Well I suppose I will start from the beginning. First the basics.

In the Spring of 2009 I bought the car from one of my room mates. It was a depressing sight seeing the ol' rx7 shut in his garage, needing some work that he could not do/afford. So I through a stack of $500 at him and grabbed the Title. Getting the damn thing going was a bit of an issue to begin with. After spending 2 weekends fighting to get it started, I started to wonder if it was such a good idea. Turned out it just needed a set of new spark plugs and off it went. Then it was off to my house with the new car. He told me the car had an oil leak but he could not recall where it was coming from. Due to the leak, the car would smoke as the hot oil hit the even hotter exhaust. So we had his parents tail us back to my house to make sure all went well. And it did. Here are some pictures of the car the night I got it:









Upon arriving home, no oil leak was found. I then went on to drive it for 1000 miles with absolutely no issues. Then one night driving it down to apple valley, the 75mph speeds brought back the oil leak. It was the common dowel pin oil leak. Unfortunately this calls for a complete engine block tear-down. So I spent the $115 to get the full gasket kit for my engine. However after thinking about it for a while, I came to the realization, with help from my father, that as long as I'm in there, I might as well do things right and do a full engine rebuild. So rather than a $115 fix, I had to chuck out a grand. However, that did buy me the full engine rebuild kit, internals and all, a brand new water pump, and a brand new radiator. Then the fun started.

I won't go in to the full work of rebuilding the engine but here are some of the fun pictures:















And between the rebuild and fine tuning everything, that took up all of 2009. Then it was back to sleep for the rx for the winter.

 

So, on to 2010. Now that the car was running (mostly) it was time to take care of some of the other issues. First thing I tackled was the wheels. They had oxidized like mad and needed some SERIOUS tlc. I took each wheel and sanded them down to the bare metal and polished each one mildly. It took a great deal of time (thanks goes out to Garrett for helping me get these done) but in the end they tuned out great!











Then it was on to fixing my exhaust. It had snapped after the third catalytic converter due to being 30 years old and the rubber o rings that hold it up breaking off. So I bought Ivans factory exhaust off of his 81 rx7. Everything worked great, bolting right up, except for the catalytic converters on his exhaust would not clear my heatshield. Simple solution, get rid of them! So I had Tims Custom Exhaust make me up a cat delete pipe to complete my exhaust.





Then it went on to delete all of my emissions. I figure no cats, why bother with emissions. So all but 3 vacuum lines were pulled out.

 

That was all I did for quite a while. I then decided I was going to get a side draft carb set up. This ended up failed due to me having the wrong size carb. I had a DHLA40 choked to 39mm, when what i needed was a DHLA48 choked to 39mm. Due to this error, the car would start, idle, and move under its own power, but anything over 1/4 throttle and the engine would bog and all together die. It turns out this was a matter of too much fuel not enough air flow. Here are the pictures of how it looked at the time.









It then came time for a manual transmission swap. It wasn't nearly as difficult as I was expecting. Once I had all the correct parts, the swap took all of one weekend. I also managed to get a pair of racing seats off craigslist and put them in the car at the same time. Unfortunately I was too busy working to take many pictures of this stage.











And that was all I got finished for 2010. Sitting waiting to go on the car I have wheels, subsequently tires, RacingBeat lowering springs, the CORRECT side draft carb, and hopefully an exhaust

 

A great many things happened over 2011. Over the rest of the winter I managed to get a set of Kosei K1s with tires on them as well as a set of brand new Eibach lowering springs in box. $350 for both. Seeing as how I don't have the ability to run 2 sets of wheels, or two sets of springs, I decided to get some money. I sold the Kosei K1s to a fellow forum member and the RacingBeat springs to a friend. The racing seats were pulled out, the harness was never installed. However the Eibachs and gold set of wheels did make it on the car and man are they awesome! I wrapped them up in 195/50R15 Dunlop Z1 Star Specs and love them dearly.






Now that spring had come around, I managed to get the ball rolling. I tracked down a Dellorto DHLA48 and full RacingBeat upper and lower intake set up for $350. I installed the, and the car was running great. Needless to say, looking at the carbs, its pretty clear why the DHLA40 didn't run the car right. I installed a RacingBeat header as well to help with the flow.



I ran the car side drafted for the first chunk of the year. Ran rich, but well enough up until June when I started to notice some issues. With the money from the wheels I purchased a Gilmer belt drive set up. Man was that thing a bitch to install. Once I got the belt system on the 12A, I noticed that the front main pulley on the engine had a little wobble to it when revolving. This could only mean a few things. Either my e shaft was bent/warped, or a bearing was failing. This made the belt jump/slip which was what got my attention in the first place. Needless to say, I got a pretty upset feeling. Pretty much beyond words. Of course right after I found out about the engine wobble, I went to shut my hood at which point my hood prop bounced back up as the hood was coming down, making a nice dent in the mint hood. I walked away for a while...

