Now, during all of this, I was prepping and painting the driver fender and front bumper. I took off the bumper last year and almost immediately started to sand it....



with 60 grit sand paper. I not soon enough realized how big of a mistake I had made. I then hit it by hand with 400 and saw all of the deep scratches that I made. I attempted a lousy fix to the crack on the lower left of the above picture. It worked ok and will likely re crack later. I then left it sit for another year kicking myself for even trying to paint this bumper.

I also sanded the fender with 60 grit and lower grits but still had scratches. I was a little less dejected considering, this had to be done with such a deep dent.



I took a hammer to the back side of the dent and there still was bending around that area. From an earlier post you might remember that I bought another fender to bypass fixing the dent. The dent in that fender was in a worse spot so, I committed to this one a year after I started.

The first 10 minutes that I started, it was about to rain. I was dodging rain for two days trying to get this done. It did get better later in the week, though.

The first coat of primer on the fender revealed the deep scratches so, I went and bought sand-able filler spray. This went pretty well until I realized that I should have put bondo or glass over the dent first. I tried glass first, it dried very fast and went on terrible. I sanded it by hand trying to match the curve of the panel, it didn't work. I ended up sanding almost all of it off. I then tried bondo carefully and did manage to sand the curve almost perfect. I then added more filler, sanded and was ready for paint... wait... I forgot that the filler was not primer. By this time I had the original primer and lousy top coat sanded, the lousy black primer and the filler. The only color that I haven't used yet was the reddish primer or white, in lacquer anyway.

I chose white, this was a gigantic mistake, I found out later. I wet sanded this primer and was ready to add the lower fender protection from the factory. You know on S4's, the textured bit. I don't care for it but the fender needed it to match the rest of the car. I looked all over this site for what this stuff was called. The best that I could find was "body shutz" or similar. When we still had a automotive paint store locally last year, I walked in and asked for it by that name. He said to wait a minute and I will get you what you need.



It turns out, this is the stuff. For anyone looking to match up the look without repainting the whole car, this is perfect.

As for my project, I taped the fender after measuring the other fender. I sprayed the first coat after I protected the rest of the fender from overspray. I them let it dry some, three things happened, the wind caught the paper used to protect the fender, pulled up the tape and smeared some of the coat that I put on. I had moved the fender from my makeshift work station outside under the trees for better light. I forgot to move it back off the top of my garbage cans before I sprayed so, my can tops are partially black with heavy smears from trying to clean it off. And... I realized the my tape job had not been high enough on the door side of the fender and it needed redone higher.

I re taped and sprayed over the other layer and it sort of hid the mistakes, just not super well. Up close you could tell, at a distance, it was ok. So, I just decided to let it dry and added one more coat of primer and a light wet sand. Then things really went off the rails, badly.

I hadn't yet started to paint before I realized that two cans of color match paint would not be enough to paint this fender let alone both the fender and the bumper. I have no idea what I was thinking last year when I ordered this paint. Such a huge mistake but I moved on anyway. Immediately, I noticed that this year old paint was not spraying very well. Metal flake, year old paint, a lousy spray pattern, white primer and a light breeze spelled doom. After the paint cans were exhausted it was as rough as sandpaper, you could still see bleed through of the white primer and it was still a few cans of paint from ever possibly being finished. I just said screw it, and loaded two cans of clear on top without sanding and gave up.

All of that work for a fixed dent, that's it. Well.. I sprayed the back of the fender with appliance paint.. that was it. I left it sit for at least 3 or four days for the laguer to dry, sanded it and just spray primer-ed it black. I then looked for store spray paint that was close in color. With the metal flake in the paint and the yellowed nature of the clear coat. nothing was close enough. It doesn't help the falke paint on these cars color shift slightly depending on light.


Now I have a black fender. I tried.... and failed. assembly came later.

 

I had started the fender first and just jumped between the fender and bumper while paint was drying. At this point the fender was white and looking not too bad. so I moved on to adding the lip spoiler that I bought. I ended up with the LMR Mustang spoiler, not ideal but cheap. many others were cheap materials, this one was ABS plastic so, I bought it.

