New Old Member!
 

Hey Everyone!

My name is Jake and I am thrilled to be coming back. I was born in 1986 and I remember very vividly when my older brother showed me a Road & Track debut of the FD3S. The rotary engine grabbed my attention at a young age and did not let go. Surrounded by a family full of muscle car and German sports car fanatics I was kind of the odd one out. I also had many great memories of playing Need for Speed on the Panasonic 3DO and whooping my brothers ass in his Lamborghini Diablo with my yellow R1. The RX7 was the most under powered car in that game but it still dominated! In high school I had gotten into a couple of fights and ditched one too many times. This landed me into a home school format for the rest of my sophomore year and most of Jr year I was in a half day schedule. This allowed me to get a job at Sears and Subway to save up money. In the spring of 2003 I had purchased a 1993 MB Touring model with 58,000 miles for about $14,000. I was pretty darn stoked and of the small handful of fast cars at my school mine was definitely the sexiest.

When I got the car I did not know what to look out for. I was young and so excited and fell in love with the color that I just said lets do it. Shortly after buying it I learned that it was not boosting properly. I dumped some money into basic repairs for coolant and oil leaks. I had new vacuum lines installed and a few other small diagnostic things to get her running clean. Bolt ons at this point included HKS intake, HKS downpipe, Apexi N1 exhaust, as well as greddy profec boost controller and turbo timer. Work was done by R&R Rotary in Upland/Montclair. After all of that was done I learned the exhaust manifold had a nasty crack in it and my car became a blue smoke cannon. My mom was remarried by my senior year in 2004 to a former professional sprint car racer. He crashed and was in a coma, while under my mothers care she got him responding while talking to him. They fell for each other and shortly after they got married and I had a recovering race car driver in my home. He moved his tools in to our place and I began total dissasembly with some friends to fix the exhaust manifold and bolt in some new BnR turbos (again I was very novice at this point and had not done squat to the motor). While my mom was at work one day some old flame contacted my step dad and she convinced him to leave my mom (he was still very much recovering mentally). He took his tools and I had a seven in pieces in my garage. I graduated in 2004 and was playing in a band, and a professional video game team for Halo 2. I had a sponsor from monster energy drink and a lan center in California to play Halo 2 on a team of four for two years. That took up a bunch of my time, and I eventually had to quit the band. The car was taken apart in 2006 when my step dad for less than a year bolted. I was in school at Musicians institute in Hollywood for recording engineering and with everything going on the 7 sat unregistered for years while I finished school and moved away to be with a girl in Colorado in 2008.

I sold the Seven for pennies basically as the finish had been worn after being moved into the sun all the time. There were all sorts of creatures living in the engine bay I am sure. And the cost to repair and register it after sitting for so long was going to cost a fortune. Also right after moving to Colorado I found out we were having our first of three children. That dad guilt kind of set in and part of me said "well I do not need a two seater sports car anymore" and I took the easy way out and just sold it. It has eaten away at me for too long and now I am actively searching for a new FD. I was thinking of doing an RX-8 since I have three kids and I could load them all in the car for some rotary fun. But I need to do me now... I am very rusty and need to just surf the forums a bit to get reacquainted with some things but there is no other car I would rather have. I have a couple basic questions that I will post in the NOOB question section first and then I will search for what I need after. I am so happy to have made this mental decision to come back to the rotary camp. If anyone knows of any Montego Blue FD's on the market do not hesitate to share. Otherwise I am eyeballing a low mileage 93 silver touring from another member here in Colorado and Sunday might be the day.

Sorry for the horrible photos. They are photos from a disposable camera that I took a photo of with my cell phone. Next time I will just scan them. =D

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...6d4be9ca09.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...39b336433a.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...dd8815786b.jpg

Nice brother it looks great ! And welcome back

Update with photo! *more to come*
 

Thank you!

