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Hey everyone. So I've had this car for just about a year now after having to sell my 1995 when I left Japan awhile back. That one was pretty rough around the edges so it turned into my track car, but this one started out much cleaner and my goal is to keep it clean, mostly stock at least in appearance, and to not screw things up. Since these cars are becoming more collectible I figured I'd keep things basically stock where possible and cleaning up stuff would be the best course of action.
Since I've had it for a year there's a lot to catch up on so I'll start from the beginning. I imported a 1992 FD RX-7 back around April of 2019. I ordered a silver one from a Pakistani run import company in Japan. When I arrived at the port I couldn't find it, but instead I found a black one. All the paperwork matched, including the chassis code, so I processed it through customs and got it into the country. Calling up the import company later, it turns out they had had two at their shop and decided to send me the black one because the engine was in better condition. Whatever, I'm not going to sue someone thousands of miles away and the car was pretty clean so I'd just figure it out later. The car needed a jump and probably a new battery too so I got a jump starter and a new battery, installed it on the side of the road, and drove it home.
Here's the car after a wash at the port town:
I suck at all things mechanical though and didn't find the J hooks to secure the battery. Plus apparently there were steering rack issues so whenever I hit a pothole or a bump in the road the car would try to swerve. All this movement jostled the battery around and eventually something touched that shouldn't have and shorted a wire, blowing my main fuse. About 12 hours after clearing customs and driving it to within 30 miles of home I had to call a flatbed truck a second time (first time was after I flooded it like an idiot going between parking lots at a rest stop and shutting down a cold engine).
There it sat for a week or so while I puzzled over what could be wrong, why the car had suddenly died, and if I could get it started without towing it to a mechanic. Going over everything I finally thought the main fuse looked a little odd and decided to run to autozone for a new one. Popped it in, car started up fine and I was able to drive it around again. I took it to a local mazda shop to get checked out.
Shop visit #1:
I have the receipt somewhere, but about $7,000 later everything was fixed. One of the mounting points for the steering rack was broken and loose, explaining the weird behavior over bumps. The steering rack needed to be replaced. The steering pump had failed. Vacuum lines replaced. The plastic wiper fluid tanks and things like that were cracked or looked 25 years old so they were all replaced. Fluids, clutch, flywheel, etc. all replaced. Probably some more stuff I'm forgetting. Engine compression is about 100 psi across both rotors and very consistent. So while not great, it could be worse.
Now that I have a car that won't try to kill me as I drive, I can work on interior stuff and cleaning it up.
As you can see, the door panels had some weird glue stuck to them, the side pocket was broken of course, and the center console was a mess. I gave up on getting the glue off cleanly and bought used door panels, along with a new side pocket, center console, and other accessories. Eventually I had to get new dummy buttons for the center console because the old ones stood out too much. The car also got a new OEM shift **** and a new leather bids courtesy of Redline. Their product is as good as it was last time.
I also changed out the front lights and cleaned up some of the random stuff like the front license plate holder since it's unnecessary and JDM license plates aren't the same size anyway.
Later on when I went to show the car off to people one of my headlight motors died, so my car had droopy eyes for a few days. Replacing the motor was a royal pain in the *** because of how the bolts were put in. At some point during the replacement the motor decided to work again, but I ended up replacing it anyway.
Around this time I also noticed oil consumption was getting pretty bad. No oil leaks detected after multiple searches, and it shoots blue smoke out sometimes under boost, so it looks like it's just a case of oil leaking into the intake from the turbos. Something to fix later on down the road.
The catalytic convert also needed to be replaced, possibly due to aforementioned oil dumping into the exhaust all the time, so I replaced that with a bonez catalytic converter. Slightly louder than stock, but still pretty quiet and not obnoxious.
At this point the car is starting to come together pretty well. New tires were needed to replace the old AD08s the car came with, but it's generally been a pleasant driver.
Whoever had it before me must have babied it for years and then I guess passed away and given it to their son or relative, who trashed a couple pieces of the interior but must've sold it before doing too much damage. The OEM suspension had been replaced recently, brakes & pads were in good condition, the seats aren't too torn up (although I have new leather covers I'll need an upholstery shop to put on at some point), and generally it's in pretty good shape now.
Here's how it looked after a bit of cleaning up.
Unfortunately I've always wanted a CYM FD. I was resigned to living with maybe a silver or white one, and my best hope was to find just a regular yellow one, but I'd gotten stiffed with a black one. A black one with very good paint overall that was now perfectly fine. Except for leaky turbos... Anyway, black is probably best for resale value and I didn't want to mess up what could be original, 27 year old, very good paint from the factory.
