FD #6 "build" - combining two cars into one
 

i have been quite busy the last couple months.

i finished my SC300 / 1jz VVTi swap a few months prior, tracked it, and decided it wasnt worth the extra investment to make it "fun" (5spd swap and torsen LSD). i decided to sell this vehicle (it still hasnt sold) and get another FD.

i recently reconnected with an old friend who owned a 94 salvage title MB touring for 4-5 years, and he had purchased it from my childhood friend (basically my brother). back in ~2004 my childhood friend and his dad purchased an off-shelf Atkins 3mm engine (with new housings, NEW irons, lots of new parts) and installed it into the salvage car along with a powerFC and datalogit. i inquired about buying this old car i'd been familiar with since about 2004, and i ended up buying it. the shell was in pretty rough shape, but it had this very good powertrain, decent (complete) 94 interior, good tan seats, and many other sellable parts i wasnt interested in keeping (glass roof, greddy FMIC, EBC, etc.)

so, knowing the powertrain was good in this salvage title car, i wanted to "start over" with a clean title roller, which i discovered here https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generati...oller-1102723/ and noticed that jim thompson had already locked it in and beat me to it!! so, i talked to jim a bit (great guy, btw), and i ended up buying the roller from him (complete exterior, dash, plus a few interior parts, stock wheels, etc.) for a good price.
this roller is a black on black base model, which i wanted particularly for the hard top. 7-8 years ago i had a base model FD that literally weighed 2660 on the scale with 1/4 tank of gas. i wanted to get back to this lighter weight, more headroom RX7. black isn't my first choice, but it's good.

i've taken a lot of extra time to make sure things are as clean as they can be without being extremely time consuming, and i am pleased with the results. i also ended up having to do some fixing, of the heater box for example, which had a broken heater air mix door, which you'll see in the pictures.

summary of what i've done so far:
swapped over front harness (total pain in the ass, btw)
swapped over engine/trans
swapped over front subframe and suspension
swapped over ac blower
swapped over AC evap
fixed heater/mix box
swapped over heater/mix box
swapped over door handles
swapped over steering rack and lock cylinder
pressure washed new (used) black carpet
installed carpet
soda blasted pedals and various engine bay tubes/brackets
swapped over pedals (clutch, brake, throttle)
swapped over tubes/brackets in engine bay

what's left to do: (i'll be posting pictures of all this in the next couple weeks)
install differential (new axle seals installed)
install low mileage axles
install PPF
install new brakes
install interior (headliner, 1/4 panels, door panels, bins, rear plastics)
install door/hatch weather stripping
install fenders
install powerFC and attempt first start up after all this work :)

so, on to the pictures, which are in somewhat chronological order, but not exactly.

salvage title car when i got it home
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some strange stuff on the salvage car (aftermarket carpet installed on top of tan carpet which was left only in the front 1/2 of the cabin)
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bolts missing from dash mount points
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some broken interior pieces
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glass moonroof i sold to a forum member
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greddy FMIC i sold to a forum member
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JDM rear seats i sold to a forum member
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banzai diff brace i sold to a forum member
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headliner i sold to a forum member
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broken heater box air mix door
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blitz dual SBC i'm trying to sell currently
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cleaned up differential with new axle seals installed
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black carpet and dash installed
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re-tapped fuel pump hanger bolt holes
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more heater box stuff (repair):
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all fixed!
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cleaned up cowl (and painted the vent cover) and installed new screw hardware
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new shifter boot close up
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cleaned up shifter turret
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current status:
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more work from last night, (installing diff, powerplant frame, axles, and driveshaft)

nice pic of how clean this car is
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i had to lift the diff with my floor jack because i was working alone.
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floor jack didnt get it QUITE high enough to slide the diff mount bolts through, so i had to add a 2x4 to get it into place :)
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axles in
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all complete (except i can't find the damn driveshaft bolts!)
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Love the black base model, definitely a keeper. You gonna keep this a street car or more track spec like your red one?

