SamJulian

So after wanting an rx7 since i was a child, and watching them get scarcer over the years, when a local '93 import came up that had a few nice parts and only 23800miles on the clocks, I made sure i was the first one to turn up with the £6000 asking price in hand and drive it away!

Only picked it up last week so i'm still trying to get over some teething problems, and getting too grips with exactly what parts are on it (previous owner was a retired bloke who didnt know much about what he had owned for the past 9 years!)

This is how i picked it up:







As i have figured out so far, the spec is as follows:

- Re-amemiya headlights, bodykit and spoiler
- 17" Work Meister SZR (not sure on widths yet)
- Potenza Dampers for the Street, shocks and springs
- Adjustable rear toe arms
- Re-amemiya dolphin tail exhaust (possibly cat-back but not sure)
- Re-amemiya 360mm flat bottomed steering wheel, and gear ****
- Re-amemiya boost gauge with steering column surround
- Aftermarket 2 in 1 gauge with coolant temp and AFR
- Turbo timer
- Re-amemiya intercooler hard pipe set with silicone joiners
- Re-amemiya Redom mapped ECU at 0.9bar primary turbo and 0.8bar secondary
- Aftermarket air filter with heat shield against radiator
- Engine torque brace
- Re-amemiya AST tank and coolant cap

Thats it as far as i can remember so far, other than that its all OEM and mostly all in pristine condition even still has the original spare wheel, jack and tool sets that have never been used!

7_rocket

iTrader: (6)

I have the same rims. Thought they were S2R. Either way very nice, I'm going to powder coat mine shortly.

Welcome to the forum

ZoomZoom

iTrader: (2)

That looks like a late 80's early 90's Pontiac Trans Am from the rear with that Wing.

SamJulian

Ah yeah they might well be S2R's, i might have misread it as a Z haha

And yeah i really dont like the rear wing, i took it off a couple days ago and gave the car a good clean so will get up a couple pictures in a bit.

GoodfellaFD3S

iTrader: (213)

I immediately thought the same thing. Man, what an ugly wing

So glad to hear this

Let's see some engine bay shots!

SamJulian

This is the only bay shot i have at the minute until i've given it a proper clean and polish at the weekend



Not bad for the original paint on a 23 year old car eh! Oh, and took a couple shots after taking that wing off aswell, looks a million times better too me

Mysta Joe

iTrader: (1)

LOL, you really like that gas station.

Nice car. Good move on removing that spoiler, that thing is ugly.

SamJulian

Haha its at the end of my street and the only place nearby thats lit up when i leave work so practical for pictures

And thanks man, just need to figure out what to replace it with! Or leave it as it is and get the holes welded over with a fresh coat of paint hmmmmm

ZoomZoom

iTrader: (2)

Go Wingless, use the money towards some nice wheels instead. Car is already looking better without the wing. It may be cheaper to find a red hatch without a wing than to have the holes welded up and the hatch repainted.
Good luck! Keep up the good work.

Aaron tietje

Def. looks better with out the spoiler.

SamJulian

Yeah it's staying wingless now without a doubt, and a good friend of mine owns a bodyshop local so will get him to weld/fill the holes and spray for me so it'll only cost me in materials will get the wiper arm hole and washer hole filled at the same time!

ZoomZoom

iTrader: (2)

You obviously know what you are doing. Looking forward to seeing the progress!

4g63rotary

iTrader: (5)

That bay looks pretty clean, good move going wingless as many have said lol. Car looks quite nice otherwise! Can't wait to see what you have in store for it!

SamJulian

So, after a week of troubleshooting my limp mode issue in the rex i found it out to be the MOP being the issue, so picked up a good condition one last week and changed that over, and at the same time did the rats nest simplification (still leaving the sequential system in place)

Deleted the stored codes and was happy to have a proper working car again! So spent the weekend enjoying it, gave it a clean up, and met up with a couple friends so a photographer mate could snap some pics of our cars together

Managed to take a couple on my phone whilst we was there.....








