Vipers new build! 1990 Turbo II... Back in the game...AGAIN!
 

Hey everyone!! Some of you may remember me. Most probably wont. I used to be on here a ton. I have been in the rotary game since 1999, and to date have had 16 RX-7's. I got into Mitsubishi Evo's and disappeared for a while. But rotaries always seem to draw me back in!

Heres a little back story..

. My first big leap into RX-7's was my orange FC...I had had a few before it. But this one was my baby for many years. It took home the "BEST FC" trophy at Sevenstock 9. But a few months later the engine bay caught on fire, and my good friend who helped me build the engine died in a car accident. So i decided to part the car out.

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Then came my Evo 9 RS!! I LOVED this car!!!! I truly miss it! And will get another 9 one day. I bought it brand new and built it all myself. Did a few Time Attack races in it, and crashed at Auto Club Speedway. Sold it shortly after.


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While i had the Evo 9, i also started building my first convertible FC... got about halfway done and the motor blew.. parted it out after that.

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After that, i bought a stone stock 2002 Subaru Impreza 2.5RS. Planned to simply do some cosmetic stuff here and there and call it a day..... yeah, that didnt last long. and within a year, it was one of the most complete 06' STI swapped Bugeyes in the country. Fun car, but after the swap, i was out of things i wanted to do to it, so i sold it.

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during the swap. Already started putting it together. The interior was 100% gutted of the old parts and wiring as well.
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Then got a hair up my butt and bought a 1999 Lexus GS400. Wanted to try the luxury side of things. Surprisingly my goal was to just put a good set of coilovers and wheels, and a stereo system, and i actually did just that! Although i did replace a ton of worn or old parts to make it look as new as possible. Really liked this car. It was very comfortable. But got the itch for another Evo...sooooo, SOLD!

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And that brings me to my current car. My 2013 Evolution 10! Its a great car. But i just leased it since i go through cars like candy. It was a smart move. Its helped me to keep it stock.

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And now onto my new toy!!!!! Decided i wanted back into the rotary game. A lot of drama happened with another Turbo II i was in the process of buying. It was an 88'. Complete, but had been sitting for years. With the windows down. Interior was trashed. You could see the water line in the carpet. So i knew it would need new wiring and interior. Which wasnt the end of the world. But i came across THIS car, and noticed how clean the exterior was, and how much less work would be involved (i thought at the time) in getting it up and running. Plus its an S5 T2, which is the most coveted FC. So that was a plus. Paid about the same price for this rolling chassis as i was for a complete S4 T2 THAT RAN! LOL... But needed a ton of work.

The car has authentic Mariah wide front fenders on it. Well done too with the OEM TURBO II decal to kinda hide that they are aftermarket. Also has an authentic Mazdaspeed front lip as well. I will say when i checked out the car, i was very pleasantly surprised that all the doors opened and closed tightly, like they were new, and the door handles felt the same. All of the weatherstripping looks new basically. Interior was a 5/10.. A lot missing, and a lot that was pretty scratched up. But a much better start than the other T2.

Its when I started digging deep into the car that i noticed all the destruction done!!! :/ Basically, this car had a swapped motor in it before. So a ton of the wiring is all hacked up and spliced and basically destroyed. The front of the car has been all hacked to bits. The brakes were ABS, but a terrible job of deleting it was done, and the lines are all bent and hanging in the air. Just bad all around. Angle iron was welded onto the car in a few spots. A batter tray was welded into the back hatch area.. Except it was welded OVER the fuel pump access panel! Smart... really smart!


pics from the for sale ad
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The day i got it. Also have the 91' that i bought for spare parts
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and then youll see what i see... a hacked up engine bay

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the whole section to mount the radiator is missing, as is the section to secure the hood latch, and the section for all the relays. Attachment 657764

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Pulled up the carpet around where the ECU would go and this is the monstrosity i saw.. so, needless to say, the whole thing needs to come out and gone over or replaced!!
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So, i started to pull the interior apart
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then me and my good friend Brandon tackled the task of trying to get the welded in battery tray pulled out. have 3/4 of it done now, enough to get the fuel pump panel off finally
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and this is as far as ive gotten on the interior as of right now... the main chassis harness is removed. as is 95% of the interior. Goning to clean up and restore what i can, and replace the rest.

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engine bay. You can see the hanging brake line. My plan is to just fabricate a a few brake lines. Should be pretty easy to do. Have a lot of work repairing everything that was hacked off though.
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i was able to get a turbo II hood. Just needs to be painted. The car came with a vert hood when i bought it.

