j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

the black looks 89% better than the red

spectre6000

iTrader: (1)

Only 89%? What would be required to get that last 11%?

I spent part of today working on the interior, but the majority was spent working on the electronics...

"The Lab":






I resoldered every joint in every circuit board except the radio (because I don't care), the ECU (because it's working and I didn't think I'd get to it), and the headlight/wiper switches (because I didn't get to them) today. Every. Single. One.

The CPU has been acting up, the AC doesn't work (and some of the lights don't come on), and... Well, I was in there, might as well go all the way. A very dangerous mentality in the automotive hobby.

I dug deeper into the diagnostic unit (my electronics guru friend thinks it might be salvageable... might) and found this:




The theory is that some water got into the housing, corroded stuff, and shorted things out pretty badly. The lines are where the electricity arced out on everything. Kinda neat.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Your theory begs the question of where the water is coming from.

spectre6000

iTrader: (1)

I don't have the insert that covers the thing and makes it look good, but I wonder if something about the topography of that or where it sits in the dash pad would allow something to be spilled on the dash and get in there? I'd have to go out and look too see about the dash pad theory. Alternatively, it could have been transplanted from another car and sat somewhere for some time. No idea. There's no indication of flood damage (at least not according to my idea of what flood damage would look like).

spectre6000

iTrader: (1)

Trivial update. The middle of the country has been deluged with a tremendous amount of precipitation this past month +, and that has slowed progress CONSIDERABLY. I got things resoldered, and significant portions regained function, but the CPU has a short in it that I have yet to track down and rectify that caused it to beep rapidly and incessantly unless the doors were open... I picked up another CPU that, while not fully functional, at least doesn't beep. The diagnostic cluster started working a bit better (the clock at least), but the switch that sets the clock is still dead. I got a second cluster from the same guy, and the clock on that doesn't work at all. I'll probably get in there and see if I can resolder it, steal the switch, or some other thing to get a complete working unit between the two. The AC controls were not working either (man I must suck at that stuff!), some of the lights were still not working and the fan even wouldn't turn on (it would before)... Turns out I didn't have a plug all the way in. So now that works! I need to check to see if the AC compressor clutch is engaging now... I may have working AC before it gets too hot... provided it EVER stops raining (I'm not done building my boat either, and my menagerie is far from complete).

Meanwhile, I did manage to get a little more done on the interior last weekend or the weekend before between raindrops and hailstones. All that's left is the doors, seats (I got new ones with only one upholstery hole between them), and fabbing up/gathering parts that are still broken/missing.

I've been genuinely surprised at that interior dye. My expectations of things that come in pressurized cans is very very low, but for the first time ever a product placement spot had an effect on me and I gave it a swing (what's the worst that could happen? My cheapo placeholder beater looks uglier?). It bills itself as "vinyl and fabric dye", and it seems to be functional in about that order. On Vinyl it's SHOCKINGLY good!!! My floor mats were toast before I got the car, so I'm driving on the bare carpet. There's that vinyl patch just below the pedal cluster, and I think it's safe to say that gets more than its share of abuse and abrasion, and it's held up FLAWLESSLY!!!! Holy crap, guys, that stuff has rocked my world view. The dash also looks fantastic. It must be a slightly different material though, as it seems to be a bit more susceptible to abrasion (by the pinch welds in the doors when I was reinstalling it).

On plastics, it seems to be a bit of a mixed bag. If the plastic is thoroughly textured and in good shape (I had a number of pieces that were pretty badly damaged by sun), it seems to do pretty well. The rocker covers are probably the most susceptible to abuse, and I've had to touch them up a time or two (i.e. where the screws torque down on them), but I experimented a bit with various levels of prep and I'm not 100% sure where they were in that... I think they got the full procedure, but they were also pretty dirty to begin with, and again, not 100% sure. The cleaning procedure I followed (of my own devising, not specified on the can) was to wipe the parts down with water and dish soap until the paper towel came away mostly clean, then do the same with just water, then I used prep spray just to be sure, and finally paint. The parts this stuff doesn't seem to work on well at all are smooth plastics. Specifically the clips that hold the sun visors. They're smooth on the inside, and attaching the sun visors just scratches the paint right off. I have some plastic paint that I'll try next on those parts.

