CS13B 1988 Convertible Progress Thread
06-23-11, 10:11 PM
#1
CS13B 1988 Convertible Progress Thread
SO I feel as though it's time I'd like to officially make a progress thread for my car, starting from when I bought it in September 2008 to now. This is meant to keep me on track as I progress with the work I want/need done in the future, and to show you fellow 7 lovers/haters (it really IS a love/hate relationship with us isn't it?) some of the work I've done up to this point.
So it starts with a job I've had since I was 17 working at a Mazda dealer in Toronto. A lady by the name of Roswitha brought her 1988 Rx-7 convertible in for brake work, paid for new brakes on all 4 corners, and then the car sat in our lot for about 3 weeks. Well we followed up with a call to ask when she would return to pick the vehicle up, and when she returned I asked her if she was interested in selling it at the present moment. She explained that her recent doctor's appointment had resulted in a recommendation that she not drive for much longer, so in fact she would look to us to help her sell it. When I asked how much she wanted and the reply was $3000, I jumped on the opportunity.
When I started researching the background of the car, it was clear this was an awesome deal. The car had been sold from a dealer in British Columbia to her daughter in 1989, who only drove it occasionally until about 2003 when she had kids and decided to donate it to her mom here in Toronto. Since 2003 it had been serviced regularly at my dealership, with 2 clutch replacements in that time (she couldn't drive standard for the life of her), and in the 6 years she had serviced the car with us she put a total of around 5,000 km on the car, leaving the odometer reading a grand total of ~66,000km - as far as we knew - on the original engine. The body was pretty well spotless, as she didn't drive it in the winter, and the interior was in great shape also. Overall I would have given the car about a 7/10.
It's first night home:
It had tears on both side of the roof behind the doors... a cracked mirror housing on the passenger side and a dented front fender which I chose to tackle right away:
I bought a top from M&T manufacturing in the states for something like $600.00 which was half of the price of the OEM top... but in hindsight, I would have picked up the OEM roof. It comes with pre-cut holes for the window and the bolts all around the bottom of the fabric, and the fit would be just like new - whereas this top fit less than satisfactory, but at least it didn't leak anymore. My uncle and I installed the top ourselves over a weekend with the help of the instructions, the FSM, and a LOT of patience while using a heatgun and heatlamps to stretch the top over the frame.
New and old tops, along with the old frame bar thing that was so rusted it came out in 4 or 5 pieces.
And I'll just put the others in as thumbnails to save space:
I then got the dented fender and the mirror fixed and painted, but didn't take any before or after photos.
Next was a stereo and door speakers:
The old speakers were torn apart and the original CD player didn't light up anymore and a cd was stuck inside...
I bought an Alpine CDA-9886 with the i-pod adapter and some 100W kicker speakers I found on sale.
With the help of Kromer Radio I customized the dash mounting kit it a little bit so that the head unit sits flush in the dash, as opposed to the faceplate sticking out as I'd seen on some other rx-7s. I also found a warrantied Rx8 **** with only some minor scratches, so I drilled the plastic out and screwed it on. while the leather boot was off I had my MOMMY re-stitch it with red stitching
.
You can also see where I ran the ipod cord into the centre console
And then came my first aftermarket part... to be followed by many others.. A Re-Amemiya strut bar in pretty good condition... I foolishly painted the blue ends with a shiny blue so I've been meaning to paint them back to a more original blue colour.
I will skip my story about my experience with Mazdee's and just say that I was very happy with the quality of the exhaust work done when I had them replace the two pre-cats with a straight pipe and replaced the main cat with a high-flow, however I never returned when Dave quoted me an exorbitant amount of money to take my engine apart to source a vibration that I was experiencing. To get to the point, the vibration was looked at by both Danny at Mazda Canada and Stuart of Can-Jam and they said the engine was fine, it was most likely my clutch or something in the driveline...
ANYWAYS moving along to mid-summer of 2010... I sprung a leak behind the waterpump housing from the gasket between the housing and the front iron. By the time the coolant buzzer alerted me of the impending catastrophe, I was already at the extremely hot section of the temp. gauge... BAD NEW BEARS... apparently I had warped the waterpump housing and failed to notice this before installing 2 more of the same gaskets over the course of a month, when I finally let one of the mechanics check it out, where he noticed that not only had the housing warped, but the continued driving of the car with the warped housing had caused the little arm on the front iron to completely crack off...
This left me with the choice of either getting that engine rebuilt, or buying a rebuilt one from Mazda. The worst part about this is that when we checked compression of the engine before removal, it was still showing numbers in the high 90's! So I had ruined a completely good engine by not paying attention to my car while driving.
More uploading tomorrow... night folks.
So it starts with a job I've had since I was 17 working at a Mazda dealer in Toronto. A lady by the name of Roswitha brought her 1988 Rx-7 convertible in for brake work, paid for new brakes on all 4 corners, and then the car sat in our lot for about 3 weeks. Well we followed up with a call to ask when she would return to pick the vehicle up, and when she returned I asked her if she was interested in selling it at the present moment. She explained that her recent doctor's appointment had resulted in a recommendation that she not drive for much longer, so in fact she would look to us to help her sell it. When I asked how much she wanted and the reply was $3000, I jumped on the opportunity.
