SA22R The beginning
 

Starting a 1980 Rx7 build. still in deconstruct mode, but I have a decent amount of parts in and many already cleaned and painted. so here's the ugly.

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car looked clean, and is...but there's a lot of metal work to be done where I am cutting out small rust spots. I.e. bubbles that have rust on the backside on rear deck, both rear lower 1/4 panel, drivers door, each side of engine bay in the fron by headlights, both sides right above the trailing arm mounts, rear area where spare tire pan attached to rear of the car (that's the worst area), 2 spots on the front cowl by the windshield

right now I have tII calipers, brake booster and master cylinder (thanks neal), RB springs, and shocks, trailing arm bushings, taillight gaskets, calipers painted (and rebuild kit not yet done), all new ball joints and steering arms, cleaned painted and baked the trailing arms and heat shields and a lot of minor stuff.

still in destructo mode and doing little pieces will get to the meat and start welding when the drivetrain is pulled.

Looks good! :icon_tup: Take lots of pics and let us know how it goes. I too have a lot of metal work to do on my 79 and will closely follow your progress. I have the same rust issues in the same places.

the big stuff I'm welding......but there's a couple spots where I am considering this.


thoughts?

Interior looked in very good shape; You might want to protect that shift surround from damage - - you'd be a long time finding another in good shape.

Good luck with your project!

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just a tease for what's going under the hood

Totally expected to see a 22R going under the hood.

Oh noes its a V8!

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Wow...didn't see that coming

adapters?

rear axles will be mosler, so no adapters. Front will need them. brake kit coming. these are just mocked up. some meat in the back! front I had to go a little smaller than I would like to clear the spring on the fronts. will hope for more room, but playing it safe buying a smaller set 1st. (had to send back the 1st fronts that came in) fenders will be rolled of course

whoever said 205's will fit never tried a pair of g force comp-2 205/50/16. I switched to 205/245/16. big difference in size because they are measured from the mfg on different sized rims!

Nice build

some parts came in! waiting on the spindle adapters.

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wife wants her garage back. hate to break it to her, but it's gonna be a while! just an example of how f-ed up it is trying to do a build in a small garage..

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Bbk mounted on inside of gsl rear end

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lots of update, let me know if i should take some pics for yall

we all love pics so keep them coming...

Without pictures, there's nothing to look at. ;-)

I apologize for my pics...I suck at this.

here's the rear speaker box. supports and all are complete, just not shown. will hold 2 kenwood 8" subs and 6x9's

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Got the T5 transmission. It's a freshly built version from an 89' Camaro and has the .63 final drive. overdrive, v8 world class version......pain in the but to find!!!!! This shows the shifter I got for it which has bump stops and the shifting is night and day compared to the factory one. you would have to feel the difference to believe it, and this was a culprit it these trannys breaking.

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very fond of this AC bracket I made. was a major PITA to get the AC fitted where I want it to clear below the intake piping and clear the radiator hose. they don't sell these on ebay lol.

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GSL rear end, mosler axles, RB springs, new bushings on trailing arms, shocks, strengthening thing from mazdatrix in the linkage to the rearend

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here we have the worst rust are where the seams come together. It had to be cut out as did the small section on the backside that connects to the spare tire are. My solution is a few nice pieces of fairly thick galvanized so if it does comeback some it won't come through the galvanized and the paint. I am basically re-boxing it in on both sides after wire brushing and removing almost all the rust followed by rust bullet and eastwood inner frame spray

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a couple patches yet to be finally riveted in. rust bullet the rear hatch area and you can see the galvanized piece in the spare tire area. This will go on the backside where there was rust that was removed. just beefing it up to add a support where I removed the old one between the spare tire area and rear channel

this shows the actual way the off set is. the previous pics where mock ups. this has axles installed and spacers and brake conversions etc.
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got meat? shows rear brakes from T2. the tires are 245's and you can see a fiberglass patch that was used after drilling about a 1" rusthole out on rear lower 1/4 panel. I used the right adhesive with an oversized patch coming from the backside
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radiator
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the actual stance with engine in
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battery tray/relocated to passenger firewall. This is a rough pic I had. but it's complete now and has another support coming across the front that also boxes in the battery.

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this picture shows the support I built. It connects the strut towers to the firewall and to the frame. the frame has an 1/8 piece underneath and 1/4 inch on top ...essentially boxing it in and hopefully holding some torque while lowering the engine a smear. the hood clearance is right on....but an extra 1/8 inch never hurts

Doing this in a small garage I get about 1/3 work done, 1/3 cleanup and 1/3 trying to find the parts between boxes, the attic or tools lol. I would not recommend it to anyone, but live and learn. Also would not have torn the car all the way apart the way I did. should have done it one section/portion at a time.

The engine is built not be a low end monster. It should come on strong at about 2k up till 5,900 based on what I put in it and the engine programs I ran to select the components. The driveshaft is aluminum and it has a lightened flywheel. The though being less rotating mass to not rip that r end apart if I do decide to jump on it from the line once in a while. It's basically more mid to top end for this type of engine coupled with 3.90 rear gear and the right tranny based on the ratio calculators I have used. It's all 80's technology hehe. That's how she rolls lol. It's well thought out.....may be a clunker....who knows

working on the rear section today to enclose the area with new panels and spray the inner frame rails. also finishing the patchwork in the rear hatch area. it's not so bad laying under the car now that it's not with a wire wheel and the rust isn't flying. :-)

engine bay painted, engine final install done, putting it together. should I even update this? maybe I'm in the wrong forum...

I like the engine bay bracing you've done. Will you be bracing the strut towers together as well?

nah. not really going to be cornering this thing real hard. Mainly made the brace for support if this thing actually hooks up/help keep it from twisting the frame.

Looks mean! Well built also :) Look forward to seeing more aye

I'm surprised you are using the factory rear end.

i like it. i like the little touches you have going on, like the bracing, the brakes and the fact that you opted for a manual transmission. i feel your pain about not having your own space in the garage. as you said, a lot of time goes to cleaning up and remembering where you put stuff the next time you need to work. in 2 years you seem to be doing a great job despite that though.

It's actually an 84 GSL rear end. It does have upgraded mosler axles though. The T5 tranny is also a concern, but I have a short shifter with bump stops to prebent over shifting which is what destroys a lot of those from what I am told. It is a T5 our of a v-8 though and also has overdrive. (.63) so it should run 80 mph w/o being 5000 rpms lol.

It has a lightened flywheel and aluminum driveshaft to try to reduce rotating mass, and I really don't think it's going to launch hard with 245 tires and a (new) OEM clutch. My though is either the tires break loose or the clutch slips a bit before it breaks the tranny or shred the ring/pinion as grannys says these rears will hold 350-375. I should be pushing 350-400, but the engine is set up to be more mid to top end range which should help with the high rear end gear.

we'll see, but I don't plan on drag racing this care...don't plan on it. :nod:

I'll take some more pics and post soon.

at least now I am in the home stretch and it's time to put stuff on and throw away boxes. frees up some room and the whole mock up then take apart is a PITA.

at this point I just want to have it running by years end.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...570cc7a29f.jpg


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hydraulic throwout bearing installed on tranny, and tranny installed on car. MSD ignition mounted. engine bay painted etc. will get shots of that soon

she lives!

I admit, I'm a purest at heart. But I'm also an adrenalin lover, that thing is going to be Bad Ass.

thank you. thats quite a compliment coming from a purist.

cintinuing, but in the v-8 powered section

https://www.rx7club.com/v-8-powered-...1069634/page2/