Ok so I had posted some of these when I first joined the forum. However for the sake of documentation, and to see how far its come I'm gonna be making a thread here.
This is my 1987 Turbo II Rx7. Bought it as a rolling shell for $1900 back on June 26th 2023, Car was originally sunrise red but has been painted at least once to the crappy flaking white. Upon getting the car back
home I gave her a washdown and found some rust on the pinch weld under the rear hatch weather seal. (See reuploaded images)






As of a few days ago I got a battery into the car to see what electronics work. Had to get a new negative battery cable and splice a new positive terminal on as well. Upon hooking up the battery and flipping some switches and turning some ****, I have headlights (which do go both up and down very well), rear running lights, and hazards, blinkers don't work and neither do brake lights. Neither window will go up nor down and the Sunroof motor is shot.


Following this I began the teardown of the interior which leads us to now. As of 20 Minutes ago I have most of the interior stripped. all that remains is the dash, steering wheel, and wiring. Fortunately i did not find any rust under the Rear Buckets, However i did find a hole in the drivers floor well near the dead pedal. it looks to have been a combination of the sunroof drain hose, the cracked windshield and possibly a jack on already weakened metal that cause the hole. Regardless those areas will be patched. I will also need to source an entire sunroof as the frame has some spots that have rusted through. As evident by the pictures she is hella dirty and will need to be vacuumed out yet again.




The next steps are sort of a tossup as to what is more important to do. Im torn between getting the car into a body shop to fix the rust (I don't know how to weld and don't want to mess things up on this car.) OR if i should focus on getting the Engine and Transmission (If I can find them for a decent price in my area) as well as an ecu and EM harness to boot. either way this is gonna be a long term project and I'm putting together a half assed parts list. Either way updates will come to this eventually.

 

Cool man, looks like you got your work cutout for you. But just keep at it!

 

For that type of rust repair, you would probably be able to DIY it if you can weld decently. But if you want someone else to do it, I would recommend seeing if there is someone locally who will weld it for you instead of a body-shop.

Several years ago I had two similar holes in my floor (long before I had the knowledge on how to fix it myself) and took them to a local guy. He did a pretty complete repair for about $120. He even replicated the contours in the factory floor (way overkill, I would have just welded in a flat panel). The only thing I had to do was the paint and undercoat.

Body-shops near me won't look at a job for less than $1k. Insurance work is too plentiful and pays too well for small jobs to be worth their time, so I get it.

Best of luck, I look forward to reading more

 

Got any updates for us?

 

Soon. Working on cutting down the old paint will have an update probably next week

 

Ok so be a minute soooo.
Nothing has really changed, Ive started to sand down the paint, the old sunrise red has been painted over at least twice in some areas. Right now im slowly working on that as funds are tight after i hit a toolbox in my daily driver ( 08 GTI). otherwise nothing much else has changed. Im trying to decide if i want to update the car to s5 trims and bumpers since all the aftermarket stuff has s5 trim, but since everybody does the swap, i might just leave it and paint match the trim, dunno yet.


Interior wise is slightly different, today i tore out the idiot array, gauge cluster, and its surround. The dash is well beyond saving so that's already on the list to be replaced. Otherwise everything else minus the drivers seat, dash, door cards, and steering wheel have been gutted out. I'm torn on weather I want to go back with the Grey Interior or swap to a black setup. I also have a ecu for the car that from what i researched shoul;d work (N340) but i need a new ecu mounting bracket as the one that was in the car rusted away




the engine bay is still empty, in fact its going to be more empty, as im going to be ripping everything out, so that i can address the surface rust under the brake master cylinder as that had been leaking. otherwise im keeping my eyes on a few engines that are local to me that im hoping will still be around that the first of the year. There is a complete s5 motor and trans setup, but im unsure if i will go for that because of how much I would need to do to have it work with my s4 stuff either way im hoping to have an engione either ready to go in the car or ready for rebuild by early next year.



Otherwise yeah its a extremally slow process not being able to have the car up in my garage since my drive way has a 10 degree banking but progress is progress. The list above may seem short and not very detailed, but i dont really have much to go offf of untill i start getting things in. also the sunroof is currently duct tapped from the outside since i think its leaking will have to check when it starts raining again.

