Those who have been here know there is always something interesting going on in my shop.
We have an unwritten rule that every project done here must use at least one RX-7 part. This is part of my long term plan to get rid of all the junk I no longer need. Sean is building a custom chassis for a jacked up off road 1957 Jeep wagon, with a cute little 429 Ford motor. As we are rummaging around in the storage building, he says "what is this for ?" It was this VERY HEAVY DUTY front sway bar for a 1st gen RX-7 - I think it came from a car we parted out many years ago. Turns out it is a perfect fit in the rear of the Jeep chassis as you can see from the pictures. The chassis has been powder coated and is now being assembled. The body is ready to go out for finish and paint.

For those who are wondering about the drag car, the engine and trans were mocked up, the mounts built and now we put it on the rotisserie and flipped it over so Sean can finish welding the roll cage and suspension mounts on the bottom. This will soon go to the body shop for finish and paint.

Still waiting for my machinist to make the last pieces for my big brake swap on the Skyrex.

 

I'd love to setup a time lapse video camera in your shop and see all the cool stuff you guys are doing in there.

 

I need to come out & visit again... that's some beautiful work on the Jeep chassis!

There is some interesting stuff to report, my truck will shortly be getting longtube headers, a 3" Y pipe, and new muffler.

...The other project currently being wrapped up, my brother's RX7 went from an LT1/4L60E to a cammed LQ4 & stalled 4L60E with longtube stainless headers. We're just buttoning up a few things and it will be out to get a tune and alignment soon... we expect a low 11 second 1/4 out of it eventually.

More (lots of pics too) on the headers: http://www.norotors.com/index.php?topic=11561.0

 

I just did full exhaust on my (Dodge) truck this weekend, Pacesetter longtubes, 3" Y-pipe, large Dynomax truck muffler, and hooked into the stock 3" tail pipe. It sounds nice and is fairly quiet; the only time you really notice is when accelerating.... very tame otherwise.

 

Saw this tee shirt at the Old School Reunion that said "Praise the Lowered". Seemed like a good idea, and my friend Peter has been telling me to lower my RX-7, so today we did. It looks pretty tight, but so far I am not having the tires rubbing the fenders. And why not, you ask???? Well, Peter is pretty good with the Photoshop - need I say more?

 

I see your car running around all the time, saw it at the show at Safeway too. Some day we should actually talk, haha.

~T.J.

 

HERP DERP, I need to read better before I post! lol.

 

My brother is getting his out of the driveway to get the firewall painted. Right now we have 4 project cars so it's nice to get one out for a bit. I'd post pictures of my project but it's a MR2 only thing rx7 related is my brother has one and I work on it.

 

Getting the Mazda b2k rotary roadster project on the way.

 

I was just dozing off one night recently when I got a phone call from a friend - the engine in his FB had severely overheated, and he needed a tow. So I rigged my Ford for towing and headed for Seattle. We brought the car here, and a few days later he came and pulled the engine, trans, front struts and few other bits. The dash, wiring and interior were all pretty much roasted. A few days ago I hauled the sad remains to the scrapper in Woodinvllle. We think the engine is likely OK, after we remove all the externals and clean it up.

I have been wanting some better wheels and tires than the skinny 13s on my Geo. We had a set of GSL-SE 5.5 by 14 wheels, and I had a nice set of 195/60 tires on some other wheels. The SE wheels were all scratched up, and once the plastic clearcoat is damaged, it is hard to make them look nice. I sanded them and sprayed on a coat of my favorite stainless steel paint. I think they look a lot better on the Geo than they do on the RX-7. I also think they look better painted than with the original lathe turned finish. The pigment in this paint is powdered stainless steel, so it does not corrode. I use it on brake calipers and other parts in a severe environment, and I used it on the intake manifold, cam covers and intercooler piping on my Skyline motor. The Geo handles and corners noticeably better with these wheels and tires.

 

Sean has been restoring a 1965 vintage Formula C racer for a friend - had some twist and lots of dents and scrapes after a few accidents over the years it was raced. He has replaced several sections of tubing, built a new floor pan and added a few pieces to facilitate the body installation. It uses a little one liter Ford Anglia motor, suitably modified. The owner hopes to run it in the Vintage Races.

Now Sean is getting seriously into a restoration of this Cisitalia replica, a kit car from the early 1950s, made by Atlas Body Co, which apparently was never completed and driven.

