I dont think I've officially posted anything about my current project other than a few random pics here and there, so here it goes. This car was my daily driver from 2001 to 2005. I got it from the original owner, and in that time did the usual upgrades, shocks, springs, gsl rear, front mounted oil cooler, racing beat exhaust, etc. In early 2006 I got my other Rx-7 project car on the road and it was time to start doing work on this one. New Jersey's winters had taken its toll and there was a good amount of rust (more than I think most would bother to fix). The first few shots show a sample of what I had to contend with. In addition to the usual wheel well rust, it was rusted quite badly near the lower control arm mounts (both sides) and near the rocker panels (shown in pic). I fabricated some patches and welded them in. The pics shown are just some early ones, after doing all my patches I sandblasted the entire underside of the car and sealed everything up properly (inside and out).
The next few pics show how I went about repairing the non-existant rain channel at the base of the hatch. It was badly rusted when I first got the car because of clogged drains and I did the best repair I could at the time (bondo) but that eventually rusted out, so I replaced the whole section.
That puts me at the maximum picture limit so I'll continue my little saga in the next post

 

Damn nice work, keep it up.

 

Ok, in order to keep the newly repaired wheel wells from rusting down the line I removed the bracket that braces the upper control arm mount on the outside of the well. In order to keep anything from tearing I decided to add some tubing supports to brace the area, then I kinda went nuts and built myself a jungle gym might be a bit overkill but that thing isn't gonna flex for sure.
As the title mentions this car is getting a 90 13bt. I have attached a few pictures of that installed, as well as the coils etc that I welded up custom mounts for. I'm running the stock ECU and have modified a SE front cover to accept the S5's large electronic OMP. I also modified the transmission so the shifter would line up properly. The pictures of the engine bay are current, so thats where I'm at now, finishing up wiring, plumbing, etc. If anyone has any questions/comments please keep them constructive, I've put countless hours (and dollars) into this thing. I also have plenty of pics for those interested.
Sean

 

Thanks scott! Actually your thread (the unveiling thread) I was just flipping through again is what prompted me to make this post to begin with. You do damn good work yourself

Oh for those who are interested, heres some more info about the engine. Its a JDM engine (no power difference from US) which was sold to me as stock, but little did they know it had a knightsports hybrid to4b turbo on it! I didn't rebuild the engine (keeping my fingers crossed) but did put a lightweight steel flywheel, and centerforce dual plate clutch on it. As the pics show I'm going FMIC as well. I'm not sure how realistic I am, but I think the combination of that turbo, a FMIC and the full 3" exhaust it is getting should put me somewhere around 250hp. Plenty to rip up the back roads around here.
Some additional things I have bought but haven't installed yet include a panhard bar, tri link, FC hubs/brakes/wheels, and a few other things. Stuff still to buy includes coil overs, and the rack and pinion kit respeed keeps hinting at. Should be fun when its done....

 

nice bars in the bin area ... I was actually considering doing something like that myself to stop those upper links from going in, but I think that a tri link would be a better option as far as handling and keeping things light.

 

very very very excellent work my friend! how long has this taken you thus far?

 

Awesome project. Love seeing people actually fabbing up parts instead of relying on a factory bought kit. I hope my welding progresses to the point I can tackle a project like this!

 

Agreed, thats why I ended up buying one, but the bars certainly can't hurt (other than the fact that they add some weight, but at least its down low)

I started tearing the car apart back in March, and because I can't work on it everyday it ended up taking all of spring and part of summer for the rust repair and other body work. I've been working on the engine swap part of the project for about 3 months now (again, can't work on it all the time)
Thanks for the compliments guys!

 

Good choice ... To be honest I don't think that it would add much strengh to that area because it is already pretty rigid. I would atleast cut that center bar up, I don't see any use for it. That piping is thick enough to with hold almost anything.

 

Well, now that I've decided to go Tri link I would probably agree with you. If I were still using the 4 link setup however i'd be inclined to think the bracing would do quite a bit. The reason I say that is because a couple years I fixed the rust on the drivers side wheel well of this car (the hole was letting water in and I had to) I left it without the upper control arm brace (in order to prevent it from rusting someday again) and when I looked a year later the sheet metal on the inside around the upper control arm mount had begun to tear! Thats why I decided to go with the pipe brace to begin with. Now on a side note, I used the same method to repair the wheel well rust on my other FB and no damage so far. I'm thinking this one started tearing because I only fixed one side at the time, putting more stress on that side... Anyway, I think I'll leave my bracing there, I put a lot of time into it.

 

Looks Great!!!

 

Nice job! Keep us posted! I like seeing progress!

 

Got a lot done today, cleaned up some more parts (headlight assemblies, small brackets in the engine bay etc) and painted them, also installed my G force engineering panhard bar. Was pretty easy, didn't take much more than a few hours either. I attached a pic of it all done. Will be installing the Tri link tomorrow and will post pics tomorrow night of that.

 

I guess the panhard kills the option of running a sway bar eh?

I always wondered if there was any way of keeping one with a panhard..
I guess this answers my question that the majority of racers dont like sway bars!

 

I didn't test fit a sway bar in there, I will try tomorrow to make sure, but as you say it doesn't look like it will clear the bracket welded onto the rear axle. I'll test it out while I'm under there working on the tri link...

 

Man,thats a lotta work done.
Seeing those first shots of the rust made me cringe.....around here,we'd just find another body!But I guess rustbelt and nothern guys have to make due,huh?

About the clutch,you said CF dual disc....if you meant CF dual friction,which is their best street clutch.....dont bank on it holding up for long.Mine was dead and buried before I even got my S5 setup to full capacity.It blew the organic side on a modest 1-2 shift.My buddy blew a friction puck off his with a bone stock Civic EX! They drive nice,but dont last under power.
I went to an OS Giken twin disc,which was awesome,but just too much on the street,so I swapped down to a RacingBeat HD street/strip clutch, which has served me very well for many years now.

 

Yea I meant the dual friction clutch, we'll see how it holds up, I've always wanted to try one, but have read mixed reviews, some people love them, some burn them up like you did. We'll see what happens. If I does fail I just hope it doesn't destroy my lightweight flywheel, that thing was expensive!
Yea it would be nice to just go get another shell to start with, but my previous project car (on the road now) was almost as rusty, and my parts car was beyond fixing. The only solid cars to be found around here are the ones that people have gone and bought elsewhere, like down south, out west etc. or the few that got garaged kept their whole lives..
Oh well, nothing seemingly countless hours with the sandblaster, cutoff wheels and welder can't fix.... ugh...

 

The paint is drying on the tri link right now, I'll post pics tonight. As for the rear sway bar it will fit with a little modification to the panhard bracket, just need to grind a little bit off of it to clear. Not sure if i'm gonna run it or not yet....

 

You suck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Thats from the heart Sean!

 

such a nice friend you are.......

 

Only the best for you!

 

As promised here are some pics of the tri link installed. Still some undercoating to be finished as you can see, but the area around the tri link is done (not undercoating just paint, per jims instructions) Overall i'm impressed with the panhard bar and tri links construction and relative ease of installation. Obviously I can't comment on how it handles yet, but I'll be sure to do so when the car is roadworthy. Questions/comments welcome

 

nearly 300 views and less than 20 replies.... hmm.....

 

Its obviously because we are all jealously impressed....haha


Anyways, keep up the good work man...Looks tight.
Ive been dreaming of these mods for years now!!!!

 

Sure we'll go with that
I know what you mean, I've been wanting to build this car for years, a few of the details have changed along the way, but this is basically the start of my dream first gen... I just hope it lives up to my expectations