Finally had some time to work on the rx7. I didn't take many pictures of the process but thought people would enjoy seeing the results. Sorry for some of the picture quality, the sun was going down and was screwing with my camera.

Installed a new BAC plate, although I'm going to recut them to match the manifold better.




Made an air dam or whatever you want to call it in order to direct the air over the radiator better. I'm still hunting down a smaller overflow bottle to fit under the plate. I also modified the latch so that it opens by pulling down on a cord from behind the bumper. It actually works quite well, you just have to bend down to get at it.

I still need to take them off and either paint them or buff out the light scratches, but that will wait till I have more time.





Sides are folded over to help close the gaps between the lights and the rad support.

 

I picked up an aluminium hood last week. It was blue and since I didn't have money for paint I sprayed it with some flat black. Inspired by a thread I saw for the s2000 guys making their own vented hoods, I decided to give it a go on the new hood. This is how it turned out and I'm actually very happy with the results.

Paint was still a bit wet when I took the pictures. I still need to finish gluing them down so the sit a bit more flush, I just wanted to get some pictures before the light faded.



They only stick up 0.040" (1mm) and are recessed into the hood to sit flush on the underside.








Here is one before paint, it was a tough call but i decided to paint them to blend into the hood better.



Here is the hole that was cut using a template I made. Being an aluminium hood it was pretty easy to do using a cut off disc in the die grinder.



Blurry picture of the bottom.



If you look close you can actually see the lip on the bottom. I did this so that once the vents were installed it would hide the cut edges. By doing this my edges could be a bit crooked and you wouldn't see it.



Aformentioned template. Simply draw in the lines with a marker and cut. By doing it this way I was also able to properly space the template away from the ribs of the hood and ensure proper symmetry.

 

Great work, luv the hood vents!

 

I like the panels in front of the radiator except I don't like flames on stuff. Other than that it looks great.

 

Thanks. Yeah I'm medium on the flames. I wanted something to break up look of the flat aluminium sheet. After contemplating a few ideas I settled on the flames because it was simple and spanned the whole thing.

 

silly question.....how do you open the hood now?

 

I modified the latch to have a handle that hangs down on the right side. To open the hood I reach under the bumper (well actually through it) and pull down on the handle. I'll have to try to take some pictures next time I have the plates off.