I have been having the hardest time figuring out why my photos were not posting. Here is a shot of the new ride, I picked it up on June 27th with 38,000 miles and I am in love. I miss my Montego Blue that I had back in the day but the Silver Stone is really rubbing off on me. Mostly stock minus a few cosmetic things that the last owner did. Hyper 5Zigen Wheels (Which I may sell and use the funds for coilovers), 99 Spec tail lights, clear front turn signal covers, and the R1/R2 front lip. The autometer boost gauge is installed poorly and there is definitely a leak causing the gauge to read incorrectly. I posted something in the newb tech sub page but I am slowly working through some of the quirks from the previous owners, I am the fourth.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...72f12eb2fe.jpg


Plans!!!!!!!!!!!

I have the new FD planned out in three phases over the next few years. I am hoping to get this going ASAP to make up for lost time over the last several years from not having an FD to work on.

Phase I (This year) - Different Wheels, Suspension and Brakes.

• Volk G27 PM Limited Edition - https://www.rayswheels.co.jp/product...wheel=G27PM-LE (I like the 5Zigen rims a lot but I may decide to keep them for another project car either an RX-8 or 300ZX [one of my few other loves besides the FD], or sell them for coil overs)
• Blitz ZZR Coilovers - Damper ZZ-R Spec C FD3S
• Various suspension bracing such as front fender reinforcements, front member bracing, rear strut tower, and possibly more. Mostly looking at R Magic, Fujita Engineering (Feed) components here.
• Some Big Brake Kit. Have yet to decide. Looking at Revolution, Fujita, and others. I figure this might as well be done at the same time as the other stuff. Brakes now are fine.

Phase 2 (2019) - Audio, Cosmetics, Aero

• Still doing a lot of research here but I at least have the speakers down! hahahah
• Focal Ultima Be Kit for speakers. These will be the perfect speakers for the size of the FD interior.
• Have yet to decide on amplification - I am an audiophile though so something ridiculous will go in so long as it is not too heavy!
• I am really liking the silver stone metallic paint. I was thinking of going with either Crystal White Pearl, not trying to faux Spirit R her but I really love that shade of white. But I am starting to lean towards keeping the silver with carbon fiber and red accents.
• Unless something changes in the next few years and I come into some money and buy another low mileage 7 to keep stock I think I am going to keep this body stock. I would love to do a 99 spec front bumper or an RE Amemiya SUPER NA 7 kit but I am not sure if that is for sale...
• Some other minor carbon trim pieces like scuff plates for the doors, maybe the door handles.
• Starting to plan out the design for the sub box which I may mount in the spare tire notch in the hatch. This will give some additional depth for the design of the sub box, as well as give it a sturdier place to rest in the hatch. Just hoping to keep some space back there for a small back pack or something.

Phase 3 (2020 and beyond!) Performance

• The car seems to be running fine. I am taking it to 5280 Performance in Longmont, Colorado for a compression test and vacuum check August 2nd. The boost gauge is reading -5 hgr and max psi is showing roughly 4 psi. The boost gauge is installed horribly though with three different sized lines running into each other, some not tightened all the way. I may try to electrical tape the gaps just to see if the gauge reacts any differently. I need to find the best walk through on removing the A pillar so I can run a new vacuum line to the UIM.
• I think in the efforts to make this an ultimate FD build I am going to focus on a 20B swap but run stock style higher flow twins. Either BNR or the Hitachi high flow twins.
• As much as I want to say I have some crazy 1000 hp monster three rotor I think I am going to just be happy breaking the 500 rwhp number with the twins. I am not looking for insane amounts of horsepower but plan to overbuild the motor to avoid any issues.
• I would ideally like to do the majority of the build myself if possible. I am hella rusty though as I have not touched an FD in almost 10 years. This is why I am saving this for the final stage and plan on cramming over the next few years to get everything I planned out.
• If I change my mind on the 20B swap I will just do a 13B with the upgraded twins.

Welcome back man!! I think you deserve to build the car the way you want it and I say go for it. Its definitely been a long road for you but having a family and putting their need first was the right choice. Now its your turn to get back in the seat and share your FD passion with your family!! Can't wait to see how the car turns out!!