Oh, I totally get that.

Because my car is a daily driver, most of my driving is excruciatingly boring; boxed in by SUVs that I can't see around (I recognize cars now by their differentials because that's all I can see and I basically have to drive using their reaction times because what's ahead is totally obscured) and rarely exceeding 50mph.

Hewing to the "Because Streetcar" ethos means making the car as invisible/transparent as possible.
My definition of a successful commute is that I don't remember any of it.

Your car being more of a toy than transportation means you can indulge your inner kid and exaggerate the performance metrics.
Basically, you want the car to intrude and amplify the driving experience...you are only driving for fun, not utility.

So, indulge yourself.

hit the nail on head there! as long as everything goes to plan, i would definately like to have a cool looking, fun to drive, (hopefully reliable) daily driver for the months without snow next year.
thing is, i have been basicly putting all my energy and money on the r32 and the rx7 and not paid any attention to the the trusty old shire horse (or shetland pony) that is my nissan micra apart from a service every year. fluids, spark plugs, filters and the like.
she is really in need of some proper tlc and i think if she doesnt get it next summer, she is definately gonna die on me. its a bit unfair of me really because without the micra i wouldnt be able to get around to make money for the seven or even get to the garage. talk about crappy prioritisation or at least unrealistic planning.

i hope im not putting my foot in my mouth here because i know this is an american website but i have never really understood why pickups/suvs/unnessecarily big cars are so damn popular. (they are also really popular here in sweden). i cant help but see them as boring and ungainly. but thats just me, if it wasnt for the fact that people have different tastes and goals in their cars, the rest of us wouldnt be able to feel different and it would be harder to be unique.
at the same time i have a hard time suppressing my irritation when it comes to those vehicles in particular. ah well.... live and let live..

i had a little chat with a buddy because i have been a little unsure of how i would go about measuring up for the steelies and was put on to a good idea which would be perfect for me. mathematics has never been my strong point. probably alot to do with the fact that when i should have been in school, i was sitting on the branch of a tree in epping forest swinging my legs and smoking weed with my brother.
i have been perusing the net for the last couple of days and only found one website that specifically explained how to measure up for just this sort of thing and i still kinda didnt get it. the very nature of this part of the project has left me with absolutely no room for mistakes in my calculations so i wanted a surefire way to make sure that when i give my measurements to robban, that they are correct because robban doesnt make mistakes. if he has, i have not heard about them so if whatever i get back is wrong, i will only have myself to blame.

basicly i need a visual representation. it seems quite simple really..
a 2x4 peice of wood with at least two holes drilled into one end so that i can, with one wheel removed, place it on to the wheel lugs and fasten it to the wheel hub using the wheel nuts. then i would place another peice of two by four on the top of it, making it into a "T". basicly i would have to basicly make sure that the part of the "T" that is attached to the hub will be same as my wheel diameter, that is to say 17". the only thing i havent figured out is how to make the top part of the "T", which as im sure you have already geussed will represent the width of the wheel, adjustable so that i can play around with both widths and offset.

ok fakkit. heres a pikcher wot i dun drawed 4 yooz. s'great arent it? *sniff*

Attachment 655025

it probably wont look like this in the end but you get the idea right?
with one wheel removed and this in place and the car jacked up beside the removed wheel so that everythings level, i can then adjust and rotate it within the wheel housing to makes sure it doesnt hit anywhere and that i can get the correct "sticky outtyness" from the wheel housing without it being too much or falling too short. havent quite worked out how i would simulate the tyre but at least i should be able to work out some measurements so that i can give robban my steelies on monday with confidence.
ill get on it either tomorrow evening if i am not too tired or on the weekend if i can just get my ass out of bed.
as always, i beseech you to kindly point out if i have missed something glaringly obvious :nod:

the reason that i will be able to do this on the weekend is that the job in örebro fell through. they decided to upgrade the damaged equipment instead. then yesterday the guy i was supposed to work a 3 month contract decided to shorten it by two months, just like that. so much for the concept of a verbal contract...

im going to have sort out some other means of employment by 1/1/2014 or its going to definately make my plans for my economy (and the seven) most unstable.
my job situation has been very frustrating this year. i have really been trying my best but the jobs i like cant offer me fulltime employment and the jobs that want me to work fulltime have been unbearable.. i just cant seem to get settled anywhere its either one thing or another...

maybe ill try my hand at being a gigolo to the rich, middle-aged upper class in östermalm. which, considering its sweden (the land of the MILF) might not be that bad... im sure my girlfriend will understand. its for the seven after all... :lol:

Oh, boo hoo.
That's pretty much how everybody except Glickenhaus and Leno live.

