S5 na Body and Suspension Build
 

Rx-7's are in my blood, my dad has had several FB's and I practically grew up in his 1993 touring. Last July I got my hands on a 1989 GXL to be my daily driver on my 75 mile round trip to school. As I drove it around for the year, my dad kept bugging me that the car would look good restored and since he owns the body shop where I work you can say it was a good fit. Come winter break we started.

This is how the car looked the day I bought it. Needless to say, it was ugly, but the engine had been rebuilt 30k ago along with a port, and the mechanicals were perfect.
http://imageshack.us/a/img69/6756/3mwi.jpg

First 'mod' 350z wheels and some fatty eagle gt's not pictured is the corksport short shifter, stainless oil cooler lines, real 7 ball shifter, a BUNCH of interior parts
http://imageshack.us/a/img845/175/l0az.jpg

First day of a couple month restoration.
http://imageshack.us/a/img834/7032/mllz.jpg

PDR work by the best in the business. There is only about an ounce of filler in the whole car, everything is metal finished.
http://imageshack.us/a/img607/2370/tg5m.jpg

Red sealer first. this stuff is great when you get rock chips, it's self brush touching
http://imageshack.us/a/img832/3001/7oc7.jpg

Blocked
http://imageshack.us/a/img593/4299/veg5.jpg

Paint on all of the trim
http://imageshack.us/a/img600/485/fibs.jpg

Paint on the car. The red we painted it is the most perfect primary red you can get. It is the color paint stores use for their primary red stock color. It is AMAZING! Pictures don't do it justice.
http://imageshack.us/a/img836/7833/yy2k.jpg

Svx and the Rx7
http://imageshack.us/a/img194/5268/khtm.jpg

Finally Done!!!
http://imageshack.us/a/img534/5770/vqes.jpg

Subaru Forester Mudflaps installed
http://imageshack.us/a/img838/4227/9xxq.jpg

Exterior done and at home.
http://imageshack.us/a/img547/1672/ioik.jpg

I drove it like this for months until I couldn't take the CRAP coilovers (godspeed) that the p/o installed. That's when I got a set of Cusco zero 1 coilovers from Road Pirate.

A short trip around the block before the alignment and the difference was clear.

Now starts the current part of my build, the custom fabricated strut tower braces.
I liked the look of the mazdatrix tri-brace but since they don't make it anymore I guess I gotta make my own. More to come soon.

DAYUMM she looks sexy !!! im a little jelly lol wish my GXL was that clean.:icon_tup:

its amazing the difference a new paintjob can make, Looking good!

LOOKS NICE!! The mudflaps??!! never heard Forester ones work!! Looks awesome! Where you located in KS.?

We had a forester in the shop while we were restoring it and on a whim I held them up to see if they would fit and they were perfect once I made some brackets. I'm located around the Wichita area. Downtown is where the shop is, Auto Body Complex.

Might have to come by and check you guys out! I work in Wichita....live in Newton. Want to see this True Red in person.

My rx7 is a mess right now but the important thing is that the strut tower braces are done and at the powder coaters. Gloss black powdercoat will look a lot better than a craptastic rattle can. Here is a teaser until I can get more pics tonight, guess where this goes?

http://imageshack.us/a/img40/2354/rvfx.jpg

DOPE! Hope the FC gets branded with it right on its a**!

Started on the brackets on the front shock towers. I used the old crappy coilover top mounts for templates. Cut them out with the plasma cutter then trimmed them down with a die grinder. The interior curve was a pain in the butt.
http://imageshack.us/a/img580/4461/u5j2.jpg

Made reinforcing bars and made the middle bar removable by bolts.
http://imageshack.us/a/img842/9818/o5p5.jpg

Drilled the firewall brace and mounted bars from the towers back. Attached with case hardened bolts and nuts.
http://imageshack.us/a/img9/4999/3c7s.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img138/2792/f2fd.jpg

Added a Engine torque brace to the front of the engine.
http://imageshack.us/a/img69/1219/0ff3.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img46/6230/su2f.jpg

I have seen a couple of rear strut bars that were ok, but I didn't want to drill a hole in my car's towers. I made the inner brackets to run the bolts through the rear seat mounting holes.
http://imageshack.us/a/img441/6307/ic2m.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img843/4085/qolu.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img40/204/moy0.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img835/6938/qehf.jpg

Added a bar to support the rear hatch cover that I will be making soon
http://imageshack.us/a/img6/6950/ixlh.jpg

Right after this picture I used a torch to heat up the metal then I dropped them in old motor oil to harden them
http://imageshack.us/a/img802/5333/7aa0.jpg

Sent them off to the powder coaters right after I hardened them. Gloss black will look good.

On a side note, this job would have been impossible for anyone without a variety of steel stock, 220 welder, roloc, diegrinder, stone grinder, drill press, bench grinder, and LOTS of time. It would have been cheaper to just buy a brace, but this one will be stronger than anything you could buy.

They need to outlaw @#%$$%!#$^ curbs! Went around a corner a little to fast and smacked a curb and warped my front wheel and munched the $#!t out of the rear one.... The rx7 is one of those cars that says "oh your okay don't worry I can handle this corner.....I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!!!!!!!!!"

needless to say I bent some stuff. Only had my braces of for a week and this happened:wallbash:

I guess this is a good time to work on the rear suspension while it is on the lift.

Going on soon:

-Adjustable Battle Lateral links
-Possibly but hopefully not the right rear control arm.
-New to me OZ wheels
-Camber adjustment bars (I don't want to look like some stanced idiot)

I guess you have to count your blessings, none of my new paint was hurt.

That sucks! Didn't tweak frame? My FB went out like that.....R.I.P.....but it was a TALL curb at about 40....lucky I didn't flip the car...so definitely count my blessing. Look forward to pic with OZ wheels!

Well tranny blew last week, so just got all this stuff in today:

S4 turbo transmission
S4 turbo drive shaft
S4 turbo limited slip rear end and axles
S4 turbo starter (Shout out to Meximan)
Turbo Slave cylinder
FD Flywheel (thanks Ari at Rotary performance)
Exedy stage one clutch kit.

Looks like Fun!