MKYL_FD

I’ve decided to put together a build thread mostly for the sake of having some records for reference for myself before I forget some of the things I’ve done to my own car. This build technically started with my dad when he bought this car around 2010 or 11 (I think) with just below 80k miles. It’s a 1993 touring trim, tan interior, nearly completely stock other than a Greddy exhaust.

Some quick history: My dad was born and raised in Los Angeles and grew up around the car scene there. He has gone through a bunch of cool (though not necessarily nice) cars over the decades, including RX7s, a Landcruiser, a Foxbody mustang and an Evo. He moved to PA around 2000 with his white NA FC, which he ended up selling to a student of his. I grew up on Initial D and riding around in his Evo VIII. Because of this, I always found cars fun and interesting, but I definitely was not any sort of enthusiast, not even until a few months into this project when I finally began to appreciate just how special this car is. My dad decided to sell the Evo before it lost too much value when prices were dropping (if only he knew) which is sad, but soon after he was able to purchase this FD for a fraction of what it is worth today. Side note: this almost ended before it started when FD RX7 prices were at rock bottom years ago, my dad actually tried to sell the car but couldn’t find anyone willing to pay even $5k for it.

As for what sort of condition the car was in at that time, It’s about what you would expect from an example with about 80k miles with a decent amount of cracked interior pieces, some body panels had been resprayed with single stage paint, specifically the hatch and rear bumper, but otherwise the body itself was undamaged. Tachometer did not work (still doesn’t) and no working AC, but still the original 13b-REW and sequential turbos, in perfectly running condition other than the OMP and starter. I was a child at the time so I do not know all the details of what my dad did to the car but according to him it is as follows:

1. Replaced tan seats with OEM black R1 seats
2. Replaced stock ECU with Apexi Power FC & Commander
3. Replaced rear stock coilovers with Bilstein shocks and progressive lowering springs
4. Taped over broken antenna opening
5. Smaller battery

Other parts my dad had acquired but never got around to installing:

1. Black JDM rear seats
2. ARC induction box intake
3. Miscellaneous black replacements for tan trim pieces, such as sun visors, and top center interior light trim. No black door cards or anything though.
4. Front Bilstein shocks and lowering springs.
5. Front and rear strut tower braces.
6. A set of Rota Advan RG-II knock-offs (which were actually originally meant for his Lan Evo VIII)
7. And shine-auto project Feed replica front bumper, 25mm wide front fenders, carbon fiber side skirts, right headlamp cover and fiberglass rear diffuser.
8. Black Intake manifold
9. Fluidyne aluminum radiator.
10. AST
11. An RX8 starter in order to upgrade the stock RX7 one (Lots more on this later)
12. HKS cat-less downpipe
13. HKS Twin-Power spark enhancer

This car was left in the garage to collect dust and rat’s dung by my dad for about a decade for a handful of reasons but ultimately because he had neither the time to work on the car himself nor the funds to fix some of the car’s more serious issues without neglecting his other financial responsibilities; and, by the time my dad was doing well enough for himself to responsibly invest in his project car he had even less time. Then in 2020, a little thing called the Coronavirus Pandemic caused the world to stop. And so on May 31, 2020 (when these pictures were taken), two and a half months after my area was closed down for the pandemic and 21 days after I turned 16, a month before I even had my PA driver’s permit, the FD finally emerged.

With no better way to spend our time, and a promise that if I helped my dad get this car back on the road he would let me drive it during my time in college, we got to work.

MKYL_FD

Honestly, this car needed very little in order to become road legal again, genuinely all it needed at this point was a renewed registration, replace the starter, new front brake pads and tires, and a fresh tank of gas and premix. But through my stupidity it would not be until March of 2022, TWO YEARS LATER that I would actually have this car on the road.

Warning, I make A LOT of mistakes and A LOT of time is wasted. I’m gonna skip over most of them but one mistake in particular, born of frustrating ignorance and lack of reason, was single-handedly responsible for making this go on for a lot longer than it needed to. In the end, the car ended up much better for it, so if you are still interested keep reading cause there’s a happy ending (knock on wood).

