Just getting started on a new project with my Son. Figured I’d setup the build thread for documentation of our progress. Here’s some before pix of the car I’ve had sitting around for 15 yrs. (I’ll include some backstory for posterity in subsequent posts…)








As you can see, we’ve got our work cut out for us. More to come.

 

Here’s a dup of my first post in the introduction section to keep stuff in the same place:

My RX7 story

When I was 13 (1982) I got a Monogram model of an IMSA Rx7. SA with fat tires, fat fenders, fat wings. I thought - This is the car for me. Small, fast, cool looking. When I grow up, I’m gonna get one of these. When I was 18 I got to drive an ’84 GSL. K8 paint. A buddy I worked with got one. At the time, I was driving a dumpy little V8 Monza (I actually loved that car. V8 sounds. two-wheel peal clutch posi). It was fun. My buddy was telling me how nice this car drove. I tried it out and thought it drove so well. Balanced, nimble, sleek, unpretentious. I remember being so surprised by how great it was. Life went on. Lot’s of adventures. Years passed. I married a girl. Best thing I ever did till kids. Pretty lucky. Time went by and I was finally in a place to afford to waste money on building cars.

I started on an ’87 Omni GLH. Built my first engine; a turbo engine that was easy to make power in. It was super fun. I moved on to building a few cars I had around me, SRT4, Chevy Vega GT, BMW 325ti (Actually a 318ti with a Z3 drivetrain swap), BMW 325i Champ Car. 15 yrs ago I found a weathered GSL-SE with the interior disassembled and half the engine sitting inside it. Bought it for $500. It sat at my buddy’s place on a trailer since then. I had a couple kids. They take so much focus… BUT in the back of my mind sat this Rx7 I’d bought, just sitting up on a trailer like a dirty little secret. If you all are similar to me, you have a weird sorta empathy for cars. Here was a car I’d just left abandoned. I had to figure a way to wedge this project into my schedule to build on it.

This summer I took my 15 yr. old son, Kai, to a car show at our MN State Fair Grounds. As we were walking around I saw a line of Rx7’s so we walked over that way. My son says, ‘These are my favorite cars’. I look over at him. I realized I’d never talked about my secret. I say, ‘Ya know, I actually own one of these’ - He looks at me with shock - *WHAT??* … Well it needs work. Paint, interior, engine, it’s been sitting for 20 yrs. so pretty much every system has to be rebuilt - Brakes, fuel lines, fuel tank, bushings, let alone a complete engine build. I told him if you’re serious and willing to put in the time with me, we can build it together and it’s yours to drive around. Obviously he has no idea what we’re getting into, youthful exuberance. LOL. YES LET’S DO IT!!

So we bring it home to my shop. The mice have really lived in this thing! We ended up pulling the rest of the interior out and started stripping the paint. What gets uncovered is an nearly perfect, rust-free GSL-SE. Guys, I’m like why did I wait this long! This car is incredible! Ok ok to temper that there are a few interior parts missing. We had to toss the mouse pee laden carpet. The interior is going to be tough. We took the engine apart and discovered where the firewall insulation from under the dash went.



This is what it looked like in BOTH housings. No wonder it didn’t turn over! We found another half dozen nests all around the car. Here’s one behind the rear bumper shock in the frame rail.

Mouse house in the frame rail

 

I’ll add more pix of the engine tear-down later. Kai and I did some paint stripping this past week. Here’s some pix of that. Despite this car being a K8 car, it got a really shitty ‘Earl Schibe’ paint job at some point. I think after whoever had it creased the lower half of the driver door. BUT I’m pretty amped to report that the body of the car is in very solid shape. No rust, no significant damage (aside from the driver door). Just a few dents, probably from sitting out in hail storms (regrets).


The crappy paint was extra thick on the hood. We’re using Cooper’s Strip Club - That works REALLY amazing, BTW. I would highly recommend this product:
Metal Stripping

Here’s some pix of it working:






Can’t believe how effective this is.

 

To prepare for spraying primer while working on the bodywork I decided to add an after-cooler to my 60 gal compressor. I got the idea from a YouTube segment about rebuilding a compressor and adding features. The idea is to cool off the compressed air before it expands into the holding tank. The cooled air will contain less water. it took a while but here’s what I did.

I started by getting 50’ of 1/2 OD refrigeration tube in a coil. Started by straightening some lengths to connect to the output on the compressor pump and the input port on the top of the 60 gal holding tank. Here’s a pic of the two tubes. It used to go directly from the compressor pump output into the tank. HOT!!


Then I coiled up the rest tight enough to fit inside a bucket.





At the base of the coil I added a pressure referenced relief valve from Conrader:
Conrader Tankmate Wv-1-Kit Auto Drain Valve,1/4 In. - Like this one:
https://mastertoolrepair.com/drain-v...in-kit-116309/



What this does is tap into the regulator switch reference tube. When the compressor finishes filling it pops and engages the unloader valve. When it’s done hissing there is a pressure change in the reference line and that engages the relief valve to pop open for a sec. SO as the compressed air is cooled down and condensing in the coil, the relief valve opens and expels it into the water in the pail. All that is left is to hook up the two ends of the coil with the compressor pump tube and the tank side tube, and fill the bucket with water.



I wasn’t sure this would work or how well but, guys, this WORKED! It worked really well. Here’s a couple heat readings the temp going in and coming out on it’s way to the tank.




When it was done filling the little valve popped open at the bottom of the pail of water and ejected the condensed water!! Now I’m ready to spray primer without adding moisture through the spray gun. Pretty gratifying project.

 

You're making a lot of progress and that compressor design is awesome! Well done. I replied to your post in my thread, but I'll let you know here as well. If you need any help or any parts, please feel free to reach out. I can always pm you my cell phone number if that's easier. Keep up the great work! Your son will cherish these memories forever!

 

Very cool, loving the story so far, waiting eagerly for more!

 

You have found the magic unicorn! A 40 year old Minnesota car with no rust. It sounds like a fun build. Your son will get an education and have a blast at the same time.

 

This weekend we pulled the rearend out. All of the brake fittings came off with out much trouble. So did all the blots. So great. Here’s a couple pix of the underside and rear wheel wells. Really clean, not sure my pix do it justice.






We got the housing off and pulled the axles to change the bearings and check the differential. I expected there to be more lash. Seems pretty good as is. We’ll paint a pattern to be sure it’s setup right. Get the housing cleaned up and epoxy’d.




Got the front valence stripped off adn found some old damage. Some small dents an a crease along one of the supports.




We used a Hammer and Dolly to smooth the dents a bit and reduce the fill needed.



Here’s a couple prominent dents we got pretty smooth.






Making progress. I figure we’ll dolly out any dents we can get to. The hood unfortunately has very little access to the few small dents, probably from hail over the years. I’ll have before/after pix for those in this upcoming week.