Upon support from my friends, who I deeply love, I realized something. My friend James was pulling out his FC's 6 port N/A 13B to be swapped for a turbo motor. He told me I could have the motor for $300. It had only 58k on it. Here is where things start to get interesting...

Its now June. Lovely summers days for lovely summers DO WORK. Or rather, ORDER PARTS. I did a lot of that. See?



I ordered the RacingBeat 13B Engine mount, 13B 6 port intake gasket, and the new jets for the DHLA on the 13B. I bought the GSLSE Oil pan from a parts car nearby, traded my 12a upper and lower intake manifold for the 12A in exchange for the 13B 6 port upper manifold, and traded my 12A RacingBeat header for a 13B RacingBeat header. I also got the FC's oil cooler, 86-88 13B rear counterweight, and the Gilmer drive set up made it in there as well.

With parts waiting in the wings, I pulled out the 12A trans and motor, AGAIN, but for the last time as well. With the motor out I transferred over the 12A front cover, lightened steel flywheel/clutch assembly, and the transmission of course.

 

Now that the engine was all sorted, it was on to some more important matters. I think I'll just let the pictures do the talking here first























So I pulled everything out of the engine bay, fixed up the one rust spot, primer sealed it with some rust proofer, and painted that **** GAWLD! I also painted up some miscellaneous trim semi gloss black to clean things up. I was satisfied. Between the painting, the engine prep, and getting everything installed, it took me exactly 2 weeks. DO WORK SON.

After everything was all said and done, the car ran like a champ. Its rich, but who cares. Rather rich than lean. Later on I installed an e-fan as well to help clean up the engine bay a bit.

 

And thus began the daily driving all summer and fall until the second week of December, like a boss.

 

Since its now winter again, it means I must hoard parts. However this winter is a bit different than others. Rather than me buying replacement part, I'm getting the chance to buy all kinds of go faster bits! Coming for spring I have the following:

Koni Yellow Struts/Shocks
Re-Speed 32mm Tubular Front Adjusting Sway Bar
RacingBeat 20mm Rear Adjusting Sway Bar
LSD Rear End
4.78 Rear End Ring and Pinion
Series 4 FC Transmission
Full Exhaust Custom Fabbed With Twin Magnaflow Mufflers
Repolished/Refinished Gold Wheels
Possible MSD 6AL Set Up

Yay! I've got a couple of the items so far

 

Few updates:

Rear sway bar is on its way
Front sway bar is being built as we speak
Bought a IMSA 3 piece Mazda Factory spoiler for $50 (normally fetch 300 or so in this shape)



Took it apart for a good sanding and repaint



and I assembled my rear end

 

The collection:
Mazda Factory Option 3-piece IMSA spoiler (RARE), Twin 4" polished exhaust tips, front and rear Koni Yellows, LSD 3rd member with 4.78 ring and pinion, Racingbeat rear adjusting sway bar with poly bushings, Magnaflow muffler #1. Not pictured: Series 4 FC Transmission

Still to arrive: Rotors/pads, Magnaflow twin outlet muffler #2, Re-Speed adjusting front sway bar and refinished wheels



Made a little progress on the spoiler as well.

 

DUDE. CONGRATS!! Excellent work, and Excellent write up!

At first I was like WTF? (with the gold engine bay) - but I love how it
ties in to the wheels.

Good Stuff.

 

this car was cool until i saw you painted the stereo surround white..... WTF?

 

Yeah if im honest, im putting it back to gray this summer lol

 

Such a pimp!

Probly my favorite fb

 

Thanks for all the compliments. I figured I should probably have a build thread on the rx7 forum since i have it posted on a bunch of other forums lol

 

ya painted interior pieces don't go well in the FB

 

Starting from scratch, you've accomplished a lot in just a couple years, congrauts. Looks like your not afraid to take chances outside the box and so far I'd say it seems to work.

 

Not bad for $500!

 

The engine bay looks really good in person, very clean and matches well with the overall theme. And I must say, I was in the car for that fireball. We felt it move from our feet, under the car, and then BOOM!

 

Looks great, really clean car!

 

yeah the car has really turned out great, i love the wheels...

 

If only i could figure out what the wheels are

 

they are awesome... durr

 

white and gold is my thing too. love it!

 

 

just find a wheel you really like and paint the face gold! i've done it to many rims

old Enkie 92's i did