JCM, you just can't quite these cars, can you?

it is going to be a weekend / part-DD, and 2-3 track weekends a year (hopefully).

hahaha. i tried tracking my 3500lb SC300 1jz car, and it was just not "fun" like i've had every other time i've tracked an FD. but yes, you're right.

Base model car looks super clean underneath alright..... what's up with those toe links though? Yikes.

Dude, if I don't see pics of Jeffy in this thread soon I'm going to lock this thread down :rofl: :D

yeah all the rear suspension parts are off of a different car. jim whored out all the good low mileage stuff!

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i repaired my door trim piece that rides along the bottom of my window. well, i didn't "repair" it, but i modded it to keep it in place...
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reman calipers (front) installed
new brake lines (front) installed
new rotors installed (rear)
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shifter turret installed
shifter installed with new rubber
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filled trans and diff with fresh mobil 1 synthetic gear oil. this new "gravity" way of gear oil filling was much easier. i should have tried this years ago.
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minus the fenders the car is basically done.
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and a pic of the interior. the dash and center console are done (minus a few parts i still need :() sorry it's a little dark
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maiden voyage is tonight!!!

That's how I fill my trans and diff, I got a funnel from Autozone that has measurement and open close valve, just had to make sure I don't spill that shit inside the car lol.

update here:

I've had an electrical issue with the gauge cluster (bright light indicator staying on constantly, oil pressure gauge not working but pegging top and bottom with the lights on and off, charge signal not being sent to the alternator, warning lights not lighting up at KEY ON... etc.) so I pulled the dash and have been doing some troubleshooting while I've had enough energy.

I got sick about 2 weeks ago with two issues and have had very little energy, waiting for a test to figure out the second issue, but I am almost healed! I had enough energy the last two nights to troubleshoot some wires. I also wanted to verify that each harness (dash, firewall, and front) is 1994, which they are. that's good news.

so here's where i'm at:
dash back out
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missing the small harness that connects this little green wire plug to the fuse box and dome light area. luckily i'm getting one from jim Thompson Monday.
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this end plugs into the fuse box
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and here's a pic of some wire tracing I've been doing. all wiring appears to be correct on the car, and it's looking like something is wrong with the gauge cluster.

link to full-size imagine for future reference:
https://i.imgur.com/eASvR4W.jpg

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Pics and more info on your Lexus SC build? Is it black?
My first build was a black SC. Pics of it in my thread (if you didn't already see) -- SC400 V8 Twin-turbo 6-spd, GS4 diff w/Tomei LSD, etc.

yes i do recall seeing your build thread!

mine was a 99 sc300 i got and built to be a track car, but at the time didnt realize how prohibitively expensive the R154s (and even w58!) and supra LSDs have become... i tracked the car and was bored, so i decided to sell it and build an RX7 instead of sinking money into a LSD and 5spd swap for the lexus.
check out my imgur account here:
jacobcartmill's uploaded images - Imgur

it was basically a stock soarer 1jz VVTI engine that was in great shape and was super quiet.

also, rx7 update: i swapped clusters with a friend's 93, and all wiring issues went away. SO MUCH TIME AND THINKING WASTED, but at least i know now :)

i'm going to attempt to combine two clusters into one.

a friend is donating one with a bad speedo unit. does anyone know how much the speedo/odo circuit has to do with the other functions of the cluster? i would hate to swap my speedo/odo into this different cluster just do find out my speedo/odo circuit is what was grounding out... at that point i guess i could use the wrong mileage speedo/odo unit and just swap the gauge faces to my 94.

well i havent updated in awhile. i had a health issue and was out of commission for a few weeks, but i'm back!!!

i left off with the electrical issue that ended up being a short on the gauge cluster flexi circuit board.

i picked up with starting a custom VMIC setup. i'm again going with a "value" setup that i think will actually work pretty damn well. i found some ebay sellers selling copies of the CX racing "rx7 vmic radiator". i picked one up for $170, and it is decent.
the radiator has brackets and threads to use the stock fans (but mounted on the "back" of the radiator) but as you may guess, being a $170 radiator, the brackets don't quite line up. they weren't very far off, so i was able to alter them and the fan decently, but it did require some work.