When I started researching the background of the car, it was clear this was an awesome deal. The car had been sold from a dealer in British Columbia to her daughter in 1989, who only drove it occasionally until about 2003 when she had kids and decided to donate it to her mom here in Toronto. Since 2003 it had been serviced regularly at my dealership, with 2 clutch replacements in that time (she couldn't drive standard for the life of her), and in the 6 years she had serviced the car with us she put a total of around 5,000 km on the car, leaving the odometer reading a grand total of ~66,000km - as far as we knew - on the original engine. The body was pretty well spotless, as she didn't drive it in the winter, and the interior was in great shape also. Overall I would have given the car about a 7/10.
It's first night home:
It had tears on both side of the roof behind the doors... a cracked mirror housing on the passenger side and a dented front fender which I chose to tackle right away:
I bought a top from M&T manufacturing in the states for something like $600.00 which was half of the price of the OEM top... but in hindsight, I would have picked up the OEM roof. It comes with pre-cut holes for the window and the bolts all around the bottom of the fabric, and the fit would be just like new - whereas this top fit less than satisfactory, but at least it didn't leak anymore. My uncle and I installed the top ourselves over a weekend with the help of the instructions, the FSM, and a LOT of patience while using a heatgun and heatlamps to stretch the top over the frame.
New and old tops, along with the old frame bar thing that was so rusted it came out in 4 or 5 pieces.
And I'll just put the others in as thumbnails to save space:
I then got the dented fender and the mirror fixed and painted, but didn't take any before or after photos.
Next was a stereo and door speakers:
The old speakers were torn apart and the original CD player didn't light up anymore and a cd was stuck inside...
I bought an Alpine CDA-9886 with the i-pod adapter and some 100W kicker speakers I found on sale.
With the help of Kromer Radio I customized the dash mounting kit it a little bit so that the head unit sits flush in the dash, as opposed to the faceplate sticking out as I'd seen on some other rx-7s. I also found a warrantied Rx8 **** with only some minor scratches, so I drilled the plastic out and screwed it on. while the leather boot was off I had my MOMMY re-stitch it with red stitching
.
You can also see where I ran the ipod cord into the centre console
And then came my first aftermarket part... to be followed by many others.. A Re-Amemiya strut bar in pretty good condition... I foolishly painted the blue ends with a shiny blue so I've been meaning to paint them back to a more original blue colour.
I will skip my story about my experience with Mazdee's and just say that I was very happy with the quality of the exhaust work done when I had them replace the two pre-cats with a straight pipe and replaced the main cat with a high-flow, however I never returned when Dave quoted me an exorbitant amount of money to take my engine apart to source a vibration that I was experiencing. To get to the point, the vibration was looked at by both Danny at Mazda Canada and Stuart of Can-Jam and they said the engine was fine, it was most likely my clutch or something in the driveline...
ANYWAYS moving along to mid-summer of 2010... I sprung a leak behind the waterpump housing from the gasket between the housing and the front iron. By the time the coolant buzzer alerted me of the impending catastrophe, I was already at the extremely hot section of the temp. gauge... BAD NEW BEARS... apparently I had warped the waterpump housing and failed to notice this before installing 2 more of the same gaskets over the course of a month, when I finally let one of the mechanics check it out, where he noticed that not only had the housing warped, but the continued driving of the car with the warped housing had caused the little arm on the front iron to completely crack off...
This left me with the choice of either getting that engine rebuilt, or buying a rebuilt one from Mazda. The worst part about this is that when we checked compression of the engine before removal, it was still showing numbers in the high 90's! So I had ruined a completely good engine by not paying attention to my car while driving.
More uploading tomorrow... night folks.
06-24-11, 07:57 PM
#3
So after finding out that I needed a new front Iron, I started doing some research. I called JDK to talk about a rebuild and at the time I was considering a streetport, among other little modifications I've read about, at which time I decided a rebuild was not something I wanted to invest in for the car. I knew the engine has been severely overheated, it had 113,000km on it, and it had a vibration coming from SOMEWHERE. I also decided , from the advice Jim had given me, that a streetport was not something that I would see huge benefits from in a heavy convertible; worse gas mileage, slight power increase(that I probably wouldn't feel), and more money than just a rebuild with replaced parts.
I considered finding a used engine somewhere, and put in some offers on the forum but again decided that an unknown engine wasn't something I wanted to spend money on, then risk something else going wrong and spending even MORE money in the short future.
At this point I sent in my order for a rebuilt core from Mazda. We don't sell rebuilds at much of a profit, so my employee discount didn't save me a huge amount of cash, but the Mazda Reman. offered a trusted rebuild with a warranty, and best of all it didn't use parts from the current engine.
So the order was in, and it would be something like 6 weeks before it finally arrived from the rebuild centre.
September rolled around and it was time for RE & RE!
I REALY would have liked to do some cleaning in the bay before we put the new one in, but I didn't want to hold up the shop nor the people helping me. It went pretty smoothly with no real tie-ups other than the stupid mistake of forgetting to order one of the intake manifold gaskets. Our parts dept. had all the other gaskets I needed already in stock, and I bought a new OEM clutch set at the same time.
The install was done on the Saturday before CSCS's season finale last year, so the break-in drive was to Cayuga and back. Keeping it under 5k and driving it conservatively on some of those roads was tough but I managed.