We started small with easy-to-install bits, namely we fitted the Arc intake, strut tower bars, and Rota rims.

Other than that though, very little happened with the car in 2020. Honestly, I was very unmotivated at the time, I did not even have license yet, and though I found cars interesting I found the idea of really beginning to dive into the car enthusiast world intimidating. The first year of the pandemic was a generally unproductive time, though I was fortunate enough to hold onto my part-time job so I was able to save up with close to 0 expenses during this time. With my limited understanding of cars, the number of small things that needed attention seemed overly daunting, so I remained in apathy for a long time.

One of the first small projects I took on myself, in mid 2021, was upgrading the starter by putting the RX8 starter motor into the RX7 starter’s housing. Super simple and common job that everyone should do. With some fresh gas and premix we started her up for the first time in a WHILE. Started right up with the upgraded starter but oh no! A weird noise coming from the transmission area. . .

We knew the transmission wasn’t in great shape generally, the fifth gear synchro was bad and we would later learn that 3rd gear was hanging on by a thread. After some forum research attempting to diagnose the strange rattling noise we discerned that replacing the pilot and throw out bearings would likely fix the issue. We decided to install the front shocks and progressive lowering springs and tackled dropping the transmission to replace the bearings and fifth gear synchro later that summer.












We discovered that this transmission had been taken apart before, many aftermarket bearings. We successfully replaced a number of the bearings with oem ones, including the pilot and throw out bearings (you can see in the picture that the old pilot bearing was in fact damaged), and fifth gear synchro, as well as a new exedy clutch and pressure plate. We also installed the HKS catless downpipe when we put the transmission back in the car.



Also some new black floor mats.

Put the car back together and started her up again, but wait! The weird rattling sound from the transmission area is still there. The car drove fine so we decided to get it inspected so we could at least drive it a little to help diagnose the issue.

MKYL_FD

On the way to be inspected for the first time since 2011. By this point, my dad decided to let me keep the car if I could fix it, this allowed him to convince my mom to let him go on the hunt for the last of his dream cars (the Evo, the RX7, and) the Honda S2000. Here are a few pictures of his 2003 Silver AP1–that he ended up finding for a really good price and only 40k miles—alongside the still broken FD.






The car did not pass inspection that fall, this is when we learned that the car had to get new front brake pads and tires, as well as a new registration which had apparently expired in 2019. Winter was just around the corner and by this point we were growing busy again so the car was garaged while we started chipping away at things. We ordered a new registration (which we would not receive until 2 months later because, and I quote, “no one is in the office because its deer hunting season”) as well as new tires and brakes.



Also during this time, I replaced the speakers and replaced the broken head unit with a Sony model, replaced the old headlight and taillight bulbs with LEDs, and—my favorite part—I came across these vinyl cutouts that convert the old taillights to the round 95+ model year ones.







Finally, finals were done with and I was able to spend most of winter break on the car. I dropped the transmission out of the car to try and diagnose the issue a second time. I took the transmission apart more, eliminating as many possibilities as i could, but ultimately decided I had neither the tools, the time, nor the know-how to dig any deeper into the gearbox on my own.

MKYL_FD

After much deliberation I decided to get the transmission replaced or rebuilt. It still worked but I knew it wasn’t in great shape, and I figured that it was the only way to ensure that I eliminated whatever bearing or gear might be causing the rattling noise. After scouring the internet for the best option, I stumbled upon the site for Pettit Racing in Florida. Listed on their website was a blueprinted rebuilt transmission for $2.5k. Not a cheap option but I read a lot of good things about the work done by their shop, and I did have the savings for it.

There is a somewhat humorous anecdote here. The ‘listing’ on the Pettit website was not for a rebuilt transmission they already had but was meant for me to ship my transmission to them to be rebuilt. The website, however, did not make this clear, and let me buy the ‘listed’ transmission. So I did just that. About a week later, I receive a call from Cam at Pettit, apparently he did not realize that the website was set up to let people ‘buy’ from the listing, but since I did he decided to challenge himself and tried to build a transmission himself from parts he had already. Ultimately he was unsuccessful—still pretty cool that he attempted it tho—and told me to ship him my own transmission for him to rebuild, and that it would likely cost me less than what the listing on the website actually charged me initially.

