Glazedham42

iTrader: (4)

Well gents, I've finally made it back to 1st gen land after 6 months of searching for the right car, and about a year of absence from the Rx7 Club! This is going to serve as the official build thread for my new project! But before I get to that, where have I been? Well, the truth is I spent some time screwing around with a 1991 Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo, a 1973 VW standard Beetle, and a Yamaha QT50 moped. I traded Rosie, my 1983 Rx-7 GS, for the 300ZX TT. Sold the 300ZX TT and bought the Beetle and the moped. Sold the Beetle and the moped and decided to save up for another low mile project car. It was then that I realized that I missed the Rx-7 more than anything.

I have always wanted a low mile 1st gen, but the opportunity to buy one never really presented itself. So, I decided that now was the time. I have been saving my pennies for about 6-8 months. After much searching, I started to wonder if I had waited too long. It seemed like all the low mile Rx-7s had pretty much disappeared. I was about to give up hope, but low and behold the perfect car showed up. It is with great pleasure that I present "Gus" a 1985 Rx-7 GS with 80,500 miles, in beautiful Sunrise Red.

I have many plans for Gus, and will update this thread as the work progresses. My initial build sheet is attached below, if you want to see what I have in store for the car over the coming months. The plan isn't totally finalized yet, but it is a good solid start. I haven't gotten a whole lot done to Gus yet other than a good wash. He was pretty filthy when I got him.

I know some people will hate me for this, but I do not plan to keep the car stock. I had contemplated a stock restoration due to the low miles, but the truth is that Gus is not a perfect show car. He's nice and solid all around, but not perfect. He has a few blemishes, mismatched tires, torn vinyl, faded carpet, etc. He has been enjoyed, as I think he should be. Anyway, on to the pictures!

These are pictures about 5 minutes after I pulled him into the driveway:

Glazedham42

iTrader: (4)

Glazedham42

iTrader: (4)

As you can tell Gus was pretty darn dirty when I got him home. The first order of business was a full spa treatment. I gave him a full wash with Meguair's soap, clay bar kit, and cleaner wax. He's going to get a carnuba wax as soon as I get around to it. Here are some pictures after his first bath. Much improved!











Stay tuned for more updates!

Jamie
Glazedham42

orion84gsl

iTrader: (5)

Very nice car. See, good things do come to those who wait.

DivinDriver

iTrader: (15)

Nice to see you back, too.

installer67

iTrader: (18)

Nice score! And no sunroof too, BONUS! Welcome back, I went 10 years between and still came back to the first gens. It's like a disease that has no cure, just lies in wait. LOL

mazdaverx713b

iTrader: (91)

welcome back Jamie! its hard to bear the thought of that 7 being modified because its such a clean and reliable car. i would keep it stock and enjoy it the way it is. but since its your car and i know you do good quality work, i know the car is in good hands! i see you bought it from ohio....so what are your plans for the car?

Glazedham42

iTrader: (4)

For now just a lot of reliability and maintenance work. The engine needs a serious going over. I think it's running on the original NGKs, the beehive is leaking like a sieve, the oil pan gasket needs changed, plug wires appear original, brakes need bled, gonna switch to premix, on and on and on. I've got a full build plan that I need to upload. I forgot to include it.

Some of the highlights are Racing Beat exhaust, Taurus electric fan, triangulated strut bar, 2nd gen direct fire ignition, stripped emissions, rebuilt Nikki with mechanical secondaries, Miata short throw shifter, GSL rear end, energy suspension bushings, Tokico blue shocks/struts with Racing Beat springs, and much more. I'm going to keep it all as tasteful as possible under the hood. I want someone to be able to look under the hood and think that the car is still stock.

Kentetsu

You bought my car! Same year/model, right down to the "no sunroof" option.

Throw some coilovers on him and come to some races man!






.