It's all about size.
My sister for instance, has been in the minivan/SUV camp since the first Dodge Caravan. On a recent visit with her in Chicago she rode passenger in my 7 and mentioned several times how bad the visibility was and how vulnerable she felt.
In her world, size is THE paramount consideration...bigger is better and safer.

There is also I think, a general sense that a zombie apocalypse is immanent and owning a psuedo offroad capable vehicle is just good family planning.
You'll need that turbocharged Porsche Cayenne to beat everyone to the nearest Cabelas.


You be you, girl.

Oh, about measuring for the wheels.
The concept seems sound but the executions is unnecessarily complex.
Just cut a disk from something like Masonite or Foamcor and mount it to the wheel studs.
Then just use a ruler to measure the distances from the disk to whatever obstruction is around (wheel arch, trailing arm, etc.).

haha true but i dunno whether its not worse having all those cars and not being able to drive them all. wouldnt complain though..

yes that sounded a hell of alot simpler actually and i have a builders merchants right round the corner from my garage as well. for once its close to something....

i had originally thoguht of going down there this evening but the subway was down and the traffic instantly doubled. nothing like a little bit of traffic to bring out the absolute worst in people. even i had to play "how much do you care about your car then?" with a few people on the way home. funnily enough, i win at it alot. i cant think why :naughty:

i geuss ill have to get down there tomorrow....

i got home about four hours ago and to be honest, im not sure how im going to go about this, but im going to try.

get ready for a ferkloada pics!
well, alot more than what i have been putting up lately...

i took a couple more pics of the car how it is now to demonstrate what im looking at when i think about how i want the wheel fitment. yes i said wheel fitment, not stance.
the reason for this is that i spent half the night and all this morning basicly looking at wheels and their fitment. i had a picture in my head but i think i had been thinking of something other than stance. this quest into the wonderful world of these round things that can make or break the look of a car took me across a multitude of forums and blogs too countless to name individually.
the first thing i gleaned from my searching was that im glad i am a member of rx7 club. oh you wouldnt believe the amount of pointless, repetetive bickering over absolutely frick-all i had to sift through just to get to see some pictures. i am still in a slight state of shock and have lost a little of my faith in humanity or at least the intelligence therein. i have been actually accepting and tolerant of the now drift/stance/stickerbomb generation, even mildly amused by their antics but after a several-hour trawl through their natural habitat i left feeling dirty and used but not uninspired as to what i should and definately will NOT be doing.
sorry for my rambling tirade but it really was that bad....what a bunch of tossers..

anyway heres some pics of the seven as it is now..
Attachment 654892
Attachment 654893
Attachment 654894
Attachment 654895

i think it actually doesnt look that bad as is to be honest. i think once lowered enough and with some longer lugs and spacers, i would be able to pull it off. well, we'll keep that as a back up plan for if all else fails.

anyway. armed with my measuring stick and the steelies, i made some measurements
its quite funny that i completely tried to overcomplicate the process. i was going to build all kinds of stuff when i didnt need to. the steelies themselves were all i needed. maybe i should'nt be talking about other people's intelligence hehe

heres the steelies again. to my pleasant surprise, i found out that that they werent 6.5"wide but in fact 7.5" little more to play with and less material needed. win win.

Attachment 654896
Attachment 654897

and on the car..

Attachment 654898
Attachment 654899

is it just me or do the wheel housings seem huge? im sure that some lowering and tyres will remedy this illusion.
and now, like a lamb to the slaughter, i present thee with my measurements.

Attachment 654900

with the 9" mark on the outer edge of the rim, i had a nice 1 1/2" on the inside of the rim without it hitting anything.