This spiler seemed to fit almost like it was made for this bumper. the width of the mating surfaces mated up perfectly and the middle of the bumper and the middle of the lip had holes for mounting. What a great place to start. I added M6x1.0 body clips to the fender and added the first screw. I then marked the holes on the lip where the clips would go until I reached the corners.



I slowly worked side to side working my way to the corners and then I stopped. This is where releif cuts would need made. I assumed making the bends with a more solid bumper would be best. so, I stopped there and let the the pieces sit after taking them apart, until I got the engine back together.

 

With the gasket parts delivered, I went to work on the injectors. I decided to take off the EGR block off plate... guess what? there was no Mazda Grey on the gasket side of the plate. I had issues with the fuel rail going on because of this plate. I did not take it off because I did not want to trash the gasket. Had I known this, I would have never broke the injector gaskets because it would have not been in the way.
I now had space to get everything lined up correctly, still not super easy but better than before. I then added the grey to the EGR plate and tightened it down. I then finally thought of a way to test for leaks. I just bypassed the secondary rail and just looped the main one. I jumpered the fuel check connector and tested for leaks, it was good. Afterwards, I thought that maybe I hadn't done this correctly but it was after I had...

cleaned up the mating surfaces of the LIM and the UIM. Added the new gasket with some Mazda Grey. Then I assembled the rest of the intake, vacuum hoses, throttle body , fan and shroud. I then started the car... it ran terribly.

I checked for a fuel leak again and more fuel.... not much but there. I took a screw driver and a rag, cleaned up the gas in the valley. It never came back again. The car ran ok, still no leaks.
So, I did a smoke test and found that the vacuum line to the AWS was off, much better but still not great. I ran the code test and found that I forgot to connect the altitude sensor near the ECU. Luckily I thought ahead and left this area disassembled. With these two things, it was running acceptably but being cautious I tested sensors and switches from the ECU. I found this...


The clutch switch was missing the stop. It hits the side and then goes right through the hole. I never checked the lockout! I taped a penny over the hole and moved on. After being fairly confident all was good, it was time to warm up the car. As it was warming I probed the TPS at the ECU and flushed the cooling system with the heater on and added the two lights to the connector. When warm, I adjusted the idle until the newly painted timing marks were spot on.



I took the picture with the engine off.

I then set the TPS to about 1vdc at the ECU and verified with the lights. When this was done, Almost absolute perfection!! There is just a very slight something? possibly the leaking BAC. I had never heard this engine run this well... ever. I had this running well after the first tear down and still had the small miss after I adjusted everything as above. With the leaking injector the miss was very similar sounding to the air leak at the injector before tear down. It ran well, didn't stall out anymore but still had the miss.

With everything sealed up, this is likely as good as it will get without a properly functioning BAC.

I will not miss the days of feathering the throttle at stop lights.

What a relief this all worked out, it was time for the new cats to be bolted up.

This next section started a new batch of failure....

 

This seems to be applicable, even though there's some setbacks, you're making forward progress.

 

Yeah, I was a bit salty last week. I had another issue that took me out of driving the car for two weeks. It was a great attitude adjustment to put some miles driving the car again yesterday.

 

I left off on this thread the second Saturday after the 4th of July. I worked most of the day to get everything tested and running. Late in the evening, I started to put on the new cats. I started with the rear cat(main) and worked forward, adding gaskets, muffler paste and the new hardware. The light was fading fast and I wanted to go see fireworks with family. I got everything bolted up realizing that I had probably bought hardware that was way too big. I worked right up the the start of fireworks on my back bolting this up and... it was leaking, a lot.

I called it quits and watched what I could of the fireworks from my front yard. On Monday, after work, I started again with smaller hardware, from the rear cat to the front for it to leak again. Tuesday, I removed everything and started at the front, one by one. The first cat was hitting the heat shield, which made the second one very tight getting in. As the second one was tightened it pulled down on the first one a good bit. As the third on was added it pulled it down more. It also was shifted sideways and to far back. I ended up taking a ratchet strap, looping it around the rear tow hooks and pulling the rear exhaust backward to give me some space.