Carpets/whatever the headliner is are a bit... Unproven still. For starters, how do you degrease carpet? Not exactly easy. So all I really did inasfar as prep is concerned was vacuum the crap out of it. That may have something to do with the result. Next observation is that carpets/headliner material has a LOT of surface area, and is SUPER thirsty as a result. I'd say at least half (probably closer to three quarters) of the paint I've used so far went to fabrics. I'll detail the total number of cans required to do the whole car when I finish. Second observation visa vis fabrics is that it's difficult to TOTALLY get them colored. Part of the problem is that I'm painting black over red, and that presents a pretty significant variation. Over the gray sun visors, it is all but unnoticeable. It takes some bending/stretching/painting at different angles to get the paint all the way to the base, and even then there's still red visible in convex bends/folds in the sunlight. Not perfect, but once it's in the car (let's face it, the headliner doesn't exactly get a lot of direct sunlight), it's barely noticeable. The carpet has needed a bit of touch up in high scuff areas, but it seems like additional applications are taking care of the color that's coming through. It may require additional touch up from time to time; it may also never really stay looking good for long. Too soon to tell. I also tested some of the paint on the set of seats I took out of the car. I'm a bit concerned about it coming off on my clothes for obvious reasons... I sprayed some on the bottom of the driver's seat and shortly after rubbed it pretty vigorously with a paper towel. The paper towel shredded more than the paint let go, but there was a small amount of color on the paper towel. It's had some time to dry now, so I'll go back at it later with a clean wash cloth to see how it holds up. On the whole though, the paper towel test leaves me optimistic.

So there's my initial impressions. I'm still attempting to round up the pieces I'm still missing, and photos will come when I get a little further (at least wrap up the door panels).

driftxsequence

iTrader: (8)

I've been using the duplicolor gloss black vinyl/interior paint and it does a really great job. HOWEVER! I only use it on non-touches surfaces. I use it on the A and B pillar trim, I would use it on the headliner since it doesnt get touched, as well as the rear wrap around trim by the speaker covers. I wont use it on carpet or the kick panels since they tend to see a lot of wear and stuff. It's just easier to find the black parts for that in my opinion. Not knockin' what you've done. It is 91% better than before check out www.lrbspeed.com for the dash trim pieces. He is making the triangle and demister vents out of aluminum instead of plastic!!! I painted mine black and you would REALLY have to look to know they arent the factory pieces



Did you take any photos of the AC control when you pulled it apart? My fan only turns on when you slide it half way, and a few of the bulbs are out for the options. It's really starting to bug me now that the rest of the interior is coming together.

spectre6000

iTrader: (1)

I figured if it didn't work, like you said that stuff is cheap. If I care enough down the road, I have a backup. In the meantime, it was cheap, easy, and I'd rather try to save the original kit than bin it. It's funny you mention the aluminum vents, I actually started on patterns for a steel set Friday night. I didn't get a chance to do much more than required maintenance this weekend, but that and the triangle vents in steel are near term. I do see that the aluminum defroster vents have the louvres pointed the wrong way such that they wouldn't work very well... Very cool all the same. I'm not going to try too hard to copy the original design, just make it fit, look good, and be functional.

I did not take photos of the AC control beyond what I posted. Various lights on mine were out as well, and so on. I just resoldered it in the same way as the rest of the getup. No real surprises. No need to understand exactly what was going on. I did it in my physicist friend's shop with his test equipment, and we verified that the LEDs were still good, but that was it beyond just desolder/resolder. I still haven't dug back into my CPU to see where the short is... The car is running and not beeping at me too intolerably, so that dropped considerably on the priority list.

spectre6000

iTrader: (1)

Long time, super busy, lots going on. A bit of wrenching, work stuff, summer activities, that sort of thing. I ultimately got the interior completely recolored minus the seats, seat belts and luggage straps (the latter two I actually think looked good with the contrasting color). I was still missing the triangle vents, interior mirror covers, steering column cluster, and diagnostic cover cluster, and had just fabricated some steel defroster vents.

Ultimately, common sense got the better of me. I went with the RX7 initially because, even though it's down with a cracked block, I already had a truck and getting a second didn't make a lot of sense. The flip side of that is that with the truck down, I still need a truck from time to time, and an RX7 is pretty lousy for transporting engines, transmissions, sheet stock, etc. I put it up on CL for trade, and got an offer for an '81 K10 that seemed to be note for note identical to my RX7 in terms of mechanical condition. With the considerably simpler and more robust carbureted SBC, and the fact that if anything short of the engine itself breaks, I have an entire spare truck to pull from if I need to. Additionally, there are some parts on the K10 that might actually be upgrades for my existing truck.

So as I write this, I'm fresh out of the shower and there's a new to me truck sitting in the driveway with a freshly signed title and freshly passed emissions test. I really enjoyed the RX7, and owning a rotary was definitely a bucket list item. I'm glad I did it. It was a seriously tight little engine, and the new owner will no doubt enjoy the hell out of it! It was a seriously fun car, and I totally understand all the enthusiasm. Life does what it does though, and I've gotta move on.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

That car was trouble from the start.

It's a shame you never got the honeymoon phase of ownership; that time, however brief, when all seems cool and possibilities are rosy.
But no, you got tsunamied by myriad stupid, obscure problems and weirdness.

I'm sure MechaTruk will keep you entertained.

spectre6000

iTrader: (1)

My very honest hope is that it's as boring as possible so I can focus on the original truck. Good compression, good oil pressure (at least according to the gauge), very few moving parts, and zero learning curve. That particular rx7 was especially troublesome, and I hope this truck is the opposite. Turns out, my wife really likes the truck too, so that's a huge bonus.