So in January, the transmission was shipped to Florida and I got to work on a couple of other things on the 7.

Over the next month or so—I was also a full-time student and part-time accounting intern at the time—I installed a new AST, replaced all of the brittle rubber vacuum hoses with silicone hoses, replaced all of the solenoids (wasn’t planning on it but the old ones broke as I removed the rubber hoses) and check valves, installed the aluminum Fluidyne radiator, and replaced the upper intake manifold with a black one my dad had acquired at some point. I also replaced an assortment of gaskets for the UIM, throttle body, and exhaust; and, installed new rubber stops for the rear hatch.








It was early March at this point, and we decided it was time to take on the FEED body kit. This was close to the most intimidating part of this build for me, other than dropping the transmission the first time around. I knew very little about fiberglass, or how forgiving or not-so forgiving it could be, and this body kit had been sitting in a not-so insulated shed that I knew got very hot in the summer for nearly a decade. There were a couple hiccups, had to cut out larger holes in the front bumper support for the new front parking lights, and ended up breaking a bit from my tap and die set that is now permanently stuck in one of the lower bolt holes for the front left fender. In the end, however, the fitment was near-perfect, and the whole thing looked immaculate imo.

MKYL_FD

Not long later, I had the flywheeel resurfaced and the transmission returned from Florida. I spent the next day benchpressing it back into the car (half joking), filled it with the break-in fluid provided by Pettit—along with very detailed care instructions—, and started her up praying that the infamous rattling noise would finally be dealt with. IT WAS NOT, at this point we were certain that the transmission was not the issue, but we had no idea what else it could be. In preparation to drop the transmission again to get a better look at everything around it, I removed the starter, and that is when we had our ‘eureka!’ moment. Not something that I would have ever noticed myself, but my dad noticed that the gear in the starter was stuck in the engaged position. Upon disassembling the starter we realized that when I had done the upgrade to the RX8 starter motor I installed the push fork upside down, meaning that whenever the car was running, it was the rattling of the starter teeth against the flywheel that was causing the noise this whole time. We got another new starter (we broke the one I upgraded when we disassembled it completely) and sure enough, no annoying rattling once the car was running.

I was as relieved as I was annoyed. On one hand I essentially convinced myself to spend countless hours and upwards of 3 thousand dollars on things that had nothing to do with the issue I stupidly thought I was addressing, but on the other hand, the anxiety of not knowing what was wrong with the car was over, and not only that the car now had a newly rebuilt transmission, along with a lot of other improvements that I would not have likely set the time aside to address if the car wasn’t stuck in the garage anyways.

The car passed inspection soon after, and was finally on the road in late March of 2022.

Vladee

Awesome start so far with a good story to back it up. 👍

R-R-Rx7

iTrader: (24)

The mistakes you are referring to are very good lessons and whoever wrenches on their car have gone through them. It might initially be a moment of annoyance but this is how experience is gained. Personally i have encountered my fair share of similar issues over the years but once things work out, the satisfaction you get is great.

keep up the good work and continue to post. This is a very interesting thread.

for what its worth, i would have sent that transmission to liberty’s gears instead and for all that money you spent you could have upgraded the transmission, not that you will need it for the current setup

MKYL_FD

Thanks for the words, learning to work on a car like this certainly comes with its fair share of pressure since it is such a special platform, but it is encouraging to hear from someone directly that mistakes are an expected part of the process. And yep, I remember the pure ecstasy I felt when the car started up clean with no weird noises or anything getting in the way of the rotary’s purr.

I will definitely check out Liberty’s gears, I’ve since acquired an RX8 as a daily and that car will likely have a transmission rebuild in its near future, thanks for the recommendation!

MKYL_FD

A couple of things I think are worth mentioning that slipped my mind before: For removing the flywheel I purchased the flywheel nut wrench and stopper as well as the puller tool from Racing Beat. I’m not sure if I can say these tools were worth the price but they undoubtedly made removing the flywheel from the motor still in the car, without an impact, trivially easy. Secondly, I had read a decent bit about the common issue of 5th gear synchros failing as a result of miss-shifts into 5th instead of 3rd; to prevent this I also purchased and installed Banzai’s transmission crossmember.