The beginning of the exhaust was to high and pushed toward the driver side. I did get everything bolted up and the exhaust manifold leaked. This was from me pulling down on it as it tightened it. I stuffed the manifold connection with exhaust paste. It was better the next day but still leaked. I panicked and ordered a down pipe from racing beat just in case and continued to work.

I had scheduled an alignment for Thursday so, this all needed done and I still needed a license plate and insurance. I was hoping that I would have been able to have the inspection on Saturday but that idea was abandoned, quickly.

 

Looking at pictures, all of this following and above happened with Sunday off, otherwise every hour until bed time, after work was spent getting this car ready. I still needed to get the blower back in and everything on the passenger side screwed together.
I added some new closed cell foam.




There is more to do and this looks ok, I suppose. If you want to see a good tear down of this, check out @WondrousBread 's build thread. He does a great job with this.

With that buttoned up, I need to get the coolant system flushed one last time and filled. That went pretty well and was way less contaminated than before. I will flush it again sometime before next spring.

I finally got my new fuse block mounting surface installed. Many special thanks to @KansasCityREPU for getting this made. I really am terrible at measuring and he was absolutely clutch in getting this done. I wish that I could have giving him more money than I did with all the time spent. I used the heavy metal one.



This is before I drilled holes to screw it down and finished the battery hook ups. All is well with this, fuse setup, too. The black/yellow wire was removed from the block to complete the star grounding. That wire was from the firewall. I added one from the engine to the firewall so, this wasn't needed anymore.
The power wire to the passenger compartment will likely be removed and added to the engine fuse box, without a fuse. There was never a fuse there anyway.

 

I needed to get my rims/tires on so, during this I cleaned the rims with a brass brush and scrubbed with a scotchbright pad. I the look at my hub caps and selected the best four.



I put on the rear wheels and proceeded to put on the fender and front bumper cover after painting it with black primer and adding new hardware.



The fender went on pretty well all considered. The front bumper was tricky, due to the location of the very top screw on either side.



The passenger side was fairly easy in comparison to the driver side. The last person in there skipped adding the screw so, I added one in. I then finished the lip spoiler, I needed some relief cuts but worked pretty good. or so I thought. Also, as I write this, I realized that I forgot to put in the front bumper Styrofoam. Doh..... That's going to have to wait for later.

Next was the under-tray. There is a bit too much foam on the bottom of the radiator. The tray needed squeezed onto the bottom of the car. I also saw a few spots where the foam needs trimmed, too. With that in, it was time to add in coolant and the front tires. That went well too, as far as I knew then.

I had already got the registration and license plate earlier after work so, at 9pm or so, around the block I went. It was interesting....

The clutch is almost gone. In fairness it was like that 30,000 miles ago and I am easy on clutches so, fingers crossed. The front tires had flat spots and the car barely stopped. I needed to stand on the brakes to stop. It was good enough to get it to the shop for the alignment. I thought that on the drive the brakes would break in and start working better. Also, I could hear a slight clunk when when braking with a tsss....tsss....tsss sound as I drove.

I called for backup, someone to follow me over and dropped the car off. The brakes did not get better.

I went home and was thinking about what could be wrong. Just before bed...... it hit me like a ton of bricks.... when I put the new hose and one way valve on the brake booster, I had put it on backwards! I was driving the car without power assist. At 11:15 at night, I drove to the shop in the dark with tools to turn the hose around. It was better but the brakes needed broke in yet.

Also, at some point during this, I had replaced the inner tie rod boots, one didn't fit. I turns out, there are two different sizes, at least from Nappa anyway. Pay attention to the part #'s. I switched them around and it worked perfectly.

BTW, I needed to be finished by Thursday for a Friday alignment. I was off by a day.

