Celbii's Redsuns build
 

Hey everyone,
I have this going in a few other forums so I figured I would just copy everything over here. Its basically a replica redsuns build, nothing to fancy and staying N/A for track use.

I just recently purchased a white 88 NA FC3S, bone stock(besides some ghey wheels) and 126k on the orig motor.

My plans are to replicate the early RedSuns FC3S as close as I can. I can tell you right now however encase people want to rag on me for it, but it wont be a 100% replica lol. I plan on keeping the car non turbo, eventually getting it rebuilt next year when I can save up the funds and going with an aggressive street port. I am planning to shoot for 170WHP NA when all is said and done. So replica will mostly be bodywise.

Bad stuff about the car: High mileage, underbody has some pretty decent rust. Ghetto exhaust system, 4 lug, some other random stuff(leaky windshield etc). I need to be patient and try to find a 5 lug rust free parts car so I can swap over to the 5 lug setup, and with that the bigger front brakes since mine is just a base model with the single piston brakes all around. Also with a rust free parts car ill be able to slowly swap over all the suspension and brake lines, etc under the car to some rust free ones and change out bushings at the same time.

So here she sits as I got her a few weeks ago:
https://scontent-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/...60300631_n.jpg
https://scontent-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/...53348255_n.jpg

Now that I have my own house, bills, my gf etc, I don't have much money to toss into it like I used to be able to, so progress will be slow. I have already done some random stuff and when I take some pictures ill update it later this week.

Thanks for looking!
David

Just a quick update of some work i've done to it:
Engine bay overall, its a little dirty and parts are rusty now and not shiny :P
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This little contraption here allows me to operate my 5th and 6th ports analog style instead of buying rpm switches to do it electronically. Its not the prettiest thing in the world but overall my cost to make it including hoses and everything was probably $30, well worth it for working 5th and 6th ports. It runs off the airpump and you adjust the air dump valve based on the correct rpm (3800) to make it open. Have to remove the ACV and block it off to do this.
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My Bonez intake kit. gives you the adapter and filter. I need to take it off though and oil it since its a K&N and doesn't come pre oiled, luckily I don't drive the car that much so its okay at the moment. Also made some custom brackets for it so I could keep the MAF mounted straight up instead of sideways like the provided brackets mount it. And yes it is missing a hose clamp around it, the filter is a super super makes me rage tight fit and the supplied hose clamp was too small once it was on the maf adapter. One day before it gets too hot i'll try to make a cold air box for it, but for now its fine.
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So today I got the momo race installed, and got my horn to work. The NRG quick release 3.0 that I bought used off ebay was missing the horn contacts plate on one part of it for whatever dumb reason, and I didn't even think of it when I bought it. LUCKILY the momo race I got off craigslist had half a quick release attached to it(He told me he took it out of his wrecked 240 at the yard, but im thinking now it was probably just jacked >_>) and I was able to pull the horn contact plate off of it and install it into my nice quick release, so that random half of a quick release that I thought was just junk turned out to be very damn useful lol.
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I also installed a double din radio a few weeks ago to get rid of the OEM cassette player, and now I can listen to my initial D super euro beats lol! Stock interior overall is very nice, and even though there is a gap above the player it doesn't bother me at all, at least the surround isnt all cracked and falling apart like most of them. I'll fill that in one day.
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I also took off my ACV block off plate today, made a new gasket for it and got the proper sized screws from the hardware store so I don't have long screws with tons of washers sticking out holding it down. It fixed a small vacuum leak I had there.

Took the car out for a spin down a street nearby and it felt awesome, fixed vacuum leak and cold air gave me some nices powa and the car felt great, It will feel even better sometime next year when it gets rebuilt with an aggressive street port :) But for now it sleeps far away until I work on it again next week lol.
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Got the reps in today. They are nicer than I expected. Look and almost feel like the real things. Have all the correct tags and stickers also. The only thing on them that would give me any doubt is the plastic ratcheting handles arent an exact fit on the rod so they have a little slop before they start turning, other than that I can see why people are very easily fooled by these lol. Fit me pretty darn well also they are tiny.

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We got the drivers side installed on a whim yesterday, took us the better half of the day to custom everything to mate them up to the oem rails. Passenger side wont be going in any time soon since its even more of a PITA to do, I may just try to find some sort of rails for it.

https://scontent-b-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/...58917583_n.jpg

Small updates.

