I figured I would start a thread for my most recent project. Basically I bought this car on a whim with a random call into work. The customer stated it hadn't ran in years and was flooding out the last time it ran and engine was locked up. According to the tag it hadn't been registered since 2012. He wanted very little for it so I met up with the owner and inspected the car and agreed to buy.

These are pictures the owner texted me before I first went to look at it.



The car overall was solid, but filthy. Gold vert BBS?? Yuk...

The car came with a turbo hood, probably worth what I paid for the entire car alone!

I was told that the top was replaced before the car was parked. Other than being filthy I believe it.

Borla cat back was in good shape, but not my cup of tea... Racing Beat will be replacing this.

Engine was complete minus a lot of parts sitting in the interior when I went to look at the car.

Driver side seat is pretty tore up. Many missing and broken trim pieces.

 

The first thing I always do when I first get a new project is clean it out. After tossing out all the trash I removed the seats and vacuumed and shampooed everything. I started to find more and more evidence of teenager ownership. I found wires going everywhere and modules all over the place.I must have removed 100 feet of speaker wires and a half dozen aftermarket 90s audio modules. There was also a joke of an alarm that I removed. I also went ahead and removed and threw out all of the broken interior pieces

This is basically how it looked after cleanup. I ordered a few new parts for it...
86-91 Rx7 Ignition Lock Trim Ring (FB01-60-261A)
86-91 Rx7 Lower Steering Column Cover (FC66-60-230B)
89-91 Rx7 Upper Steering Column Cover (FC66-60-220A)
86-91 Rx7 Right Demister Grille (FB01-60-161A)

 

My next project was the exterior. I wet sanded the entire body with 1000,1500,2000,2500, then 3000 grit paper. After that I got out the DA buffer and used two stages of compound followed by wax.





I also polished all the plastic lenses and replaced and repainted the window trims and broken factory antenna.

88-91 Rx7 Convertible Left Outer Door Window Trim (FB67-59-810D)
88-91 Rx7 Convertible Right Outer Door Window Trim (FB67-58-810D)
Metra 44PW22 automatic power antenna


This is basically how it looked for a couple weeks.

 

I then decided to sell off the Borla exhaust and pull the engine.

I took all of the engine parts to work and cleaned them in the Ozzy Juice tank. I also painted some parts like the water pump.

I painted the irons in Duplicolor cast iron color and the housings in Rustoleum stainless steel color.

I found the failure of the engine to be caused by a failed coolant seal bridge on the front iron. It caused the front rotor seals to seize, hence the flooding and lock up as described by the previous owner. I ordered all the parts I needed for the build.
69-11 Atkins' Rotary Viton Oil Ring Inserts (ARE15)
74-11 Rx7 & Rx8 Corner Seal Spring Set (ARE85)
86-95 Rx7 13B 2mm Apex Seal & Spring Kit (ARE132)
86-11 Rx7 & Rx8 Atkins' Thermal Pellet (ARE50)
89-91 N/A Rx7 Engine Gasket Kit (8DF5-10-271)

 

So the next thing on the list was getting this thing installed! I cleaned the engine bay up and replaced all the vacuum lines while I was at it. Luckily most of the fuel and cooling hoses have been replaced and are in good shape. Afterwards the car sat like this for a few weeks while I gathered some more parts up.

 

The next thing on the list was getting the windows sorted out. I needed a new passenger side window regulator and two new switches. I also won an ebay pair of used convertible seat skins.


So the seat covers actually look great in these pictures, but in person they were extremely weathered and tore in several spots as I installed them. I only put them on for temporary use until I found a nice replacement driver seat or get new skins. The ebay seller was very nice about it though..

Windows are now fully operational after repairs and adjustments.

 

I got bored and decided to restore the BBS wheels, clean up the wheel wells, and put some suspension I had stored in my parts horde on.


I had to strip lots of spray paint off all the brakes and control arms. I sprayed undercoating and ground some rust off the rotors. Brakes are OK for now, but will be replaced eventually.





The car now runs and drives. Here is how it sat for awhile. I put some old B&G springs on at this time. The wheels turned out great after an entire days work... but desperately need to replace those 15 year old Bridgstones and find an exhaust.

 

Close up of the refinished BBS wheels. It took a few hours of stripping, wire brushing, prepping, painting, and sanding/polishing the lips for each wheel, but worth it. Just need new tires...


I decided to put the factory springs on the Tokico Blues. The B&G springs seemed to sit too low all around on this vert and rear camber must've been about -3.0*! I guess that shows how much more the auto vert weighs over my GTUs whuch used these springs a few years ago. At least it rides nice.

Finished up engine compartment.