In addition, by the time the RX7 was on the road I had only practiced driving manual twice, both times in my high school parking lot in my Dad’s S2k.

Speaking of which, even in comparison to the coveted S2000 6-speed, the Pettit rebuilt transmission feels amazing to row through. In combination with the Banzai crossmember, the whole thing feels solid and the shifts are incredibly tactile. Again, I find it hard to justify the cost but I cannot deny that Pettit did some great work for me.
The car felt incredible to drive in every other way too. According to my dad, the catless down pipe and replaced vacuum hoses made a world of difference in mitigating turbo lag. Boost starts coming in around 2500 RPM and at full throttle there is hardly a dip in power as the sequential system does its thing at around 5000 RPM.

One hiccup that took place during this time, I was driving one evening when the car started bogging past 2700 RPM and dying at idle, which left me heel-toeing at every red light as I limped the car home. In the end this was an issue with ignition, and replacing the spark plugs, wires, and finally installing the HKS Twin Power unit left the car running better than ever.

At this point I think it is important to state My mission with this project car: In short OEM++. What I envision for this car is what it might be like if Mazda continued to produce it today. Ultimately, this car is being built for the street as a fun weekend car, I have no intention of this ever being a show car or to ever be pushed to its absolute limits on a dyno or track (except for maybe in a parade lap). This car does not belong behind glass either, it deserves to be driven, seen, and enjoyed; but, it also deserves to be cared for meticulously. From what I’ve seen, many of these cars end up sitting garaged and under covers for 99% of the year, and others end up as rattle-cage beater cars, in either case if my own car ends up in either of these categories, I have failed in my mission.

Concerning the power train, this means to me sticking with the 13B-REW and sequential turbo setup (I already have a set of ‘99 spec turbos and a factory-new motor for when the current ones go), with modest performance upgrades and various reliability mods. Concerning the interior, I intend to convert more of the tan interior to black, with the few black parts I have installed so far I do like the way the black and the tan goes together, finding the right balance between the two will be key.



Now the exterior is my favorite part, and leads right into the next portion of this project. I mentioned it briefly before, but the original paint was not in good shape, a number of panels were repainted at least once—and not well—with a large number of imperfections the car was a solid 15-footer. Especially now that black fiberglass body-kit was on, it was time to give the car new skin.

Deliberating over what color to make the car had been taking place this whole time. As a kid I had always envisioned myself in a blue sports car, specifically a Toyota GT86–I grew up on Initial D after all, and blue is my favorite color—and I loved Mazda’s Blue Mica, especially after stumbling upon lewis_rx7 on instagram who had the same FEED kit as well.


I knew, however, that it would bother me if the car was blue on the outside but red in the engine bay, hatch, and/or door jams. At some point I also stumbled upon Gears & Gasoline on YouTube and their FD RX7 roadtrip series. Ben’s K-swapped—bleh—red RX7 made me realize how good the RX7 could look in a more modern red; and, the decision was finalized when I watched an older review for the Mazda MX-5 RF by TheStraightPipes.


This stunning car was, of course, in Mazda’s Soul Red Crystal. I was astonished not only by how beautiful it was but also by how I had not yet considered Mazda’s own modern red for my car. During this time I also had a professor who owned a Soul Red soft top MX-5 and driving by his car in the sun convinced me even more. ​​​​​​​

MKYL_FD

Now there are a couple issues with this decision. Firstly, with the color itself, many people have reported issues with the clear coat cracking and chipping easily due to the thin layers of paint Mazda uses for such a complex color. This meant to me that I needed to find a shop that I could trust to give a little extra care to the painting and clear-coat process. Additionally, I needed the money. The one shop I talked to (a collision shop that I trusted since they did an amazing job with my brother’s car after a front-end collision) quoted me for at least $7k for the job I was asking for, and that it would likely end up costing even more than that, mostly as expected from a collision shop.



