Ryan's S2 GSL Restomod!
 

I think it's finally time to start a build thread, after owning my chassis for a year and a half or so already. I bought it as a birthday present for my 17th birthday, and fell in love immediately.

Here was the chassis as I bought her. A 1983 GSL w/ 159k or so miles on it, bone stock. Interior was rough, but it ran good! Rear end howled really badly. I was in the market for a S13 240sx that hadn't been beaten within an inch of its life, only to find out they don't exist in my price range. I paid $1800 for the car, which was a bit steep for the condition but I didn't know anything about FBs or rotaries at the time. The car came with full service records from when it was purchased 83 to 2007, with some maintenance things in between. As of now, I daily drive the car in the summer. I just hit 165k miles today!

Attachment 753648

Attachment 753649

Attachment 753650

Attachment 753651

https://i.imgur.com/U5bPUIGl.png

https://i.imgur.com/rgRxHThl.png


As for my build intentions, that's where things get interesting. I'm fresh out of high school and not making much money so budget is always in mind. This project will likely take me a couple of years unfortunately. If anybody in the Twin Cities knows of any job openings, hook a brother up? :)

I've got some ideas being tossed around in my head for engine builds:

• Rebuild my 12a and run a stock TII turbo setup. Blow-Thru maybe? Not a huge fan of carbs.
• Turbo II Swap
• Chevy L33
• Chevy LR4/LY2/L20 with a turbo strapped on.
• Nissan SR20DET
• Toyota 2JZ-GTE

If I was desperate I could probably do a Chevy LM7 and T5 trans for the cheapest swap, but that's not exactly ideal. As you saw above, the car needs a paint job badly. With the red interior I'm pretty limited to colors, I was thinking possibly Cyber Grey Metallic, which is a GM color, or a Bronze color Volkswagen is painting the A6 Jettas. As for interior, I have some sweet ideas, but no cash haha! I'll post up some pics in a later post. The plan is to keep the interior red. I hated the red when I purchased the car but it has grown on me, and it's different. I've got a lot to share yet, this was just the preliminary post! I'm not the kind of person to check forums often, usually a once or twice a week. Though I just made an Instagram so if you'd like, follow me @RotaryAffairs! If you've got an IG feel free to post yours up, I'd love to see some sweet RX-7s!

TL;DR... I'm a broke ass kid who wants to restomod his bone-stock '83 GSL.

There is plenty of info on the forum for how to do a blow through Nikki. That's what I think you should do. https://www.rx7club.com/images/smilies/icon_tup.gif

It's most definitely one of the more cost effective ways to make power, but I'm not a big fan of carburetors. Not sure if I would be better off doing a blow through DCOE or something instead, I've got more research to do. My engine is definitely going to need a rebuild first.

I managed to get a great deal on this rolling GSL-SE from one of the guys at Modern Automotive Performance in Cottage Grove, not too far from my place a few months ago. He had cut out the core support and tubed it, he was going to run a Honda F20C in it for road racing. I wanted to keep the chassis but not only can I not physically afford two cars, it had to go because of my high school graduation party. I ended up ripping the SE suspension out, selling off a couple parts, and selling the chassis to a local guy. I didn't like having to sell it, but I was ecstatic seeing it go to good use elsewhere. I did manage to get the glass sunroof and wiper-less rear hatch off of the SE before I sold it though!

Attachment 753637

Attachment 753638

Attachment 753639
dont mind the lame Hyundai, it was a rental! ^

Attachment 753640

Attachment 753641

Found some rust bubbling at the seam sealer on the door bottoms of both doors. scraped the seam sealer out, sanded the rust off, and sprayed some rust stopping paint over it.

Attachment 753642

Attachment 753643

More rust! Just tiny little surface rust spots but I was bored and needed something to do, so I did this and sprayed some black primer over it. I still need to do the passenger side. I know primer absorbs moisture, but it'll only have to sit till winter... hopefully. One of these days I should rip out the bins and check for rust down there.

Attachment 753644
Take a look up towards the cabin, in the circled part. This car has had prior body work done... see the two layers of primer? I guess I'll find out the scope of the repairs later on when I sand the whole body.

