or you could put your jack stands under the rear axle.

 

I like using the car ramps and blocks of wood softened with carpet under the frame. That sucker ain't going anywhere!

Since it is a pain when you over run the car ramps, I use a wench to pull the car on them. And sometimes they will slide as the wheel tries to roll on them. Then I have to secure do the thing where the wheels that aren't going on to the car ramps run over a board which is attached to a board that blocks the ramps. It is a pain when you use car ramps the way you are supposed to.

And plastic car ramps? Are you kidding? I've seen plastic hard hats become brittle with age and chemicals.

 

I use a floor jack to raise the car to use ramps. Driving up them is too much of a pain.

 

Cleaned up my OEM waffles with the RWL Cooper COBRA on them. Thinking of mounting them for the
big Charlotte Cars and Coffee this Saturday July 1st.

 

Putting axle stands under the axle?! Whaaaat? Who'd of thought

 

Absolutely beautiful.

I need to get the corrosion off of mine, I got the other style. Though I was thinking bout buying this set of Kosei K1s, maybe I can roll with those as a daily and then refinish the OEMs for my local Cars and Coffee/Meets..

 

Yeah,get a little chubby looking at them...

 

I futzed about with an FB steering box, trying to decide if it would work as a replacement - conclusion is it won't without some mods as the input shaft is too short.

Which is basically me stalling as I don't want to start on the main job I need to get done. Clutch and flywheel replacement.

I hate pulling and installing transmissions from under the car without a proper lift. Hate it.

 

New Racing Beat springs, KYB G-2 shocks, OEM strut inserts, tie rods, bushings and hardware for the front/rear sway bars topped off with new wheels and tires. My baby has treated me well over the past 23 years that I have had her and I want to ensure she sees another 25.

 

That looks great. What are those wheels?

 

I started my '83 for the first time after a long cold winter!

The neighbors loved it.......I think........

 

I cleaned my door cards with some upholstery cleaner, and re-vinyled them. The pictures don't do it justice. The old vinyl was cracked and peeling really worthless looking.

 

The wheel brand is Effects Wheels and the name of the style is Akuma. Virtually impossible to find 4 lug 114.3 bolt patterns with the correct offset for a GSL-SE. Was forced to go to a 15" rim vice the original 14." Same with tires now, you look for a 14" tire and most that size are trailer tires. There are plenty of wheels out there but most if not all are "dual-drilled" and that look doesn't work for me I wanted the clean 4 lug look.

 

Pulled the trans and clutch, preparing to pull the flywheel.
Installing an RB lightweight steel flywheel & exidy clutch kit. & remembering what a PITA it is to do this without pulliing the engine.
Garage Yoga Limbo not as much fun as it was when I was 30. Or 40.

 

Sucks I'm not gonna be driving for the next week or so, but I'm ready for spot welding the "iron worms" and primering tomorrow.

 

Mid-project detour from my lightweight-flywheel-and-Exidy-clutch upgrade, to replace the parking brake cables on both sides.

I'd reached the end of available adjustment and at full pull there was just barely enough force on the brakes to hold the car.

Comparing new to old cables, about 1/4" total stretch over 27 years of wear.

Now have half the adjustment back, and wheels lock in 7 clicks.

Interesting trivia; the FSM makes no mention of these cables or how to replace them.

 

Finished the flywheel and clutch upgrade yesterday evening... remarkable improvement in drivability.
Cold idle is a bit lopey as was expected, but not much & it smooths out at temperature.

Rev-up is a lot quicker (easily 2-3x as fast to 4k, unloaded), and clutch effort is way down.

De-rev is still slow - - but that's the stock emissions system doing it's job.

Fair amount of time and money involved, but I'm feeling satisfied with the result, even before adjusting the clutch pedal. It doesn't feel quite so much like I'm driving a farm truck anymore.

 

I drove for 2 hours in the back woods of Eastern Massachusetts, and by happenstance, I was behind some other spirited drivers with capable cars and a shared interest in enjoying the curves.

The first hour with the windows open, the second with the roof off, night sky, and the wind where my hair used get blown around.

 

Loving on those!

My restored waffles with my aging Futura RWLs are carefully bagged and stored in the garage, along with my rechromed stock lug bolts... I love my Eps and the modern wide rubber grips like a cat on a toupe', but the look of a proper set of waffles with righteous throwback tires is just... oh, yeah.

 

I spent a couple of hours with calipers, a broken door pull cup, and sketchup in an attempt to make a model I can 3d print that will last better than the unobtainum originals. I don't know what the original engineers were thinking but this is a terribly complex shape and there really was no need to make it this complex.

I think I am going to start over and make a part that is easy to print, will fit, is rugged. Not a copy of the original(s). It only has to fit the hole in the door card and have a hole in the right place in the bottom to screw to the door bracket.

A couple of years back I made a mold of the inside of the right hand cup with top lip (the visible surfaces) and layed up a fiberglass reinforced part but destroyed the mold when releasing and the part was not usable either. This was discouraging enough that I tabled the project.

The other part I am thinking of doing is a 3D model for is the clear dome lamp cover. I can't make it water clear but I can make one transparent enough that a bright LED replacement bulb would work. The LED I am using in the car now is too bright.

If these work out I would be open to designing other parts people could have made up. I will start a separate thread when I have something to show.

 

You know theres a guy on here doing this already right?

https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generati...ement-1089623/

So on the way home, the left front broke a belt. Thought I had a flat is was such a rough
ride. Its the end of the Cooper COBRA RWL tires for sure. Good news is I found new RWL ,
bad news there are sourced out of the UK. So a bit expensive but for new RWL tires who
cares!

 

My wife.

 

By an amazing coincidence, I just came across, and bought, his headlight and wiper bushings on eBay!
Those are 3D printed, but he's actually casting the door cups, which might actually be better. The right resin should be more UV-resistant than the original ABS.

 

You can buy them brand new for pretty cheap...?

 

[QUOTE=t_g_farrell;12199179]You know theres a guy on here doing this already right?

https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generati...ement-1089623/

Thanks for the pointer but not the same thing at all. I am not planning on selling anything. I will upload the 3D model to thingiverse so anyone can print it themselves or have it printed by some company like Shapeways in whatever material you want. Want it in Titanium? Probably not for the price but you could get it if you wanted it.