 

I also pulled the fuel tank too outside looks fine but inside has some rust. Im going to see if it will clean up but there are no guarantees on it

 

Alright another 2 months pass and no large updates. Got the car up into the garage finally so full teardown is able to begin. The front of the car has a little bit of damage from what looks like possibly running up on a curb or parking block. i might see about trying to hammer it back into its basic shape as some of the mounts for the front bumper are messed up. The fenders, rear bumper and tail lights have also been removed. Luckily there is no extra rust other than what i have already found on the car.



speaking of the rust, i recently picked up a hatch frame to replace the rotted out one. All that needs to be done for that is to get the glass transferred over. I also got a new bushing kit from Energy suspension that will be going on the car eventually. At the current point in time im debating stripping the entre car down to just a bare frame and sending it off for sandblasting, rust repair, and painting, or go down the route of fixing the rust, and getting only the exterior and engine bay painted. I want to do it right but at the same time its going to prolong the build out even farther. The benefits is that i can then redo all the brake lines, fuel lines and any wiring that needs to be addressed, Downside is that i have to remove everything and attempt to remember to document everything to make things easier. i also need to locate a shop that might be able to do that here in North Texas. But thats all for this update.

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Good evening to those that stumble across this. I am back with very minor updates to my last post. the state of the car has not drastically changed and she still doesn't have a motor or transmission (The original setup that was pulled for the car for another project sold before i could pick it up) however some cosmetic parts have been picked up.
First and most importantly are a set of Series 5 Front and Rear bumpers that need some cracks repaired (Entire car will be in for body work hopefully soon) I have also picked up a set of fiberglass reproduction S5 turbo II side skirts and the door and fender trims. so now the aero that will be going on the car is all Series 5.

Rear bumper with some black tape where the crack is.

The Reproduction side skirts.

Front fender part of the side skirt.

In the lighting department i Got a set of factory new S5 turn signal housing and lenses for the front bumper. They are the JDM ones (No running lights) so I'm also going to have to order the FTP lights (not the lens version of the usdm cars), with that comes with the fact i will have to rewire some parts since the connector is a 2 pin T type plug. I also ordered a set of Factory NEW S5 taillights with all the seals that hopefully will be in here soon.

S5 Turn signal Housing and lenses

I also have a Full Bushing kit from Energy Suspension that will be getting installed at some point before the car is up and running.

Bushings

So that leaves the question of what will my next post (probably in 2 months) be. Well i hoping to get the car into a body shop to get the rust fixed and have the car resprayed. I've decided that the car is going back to red, but not the Sunrise Red. I really want to go with the later Blaze Red as it doesn't have a odd Orange coloration. That will also allow for the side skirts to be properly fitted and get some work done to them. After that is the Interior. I'm going to rip out all the heater and ac stuff prior to getting a new dash (black or grey) , which is something I am actively looking for. I will also be ordering a carpet kit for the car soon, probably after i get a dash so i know if I'm going toa black interior or sticking with the grey. After that will be the big ticket items of engine and transmission. To run it I'm probably going to get a power FC and the adapter kit from Banzai. As for engine and transmission it will more than likely be a JDM S5 engine that will have some things changed (Namely OMP). And Before it even goes into the car its going to be rebuilt so that everything is fresh and will run good. As for modifications Im wanting to do the HKS Silent High power paired with a Racing Beat REV TII sown pipe. Turbo setup will either be stock or a slight better flowing turbo (Undecided) I'm Not wanting anything over 300hp so stock stuff with minor boltons should be fine. but thats the plan as it sits.

As of today (Feb 28th 2024) I am now up to a total of $4283 (USD) including the cost of the car. I already know I'm going to be sinking a decent chunk of change into this project but its my dream car and I will see it through so i can enjoy it. Anyways that is my Bimonthly Update on the status of the 87 Turbo II Project. Till next time Yall.

 

Your plan looks good! Keep the momentum rolling.
Best of luck on finding a good dash, they're getting difficult to track down. You can always consider dying/painting a dash that didn't come black or grey if you find one in exceptional shape. I've used SEM interior paint on multiple projects and it's always turned out really nice. It's not the BEST solution, but people sitting on black dashes seem to think they're gold.

 

So its been about 4 months since my last post. Unfortunately the FC is kind of on the back burner at the moment. Recently my Daily drive (2008 VW GTI) became more of a money pit (couldn't make it 2 miles without breaking down or throwing a CEL) than it was worth so I ended up trading it in for a new GR86. With that being said not much has really changed on the car.

However that is not to say some things haven't changed. I have notched the passenger side for the S5 taillights just to get an idea on how they would fit. I still haven't done the driver side yet.

S5 tail light test fitting
I also got a set of new S5 mirrors from Atkins Rotary. Ended up test fitting both sides. more recently the driver side since I've been able to get the car spun around in the garage. I've also been test fitting the Re Production Trim and S5 turbo 2 side skirts which are gonna require quite a bit of work to get right. The trim is sunk in on the back side so it needs to have some more material built up behind it to make it flush with the bumper molding and the body lines. The side skirts are a bit off too. I'm not sure how they are meant to sit. I haven't found any images of cars that came with the factory skirts with the door open to see if the skirt cups around the rocker and into the door jam area. Im also going to start looking for a set of S5 fenders to see if it allows the front part of the skirt to sit a little better, as it sits a bit off (you can see in the pictures what i mean).