 

Friday afternoon hits and I get there to pay my bill and leave the car for later when someone can take me back and follow me home. I got there and tested the brakes in the gravel lot. I heard the clunk with initial braking in reverse and forward. Good enough to get home. I drive and felt the flat spots in the front tires and something getting worse. When I got on the brakes, I got a shudder initially. This felt just like loose lug nuts!! I pulled over in a housing development and got out the spare tire kit and used the very short bar to check the nuts. Yup, some almost fell off. I must have been in such a hurry, I forgot to torque the nuts. I got pretty lucky here and got out unharmed.

Unfortunately, my front wheel alignment was off as a result. This was a locally owned national chain and when I looked at my paperwork, I got no print of the before and after service.

Also, I forgot to mention that I took those old front wheels to be checked over and balanced, I had them put the weights on the inside. Wrong..... the weight on the driver side hit the caliper and fell off. The sound I heard repeating... was the other front weight hitting the caliper.

At this point, I was finally mostly broke and couldn't replace the tires. I would just need a solution for the exhaust and I would just get the tires re-balanced at the inspection place the next Sat.

 

By Monday I called around about exhaust work about adding the down pipe or making one and the best stainless shop refused as it was not original equipment. He could get fined $10,000 if he got caught. A couple other calls were similar to the first. So, I took apart the connection leaking at the manifold, removed the old paste and just started to slop as much of the paste that would fit, tightened the connection. I waited until the next day and it actually worked. These cats are so terrible, to be legal, I needed them and I didn't see any other setup that was affordable that would keep me legal. So ugly looking...



I have a feeling that I need to loosen the manifold and see if it will tilt down some. This could fix the problem. I suppose we'll see when the race pipe is installed.

I drive the car to get inspected and the tires balanced, it passed and I went for a celebratory take-away lunch. While there I noticed the front driver tire was low. This tire was balanced 10lbs low on pressure. More fun.... I stupidly decided that 38lbs was good for all tires. I was driving not a a quarter mile and the front left tire started to leak out all the air. I pulled over in scorching heat in a parking lot, with for my celebratory lunch getting stale and changed the tire. Luckily the spare had just enough air to get home. Check your spares everyone!! I was pretty deflated, pardon the pun. I knew that I was broke then and could not drive until I got new tires for the front.

Why I ever trusted 15+ year old tires is beyond me. I guess that I was just being cheap at the end. Also, the tires were $150 a piece when I bought them so.... at half tread life, I was hoping for the best.

 

There reason the funds were low is because I panicked and ordered the down pipe, just in the event that I needed it and it was three inches short of the rear cat. Not to mention, shipping was very slow, too.

I also ordered new floor mats. The stock ones were shot. For the 30,000 miles that I drove this, I had to keep pulling the mat in the driver foot well backwards at every second that I could reach it.




I ordered the cheap race mats because of the price and they look cool with the finish line checkered pattern. Funny enough, when I looked at SCCA rules, the first thing that they do for race prep, is remove floor mats. I still don't have them in yet as the floors need deep cleaned first,then you add velcro to keep them in place.

Next on the "made me broke" list was the panel the goes in to cover the dead spot between the radiator and the bumper. This was supposed to be there before the inspection and it was two weeks after that, it arrived. I drove the car without anything there, including the stock pieces on a 90 degree day. The car had pretty stable heat, just a tiny bump when hammering on the throttle. I just turned on the heater to help some. When it finally came in, there wasn't a big difference in feel or temperature either. It does look good though.

Edit: I forot to mention that I totally screwed up the front bering tightening. When I checked them, the nuts were kind of loose. I suppose that I didn'tuse the scale correctly. I just tightened the nut until the play was gone in the bearing and spindle. It seemed to work but I could trash the spindle this way so..... more to come on this later.

Now, the wait was on for new front tires so I could drive the car again.

 

Nice job on the AC box refurbish. That looks like a good quality of life improvement.

 

I wish it were true in the summer time. I did not mention that the air conditioning did not make it through many years of storage. It always worked from 2003 until 2011 with no issues. I will get both sides pressure tested before I take it out. If it holds pressure well enough, it stays, if not, it goes. So far, the belt is gone.