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i then had to position the radiator and make some brackets to mount it. i think they turned out pretty well.

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i've always had difficulty keeping IATs down at the track (i do plan on tracking this car) so i wanted to do something on this car to address that. because i'm on the stock twins i decided to go with the CX racing cold and intake box (aluminum copy of the M2 intake box). $300 on amazon.

as you can imagine, again, the quality isn't amazing, but decent. the bottom intake area wouldn't work with my custom radiator setup, so i had to alter that with my saw, and i got it to fit pretty well with the new setup. this box will be pulling air from the middle of the "V" and i think it will work very nicely. the piping included with the kit (including the small 90* 2 bolt flange pipe for the primary turbo) fit very nicely.

here it is mounted up and altered, and you can check out my sweet lack-of-intercooler loop until i mock up the intercooler portion. i'll be tackling that this weekend.
^i'll be using the generic SMIC upgrade intercooler we've all seen around (XS power i think made a lot of these) flipped over into a V setup. the main reason i'm using this is because of the size. i have 18.5" to work with (including 51R battery and intake box).

i also had to purchase two small K&N air filters to go with the intake, $30 each. i dont have any pics of them so far. K&N RD-0720

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another update from some wiring work tonight:

for some reason a previous owner of my donor car hard-wired the passenger side headlight motor to the front harness: *I don't know*
but each wire was soldered (and brittle) and electrical taped.

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knowing i'd never be able to find the correct mazda plug without (probably) buying at least a headlight motor, I decided to use my own connector.

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and got it tucked away fairly well away from harm and destruction

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Nice work! Will be following this one. All the bits you've done so far look great :icon_tup:.

I love your "budget" builds mostly because I had the same mentality as you. Order a cheap part knowing it does 95% of the function for less cost, but requires a little more fab work than the normal rx7 guy.

I am waiting for the single turbo build as soon as those twins start puking oil :)

Thanks! The main issue with VMICs is the cost of all the fab work. The coolers aren't much different. If you can make your own "kits" for things like this you can save a lot of money. I've been able to do quite a bit with my projects without having a welder, but I can handle quite a bit of cutting and bending in my garage. In this case I was able to buy a pre-made intercooler and cold air box. I simply had to make some brackets and do some alteration/cutting.

These are 99 twins with about 20k miles on them, actually functioning sequentially, so you may be waiting awhile!
theres a better chance of me going single because I'm bored :)

Thanks ceylon.
BTW I'm still trying to find a 99 tachometer!!!

#Cartmill Machine Shop FTW

Will keep an eye out for you ;). Just the tach?

Or if you like the later white faced ones, I've got a spare one of those in my parts pile.

yep just the tach :)

you have a 99 spec one? where there a white face 99 available? I just want the 3/4 dial instead of the boring 270 sweet one. :)

time for a big update. it's been awhile.

pics of the completed custom VMIC. (well, minus a few panels to block air, and re-doing IC piping) :)
the bracket isn't beautiful, but I haven't time to make it look pretty yet.

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part of the problem of flipping the radiator orientation is the fan wiring, which i had to extend for the driver side fan:
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I installed my wideband in my DIN pocket:

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I installed an S4 FC filler flange/cap and deleted the AST
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you can see the AST delete again here. I looped the radiator port to the water filler port. you can also see my finished 51R battery and battery tie down I've done on all my cars. it works so well.
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i installed the washer bottle, because i'm finally at that point!
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I installed the fender liners, and cut the bottom front of the liners because they were damaged from previous indiscretions:
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I installed the mud guards. these are such a simple/cheap addition that make the car look so much better.
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i discovered the bad ground that was causing my front driver turn signal to act strange:
just a little broken ground wire in the front harness near the turn signal light.
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this was so satisfying to fix.

onto the doors... what a pain in the ass.

