i tore the rear end down and resealed the differential against the housing. i replaced both axles with units that had great beaings and new brakes! i replaced the brake lines on the rear axle and i replaced one lower control arm and the lower bolt on the left rear shock. i'll take some pics tomorrow afternoon and post them up!

i'll be working on the car today before work and i'll grab some pics then to post up. now that the sealer is long dry on the differential i will fill the diff with new fluid!

I'll bring ya some Leather Honey for the seats. It'll makem look good enough to eat. i wanna eat my whole car right now.

got the engine's undertray installed:

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finished installing the dash panels:

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also tossed in the glass moonroof:

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i'll push the car outside and take some better pics here in a little bit and post those pics up.

Sweet moonroof! Glad to see this coming along and that you have the Vette in the garage now.

took a few more pics of the car today while i had it outside.

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Dave does that thing have power steering? Can I get some close up pics of the steering column, engine bay side please?

yup, it sure does hove power steering!! when i get up tomorrow afternoon i'll take some pics with my camera rather than my cell which i have been using for most of the other photos.

It's starting to come together.

looking great. keep it coming man.

the two newest additions to the restoration are the SE wheels and the Tokico Illumina shocks and struts. a friend of mine (Red95FD) was kind enough to give me the Tokico's from his SE and deliver them! doesn't get much better than that! thanks again Rick!

SE wheels:

Attachment 692175

Tokico's:

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i think i'm gonna break down and look for a good used SE engine.. cost is a major factor here and after i sell off some guns i should have no problem buying an engine..

i have a TII shortblock that i think i'm going to part with to fun another SE engine specifically for this car..

I think I can learn a lot from this thread given the condition of my car. :(

Damn its amazing how much the car has came togeather from what it was.

the unfortunate thing is that its come along too slowly. having kids and a much larger house payment than i did a couple years ago has slowed the progress down on a lot of my projects, lol

Man Dave, that's a heck of a project and it really looks great. I can completely understand the lack of funds and commiserate with you! It sucks, but you're doing a heck of a job. Just may have to do it slower than you wanted but keep up the good work!

i have a good SE block that i just pulled out of car 2 days ago, we are swapping in a S4 streetported block. if your interested in buying, i can snag some pictures.

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Phoenix, feel free to take some pics!!

my buddy Pete (peejay) dropped off an awesome amount of parts a few nights ago and i went straight to work putting those parts to good use. i FINALLY have a good rear carpet section in the SE. the interior is NEAR complete!! i just need a good maroon shift knob and a good maroon steering wheel. here are some pics:

pic of the stuff Pete dropped off:

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pics of the carpet installed. still needs vacuumed but still looking good installed!

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looking good

its getting there slowly. i need to find a good 13B long or short block from an SE to install in this car. they are tough to find anywhere close to here. the engine i have needs a rebuild. debating rebuilding it or finding another. would be easier to just find another.

That will be a hard find. Maybe someone on here has a good motor and is going TII?

Maroon shift knob
 

Why did you sell the last brand new maroon shift knob in the country if you needed it for this car? More importantly, why didn't you sell it to me?

Ray Green had worked me over for that shift knob for quite some time. the knob was bought for an 85 GSL-SE in Custom Silver Metallic with maroon interior. an RX-7 that I am still looking to acquire and restore to this day. Ray really needed it for a restoration and I sold it to him at a more than fair price. this red SE will not get neglected as its restored. a lack of time (having 4 kids and 3 project cars and working 12 hour night shifts at my job will do that to a man) and parts hinders most of the restoration process.

dash removal
 

I just read this thread in it's entirety - it's impressive how you restored the car from the condition you picked it up in. looks great so far.
the pictures helped me out as i try to figure stuff out on my car.

i have a stupid question - i searched the forums but didn't find a clear answer - to remove the dash do you need to remove the windshield? or is it just bolts? i saw that your windshield was cracked, but didn't see you remove the trim holding the windshield down so. the attached image is all i could find in the FSM.

you do not need to remove the windshield to remove the dash. there are two bolts on each side near the doors, two on each side of the trans tunnel and there are three under the defroster vents. the steering column needs to be dropped down. there are two bolts that allow it to come down. there is one small 8mm nut that holds a ground wire to the dash frame below where the stereo mounts. that's all that holds it in, amongst all the outer panels and the heater controls and the stereo and the cluster, etc.

That's good to know. I will be swapping out my carpet soon and need to pull the dash.

Thanks Mazdaverx! that's great to know. it's hard to find the exterior trim pieces so glad i don't have to worry about messing those up. My dash is not cracked, but it's peeling. i'm going to try to get creative and flatten it if i can, and craft something up to try to prevent it from peeling..

It's amazing to read through this thread and fast forward time. Keep up the great work!

I will keep trying to work on the car as I get time. the hardest part will be locating a good SE engine. I have a good 12A engine but I can't bear to put it in the car. i'm saving that for a Custom Silver Metallic 85 GSL that I don't have yet..one car that I need to complete my collection, lol.

i have been slowly collecting parts for the car and plan to start back in on it here shortly. will post more pics here soon!!

i have some work to do on the car today and hope to have some pics up this evening!!

did a little interior cleanup today. having been sitting it was in need to keep the mildew and cobwebs at bay. it was nice getting to play with the car a little bit and gather some ideas for future repairs. took a couple pics to share from today:

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looking good.

What I can see of the new house looks great. Congrats!

Thank you!! Car may be on the list of ones to sell unfortunately. Too many projects :(

For real, just looking at your list in your signature… you must have a 10 car garage or a very forgiving wife. :)

My sig only allows me to list part of the cars I own.. A patient wife is more like it. I do need to build a large shop here on my property..

I have a running SE motor if you really need one. It smokes at start up and compression I think isn't that great. Miles are unknown. It really needs a rebuild, but it is complete and original. No porting, etc.