Now, in the fall, having windows that defrost better, that is a quality of life situation, for sure. Unfortunately too, right now, the damper motor, or whatever you call the motor that switches from hot to cold., does not work. I tried a different logicon and still nothing. It stopped working before I parked the car. I released the actuator rod just by feeling around up there and I move it by hand now. I was getting pretty good at finding it while at stop lights. Not so much anymore.

 

Like I mentioned earlier, the thread I brought up is way better. There is still a moving door on here that needs fixed and maybe more. I will do a full refurbish on my spare, just in case I break it while trying.

I wish it was a quality of life thing in the summer. This AC worked after someone else stored this car when I got it in 2003 until 2011 or so. Now, the AC does not work after years of storage. I removed the belt and have left the broken damper set to heat. I am still a bit shaky trusting the cooling system yet. Being able to bleed heat off the engine is very useful.

Also, the damper is broken, despite swapping in a different logicon. It's been broken since before I parked the car. I reached under the dash and by feel, removed the damper rod connection and I move it by hand when necessary. I was getting pretty good at switching from cold to hot at stop signs and lights. Not so much anymore.

Now, in a rain storm or in the fall, having windows that aren't fogged is mandatory. That is a quality of life thing. I will say though, in a storm, the AC works better at defogging the windows.

 

I am almost to current time now.

While waiting on the tires, I did not work every single day on the car. Honestly, it is kind of a releif. However, I did get the overspray off the car with claybar and cheap ceramic detail spray.
You can see some damage after a wash with dish soap.




And the second picture was after using some heavy degreaser.
Claybar was easy and worked very well. Here are a couple side by side shots.




The second picture shows the worst of it. This is the fender that was not removed and had been sprayed on the back. I did not do much taping or protection. You can see a very dark black spot, that got nailed pretty good.



This was in progress but was really easy despite how bad it looks. That black spot shrank nicely. I will polish off the remaining later.

The hood and the top of the rear bumper are the only place where the paint has not held up.



This is the last stage before the paint begins to fall off. Some of you are well aware of the issues these cars have with this. This isn't really not super bad considering what others have been through. I will give this a polish too, later.

It is a shame that the car was wrecked before I bought it. I bought it as a "R" title and the left over from the accident and lousy repair work is mostly cosmetics. I am also not happy with black body parts and the dents this picked up in the garage. It looks kinda good in the correct light on the drivers side.

 

The last that I have for now is some left side rim pictures. I left this rim on because, "A", I didn't see the damage and "B", I didn't want to spend the money to have the tire switched to another spare rim. With the blowout, I decide to go ahead and do it.
The old damaged rim.



I had 4 rims/tires from my scrap car. Two were very bent and I scrapped them. Had I known what I know now, I would have kept them. Luckily, I have a left and a right left over. Unfortunately, The rear of the left rim is bent.


It looks better here than is real life, just a bad picture. So, I abandoned the idea. I will need to live with the other damaged one until I get some not aftermarket ones.

I bought Kenda KENETICA Touring A/S for the rears so, I bought two more for the front. From the tire shop the price was over $100 a piece and $5 for a mount and balance. No cleaning the rime but new stems and the bill was $250+
When I bought the front I ordered online and got them for $48 a piece, + tax and $30 shipping. Three days to the house and $60 or so in mounting from another shop, they were mounted with clean rim edges.

I got those on the car and took it for a drive. Wow... what a difference. I really felt dumb now. I put it 32lbs a piece and the ride was pretty good. My springs are old but I seem to be pretty close to stock ride height. However, I did not torque the springs so, the fronts aren't even and neither are the rear with ride height. Another project for later.

This car is so much fun to drive. I need to relearn how to drive it though. I can easily drive most Honda/Acura in 3rd at 25, 4th at 35, etc. The 7 likes 2nd at 25, 3rd at 35, etc.

My clutch is almost shot and is adjusted to the only place it still works. So, adjusting to me having to let almost completely off the clutch before much really happens is a bit of a change from my daily. It feels nice and stiff and doesn't slip unless I give it to much gas before the full release of the clutch pedal.