Glazedham42

iTrader: (4)

Awesome! I totally forgot that yours was an '85 GS. Heck we've even got the same interior color. What was the build date on yours? They may have been pretty close in the assembly line even. At first I was kinda bummed that the car didn't have a sunroof, since my last one did, but now I don't miss it. I like the look of the car much better without it. Plus at 6'-4" I need all the head and leg room I can get.

Maybe we can get together at an Autocross or a rotary meet in IN/MI sometime. I'd like to see that Sterling carb, and suspension you've got in person. Sterling did a rebuild for me way, way back in the day. Probably around 2003. Shortly after that he started doing his carb mods for the masses. I'd like to get a feel for the ReSpeed coilovers too. I've considered going that route instead of the Tokico/RB springs setup.

Jamie

Kentetsu

Why don't you plan on coming up to the next race on June 27th? This one is just North of Kalamazoo, and is well known for it's long, fast course. I'm attempting to make this one into a combination race/rotary meet, spending the day racing and then heading back to my place for a BBQ and bonfire (anyone is welcome to bring a tent, I've got a great place for camping).

Here's the details: https://www.rx7club.com//showpost.ph...8&postcount=29

If you can make it up, you would be more than welcome to try my car out. We usually have fun runs following the race, so that would be your chance to take her through the paces and really put her to the test. dj55b and OrionGSL84 are both planning on attending, so we'll even have some Canadian representation. We always have a great time at these events...

84stock

iTrader: (5)

I held on to my old school 13b 4 port intake until I got more $ than it was worth saving for. I once thought about a second clean stock "appearing" FB sporting an old school 4 port 13b 1/2 bridge with a sterling complimented by a factory air cleaner. Open the hood and look as stock as can be until you fire it up....

350TacoZilla

nice car glazed... its the same as mine.... well except the year.... and condition...and trim level....and motor... ok not so similar ..my 83 is also red no sunroof but the exterior aint as pretty lol ..... oh an it didnt run when I bought it (still doesnt really)

OneRotor

iTrader: (3)

There should be 3 '85 GS's at this autocross. I am planning on attending in my Sunbeam Silver non-sunroof '85.

Welcome back. Good choice on the non-sunroof car. I am 6'4 as well with a 34" inseam, and the lack of sunroof is great for headroom (although I am hunched hardcore w/ a helmet on).

patmac6075

iTrader: (26)

Tocozilla, love those steelies!

Here's what my '83 GS is looking like.

Starfox07

Best color

Glazedham42

iTrader: (4)

Update time thread followers! Here is the first real undertaking on Gus. I have begun removing the air conditioning for the simple fact that I hate it. It seems like it's always in the way when you are working on something under the hood. I have never had a first gen with air conditioning that I left alone, and don't really want to start now. Gus's air conditioning actually functioned beforehand, but that's not enough to persuade me to keep the 100 pounds of crap bolted onto the car. I figured I would sell the functioning pieces to someone else as a kit. Or if somebody needed the repair parts then I would sell the individual pieces. Nevertheless, here are some photos:

Here is a good portion of the stuff that I removed as part of the air conditioning system. Evaporator, condenser, refrigerant lines, eccentric shaft pulley, some wiring, a thing that looks like an aluminum can, and a few relays. The compressor still needs to come off. It's the biggest hoss of all.



Here are the firewall plugs that I made to go in the place of the old refrigerant lines. Nice and simple. Some nuts, bolts, washers, and rubber o-rings. Keeps the water and engine smells out of the car.





Unfortunately I broke the passenger side dash vent while trying to gain access to the AC evaporator. CRAP! These things are getting harder and harder to find. Hopefully I can get an unbroken replacement.



The dash partially disassembled to gain access to the evaporator.



Here is how I plugged the holes in the evaporator box. The refrigerant lines used to go through here. Not anymore!



Plugging more holes with the bolt and o-ring method.



A rubber vacuum cap that I used to plug up the drain line for the AC evaporator. Don't need the drain line anymore since the AC is gone.



Here are the brackets that hold the air box in underneath the dash. I need to get some new weatherstripping for them.



