Late update!
Been busy with graduation things and finals, but its finally all done!

Slowly disassembling the interior and engine bay. Ordered some POR15 to paint the interior.
Could not open the hatch initially. Crawled through to the latch and unbolted it from the chassis. The latch was rusted frozen. Next step is to drain the tank, and see how rusted out the tank is. Seal and re-install if it needs to be.

Removed the Airpump, main pulley and alternator. Found remains of the rat's nest in the rats nest. I think my next tool investment is a shop vac... hahaha

I tried to crank the engine, but only get clicks. pretty sure the starter is dead, but need to check the voltage to make sure. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...97fd94c34.jpeg
POR15 to the rescue!

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...06c0021c7.jpeg
Somehow my Impact Gun that's been dead for 4+ years revived itself to join in on the project.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...06130110e.jpeg
Interior is coming out, so is the dash.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...780999083.jpeg
Seat sliders are frozen, so had to rip out the seat piece by piece to access the bolt.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...76796e265.jpeg
Rat's nest under the alternator.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...25201f0ab.jpeg
got the hatch open, now to remove the old tiny philips screws on the access cover.....

Now this is a project! I admire you taking this on given the history and am excited to see her come back to life.

I appreciate the sentiment and all, but that thing needs to be pushed back into the jungle from whence it came.

This car needs Jesus

"jesus, take the wheel, like remove it from the column while driving toward a cliff, then bail out of the driver door and tuck and roll"

Wow, quite the project, man! I'll be keeping my eyes on this.

Hey, if you want that authentic childhood feel, let me know--I have a set of sheepskin covers that were on my FD's seats when I got it last year. They're like brand-new. LOL

Hahaha, Thanks for the offer!
I think I'm aiming towards bucket seats at the end of this project. Would love to have an autocross or time attack car that i can drive to the track.

Awesome, definitely following this build. If one of the facebook groups is where you saw new OEM roof skins could still be aquired from Mazda, that was my post, I finished my roof already, if you have any questions when doing it feel free to shoot me a message.

This is the most ambitious FD project I've ever seen. Holy crap man, good luck!

Awesome! I was going to start ordering some supplies to start on the body prep. I will be doing the roof in the next coming few months so I would really appreciate your help on how to smoothly get it done. Right now I'm about the order a seam buster chisel and spot weld cutting bits for the drill.

Sorry for the slow updates, so far I have ripped majority of the carpet out. Some still remaining under the dash. The dash has 1 bolt that's stuck right in the center, under the windshield. going to attempt removing the bolt once the windshield is out when the roof needs to come off.
So far I have just been removing the wiring harness and cleaning all rust and dirt from every surface to ready for the acid etching and POR15. Also determining which areas need to be patched and welded.
Removing insulation on the floorboards to make sure it will be sealed from moisture and air.

I would have to say that the shop vac was one of my best investments in this entire project, just keeps the overall work space and interior clean while removing rust and insulation.

Excited to see your childhood car restored! Shame it was left to rot like that.

OMG... how did i miss the start of this thread! Good luck with this FD. All the blood, sweat, tears and money will all be worth it once it purrs again. I'm sure all of us rotary lovers in the bay would love to help you out!

Sorry for the late update Everyone!
I'm in Japan this and next month visiting family and vacationing! So I won't have any updates til end of July!
some big things are happening in life and relating to the FD so I'm looking forward to it all!

If i was going to restore this, i would strap her to a truck, and drive her up to Oregon:
Metal Dipping | Classic Car Acid Dipping to remove paint &rust

Or find something similar close to you :)

Heh. So Kai is vacationing in Japan for a month. I can only imagine what kind of crazy dieas he's going to come back with for this.

Got back from Japan/Thailand about a week ago. Been cleaning out the garage for this and many other projects to follow.
Just got the engine I will be throwing in that I will be rebuilding in the next coming months.
I'll share some photos of my trip that gave me some ideas for this build!

So I had an amazing trip down to Japan and Thailand. Here's the trip and also some cars that I really drew some inspirations for the project that I will be continuing.