Switched to a momo tuner wheel, sold the race. I ordered a seat rail from bride of japan a week ago so waiting for that to be made and shipped so I can install the passenger seat.
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Put together a custom exhaust. Its racing beat headers to racing beat pre silencer to an apexi dual passenger side exit muffler i bought off some forum. However it was short a bit since they obviously aren't designed to work together and the apexi is for a dual system. so ive had it down for about three weeks now, and my friend came over today and welded me up a piece of pipe to go in between.
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Heres the old exhaust that was on there.
https://i.imgur.com/SEz0Nr7.jpg


I haven't got to really drive the car around yet, but moving it it sounded nice so thats good. thats all for now.

Did a quick sound clip of the exhaust last night.

And my last post yesterday, sorry for all the posting in a row, was just going through a thread copying each one I made through various pages. Thanks!

Got my second seat in after some overnight parts from japan.

Bride seat rail
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clean!

ha overnight parts from japan..

1. The redsuns fc had grey and what appeared to be fixed back seats
2. it doesn't have a canon style exhaust more a traditional muffler with offset short tip
3. not to mention left hand drive and as you mentioned turbo,

seams to me your about to slap some stickers on it and call it a replica....

"My plans are to replicate the early RedSuns FC3S as close as I can. I can tell you right now however encase people want to rag on me for it, but it wont be a 100% replica lol. I plan on keeping the car non turbo, eventually getting it rebuilt next year when I can save up the funds and going with an aggressive street port. I am planning to shoot for 170WHP NA when all is said and done. So replica will mostly be bodywise. "

Looks really good. Love those seats.

Minor updates:
No rear strut bar before
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Rear strut bar after (don't mind the box, P/O installed it, and I keep it in there since it sounds a bit better and its not like I do any hardcore driving on the street lol)
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Also put together a custom Re-Amemiya shift knob, since I didnt want to spend around ~120-130 it would have costed from japan. The heavy shift knob feels great, and shifting is alot better.

Heres the original for comparison.
RE Amemiya - Carbon Shift Knob - 400g - Nengun Performance

The base knob that uses (Note: base knob is universal and fits all cars, the genuine RE knob says fits only s5+, fd,rx8 etc, so no idea if it is hard threaded.)

Then a custom resin badge from aus land, size 24mm. (Razo badge is around 24.5mm I rounded down to 24mm and it fits near perfect, with about zero play, if you wanted to play it safe you could go around 23.5mm)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/RE-AMEMIYA-ROTARY-BADGE-STICKER-DECAL-RX7-RX3-RX8-13B-/200801852030?pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item2ec0b91a7e&vxp=mtr

End results:
https://scontent-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/...02679784_n.jpg
https://scontent-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/...48476103_n.jpg
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Random interior shot lol
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Since this is an important part in building the replica, i'm having a guy on a local forum make these for me, just need to pick them up now, and wait for it to get warmer than 10 degrees so I can wash the car lol. https://i.imgur.com/lJ12Rzr.jpg

Installed my stance coilovers last week. Car is a bit stiff but way better than the dead stockers :P

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Time for some bigger wheels! :) Very clean though, btw, how do you like that momo steering wheel?

I Agree on the wheels :P I've been trying to find a 5 lug parts car for a while so I can redo all the suspension then swap it over.

The momo wheel is great.

Redsuns FC was Series 5. You need new trim and bumpers.

Really??? I had no idea!! Thanks!!

Well you would think the stickers would be the last thing to put on to finish off the build. That, or maybe buy an S5 turbo car? I guess some people just can't resist putting stickers all over everything. To each their own!

As an S4 fan I'm liking it.

Redsun is s4 with s5 moldings and rear lights. You can tell because the cluster was an s4.

Or a S5 with S4 cluster :P

And I guess some people cant be bothered to pull their head out their ass and read. I know what the car had on it better than 99% of most people. That being said, I have already stated whats in the quote and im not made of money. Whats wrong with putting the stickers on? I had them custom made for a very good price so I got them on and out of the way, since I don't plan to paint the moldings at the very moment nor do I have a parts car to redo all my suspension with.

Anyways try reading next time before you jump to conclusions about people, thanks.

Thanks Albino :)

Nice build so far. Nice quality parts. You don't see much of that on fc's

Thanks AmT_T!

Heres my big update to my build:
Bought a new FC from texas :P

This one is about 90% complete to where I wanted mine, but this will save me a ton of time and money. So I will now need to swap over a few things from my old one to this new one and then put it up for sale. Its also a little more correct for my initial D build.