rear 1/4 view

the rear part of the skirt held up with tape

front section. Notice the gap between the edge of the skirt half and the fender part. need to see if thats correct

Doesnt look quite right on the S4 fender to me

The skirt and new Mirror lightly in place to see how they look. (yes those are Z32 wheels. Yes i plan on getting something nicer. maybe r32 GTR wheels?)
So yeah otherwise not much done. With Texas summer coming into its stride, progress is gonna slow. Next steps are (When its cool outside) to finish stripping the engine bay and get it and the body sanded down for rust repair, paint and the works. Find a Turbo II motor (hopefully s5 but doesn't really matter to me) or go REW (more money though) then get the Interior sorted. But yeah that is the update for now. See yall again in "X" amount of months when stuff changes again

 

Good update, keep at it.

 

I will be tackling the skirt work on my S4 at some point too. I am having trouble seeing what you are seeing. I am on my phone though so....

The trim price on the skirt will need cut off unless you go full S5.

There is a picture in this thread that I started of S5 skirt on an S4. It is a screen shot and not close up. It is a decent picture though.

https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generati.../#post12604039

I will follow along here, thanks for the pictures.

 

Yeah I plan on going full S5. I already have bumpers and some Reproduction trim made of FRP (side skirts are same material) the pictures are not great (shot on my phone) so its kind of hard to convey. The main things I'm questioning is if the skirt naturally curls up into the door jam towards the front of the car. I just took a few more images to kind of help convey what I'm meaning. hopefully they are decent enough to suffice. Also do they actually stick out a decent amount towards where the fender part will be. From looking at the image gallery of a Factory S5 TII car with the skirts its hard to tell.






The best way i can put it is that towards the rear it is more flush with what would be the body edge of the rocker panel, and as it nears the fender it cups around and into the door jam area. Honestly i might just take the car to a body shop to have them do everything. part of me really doesn't want to as id much rather learn most of this stuff (plus I've heard some of the horror story's of cars never getting done in the body shop or being destroyed) IDK maybe i have OCD and im seeing things that arnt a problem but i do want to make sure everything will be as close to perfect as i can get before paint and stuff if that makes sense.

The blue line is the edge of the skirt while the Red line is the edge of the door jam. They slowly converge towards the front of the car. As if the skirt is wrapping up and around the rocker panel to meet with the jam area

 

Thank you for the pictures. I will have to tackle this myself at some point. I am not a body man by any stretch of the imagination. I would say, how does it look with doors closed? If you are satisfied with the look, how would it be attached? If it looks good to you and there isn't a good way to attach the part, adjust and start again. Also, these aftermarket parts, from what I have read, do not have great fitment. In some instances, the part prep work will be significant. This is extra work done before the part is even attached like trimming of spots that keep it from lining up correctly. Hopefully the piece inside the door jam gets somewhat hidden by the kick strip or whatever you call it. That does not look good at all.

 

Should be straight across (blue line.) Fit the fender piece too. That will tell you if you need to move the rocker pannel's front outward or if you just need to cut/sand the top to make the line even. It should be straight down the rocker panel.

 

with mine, i bought the clips, https://www.amayama.com/en/part/mazda/fc1751ps1a for the bottom, and the screws 9973-40-512
and then you can bolt it on the car on the bottom side and then see where you need to go from there

 

Thanks, as soon as I read this, it was pretty obvious that this is the way forward. I read about spoiler hardware and others on here. I instantly remembered how important it is.

I checked and at least one of these screws/brackets are available in the states.

 

Ok so I'm now having a dilemma for future decisions on the FC project. The decision I'm trying to make up my mind on is what color do i want to go with, right now im throwing around 4 Color options (picture of each for reference). No bare in mind the car was originally red but that paint has long since been lost, However the 4 Options I'm leaning towards are Blaze Red, Crystal White, Shadow Silver Metallic, or Shade Green/Noble Green Mica. Now i have already purchased Factory New door Mirrors in Blaze Red (only these and black were available as the rest are NLA), which would have to be sanded and repainted for the other color options. I keep jumping back and forth between the red and white, which after going to the DFW 7s day Rotary Meet, i discovered are the 2 most popular colors (Red had the most and the only white ones were 10th ae cars) anyways throughts?

Shadow Silver Metalic

Blaze Red

Crystal White

Shade Green?

Noble Green Mica?

 

If your doing a complete reapray of a different color than the original, why are you limiting yourself to factory color options?

 

For the most part I'm wanting to keep the car OEM+. There are a lot of colors that I like outside the car but it's not the direction I'm wanting to go. So far the only non OEM (for the fc at least) paint color that I've considered has been Montego Blue from the FD. Honestly I'm leaning towards the blaze red since the interior color is also red (sunrise red) and also because the Mirrors are already painted and cleared in Blaze Red. Only reason why I'm not sold on Blaze Red is because of the amount that I've seen in that color.

