Countdown to DGRR 2016
 

so in a series of poor choices i bought an fd here in the states. below is where i saw the car.

https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generati...turbo-1086156/

and for anyone interested in seeing my other fd

https://www.rx7club.com/build-thread...ility-1048550/

going off the pictures i got from the seller and everything listed in the ad i bought the car knowing it was going to be ugly but fully expected it to be in great running order seeing as that list is very nice. all the proper mods and maintenance i would do myself is already done for me. i looked at this car as being mechanically correct and visually inappropriate.

ive been back in america since early september and thats when i got to see the car in person for the first time. its been in the care of a friend who drove it from austin, texas to panama city, florida. first thing i did was look it over just to see the engine bay in greater detail of course. im not all that happy with the way the bay is set up and how everything is placed. the block itself is a mess. its wet pretty much all over and has gunk built up in many places and the battery was bad. wouldnt hold a charge longer than a day. the turbo also smokes A LOT on shut down sometimes. the first time it happened i thought it was a fire. one of the small annoyances of this car is the front left turn signal only works when it wants. i pulled the assy out and saw the socket was burnt pretty bad.

im not mad or anything about the overall quality of the car. its definitely a good starting point for me to do a lot with. i already have a vision for this car and am hoping to finish it in about a year. the only thing being back here in the states is my time is now mega limited and i dont have as much of it to throw at a project like this as i once did. the great thing about this car vs my other one is that the "parts acquisition" step of the build gets skipped since i brought all the parts i want to use with me from japan.

literally all i have to do it break the car apart, fix everything and put it back together.

but enough talking.... images images images

on my return to amerca i went to panama city to hang with my friend and get the car. after inspection, we installed the HWL lights ive had for a while and removed the hood pins. im pretty sure im going to put the stock lights back on since im going with a 99 bumper. seeing these lights on a 99 bumper kind of turns me off to them. the elegance of the 99 with the aggression of these lights dont mesh very well...... to me anyway
Attachment 619486
Attachment 619487
Attachment 619488
Attachment 619489

leaving panama city, i drove the car to tampa then to orlando, back to tampa then to north carolina. this was my vacation before going back to work. on the drive from tampa to nc an escalade spit a piece of tire at me on I95 and i didnt have the chance to avoid it. pulled over into a rest stop and pulled the lip from under the car to see it was ground down which explained how the other side got the way it did. had to make a repair. the dent and the bumper not being attached to the fender wasnt because of the tire
Attachment 619490

Attachment 619491
Attachment 619492
Attachment 619493
Attachment 619494
Attachment 619495
Attachment 619496

the engine bay..... when i look at it, i just see a bunch of things everywhere with no real sense of organization. it looks messy and i dont like it. not a fan of where the drier is mounted but realistically, where else is it going to go? im also not a fan of the way there is an ac line resting on the exhaust housing of the turbo. the ebay turbo blanket does act as a barrier but its still not ideal. definitely something to fix later. i am grateful that it does have ac though. i was told by him that it only work when youre moving but thats not entirely accurate. using the commander, you can see the ac dot flicker when the system is "on". if you cycle the switch enough times you can get it to stay solid.
Attachment 619480

quite possibly the coolest thing about this car is the build date. its the same as my other fd. the odds of this blow my mind.
Attachment 619481

the seller said in the ad that the radio doesnt work. well digging deeper into that since i didnt want to be without audio for the drive from fl to nc i found why it wasnt working. i pulled it out from the back of the radio like this. all the wires for the speakers were diked off. clean cut. entirely intentional. the thing that makes this so bad is the sub harness that actually part of the car is gone. fixing this is going be to a lot of work in that tiny space with a soldering iron.
Attachment 619482

the interior i was expecting to be in pretty good shape since the pictures looked really good. overall its not bad but its also not that great. the panels were plastidipped he said and some of them came out fine but others not so much. the seats are stained pretty bad, the passenger seat belt is from i dont know what other car but it works, the windshield leaks is the upper left corner just over the steering wheel, the tint is torn and causes the window to bind on the moldings when it goes down and the glove box broke.

im guessing the glove box was already on its way out since you had to slam it to get it to shut. i closed it one day and it just didnt. looked at the latch on the inside and it was just bouncing around inside. i removed the key part and am able to get it to close by wiggling the arm that extends over. basically fishing the latch to catch the hook. so i dont open the glove box anymore.
Attachment 619483
Attachment 619484
Attachment 619485



overall though, i am satisfied with my purchase. all the "issues" it has are minor and will be fixed pretty easily other than the radio. i plan on selling this car sometime early 2017/late 2016 but plans can change. im going to do my best not to get attached to it but it is an fd...... so...... you know....

on a positive note, the car does drive great. it feels amazing getting in the power and the steering is very responsive. even with all the little quirks i do enjoy driving it when i do.