The engine temps have been fairly stable, for now at least, too. I do have a whine that sounds like a power steering pump. I need to remove the belt and see. I do have a bit of noise from the air pump. Besides that, I am down to the oil pump or the new water pump for the noise? Hoping for the best here.

need to get some more pictures to fill in some over the missing ones from the next week or so. Otherwise, I will post once a week or so until winter if I have content for this thread. I will be starting and exhaust thread as I remove sections from the stock exhaust. People have been asking for videos of exhaust so, I will post some with DB levels and a spectrum graph so you can see the frequency bumps/cuts.

 

I just wanted to thank everybody past and present for their help on the forum. I do have a FSM and a Haynes manual, it isn't the same as the incredibly useful forum. I would name people but didn't want to leave people out. I will say RIP to@HAILERS though, was he ever full of useful information. Not perfect with interactions or remembering things all of the time but damn.... I have a way to go. There are many still here.... you know who your are, helping people, creating content and just being all around great people. so, thank you all very much!!!!!

I have some driving to do!!

.... for now.

I forgot to mention, I am not a mechanic and I am even worse at body work. My first love is writing and playing music. I need to get back to playing more guitar and recording music.

I am not much of a musician either... but I enjoy doing it.
Not really my best song but it is a good, in places. slamming the gas pedal down type of song.

 

Congratulations Jeff! Can't wait to see some pictures! Love your music!

 

I have had some time driving the car now. One full tank of gas and a few thoughts.

This car is great to drive with the windows down and the sun roof open. The amount air is minimal compared to many cars I have driven.

Stock, non-OEM exhaust is relatively quiet but has a fairly broad hump and peaks around 50hz. https://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/#support It is great for keeping the sound from traveling long distances but it easily travels through the car being such a low frequency. This can be improved on with a Helmholtz resonator or similar. From 3 feet behind the car it is about 95db.

I accidentally, because of convenience bought the worst air filter on the market. It is kind of noticeable.

The car seems to run way better when fully warmed up. Maybe the 20w50 oil that I am using and the 80w90 in the gear box. Not complaining, just a statement.

After a solid break in and some red line pulls the engine runs more smooth up to red line now. The engine has a noticeable unbalanced feel around 6k. Maybe all the carbon build up?

After the break in time the suspension has settled and feels great. I remember the ride being a bit harsh, new bushings and shocks seemed to have been the fix. I do have old springs but are very close to the stock ride height.

With the softer feeling suspension than I remembered, I will add some air to the tires from 32lbs to maybe 35lbs and see how it goes.

The tight shifter is breaking in now. It is still a bit tight but feels way better than it did. The third gear synchronizer is going. I haven't noticed a sweet spot for shifting ease yet, to and from third. More testing is needed. It seems to have gotten better with synthetic oil. I noticed with other cars, 500 miles is about where the oil starts to work into the parts really well. So, I will defer judgement on the oil for now. The shifter feels like it is just a touch on the long side, 1/2" or so.

Off the shelf common quality brake pads are pretty good, I want to upgrade though. I have four pot front Brembos on my daily with higher quality pads that feel a bit better.

I have a leaking oil pan. Not bad, but enough to worry a bit. Also, my OMP rod is stuck most of the way up so I am running extra oil. Not a bad thing, really but it is likely due to improper oil line routing. This will wear through the lines eventually.

The steering feels great. I have no idea what I was thinking about it feeling loose. The auto adjust is great, it's a bit tighter at speed than I remember, which is good (safer) for control at higher speeds

I have more, I thought this was supposed to be quick post with a few thoughts?

First and foremost, this car is still a blast to drive. It is a bit fast for the back roads here. You are pushing 60mph with it wound out in second gear with a high limit of 45 on the roads. I like to burn through gears so, that isn't as much fun. I still find myself going for the brakes at 35mph around the corners, with this car, on most turns, it is completely unnecessary and it feels great. Just watch out for stones in the road or off the side a bit.....