From CSCS all washed up:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cspivakphoto/5031247719/http://www.flickr.com/photos/cspivakphoto/5031247719/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/cspivakphoto/, on Flickr
Here you can see my biggest issue with the top... the seams were not adhered properly so the top is too tight at the rear corners causing them to lift up.
I forget when exactly I installed the Racing Beat cat-back but I wasted a ton of money with a place called Hot-Rod Scott's in Mississauga when I got them to fabricate me a y-pipe after the stock one rusted at the flanges. The cat had been replaced already at Mazdee's so i need a y-pipe with an entrance of 2.5" and two exits of the stock diameter which is I think 1.75" right? Well I had set up with them as a cash deal, and I left the car for a day for the work to be done. Everything was "no doesn't matter when you bring it in - don't need an appointment to leave it - blah blah easy going." Well when I got stuck at work the night I was supposed to pick it up they said they had to close which meant I couldn't pay with cash. So I said fine I'll pay with credit card but then I had to pay taxes, and all of a sudden the price went up. Well the work had already been done so I couldn't just take the car, so we settled about half of the difference of the prices and I swore to them I wouldn't go back again nor refer people I know. When I picked up the car it was very apparent that one tip now stuck out about an inch farther from the other one, so I had to leave my car with them AGAIN to get them to cut and re-weld one side. I then later found out based on the speed of the rust that occured on the pipe that it wasn't in fact made with stainless steel as I had asked - as the front portion of the exhaust is - but rather the same **** you can buy at Canadian Tire! I paid for that 2-something stainless and got scammed from them! I couldn't believe it. Anyways it had already been almost a year and they blamed it on the fact that I winter-drove the car - nothing got resolved and I was so fed up that I didn't even want them to touch the car again. So much effort and money just for a damn replacement y-pipe. ANYWAYS... I saw a car for sale on here from DJ Merle which had the exhaust on it, and shot out an offer to buy just the cat-back from that car. Bingo! I now had a nice almost-new condition Racing Beat exhaust like I had wanted from day 1. Just in time too, 'cause not more than a week after I purchased it my stock muffler blew a hole in the end where rust had taken over.
You can see it later pictures that the left side hangs lower and it's on my to-do list to get that fixed at some point.
I winter drive this so the winter months didn't consist of any upgrades - instead it was mostly cleaning and maintenance that the car required until this spring when I decided the bass provided by the world's smallest speakers put into a car was no longer cutting it for a music lover like me. Everything from Al Green to Lil Wayne to As I Lay Dying to Pearl Jam gets played in my car on a daily basis so I needed a small subwoofer with a large frequency range. Again I went to Kromer with my requirements and they suggested the Kenwood KFC-XW1000F, which is a shallow-mount 250W RMS 10" sub with a freq. range of 35-800Hz. This was to be powered by a 500W Alpine amp that I bought from a friend. Combined with the Alpine head-units built-in high-pass filter, this sound system kicks ***. All the low-end I want from the sub while it also handles mid-range pretty well, along with a pretty decent high-end from the stock 4" dash speakers, and the Kickers I had installed already. The HPF helped get rid of the rattling from the door speakers since they can't handle anything under 80Hz, no matter how hard they try!
One weekend while drinking at a friends house near Wasaga Beach, we decided to attempt the install in his shop. It seemed like a fantastic idea at the time, and before we knew it a custom box was built to fit under the rear compartment behind the seat, and the amp was wired in. Now try to imagine 4 drunk white guys jamming to an overly-loud and bass-heavy Elton John track, and that would sum up our final night after the install. As a result, I was too busy to take final pictures. I will get around to it eventually, possibly while cleaning it this summer.
I found a set of used and repainted Mazdaspeed MS01's from a guy on facebook, who I know some of you are familiar with. I couldn't pass up the chance to get a set of these wheels since I know they are rare and I've always liked this style of wheel. Unfortunately the paint job is mediochre at best and they didn't come with centre caps, but I plan to refinish them in either a black/polished lip combo or the original gold/polished combo eventually, possibly during the winter when I have the winter wheels on. I could use your opinions here because the all-black is definitely growing on me, as it matches the trim and roof quite well.
Anyways I had been slowly acquiring parts here and there as they popped up on the forum, which I'm still currently doing.
Last weekend I got rid of the old stock suspension and installed a bunch of other stuff that had been sitting in my room collecting dust.
KYB AGX shocks thanks to Pat
Racing Beat springs thanks to Mike D, and then Dave(styx) when he sold them back to me
Mazdatrix camber adjust bar thanks to Theory
Used Rad and Clutch Fan thanks to ROTRY PWR
and finally new front wheel bearings
I considered finding a used engine somewhere, and put in some offers on the forum but again decided that an unknown engine wasn't something I wanted to spend money on, then risk something else going wrong and spending even MORE money in the short future.
At this point I sent in my order for a rebuilt core from Mazda. We don't sell rebuilds at much of a profit, so my employee discount didn't save me a huge amount of cash, but the Mazda Reman. offered a trusted rebuild with a warranty, and best of all it didn't use parts from the current engine.
So the order was in, and it would be something like 6 weeks before it finally arrived from the rebuild centre.
September rolled around and it was time for RE & RE!
