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Hello everyone! My name is Andrew and I am currently restoring a 1988 Mazda RX7. I recently acquired the vehicle after many attempts in purchasing an S2000. My RX-7 has 107,000 miles right now and was originally a steel blue color, but I am doing a full color change on the car! When I purchased the car, I got a bunch of turbo 2 swap parts as well so my plan is to swap the drivetrain over once I get the exterior and interior all sorted out. The car is fully gutted on the inside because it was a drift car before I purchased it. So the first order of business was going to the junk yard to find as many interior pieces as I could. I knew I didn't want to get an used carpet so I purchased one off stockinteriors. Ill install it after I paint the car and report back to you guys on how good the fitment is! Below are pictures of the car before the restoration began!
On the first day of receiving the car, I began by removing all front fenders, bumpers, side skirts, and tail lights to prep the car for the paint. The plan is to leave the rear half of the car gutted and repaint it to the exterior color! I also began sanding down the exterior primer to prepare for aircraft paint stripper. The car is currently primered white by the previous owner and to do this right, I want to remove all the paint off the car and start from bare metal. The previous owner also put on this duraflex body kit on the car which didn't look the best in my opinion so that was the first thing to be sold! The car also had a villains knuckle kit for drifting which made the car drive super funky so that was sold as well. The plan is to use this car as a daily driver for a little bit while doing some track days in the future at my home circuit, Laguna Seca. The color I chose to repaint the car is Grand Prix White which is an OEM Honda color! Since acquiring the car, I already purchased most of the interior trim pieces, a GP Sports body kit, a set of wheels, short shifter, steering wheel, and a bunch of other items for this car! I always loved the body lines of the FC so hopefully I keep this car for a very long time!
Finally got around to primering the rear half of the interior the car. After primering, I sanded down the primer with 800 grit to remove the roughness of the primer and than shot it with Grand Prix white paint. I waited 40 minutes before shooting the 2k clear coat and man the interior looks good!
My wheels finally arrived along with my GP Sports body kit! The wheels I got are the Enkei RPF1 in SBC. 18x9.5 +18mm all around. Even with the origin front fenders, the front wheels might be too aggressive so I might go with even wider fenders up front. Otherwise, the finish on these wheels are so cool!
Good progress man! I just bought a white S4 FC as well I'm planning to eventually respray the car so I'll be following this thread closely to see how you did it!
Good progress man! I just bought a white S4 FC as well I'm planning to eventually respray the car so I'll be following this thread closely to see how you did it!
Thanks! Here is the video of me painting the interior of the car white!
Got most of the body work taken cared of this weekend. Filled and sanded all the holes on the chassis. Major pain in the rear to fill all the holes and dents, but the end result will be worth it! Got a set of blue door panels this weekend so decided to steam clean them. The carpet on the bottom of the door panel had some stains that weren't removable so I might get them reupholstered in the future. Anyone know any blue interior spray paint that looks like the OEM color?
Hey guys! Crossing my fingers and hoping the car will be painted and cleared by the end of this week! I got all the dents fixed and the entire chassis sanded to remove all the imperfections. I am doing a full respray so I decided to take the doors off as well and paint the jambs as well. My friend and I got the entire chassis and doors primered with filler primer and will be sanding it down with 800 grit tomorrow! Then, its going to be painted Grand Prix White, and Cleared! I ordered my tires on Wednesday of last week and got them on Thursday! Super quick shipping from TireRack. The tires I chose are the Toyo R888R 255/40/R17. I know the car will not break loose with such sticky tires, but the end goal of this build is to have a dedicated track car. Another reason I went with these tires over the Advan AD08R was because these Toyo R888R mount to the rims flush with no "Rim Protector" lip. The tire and wheel set up is a little aggressive, but once the painting is done, the car will be getting an alignment immediately to get all this meat to fit!
This part was white before and crusty. So I repainted it black and clear coated it for rust protection.
My friend and I did all the prep work including masking the car! I purchased some autobody plastic wrap to cover up the door, trunk, and moonroof openings. To be honest, I was super easy and took about 40 minutes to cover everything up. Would definitely recommend two people to do it though!