Attachment 654901

this is with the outer edge still on the 9" mark. it doesnt seem like 10.5 to 11 inches is going to stick out that much, considering i will be rolling and pulling the arches a bit too.

now this is where it gets a bit tricky.. (for me anyway)

Attachment 654888
Attachment 654889
Attachment 654890

1" from the center to the outside edge (not sure if this matters but anyway)
2" from the hub to the outside edge
5 1/4 from the hub to the inner edge (shouldnt it be 5 1/2?)

so now im have to work it out so that i have
1. the inner edge as close to the inside of the wheelhouse as is possible, doesnt have to be a cigarette paper gap but something like a half an inch to play with just in case (no dirty innuendos please)

2. at least 3-4 inches of "dish" on the outside.

3. 10.5-11 inches wide. seeems like its going to be needed. so that i can have some dish otherwise theres no point =)

and then theres the front.

here i had the end of the measuring stick on the inner edge of the wheel at 0 and it stuck out this much to the 9" mark. i will also need to do this to be able to get some dish.

Attachment 654891

i had thought to copy the original dimensions of the dodge caliber wheels from the website that i had purchased them from but somethings wrong. it says clearly on theyre website that they are 6.5 inches wide so i dont know whats wrong there but i cannot rely on theyre dimensions.

i put this up so that i can see it clearly for myself while i work it out and sneakily so that you guys can correct me when i get it horribly wrong.

if a fried egg is what your brain looks like on drugs, (according to the PDFA anyway) i dont want to know what my brain looks like when trying to do mathematics. and may the lord have mercy on my soul...

quick correction. the steelies arent 7.5 they are 7". i think i have worked them out to be 17x7 +45et

no. they are 7.5. wtf. i pulled one out of the car to double check. bear with me i think im getting there :lol:

ok. here goes..

the original steel wheel i have is
width 7.52" 192
backspace 135
wheel centre line 96
et +39
dish 14 (0.5")

these are the equations i have been working from.

wheel backspace - wheel centre line =et
If backspace is less than the wheel centerline the offset is negative
If backspace is greater than the wheel centerline the offset is positive

the parameters i am working within are;
1. the front and rear wheels can only stick out by 2"
2.max backspacing rear is 173mm/6.81"


the equation to work out how much dish i will have is;
wheel width - backspace -43mm = dish

i tried a bunch of combinations based on these and i got it down (i think) so that i can have a 3"dish up front with a 9" wide wheel and im a little bit divided between whether i would go with the 11" wide wheel at the rear which would give me a 4" dish or a 10.5" with a 3.5" dish.
these are all with the wheel sticking out two inches from the body. remember i will be rolling and pulling the arches so it wont be that exaggerated..

the front would look like this:
width 9" 228.6,
backspace 102,12
wheel centre line 114.3
et -12.
dish 83.48 (3,2")

at the rear i could have either..
width 10.5" 266.7
backspace 133.35
wheel centre line 133.35
et 0
dish 90.35 (3.5")

or..

width 11" 279.4
backspace 133.35
wheel centre line 139.7
et -6
dish 103.5 (4")

im pretty sure that i got it right and im going to be handing them over to robban tomorrow with these dimensions.
just hope im right..

i pussyed out today. i still wasnt sure that my calculations were correct so, with the wheels still in the back of my car i returned home for some more mathematics.
i really wanted to be sure about this. turns out i hadnt got everything down pat.
i really am mathematically challenged but as i have said before, im a stubborn bugger so i spent the whole evening muttering numbers to myself like a proper nutter and am now 99.99999% sure i got it worked out. (im still not sure :twitch:)

rears will be 17x11 et -6 (width279.4, backspacing133.35, wheel centre line139.7) which should result in a 4-5" dish.

fronts will be 17x9 et -7 (width228.6, backspacing107.2, wheel centre line114.3)
this will give me a 3-4 inch dish.

the reason im a little vague with the dish sizes is that i couldnt be bothered to work out exactly what they would be because the importance lies in the fitment. i just made sure the fronts wouldnt be deeper than the rears.
knowing my luck and the fact that i couldnt resist going so wide at the rears, i will probably have to do some faffing around at the end to get it right but im pretty confident that these measurements will work. (not really.) the proof is always in the pudding.

tmrw its lunch with good ol' robban. ill try to pop over now and again to check his progress and take some pics too. i think the only time ill be able to relax is when im fitting them on the seven.

