Gotta love Ray. I've bought so much crap from him in the last 4 years. Never had a bad experience with him. I know every time I get a FedEx box from Virginia I'm like this Is that the plastic piece that goes under the steering wheel?

 

why did you get those parts? Were yours cracked?

 

ahem...::clears throat::.............daaayyyymmmm!!!!

 

I am really envying your car right now. It looks so comfortable to be in with the Recaro's and the Nardi wheel.

Like someone mentioned earlier though. About time for a new head unit to match everything.

 

Yup, that's the one

the steering surround I needed new b/c my old Profec B boost controller was hard mounted to it. I have a new dual solenoid Blitz Spec R I'll be mounting in the glovebox in an effort to clean things up a bit.

The other piece, some of the mounting tabs were cracked/broken.

Thanks D. I may just axe the stereo system altogether, I've been thinking of it. I need a spot to mount two more gauges (oil px and oil temp) and can either:

(a) use my border pod i just bought
(b) use the glovebox or
(c) install them where the headunit sits

I also just had some fun prepping my 2002 cluster for install. Pure was able to get my old speedo (in MPH) and odometer swapped over, which was key. Now the only 'drawback' is losing the oem oil pressure gauge.

I ended up removing the bulb for the airbag and the oil level light (note that it replaces the 1993 check engine light) and installed a set of five LED bulbs which should look great once installed (fingers crossed). Once I get my new chrome bezel ring set from Raymond I'll be good to go

 

i'd try the LED bulbs just plugged in before reassembling the whole dash, some people i know have tried it and it fails.

also did you have the (for lack of a better word), faces of the two speedos swapped? ie the white face put onto your original one? and if so, does that mean that your speedo will essentially read correct?

Brad.

 

I was able to get my horn button to work with my aftermarket Nardi (non-airbag) steering wheel. This is very very important when you live in the NYC/NJ area, as I literally need to honk my horn at some horrendous driver a minimum of once every time I take the FD out.

I'm running a Deep Corn 350mm rally-type wheel, and it extends towards the driver over 3 inches. For guys who are ~6 feet tall, this isn't a problem as they sit far back from the wheel. For those of us who *aren't* 6 feet tall (or remotely close ) you definitely have to take into consideration how much the wheel extends from the column.

I experimented with a few different hub and quick release combos and came up with this a Works Bell hub and a Works Bell Rapfix II QR system. I'll take more pics later of the finished install, right now I have pics of my oem clockspring and the steps needed to get the horn working.

The ground which correlates with the horn is the green wire with red tracer (wire on the left in the bunch of three in the 2nd pic). You basically have to extend that wire so that when the horn button is pressed, it grounds out and you get a HONK.

In the pics you'll see a black extension wire w/spade connector (that came w/the WB hub) which in theory allows you to keep your clock spring in virgin 'unmodified' condition. The green/red wire terminates in the pin on the connector where the black wire is plugged in.

You'll also see a fuse wrapped in black tape with orange wires, that also came with the WB hub and is designed to defeat the blinking airbag light. I am installing a new 2002 cluster, so simply removed the bulb so that I know the sucker won't blink

(btw, one advantage of getting quality components like Works Bell is all the little extras they include. More expensive but worth it IMO)

I plan to cut all of the bulky connectors to clean things up a bit, as with the WB hub you can see them in space between the hub and the steering column and it looks ugly.

 

A few more pics........man I cannot *wait* until saturday when I install my new clusterrrrrrr

Courtesy of the man in the first picture, I ordered a shiny new cluster chrome bevel set (not sure what the 'official' name is for this part) as well as a major coup--- scored the LAST new oem 94-95 finish gauge surround/hood piece in the U.S. of A.

According to Big Ray, a customer had ordered one and paid for it awhile back but then changed his mind at the last second. Ray's system reflected zero in stock, and he stumbled upon it randomly the day that I called him looking for one

 

Yes, good idea. Some LED lights are directional, meaning they only work plugged in the right way. This happened to me on my exterior LED conversion. Not sure about the interior ones though.

That white gauge cluster looks very good. The big drawback for me though is it reads in kilometers, not miles. Does anyone make a white face cluster in MPH?

 

Hey wassup David,

You should PM purerx7 (rx7boutique). You can buy a cluster from him with all the LED work done. He should know about the mph vs. kph stuff to. He is a great vendor. I've bought TONS of stuff from him and continue to recommend him to everyone. It would be awesome to see your car with a 2002 cluster hahaha.

 

That is dependent upon which led's you use, we use these:


These give off a 360 degree viewing angle, dmoney used the exact ones in his led cluster:


We are currently doing this led conversion for a client with a 99 spec cluster, should look killer in red. IMO, the 2002 amber lighting looks great already not sure how much better it will look with LED's. Here is the 02 cluster at night:


If you want it to read in MPH, then what you do is just swap the face from your 2002 speedo to your US speedo. So essentially you have a US speedo with a 2002 face on it, you just need to remove the needle to switch the faces which can be a pain. This will also retain your old mileage. We have a mechanical engineer who does film removal and face swapping for an additional charge. We have two 2002 clusters coming over if anyone is interested.