Edit: I have an occasional rub at the rear tire(s) in reverse. I need to check the DTSS delete bushings for correct installation.

 

I took this car to an empty lot on a Saturday to get a few pics. It had collected some dust but still only has the clay bar with cheap spray detailer.







Obviously, this needs work but I am not complaing too much. The lip has a bit of a wave to it in one spot. I am not sure if it is from the prior damage or just me not installing it correctly.
Sadly, I did not mount the lip evenly. I thought the pre-drilled hole in the lip was centered.... it was not. The lip is shifted a half inch to one side. I have a bad eye for that stuff but it is noticeable in person. I assume in pics, too, once again I have a bad eye for these things.

The interior has just been washed with soapy water and the carpets vacuumed. I will post some pics of that when I get some detailer on there and scrub the carpets.

I injured my index finger, my elbow and forearm muscle in the beginning of the summer and it still hasn't healed yet. I keep injuring myself again so, I need a break. I also just got finished with an oil change, replacing my steering rack/hoses, both valve cover gaskets, tie rods and front sway bar end links on my daily. The pain is better but I should not be doing either repetitive or heavy work for a bit. And I still need to change the trans oil and the rear e-brake pads.

I thought that this looked good. Well, besides the chipping paint on the control arm mount.



I saw this looking for the oil leak.

I will be trying to make an FC exhaust thread to track my exhaust journey with videos, non-scientific DB readings with frequency charts.

Any guidance with any of this is appreciated, thanks.

Edit: I forgot an engine bay pic, I will post later.

 

Excellent job Jeff, this is really coming along nicely.
3rd gear synchro unfortunately is very notorious for being garbage in these transmissions. Hopefully the oil gives it a little more life, but it might not be a bad idea to lookout for a cheap NA trans, they don't typically go for much money.

 

Thanks, Many on here including you have done some really great build threads with quality work. I have a lot to learn yet, I am just thrilled to be back in the game.

The transmission will be swapped for an S2 RX8 box, eventually. I need to see if anyone has a Pineapple racing relocation kit or at least a partial one first though. I did some "testing" and the RX8 box with the 3.9 rear that I have is comparable to a competition box with 5.12 rear. Fourth gear is a bit long in the RX8 box though, I need a solution for that yet... and a drive shaft, too.This is the direction that I am heading.

I will need to address the heat issue with the engine first. It seems to drift towards half with higher RPM driving. I do have a parts store t-stat in there. I forgot that I bought the OEM one... If that doesn't work... in with a larger rad. If that fails.. then it will be a larger alternator, I upgraded the wiring already and e-fans. Once this is done.... I'll have some options.

 

A little thread tickle for any updates? @Jeff76

 

My apologies for not posting more. I am nursing a couple injuries in my left arm, really since early summer. I also Had to replace my steering rack in my daily, twice... Steering pump, all soft lines and a combo hose. I did the front and rear struts and the front sway bar links, starting in early Sept. Not wanting to make matters worse with my arm, I haven't worked on much besides my daily, preparing for a state inspection.

In August I Got the rotors off my front hubs. Kind of a failed venture, although I got them off. i got a bit overzealous and nicked both hubs.




From this cut with an angle grinder I got it this far.




You can see the edge of the very large pulley puller that I used. I need to find someone that can replace the races and seals. I am likely not capable of pulling it off. I have a set of rears that will need done as well.

 

I did some sorting of parts, too. I have a better idea of what I can sell or give away now.



Behind the moving blacket is a passanger door without a window and rear hatch with a window. There are more parts in another part of the garage including, door kick plates, wiper cowel, bumper foam, tail lights and the stock radio,tape and EQ. I do have a drive fender, too. Why it's not there in the picture... IDK?

The hoola hoop is up for grabs, too. I am still not sure how that got in the garage. I should just cut it up and trash it. As you can see, I have a lot of clearing out to do.

I need to do a teardown of the engine that's been sitting for 20 years at some point.

The exhaust got pulled apart and trashed, it was a rusty mess. I didn't have the tools to split the parts years ago when originally stored besides a hack saw.