So instead of replacing the turbos like a sensible man I decided to have a Yellow FD before I die of corona. I bought the vinyl wrap (17 yards), bought the tools, and figured I'd speed the weekends for the next few months working with a family friend to get it done. Unfortunately I'm not artistically inclined either and quickly realized I was out of my depth. So I took it to a shop the other week and handed it off to them. I just got it back and it looks pretty good. There's a seam by the door handles where they couldn't get a single sheet of wrap to stretch far enough, but other than that and some touch up on the mirrors I think it looks pretty good. Now I have a nice, modest, and discreet sports car to drive. I had some Red Suns stickers ready, but forgot they'd tear up the vinyl so that's up next. And turbos, someday a new set of turbos to fix that oil consumption issue... Then a new engine probably.
Replaced the hood liner today. The new heat blanket thing is much thinner than the old one so I'm not sure if they changed the design or if my old one was just falling apart. Using a small trim removal tool made this a 5 minute job and much less frustrating than it could've been. Also replaced the windshield fluid nozzles while I was at it.
Thanks! There's some weird wrinkles on the mirror wrap that I need to fix up. Also just won an auction for some BBS RG-R wheels, so maybe in a month or so whenever those arrive it'll match a little better with the new color.
I got it from RHDJapan. It was $170 +s/h so it ended up being around $250-300 total. Atkins has them for sale for a decent price, but their shipping calculator is wrong or they just charge $300 s/h for these, so that option was a lot more expensive.
Also, it doesn't come with the sticker that the OEM one does with warnings and stuff on it, so cut that off and keep it if you want to put it on the new one. I was able to reuse all the plastic clips that held my old one on, but you can buy those new as well. You definitely want a trim removal tool though, otherwise you'll be breaking fingernails and cursing yourself. Something like this works great: https://images.esellerpro.com/2133/I...rim%20clip.JPG
New wheels installed. I think exterior-wise the car is pretty much done. There's some cosmetic issues with the wrap I want to clean up but otherwise I generally like how it looks now.
I also replaced a lot of the small bolts in the engine bay with newer ones that weren't rusty but figured that would be a boring picture to show.
They start as black, and a green or brown hue indicated the plastic is becoming aged and brittle. AST failure will depressurize and dump the coolant system which can result in a critical overheating event. Long story short: it's worth $150 or however much for the disaster prevention.
Kind of a boring update, but I put in a new battery. It's a lifepo4 battery so it weighs about 3lbs. I still need to put in the j-bolts and secure the battery. New bolts (yellow zinc plated) all around the engine bay as well. It's amazing how hard it is to find fasteners still made in the USA, and I ended up having to break down and order some made in Taiwan. I also had to pick up a new glovebox door since my latch stopped working all of a sudden, and next i guess will be a new AST.
Updates: leather seat covers installed finally. I got them from wherever they're made in Pakistan, thinking they should fit fine. Unfortunately they were way too small, so the upholstery shop had to redo most of the leather. Turned out ok, but cost about double what it should've.
Also tried repairing my glove box, but it's hard to find RHD, 1992 year glove boxes. (1993+ don't work).
Rewrapped the vinyl on my mirrors. There were some wrinkles on it from when the shop did it. I didn't do a perfect job, but it looks a little better.
Also got a new Lifepo4 battery.
Wrinkles on the mirror wrap before I replaced it.
After I rewrapped the mirrors. New Lifepo4 battery. Weighs maybe 5lbs. Made in China unfortunately. It's been installed for a few months now and no issues with it. New seat covers installed. Glovebox missing since I took it out to try installing a replacement. Driver seat installed.
Seats look good. It is always a pain in the **** when things work out like that. As I age I am getting a lot better regarding such thing . I have learned patience.
How is the rest of the wrap? I can definitely see areas on mine that annoy me. Your car is looking good though.
Oh yeah, that's a lot of weight savings on the battery. I hope it lasts awhile for ya.
Seats look good. It is always a pain in the **** when things work out like that. As I age I am getting a lot better regarding such thing . I have learned patience.
How is the rest of the wrap? I can definitely see areas on mine that annoy me. Your car is looking good though.
Oh yeah, that's a lot of weight savings on the battery. I hope it lasts awhile for ya.
Honestly, not so great. It looks ok at a distance still, and it has held up pretty well, but there's some peeling on the front bumper curves near the oil coolers, the rear wing has wrinkles on the bottom part, and a small patch on the rear wing lifted off and then got torn in the wing so I had to reheat some portions of it. Nothing super terrible yet, but I think it's only a matter of time.
To be honest I am not so happy with mine. If I did it over again I would rattle can paint mine instead.
I painted my mirrors and spoiler pedestals and wrapped the rest.
Worst parts are oil cooler ducts and inside door jams. I would imagine the mirrors and spoiler would be a pain (that's why I painted mine). I am going for a "rat rod-ish" look anyway with the satin black so I guess it isn't that big of a deal.
04-04-20, 02:05 AM