At first we went to the Glion Museum in Osaka. They have a nice selection of cars from around the world. They also sell some of these vehicles as well. I noticed this amazing BRG colored 1st gen for sale (about $8k). https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...f8fcb0f24c.jpg
BRG 1st gen SA @ Glion museum in Osaka

Never knew this color was available. But I've decided to do a similar BRG with the FD after all bodywork is done with the car.
Also noticed this beautiful Cosmo Sport, which was not for sale.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...8e88679aab.jpg

Cosmo Sport @ Glion Museum in Osaka

After Osaka and Kyoto we took a flight to Bangkok. With no planning and pure coincidence the Bankok Autosalon was going on!
It was the day after 7s day and a few vintage RXs were left from the night before. https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...923be2f81c.jpg
@ Bangkok Autosalon

To my surprise RE-Amemiya shipped a REW swapped RX-8 to the Bangkok Auto Salon!!!https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...3b2bd5beed.jpg
RE-Amemiya REW Swapped RX-8 @ Bangkok Autosalon

I saw the RE-Amemiya Booth, and started talking to Ken Amemiya in Japanese. We both met a while back during a couple Seven Stocks ago.
He asked me to come down to the shop next time I'm in Japan.
"Well, I'm flying into Narita Airport Tuesday morning, does that work?"
"Oh, Sure!"
To my surprise, we were on the same flight back to Tokyo from Bangkok. So I caught a ride from the airport to the shop in their CX-3 Diesel Demo Car. https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...4645cf1e04.jpg

RE-Amemiya CX-3 Diesel Demo Car

So I somehow ended up at RE-Amemiya. https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...8190de9bb3.jpg
Re-Amemiya @ Chiba

They were extremely nice and helpful. Had their chief mechanics show me around and answers any questions about any of their cars. Here is this year's D1 car with a 20B Turbo. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...b078db8a32.jpg

2017 D1 RX-7 @ RE-Amemiya

The mechanic even started up the 2017 Tokyo Auto Salon 20B FC for me. hahaha https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...f7a1822e07.jpg
2017 Tokyo Auto Salon FC 20B NA Streetport @ RE-Amemiya

The quality of their race cars and show cars was just jaw dropping. I hope to even come half as close as their quality for my build.
I do have other very exciting developments that were inspired from this trip that I will announce soon! Keep your eyes out!

Holy crap, that's amazing. Congrats! Thanks for all the picks and hard work; it helps keep me going on mine! Very cool that you speak Japanese!!

What an epic project, best of luck with it all! You're so lucky to have visited RE Amemiya!!!

Just ordered my roofskin to delete the sunroof and remove the rust from the leaky sunroof.
I also have a TIG welder on it's way.
Most people recommend MIG for bodywork, but I don't mind taking my time, and I'm considerably better at TIG then MIG (I know backward....).
The welder will also be used to make a roll bar and to reinforce the chassis and sub-frame.
Majority of the work since I've been back is organizing and cleaning the garage. Making room so I can bring the car in and start body work as well as welding. I also have been removing brackets that will be unused in the trunk area. This lets me practice the spot weld cutter on less critical components then the roof.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...e4e9cb3b22.png
Organized garage is a happy garage!

I also spent a few nights making a excel sheet to start recording my engine builds. I used information provided by the FSM and created a sheet which has conditional formatting for the measured inputs. Any input that is incorrect or out of specifications turns red!
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...a5688f919f.png

Omg please upload that file and share! You're a magician I say!

Btw I love this thread.

I'll share it with whoever needs it. It's a Google Sheets file so its accessible from anywhere. Just send me a PM and I'll make a copy and send it to you.
PS. I tried to convert it to a excel file, and the conditional formatting gets all funky...

My new TIG welder came in!
I know some people are going to give me a hard time for not going red or blue (Lincoln or Miller), but after my research I decided to get a Razorweld 200P. Good features at a reasonable price, and also seems more reliable then some of the cheaper mass manufactured machines.
I'll end up doing some patch panels for the wheel wells as well as some of the smaller holes in the floor pans.
My welding mask hasn't come in yet... so I still havn't played with it but im super excited!!
The machine was considerably smaller then I'd imagined... you can see the comparison next to some rotor housings. https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...f830adeb1.jpeg
New TIG welder!!! Razorweld 200P
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...3b111f0d0.jpeg
its so much smaller then any past TIGs I've used.