I REALY would have liked to do some cleaning in the bay before we put the new one in, but I didn't want to hold up the shop nor the people helping me. It went pretty smoothly with no real tie-ups other than the stupid mistake of forgetting to order one of the intake manifold gaskets. Our parts dept. had all the other gaskets I needed already in stock, and I bought a new OEM clutch set at the same time.
The install was done on the Saturday before CSCS's season finale last year, so the break-in drive was to Cayuga and back. Keeping it under 5k and driving it conservatively on some of those roads was tough but I managed.
From CSCS all washed up:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cspivakphoto/5031247719/http://www.flickr.com/photos/cspivakphoto/5031247719/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/cspivakphoto/, on Flickr
Here you can see my biggest issue with the top... the seams were not adhered properly so the top is too tight at the rear corners causing them to lift up.
I forget when exactly I installed the Racing Beat cat-back but I wasted a ton of money with a place called Hot-Rod Scott's in Mississauga when I got them to fabricate me a y-pipe after the stock one rusted at the flanges. The cat had been replaced already at Mazdee's so i need a y-pipe with an entrance of 2.5" and two exits of the stock diameter which is I think 1.75" right? Well I had set up with them as a cash deal, and I left the car for a day for the work to be done. Everything was "no doesn't matter when you bring it in - don't need an appointment to leave it - blah blah easy going." Well when I got stuck at work the night I was supposed to pick it up they said they had to close which meant I couldn't pay with cash. So I said fine I'll pay with credit card but then I had to pay taxes, and all of a sudden the price went up. Well the work had already been done so I couldn't just take the car, so we settled about half of the difference of the prices and I swore to them I wouldn't go back again nor refer people I know. When I picked up the car it was very apparent that one tip now stuck out about an inch farther from the other one, so I had to leave my car with them AGAIN to get them to cut and re-weld one side. I then later found out based on the speed of the rust that occured on the pipe that it wasn't in fact made with stainless steel as I had asked - as the front portion of the exhaust is - but rather the same **** you can buy at Canadian Tire! I paid for that 2-something stainless and got scammed from them! I couldn't believe it. Anyways it had already been almost a year and they blamed it on the fact that I winter-drove the car - nothing got resolved and I was so fed up that I didn't even want them to touch the car again. So much effort and money just for a damn replacement y-pipe. ANYWAYS... I saw a car for sale on here from DJ Merle which had the exhaust on it, and shot out an offer to buy just the cat-back from that car. Bingo! I now had a nice almost-new condition Racing Beat exhaust like I had wanted from day 1. Just in time too, 'cause not more than a week after I purchased it my stock muffler blew a hole in the end where rust had taken over.
You can see it later pictures that the left side hangs lower and it's on my to-do list to get that fixed at some point.
I winter drive this so the winter months didn't consist of any upgrades - instead it was mostly cleaning and maintenance that the car required until this spring when I decided the bass provided by the world's smallest speakers put into a car was no longer cutting it for a music lover like me. Everything from Al Green to Lil Wayne to As I Lay Dying to Pearl Jam gets played in my car on a daily basis so I needed a small subwoofer with a large frequency range. Again I went to Kromer with my requirements and they suggested the Kenwood KFC-XW1000F, which is a shallow-mount 250W RMS 10" sub with a freq. range of 35-800Hz. This was to be powered by a 500W Alpine amp that I bought from a friend. Combined with the Alpine head-units built-in high-pass filter, this sound system kicks ***. All the low-end I want from the sub while it also handles mid-range pretty well, along with a pretty decent high-end from the stock 4" dash speakers, and the Kickers I had installed already. The HPF helped get rid of the rattling from the door speakers since they can't handle anything under 80Hz, no matter how hard they try!
One weekend while drinking at a friends house near Wasaga Beach, we decided to attempt the install in his shop. It seemed like a fantastic idea at the time, and before we knew it a custom box was built to fit under the rear compartment behind the seat, and the amp was wired in. Now try to imagine 4 drunk white guys jamming to an overly-loud and bass-heavy Elton John track, and that would sum up our final night after the install. As a result, I was too busy to take final pictures. I will get around to it eventually, possibly while cleaning it this summer.
I found a set of used and repainted Mazdaspeed MS01's from a guy on facebook, who I know some of you are familiar with. I couldn't pass up the chance to get a set of these wheels since I know they are rare and I've always liked this style of wheel. Unfortunately the paint job is mediochre at best and they didn't come with centre caps, but I plan to refinish them in either a black/polished lip combo or the original gold/polished combo eventually, possibly during the winter when I have the winter wheels on. I could use your opinions here because the all-black is definitely growing on me, as it matches the trim and roof quite well.
Anyways I had been slowly acquiring parts here and there as they popped up on the forum, which I'm still currently doing.
Last weekend I got rid of the old stock suspension and installed a bunch of other stuff that had been sitting in my room collecting dust.