the door panels on this car were in very poor shape, much like the other parts of the interior. it's like a gorilla has been driving this car its entire life. the door panels were the worst of all.

i saw a thread on here about a guy using ABS cement to repair some plastic stuff, so i tried it out. my broski johnnyK also used rivnuts to repair some of his broken plastic thread/rods on his center console, so i figured i would combine those two concepts and see how well i could repair my passenger door panel.

i started with installing Second Skin. i noticed this in GrandMighty (farkel?)'s thread, so i copied what he did:

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then the passenger door panel handle. everything is broken... every attachment point but one:
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i made an amazing discovery; M6 rivnuts slight perfectly over these broken rods, and as long as you can secure them on there (epoxy or ABS cement) and shorten the overall height a little, you can have a new solid mount with threads.
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(notice the previous owner's interesting grab handle brace here):
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rivnut/post height shortened:
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ABS cement applied to strengthen everything (after an initial application to hold all the rivnuts on):
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intermission pic. jeffy the dog again:

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i installed the LRB dash vent. i ordered mine with the logo (which i slightly regret) and unpainted, so i painted it, and the paint is too dark.

also, i hate to say, but i'm not really impressed with this piece. i think i should have bought the mazda plastic pieces. they went on sale with Ray Crowe like 3 days after i bought this damn thing.

why didn't LRB countersink these bolts? it's 1/8" aluminum. it would have been fine, and the allen head woudnt be sticking up out of the dash...

it looks OK, but it's just decent. the part was 70$ plus shipping new, which is cheap, but i would rather have the OEM stuff for $90 i think.

anyone want to buy this thing? 60 bucks shipped... i'll even countersink it for you and give you the bolts.


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i installed the aluminum kick plates that came with the original salvage car.

also, i didn't have any push-in-plastic-thread fasteners, so I've temporarily used body push-in clips to hold these in. it's not ideal, but i will change it as soon as my other fasteners get here and i can use normal silver screws.
i drilled holes in the car. it was painful, but had to be done!

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and here's what's crucial:
after all this work, i spent Christmas at a large log cabin in pigeon forge TN with my family.

my 63 year old mother actually drove the FD when we had a cars/logistics mix-up, in the rain, and had no issues. her only complaint was "i couldn't get up the steep hill in 2nd gear... i had to go into first :confused: why?" (this little access road is so steep it's almost not drivable in general)
i said "it's a rotary engine, not a v8 auto truck."

pic of her and my aunt in the car (hard to see):
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the vacation trip was about a 4 hour drive from Nashville one way, and i got 23mpg on the way back (i didn't measure the drive there). not bad.


so what's left to do:
repair of the driver side door panel (hopefully).
fix passenger interior door pull, which won't open the door latch for some reason.
install a few misc interior pieces I've ordered.

the car is coming together. it's been a lot of work.

Good job man this thing has come a long way. I like the intermission post!

Nice work, Jacob. :icon_tup:

marshall, wuddup daw!

Nice build! What hoses did you use for that radiator?

custom hoses. one 90*, and one combination of some random hoses at autozone with a coupler to get the turns correct.

I finally got my mazda parts in the mail. i'm very excited.

new lens to convert my sunroof dome light into a base model/r1 sunroof dome light.
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new hood stoppers that no one seems to have used!!
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I also got an alignment today, and accidentally got 1/8" toe in (front) instead of 1/16" because math.
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I'm glad I surfed into this thread---- lots of good stuff going on in here, plus seeing Jeffy's face makes me want to visit the local rescue shelters around here. Not kidding either :D

I'm glad to see you ordered the hood bumpers, I've been snagging those from Ray Crowe for every FD I own--- they're a little known piece that make a nice improvement for hood fitment and anti-rattle :)

Consider replacing that driver's side fender liner, you'll be able to see the wiper bottle from outside the car and plus that bottom piece helps keep it all nice and in place during high speed runs.

Speaking of high speed runs, a little bird tells me you might be at Road Atlanta in March?