According to the story, a mister Peterson, founder of the Peterson Car Museum down in California, bought a 1947 Cisitalia and took it to George Barris' body shop for refinishing. If you don't know who George Barris is, think Batmobile, etc. So George gets on the phone with a couple of friends, they strip the car down and go to work making a set of molds off the body, then finish the car off with a nice paint job and deliver it to Peterson. Apparently Mickey Thompson had a hand in this conspiracy. Eventually about 50 bodies were produced circa 1952-53, mostly powered by Cadillac and Olds V8s. One or two were run at Bonneville. This car will have a 1955 Cad motor.

Here is what the original looked like, if you aren't familiar with it.

Cisitalia 202 SC Pinin Farina Coupe - High Resolution Image (1 of 6)

 

Lovely work there Stilletto...

 

Very cool.

 

By some miracle, I actually accomplished everything on my summer list of tasks - built a shed for my firewood, painted my shop building, and painted several cars for myself and my friends. Never thought I would still be painting into October.

My Geo was a bit banged up when I bought it, finally got around to repairing the bodywork, and put on a fairly elaborate paint job - bright silver top, faded to bright metallic green, then faded to darker green on the bottom, the bumpers, and shadowed around the lights and wheel wells.

Peter's 240SX is a 50-50 mix of the silver and gunmetal grey I had, and Sean's BMW 733 is silver on top, the gunmetal grey below. All three cars are urethane with urethane clearcoat.

The shop building was hand sanded, primed and painted with acrylic enamel. I plan to do the house next summer.

 

After several weeks of planning, acquiring parts and making decisions, we finally started the Studebaker project this week. Not rotary related, but I think some of you may find it interesting.

Monday - we took out the back seat and I made some steel panels to replace the cardboard separating the trunk from the passengers - necessary because we are putting an Infiniti J30 fuel tank in the trunk. Nice tank, has the high pressure pump we need for the fuel injection. The filler will be in the trunk, at least for now.

Tuesday - Sean fabricated the mounting and modified the filler and vent , and we installed the tank. Still have to finish fabricating the panels behind the tank for carpeting the trunk.

Wednesday - I woke up late and found Sean stripping the front of the car. I rigged up a cart with some shelves to put all the parts on for this project.

Thursday- Sean removed the old fuel tank and the rear suspension and spent some time cleaning the bottom of the car and taking some measurements. Sean also found time to fabricate and weld in a crossover tube in the fancy stainless exhaust he built several months ago in a Camaro - probably a $100,000 car, definitely the nicest car that has ever been in my garage.

 

Friday (today) -Sean set up the Skyline rear suspension on a rolling table I have, using the table top as ground level and set the ride height with the axles level. We agreed to lower the car one inch from stock, but of course the coil over shocks will allow adjustment up or down. After some discussion we agreed to move the axle centerline forward one inch, because it made the mounting easier for the rear suspension subframe. We lowered the car down over the rear suspension and found that the tire clearance is just about perfect. After some very careful adjustments (you know, measure twice, cut once) Sean fabricated the mounts, welded them to the frame rails and bolted the suspension in place. Now we can determine exactly what we want for coil overs. I like to use the Skyline parts where we can, but the coil overs are much too long. A solid link is bolted in where the coil overs will go, to maintain the ride height. We plan to weld in a couple of additional pieces for stiffening, but the Studebaker frame rails are quite substantial.

Needless to say, I am quite pleased with this week's progress.

 

Looking like some real progress!

 

Man you guys are lucky to have a garage like that. I'm stuck in a mini dungeon middle of Seattle. Not much fun here but also not far from the track so that's good I guess.

 

We have the Skyline front clip installed, the engine installed so we could build the trans mount, and now fitting the body panels.

 

Jaws are going to drop when you pop that hood

 

I am putting new cylinders, pistons, and fresh rebuilt heads on my Buell this autumn. 1203cc -> 1250cc. [Tim Allen grunt]

 

Started converting my 74 Rotary Engine Pick-Up to GM throttle body injection, ran by a Megasquirt ms3/ms3x.

 

Does your REPU still have the 4-port 13b? I have heard people talk about using a megasquirt on a rotary, but I never spoke to anyone who had actually got one running. I would be interested to hear about this when you get to the tuning stage.

 

Yes engine is ported but stock repu. I'm modifing the stock 4 barrel manifold and 4 barrel to TBI adapter to fit together. there are alot of rotarys out there running MS, Youtube has a few just search megasquirt rx-7.

 

I have a running MS1V3.0 on a 4-port 13b.

Isaac