KYB AGX shocks thanks to Pat
Racing Beat springs thanks to Mike D, and then Dave(styx) when he sold them back to me
Mazdatrix camber adjust bar thanks to Theory
Used Rad and Clutch Fan thanks to ROTRY PWR
and finally new front wheel bearings
06-24-11, 07:59 PM
#4
This is how the car sits today:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cspivakphoto/5865049215/http://www.flickr.com/photos/cspivakphoto/5865049215/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/cspivakphoto/, on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cspivakphoto/5865049393/http://www.flickr.com/photos/cspivakphoto/5865049393/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/cspivakphoto/, on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cspivakphoto/5865600930/http://www.flickr.com/photos/cspivakphoto/5865600930/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/cspivakphoto/, on Flickr
I have a list of parts in my room that I still need to install as time permits:
Mazdatrix DTSS Elims.
1/2 of ES suspension bushing kit - need to buy the rest of one
Mazdaspeed transmission mounts - want to buy engine mounts before install
Apexi S-AFC version 1 - need Wideband O2 before install
Various window trims to replace rusted parts
OEM gas tank level sensor
OEM Exhaust manifold heat shield
Mazdatrix(?) short-throw shifter
Shift Spring
Steering rack boots
Later on I'll check things off this to-do list and post pics as they happen:
Install above parts
Fix rust spots on both doors and right rear wheel well - it would be nice to get the car painted but I need money for school first!
Repaint driver's door - badly faded!
Repair head-rest speakers - not working 100% as of this winter
Replace dash speakers and door speakers
Rewire lights in the JDM FTP to work with regular lights switch
CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN I've been putting off engine bay tidying since I GOT the damn car. CLEAN!!!!!!
Find a front lip - looking for a 626 lip or something similar
Fix flickering clock... again
Fix wiper switch - started acting up in early spring but hasn't given me problems in the last month
New brakes - just replaced with shitty cheap pads until I can afford Hawks (or equivalent) and new rotors
Paint Calipers
CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN
Acquire some sort of cup holders - thinking the pop out Subaru type in the DIN pocket under the stereo...
Roll Bar
Various exterior trim refinishing like the wiper arms
Replace some of the weatherstripping around the top
I'm sure there is more to be added but that's off the top of my head.
MORE TO COME!! It's a daily driven project right now.
Distant Future plans:
MZR DISI Turbo (mazdaspeed 3) swap?
LS- swap?
13B-RE swap?
Widebody?
Track-prepped convertible?
Selling for something else?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cspivakphoto/5865049215/http://www.flickr.com/photos/cspivakphoto/5865049215/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/cspivakphoto/, on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cspivakphoto/5865049393/http://www.flickr.com/photos/cspivakphoto/5865049393/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/cspivakphoto/, on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cspivakphoto/5865600930/http://www.flickr.com/photos/cspivakphoto/5865600930/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/cspivakphoto/, on Flickr
I have a list of parts in my room that I still need to install as time permits:
Mazdatrix DTSS Elims.
1/2 of ES suspension bushing kit - need to buy the rest of one
Mazdaspeed transmission mounts - want to buy engine mounts before install
Apexi S-AFC version 1 - need Wideband O2 before install
Various window trims to replace rusted parts
OEM gas tank level sensor
OEM Exhaust manifold heat shield
Mazdatrix(?) short-throw shifter
Shift Spring
Steering rack boots
Later on I'll check things off this to-do list and post pics as they happen:
Install above parts
Fix rust spots on both doors and right rear wheel well - it would be nice to get the car painted but I need money for school first!
Repaint driver's door - badly faded!
Repair head-rest speakers - not working 100% as of this winter
Replace dash speakers and door speakers
Rewire lights in the JDM FTP to work with regular lights switch
CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN I've been putting off engine bay tidying since I GOT the damn car. CLEAN!!!!!!
Find a front lip - looking for a 626 lip or something similar
Fix flickering clock... again
Fix wiper switch - started acting up in early spring but hasn't given me problems in the last month
New brakes - just replaced with shitty cheap pads until I can afford Hawks (or equivalent) and new rotors
Paint Calipers
CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN
Acquire some sort of cup holders - thinking the pop out Subaru type in the DIN pocket under the stereo...
Roll Bar
Various exterior trim refinishing like the wiper arms
Replace some of the weatherstripping around the top
I'm sure there is more to be added but that's off the top of my head.
MORE TO COME!! It's a daily driven project right now.
Distant Future plans:
MZR DISI Turbo (mazdaspeed 3) swap?
LS- swap?
13B-RE swap?
Widebody?
Track-prepped convertible?
Selling for something else?
Last edited by CS13B; 06-24-11 at 08:23 PM.
01-20-12, 05:40 PM
#7
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mmm Mazdaspeed3 swap but to be honest for That kind of money alot of other swaps could be done like say an L33 out of a chevy pickup All aluminum block uses LS6 heads and is a 5.3l vs a 5.7 but all the good stuff bolts right up to it like an LS1 intake manifold Oh and they are usually around $500 for a good running core....
for a car with 66,000 km's you have a damn dirty engine bay :P
for a car with 66,000 km's you have a damn dirty engine bay :P
Trending Topics
01-24-12, 11:12 AM
#8
The engine retails for about 3 grand... I'm not proud of it since I could have done a lot more with that money had I known more at the time.
and Bwek yyeaaaa but everyone and their cousin has done a v8 swap, they're boring.
That damn dirty engine bay is due to rust spray. Since i drove it in the winter for 2 season i made sure i coated e v e r y thing in, on, outside that car lol
and Bwek yyeaaaa but everyone and their cousin has done a v8 swap, they're boring.