Thanks Andy!

 

Dr Hayes, I had purerx7 and his rx7 boutique cadre swap over my existing speedo, so it works in MPH and I retain my current odometer reading.

Some more goodies waiting for install soon:

 

No no, what I meant was which way you plug in the bulbs, not the direction of the light. I am an LED light junkie so I know about viewing angle, but what I was referring to was some bulbs don't work if plugged in the wrong way. To get them to work, you just plug them in the other way. This might not be the case for the interior ones Rich will use but it is best to test them before reassembling the parts. The happened to me on some of the exterior LEDs I used and I learned to turn them on and test before reassembling.

That is cool. So, when the needle reads 60 km/h, it's really 60 miles per hour? How much do you guys charge for this service?

 

damn rich every time i check you're thread i'm so jealous. it's like it's christmas for your FD every week!!

 

Thanks, Tommy Bagelman Extraordinaire

Got a bunch of work done on the car today, in no particular order:

**For the last time (hopefully) installed my steering wheel setup. This time the horn works as it should, and I trimmed down the bulky clockspring harness for better fitment of the Works Bell hub.

**Installed the 2002 cluster and new 94-95 finish hood and cluster surround. I may have to pull this back off to mess with the lighting more, I verified that all the LEDs are working. The lighting is a bit uneven, seems to be brighter on the ends and dimmer in the middle, by the tach.

Good news is I have no flashing lights at all, and everything works as it should (havent moved car to check the speedo but I have faith in rx7boutique ).

**Started to install the exterior LED lights. The rear marker lights are a HUUUGE improvement over stock, and take about 5 seconds to slam in there.

**Removed the front bumper to sell to a forum member. I had an (ahem) low-speed fender bender a while back and decided to go with a new oem 99 bumper. I'm also going with the Flying M mazda badges (no more efini) on the bumper and the URAS combo lights.

One thing I plan to do while the bumper is off is to remove my Hella horns and dismantle them, then send the front metal covers off to be ceramic coated. I had painted them with high temp paint but it's not holding up, a bunch has chipped off presumably from debris while driving.

I also need to source a high quality mesh grill for the oil cooler and radiator openings, if anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears. I ended up leaving the mesh on the old bumper b/c it was epoxied on and not coming off.

 

A few in-progress shots, I forgot to snap one with the steering wheel and new Mazdaspeed horn button. Also, the Profec B will be going away soon, I plan to mount it's replacement (Blitz dual solenoid) in the glove box out of sight.

 

Cluster looks right at home

 

Lucky... you have the good ProfecB

 

I'm going to be be installing a Blitz dual solenoid SBC-R soon John, let me know if you're interested in the Profec

Also, if anyone has a pair of oil cooler ducts (R Magic or Rotary Extreme replica) for the 99 bumper and oem oil coolers please PM me. I can replace them when my next order comes in from Japan, but I need these suckers ASAP

 

i honestly thought you would've had upgraded coolers rich? anywho, car looks bitchin as always.

 

That looks nice Rich. As always, awesome quality.

 

Unless you are tracking the car at the top of your class, the stock dual R1 oil cooling works quite well.

 

I should also mention that many of the interior parts were sourced from everyone's favorite Mazda parts manager Ray Crowe, who is currently running a monster FD parts Holiday Sale right now:

https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generation-rx-7-1993-2002-parts-99/va-fd-holiday-specials-stuff-these-your-stockings-some-rotary-holiday-cheer-876468/

 

An up to date pic of my interior..... thanks to G Monsen for the Mazdaspeed horn button. Gordon has all sorts of cool bits like this floating around his batcave and he donated it because the thought it would look perfect with my interior color scheme. I think he was right

Edit: the coolest thing about the horn button? It works!



I need some opinions on my steering wheel--- pictured is the Nardi deep corn wheel, 350mm with punched leather. I'm really tempted to pick up the Nardi deep corn in 330mm and suede finish for a few reasons:

(a) it doesnt extend as far towards the driver so I'll have more arm room, (b) I love the feel of suede, and (c) I think it looks cool

Disadvantages: The smaller wheel may obscure the gauges a bit (the 350mm wheel doesnt block anything) and without P/S the smaller wheel may make it a real pain to turn at low speeds.



Second picture demonstrates just how invaluable Ray Crowe is--- I wanted a very small obscure oem part that hardly anyone ever orders, the lenses for my rear license plate marker lights. I installed new LED bulbs and as can be seen in the picture the covers were absolutely nasty. Quick phone call to Ray, 11 bucks and 24 hours later I had them sitting on my doorstep

 

I like the interior looks so fresh!

I wish there was a Ray Crowe for Nissan.LoL