i havent ordered the stuff yet im considering buying a couple other goodies too and it would be nice to get them all if possible from the same company as ill be ordering them from the u.s. any suggestions would be great!
the list so far are a complete bushing set, gearbox bushings and engine mount bushings. also a camber adjustment bar that can be adjusted while in place. i didnt even know but there are ones that you have to remove everytime you want to adjust the camber. seems like a royal arse-ache to me.

i thought that i could use the waiting time to remove all of the suspension ill be changing the bushings on, pop out the old ones and clean and paint them with hammerite or something so that they are a bit fresh. i also need to have a crack at finishing off the lip and maybe finding some kind of solution for some kind of quick-release thingumabob for it. i can see it being useful in the future.

chrimbo is round the corner too so i can imagine that the rate of getting things done will be slowed from my usual snails pace but its worth it. trust me, a swedish "julbord" (christmas table) made by my 'mother in law to be' is not to be sniffed at.
with my metabolism i should be able to pack on a whole kilo! :icon_tup:

Just had lunch with robban and he got it in about 5 minutes. Even simplified the whole process as i knew he would. I had originaly thought at he would be removing the centrum from the barrel by cutting away the weld, then heating the barrel and popping it out. My other buddy christian pointed out that from his previois experienced with widened steelies that when this is done it is difficult to put it back in completely straight. It more often then not ends up a little askew resulting in imbalance. Robban will be cutting on both sides of the centrum, then flipping them and adding material as needed. He said he can even order the extra barrel he needs instead of the traditional method of rolling a flat peice of steel. I feel better already =]

He told you to just buy Cragars, didn't he?

haha they actually are quite nice! bit too blingy-bling for my taste though. i geuss the only thing im a little unsure that ill like with my wheels will be the centrum (the only word i have found for this is disc. centrum is techically the swedish term for it but i think it sounds better :) )
it makes them look really similar to the "off the shelf" deep dish steelies like diamond racing and the like. if i had the cash i would have probably gone for the ssr professor sp1's. they look proper nice on the seven and are a helluvalot lighter.

http://www.jdmeuro.com/wp-content/up...zda_RX7_03.jpg

pure porn..
but if i had that kind of money i would much rather put them on the engine...

the last three days have been spent enjoying a particularly nasty virus i have picked up hence my current inactivity.
hot and cold flushes, litres and litres of snot and headaches. wonderful.
hopefully ill be better soon so that i can get something done on the weekend.

I would imagine that living so close to the Arctic circle weeds out the weak and sickly very efficiently.
First your car, now you.
The fact that your whole environment is actively trying to kill you adds considerable interest to the thread.

clokker, you're statements are as much of a draw as the car in this thread.

I lol'd

Hehe :) Bear grills aint got nothing on me.

Geuss the next couple days will be spent enjoying the seasons festivities so....
Merry christmas and a happy new year!

And the same to you.

after a very nice cosy christmas with my grlfriends family, im ready to move my body again. you know you have eaten too much christmas food when you spend the next four hours just concentrating on trying to breathe :lol:

first off im gonna have to be boring and talk about the weather. now i know that throughout the entirety of this thread i have been shamelessly boasting/bitching/whining about the harsh swedish winters and i dont know if the weatherman heard but its been the WARMEST WINTER EVER!! (at least i emigrated here in 2006) i only recalling it snowing once so far and being proper nippy (-5c) for a couple weeks in december. they said on the news that we havent had a winter this warm in fifty years and that we have only had winters as brutal as 2011 and 2012 two times in the last 150 years. despite being made to look like a liar by the weatherman, i have absolutely nothing against a winter without snow. especially this year (though we aint out of the woods yet)
reason for this is im getting my hopes up for having a crack at sorting out the timing before i get started on the bushings.

and now for some fun stuff.. robban has apparrently not been wasting time. he sent me a couple pictures this evening which can only mean that hes put down some weekend time at the workshop. this guy is gold.

Attachment 654350
Attachment 654351

he said he had to fabricate a special thingumajig so that it would sit straight.
looks like im going to get my ass in gear if im going to be able to keep up.

im not sure how the next month is going to be. the firm i am currently employed with said they wanted me to work for the three months and then turned round after a week and said that they had "sorted out another guy" and that i would only be working till the end of december. i asked if i had misconducted myself or if they were displeased with my work and they said no so it just seems like they changed theyre minds or wanted to hook up a buddy/family member or that they found someone younger. employer tax is much cheaper if you employ someone under 26.

the morals of this story are..