WOO! Got the car painted today! I started off letting the spray cans sit in hot water for about 25 minutes while I set up the canopy. This just helps reduce the amount of orange peel the car will have. I am going to wet sand the entire car after I paint it and polish it to refine the finish! Car with just primer on. Car with Grand Prix White paint no clear coat! 2k Clear! Driver side door jamb Front Jamb Side Sills Roof. Hard to see the reflection because of the red canopy. Will take more pictures this weekend when I can pull the car off the jack stands!
We are going to start restoring the tail lights, turn signals and paint the interior trims black on Friday! Hopefully, we will have some time to clean up all the wheel wells and undercoat them as well. I am extremely OCD about cleaning since I do detailing for a living! This will help freshen up the whole car and give it that new car feel. Saturday, we are hoping to put back the interior together, install the hatch, and get the RPF1's mounted on the car! We can't install the doors just yet, since I am waiting for a box of new OEM Mazda door seals to show up, but once they do, the doors will be installed.
A little before and after! I owned the car for about a month now and it still needs a lot more work. I think that by the end of the year, the car should be completed! I just need a pair of seats now and some quarter panel trim pieces to complete the interior!
Repainted the vent trim pieces on the hatch area with black paint and matte clear coat to protect them from rust. Got the chance to start reassembling the small stuff like the door sensors and the crash beam. The crash beam was SUPER dirty, had so much dirt on the back that it made the ground turn black haha. Took it a little bit of elbow grease and APC to clean it up and reinstalled! The masking tape is there to hold the Styrofoam block. When I took it off, it had some masking tape to hold it as well from the factory.
While we wait for more paint to show up, We started prepping the chassis for undercoating. I first cleaned all the wheel wells with APC and a Detailing brush to get rid of all the dirt on the wheel wells. The brake calipers and lower control arms required heavy duty cleaning so I used Meguiars Wheel Brightner Acid to clean those up. It did a good job removing the 30 year old grime! I purchased rubberized undercoating because with the R888R's, the tires are going to kick up a lot of rocks which will cause rust in the future. Hopefully the undercoating will hold up for a long time!
My original plans were to reinstall the hatch and the two doors by this week. Looks like that won't be happening anytime soon because the paint started "cracking." So, I will need to repaint them AGAIN. Reordered a new batch of paint so it should be here in the next week or so. I am dying to mount up the RPF1's to the car so that I don't have to keep them in my truck. I will also be picking up a hood and two Bride bucket seats this week so the car should be mostly done in terms of purchasing parts. Yesterday, We got around to install the interior back on the Rx7. I purchased a brand new carpet from Stock Interiors after hearing good reviews about them on this forum. It fits pretty good considering it isn't an OEM carpet. The main problem I had with it was that I had to cut out the seat holes myself which can be a lengthy process. The carpet took about 2 hours to install and we had to tuck it into the dash to get the perfect fitment.
For the door seals, I have to reuse two of the door seals so my process of restoring them was cleaning them throughly with a steamer to get rid of any dirt. Afterwards, I applied Honda Shinetsu Grease to the rubber moldings to make them soft again. Applying this grease will not only provide a better seal from the elements, but also help protect it from drying out. Its really good stuff, especially if you have old mouldings!
Car is looking good! Your paintwork is pretty good too, especially considering it was a rattle can. I used an HVLP gun for my hatch, and I think after wet sanding and polishing we'll probably end up with similar results.
Originally Posted by aling289
I purchased a brand new carpet from Stock Interiors after hearing good reviews about them on this forum. It fits pretty good considering it isn't an OEM carpet. The main problem I had with it was that I had to cut out the seat holes myself which can be a lengthy process. The carpet took about 2 hours to install and we had to tuck it into the dash to get the perfect fitment.
As someone who is going to be in the market for a new carpet, I'm curious about this. I'd seen lots of good and bad about the ACC carpet (the suppliers for stock interiors). I'm not opposed to doing some stretching and fitting myself, as long as the results are okay. Black carpet also hides imperfections better, so that makes things easier.
Any tips? Any drawbacks other than cutting the seat holes?
Car is looking good! Your paintwork is pretty good too, especially considering it was a rattle can. I used an HVLP gun for my hatch, and I think after wet sanding and polishing we'll probably end up with similar results.
As someone who is going to be in the market for a new carpet, I'm curious about this. I'd seen lots of good and bad about the ACC carpet (the suppliers for stock interiors). I'm not opposed to doing some stretching and fitting myself, as long as the results are okay. Black carpet also hides imperfections better, so that makes things easier.