So in the midst of torrential downpour on 494 going to work today my wipers decided they were done. They slowed down a little bit, got out of sync, and then quit. SHIT. had to go home and get my pickup. I assume it's the motor that went bad. The splines on the output shaft aren't stripped so it wasn't spinning. It would've just quit if it was a fuse? Either way I pulled the motor out, I'll bench test it to be sure. I accidentally fell on one of the wiper arms, and stripped out the splines... Going to need a new one more than likely. The bedliner like material Mazda put under the cowl is chipping away in large chunks, so I'm going to scrape it out and put bedliner in there. The bag over the motor was so brittle it fell apart when I tried taking it off. Any ideas to replace that? To top it all off, the plugs practically disintegrated in my hands. If anybody has spare wiper parts please PM me! The car is my DD, I don't want to get stuck driving the pickup every time it rains.
Attachment 753645

Im also a young rx7 owner. Im 15 and these cars are a headache with the prices of parts and disintegrating plastic pieces. One of my side markers fell into a pile of dust one day when i banged on my door

A blow through DCOE is a stupid idea because 2bbl + boost + rotary don't mix. Way too many people on this forum have tried that combo way too many times over the years and always abandon it because it sucks. I can do a quick count of three right off the top of my head. There's PercentSevenC, Hyper4mance2k and ioTus. I think there was also Zaridar and LizardFC who tried the boosted weber and just had to stop.

The reason the 2bbl doesn't work with boost on a rotary is due to it not having enough circuits to accomodate the wide rev range of the engine and the wide range of running conditions from vacuum to boost. It either runs well at low RPM but hates high RPM, or it's tuned right for high RPM but sucks at low RPM. You can only have both if you stay NA. But then you never get to experience secondaries or boost. Where's the fun in that?

Sorry to rain on your parade. Of course I'm biased. I just completed some updates on a boost prepped Nikki this evening and will probably test run it tomorrow if it's not raining.

Jeff20B can you pm me how to make my secondaries mechanical. Thanks

Ryan's S2 GSL Restomod!
 

Glad you finally started a build thread!

You know what swap I'd recommend :bigthumb:

Rain on my parade? Nah, I appreciate the insight. Saves me lots of research, and potentially money. Not sure how a blow thru holley would work, but if I don't need to buy a new carb why spend the extra money.

I want to do a T2 Swap but with my current job that'll take a few years to complete... :(

Exactly. Start by reading this for a quick guide. https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generati...ealed-1083467/

Then read all through this for more information and pictures. https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generati...i-how-1080192/

Keep in mind these threads are more than a month old so to get the latest Nikki know-how and how-to, just read whatever I post on this forum. I sprinkle Nikki knowledge in many of my posts here.

I've got time to research engine stuff yet. I might try to paint the body before any swaps because its starting to get a considerable amount of surface rust in some areas. For now I'm just trying to work on little things... It keeps my desire to tinker satisfied.

I started to get my wiper issue figured out. The motor is good, but the linkages were seized. I broke one of the bushings trying to get it unseized, so I had to order some replacements from a fellow forum member (link to his thread here). They should be here this coming Wednesday, I'll try to get them installed this weekend. In the mean time, here are some pics.

Cleaned up the flaking off undercoating under the cowl, and sprayed new stuff in its place.
Attachment 753614

Attachment 753615

I noticed the wiper motor mount and linkage assembly was starting to show some surface rust... I'm not gonna let that slide. I sand blasted it clean and sprayed some fresh paint over it.

Attachment 753616

Threw some fresh trim black paint on the wiper arms. Supposedly this "trim black" isn't true trim black according to my father the ex auto-body guy. Apparently it doesn't have enough gloss? Either way, they look good!
Attachment 753617

About a week ago I managed to pick up an entire interior off of this guy for $50. Some stuff was usable, some was junk, though I can use them as templates. I'm still compiling pictures for my interior stuff, I can't make any major progress on that sub-project quite yet anyway. Somehow, I managed to fit everything in my car.
Attachment 753618

I got a matching red rear carpet to go in my hatch, to replace my rotting black mat. The red carpet under the bins was still there but it was ripped at the black hold down piece. Anyway I cleaned it thoroughly, it's still in fairly good condition... I might try to find a rubber mat or something to go back there. In the process I got into some more repair issues...

