stevexk

Hey everyone, I have been on this forum for a while now but have never really posted much, more or less lurked for information and sub'd to build threads for inspiration. I owe so much to this forum from the things I have learned to the daily boost of motivation seeing what some of you guys are doing to this timeless car. I truly believe this story is a blessing in disguise and I can't wait to see what unfolds!

I have been wanting to start a build thread for a few months now, as I know I will need some of your guys help and guidance, so here it goes!

I fell in love with the rx7 as a teenager from my obsession with Import tuner magazines, never did I dream I would actually own one. I started saving all of my income working as a stock boy at a Wegmans grocery store, staying late to get extra hours and taking shifts from others. I was in the market for a 350z at the time but after searching for about a year (not much to look at in the PA area that hadn't seen snow), I had excitedly realized I almost had enough to buy an FD! I scoured the forums 3rd gen sale section and craigslist every day for nearly 2 years trying to find "the one" before I got a pm from allrotor93 telling me he had the perfect car. I bought me and my dad a one way plane ticket and off to NC we flew with a check of my entire life savings in hand. Jonathan was waiting for us when we landed and gave us a ride to his house, super good guy. When we pulled up to his house, there she was sitting in the drive way. A beautiful 93 VR with only 35,000 miles on a remaned engine with downpipe, aftermarket clutch, and pfc! I was nervous as hell signing over the 17k check, hands were shaking like a sleep deprived teenager on finals week after slamming a 4 pack of Red Bull. I had finally owned my dream car!








Not being comfortable driving a manual at the time, my dad refused to let me drive it all the way back up to PA. I will never forget the first time I got behind the wheel once we finally got it home. It was a rainy morning as I pulled out of my driveway with my sister strapped in and slammed the pedal in 1st, tires spun instantly as the turbos started to spool and the rear of the car started sliding out from under me, I nearly **** myself! I played it off and continued to cruise at the speed limit for the rest of that ride..

After dropping my life savings and being in college I had negative money...all the plans I originally had to slowly upgrade the car inside and out became what seemed like a fantasy.

Skip ahead 6 years after graduating from Penn State and landing a job down in Florida, I was finally able to build real income again. The first thing on my list was getting a nice set of coil overs and some bigger wheels. Ordered a set of Stance super street coils and some 18" te37 knock offs. Amazing what wheels and lowering a car can do to its overall appearance.








Sketchiest car ride of my life, drove it like this all the way downtown to get the tires mounted..




After 6 years of dreaming about being able to save up enough to finally start modding my car, I was hooked! Every morning before stepping into the office, I would back my car in and stare at her all the way to the door.




The next item on the list happened to be forced earlier than I had expected. One morning my car decided to stop reving past 6k, then 5k and finally 4k rpms, I was too scared to drive it any further without worry of damaging the engine. I was in the parking lot at work on lunch break trying to map every single vac house to no avail before I had it flat bedded to the only shop in Gainesville I would trust with a rotary.





Luckily, it was only a clogged cat, it was time for a straight pipe! Ordered a 3" down/mid pipe combo and finally snagged a new OLED commander for the pfc.



I had the exahust on for a full 20 minutes before my worst nightmare became a reality.

I was on my way home after picking up my car from the shop when an elderly woman pulled out in front of me last minute..

all I could do was slam my brakes as the front of my car tanked the rear end of her car sending it across the street into the curb.







I was devastated...



So much adrenaline I couldn't hold my camera steady..

stevexk

I spent the next few months wrestling with insurance companies and planning out what I was going to do with the car. I promised myself I would be behind the wheel of another FD, I seriously couldn't consider driving anything else. I ended up getting a pretty solid chunk of cash from the insurance claim and bought my car back with a rebuild-able title. I took matters into my own hands and rented out a storage unit to slowly take the car apart.



There is a decent kink in the upper frame rail and the lower frame rail seems to be slightly bent in. I debated parting out the entire car and buying a roller but I just couldn't handle the thought of sending it off to the scrap yard..





Plans are to tube frame the front end after the shock towers, something like this.









Not having the access to all my dads tools back home, I started a collection of my own. I ******* love Harbor Freight!





Ozzie helps sometimes




Bought myself an engine lift


A lot of late nights and even more Yuengling



Finally got the engine out

stevexk

After days of research, I decided to send the engine off to Brian Cain to have him work his magic and give the engine an aggressive Half Bridge. I just talked to Brian last week, the rotating assembly just got back from balancing and the housings are being machined for a dowel and pin job.






