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79 resto-mod
Hi! I'm Dave. So, as many of you know, I acquired an 84 GS last year. Long story short, rotted out floors and trailing arm mounts necessitated structural repair. I looked around, and found a 79 shell that had been restored years ago a few states away on Craig's. Drove through Chicago getting there, almost lost the car, good times.
Here's my plan. I'll post pics as I move along. 79 shell 84 GS front clip and bumpers 84 doors with aftermarket mirrors and no power options 84 seats, console and grey carpet 79 dash(almost have all of it) 79 manual trans(bought from an awesome dude out in the middle of the state) 84 12a motor (planning rebuild and street port) Aftermarket clutch assy Racing beat intake and custom carb 2 into 2 exhaust.... not sure what else yet 13b water and oil pump Larger oil cooler Aftermarket sunroof. Necessary due to current sunroof (it is aftermarket, and glass did not come with the car) I hope to keep y'all updated as I move along with my plan. I'm currently stripping the 84 to make garage space and test fitting some of the parts to the 79. https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...3eab1f9d9b.jpg |
Originally Posted by Lucky777
(Post 12001129)
Here's my plan. I'll post pics as I move along.
79 shell 84 GS front clip and bumpers 84 doors with aftermarket mirrors and no power options I'm currently stripping the 84 to make garage space and test fitting some of the parts to the 79. |
Originally Posted by woodmv
(Post 12002261)
Curious why you're putting the 84 clip and doors on the 79?
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More progress. Motor removed from the 84 parts car, 79 is in the garage.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...c3c725ca8c.jpg Motor fits in a wheel dolly https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...6dc884d1a2.jpg Not much left of the old 84 https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...9b286770e8.jpg |
Little side note here on door panels. I love the checkered 84 interior. The only not salvageable part of the checkered interior was the leather on the door panels. Here's my solution.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...158131fd1a.jpg Ugly cracked leather https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...94716461f7.jpg Peeled back the leather and padding and wire wheeled the metal down. https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...13f0144698.jpg Primed and painted https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...20a930439c.jpg Almost done. I bought a trim strip online to go between the fabric and metal to cover the staples. |
Nice project, that 84'er is a little bit rusty, but It HAZ MONEYZ :p was it a airco and power steered car?
And what is a 2 in 2 exhaust? |
Originally Posted by damic
(Post 12006032)
Nice project, that 84'er is a little bit rusty, but It HAZ MONEYZ :p was it a airco and power steered car?
And what is a 2 in 2 exhaust? Thanks. I've read your build thread as well, nice to see other guys keeping the 1st gens alive. The 84 had air, cruise, automatic, but was not power steering. And yeah, the 84 part out has paid for itself. 2 into 2... Perhaps it's a 2 into 1? Right before the muffler it's still 2 separate pipes, but maybe I had the phrasing wrong. |
Also, another forum member helped me make sense of the counterweight requirements of the motor. Lucky for me, it's from an automatic. I'm going to run a Racing Beat 74-82 lightweight steel flywheel, auto counterweight, 79 starter in almost new shape that I was lucky enough to acquire, and aftermarket clutch.
And here's a pic of the door panels, now complete. https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...a66e948248.jpg https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...7bb9fc7d3c.jpg |
Very nice! Good job.
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Originally Posted by Lucky777
(Post 12006604)
Thanks. I've read your build thread as well, nice to see other guys keeping the 1st gens alive. The 84 had air, cruise, automatic, but was not power steering. And yeah, the 84 part out has paid for itself.
2 into 2... Perhaps it's a 2 into 1? Right before the muffler it's still 2 separate pipes, but maybe I had the phrasing wrong. |
The 84 is pretty well picked over now. My 79 is becoming more complete. I've got the air dam off the GS fitted up now, got the dash almost done, started stripping the motor down, and I've got a lot more parts organised now.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...912e78b0f5.jpg So that's the dash, I have a roll of high density padding and a new vinyl dash top, but it's been too cold to fit it up. https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...8f527548b8.jpg All the lights work now too, after isolating some wiring issues. https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...9a7a086661.jpg Converted the chassis wiring to plug and play with the 84 electronic distributor. Thanks to help from people here. https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...b209962942.jpg The 84 front end is beat up, but I like it. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...59f7371c76.jpg Starting to strip the motor also. I've got a s4 water pump assembly I'm looking at fitting up. I want to have the motor ported long term, but I wanted to set it up with the accessories I wanted first. Thanks for the help so far y'all. I appreciate it. |
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