy
So you guys get snow there in winter, mountains would be great place for fun driving.

Were they the new wheels you bought not long ago ?
I'm in two minds as to get the OEM skirts and rear pods or not.
Ive just ordered some OEM clear front blinkers.
Did you do the calipers yourself, I did the ones on my Subaru but not sure if I want to move them up to the 17" ones or not and paint them up offline.

 

I think your car looks great as is. My car is a warning against "accessory creep".

I was accumulating the various RX-7 FD option parts, just to have them, but then decided to start sticking them on my car.

The build ethos is often referred to as "OEM+".

A.k.a customizing the car with actual OEM options or out of type parts.

The most common is adding S8 front bumper (skin) and wing (or the Mazdaspeed wing).

The RX-7 option items were actually quite limited. But if you add in the Mazdaspeed catalogue you can go quite nuts.

One consideration is whether your jurisdication would have problems with non-OEM parts.

The wheels in the picture are from the 1995 Shop Options catalogue. There were a red version.

Also there were the Magtek wheels as a feature of the catalogue.

I recently prepared a "changes" list for a car appraisal.

I am up to over 50 changes from showroom.

I had the stock calipers painted when I did the brakes about 6 years ago.

The slotted rotors are aftermarket.

About 95% of Canada is covered in snow in winter.

Vancouver appears as a green dot in the satellite imagery, but the mountains get a lot of snow.

 

I am experimenting with the S6 Base Lip on the front, going after the 1950's Ferrari look.

 

 

I know very well how easy it is to go down the OEM Option rabbit hole.
My previous bild was a Subaru XT Forester which was converted to full option spec STI, 6 speed, diff, brakes cluster, carpet ect ect nothing was spared and then tracking down all the rare option goodies. It's like a sport.....
Fortunately at this point I have been focusing on trying to go through the car and find as much stuff that is aging and replace it with OEM while it is still available. So much is out of production and no stock.
99% of the stuff I get is Ex Japan as Australia is pathetic in pricing, availability and delivery times.

The thing i love about the FD is there is so much aftermarket stuff available and OEM options and you can change the look so much with so little as with the front lip you are playing with, Its a subtle change but when you look at the front you can tell its different.
fortunately for my car I am over the point of making it visually loud and actually loud for that matter. I'm trying to get it clean with subtle changes that complement OEM.
I found these OEM clear blinkers are the same as ours and way cheaper than they want for the FD Option ones ( B33P51120A )
I want to build an engine so that will be the next long term parts hoard.

I think I would happily take the whole 1956 Ferrari given the chance