Details
-GTUs Model (only 100 in 1990)
-148,xxx miles on chassis
-Less than 2,500 miles on fresh 6-port streetport by Kevin Landers of Rotary Resurrection, built Oct 2012, dyno-tuned by Chris Ott at Rotary Performance in Garland TX, to a very stout 185whp. It is more powerful than the stock Turbo 2!

Engine
-3rd gen housings
-Full 6-port streetport
-Atkins 2mm apex seals
-Stock air pump actuating auxilary ports
-Atkins 1-piece machined auxilary port inserts
-All gaskets & o-rings replaced
-OMP operational
-All silicone vac lines
-Exhaust diffusers removed
-Stock TB, solenoids, etc and all functional
-Removed AC and PS
-Mazda Competition motor mounts
-Cork Sport SS oil lines
-Aluminum thermostat neck

Exhaust
-Racing Beat header, uncollected, Jet Hot coated
-Header lightly port matched to exhaust ports
-Full, uncollected RB exhaust with presilencers
-No cats

Suspension
-Rear toe eliminators
-Adjustable rear camber link
-Suspension Technologies bushings
-RB front sway bar
-Adjustable swaybar end links
-Tokico Illumina struts with Eibach springs in front
-Genuine Re Aremania adjustable coilovers in back
-MazdaTrix front strut brace with torque / engine damper
-New Ventus HRII directional tires
-De-powered the ‘right’ way 17:1 ratio manual steering rack
-Current 0 toe all around, -2.0 camber in front, -2.5 in back. Awesome
-4.3 ratio rear end LSD

Cooling
-Koyo N-flow radiator May 2012
-Flex A Lite Electric fan – temp controlled

Brakes
-New rotors 2008, 20k on them
-Hawk HP+ pads with lots of life (fronts new)
-Stainless brake lines
-Front brake ducts baby!
-STRONG stoppers

Trans
-Smooth, no grinds
-Short shifter
-Fresh bushings 2010
-Center Force Dual Friction clutch (awesome)
-Stainless clutch lines
-Suspension Technologies mounts
-Racing Beat steel flywheel (awesome)

Fluids & Belts
-Oil change at 500 on new engine and every 1,000 miles, Castrol GTX 10w30 per Mazda specs and builder recommendations
-Redline oils in trans & rear end
-Belts in good shape

Electronics
-Apexi SAFC in glove box – dyno tuned by Rotary Performance
-Mallory HyFire 6 CDI ignition box
-Custom engine power and grounding kit
-New Odyssey Mini Gel Cell in stock location - awesome
-Stereo: Aiwa cd player, aftermarket speakers (old but functions OK)
-MSD Super Conductor plug wires
-Logicon, replaced & works but for 1 or 2 lights
-Windshield wiper switch works 100%
-Cruise control added (not included on GTUs) and works!
-Electric mirrors
-Aftermarket Gauges:
--Autometer oil press
--Autometer water temp
--PLX wideband
-Even the windshield wiper fluid system works!

Interior
-NICE INTERIOR! vents, surround, etc!

-Corbeau A4 seats, minor wear
-Lo-boy slider mounts-Newer windshield with no cracks or pits
-Momo Apache wheel
-Perfect dash with cover for protection
-Manual windows
-Glove box, center console, all in good shape
-Idiot lights, clock works
-Legal “silver” tint – cool in summer
-Electric “rat trap” seatbelts, working, warrantied by Mazda for lifetime

Exterior

-LOUD compressor-driven air horn hidden inside front bumper
-Cork Sport Mazdaspeed Replica front lip
-Repainted Mazda Performance White code UK (original Arctic White) in 2007
-S5 tail lights & wing of course
-Working power antenna
-Working power mirrors
-Hatch struts work
-Gas door release, hatch release, hood release all work wel
-Door handles & locks work inside & outside
-All fresh rubber seals around doors, hatch (Seals TIGHT)
-Fresh drip rail on front doors (no rust)
-All locks, hinges, etc lubed with Lithium grease
-Aluminium hood


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Wow!! Much much better. Respect earned

Lol Thanks :P And I don't know why my list says aremienia, supposed to be amemiya coilovers.

I'm gonna lose money selling the other one and parts off of it, but ill also save tons of time and money with this car basically almost where i want it to be.

Depending on the Manga/Anime/Movies, Ryosuke's FC has Watanabe RS wheels on it. They range from Black to Gunmetal Grey depending on what youre looking at. You should be able to find a decent set of replicas out there.

Love the idea! Great start to a great build!

Yeah im still unsure what wheels I want to go with. I may end up going with something different from all the ones hes used. I'm not sure yet.