This is where even more strokes of luck come into play. As I mentioned before, my dad is from LA and he still had family over there, namely my uncle who owned a couple of collision shops of his own in the city. He incredibly offered to paint the car for me as a graduation gift. Even then, however, I was unsure about taking him up on his offer because one problem remained: shipping the car to Los Angeles from Philadelphia and back.

The next stroke of luck came in the form of a co-worker of mine whose family is from Georgia (the country). According to her, automobile transport is a common business among Georgians and her dad had his own company. She was able to connect me to his business and that was that.

Well actually not quite, I may have fibbed a little on the phone that the car was not lowered and did not have a lowered front bumper (not great, I know, I was getting restless). As a result, on the day of the pick up the car was too low to get on the truck without ripping half of the fiberglass off the front bumper in the process. In the end, we spent half an hour in a Target parking lot removing the front bumper entirely and sticking it in through the hatch of the car in order to get it on the truck.


My dad and I waiting for the truck to show


By this point we had dealt with these panels so much that it was not difficult to remove the bumper ourselves with no Jack and a very limited number of tools. We had no issues after that though, thankfully they still took the car, and on May 10, 2022, the day of my 18th birthday, the car was off to Los Angeles, where my uncle was waiting to do his thing.

MKYL_FD

In the meantime I continued working (I had an internship with good pay at this point) and was able to set aside a decent bit of income towards acquiring some car parts—and something a little bigger—while I waited.

A quick list of some of the things I acquired during this summer:

1. Carbon Fiber Low Profile Tail Light Spoiler and Carbon Fiber front bumper protectors from Shine Auto Project
2. From the RX7Club marketplace I managed to acquire an OEM Nardi Mazda steering wheel, and black door panels with an unbroken passenger side grab handle (more on this later)
3. From the sakebomb summer sale I also acquired their aluminum insert for the passenger side grab handle, another set of 99spec JDM turn signals—that are black instead of chrome around the bulbs—,a new rug for the rear hatch (I removed the Bose wave sound system, I intend to get it to work eventually but until then the old rug won’t do), and a Weathershield car cover.
4. From DrakeLore I acquired their 3D printed MAP lid and arm rest.
5. New filters for the Arc induction box intake
6. From Mazdatrix aluminum door cups, and new defroster grilles.

There is yet another stroke of luck that resulted in me acquiring the black door panels. I was actually not even looking for them at the time, I was only trying to find a new grab handle plastic trim to replace my broken one when I came across a listing for what I was looking for from @tomsn16 . I hope he does not mind me saying this. When I PM’d him he told me that he had sold the piece I was inquiring about but that he had just gotten a new parts car in and that I was welcome to have first dibs on the trim piece from that car. Out of wishful thinking I asked if perhaps this new parts car of his had black door panels as well. As a result I was able to buy these parts from him with zero hassle before they were even listed.



Some context and a couple of other things I want to mention really quick: the university I attend is not far from where I live, but I decided that for the start of my sophomore year (the fall semester of 2022) that I wanted to live on campus instead of commuting. Along with this are the facts that the RX7 is getting a flashy paint job and did NOT have working locks (I’m working on it I promise), needless to say I was not in love with the idea of living on campus with this as my only vehicle. There is also the fact to consider that my uncle was, as predicted, taking longer with the car than he claimed; so, in august I diverted what remained of the funds I had set aside for the RX7 to search for another vehicle.



This is RX7Club so I wont go into too much detail but I was looking for something cheap, reliable, good mpg, and 3 pedals. I ended up setting my sights on Mazda 2’s I just think they look like a ton of fun and they checked all my boxes. I briefly mentioned it earlier in the thread, but my decision was made for me in a very different direction when I was driving with a homie to the gym and saw this RX8 for sale on the side of the road. Got it for a good price, a healthy recently rebuilt motor, and a mint interior for 140k miles on the body. Some issues but nothing I wasn’t willing to tackle. Admittedly this car only checks two of my four boxes but its a fun daily and no new issues have sprung up since purchasing the car in August (knock on wood).




That’s all I’ll say about that since, again, this is an RX7 forum.

