Tai-Lun

iTrader: (8)

I'll have to get some photos on imgur or something for some final pics before I stopped driving the FD as it's off season and also the clutch finally gave out. Did a video interview before the clutch died though so that was pretty fun documenting some of the build up over the years. I still like the hood especially as it will be keeping functional with the motor setup, as for the Ronin setup, you have to either figure out a gas filler solution of your own or go remote like I did as the curve of the fender is where the OEM one is located.

Off season plans are parting out a lot of what is on the car that will be no longer needed, replaced or changed/modified.
- LS7 clutch and flywheel (undecided on which one still)
- selling the full setup for the ITB's, Haltech IAC, and AEM F-body plug+play standalone (something else is coming in it's place)
- replace the PSS with bigger tire with less stretch but still street compound
- possibly changing the Quantum + Nova spring coilovers for something else
- different front bumper + B2A aero
- time to get a better/more functional diffuser and join the big wing gang
- harnesses (any recommendations here? would be doing both driver/passenger side for the Mazdaspeed seats)
- exhaust tips, if I can find something with aluminum tips that would be preferred so I can match anodize them to the wheels.... again looking for recommendations here

I'll be pulling the motor soon for clutch and some motor work, while it is out I'll be trying to get the engine bay and door jams finally paint matched. Seeing all the four rotor builds will make putting the LS back in after paint tough lol.

Venom13132

iTrader: (2)

Hey! Checking back in!!
I just picked up another 95 as I sold my old one to a friend. Both have the same cowl hood! Love that hood.
How's the build coming along? I am planning on doing a wide body this winter as my car needs paint.

Tai-Lun

iTrader: (8)

Nice! Which widebody are you going with?

As for progress, it's been a season of limping the FD around with a dying clutch and no time or space to do what I've been planning. Shows and shoots took over this season it seems, but it's alright as I have at leat been able to drive it around as a daily for a while. At the moment I am cutting up and making modifications to my rear diffuser for some more function and tie into the widebody a bit better. To add to it will be some side plates in front of the rear wheel and behind the front wheels to tie everthin together for when the B2A splitter comes.

FD has to go to the bodyshop soon for some touch ups, the current front bumpe will be getting cutup and two toned making the bottom part black as well as on the hood vents - but that is happening in the winter season.

Some shots from the local Luxury Supercar Weekend show below where I was the only Mazda! Apparently there was something like 200 million in cars there with the one of the Porsche's being worth 45mil alone O.O Highlight for me wa the Singer DLS, Bugatti Chiron, and Carerra GT.







My show mates were a crazy built up R35 and R33


And it was in a shoot for a music video too, no idea the artist....but driving it on wet wood chips was interesting.




Outside the ITB engine plans still, a rear wing when B2A puts one together, some touchups and back to bucket seats (*cough* SBG hurry up!) - next seasons plans are all about seat time.

Venom13132

iTrader: (2)

love the photos. That sounds like an amazing car show.

What is holding you up on the ITB? I think that is a super cool concept. I would look into it but my goal is go to roots style blower to make use of the big hood.

As far as wide body. I think I am going with the ShineAuto Feed style 25mm front fenders. And i am between the pettit rear flares and the Feed rears. I like the rear flares you have but I dont want to move my gas filler even though that really does give it a super clean look!

Tai-Lun

iTrader: (8)

ITB holdup is time and space. If I'm tearing that much of the engine down I will need a decent amount of space to do all the instalation work properly, and if the engine is out then it would be a great time to send the car in to have the bay and jams painted to match since they are still the OEM black. A blower at this point would be way easier and ideal with all the headache involved with ITB's, would be wicked to see a roots setup or even a oem LSA/LS9 blower under the cowl... roots twin scrolls look so cool thogh.

If the engine is out for ITB install, there is a good amount involved to make it worth the pain which is why I'm delayed:
- new oem head gaskets
- install my texas speed cnc ported heads
- all the LS7 lifters/trays
- hardend rods and double springs w/triunion links
- Brian Tooley ITB cam (it won't idle with even a FAST102 intake as it's too agressive)
- Lingenfelter larger valve covers
- LS7 clutch
- and then ITB's which will need cathedral to rectangle port adapters for better flow since I have a LS2

So it's a bit of a project, but I'll be calling it done for a while after that so no big deal. For widebody I'd go full FEED style front an back if I did it again, it's super clean and not too wide that it doesn't make sense. If you go Pettit rears, you may want something more agressive in the front like the Ronin Speedworks front fenders to balane that agressive rear flare and hood.