Having an opening in the fender liner behind the oil cooler in the fender liner helps airflow exiting the cooler. Covering the washer tank is pure aesthetics.

my only issue may be dropping $1000 on a travel weekend. the car can easily be ready (I basically just need brake pads and some minor tinkering).

I was chatting with Dalton a little about doing a single day instead, which I need to check into. (the only option I saw on the NASA registration was the full weekend).
I won't be able to afford a two day track event at RA, then deal's gap the following month!

short answer: hopefully, depending on money and registration.

Nice work with the Second Skin sound deadening! I was going to ask you if you noticed an increase in midbass performance from sealing up the doors, but then I realized you're not running speakers

Nice work buddy, shes coming along great :cool:.

Will keep an eye out. Yeah there are white faced 6'o'clock tachs in FD's built from sept 2000 onwards. I've got one in the for sale section actually ;), no black '99 tachs at the moment.

here's a little more tinker work I did tonight while bored.

new fuse box stickers via ebay, and they weren't cut straight... I had to make them fit.

out of the box:
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fixed:
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and I added a ground wire where the stock one was missing:

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don't worry about the brake booster hose. I will change it with a real hose eventually.

Nice job cutting the sticker. I wasn't so ambitious when I saw mine were not going to fit into that recess of the fuse box cover. It's sometimes the little things that separate the men from the boys.

After selling a nicely modded FD with an EFR Single Turbo is there any reason you decided to go back to a twin turbo car or is this just the first evolution of this build?

You def took on quite a project.

i'm glad you asked!

my red FD that i owned in 2012-2013 had the EFR, haltech, hard 12k/10k stance coilovers, fixed back sparco seat, all poly bushings, and 18x9.5 wheels. the car was too hard, and i wanted something a little more weekend/cruiser, and to have tracking as a secondary thing. so i sold that red car and got my nice white 94 touring FD. after trials and tribulations and getting that car where i wanted it (engine rebuild, haltech install, budget single kit, etc.), my roommates all split up and had to move out of our big bachelor pad rental house, so the time came to buy my own house. i owed money on the white FD, so i basically sold it to get into my house.

between then and now i created an sc300 budget track car, and it was not enjoyable; it was too damn big, and the lack of LSD and manual trans (~$4000 combined to swap LSD and trans in, ridiculous) made me lose interest and want to get back into an FD, so that's what i did.

the stock twins have always been love/hate for me, and i've never had functioning sequential twins on any of my FDs. they've all been non-sequential and laggy, and i've had two sets start blowing oil out of the back side of the CHRAs. so now that i have a good low-ish mileage engine with 99 twins i really want to utilize them and enjoy them. in short, i am experiencing a well-running sequential twins car with intake/exhaust/powerFC, and it is quite capable and i enjoy it. i am going to track it, so we will see what happens then, but i am really liking the sequential 99 twins with bolt ons and PowerFC.


in retrospect, this was probably the wrong way to do it (combine two cars into one), and i would have been better off paying 16-17k for a decent complete FD, as that's the total i'm up to in this project. however, the car is exactly what i want, so the end result is still good.

this is the most work i've done to one car, and i have learned a LOT, and it's over all been a good experience. i'm not in my 20s anymore, and i find myself enjoying replacing all the little parts i used to not care about (rear carpet, floor mats, stickers for the fuse boxes, tiny covers for the sun visor screws, tiny bulb for the ignition lock cylinder light, etc.) and making sure everything is 100% working (i'm not quite there yet) but i am getting close.

the biggest mistake i made was getting a donor car that had a perfect powertrain but a very rough *interior* beneath the surface (almost every interior piece had a broken tab or two or three --the bins,s the interior 1/4 panel plastics, the center console, the prohibitively expensive freaking door panel plastics, etc.). it would have been much easier to start with a donor car that had a mint interior and zero powertrain.

however, at least i'm doing something different from what i've done in the past. i can take time and make each interior panel nice and fix all the little things without getting nasty underneath the car.

The attention to detail is incredible!! Really clean car, must admit I am a little jealous. haha
Jeffy is absolutely adorable!