On the passenger seat belt, many '93s had a different buckle for the passenger side. More "square" and bobo looking. That's stock, doubt it's been changed out. I'm sure you can get a good used one to swap out.

For the stereo, that just looks like the harness that plugs into the back of the stereo, the stock plug should be down in there somewhere. If so, I'd get a new aftermarket harness that plugs into the stock plug (they're like $10) and go to work, you should be able to do that comfortably out of the car.

Now that you're in the states and in NC you REALLY need to come to Deal's Gap this coming up April. I'd love to meet you and see how your car is coming along!

Dale

I dig it! With how your blue FD came out I'm really excited to see what you do with this!

thanks dale. that actually means a lot coming from you. i would love to meet you as well. youre basically a celebrity lol. i would love to go to DGRR next year but i dont think i will be able to make it because of my job and how i am about to leave it for something better. 2017 is on though.... i'll definitely be there for that.

i didnt know about the bobo buckle that was an option for the car. thats exactly what it is then. definitely going to swap that out when i get the chance.

the thing with the radio harness is that its not hooked into the factory plugs. its actually wired directly to the car. the factory plugs are removed.

thanks man... this car wont be as elaborate as the blue one. im looking to have this car "done" within a year.

so... as most adults know, you can plan all you want but life has its idea of how it wants shit to go down. with that said, this "year long build" has now become a 3-4 month build. more details on the situation later but this weekend i will begin teardown...... stay tuned

actually all 93's have that buckle that looks like it came from a Buick.

j9fd3s
Quote:
Originally Posted by cr-rex View Post
i didnt know about the bobo buckle that was an option for the car. thats exactly what it is then.

actually all 93's have that buckle that looks like it came from a Buick.

Ah ha! My friend pointed out my low mile clean R1 had a "junkyard" buckle on one side.

Now I know, but now I am curious on why!

Looks like a great starting point for sure. Slap some paint on it and it will look great.

Side Note: If you ever want to sell that shift knob let me know. I had one like that in my Civic back in the day and have not found another like it that I like.

It will definitely be coming out. I have the same one in my integra. Its a greddy knob in case you didn't know. Theres supposed to be a shift gate sticker on the top in red but..... you know -_____-

I love that shift knob. Had one for years.

it is just about the only thing we don't know about the FD...

so yesterday was a lot of fun. dropped everything and am now waiting on the engine crane to get here. interior is stripped out the exterior in mostly stripped. it was a 12 hour day but it was great being able to work in my own space and not have to worry about closing time or paying fees. although we didnt have a lift, the level of difficulty was maybe +1. ive been spoiled all this time.

recorded a walkaround before we got to work


this is the before...
Attachment 616783

this was the workspace we had. it was a little cramped but enough to get the job done.
Attachment 616784

engine ready to be pulled
Attachment 616785

better look at the turbo
Attachment 616786

interior all stripped out
Attachment 616787
Attachment 616788

intercooler and radiator
Attachment 616789

the old ebay brand 30$ turbo blanket chewed to hell...
Attachment 616790
Attachment 616791

does anyone know what these stickers are about? each campaign number is different. im guessing theyre recalls
Attachment 616792

under the car was actually pretty clean from the transmission back. the underbody is nice... really nice. theres a few scrapes from the car being too low it looks like but otherwise super clean. the engine is caked and dripping in oil. it looked like this before i started draining it of oil and coolant. definitely looking forward to cleaning all of this. on the bright side, the motor already has 2 steel mounts.
Attachment 616775
Attachment 616776
Attachment 616777
Attachment 616778
Attachment 616779
Attachment 616780

removing the tail lights revealed a nice surprise
Attachment 616781
Attachment 616782

so the interior is stripped out, exhaust, ppf and transmission removed. the next step is to pull the engine out and begin tearing it down. since it was rebuilt ~40k miles ago, i dont see a point in opening it so im going to strip it down to a keg and paint it. i have a bunch of gaskets and stuff on order so its going to have an external overhaul. the injectors are going to be sent off to be clean and flow tested.