Stickers on the new car, and also put my brides in it, I am undecided on which steering wheel i want to use though, this one came with a momo apache wheel which is nice.
Also put the old one up for sale.
https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/...35391617_n.jpg

very nice!

What was the part number on those rails? I've been wanting to mount my brides but can't find proper rails. Just need to know what to look for in terms of driver and passenger.

I got the passenger seat rail from Greenline Motorsports - Bringing you the world's cheapest Japanese performance parts

BRIDE Super Seat Rail Type RO (Right) FC3S 88 , the part number from bride is R035RO (passenger side US, japan drivers side). I THINK that the drivers side is maybe R036RO, but im not sure since I only bought the passenger side, if you email bride they can tell you for sure.

Total cost for the one passenger side seat rail with shipping to the US was ￥27,400 yen. roughly 270 US

Don't know if you answered or posted the answer to this, but what size are your two steering wheels that you have?

20mm less than stock, so I think 360?

Just figured I'd post to say im still alive :P Car is doing good, haven't really done anything to it. Kinda strange to not have anything to do to a car, but also nice at the same time, saves $$$$. I did buy a T2 hood from a friend that needs paint and I need to pick it up sometime. Fixed a small fuel leak the other day. Waiting for my HID projector headlights to come in hopefully next week.

Probably wont be driving it as much now as its getting hotter, The car is running pure coolant and likes to get pretty hot if Its not moving, so hot weather + stuck in traffic or something would be bad.. Need to look into the E-fan setup to get it running more consistently. No A/c either :P

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Why don't you just run straight water, or like a 80/20 mix?

being the initial d geek that i am the fc was a S4. a 1988 S4 to be exact so the op is actually closer to the redsuns then you may think LOL. in the manga it has the specs of the cars in the front pages and it states the FC is a 88.

P/O lost the engine to an overheat, all the coolant boiled out. So he switched to straight coolant so even if it overheats it wont boil out.

Small Update since I haven't posted in quite a while. I have paid for some new goodies finally to keep with the redsuns theme, hopefully they will ship out soon and not get damaged in shipping from across the pond... I'll post up another update when I get those.

I Don't drive the car very often, its fun but kind of a pain to drive around town lol, no a/c, no power steering, light fly wheel, very notchy short shifter, solid mounts etc. So It only gets out a few days a month, the rest of the time it just sleeps in a garage lol. But thats why we have the TL and wrx to DD lol.

The temp controller that turns the efan on and off died on me, at the same time my temp gauge started acting up, so there was a few times the car got a little warm and I didn't realize it( no overheating but warmer than it should be) Once I found out the Efan wasn't turning on I bought the E fan switch to wire it up to turn on manually rather than drop more money to replace the whole T-stat controller. Ran new wires from the efan all the way into the cabin and took a dremel and cut out one of the button caps on the center console to fit the switch in so it would have a clean look, and be easily accessible. While not as nice as having the fan come on automatically, I just keep an eye on temps as I always did anyways and I almost never turn the E-fan on unless im stopped for a bit. I like how it turned out
Attachment 753714

The temp gauge has been acting funky for quite some time, it would read but the range would be completely wrong, it would barely move but I could tell when the car was heated up when the needle was slightly above the 100 Degree mark. Tried all sorts of stuff, replacing the sensor, getting a new gauge, nothing worked. Ended up being the wiring from the owner before the P/O, he tapped the aftermarket gauge into the stock temp gauge and it started causing issues, so Just redid all the wiring and left the stock temp gauge(Which never worked anyways the way he had it set up) and the old gauge worked perfectly fine again. Just gave the new one to my dad.

I bought some HID projectors in a group buy on rx7club, took a while to get them but they are nice and for the most part everything was plug and play, way better than the stock headlights, but I wish I went 1k lower on the color, they are a little more blue than I like.
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I bought a T2 hood here locally, nice shape, one small crack on the scoop but not really noticeable, needed paint. I liked it, I think the car would look alot better with the T2 hood but I ended up selling it. I didn't want to deal with getting it paint matched to whatever color the car is and I would also have needed to block off the scoop inside for rain. I just decided to put the stock hood back on. Neat while it lasted.
Attachment 753719

Funny story though, I sold the stock hood to a guy who ended up owning my old FC from the start of this thread. I had been hearing from people that they have been sighting a redsuns fc and I'm always like its not me, im never out lol. Turns out the kid I sold the fc to traded it to another guy for his 240 and he put redsuns stickers back on it (Just the rear ones though). Noticed as soon as we went to put the hood on and saw my home depot 5th and 6th ports activator, which he had no idea what it was and said he just opens and closes it, so I explained to him the purpose of it and showed him how to adjust it so his Aux ports would open correctly lol. Heres a pic of my old fc driving away with my turbo hood.
Attachment 753720


And thats all I can think of for now, Will update again when I get my stuff in hopefully all intact, should be a pretty good update.