1. i REALLY should have payed more attention in school.
2. a verbal contract isnt worth the paper its written on.

im hoping that my employment in 2014 will be more stable than it has been this year. ill take the chance to wish all of you who read this all the best for next year!
(more specifically i mean that i hope your 7's dont have to sit on jack stands for another year :nod:)

That's quite the lathe.
Looks like your wheel is about the max diameter that would clear the ways.

How are the mastodons adapting to the warmer winters?

i think if it wasnt for google you would have caught me out a heap of times already :icon16:

looks like you have a eye for this kinda thing. this is at his dad's workshop they have a whole bunch of machines there. im assuming that this is what he will be using to cut the wheel. he said he hasnt done this before but considering what he usually works with i reckon he'll solve it =)

the weather was favourable today. yup, 4 degrees in january here is defi-fucking-nately favourable :nod:
so today my trusty mate joel and another mate of mine (thats also called robban) came by to have a little look over at my glitchy ignition. im going to try to formulate myself as well as i can here but apologies in advance if it doesnt make much sense or seems a bit incomplete. my job was mainly turning the ignition key so i didnt see or hear everything that went on under the hood.

when i left off, i had "reset" the engine by lining up the pin to the right-hand notch on the main pulley and then put in the cas and noticed that it started alot easier than when i had set it to the left-hand notch as per the builders instructions.

this made a big difference and it started up right away without any complaints and stayed running. the next time i was there it was freeeeezing cold but i started it up just to check and it started and idled but i didnt have a timing lamp and couldnt check the timing.

theres alot of stuff i cant explain going on so ill just explain it as it happened.

today when we got there i started her up and she started straight away. then robban started to look at the timing and turning the cas both ways and she reacted by promptly sputtering and dying out. we started her and messed around with her at least ten times and she did this without flooding.

robban noticed a couple of things.

1. the alternator was moving when the engine revved (i dont know in which direction but he didnt seem to think that it was good) and he noticed that there seems to be some kind of spacer missing from the left hand bolt. ill try to find something to put there.

2. it seems like there is something wierd with the throttle. it seems to stick at certain points. im probably going to have to whip it off and have a look to make sure that theres nothing wierd going on. at least to make sure that the butterflies are closing properly/any other wierd shit.

3. turning the idle screw has absolutely no effect on the idle whatsoever.

4. the timing seems to be "moving/shifting" so that when they adjusted the timing, it seemed to not be as they set it when she started up again. this also happened when me and joel tried to adjust the timing before. everytime he thought it was right, i tried to drive away and then it went like crap and died. then when he checked it again it had moved from where he had adjusted it to.

we tried restabbing the cas several times and it just seemed to worsen. rsetting the engine back to the lrft hand notch was no improvement.

an interesting thing happened though. while trying to stab the cas with the pin lined up with the right hand notch, i figured out, though some minor turning of the rotor before i stabbed the cas. to get it to line up perfectly. when it was reset to the left hand notch however, the same trick didnt seem to work and the bolt hole on the adjustment bracket always seemed to end up either far to the left or right therefore hindering any adjustment in one direction.

robban said that we were trying to do too many things at once and if i understood him rightly, we may be having a crack at it again tomorrow.

i did warn ya. i hope that some of this made sense anyway. im gna hit the sack. right now im feeling as tired and old as the greying staffordshire terrier lying beside me in the sofa as i type. but its probably more to do with the fact that its 04:51 in the morning..

Feeling "old and tired" makes sense, the rest, not so much.

geuss this is a bit of a frustrating stage. dont really know where to start. plus the repeated start attempts and flooding are always draining the battery and are probably not so good for the sparkplugs. searching on rx7 club has yielded some good info, but most help threads are usually started by people with an original, untouched motor that has run fine before, then started playing up. most people can rule out the things that cant fall out of adjustment by themselves which is something i cant do because i have fiddled with most of the things in the engine bay at this stage at least during removal and installation. could be anything at this moment in time. geuss the main thing is to start somewhere but i cant help feeling like i need help from someone with more experience right now. robban will be free from work until the 7th so i hope he can spare a day to come and help me again. time is literally flying and if im not be careful, itll be another summer gone before i know it...