Hi, names Scott. Ive been trolling around here long enough so now its time to post my build thread. I guess ill start with some of my back story. Im a family guy and work a normal 9-5 kinda job. Ive been working on cars and reading all the car info I could find since I was 16. Well I currently have a 350z that i like but ive always wanted a track car so around christmas last year I started searching craigslist. I found my fd in fayetteville nc. A complete shell and utter wreck. Heres a couple pics of the car the first day I got to go see it. What a disaster but it had good bones, so i struck a deal. Me and a friend literally picked it up and put it on the trailer.





Got the shell for a great price and now I had a project. Here she is when I got her home.




The shell came with a ton of parts. About 15 bins and a complete bodykit. I had none of the lhd components though so i sourced a jdm front clip that came with the rear subframe assembly. Which i also needed and some doors. While waiting for the clip i decided to start prepping the shell and removing the sound deadning.
Some dry ice a hammer and some determination can make fast work.

 

Holy picture size batman!

Good luck with the build, you have a lot of work ahead of you, but it seems like you have a good place to work on her

 

I went and picked up the dry ice. What a pain. Took me a couple days to get it all out.




After i got done with the ice it was time to paint.

 

sorry about the pic size guys. lets just say my car skills far out weigh my computer skills. lol. So at this point the front clip showed up. Its a jdm 94 front clip, doors, rear subframe and a whole lot of other cool stuff. A little back ground info on me. This is about The 3rd car Ive built. Some would say i like to build them more than own em or drive me. Lol. But i have def fallen for the fd.




So it was time to get to work

 

Well it was time to cut up a perfectly good shell. Everyone asks me why rhd. I simply tell em. It was cheaper. lol

 

did I mention that rhd on a fd is a pain in the ***. You have to move every mount and cut pretty much the whole fire wall. I even had to cut out all the mounts for the dash, wiring and heater core setup. Pain

 

So some time had passed and it was time to throw down some paint.

 

The funny thing about this build is I didnt know anything about rotary engines at all except they always blow up and almost bankrupded mazda usa. I guess I just jumped in because I got the shell for a good price and I love the lines.

 

Well now that it was painted. Time to get this party started. First up was the dash install and let me tell you that was fun. Wires galor.

 

Dont ask why hydro. I already ditched it.

 

I went a head and dropped the engine in.

 

At this point i had everything i needed but a fuell tank so i picked up a fuel cell and a warlboro external fuel pump. I had to make the entire rear chassis harness cause the jdm harness was completly different.

 

looking good .. a lot of work , bring it back from the dead

 

Haha I was 2 days late from getting that clip, came with a lot of stuff. Love the project.

 

Looks like you have a great attention to detail.

 

So....

you had a LHD FD, bought a RHD clip and swapped out the firewalls?

I'm assuming you did this because you want to run the dash that came with the shell

You seem to have some pretty good welding skills, why not just make your own dash out of aluminum? That way you could run some pretty hardcore instrument panels and gauges.

 

The stock rhd dash is pretty nice and I wanted to retain all the rhd stuff. I didn't have any of the lhd components when I aquired the shell so it was my cheapest option. Plus I'm trying to make the car into a track car but I still want to retain some resell value. Racecars really only have one type of buyer. But a well prepped full rhd converted shell is really hard to come bye. If I ever even race it. It has all the comforts of a daily driver. Minus the sound deadening.

 

Here's an update photo. Lots of stuff was done like eliminating the abs. I wish I took more pictures but I've never really been into patience or stopping. Usually when I'm working on my car I just zone out and knock whatever I'm doing out. It's only late I wish I took more pictures.

 

I went a head and ordered a short shifter because the stock ones boot was destroyed.

 

I saw in someone else's thread a couple of weeks ago that they were having trouble getting a good low seating position with an aftermarket seat. I'm running a sparco evo 2 with a modified stock seat rail. I decided to cut out the factory railing locations and fab some out of some scrap metal. I also moved the seat over a inch or so for cage door bar clearance.