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Hey all! Just got my first Turbo 2 a few weeks ago and I'm working on cleaning it up and getting it to where I'd like it to be. For the age of the car, and how many people have 'touched' it over the years, she runs like a top. That's one reason I couldn't pass this car up when discussions started about it needing a new home. Right now I'm working on the interior first since she runs and I can't get it registered with my DMV closed due to COVID. Once I got in it I found there are a few broken, missing, or worn parts that I'd like to replace and get the interior a little more buttoned up. This car has been floating around my friends group for about the past 15 years if not longer. Everyone did something to it, something stayed, others went, others got pulled before they shifted over to another person. Now it's my time to get things rolling. The only request I had from my buddy who I got her from was "you have to make this car awesome!" So that's what I plan on doing.
Since most people are after pics, here is the car as I got it.
So as you can see at a first glance there is a decent amount of little things to get the car cleaned up. I've gone through and started getting a list together of things that I'd like to order and started to order to get the interior cleaned up. First bigger thing I'd like to tackle is the ugly eBay special steering wheel setup. That has to go... I've gone through and ordered a Works Bell hub to replace the aluminum hub that's there and plan on running a spare Grip Royal wheel I have sitting with an NRG quick release. It's not the long term solution, but I feel it's better than what's there. I'll either migrate a Nardi from another project, or I'll go and order another along with a RapFixII quick release to match the hub.
Along with that I plan on getting rid of the dried out and cracking shift boot, replacing the shift **** (this is a tough part to replace in an S4 due to the 12x1.5 threadding, but I have a surprise to fix that), to get the defroster vents replaced since they are missing as well as get the center vents replaced.
I've gone ahead and ordered the following new and OEM:
- S4 OEM Vents
- Grey Defroster Vents
Just waiting from them to ship from the Japanese vendor.
Along with that I've ordered a hand made leather shift boot to replace the OEM one. I could have ordered a new OEM one, but I'm not a fan of the drawstring designed boot. I found one that looks pretty nice from a vendor and just have to wait for it to be made and then ship.
I'm currently up in the air on whether to get a headunit and wire up a stereo. In the 15 years this car has been around, it's been stereo-less from what I can remember. That said, I'd like the car buttoned up to have another cruising car, but we will see. One picture I didn't get was of the inside of the hatch, the only part missing being the speaker covers on the rear struts. With the audio up in the air, I'm contemplating running a brace from the strut towers to the B pillar to stiffen up the car, but I have not decided if that's going to happen or not yet. If I do, I can't run the OEM covers and will have to come up with another solution. Luckily I've got 3D printers to take care of that
While taking pictures of the interior I decided to pull a part out of my JDM storage pile and install it and have to say I'm glad I had it to use.
The 300mm Broadway mirror provides just enough space to clearly see out of the rear hatch 100%. I wish it was slightly taller so you didn't see the mounting clips, but it is what it is.
Hopefully within the next few weeks parts will start to arrive.
I had another thread up about replacing the Idiot Light cluster with a 3 gauge pod and am looking into options. I reached out to Retro-Spec and he's still producing gauges and put me in contact a vendor with his stock. Only issue is that I know there are a few versions of Carbon pods he makes and the vendor didn't have a picture of them to confirm which version I would be purchasing. If I don't hear back I might end up going with an Attain Carbon pod as long as they are not angled for RHD cars. I'd like to get oil temp, oil pressure and water temp up there to keep an eye on them. Also, I'm looking for a place to mount a wide band as well as a proper boost gauge setup. I hate the look of A-pillar gauges personally, but that might be where I end up going. I come from the Nissan and Subaru world where integrated mounting solutions are all over the market, I just wish there was more R&D done for gauges for the FC chassis.
Yet another day of Corona-cation. Spent some time in the RX7 looking into what else I can add to the list. Seems the interior lock on the drivers side is frozen... Welp, gotta fix that. Also, it seems the sunroof is not working. When hitting the open/close buttons, I can hear a motor running, but the sunroof seems stuck and/or if there are gears they are stripped.
A few snags came up with the list of parts on the way... Seems that Japan Post has limited exported shipping and the seller had to refund my order on a few parts. So it seems I'm going to have to source a few interior bits locally.
Been a bit since I've updated this, so I figured I'd pop in and throw in some updates.
Due to COVID all of my parts orders that involved getting parts shipped from Japan got canceled and refunded. It seems that until further notice their EMS mail service is currently not exporting shipments out. I could have gone through DHL shipping, but the shipping rates were higher than the parts ordered so I decided to poke around to see what I could find locally. Ended up putting an order in through @Mazdatrix to get a lot of the interior plastics replaced and I hope that will be here this week. Also, I went a head and got a new shift boot made since the original one to the car was still in the trim and was dried out to hell and cracking and I didn't want to go with an OEM style with the draw strings. Besides that I've just been playing musical car parts and moving parts from either another project car or another project car parts stash over to the Turbo2. Ended up swapping out the Broadway that I posted earlier for a blue tinted one to match the door mirrors.
One thing I've been tinkering with is a custom gauge pod to replace the OEM Idiot Lights, and so far it's turned out well. Lots of measuring, CAD design time and test fits, but I managed to get a 3D print that suits my needs. Here are some pictures to keep y'all interested. Please keep in mind that the screen grab of the CAD image was not the final design... And I've also got a test fit picture in the car. Just need to do some post processing work and get a nice finish on it to match the interior.
05-11-20, 01:15 PM
