Hey I been studying up on composite also. I'm pretty positive that you can pull a 1 piece mold off that, from the front side. But, that is a really ballsy first composite project. You're going to need a really strong mold, so don't skip on layers. And, there's a lot of ground to cover, so your layups are gonna have to be spot on. And, you're gonna have to move pretty quick on such a large part so it all dries at once.

I'm pretty sure they used pre-preg and oven curing on those at the factory, and it's gonna be hard to replicate that at home, even for a pro.

Consider other large replica factories that strictly do similar stuff, and how much guff they still get for making knockoff quality. Angry Panda Factory tried to make replicas of these shells and got lambasted for inferior quality.

In for progress, and god speed. Cool project.

 

I think there are a few small areas that stops you from doing a one-piece mold. One being the indent for the seat belt and the base, and the other the lip at the front of the seat.
Another "bonus" when doing the mold in several pieces is that i don't need to rush with large sheets of fiberglass and i get a limited work surface. Currently, a 4-piece mold per seat looks like a doable task.

Im not sure what is used to be honest. Some areas look like the matte prepreg type, and then other areas seem to have a ticker layer of resin suggesting a vacuum infusion.
I will be using the later, and make sure i have a high quality UV resistant epoxy. The OEM one have not held up and is pretty yellowed, even brown in places.

I am not sure why that is to be honest. Maybe it is a "good enough" type thing, where they need to get the price down to where its someone who buys it. I can spend 3 days getting the layup perfect before infusion, while they need so smack out several per day.

Thanks! It will be slow, but steady

 

Hi there, were you ever able to solve your drivetrain slop issues?

 

No not yet, but i have a box full of new bushings for the entire car, and i will do the engine/Diff mounts as well. Im leaning towards competition engine and diff mounts, so it will be a bit stiffer than stock, but not horrible.

 

Rarely used the car the last few years. Maybe 1000 miles in total since pre covid. (mostly due to small kids).
But this year i managed to get both FPSpec Öhlins and new wheels installed, and i enjoy using it again.
I have a lot of things i want to get sorted out, but i have to finish my Miata V6 project first to free up some garage space for working on this

Imagedump:

 

This looks so good, great picture and wheel choice!

 

Thanks again It is one of the best angle for the FD in my opinion. The wing makes the rear look taller, you get the nice flowing roofline, and also the wide fender to fender line
The only place it fails is with the front lip where it looks a bit strange!

 

The first few pictures of those wheels I wasn't too sure about (not my personal taste), but when you see the wheels with the whole body of the car, it looks like it just fits and looks great. Car is looking good and I'm glad you are getting to enjoy driving it again, it looks like you may have some fun roads to drive on out there, most of my local roads are just straight and no fun. Totally worth putting family and kids first while hanging on to this thing.

 

15 years ago i saw an MR2 with the Nismo LMGT2 wheels, and i thought that was some very nice looking wheels. 10 years later i saw a post on Instagram of a set of Desmond Koening wheels built by Sensei6, and they reminded me so much about the Nismo wheels, but slightly "better" in my mind.
I think it was in 2022 i found the first set of them on Yahoo.jp and i got that for about 110.000JPY (750USD) for four rims. Got them home and tested them on the car, and found out that i needed "low disks" on all wheels (i had two low and two high). I asked around for advice on options of welding and machining the high disks but was told to find another set of lows.
Then another set came up on yahoo march of this year for 80.000JPY (550USD) and i snatched them up. Both Jesse Streeter who imported the first 4 and Buyee which sorted the last two did great. I highly recommend Jesse, and only used Buyee since i found the rims on a friday, and the auction would end in the weekend. Jesse needs some time to turn around for auctions, while Buyee is 100% automated.

So with 4 sets of low disks, i purchased new center caps, gel caps, stickers and the rest of the parts needed for a 18" conversion from Sensei6. They shipped what they had in stock pretty fast, and the barrels and lips took 7 weeks from payment to shipping since they had to make them (i guess).

Initially when putting them on the car i was very unsure if i liked them, if they fit and if it was the correct style etc. I had not seen any pictures of them on an FD except one car with super wide lips and super low.
But the last week since i installed them they have grown on me a lot, and i think they look pretty good. (or its just my brain working in overdrive trying to justify the price).
I am still not happy with tire fitment tho, so i will have to experiment with that. The fronts are OK, but i think maybe up from 245 to 255 on the 8.5" would do the trick. In the rear it is 255 on 9.5" and its to stretched for my taste. So that will be swapped with either 265 or 275 depending on what i can find and what they cost.

There are a lot of fun back roads here where the FD really shines, and this was the first trip in 7 years with the wife in the passenger seat. With kids old enough for my brothers to babysit we can both enjoy some late night summer drives

 

Nothing like cruising on the backroads with the wife.

 

Found some headlights i got back in 2019, and put them in. These are the ones AZieger made back in the day, and i managed to get one of the very few sets he completed.

No pics of the actual lights yet since the garage was to dark for pictures 😅 will get some more soon.

 

Some friends and myself host a japanese car meetup every august, and this year we where blessed with 8°C and periodic rain. But even if the weather was against us there was 120 cars that showed up.

I dis get some pics of the new headlights, and i think it looks like frog with the lenses. But so much better light in the evenings!






I also had a friend take this pic, and noe its my new phone background 🤩