Sandblasted and painted the sheet metal frames for the bins.
Attachment 753619

Attachment 753620

Attachment 753621

I still have the factory spare, and it still holds air surprisingly. Never been used. Moisture is collecting down here, and it formed a little bit of surface rust though most is on the undercoating. Faulty hatch seal?
Attachment 753622

No FB is complete without bin rust, right? It's surprisingly not too bad. I'm going to sandblast the rust to see how bad it is, though would I be better off just welding in new material to be safe?
Attachment 753623

Attachment 753624

Anybody painted/stained carpets before? I know its been done but I've never really heard results. I was reading a build thread for someone else's FB and he painted his interior black, it looked really good! I like the red but if I can get a black interior I'd be able to paint the car the color I really want ;)

Yes, you would be best off cutting that crap outta there and welding in new. It's not gonna get any better if you leave it in there. Although that isn't the worst I've seen it still will leave a leak path to the environment and even if you never drive it in the rain, any moisture from washing it, or a puddle, or even a humid climate will make it worse.

Good thread btw! :icon_tup:

I've been sitting on my bin rust problem as I have to learn how to weld. I'm interested to see how this turns out.

on a Mazda the wiper arms are a semi gloss, almost a matte finish. those actually look correct

I decided this would be best as well, I don't want to waste my time "fixing" things once. what thickness steel would you recommend? My biggest issue is the fact that this car is my daily driver, and I work 6/7 days of the week so I don't have much free time to tackle such a large job.

Welding this shouldn't be that bad, though I am a beginner welder myself. I learned a little in high school, but I'm still not that great. I figure just stitch weld the patches in there and POR15 over them and I should be golden!

If that's the case, then duplicolor trim black is the way to go for us! I still need to do do the windshield trim, but that's going to wait until I paint the body.

You mean fixing things twice?

Cutting it out and welding in new could be a challenge on a daily driver, especially if you don't have experience welding, but not impossible if you take it in bite sized chunks. Depending how much, if any, of the reinforcing plate for the torsion bar mount you cut out, you possibly could drive it with holes in it (which you're essentially doing now anyway) and take your time. Just be careful how much metal you cut out at one time where the torsion bar mounts to the car.

By measurement of the sections I cut out, the metal is all 1 mm thick except for the reinforcing plate which is 1.5 mm thick. I suspect the other reinforcing sections like the transmission mounts, are all 1.5 mm thick.

If I can learn to do it, ANYONE can! :lol: Just make sure you complete the stitch welds so you eventually have a continuous seam. That's essentially the way I did it, except I went over the POR-15 with seam sealer as an added measure of protection and then painted over that with truck bed liner. Very happy with my results.

Awesome Ryan. Keep hammering out the small stuff, before you know it there will be no more small stuff to fix, then you can start the real fun! Props for keeping it clean.

the window trim is glossier than the wipers, although i notice we're not doing a pebble beach concours build, so it doesn't matter

Wipers, wipers, and more wipers; Interior!
 

We don't build garage queens here ;)

So quick update on my whole dilemma with the wipers. I received and installed the new bushings from kutukutu1 (once again, link here!). If you purchase be sure not to overdo the lube, you'll blow the plastic tabs out. I did this, and according to Eduardo (aka kutukutu1) It must've built hydraulic pressure that the tabs couldn't handle. Anyway unfortunately despite the fact that the wipers worked well on both speeds outside the car, I'm running into an issue with the wipers in the car. The wipers will only run on full speed, and will not park properly. They park too high, though they will park properly if I switch to another speed and shut off the system. I'm not sure what the issue is here, the motor is not strong enough to move the entire rack? It moved freely with no issues by hand. Also, when I was initially removing the motor one of the bolts broke in the motor, so I had to drill it out and tap new threads (7mmx1.00) You if this happens to yourself, be very careful drilling it out and you wont have to tap it so big. I put a little too much torque on it while testing it, and cracked it, so now only two of the bolts are holding the motor in. I'm not sure what to do except check the connections to start... I lubed it with lithium grease pretty well. All the speeds worked properly prior to the rack seizing.