That's it for now. I'll post up some more pictures later of my greasy grimy engine bay with the compressor removed. Stay tuned!

Jamie

gsl-se addict

iTrader: (3)

Jamie: Looks good. I think that I might have a good spare vent. If I come across it, I'll send it your way.

350TacoZilla

I cant believe you tore out a working ac setup from a low mile rx7

meanwhile I'm doing everything I can to keep the ac and hope it works afterwards lol

Glazedham42

iTrader: (4)

I would be eternally indebted to you Kent. I have taken those vents out probably a hundred times on my previous 85 GS, so I don't know what happened. It all happened pretty quickly. I even thought before I started removing it, "Be careful, you know how fragile these dumb things are." Then as I was gently trying to lift it out of there, "POP." Looked down and there was the louver that controls the vertical adjustment laying on the carpet in front of me. After that you hope that when you pick it up you'll be able to just snap it back into place and go on your merry way. That's never the case though. Seems like 99 times out of 100 it's unrepairable. It just makes me sick to my stomach when something like that happens. Oh well, such is life.

If you do have a spare passenger vent in gray I'd sure as heck appreciate it.

Thanks,
Jamie

Kentetsu

Hammy

Any idea how much that evaporator weighed? I never knew that it was so big! I removed everything under the hood, but left all of the interior parts in place because I wasn't sure how hard it would be to strip that stuff out.

Looking good though. I love seeing these cars made into what they should've been in the first place.

Any chance of coming up for that race June 27th?

Glazedham42

iTrader: (4)

I rolled out of bed this morning and decided to go ahead and finish up the AC removal. All I have left to do is put the new weatherstripping on the airbox clamps and reinstall it under the dash. That shouldn't take long at all. Just need to make a trip to Lowe's to see what I can find. This morning the compressor and the humongous compressor bracket came out. It was a good feeling to unbolt that dead weight from the side of the 12A keg. Also, since I finally got everything out of the car and into a pile on my garage floor, I decided to weigh it all. (That and Kentetsu wanted to know how much extra poundage he left hiding underneath his dash. ) Weights for the various AC system components are listed below:

Compressor: 16.5 lbs
Compressor bracket: 4.5 lbs
Condenser: 8.0 lbs
Evaporator: 6.0 lbs
Refrig. lines, wiring, misc: 10.0 lbs
--------------------------------------
Total Weight Reduction: 45.0 lbs

Here are a few pictures. The first one shows the compressor and bracket off of the car. The second shows the giant gaping hole that they leave in the engine bay once you remove them. I love having that extra knuckle room under the hood. It makes everything so much easier. Removing the AC makes the car lighter, it runs cooler, gives you more room to work, and leaves space for a 2nd gen oil cooler to be mounted in front of the radiator. Total cost is $0, and the only thing I'm giving up is my own comfort on a summer day. I like to have the windows down anyway when I'm driving the 7, and I do most of my cruising around in the evenings anyway.

mazdaverx713b

iTrader: (91)

i am actually debating putting the a/c back into my 85 GS, lol. i removed it when i converted to 13B power from an SE.. it does make engine bay work SOO much eaiser. i see you have the same Sanden unit that my GS has. seems the S and GS models got the Sanden a/c/ systems and the GSL and GSL-SE models got the Nippon Denso systems.

Kentetsu

Thanks for the info Hammy. 8 pounds, eh? That's enough to make it worthwhile I suppose.

You probably know this already, but those studs will come out pretty easily with a pair of vice grips now that the compressor is off.

Glazedham42

iTrader: (4)

I think you're backwards. The 8 lb weight is for the condenser, the big guy that goes in front of the radiator. The 6 lb weight is for the evaporator. The evaporator is the little guy under the dash.

BTW, I didn't know that the studs were that easy to get out! I figured they were put in there with some kind of super mega loctite. Those will definitely be coming out tonight as well. Thanks for the info!

Jamie