That damn dirty engine bay is due to rust spray. Since i drove it in the winter for 2 season i made sure i coated e v e r y thing in, on, outside that car lol
01-26-12, 11:51 AM
#10
mmm Mazdaspeed3 swap but to be honest for That kind of money alot of other swaps could be done like say an L33 out of a chevy pickup All aluminum block uses LS6 heads and is a 5.3l vs a 5.7 but all the good stuff bolts right up to it like an LS1 intake manifold Oh and they are usually around $500 for a good running core....
01-29-12, 10:41 PM
#13
High Comp Booster
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Where are you seeing L33's for $500? I've been thinking of this, but best I've seen is about $1000 (or multiples of in some cases), plus shipping. Not saying it's not true, just wondering where else I could look. Relatively recent vehicles don't show up in our Pick and Pull.
01-11-13, 11:00 PM
#16
Well let’s see… since the last real post not much has been done to it other than wheels and tires and being driven a hell of a lot.
Join the journey and enjoy some shitty cellphone pics and even shittier instagram filters.
Now it’s on jackstands in my garage and I’m replacing all the suspension bushings, doing a bunch of rust fixing, and depending on how
my schooling and internship-applications turn out in the next few months I’ll be deciding on where my engine plans are. Maybe just fix
the suspension and wait another year or two for a full swap of some sort. My plans change on a daily basis.
So pics over the last year and a bit…
Got some MS-01’s that the previous owner painted black rather than restoring. I ran them like this for a while but then got ambitious and started restoring them… project on-going!
Here’s the thread I made for those: https://www.rx7club.com/canadian-for...wheels-984064/
And this is how the car was in September of 2011.
Then I bought some FD calipers and rebuilt them. Did them on a day my
camera was dead at work so no pics until I got them home to clean and
paint them.
Always had really shitty Canadian Tire LED bulbs in the JDM lenses but I got some
decent “white” ones and they look too blue. I don’t like ‘em so I’ll have to find
something else to use in there.
Join the journey and enjoy some shitty cellphone pics and even shittier instagram filters.
Now it’s on jackstands in my garage and I’m replacing all the suspension bushings, doing a bunch of rust fixing, and depending on how
my schooling and internship-applications turn out in the next few months I’ll be deciding on where my engine plans are. Maybe just fix
the suspension and wait another year or two for a full swap of some sort. My plans change on a daily basis.
So pics over the last year and a bit…
Got some MS-01’s that the previous owner painted black rather than restoring. I ran them like this for a while but then got ambitious and started restoring them… project on-going!
Here’s the thread I made for those: https://www.rx7club.com/canadian-for...wheels-984064/
And this is how the car was in September of 2011.
Then I bought some FD calipers and rebuilt them. Did them on a day my
camera was dead at work so no pics until I got them home to clean and
paint them.
Always had really shitty Canadian Tire LED bulbs in the JDM lenses but I got some
decent “white” ones and they look too blue. I don’t like ‘em so I’ll have to find
something else to use in there.
01-11-13, 11:05 PM
#17
Then in the spring of 2012 when I started driving the Drama Queen again I fixed an issue I always had with this short shifter which was that whenever the car warmed
up it would get really hard to shift and when playing around with it I noticed one of the shifter bushings I had put in was really malleable when warm. Never noticed
this since it was pretty hard like plastic when normal temperature. I figured this was causing my shifter to bind up when it expanded or whatever. Ditched it and replaced
it with OEM plastic. Also shaved off a little bit of the top bushing to fit an extra spring washer in at the top to try and get rid of the rattling. It helped but it’s not
completely gone.
This one was soft and shitty.
see?
Spacer thing in.
Then bottom bushing with spring clip thing
The black one on top and that’s how much I shaved off if I remember correctly. Why else would I take the picture?
Then this spring one at the top and it seemed to help the rattling quite a bit.
All buttoned up.
With a nice new(ish) Mazdaspeed ****
Springtime I picked up some temporary wheels since I wasn’t finished with the MS-01’s but I actually really like how the FD’s fit. I used 15mm spacers up front
and 20mm in the rear. They fit perfect and I love the look of meaty tires.
I do a lot of cruising in this car. For a photographer though, I really should carry my camera around with me more often. hahaha
Changed the stickers up to add horsepower
up it would get really hard to shift and when playing around with it I noticed one of the shifter bushings I had put in was really malleable when warm. Never noticed
this since it was pretty hard like plastic when normal temperature. I figured this was causing my shifter to bind up when it expanded or whatever. Ditched it and replaced
it with OEM plastic. Also shaved off a little bit of the top bushing to fit an extra spring washer in at the top to try and get rid of the rattling. It helped but it’s not
completely gone.
This one was soft and shitty.
see?
Spacer thing in.
Then bottom bushing with spring clip thing
The black one on top and that’s how much I shaved off if I remember correctly. Why else would I take the picture?
Then this spring one at the top and it seemed to help the rattling quite a bit.
All buttoned up.
With a nice new(ish) Mazdaspeed ****
Springtime I picked up some temporary wheels since I wasn’t finished with the MS-01’s but I actually really like how the FD’s fit. I used 15mm spacers up front
and 20mm in the rear. They fit perfect and I love the look of meaty tires.
