Let me know! lol. I ended up buying a real Spirit R. But would consider a LHD replica.

 

If you sell it, I'm here as well lol

Love the car

 

I thought I should update everyone on the car. I sold it. The idea of needing support and not having anyone I can rely on wasn't good enough for me.

I'll be selling some Spirit R parts. Feel free to msg me. I'll slowly be posting stuff up.

 

I'd like to say back from the dead, but we're not quite there yet, getting closer every week & planning on this car being at DGRR '25
My name is Brian, & those who know me..... know me & who I was before. I bought this beautiful car from Andy after he moved to HI & decided that it being on the island was more than it was worth & I always said this particular car was the perfect one for me. Just like Andy, as soon as I saw the Spirit R I had to have it. To me it exemplified everything from Mazda, of course I'm making it suited to me. When I bought the car she was running an AEM Infinity, I've been swapping that out for a Haltech Elite 2500 with a WB01 controller, TCA-1 & not one but two CAN expansion boxes. Going the haltech route because I own a shop & there are a so many rotaries running them I figured I should become as prevalent with haltech as I am with MoTeC before putting an M150 in.

About two years ago the ABS started leaking, there were a ton of wiring issues that I wanted to deal with, the previous body shop did a shitty job with the interior & the paint too honestly. I figured now is the time to deal with everything at once if I'm stripping the ABS out, I might as well strip all the wiring out too. Airbags, don't need those either - out with everything!!! I've been saying lately that it seems like EVERY FD needs to be completely stripped & rewired due to previous shops not knowing how to do it properly, using shitty wiring, not heavy enough wiring or more common enough has changed that some of the stock wiring is redundant & frankly, some of the connectors are suspect & the list goes on & on & on.

The original plan was to install a MoTeC PDM & have many things controlled by that, but then I started thinking there are so many items from the factory that are already wired, haven't been molested & should just continue to work. Not to mention they would be time & output consuming. Things like headlight retractors, power windows, power mirrors. I opted for an Eaton analog PDM. After some serious planning I figured I could remove the main fuse block on the battery, the distribution next to it that contains the Main EGI/Fuel Pump relays & also that ginormous rectangular relay box in the nose that contains, fog light relay, AC relay, air pump etc etc. You know the one that most people mount upside down when they go VMIC & let it collect water & fail. Yeah..... I took all of that & moved it to behind the drivers side shock tower. Pics incoming & you'll see locations bounce around a bit, from when I was setting the shop up & moving cars etc etc.

Here we go .... REbuiling a USDM Spirit R Replica!!!


Stripped out the entire interior to start working on the Dash Harness. The Front harness was done at home, &B i'll upload those pics in the next day or two

Stock with a battery relocated tends to get a little crowded. I didn't like the way it was previously done, so I stripped it out, bought some MotorSports 2Ga cable from ProWireUSA & routed it where the AirBag wiring was.

Here the stock Dash Harness complete with the AirBag harness as well. The Airbag harness literally unplugs from the Dash Harness & then there's only a few wires to strip out.

 

See what I mean about the previous body shop? They were paid to "restore" the interior with the color change. As you can see they pulled the carpet back & sprayed black where they could. I'm obviously going way beyond & honestly, I'm literally seeing red where I don't want to.
Note the PDM & MSD SS relays mounted



EFIHardwar.com has two of the above pictured grommets & they fit like a glove. The largest one is for the stock Emissions Harness *not the Engine Harness, clearly somethings were lost in translation


Front Harness passing thru the firewall behind the fender wells. Love it. Previously the battery cable was run through this grommet & the original one was destroyed in the process of passing the cable though.




Previously used for the AirBag, since that is being completely removed, retask the hole & seal it at the same time

 

Stripping EVERYTHING out to legit coat/restore/whatever the interior.


Yup, not one piece of plastic, wire nothing was left in the interior



In the past I have used a product called Lizard Skin. This time I wanted to try something a little different, I went with DEI ATAC, Advanced Thermal & Acoustic Coating. Dynomat is too expensive to do the entire car. I feel if we achieve the 16 mil thickness they want, it would be incredibly effective. Expect to buy 3+ gallons to do the entire interior & doors. At that point we're close to $500 in material, not sure how that lines up with the DynoMat. I know there are some off-brands that are reasonable & I'll look into those for the next car




Next time
- Front harness modification, Battery install, & the rest of the chassis wiring & interior installation

 

that looks real good! This car is going to be amazing when it's done.

 

Welcome back to the forums. I recently started posting on the forums again too. Showing my dad’s FB I built. Working on upgrading the audio system currently. Most likely going to be putting a Haltech in the car. Was going to go with the 750. But not sure if I can retain PS or AC with that ecu. Will contact you in the future when I’m ready to go down that road. Hope all is well!!

 

Brian, I had always wondered what happened with the car and am thrilled to see it's undergoing a thorough restoration. This will surely be a leveled-up version from your FC.

One thing baffles me though- I can't for the life of me understand why you wouldn't use the EMS of "The world's fastest & quickest imports"! instead of the Haltech.

I hope to see you at DGRR, my purple FD is a far cry from Barry's white abomination you retuned for me years ago.

 

Should create your own thread for this build. I definitely would subscribe to that.