One last quick side note: I’m the kind of person that likes to name my belongings. For the 7 I landed on the name Rory, meaning red, and it also works as an abbreviated form of Rotary, also it’s the name of a character in one of my favorite Sitcoms. I named the RX8 Roxanne, this one does not warrant an explanation.

MKYL_FD

Alright back to the RX7, it wasn’t really until fall had already come around that my uncle was able to make much ground painting the car. I do not have much to say about that process so here is a photo dump instead.


First Photo taken August 15











Last photo taken September 26

Molotovman

iTrader: (49)

Just awesome. I love the story to go along with this build and that you've kept the car in the family as much as possible. The paint looks fantastic and I'm sure you're thrilled to bring it home.

Good choice to upgrade the turbos when you want more power, don't abandon the twins! At this point if I were in your shoes I'd save for a new OEM crate engine and buy one to store when you can afford it because you're in the unfortunate territory for coolant seal failure.

MKYL_FD

Absolutely, I’m very fortunate to have had a family member I could trust with the car, and yeah the time I spent waiting for the car to make the return journey after receiving those pics felt like an eternity.

This is good advice and exactly what I did/plan to do actually. I don’t remember if I mentioned it before but my dad and I decided last year to order a new motor before inflation got too out of hand. Huge shout out to Ray Crowe, by the way, who was an incredible resource throughout this whole thing from helping us get the right parts the first time I dug into the transmission and replaced synchros and bearings to helping us figure out which vacuum solenoids we needed to replace and eventually helping us acquire a factory-new motor to store until its needed.

MKYL_FD

Another quick aside, while the car was away, I also had the pleasure of meeting the owners of these RX7s but getting their contact information completely slipped my mind. If the owners of these cars are on these forums I’d love to be in contact, I don’t personally know anyone else who works on these cars in the area yet.

Warrington Exotics car meet


Also here are some of the pictures I took at the Rotary Spirit event held at New Jersey Motorsports Park in July

MKYL_FD

Once the car was done, shipping it back was its own source of anxiety for me. I used the same company and the man I corresponded with understood now the deal with the car being pretty low, and understood that taking the bumper off would not be an issue to get the car on the truck. The driver who was sent to get the car, however, did not get the memo. Basically took one look at the car, decided it wasn’t worth the trouble, and drove off. Leaving me frantically communicating with my Uncle and truck dispatcher from the opposite end of the country.

Side note: after painting the car my uncle drove it to one of his other shops where it could be picked up and on the way someone stopped him and offered $20k for the car. Too low imo lol, I’m not the kind of person to take 20 grand for granted but the fact remains I have no interest in selling this car for even 5x that. Though it’s always nice when other people appreciate it. Also, looking back, I should have sent my uncle the stock passenger side headlight cover to paint as well. Not a big deal though since I do love the character that the vented FEED cover adds to the car.

It was delayed a few days, but the car did make it onto a truck eventually. My uncle removed both bumpers, he stuck the rear bumper in through the hatch and packaged and shipped the front bumper separately. My uncle was also kind enough to pay the shipping fee for the return journey.


Photo taken in LA on October 6

On October 11, 2023, the car was delivered back to the same Target parking lot it was picked up from earlier that year. After getting it off the truck that evening we spent the next half hour reassembling the rear of the car before driving it home praying that no cop would question my missing front bumper cover. Got the car home without issue, filling up with gas and premix on the way.


First mod, Ralphie the Rotary—a gift from a friend—seated on the dash +20hp





The front bumper was a little bit of a hassle for my uncle to ship, and we would not receive it until two weeks later. Also, at some point during the painting process the plastic bezels for the headlights were misplaced (still haven’t replaced those, plastic is expensive!). In the meantime I finished buttoning up some other plastic trims that were removed when the rear bumper was, replaced the air filters for the intake, and gave the car a proper wash.

When the bumper finally arrived, I skipped classes to install it along with the carbon fiber parts from Shine Auto. And now here is the photo dump:

Check out the painted bay!

estevan62274

iTrader: (32)

Enjoying the thread tons of great work!
That color looks nice too!!