I do a lot of cruising in this car. For a photographer though, I really should carry my camera around with me more often. hahaha
Changed the stickers up to add horsepower
01-11-13, 11:10 PM
#18
More Stickers..
Who says there’s no room in here?
At work they were going to throw out this bench but I said not a chance in hell; I want it. Took it home, fixed a bent leg, scrubbed the rust down, painted it back to
the smurf(Mazda) blue and it’s now sitting pretty in my garage.
And I organized a few things in the garage.
Then over the summer my project was to rebuild a transmission for the car - mine had started to grind second and third pretty bad. I had picked one up a year ago
for $20 from a friend of mine and later picked up another REALLY good-condition core for free from R.P.M. (thanks again!) … decided one day to rip into it.
Started in my garage but then realized this would be way easier at work where we have the proper pullers and way more tools than I own personally!
Gaskets, seals, bearings, & forks.
Who says there’s no room in here?
At work they were going to throw out this bench but I said not a chance in hell; I want it. Took it home, fixed a bent leg, scrubbed the rust down, painted it back to
the smurf(Mazda) blue and it’s now sitting pretty in my garage.
And I organized a few things in the garage.
Then over the summer my project was to rebuild a transmission for the car - mine had started to grind second and third pretty bad. I had picked one up a year ago
for $20 from a friend of mine and later picked up another REALLY good-condition core for free from R.P.M. (thanks again!) … decided one day to rip into it.
Started in my garage but then realized this would be way easier at work where we have the proper pullers and way more tools than I own personally!
Gaskets, seals, bearings, & forks.
01-11-13, 11:14 PM
#19
And one fresh transmission
I really would have liked to do a write-up but I was pressed to do this work on my lunch-hour little bits at a time. So whatever that’s all you get.
I volunteer for the CSCS events (as well as doing some of the photography) so this was a highlight of my summer… turbo blew up during testing so we spent a
good part of the night fixing to get it ready for the next day. I wish I had enough money to have the Can-Jam guys on my team for my build… such an awesome
group of people there.
So not much more for the summer other than tons of driving. Then I stopped in at Can-Saf to look at some parts they needed to get rid of.
And left with an engine! (Enjoy shitty pics, I never take my camera places)
Tore it down in my garage the gangster way. Turned out the rear rotor and housing were pooched but everything else was decent. Decided just to sell it all
and continue hunting for an RE or REW engine I can start with.
And stopped by JDK’s place so he could take a look at the rest of the internals to see what was useable.
I really would have liked to do a write-up but I was pressed to do this work on my lunch-hour little bits at a time. So whatever that’s all you get.
I volunteer for the CSCS events (as well as doing some of the photography) so this was a highlight of my summer… turbo blew up during testing so we spent a
good part of the night fixing to get it ready for the next day. I wish I had enough money to have the Can-Jam guys on my team for my build… such an awesome
group of people there.
So not much more for the summer other than tons of driving. Then I stopped in at Can-Saf to look at some parts they needed to get rid of.
And left with an engine! (Enjoy shitty pics, I never take my camera places)
Tore it down in my garage the gangster way. Turned out the rear rotor and housing were pooched but everything else was decent. Decided just to sell it all
and continue hunting for an RE or REW engine I can start with.
And stopped by JDK’s place so he could take a look at the rest of the internals to see what was useable.
01-11-13, 11:17 PM
#20
Next endeavour for the Drama Queen was to get that droopy exhaust fixed so I took it to Centreline Motorsports to do some chopping and welding. Cool nice
guys and awesome welding work, would definitely go to them again .
Here’s a comparison
And after
They nailed it.
Aaaaaand now into the fall and winter… time to park the girl and start the tear-down.
Where she’s at now… hopefully this isn’t an eternal resting place.
This is the main reason for me getting it apart this winter. On Racing Beat springs and 225/50r16 tires, this is what happens when you max out those shitty singular subframe camber links. I still had about .5* of camber but this **** started hitting the body and making one hell of a noise from the rear of the car. UGH! DRAMA QUEEN! Anyways…
Mmmmmmm like a glove!
And up…
And off…
And out…
Out with you
This mess has to go
guys and awesome welding work, would definitely go to them again .
Here’s a comparison
And after
They nailed it.
Aaaaaand now into the fall and winter… time to park the girl and start the tear-down.
Where she’s at now… hopefully this isn’t an eternal resting place.
This is the main reason for me getting it apart this winter. On Racing Beat springs and 225/50r16 tires, this is what happens when you max out those shitty singular subframe camber links. I still had about .5* of camber but this **** started hitting the body and making one hell of a noise from the rear of the car. UGH! DRAMA QUEEN! Anyways…
Mmmmmmm like a glove!
And up…
And off…
And out…
Out with you
This mess has to go
01-11-13, 11:19 PM
#21
And because I have no space in that sorry excuse for a garage
He enjoys them.
Current set-up
And randomly found this while I was moving stuff around in the garage… forgot I had it!
No rust… good sign.
Out with the back trims
Not a whole lot of problem rust underneath, but more on that later when I start cleaning it.
Subframe and diff assembly down with nothing but some wood and the stock jack that comes in the trunk of the car…. How bout that?!
This stuff is great. Highly recommended if you can get your hands on it.
