OK, So I'm finally going to make a thread on here focusing on my 72' duece. Doing a build thread normally motivates me to get to work on it when I'm feeling lazy. Also when I get stuck, I'm sure someone will drop some good info in here...



-Here we go-


Picked the car up from Chad (Fire85GSLSE) out of TN for a parts trade. Met with him about half way near Atlanta, GA I think. Towed the car back home to Orlando, FL. Where it sat in my fathers shop for about a month collecting dust. I then towed it home to my house so i could get to work on it. My first plan was to get it running and drive it as is and fix the body as I go. I'm usually motivated more when the car is running. Makes you want to work harder if you can actually move the car under it's own power. After many attempts, I could not get it to start. The motor is good, but there was no spark and 38 years of bad and modified wiring to trace out. Here a few pics of it at that point. Showing the bad spots on the body as well.

Few pics of it Chad sent me before I picked up the car from him:

 

Pic's of it at my house:

 

Few more











[IMG]http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk253/bboynero/1972%20Rx2/S5000080.jpg[/IMG

 

So before I start on the body, I want to get it running. So I pull the stock twin dizzy and 4-speed tranny. I notice some pretty bad rusting now that I can get a good look at all this. I have never done any real frame/rust repair, but I am a welder and figure I would just do some patch work.

 

So I start cutting, grinding and welding:










I even cut the support bar and replace it with some aquare tubing so i can mount my fuel cell and radiaitor to it.

 

But the more I cut out and fix, The more I find. After many hours of grinding, welding, and cutting these parts here **** me off and I decide to come up with something else to fix the rust. A few smart people told me to tube frame the front end. They were very correct in saying this. But I am so very stubborn and I am trying as hard as I can to avoid this. Althout it would be much easier for me to do this. I own a mandrel bender made to make roll cages after all... But I really want to compete in the all motor stock chassis class with this car. So tubing the front is basically out of the question for me...

 

So after standing in front of the car with a saw-zaw plugged in and ready to cut the damn car in half and tube it. At the last second I calm down and decide on raplacing the rails all at once. Basically cutting the entire rail out from where it is spot welded about 6 inchs past the fire wall all the way to the front. The rails are 2"x3". So today I ordered 2"x3" tubing with a .083" wall thickness. This is close to factory as they make. I will only cut the rails out and replace them with this tubing. keeping it stock chassis with all new metal. Seems like a fair trade off.

Here's some bracing I welded in to keep the chassis stiff while I cut the rails out.

 

Here's a bunch of random pics of the car that I have taken randomly.



GSL-SE front with bumper removed:














Front end modification:

I am not going to be running the car with bumpers, and I want to smooth the front out to lookmore like this:

 

MUCH more to come... Hopefully in the next few days my metal will come in and I will be cutting the frame rails out and welding them back in. Can't wait. Because most of the rest of the car is pretty good, as far as structual metal goes... Which is the more important part right now to me. After I get the car safe enough to race, I will do sheet metal work like the floors and body.

 

'bout time we see something happening.

Good call on the frame rails.

Oh yea, the hood is still gathering dust in my neighbors shop...

 

dam this thing makes my car look good in the rust department. Looks good so far cant wait for more.

 

Yeah, I have been splitting myself between to many projects. I finally got smart and dedicated myself to this one. And i figured the hood was still collecting dust, lol. I'm sure you would of PM'ed me if it was completed. I still have the front lip and rear wing for you safely stashed away too.


The weird thing is, the parts on this car that are rusted, are completely rotted through and through. But other parts are just fine with barely any surface rust or damage.

 

Wow. You are ambitious. I have to say I'd have abandoned that one, but all the credit and support for what you are doing. Amazing how cool these look, even in this condition. I'm pulling fo ryou.

 

That's gonna be a lot of sheet metal work. Lol, hope you can weld good

Grats on the buy though. Looks like this thing is in need of a full cage and aggressive body styling.

 

Do you have a reasonably sized compressor? If so, sand blast the thing. It will be worth it in the end, becuase you will find all the weak spots that look good but will be rotted through in a few years (after a paint job...).

 

There's alot of rust but that's what makes it lighter.

Regarding the front frame. In the all motor/stock chassis classes you are allowed to run a front end tube chassis as long as the stock strut towers remain in the same location. Don't cut the stock firewall or floorpan. Your allowed 6 square feet of removal of the trans tunnel to allow for an aftermarket trans. If you have any questions give me a pm. I have pretty much know all the rules because I run in this class. Keep it coming. Here's a pic of an RX3, "travieso" that ran in the all motor class/stock chassis that did the tube chassis front end.

 

That's what i thought!!! Thanks for that info! I always thought that If i didnt modify the strut towers at all, that it would technically still be stock chassis, but I could never confirm this for sure.

Plan might have to change now....hmmmm

 

Around here, Pre-Rx7 rotaries are few and far between. It's very rare to see one, none the less one for sale. And when they do come up for sale, the price tag is way up there also. Plus it's nice to save one that most likely would die off and rot away to nothing to never live again.

I'm a certified welder, so I got that covered. But I am new to sheet metal work like this. But you have to start somewhere.

I bought a cheapo Harbor Freight one. It actually works pretty good. My compressor is OK. Better than most home garages have. But not as nice as I wish. I use childrens play sand from Home Depot. It only costs 2 bucks a bag. Just takes a while before it's completely dry enough to use without clogging.

 

Yeah, I'm currently in school right now for Motorsport chassis fab, and welding on stuff like sheet metal is freakin hard. At least you have some experience so that'll make things a lot easier.

 

Kieth I have faith in you getting it done and right. It's just going to take alot of work. Awesome project!

 

Im glad to see that your brave enough to save this one, good luck on the build.

 

Brave enough, or dumb enough? lol

 

or both! lol

 

coming along.......

 

Took me long enough to really get down to it though. I projects get in the way of the REAL project is a habit of many rotary owners...


I took the saw-zaw to the frame today. 90% cut out. I'll finish the rest of the cutting tomorrow with my body saw. Comes in real handy when more precise cutting is needed. It's basically a saw-zaw, but air powered and 1/5 the size.

My square tubing to replace the rails should be here by this Wed. the latest... And I will be ordering the DOM round tubing to stiffen up the front this week also.