I picked up this clean CYM from a member here on the forum. He is in Montreal and starting a new chapter in his life. This gave me the opportunity to get a real nice car from a meticulous long time adult FD owner.

Thanks for selling me a nice car Max! Best wishes to you and your growing family. This is a small community and we all seem to eventually cross paths.

Some of you may already know me but for those who do not... My name is Mike and I currently reside in South Jersey about 20mins east of Philadelphia. I bought my first FD in 1999 from a guy in Alabama. I owned that car for about 4+ years and did one of the first GT35R A spec single turbo kits. My friend Chris and I spent thousands of hours working on the car but had a bad run of luck with a couple different shops going thru several engines and rebuilds.

I was in the process of having a 3rd shop build me a motor and I took a job in NJ and realized I wouldn't have a garage where I was moving. Having so much bad luck and now no place to store the car safely or work on it I got an offer from my friend Chris to buy the car. I gave him a killer deal and a new reman motor and he bought it with plans to do an epic 20B build. That's a whole other story entirely.


So after being away for about 8 years I bought an LS3 swapped FD. The car was a high mile chassis car and was owned by a young guy who didn't really represent the car accurately. I poured money into that car to the tune of about $50k and it still needed paint/body work and probably a few other things to make it as perfect as I wanted it.

I sold it to someone who knew what condition it was in and what it needed still. I know he will pick up where I left off and make it as nice as I would have liked to do. That car now resides in Virginia in very good hands.

A year or more later and I had the itch again and I had some criteria that the car had to meet.

First I wanted a car without a sunroof. I have tracked all my cars and both my previous FD's had sunroofs. In my opinion, this car never should have come with a sunroof. The headroom comes at a premium in these cars and even short guys wearing helmets hit their heads. If you do t agree just look at how many people are trying to find ways to lower their seats for more headroom. Non sunroof cars have about an inch or more of additional headroom.

Secondly the car had to be super clean inside and out. No high mile beat cars with faded paint owned by idiots putting wheels and tires that don't fit that tear up the fenders and fender liners creating thousands in bodywork and paint issues.

Color preferences were CW but CYM came into the equation and it's exactly what I ended up with. Finding a CW car without a sunroof was going to be a chore. Particularly with my requirements.

What are my plans with the car?

Well the car already came with a GT35R A-Spec single turbo kit. So it's mostly modded the way I would have done it for the most part.
I haven't had time or opportunity to really drive the car while waiting on tags but here is a list of things I have planned.

1. Update the Large stock (ugly) steering wheel
2. Add water Injection and get retuned
3. Replace the shifter with a stock unit
4. Swap the brakes and brake master to a BBK
5. Swap out the Catback exhaust
6. Replace the Antenna with a Halfspec Engineering Unit
7. Fix some small cosmetic issues along the way and do various other upgrades (stay tuned)

Here is a photo of the car. Already has nice Work wheels on it.

 

Very happy to see you back in an FD Mike! This one looks so clean too!

 

Love it!

Have fun

 

Very nice, looks just like your old one except this one is yellow.

 

Damn that's a good looking CYM! Congrats on the purchase!

Can you give me more info on: "Replace the Antenna with a Halfspec Engineering Unit"? I did a google search and couldn't find much...

 

First off, congrats again on the purchase Mike. Your photos are magnificent as always but for some reason I'm thinking this thing is even more impressive in person


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I've got an engineering thread on norotors under the general section that has recently focused on the antenna conversion around page 4. That's where you can find the latest if you're curious. Sorry to be so cryptic. I'm really not sure what the rules are here for sending folks that way and I didn't want to put a bunch of links/pics in Mike's thread to detail from his most excellent build thread.
The brass tax is that I'll most likely be bringing a GB over here after the initial test-run on norotors.

Lane

 

Thanks Lane, you have been a big help to the RX-7 community as a whole and I can't wait to get one of those custom S2000 inspired antenna's installed.

For those that don't know "Halfspec". He is an electrical engineer and an RX-7 owner. He does a lot of custom electronics and electrics to help the RX-7 community to troubleshoot and refine these cars to a more modern standard or just work out problems and build equipment for various types of retrofits.

As soon as I get one of his kits I will document the install here and do a review for those who may want a kit of their own.

I finished installing the steering wheel last night out of a Mazdaspeed Miata and will be posting the photos tonight.

 

Thanks Halfspec! I'll check it out.

Looking forward to it!

 

So you want to update your factory FD3S steering wheel…

I am not the first do this; it’s been done before and documented on this site by the likes of GoodfellasFD3S (Rich) and Howard Coleman among others so you may have seen some of this before.
My last FD; I bought a Spirit-R steering wheel from rx7boutique (purerx7). The Spirit R was a beautiful steering wheel. It’s very expensive and rare if you can find one. I loved the wheel but wasn’t in love with the price. Those wheels can be as high as $850.
I looked around at other aftermarket and kept coming back to that wheel. I eventually found that an almost identical wheel can be used from a 2005-2006 Mazda speed Miata. A little extra modification is required. It doesn’t have the Nardi logo but looks identical in almost every other way and it fits!

Before we start. Disconnect the Battery...

Ok so the modifications to the Miata steering wheel…
My FD has a clock spring at 12 and 6 o’clock on the stock wheel. The Miata is at 3 and 9 o’clock. Why does that matter? Well the signals are canceled using plastic nubs on the clock spring that fit in these holes on the steering wheel.

We all know what the stock FD Steering wheel looks like so I won’t both posting a pic of it on the car.