I would rather pull the engine 4 times than ever mess with this wiring harness again..



I have wanted a Nardi steering wheel since the day I got my car, finally pulled the trigger on one. I might move the pedals forward because of how much further the steering wheel sits now with the quick release..





This is how the car looks right now, my neighbor is going to let me borrow his truck this week so I can tow the car to a collision center and have the frame rails straightened.



I just got my manual tubing bender in the mail today now I need to get my hands on a welder!
WFB2 - Buy Manual Tube & Pipe Bender by Woodward Fab



I have been talking to Howard Coleman about turbo selection and I am pretty sure I'm going with a Borg Warner sxe362 and plan on getting his turbo manifold, that thing is sick. Howard's knowledge is inspiring!


Playing around with my tail lights in the meantime, I plan on making them programmable. Time to brush up on my electronics.




This is what I'm going for



Things left:
- fuel set up
- battery relocation to bin
- new oil coolers
- AI set up
- turbo and manifold
- custom exhaust
- wire tuck
- v mount
- electric water pump??
- motor mounts
- clean all suspension components and replace bushings
- tube frame
- decide on body kit

Dons03FD

nice progress

stevexk

Few pretty gnarly updates on the engine and frame.

Just got my engine back last week from Brian Cain and f**k this thing is clean, can't wait to brap all the braps. I told him to make it loud and as obnoxious as possible, peep this thing! Aggressive half bridge, 3 dowel pins, and some oil channel smoothing

stevexk

Took my car to a local frame shop here in Gainesville, was really skeptical about how much he could bend the frame back to its factory location, boy was i surprised.

This is before







After












This is a read out from his laser frame analyzer, the numbers are how far off in mm those points are in the direction of the arrow, **** was bad




This is after, feelsgoodman

Don't think I will have to tube frame anymore, still planning on making a bash bar though.



Put the engine in the trunk of my Jetta to transport it to the garage





Wasn't my brightest idea, fly wheel got me pretty good..

stevexk

Started painting the engine this week, going for gold and black themed engine bay.



Tested hand painting the top of the irons but the engine paint is so runny it would have been way more work to deal with than masking the whole thing.



Over 2 hours later of masking...such a meditative process, I totally zoned out a few times



Turned out pretty damn good





Masked the front cover, going to paint the nuts black



This is how it sits now, time for the black this weekend

Was curious how the paint would react to the masking tape, so i tried a few pieces on less visible portions of the engine...gold came off it chunks. After a few glasses of wine I came up with a solution, VASELINE!

Going to use vaseline and aluminum foil over the gold bits, we will see how it goes this weekend.

Also started removing all my suspension components so I can hit them with sandblast, git em with some gold, and replace all the bushings/pillow *****. Made a list of the bushings i need to order tonight, going to order Megan Racing adjustable lower camber arms too. I haven't seen the best reviews on their products, but I know aaron parker uses them and he drives the f*** out of the wolf.





My dumb *** got impatient using my harbor freight tool that pushes stuff out of super tight holes and made a 180 dollhair mistake...new lower right arm should be here in a few days



So removing the rear hubs also took part of the wheel bearing with it, are these reusable or will I have to order a new set? These only have 100 miles on them..

Speed of light

iTrader: (8)

You can put those wheel bearings back together--I have done it, and it worked fine. Keep it as clean as possible and pay attention to details. You may need to use a press IIRC. (I recall having to make some tooling--mandrels/sleeves, not sure if that was for the rear though.) Also be sure the seal is intact and installed correctly. In any event, it is doable. Good luck.

quichedem

iTrader: (4)

I would get new wheel bearings in your case. It looks like your budget would allow it. I got Timkens and had a local shop do the press, removal, and new press-in. They also torched out my old axle and pressed new wheel studs in. All for under $200. YMMV, but I couldn't imagine you'd pay too much more than that with some homework.

Brettus

Awesome thread man .... keep it up !

fd3CB

iTrader: (10)

Nice progress, can't wait to see the final outcome of this. I too had a situation just like yours when an elderly man decided to cut me off in my first FD. My car didn't sustain any frame damage like yours but I feel your pain. Good luck with the build!

moderu

iTrader: (6)

Way to save her. Awesome!

