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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
07-17-23, 09:50 PM
87 Turbo II Project (Documenting for future use)