 

my opinion:
you can't go wrong with white, it just looks great. the UC Crystal White, is the 10AE/S5 color
the SQ Blaze Red is really great too, there are a couple of really nice ones that show up to shows around here, and they just pop

i like the Gray, and the GU Shade Green, but mine is Brave Blue, and it kind of blends.

well, if you want something that pops, and sticks out, go for Red or White. if you want something cool, any would work
if you ask me today, i'd do white, although red is tempting, and my car is blue, and its probably going to stay blue, lol

 

There's a guy on instagram with a very clean FC painted a color very similar to Montego Blue. It looks great on the FC. His handle is dl_kluv

I repainted my arctic silver FC in the same color, but added gold flake so it pops in the sun. I quite like it, but I might paint it some other color down the road when I do a full resto on the car.

 

Alright where to start. Firstly I've decided on just sticking to the Blaze Red. I Already have mirrors pre painted and i really don't feel like adding onto getting those redone, I'm also going to black interior and was able to pick up a vert dash is Ok shape. I plan to reach out to Just Dashes to get a quote on a full restoration on the vinyl and see if they can fix the cracks in the plastics. Also now that its no longer a furnace outside (for now at least) i was able to get some work done. Wass able to get the headlight buckets and motors disconnected. I'm going to have to drill out some of the screws holding the metal cover on, so i figured id might as well remove the whole thing. luckily they were pretty easy. Got the front Fiberglass Crash support bar off as well one of the bolts snapped on the bracket but I'm gonna see about replacing it with a aftermarket crash bar. Also got the break booster off so now i can see how bad the rust is underneath. Luckily it appears to only be rusty on the frame rail, And I'm hoping its all solid. i did take the back of a socket wrench and bang it up against it and it seems to be solid but I'm going to sand it out anyways. And as the final thing i got the Front Body harness out of the car. which was a PITA to do. All that's left in the engine bay are a few misc. brackets and the Clutch Cylinder. so we are one step close to getting the car prepped for body work. Next might be cleaning up the inside, I'm probably not gonna fully strip it, but i do plan to remove all the old sound deadening and replacing it with nicer stuff after I get the rust hole in the floor fixed. Also the steering column has also been removed and currently sits in my driver seat. There is also some damage from what i can only guess was a parking Curb. the very bottom support where the bumper and fender mount to has been pushed up and over on both sides. these are wither going to have to be pulled out on a frame machine or just completely replaced.(Insert Images of all the stuff above)






Also I've Decided on a direction i want to take a car. i happened across an article on Narita Dogfight (link will be at the end if you want to read it. Anyways there were 2 pictures of the guys FC prior to it being wrecked at TS1000 and i got very inspired by the way it looked. Its described as a "a track build that wouldn’t sacrifice his enjoyment of street driving the car.", which is how I'm wanting to set up my own FC. Now im pretty sure the car is wide bodied (the front fenders for sure) but the rears look to be a molded wide body kit. Regardless i now have a image im going to shoot for when it comes to my car


I'm planning on Getting a feed front lip and the RE Amemiya Rear wing (don't know if I'm going to do the FRP or the carbon (Probably the FRP)) I don't think I'm going to do the rear diffuser though. but only time will tell. Anyways that has been all for this update see yall in the next

Link to the dogfight Article if yall want to read it :https://thenaritadogfight.com/2023/0...ream-realized/

 

Alright everyone it been a minute (6 months?), Anyways so a few updates, the project is still moving slowly. Regardless 2 big pieces have been acquired with a 3rd big piece being picked up on Saturday.

So the first big piece was a extremely clean and near pristine gray dash. It even still has the passenger side speaker which is wild on how large it is. I plan to order the S5 bezels for it as well as a Mooneyes dash cover just to keep it looking nice.

the grey dash in question, There is only one broken tag, and mounting point near the shifter is slightly cracked, either way really nice.

The next one i picked up last weekend. The FC finally has a motor! The motor is a JDM S4 Turbo motor, It has good compression (as far as i know of. correct me if im wrong)(Compression Numbers F: 103, 101, 97 / R: 102, 100, 93). Regardless im still probably going to have it rebuilt just for piece of mind. No transmission though which is kinda a bummer but ill find one eventually.

The new (to me) motor. the aluminum parts are a little rough, so if anyone has some suggestions on getting it cleaned up let me know. Otherwise i think its a good starting place for the build.

Next up to get is a new pair of doors I'm picking up this Saturday, not much else to say other than they wont be dented and messed up like the current pair that reside on the car. But yeah just a shorter update, still slowly working on sanding down the body so i can get it painted and the trouble areas fixed. Other than that just slowly knocking down the list, still toying with a few things like wings and bumpers other than that the car is progressing as intended-ish, 2 year in and i finally have a motor.