I had a few of those stickers in my door jamb too. I assume they are for recalls. I took all of mine off.

i messed around in the garage today and swapped out some stuff on my cluster from a jdm one. one interesting observation.... the red line for the water temp gauge is white.
Attachment 616736

jdm on the right and usdm on the left. of course the oil pressure units are different too. i will be deleting my oil pressure sensor so it makes no difference to me.
Attachment 616737
Attachment 616738
Attachment 616739

also got a few more pictures of the interior. the two gauges that were installed was a boost and fuel pressure gauge. both are being removed and being replaced with a wideband and an oil temp. you can also see the radio harness and how it was hacked. the damage isnt as bad as i thought it would be so the repair should be pretty easy. i still need to find another set of oem plugs to install.
Attachment 616740
Attachment 616741

this is all the old audio stuff i pulled out
Attachment 616742

also noticed im missing a plug
Attachment 616743

Them stickers on the door jamb mean the ecu was re flashed.it could also mean it had a recall or tsb done.I worked at a dealership and anytime we had to flash a ecu, we had to put one of them stickers on, it's basically just to tell the next person working on it what was done to it

Dgrr 2016
 

So i will be going to DGRR this year and the goal is to have this car done in time to drive out there. Now i have a deadline to work towards. it makes things a lot more exciting for me.

a lot happened last night. the shell is ready for paint and body and the engine is completely torn down. i just need to clean it. its really nasty. i also decided to upgrade the clutch to an os giken twin plate. not for any particular reason other than it makes a cool sound and its something that ive had for a while just sitting in a box. selling off the ACT on here now should help in funding the rest of this project.

engine bay stripped out and ABS unit removed. im using Alex's 2015 ABS delete kit. the garfinkle brace will also be for sale soon once it gets removed from the car. for whatever reason my tools wont fit in the hardware snug enough to remove it. im going to leave it to the body shop to get it out.
Attachment 616452
Attachment 616453
Attachment 616454
Attachment 616455
Attachment 616456

when i pulled the cowl off, i was greeted with a mess of dirt, sticks, twigs and leaves. theres stock piles of it all over the car in various places. im hoping to find them all.
Attachment 616457

the seats are out. i am going to use a set RZ seats i was planning on using in my blue fd but decided to get a set of GIAS seats for it instead.
Attachment 616458
Attachment 616459

once i had the interior stripped down and the panels stacked high on the passenger side, i moved on to the engine. getting a better look at it out of the car, i was able to see what all needed attention. theres a fair amount of things that could fixing. whatever heat wrap was used has turned into parchment and turns to crumbs on contact. im guessing this is also ebay heat wrap to match the turbo blanket. im going to re-do it in DEI heat wrap. i also noticed i was missing the retainer thing that goes over the front bolt. im hoping i can find that pretty easy somewhere here...
Attachment 616440
Attachment 616441
Attachment 616442
Attachment 616443
Attachment 616444

the top of the engine was actually tidy with the intake manifold off except for the leaking oil injectors. i am deleting the OMP and going to pre-mix. i am thinking about getting that adapter thing that you can set up to pump 2 stroke but im going for simplicity and that would be one more thing to clutter the bay. still on the fence about it since its a nice mod regardless
Attachment 616445
Attachment 616446
Attachment 616447
Attachment 616448

turbo and lim removed showed how nasty everything was under it. along with some leaves that somehow managed to get inbetween the lim and block. there was quite a bit of red rtv used on the lim and manifold gaskets. i thought this was strange and unnecessary.
Attachment 616449
Attachment 616450
Attachment 616451

onto the oil pan. the likely reason why there was so much leakage is the fact that when i removed the oil pan with ease, there was almost no gasket material on either side. you can see in the pictures how little was used. of course i will be fixing that. i have an oil pan brace and will be sealing it properly. i also got a set of the IRP motor mounts to replace the beat up stock ones.
Attachment 616434
Attachment 616435
Attachment 616436
Attachment 616437
Attachment 616438

with the water pump housing removed, i looked inside expecting to see some sort of build up or something nasty but was greeted instead with this. what kind of mod is this? this isnt a factory thing is it?
Attachment 616439

Glad to hear you're going to make Deal's Gap! Remember, it can seem like a lot at times, but just take a little time every day, like an hour after dinner or something, and do a little bit of work. Days off try and get more time logged of course, but you'll be surprised how quickly things start to happen if you do a little here and a little there.

Looking forward to seeing you in April! I've got the hood, fenders, and nose off my car right now doing some minor paint and body work and trying to get my gaps lined up good.

Dale

Thanks Dale, im pretty excited to meet the you and the other forum celebrities. Ive done this before with my blue fd but more in depth and with a much more serious deadline of moving to another country so get this done or else....

Im sailing in through this like I wasn't expecting. Not being on the time of the hobby shop and having to worry about closing time or worrying about getting something in the mail in a timely manner is great. I logged ~30 hours this weekend in the garage. Im probably going to clean the engine bay today with the pressure washer and get to work on these harnesses.

If you have a problem finding a grommet for behind the tail light let me know. I couldn't find it in the stock system so I bought a pair from a parted out car and I have 1 available.

PM me if you need it.

Regards,

Mike

Thank you lots. I need it. Pm inbound

Nice. looking fwd to updates and seeing this at dgrr