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Also got a set of Tein coilovers and installed them. Timeline may be off a bit. as the interior isnt torn apart yet in this pic

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also have a few parts that will be cleaned up and used.

Fluidyne radiator
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Authentic HELLA headlights for the RE Amemiya FC2000 front end! Which will be bought sometime in the near future hopefully.

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and i also started to take both of my FC's black interiors and make the best of both into 1 good interior.

redid the door panels
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And this pic is a close idea of what i plan to hopefully do! Same bumper, hood and diffuser, and a GT wing as well.



*****NO, THIS IS NOT MY CAR***********
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I remember you.
The carbon fiber rad panel from your partout was one of the first things I ever bought for my car.

Good luch with the new one...that wiring looks apocryphal.

My friend was going through some things on his Miata last night and found some back job wiring. His comment was this is why people should not be allowed to install certain things. I think the same things goes for the mess you have inherited on that car. Having a parts car can definitely help.

Thanks guys!! Yeah, the wiring is going to be the nightmare.. would be an easy switch if it was NA..but those S5 T2 harnesses are looking to be a pretty tough thing to find.. I'd hate to do it.. but I may have to swap in an NA harness and convert it.

Great to see the Rotary dragged you back again. :) I have always enjoyed your threads whether they be part out or other.

Glad to.see the new build thread jesse let me know if you need anything

Good to see you back here. I loved that orange car when you built it! Can't wait to see this build.

Great to see your back, always putting together nice cars.

Loved the original Orange FC mate. Surprised you didn't go a FD with a 20B etc ? :)

thanks guys!!! This one will be a slower build than the rest. Have more bills and responsibilities than when i built the orange one.

Alex.... thanks again!!! Youve already contributed greatly to the build!

Cool I liked the history story!

Subbed, I am so in for this build!

That's quite a car history! Very jealous :(

RIP Dave

Welcome Back! Can't wait to see the final.

thanks everyone! Glad to see some familiar faces still roaming this forum!!


Made some more progress yesterday and have been collecting some parts.

Thanks to Alex Rodriguiz, i was able to get my hands on quite a bit of the parts i needed to get my interior complete. As well as a few goodies here and there.

i got a rear subframe thats been stripped and painted, with all new bushings, S4 front a-arms that have been ceramic coated, w/ energy suspension bushings, manual rack with energy suspensions goodies on the ends, aluminum jack, and hard to find aluminum jack handle (as well as the aluminum spare tire. just not pictured)
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Also got a damn near perfect black dashboard, idiot light surround, center console, door handles, handle covers, dimister grilles, instrument cluster surround, perfect carpet, rear speaker covers, and a few other nick nacs. Ill post pics of all of that in a few days


heres the mess thats gotta get organised still. tearing apart 2 cars and trying to keep the parts seperate isnt easy when you only have corners to place things in..lol

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Also was able to work on both of the cars a bit. Pressure washed the red one inside and out (just the rear hatch area on the inside to remove the battery acid that was all over in there)

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also pressure washed the engine bay... gonna go back for a round 2 with some good degreaser solvants and a scrub brush.

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And was able to strip most of the front section interior out of the parts car. and get the front main chassis harness out. Its going to be the doner for all the wires and connectors that are hacked on my T2 harness. Had a friends help today, so that made things go a bit faster.

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Baby steps!! But steps nonetheless!!! lol

Dropped the chassis harness off at a friends performance shop to be completely gone over. So i should have that back in about 2 weeks.


Still acquiring parts, but i was able to get the hardest parts on my quest for OEM goodness. Only 1 needle in the haystack left! An oem N370 non-hacked engine harness.

Heres is what i picked up at Sevenstock16 yesterday! I'd like to thank Fris at Lucky 7 Racing for really going above and beyond to help me get an N370 ecu, boost pressure sensor and mass air flow sensor! Also snagged a few other goodies. RE Amemiya radiator cap, rotary13bt oil filler cap, and rotor shaped oil dipstick handle (may or may not use these.. but the price was right)

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Nice welcome back ..i seem to always have evo fever.ahah

Rip Dave

I won that rotor oil cap back in 07 lol, best engine bay garnish ever.

SDRotary.... yeah, they are great cars! I miss my 9!!! And i saw your thread with your S5 T2! congrats!


MaczPayne.... thanks again for the major hook ups!!! Cant wait to clean up all the parts and get them installed on the car!