I started working on the interior a little bit, making templates. Thankfully I've got some woodworking tools so I'll be able to make templates of the hardboard parts easily, though I'm not sure which material to use, I was thinking some 4mm plastic but that may rattle excessively. Here are a couple I've done so far:

Attachment 753598

Attachment 753599

What I'd like to do is depending on the budget, replace the Burgundy vinyl with leather, else just redo them in vinyl again. For the more carpet looking fabric I was thinking maybe microseude, but I'm a big fan of the OEM look so that may be a bit over the top, especially for an FB. If you take a look at the second picture you'll notice its three pieces, with the bottom most being actual carpet. I'm definitely going to skip out on that and go two piece. I'd love to convert my interior to black so I can paint the car MBM. If I keep the burgundy I know exactly which color I'm going to paint the car. The carpets are the main issue, could they be dyed black?

depending on the trim level, the SA/FB didn't have that carpet trim, and those pieces were just all vinyl, although they have a pattern in them

Been well over a month since the last update, but I've been getting into some trouble lately with the car... She's got some heat on her now. As in 3 tickets in a month and a half! Two of which I'm definitely going to attempt to fight. One of the tickets alone was $385 so that put a huge dent in my RX7 fund.

Still trying to source an FC parts car to get a front suspension out of. I've got quite a few offers for parts but after shipping it's going to cost me far more than parting out an FC. Else all I've really done with the car is install a new head unit, and drive her. Really wish I could park it and work on it, but that's what winter is for, no?

Another quick update on the car. I recently made templates of the door cards for my interior project, writeup on those coming soon.

Car started running incredibly poorly today! Ran a compression test and found 60 PSI across the front rotor, 60-30-30 psi across the rear rotor. Just hit 168k miles and did an oil change too. To top it all off, it was 90 degrees yesterday, I got stuck in traffic, and a fellow driver told me I was puking coolant on the ground. It boiled over in my overflow, forcing the cap off. Hopefully the damage from overheating is to a minimum.

This video was from before the overheat, after the poor running situation began. Can you hear the hesitation at low RPMs? The car also feels a little low on power. I feel like it may be an ignition related issue, such as an ignitor or coil?

Decided to take a bit of a hiatus with the car. The ignition system went and had a severe overheating incident in traffic so I decided to put her away for the season. Though I do have an update worthy of posting...

Attachment 753281

I picked this little gem up from a friend of mine. S5 TII, and if my research is true it's an imported engine (ECU N374). Going to get it mounted on a stand pretty soon and start tearing it down for inspection. Not sure what route I'm going to go with the swap. Reliable power is all I want at this point, so a stock turbo setup is probably the way I'll be going.

Since I've had a bit of down time, I decided to work on some of the cheaper projects. started building new door cards.

Attachment 753282

Attachment 753283

Haven't wrapped them yet, I'm still looking for an FB parts car with a black interior so I can achieve the look I'm going for.

how did you go about sanding/stripping under the cowl?? and what paint have you used?

It was a time consuming process to say the least. I used a heat gun and a scraper to remove all of the factory undercoating that couldn't be chipped off by hand. I sanded it by either using a red scotchbrite pad or 80 grit sand paper. I don't think a primer layer is necessary if you scuff the surface sufficiently... I didn't spray a layer of primer and it seems to be holding fine after five months or so now. After a quick wipe down with some wax and grease remover I noticed the seam between the cowl and the firewall had begun to chip away, so I stripped out the factory seam sealer and applied fresh stuff. Then I taped the surrounding area up, and sprayed two or three coats of permatex brand undercoating. We'll see how it holds up, but it still looks like I did it yesterday as I write this.

yea looks to be one of those headache type jobs.
mine has seen better days aswell doesn't look like its been touched since day one.
its hard to get at to sand, would be easier if the motor was out.
thanks for the idea ill have to have a look at it when I get the chance.

all the best with your build!