NOOOOOO! To be honest, you were so close with the t2 hood and then you sold it :( get another one man. I never had problems with rain water getting in. Plus if a tiny bit of water hits your uim its no big deal.

Really liking the white comet rep :) but you need a t2 hood! Awesome shift knob too!

I agree it does make the look of the car, esp what im trying to do, but at this point in time I just didnt have any time to take it to get painted nor did I want to spend money on painting the hood right now haha. I just figured the stock hood is already the same color of the rest of the car (its not the OEM white) and I don't have to worry about driving in the rain with it on (I did see alot of water get in there washing the car and we have been having some pretty heavy rain fall this season in oklahoma, I wouldnt want to drive with a big hole in my hood right now lol) If I can ever find a reverse scoop for sale I may buy that and get another t2 hood.

Heres my next big update for a while:
New wheels!!
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It took a long time searching to find these wheels since they don't pop up for sale very often, maybe one or two times a year. Granted you can find them much easier in japan. I messaged alot of people who had posted them for sale within the last 4 years in the size and offset I wanted and got a few messages back, mostly people saying they sold them or they weren't for sale anymore. I had one guy email me back located all the way in Latvia Europe who still had his for sale! Freshly refinished and posted for sale over 3 years ago they have just sat in his storage ever since then. After some emailing back and forth I ended up getting them for $1200 shipped from Europe(got here in 4 days), not bad for hard to find refinished wheels with the complete center caps and even the cap wrench to go with them! (They do need the wheel spoke decal and the center cap needs to be cleaned up, the rays should be a shiny gold on them not black LOL)

Rays Mazdaspeed MS-01's Lemans style! 17x8 +34 and 17x9 +35 . Similar to the ms01's in the show but these are two piece with the gold centers. ( PS if anyone is ever searching for these, I did find a guy on ziliva with a set same size/offset but they are in way worse shape and he is firm(and crazy) at $1500 shipped on them. )

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I love how these look and fit on FC's heres a pic ive found of them on a white fc(not my car)
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I have a set of Bridgestone Potenza S-04 Pole Position 225/45/17 and 255/40/17 coming for them.

Also picked up some new lugnuts while I was at it, it was a difficult choice deciding what to get, between $150 rays and $25 gorilla lugs I settled with Mutekis sr35's as I have used them before with no issues at all. I know some people like to hate on them but I've read horror stories on every damn lug nut out there so these weren't too horrible at $60 shipped.

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To go with my new wheels I decided to upgrade the suspension also. I went ahead and got a set of Fortune Auto 500's with swift spring upgrades on order to replace the Kyb/agx + racing beat springs front and Re Amemiya coilover rears. Got about $300 off retail on them so that's nice, sucks they take 3-4 weeks to build and ship out though.
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8825/...5dd0a12e_c.jpg


Thats all for now, probably my last update for quite a while other than pics when I get the wheels on and coilovers on. Thanks for reading!

Nice man! Sweet update. Awesome wheels and awesome coils. Gonna be an amazing setup!

Yup can't wait to get everything setup and on the car, im pretty excited :).

Small update on the wheels, they where refinished but the centers still had ab out 22yrs of oxidation and grime on them so I picked up some mothers mag and alum polish and went to town on them. Took me about an hour and half to do the 4 rays logos in the center but it was worth it. Heres the before and after.

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Figured I'd drop in an update since I just finished up working on the car the other week.

Got the coilovers installed, Front had camber bolts so I went ahead and got some normal bolts to replace them with since I did not really need them with the camber plates. Wheels fit great now no rubbing anymore. Got the rear extenders in also, work nice but I wish they were a bit shorter, I'm sure I can find some but it doesn't bother me that much other than looking silly lol. Has a bit too much positive camber up front, but i'll take care of that when I get time to go get it aligned.

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https://i.imgur.com/YmWNYnO.jpg
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https://i.imgur.com/qZW5yi6.jpg

Lookin Good!

needs some sideskirts and it would be perfect, well maybe a turbo too

Looks awesome mate! I'm surprised at how well the center caps turned out. It's the little details that make the car really stand out.