Was a good weekend all the way up untill yesterday after work when i tried starting it and it wouldnt fire....

Pulled the spark plugs to find that they were dripping in coolant whilst they were out i pulled the fuel pump relay and cranked the engine over a few times to try and push anything outta the block, then cleaned the plugs with a blowtorch and put them back in.

It finally fired up after 5mins on the starter motor but ran like absolute crap, and coughed out white smoke like no tomorrow, was like the engine had been snowfoamed and it didnt clear through, stayed like that for 15mins whilst i kept it running!

So i'm now presuming i need to get the engine in for rebuild thanks to a coolant seal breaking Although my only light in the dark could be that i noticed i was also getting white smoke out of the engine bay from around the area of the turbos so it could be a turbo seal rather than engine!

Looks like i might have to put the turbo 350z up for sale now to fund a single HKS T04z swap, and possibly a ported rebuild if it doesn't turn out to be a turbo seal will have to keep my fingers crossed till i figure out what it is!!

7_rocket

iTrader: (6)

Oh man. Sorry to hear that.

PS Does England ever get Sun? Always looks cloudy as ****

SamJulian

It does ocasionally if we're lucky, those pictures there ^^ are whats considered as a 'nice day' over here tho hahaha

SamJulian

Hi So then, since the last time i was on a few things have happened, turned out it was a coolant seal in the block so had to rebuild the engine, always fancied a go at a rotary so decided to give it a go myself, nothing you havent seen before but heres some shots none the less

SamJulian

SamJulian

All went fairly smoothly with exception to a couple snapped manifold studs that needed extracting! Couple added bits along the way aswell including a new stage 3 Competition Clutch, set of Magnecor HT leads and NGK 9's all round, and I redid my simplified rats nest with new vacuum hoses!

Took a while for the first start up but after firing for the first time its been perfect ever since, so much so that i've done 1600miles in it using as a daily driver and 2 track days

SamJulian

After destroying what was left of my tyres i thought i'd try the wheels on from my 350z over a weekend and loved the way it looked so much that i've decided to keep them on it! Also got round to removing the wiper from the bootlid aswell which had been bugging me, plus removed all the stickers and sprayed the rear badge black.

SamJulian

Next on the list was to repair the fiberglass bumper that a mate decided to drive into a curb for me! I've never done any fiberglass work before let alone any bodywork repair, so i'm fairly happy with how it came out considering i sprayed it myself aswell!

Came out a bit orange peely but after a wet sand with some 2000grit paper and a machine polish it came out pretty decent, then gave the rest of the car a whip over with the polish aswell at long last!

Other than that i fitted new black mesh to the bumper and sprayed the inside of the headlights black then finally got round to enjoying driving it properly for the first time since buying it!

Next things on the list now are to sort out an oil leak its developed from the sump, (just waiting on the sump brace to be delivered), and decide what brake discs and pads to buy after a destroyed mine whilst on track over the weekend hahah













Slowly getting there piece by piece!

04G35S

iTrader: (10)

Those wheels look 100x better than the old ones, good call!

Great job on the bumper repair, its not my style but to each their own!

cabaynes

iTrader: (4)

I vote that you return to pop-up headlights as soon as possible and if you can work with the fiberglass, you should add a little extra to align the hood/bumper a bit closer...

Otherwise looks great though, I usually don't go for those rear over fenders but with those wheels this really looks great! Keep it up!

Seamoan

what an awesome thread dude. Love the enthusiasm and dedication.

SamJulian

Cheers lads! Always nice for a bit of feedback

Pop-up headlights are high up on my list of things to do, alongside getting those wing mirrors changed once i choose what to replace them with. And i was planning on playing around with the bumper fitment a bit more but i doubt i'll be keeping that bumper on long enough to make it worth while!

A fabricator mate has a T3 fitment manifold he made just lying around so thinking about taking the GT35 off my 350z and making a start with making a home made kit for the rx7, would be handy to revert the 350z back to NA so i can use it daily again, and make a few thousand out of selling the forged block and buying another standard one...

Decisions, decisions! :/