Building it for track/street/drag/show?

gmonsen

Looks like the Luxury Supercar Weekend was a great event. Car looks great. Love the dual tip exhaust setup. (I use Vibrants as well.) Wasn't sure what you planned with the ITB's. Need to read more of the earlier part of the thread. Love the body and colors, especially the vent behind the front wheels, but the hood bump sort of stands out a bit.

Venom13132

iTrader: (2)

Yeah building for all around fun. Just for me to enjoy basically. It will see a few drag strip days, may see a few road course days. It will get taken to the Tail of the Dragon in Tennessee also!

I think I am just going to go FEED front and rear after looking further. I just installed my wheels and tires last night and now I am in desperate need of Coilovers and wider fenders! My goal for the engine is to do a full LSA swap. Hopefully I can make that happen next year.

Tai-Lun

iTrader: (8)

Thanks! It was a good show and a very different experience from the usual import or tuner shows I've been to with the car. The dual tip setup gets a lot of questions as I am sure yours does, I'm finally adding on some exhaut tips and integration into the diffuser as well so they match the agressive nature of the exterior. I'd like to run the car wingless as long as possible, but I think that bug will win out eventually hehe. For the ITB's, that is the whole point of the hood for me to clear them for some proper reverse cowl induction. If I just stick with a factory like intake, or there is a change in plans, I can go back to a regular vented hood as clearance isn't a problem - but ITB's is the plan still to put the hood to use.

FEED is a great choice! LSA will clear under that hood no problem, you may even be able to run one of the more agressive factory covers like on the new Camaro.

Tai-Lun

iTrader: (8)

Been a while but getting back to working on the car before summer comes around. Right now plagued with clutch issues which is a bit of a headache. The engagement isn't far enough so even with the pedal all the way adjusted with the treads (I have the Wilwood HS clutch MC) there is still some engagement and essentially minor riding of the clutch all the time... it's becoming a bit of a pain and pricey pulling things apart on and off. I'm going to try the fd3s.net clutch adjustment method that Gene first wrote out and see if it helps.

In the meantime, with a few shows coming up it was time to fix some of the body damage from a little while back when someone cut me off and the bumper and fender were damaged. While planning for some custom paintwork was being done, I finished up a new styling of my rear diffuser for something a bit more aggressive to match the new front splitter. With how low the car is and how bad the roads are where I live and work, ABS is what the splitter is made of. It's easy to replace when it gets too damaged, and taking a note from the Global Time Attack cars, in place of rods on the front which bends and damage bodywork if you hit them - I put in some heavier duty struts I had in storage.

Front splitter install, I had to cut up a lot of the bottom of my bumper to clear the mounts. As you can see my bumper is scratched to hell already and raising my coilovers to max height only gave me about half an inch more clearance. I may end up switching the Quantums for something more suitable for the chassis now, I'm finding the spring rate is still too low on my Nova springs currently setup on the Quantums.





Better front shot when it was in for a oil change and to see how bad the clutch situation is. Joined by a NA Miata while I was there, looks like wee baby car but the FD roof is still lower hehe.




At the bodyshop hanging out with R35's, Ferrari's, and Lambo's


The Mercedes wing behind makes it almost look like I have a GT wing, trying to hold off on going that route as long as I can. As cool and functional as it is, I'm really not digging most of the options on the market at the moment for our cars...but neat to see something close. I like some of the chassis mount options, but they also add to what is already a heat magnet in the city I drive in most of the time so no wing might be best for a while still.