Steve

MKYL_FD

I debated not including this next mistake, since the whole situation ended up being somewhat dangerous and a little embarrassing. I was not directly responsible for this next issue but the whole thing could have been very easily avoided, and I end up misdiagnosing the issue to top it off. Essentially, on a Saturday morning in early November, I was cruising to my destination on some back roads when I started to hear an annoying clunking sound coming from the rear of my car. I stopped as soon as I could and did my best to figure out where the noise was coming from. If I had a little more experience I probably could have determined the source of the noise immediately and could have even fixed it on the spot. I could not see anything wrong visually and my assumption was that the clunking was because the differential bushings were finally completely shot. To make matters worse I had a friend with me at the time and I didn’t want her to think my car was unsafe. The rear of the car always had a slight clunk to it when transitioning from accel to decel at low speed due to worn bushings. This new clunking—though much more constant—sounded similar and I assumed that was the issue; and, decided it didn’t warrant me cancelling my plans and returning home.

Fortunately, we made it to our destination and back ‘safely’ though the clunking got continually worse. My solution was to purchase the differential brace from Banzai Racing. But after installing it the clunking was still there (I also understand now that installing a brace is not necessarily a proper alternative to replacing old bushings). Thankfully after rolling and clunking around a little bit my dad was able to figure out what the actual issue was. It was loose lug nuts on the rear driver-side rim. I was driving around with a passenger with loose lug nuts . I can only assume they weren’t tightened down properly at some point during the painting process. Also I spent $$$ on a part I didn’t need yet—though it was on the list of parts to get.


It does have to be said, however, that the Banzai diff brace is a nice part, super easy to install and the whole car feels more solid without adding an uncomfortable amount of drivetrain vibration. Certainly an overall improvement. Not much more to say about this situation so here is another photo dump.



Thanksgiving Popeye’s run

The ultimate family car



Big car little car



Screen saver

hksgt2835

Great build man! Not that many of us FDs in philly area.

MKYL_FD

I know its a real shame! Though I did meet a man just yesterday who was telling me his buddy in Willow Grove owns a Black FD that he bought new. We’re out there, just not enough imo.

DaleClark

iTrader: (55)

Car looks great, that newer Mazda red is awesome and I haven't seen an FD with that color, that is really stunning!

Do you have some sort of ECU or boost control? With a downpipe and intake and an original engine you are on the edge. Keep it at 10psi and you will be happy, maybe even put a Walbro fuel pump in, that will help a good deal.

And load up your dad and drive down to DGRR end of this month, would love to see it in person

Dale

MKYL_FD

Thanks for the comment Dale! I have to mention, your guide to vacuum hoses was incredibly helpful to me last year. I mentioned it briefly but I do have an Apexi PowerFC in the car, tuned for bolt-ons but still running the normal 10psi of boost. Ive got an Apexi Boost gauge as well to help me monitor it. Upgrading the fuel pump is also high on the list of things to do next on the car.

I would love to make it down for DGRR as well but thats gonna be finals season for me as a student so I wouldn’t count on it this year.

Thanks again

MKYL_FD

Since November I have been a very busy student and intern so progress on the car has been slow though I have been continuing to enjoy the heck out of it on the weekends or on any day with particularly nice weather.

Quick summary of other things I’ve done to the car: repainted the center console, driver-side door trim, and a couple of smaller tan plastic pieces for the passenger side door trim which I did not have black replacements for.





Installed the Apexi Boost gauge, and Megan Racing rear toe arms. Also I put the stock springs back on the front of the car (the front bumper would scrape constantly), and put 20mm spacers on the front to finally fill in the wide body


The color looks nice under shop lights too!


Face reveal from the BeReal

Also just this past week I installed the Nardi steering wheel

MKYL_FD

I think I am basically caught up at this point so one last photo dump before I move forward:



The silhouette never gets old

Don’t look too closely, car needs a was in this pick

Beautiful Easter afternoon


Warrington exotics car meet

GtiKyle

iTrader: (5)

Love your build. I was SO SO SO close to picking Mazda Soul Crystal Red for my repaint. I had seen only one other FD painted in it searching around and it looks so fitting on this car. My wife had a Mazda 3 in that same color and it absolutely glows in the sun, so it was a hard decision knowing just how good it looks. I think you made the right choice.