Car looks great w/an empty engine bay, ic seems to be taking all the prime real estate though.

 

Yeah, it's a massive IC. But, it should be fine.

Installed the AutoPower 4 point roll bar last night:



I still need to put the interior back in (pretty easy on these cars) but I'm going to wire my cut-off switch first (route to battery and to the alternator).

 

Today's project was mounting my cut off switch. I had heard a lot of people saying they never got hassled about it (my battery is relocated in a sealed bin in one of my storage compartments) but my most local track is Brainerd International Raceway, and they're pretty set on going by the NHRA rulebook, from what I have heard. The switch itself is a cheap NAPA dual pole unit. I used a rubber grommet to finish it off and used some small hinges I found at Menards - no doubt they will do the job.

I took special care to make sure the hinges were completely hidden from sight as the switch will also serve purpose as a theft deterrent:



What lies beneath:



And this is how I will run it when I'm at the track (I'm having a sticker made indicating which direction it goes):

 

Alright, so a pretty big change in my build. I've decided to not go with the IRS route and decided to go with a solid axle. Granny's Speed Shop makes a bolt in kit that runs $3,300 new with all of the upgrades one would want. Even then, the geometry isn't quite right and it has some cheapish parts (plastic heim joints, for example). I happened to stumble upon what you see below the other day and sent the deposit for the whole car. I'm paying $3,000 for the entire car which includes everything you see below. It's a steal in my opinion. The car has a Hinson Supercars V8 mounting kit, widebody fenders, freshly rebuilt front brakes, and the body only has 79k miles on it.

The rear end itself was originally a Granny's kit but has been prepped by Tydo Race Cars and itself cost about $4,500 to have built. It's a narrowed 8.8 torque arm setup with a Strange spool and 32 spline Strange axles and Aerospace Components rear drag disc brakes with new pads. It has 3.55 gears installed which I'm going to leave in. Should be good with my PowerGlide.

The fuel cell is a 9 gallon unit and I'm still not sure if I'm going to put it in my car or now.

It's not the prettiest thing to look at, but you have to look past that. It's in Cincinnati and I'll be going down to get it the first week of November.

And yes, it's a 10th AE.

 

 

What are you gonna sell your IRS setup for?

 

My stock TII setup? I'm asking $500 for the whole subframe with brakes, the diff, etc. The rotors/HPS pads are like new, there's MMR camber adjusters, and the whole thing is painted black wit POR15. It's an S4 TII diff. If you're asking about the Ronin stuff, I am sending it back to them. I'm not allowed to legally sell it I don't think because I signed some paperwork being that it is a prototype.

Tonight I did get my front bumper trimmed for my FMIC. Here's a picture with the bumper just sitting on the car and the front lip screwed into a couple of places. Don't mind any gaps in the body, I'm just demonstrating what it should look like:

 

I "finished" getting the 4 link installed tonight (all by myself I might add ). I put countless hours into cleaning all of the components up and applying liberal coats of POR-15. I've been working on it after work for the last week or so. I'm pretty happy with the outcome. I will say, the narrowed rear end makes my 275 drag radials look tiny. That may be a sign I need 315s and some 17x11s . Anyway, here's where I'm at with it right now:

 

Man I am getting anxious for your build Dave. That rear end turned out great, good job! Your about as OCD as me lol

 

Lol not even close man
I wish I had the patience you do when it comes to this stuff. There's a lot of little stuff that bugs me about my car that no one else would notice - I just don't have the time

The summation of my weekend:



Here's the finished wire tuck:



I removed the brake booster and sanded it down for paint (black wrinkle coating):



And here's the new location for the fuse box. Ignore the long bolt - just there to mock it up.



The whole "while I'm at it thing" is killing me, but once the bay is prepped and painted I will be a happy camper I think (also I'm going to put the motor in and turbo stuff to get my clearances right and really figure out what I'm going to do about my radiator/tranny cooler setup).

Basically what I did was remove everything possible from the bay. My dad told me to just sand down the paint in the bay by hand with a scuffer (since the Mazda paint is a pretty good base as it is) so I did that twice. On the frame rails I had put undercoat so I had to grind most of that off which you can see... that really sucked. I also cut out the upper cross support for the radiator, as you can see. I cut it a little too much on the left side but that's OK because I'm going to weld those two pieces together for reinforcement (and do the same on the driver's side). I also cut out some of the studs in the bay that weren't needed.

I still haven't decided what to do with all of the holes in the firewall. Part of me wants to weld in pieces and really make it clean, but if I ever need some of them in the future I'd kind of be screwing myself. I think I might make plates that bolt into plate to cover the holes. It wouldn't look as clean but it would be safe and they could always be removed if I wanted to in the future.

I also cut the holes for my FMIC. I figured one picture was good since you all know what holes look like. The driver's side sucked because there's an existing hole there meaning a hole saw can't be used. I took my time with a reciprocating saw and grinder and it looks great. After paint I will put some U channel molding around to finish the look. I also notched the firewall for clearance with intakes, wiring, etc. With my Granny's mounts I was REALLY close before, so I figured while I was doing it (a common theme). I will bondo it up to make it look factory.

 

Nice, same tuck job as me and the fuse box ended up in the same spot. No Rotors FAQ ftw.

 

Haha exactly. Only thing I need to figure out is how to get the fender liner back in. Where it goes through the firewall the harness sticks out too far. Any thoughts?

 

I'm wondering about that to. I have gay little 15" rims right now so it doesn't affect it, but when I put larger rims on, I'll figure it out. Post a picture what yours looks like, maybe it can be pulled out a bit more for slack and then bolted to the well?

 

yea man i love the wankle.... but damnnnn

 

sometimes i wonder how some people have all the free time to do this (building, not working) and then can turn around and pay for all this lol.

looks awesome man! what kind of times are you expecting? top speed?

 

Typical full time job is 40 hours per week. That means 128 hours of free time a week!

 

Yeah, once I get the fenders back on I'll report back and let you know how successful (or not) I was, lol.

Thanks... much appreciated!

Haha, kinda where I was at. Nothing against the Wankel, but once you get over it the possibilities are endless...

Free time is pretty limited, but not having kids or a wife (I do have a GF) helps things considerably.

I'm hoping to break into the 9's which really shouldn't be a problem. But I'm not certified for any faster than 10.5, and this isn't a track car, so we'll see!

Sometimes it feels like 128 hours of work and 40 hours of free time! Lol...



Alright, well after a 2 week break I'm back at it. I started getting burnt out from working on it everynight, but the flame has been reignited.

I cut the main support beam out and am planning where to move it. I think here is where I want it to be:



It's the best of both worlds but will require a surge tank - no biggie.

Here's how it looks with the FMIC in front:





Herra frush with a spacer:



I'm riding like a 4x4. For some reason I can't get these Strange coilovers any lower...



Anyway, a whole slew of parts will be arriving this week - I'm excited. I hope to have the motor in the car within 2 weeks (just to mock up), get her painted and then I'll be ready for final assembly!

I still have no idea where I'm going to put the tranny cooler...

 

im officially in love with your car dave

 

That is some crazy fender gap in the rear. The build is still looking really good. Keep up the quality work!

 

That turbo setup will never fit in an FC!



Looks good man.

 

They're domestic coils, that IS low . And w/ that crazytoobig rad I'm not sure you'd want to go much lower if they could.

 

looks amazing so far, makes me want to prostitute to get the money for my car

 

What is going on with this? I liked this build

 

Awesome build

 

does that diff hang lower than the "stock" diff's position?