Airbag off on stock steering wheel. There are rubber grommets you can remove to expose the (3)10mm bolts holding the bag to the wheel. Once disconnected it looks like this.
The nut holding the wheel on is 21mm. I got it off with a 7/8 standard. Don't be like me.
When you use that same but to mount the new wheel you will use 25-36 ft lbs for your torque.



Stock Wheel is off and there is the clock spring.


The clock spring matches up with the holes on the back of the stock wheel seen here.


Back of Miata wheel.


Back of Miata wheel after Surgery for clock spring figment.


Hmm.. What about the cruise control from the old wheel?



Miata wheel



Will this fit on the new wheel? Well...



Only 2 bolts to put the airbag on the Miata wheel.
It's all torqued down and wires soldered for the horn and airbag. Now let's connect the battery and see if the airbag explodes.
Yes Rich.. It's like diffusing a bomb...


All went well. The cruise control can be added with a custom made bracket without a doubt. Will also need to cut out a bit of the back side of the wheel trim to accommodate it. I suggest making a template and doing plenty of measuring before cutting.

 

Wow! I'm the old owner who just sold this beauty to Mike. I'm proud to read these good comments on the car. I tried my best to take care of this car the way it should.

Good luck with your projects on the car Mike. I'm glad to see you consider the car the same way I considered it.

Max

 

Next on the list is to return the car to a stock shifter. Ultimately I will try going back to a stock shifter. The B&M shifter in the car right now is very short. Maybe the shortest of any shifter I've had. Seeing that my wife will drive the car I will want to make this easier for everyone. If I don't end up liking the stock shifter I may try something in between.

I had a C's shifter in my first FD. That shifter is still in that car afaik. It was sold to my friend Chris Carlisi who did a 20B swap but left the stock FD trans in the car.
Ray Crowe of Malloy Mazda owns that car now. C's shifters are like hens teeth now. So here we go.

I sourced these parts from all over the place. I got the tower from Ihor at IRP, the Stick I got from my friend Cody in Detroit. He actually gave it to me in exchange for drugs.
No that's not true just because he is from Detroit. Thanks Cody 🍻 👍

The plan has always been to refresh the stock shifter so I bought a rebuild kit from Petitt racing. Comes with a new boot, new bushings, spring and sound/heat deadening pad.
That was $71 shipped. There are aluminum bushings available that don't wear quite like the factory parts but I just went with stock everything. I was missing just the hardware to bolt it in so I called Ray at Malloy Mazda and got the bolts. I also bought a 929 Brake Master Cyl so add that to the list of things I will document.

My loving wife hasn't said one thing about me using the dining room table to rebuild the shifter. I think I will take it outside for when I spray down the moving parts with white lithium grease though.

 

Isn't this guy supposed to be known for taking pictures, yet there's only 1 exterior photo up.

 

Can we have pictures that aren't over processed? It's a clean car to start with and well taken care of. Will be keeping an eye out during the process

 

Here is an iPhone shot I took just after buying the car and heading back to NJ. From what I understand the car was originally purchased from a dealer in Toronto.

 

I ordered parts from Ray after lunch yesterday. They arrived today. He must deliver these parts in the 3 rotor.
Also got my case of Premix from Mazda Trix. If you know where to get it cheaper let me know. Was $99 a case shipped.
The car came with some 2 stroke oil. I honestly don't know enough about premixing to know better one way or another. The cars OMP is disconnected.

Hardware for the shifter arrived, I started assembling that.


IDEMITSU SYNTHETIC PREMIX FROM MAZDATRIX


While on the phone with Ray I ordered a Mazda 929 Brake Master cyl.
This is a common upgrade for the FD brake hydraulics. It pushes more fluid and gives a firm pedal.
I've done this a few times before. I really like using pressure on the pedal for brake force vs pedal travel.
It also sets me up for the BBK in the future. It's a reman part. Mazda doesn't make any new ones. Actually they do but you have to have a Mazda Motorsport account to buy one. New they are $212 if you have an account. $126 for a reman from Ray at Malloy.


And for you photo ****** who only come for the photos.

 

Glad to see you back in a (rotary) FD Mike

Can't wait to see this sucker. CYM photoshoot ?

 

FYI, Chips Motorsports sells a modified 929 MC that connects to the existing brake lines. It's $200, but i'd rather pay the extra $75 than deal with forming new brake line.

Master Cylinders - chipsmotorsports

Great write up on the steering wheel conversion BTW. That's my next chore

 

Great find. It doesnt get any easier than a plug and play Brake Master Cyl like that one. I like it!
Most time consuming thing is just bleeding everything after.
Thanks for sharing!

 

you should go 99 abs , it way better then the 93-94

 

Looks great Mike - best of luck with it!

 

Thanks Rick, I appreciate your support. If you ever run down at New Jersey Motorsports Park let me know before hand. I will bring my camera.

Mike

 

This car is beautiful with very tasteful modifications! I upgraded to the 929 cylinder when I converted to non ABS and I love the pedal feel. Cheap upgrade that is well worth it!

 

Looks great Mike! Makes me want another FD....

 

Thanks Matt, thanks for the help with the import info. I'm still waiting on the paperwork from NJ so I can get the tags. Any day now, everything has been submitted.
Don't forget to come to cars and coffee on Saturday mornings in Mount Laurel. We have a great turn out and some nice cars show up. 👍
https://www.facebook.com/HighOctaneSouthJersey

 

Any exterior mods in the plans?