And everything into bins – eventually I’ll be sandblasting it all and making everything puuurty before the bushings go in and back up onto the car.
He enjoys them.
Current set-up
And randomly found this while I was moving stuff around in the garage… forgot I had it!
No rust… good sign.
Out with the back trims
Not a whole lot of problem rust underneath, but more on that later when I start cleaning it.
Subframe and diff assembly down with nothing but some wood and the stock jack that comes in the trunk of the car…. How bout that?!
This stuff is great. Highly recommended if you can get your hands on it.
And everything into bins – eventually I’ll be sandblasting it all and making everything puuurty before the bushings go in and back up onto the car.
01-11-13, 11:23 PM
#22
Then trans came out to source a coolant leak I had noticed when I was replacing the trans earlier in the year. Losing coolant but no puddles forming under the car
when it sat for days at a time… I assumed the worst.
You can see it was being sprayed out the side where the inspection plate is between the engine and the transmission… wtf?! The bottom of the iron and
trans were covered in a ¼” thick layer of dried coolant. No wonder it wasn’t pooling under the car.
And the culprit? You tell me.
Looks like this guy (the tension bolt seal is the only thing that remained wet back there)
All fine on the Left side.
Remember this is a MAZDA REMAN. With less than 35,000km on it! Never even seen below-freezing temperatures because the underground garage was heated last year. Ugh… POS.
So how do you get this guy out with no air tools or an electric impact gun with the required force?
With a big friggin’ wrench, that’s how. Don’t mind the mess… was trying to find something.
Made a flywheel stopper ($8 worth of 90* steel and a couple minutes worth of measuring and drilling, and voila!) and got my nut off… ha… I had actually made
on out of an old hockey stick but the bolts I had weren’t quite long enough to thread in enough that I felt comfortable. This one just uses the bolts for the
clutch.
So the rest is just random progress for the interior for now…
Got my trunk release to work again (finally)
Instrument hood panel off to do some wiring into the headlights (see switch below, that’s got to go!) and resolder my window wiper switch.
This will get tied into the real headlight switch (finally)
This laziness has to go…
when it sat for days at a time… I assumed the worst.
You can see it was being sprayed out the side where the inspection plate is between the engine and the transmission… wtf?! The bottom of the iron and
trans were covered in a ¼” thick layer of dried coolant. No wonder it wasn’t pooling under the car.
And the culprit? You tell me.
Looks like this guy (the tension bolt seal is the only thing that remained wet back there)
All fine on the Left side.
Remember this is a MAZDA REMAN. With less than 35,000km on it! Never even seen below-freezing temperatures because the underground garage was heated last year. Ugh… POS.
So how do you get this guy out with no air tools or an electric impact gun with the required force?
With a big friggin’ wrench, that’s how. Don’t mind the mess… was trying to find something.
Made a flywheel stopper ($8 worth of 90* steel and a couple minutes worth of measuring and drilling, and voila!) and got my nut off… ha… I had actually made
on out of an old hockey stick but the bolts I had weren’t quite long enough to thread in enough that I felt comfortable. This one just uses the bolts for the
clutch.
So the rest is just random progress for the interior for now…
Got my trunk release to work again (finally)
Instrument hood panel off to do some wiring into the headlights (see switch below, that’s got to go!) and resolder my window wiper switch.
This will get tied into the real headlight switch (finally)
This laziness has to go…
01-11-13, 11:25 PM
#23
And the latest thing I’ve started on is a bracket for the amp to sit under the rear deck behind the passenger seat… in the previous pics you can see it was just
sitting on the insulation with double-sided tape to hold it there. It didn’t move at all, even the way I drive the car, but this looks way better and puts my mind at
ease.
Was thinking it would sit somewhat like this using those two M10 bolts you can see at the front. Will likely buy some longer bolts and some rubber spacers. Still
need to figure out how I’ll mount it at the rear but might include some nutserts and some existing holes along the back metal there.
Then I want to make a better box for the subwoofer to sit in… most probably a moulded fiberglass box but I’ll have to move that stock headrest-speaker amp
back there, and do some research as to how these boxes get made. Lmao
… Lots more updates coming soon! I’ll try to take better pictures but no promises. Let’s see where this project takes me.
Enjoy car life!
sitting on the insulation with double-sided tape to hold it there. It didn’t move at all, even the way I drive the car, but this looks way better and puts my mind at
ease.
Was thinking it would sit somewhat like this using those two M10 bolts you can see at the front. Will likely buy some longer bolts and some rubber spacers. Still
need to figure out how I’ll mount it at the rear but might include some nutserts and some existing holes along the back metal there.
Then I want to make a better box for the subwoofer to sit in… most probably a moulded fiberglass box but I’ll have to move that stock headrest-speaker amp
back there, and do some research as to how these boxes get made. Lmao
… Lots more updates coming soon! I’ll try to take better pictures but no promises. Let’s see where this project takes me.
Enjoy car life!
Last edited by CS13B; 01-11-13 at 11:43 PM.
01-12-13, 05:32 AM
#24
High Comp Booster
iTrader: (4)
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Oakville, Ontario
Posts: 1,907
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Hate you , this is just making me want another FC even more, strange that your rear suspension was hitting, had my FC dumped and tracked it and never had an issue with stuff hitting