^The infamous shitty fender corner to get lined up, especially when you have multiple manufacturers and a 25yr old car that is constantly beat on. Car should be heading into the booth this week, I'm going to be going a more simple direction with the build now as I just want seat time. So my ITB setup is going to be up for sale soon, have another project in mind so simple seat time build on the FD, Venom13132 I think you have the right idea with that hood. Might be time to go to an oem style hood too if I don't do some kind of big intake setup... More updates to come 8)

Tai-Lun

iTrader: (8)

Progress update and some show pics, to start off some pre-show shots from the body shop. It's neat how drastic the change in blue is when there is sun on the car, overcast, or it's indoors like at the show arena. You can see my new hideaway plate that will be handy when I am needing to get more air to the rad, or don't want the disgusting front plate showing. I also had the body shop install new high-quality mesh in all the vents, the same material all the Lamborghinis and Audi's are using.




Arriving at the show in leaky fashion, my clutch lines were all toast and it wasn't until after the show and a big mess that we found the problem.






Oh, and I took home best in show Mazda too.


Next step is trying to find out why one of my headlights is now not turning on, power from the battery and fuses are all good... it is going to be a pain to disassemble the whole thing to see if there is a ground or some other issue. STAY WITH YOUR OEM POPUPS EVERYONE, I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH - I'VE HAD 4 FLUSH LIGHTS, TRUST ME.

Other than that, most of my go fast parts like the ITB's PRC heads, cam etc are going up for sale locally now. I want to focus on seat time, suspension improvement, tire improvement and driver improvement. There is a much larger reason around my departure from doing the ITB's, but that's for another day heh.

Sturneyrx7

What were your wheel sizes in the end?

love this build by the way 👍

Tai-Lun

iTrader: (8)

Thanks!

Front: 18x10.5+10
Rear: 18x12+10

Plan is 265/35 and 305/35 Toyo R888r's next season after suspension change and ride heigh raise by about an inch.

wthx100

Damn thats scary how the wheels look so much like my street vs-kf's

Tai-Lun

iTrader: (8)

I always liked VS-KF's, for an FD and a lot of other cars. They always look way bigger I find than they are too which I like heh.

Some small updates as I have been pretty busy lately (not complaining) with work, and due to the border closure all the parts I ordered are stuck in a warehouse I can't get to for a while it seems. So maintenance and catching up on some things that needed getting done, first thing to bring up is for anyone who is running metal door handle upgrades in a FD. We know the stock ones are plastic, flimsy, suck and break, but they were plastic probably for a reason...

I noticed my driver handle getting sticky, not opening so well sometimes and found no solution on the club or searching for why. Nothing alarming, just a harder pull to open the door sometimes. And then, snap but no other sound to follow when opening my door.

• Your handle will look fine.
• Move freely (no longer sticky).
• The door will not unlock anymore from the outside, but does from the inside.
• Rods and general appearance inside and out will be fine.

What the metal handle does over time (again this is the driver door with nearly 30 years of use) is wear out the hinge inside. It is hard to see unless you pull everything apart, I happen to have a second spare set in storage that I opened up to do a full comparison to find out where the issue is. I have circled it red in the pics below, it is more than bent - it's quite broken, and this isn't a rush to go out and buy a spare set of door handles. Remeber this OEM part lastest almost 30 years, and I think it can be repaired at my machinists shop... when it is open again.



The handle operation lol

On the top is the authenic carbon unit, below is the one with just the carbon overlay. Notice the mesh does not line up well on the overlay unit, and the real carbon one is more "yellow" from the resin and layering process.

talipse297

This is probably in this thread but can't find it anywhere... What cowl hood is that and where can I buy one?

Venom13132

iTrader: (2)

it is a jpezzuti hood that was modified with the vents on either side of the cowl. I have that hood also (without the vents). jpezzuti is no longer active on the forums and from what I have found is no longer making the hoods. He is based out of Florida. I have considered trying to make a mold from my hood but haven't had the time/money to do so.

Tai-Lun

iTrader: (8)

As Venom13132 mentioned they are from JPezzuti who doesn't make them anymore, there was only a handful of them and even fewer with vents. I have been thinking of changing to a different hood, car, whatever... lol. Shoot me a PM and I can see if I can figure out a ballpark on price+shipping it, you'd also need to wait for my replacement hood to arrive so I have a big enough box heh.

If I keep the hood, I will be cutting some big holes as I wan't to change the look and function of the setup.


A more recent picture for some pizazz