Any tips? Any drawbacks other than cutting the seat holes?
Thanks! The rattle can company I purchased the clear coat and base coat used a different nozzle tip than traditional rattle cans so it was a lot easier to paint. The carpet actually doesn't require any stretching. The OEM Carpet extends all the way under the dash so if you want to do it the right way, the dash has to come out. My car came without a carpet and the previous owner cut it out instead of removing the dash. I chose to keep the dash in place but trim the carpet so that it would tuck under the dash. Its hard to explain, but the triangle trim pieces on the bottom of the dash gives you plenty of access to tuck the carpet deep into the dash.
The carpet actually doesn't require any stretching. The OEM Carpet extends all the way under the dash so if you want to do it the right way, the dash has to come out. My car came without a carpet and the previous owner cut it out instead of removing the dash. I chose to keep the dash in place but trim the carpet so that it would tuck under the dash. Its hard to explain, but the triangle trim pieces on the bottom of the dash gives you plenty of access to tuck the carpet deep into the dash.
Interesting, I'd read some reviews where people indicated the carpet didn't have some of the recesses deep enough and required stretching. Like the seat mounts for example. Maybe the molds have been updated since then, but it's good to hear no stretching was required.
Yeah, I had my dash out for my previous carpet adventure (dying my grey carpet black). It was a failed experiment, but I learned, so it was worth it. In the future I'll probably do what you did and just tuck the carpet. The carpet has so much mass and so many hold down points under trim that I doubt keeping the entire under-dash portion is necessary.
Anyways, thanks for the info Good luck with the car, I'm looking forward to more updates
Interesting, I'd read some reviews where people indicated the carpet didn't have some of the recesses deep enough and required stretching. Like the seat mounts for example. Maybe the molds have been updated since then, but it's good to hear no stretching was required.
Yeah, I had my dash out for my previous carpet adventure (dying my grey carpet black). It was a failed experiment, but I learned, so it was worth it. In the future I'll probably do what you did and just tuck the carpet. The carpet has so much mass and so many hold down points under trim that I doubt keeping the entire under-dash portion is necessary.
Anyways, thanks for the info Good luck with the car, I'm looking forward to more updates
Thank you! Yeah the carpet has plenty of hold points under trims and stuff especially if you have full interior. I gutted the rear half of my car so, i just friction clips to hold the back of the carpet.
Not much has been accomplished this week! Got all the seals in the mail from Mazdaswag! Such great service, price, and fast shipping! Arrived within a week of ordering the parts. While waiting for paint, I started restoring all the lights on the car. These cars are already 30 years old so of course all the plastic lights have become faded and yellow. I sanded them down with 800 grit and then hit them with 2k clear to protect them. Sorry I didn't take any before pictures haha. I got too carried away with restoring them and forgot all about taking pictures! Enjoy the results below! My car never came with a full interior so when I went to the junk yard, I grabbed this ugly looking headliner to outfit it into my car. I ended up rewrapping it in black suede for a more "luxury" interior. The material wasn't really expensive, about $96 dollars for the 3 yards. My mom came in clutch and re holstered it for me saving me A LOT of money! The only problem was that we applied way too much glue so in some spots, the glue went through the headliner material. Its okay though because the spots with glue are going to be cut out for the sunroof controls anyways!
Got the hatch fitted back onto the car with the new OEM Mazda trunk seal! Fits so good and the new mouldings just makes the car even better! Also got the car off the jack stands because we need to install the side skirts next. The jackstands were in the way of the rocker panel and plus, I wanted to see the stance of the car! The fitment looks kinda funky right now because the alignment is way outta wack. The rears have no camber causing the wheel to kinda stick out. Once this thing is on the road, I will be adjusting the camber settings for the rear. The front wheels are maxed out in terms of camber! The villians knuckle kit in my opinion makes the wheel stick out way too much. I might have to remove it since I am not drifting anyways. We removed the ugly LRB hood and slapped on an aluminium hood I picked up on Friday! Crazy to see how much of a weight difference it is between the steel and aluminum hood. Will be primering the hood tomorrow and fitting the side skirts! Crossing my fingers that I can drive this car around the block by the end of the week!
10-18-19, 01:27 AM
Good luck with the car, I'm looking forward to more updates
