Well it's been 10 years since I saw my first RX7. The forum is showing I joined in May of 2005 so yeah, I've been around here for a while. Mostly in the lounge but I've dipped into the other sections just when searching for info.

After many years of vowing to own one of these fine machines I finally have one in my garage. I bought LARacer's FD that was up for sale in the 3rd gen section earlier this year. I've owned it about a month. He was a great guy to buy from and an even better owner. He had a TON of stock parts that had come off the car either to be replaced by something aftermarket or just something newer in better condition. I left his place with the car and BOXES of parts. The car was pristine.

When I finally got home the car had just over 32k on the clock. Interior is perfect and so is the exterior.




So now of course comes the plan....where do I go from here? Well, my priorities (in order) are drivability, fixing interior issues, and stereo. After all of that is done I'll move on to making more power and potentially doing some other mods but right now the power it makes currently is PLENTY!

Items that need to be addressed....

1. General interior rattles. (I want to make the car sound new again)
2. Defroster doesn't work.
3. Speakers are being replaced.
4. Doors make a ton of noise and feel weak.
5. Rear "clunk" from suspension.
6. 6,000 RPM Hesitation (feels like fuel cut)

Like I said, I'm not doing anything WILD. I'd like to keep the stock essence of the car mostly in tact. I really just want to get the car back to a condition like it was when it rolled off the showroom floor. I realize most of this might not be anything most 7 owners are concerned with but it's important to me. The FD isn't my daily driver (I have a Tacoma for that) so anything I can do to the vehicle to improve my enjoyment of it is top of the list. I don't mind this car being down for a while when I'm working on it since it's a toy. Doing things the right way the first time is a priority.

 

Thanks Gordon!

You might be right. There's Tein Flex coil overs on there. Not sure what they are set at though. The suspension noise is hard to diagnose. I actually hear it more at low speeds when I'm just crawling through the parking lot hitting the lines in the concrete or slow speed stuff. At speed on the highway it's actually very well mannered.

The 6,000rpm fuel cut has me a bit concerned too. In any event, the entire interior is in my living room so the car isn't derivable right now (helping not to tempt me). When I get the stereo all installed I'll finish up the interior and then take it straight to Steve Khan who's shop is about 15 minutes from me.

 

So here's where I'm going to start...the doors. Some people complain that the materials they used were crappy. I'd tend to disagree. I think the design/reinforcement of the materials is crappy. The panels are stressed in unusual ways (think pulling shut a 50lb door from a shitty point with regards to leverage) so they need to be strong.

Pulling apart the door panels I noticed a few cracks in the panel itself and some of the screw/attachment points for the objects that bolt into the door. In addition to that, you want to make sure everything fits tightly so it doesn't have the opportunity to move and rattle. This without a doubt contributes the most to the noises coming from the door.

Check out the crack here in the door panel. This spot is where the driver pulls the door shut so it's constantly stressed. The second picture is taken from the top showing it's cracked all the way through once I took out the pocket. In the first picture you can see there is a metal reinforcement (I think it's stock) that was there for exactly that reason. Well, it only really works well if the screws are tight enough to hold everything braced up against the metal. One way to solve that is to epoxy the fractured piece together and then epoxy the brace DIRECTLY FLUSH against the door panel in it's natural position. This helps spread the forces evenly along more material.



I also noticed the pocket sits very close to the interior panel. It's probably a good idea to throw a thin piece of foam between it and the door panel to eliminate any contact noise.



For fixing the cracked pieces I chose some 5 Minute Epoxy. I tested it on the door material first to ensure it didn't eat through it. Bonds incredibly strong too. Starts to set in about 5 minutes but full cure takes longer. Great stuff in my opinion.




Some of the other areas you might find require attention are the screw receptacles. Fix those bitches.




The door pull/handle on my passenger side was very creaky. As you can see from the picture, you can see daylight through the parts where they meet at the seam. They rub together right there and make noise. The handle also could use some reinforcing so I hit them with some epoxy too.




Probably the biggest improvement you can make to the interior panels (and likely the cheapest) is replacing all the pop rivet connectors with new ones. They're stupid cheap. Just go to the parts counter and buy a bag. I had some left over from my Tacoma that seem to fit as a direct replacement.


If you want to get uber fancy get some GE Silicone II and use it as a flexible glue/padding between the panel and the pop rivet to keep it from rattling. You can also do a little on the broad surface that contacts the door steel itself. Let it dry overnight.