Johnny Kommavongsa

iTrader: (13)

nice, cant wait to hear this bad boy

LO7

iTrader: (2)

Nice title- hah. I look foreward to seeing the tubeframe take shape, and the knock-off TE's fit very well; nice concavity.

silverTRD

iTrader: (37)

Way to stick with her bro, that before pic of the frame pic probably would have scared me off. Keep it up.

stevexk

Thanks for the positive vibes bros, got some updates for yall!





My old man came in clutch and bought me a much needed early Christmas present, no more overflowing duffle bag full of tools to fish through



On our way to the shop like



I was super pumped to try a press-less approach to bushing removal until I actually tried, those 23 year old bushing weren't going any where, broke 2 bolts and said f**k it..



So I got this bushing removal tool which made things much easier but damn I had to have me and a buddy stand on the arm while i cranked the ratchet with a 4 ft pipe on the end, so much force it bent the clamp...look at that twist tho.



Anyone ever see this happen? Pushed the rubber centers right through on both sides...had to get a saw and carefully cut the outer metal part of the bushing off and pry it out.

Removed the dust caps from the pillow ***** and was about to push them out when I noticed they seemed to be in good condition so I might hold off on those for now.



Arbitrary tube bender shot because I forgot to add it earlier.



Bought a puller to get the bearing ends off the hub. Worked perfectly for the first one, second one was a different story..slipped off the bearing lip and ruined the edge of the puller causing it to slip every time.



Ended up buying a 6 ton press and a wheel bearing puller to get the job done



Threw the steering knuckles in the press to remove the other half of the bearings and then pushed the bearings back together.



My boi got a sand blasting cabinet so I could clean some parts



Before..



Picture for contrast, ready fo some gold!

stevexk

Made a paint booth to hang parts off of, scribbled out spoiler shot



Got the new control arm in, time to throw it in the booth with its brother and smother it in gold







Starting to get the rest of the front end apart to clean and paint EVERYTHING. While removing the steering rack the nuts were torqued on so tight they bent the brackets when taking them off...ordered a new pair.



Did some hand cleaning to the steering rack, master cylinder, and wiper motor before hitting it with some paint



I realize now this is a horrible pic but it was a quick shot before heading home for the night.



Moving on to the engine, I took a crack at my vasoline idea. Made straight edge strips with aluminum foil and coated it in that sticky icky to block off the edges





Covered the rest with larger pieces of foil and 'glued' them to the strips.



I was skeptical yet hopeful to see if this would really work how I envisioned it

stevexk

Finished product







There were a few areas where some black paint got through that I gently swabbed off with acetone trying to protect the gold. There are a couple rough areas that I might decide to go touch up a bit later but I'm happy with the outcome

Barry_Beef

Engine looks good mate ! Good luck with the rest

stevexk

Thanks mate!

Been doing big things with some custom taillights I have been working on, here is a teaser

mr rxeven

iTrader: (1)

That looks great. Whats the name of the white stuff you used.

LO7

iTrader: (2)

Interesting tails! Will you be filling in the lens valley's with black perimeters? Leaving the lenses white/clear, or going with a translucent candy red?

stevexk

It's a 0.06 inch thick sheet of Acrylic I vac formed over a buck I made from bondo.







Yep, everything inside the light housing will be black except the acrylic lens themselves. The tricky part I am working out atm is figuring out how to mount the white lens to the back plate. My plan is to cut their shapes out and protrude them from the back. Once I have that I can make resin molds and piece everything together to make multiple sets with different color combinations.

For phase one I will use the translucent white acrylic with red and amber LED's behind and see how it looks, planning on trying translucent red and amber sheets down the road.

mr rxeven

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the info, got to be the best tail lights i have seen so far, I have love that shape ever since i seen it photo shopped on this forum.
how do you not get hot spots with the led in your youtube clip.
Thanks Ian.

stevexk

Thanks man, these have taken months to get to this point but they are finally taking shape.

Take all videos you see of LED's with a grain of salt, as videos tend to hide hot spotting, but these actually diffuse VERY well, in that video I was using the clear acrylic lens filled with hot glue which is what diffused them so well. And also because I'm using a ton of LED's with no space in between each one, I did a test behind just the white and the results were very similar. Currently wiring up the bigger brake lens so I should have a video update this weekend for ya.





Snap of the clear acrylic filled with hot glue, I'm using 45 LED's shifted across 37 bits