FC RX7 5.0 race car thread

[Teeson1111]

thanks fellas!



This is literally one of my favourite bands. Stabilo. They started as Stabilo Boss, but later shortened it, these are their last 2 albums and is still some of the best music on my iPhone. 2 albums of pure alternative style gold. I've met most of the band members and am good friends with the guitarist's younger brother. Its a shame they broke up a few years ago..

anyway while listening to that I got some work done.



the routine was clean, acetone and paint. I cleaned some of the smaller plastic stuff in my mom's sink (oh she loved it) and pressure washed the rest.

so clean followed by paint





then put it on the car













lol dropped the engine in in 20 min before Easter dinner, haha love it. Everything goes in so nice and easy, and its clean.
However the first scratch is the hardest, honestly looking forward to when it doesn't bother me. I really like the "lived in" look, can't wait till its patina'd



made another parts binge purchase. I think this is one of the last I'll need, theres a few more on order and I'm sure I'll need a few things here and there but for the most part I'm done buying things (haha ya right, the next stuff is bling)

this also pushed the total spent just above $5,000 (approx.)
which needless to say I'm impressed with.. If I skipped the brake setup and wasn't going overboard with the wiring I'll bet this could be easily finished for under $5k

the stuff left to do now requires one of a few things
1. Searching for bolts in the pile
2. Fab
3. extreme wire wheeling' and then paint.
4.????
5. profit

my short list is:

modify the gas tank for bulkhead fittings
fab an idler pulley bracket and one for the ignition coil
make a throttle cable
paint the dash, knuckles, calipers, sway bar, axles, diff and headlight assemblies
theres little bolts to find and springs etc etc to put in

oh wait I still have to wire it... haha

[Zach Thomas]

Wiring the FC with the factory diagrams is kinda annoying. If you have a basic idea of how stuff is wired you should be fine, I have the smallest understanding of 12V systems and have managed to get a good grasp on how I'll do my wiring. Just to warn you though, if you do use the factory diagram have fun ignoring every damn wire going to the ECU. That stupid idiot light cluster they used on the dash means that EVERYTHING goes to the ECU at some point. It's borderline ridiculous.

Again, very jealous of the progress! Car looks good. Mine is sitting impatiently waiting. Thank you Boeing for keeping me at work 60 hours a week Don't they understand I have a car to build??

[Miroteknik]

Car is looking great man, paint looks really good. The engine looks nice in the bay too!

The ECU you have mounted on top of the transmission tunnel, is that the Mazda computer? What do you need that for?

[DeltaAlpha9]

Are you going to have this out for round 2 of Driftwest in Penticton? Great work so far though, it's always nice to see some Canadian builds going on.

[bostongrnM3]

love the diy nature of this build, I also love your powerplant choice.

[Suburuuh]

One proper build!

Subbed because I want to see the end result (hope you get it running again *lol*)

[M.Doban]

Just dropping by again to tell you that you have fantastic attention to detail and the perfect amount of OCD. Keep it up, man!

[Teeson1111]

Wiring the FC with the factory diagrams is kinda annoying. If you have a basic idea of how stuff is wired you should be fine, I have the smallest understanding of 12V systems and have managed to get a good grasp on how I'll do my wiring. Just to warn you though, if you do use the factory diagram have fun ignoring every damn wire going to the ECU. That stupid idiot light cluster they used on the dash means that EVERYTHING goes to the ECU at some point. It's borderline ridiculous.

Again, very jealous of the progress! Car looks good. Mine is sitting impatiently waiting. Thank you Boeing for keeping me at work 60 hours a week Don't they understand I have a car to build??

I used to do 12V installing, so I'm pretty confident with wiring. And haha ya theres a lot of useless stuff on that harness. I'll be shedding some weight right there

Car is looking great man, paint looks really good. The engine looks nice in the bay too!

The ECU you have mounted on top of the transmission tunnel, is that the Mazda computer? What do you need that for?

Thanks! Its actually the Ford ECU, a T4M0. was the best place I could put it that was out of the way from being kicked. Just have to keep an eye on temps, may need to put some heat protection from the exhaust

Are you going to have this out for round 2 of Driftwest in Penticton? Great work so far though, it's always nice to see some Canadian builds going on.

I'm eventually planning to bring it to Penticton and Evergreen, but I need to just get it running before June lol. I'll figure out where to go after that

love the diy nature of this build, I also love your powerplant choice.

thank you sir!

One proper build!

Subbed because I want to see the end result (hope you get it running again *lol*)

haha ya me too. It gets closer and closer

Just dropping by again to tell you that you have fantastic attention to detail and the perfect amount of OCD. Keep it up, man!

haha thanx man!

[Teeson1111]

Jimmy Eat World. This is going years back but these guys are still making music and I'm still listening to it lol. These 4 are my favourites.



Painted more things



And cleaned and painted the diff. And put the diff mounts in, was easy. Too easy, maybe Lamar can shed some light here but I can little push them in by hand, that how they're supposed to be?



assembled these

and put it all engine (except the diff, i'll explain)





And because the suspension was in, this means the car can sit!



Man what a good feeling. Been waaaay too long since the last time it was on suspension. But I still have to put the brake callipers on and the diff in.

now the diff isn't in because the front diff mount is stock. In and effort to save money on a nice gold PBM one (which really isn't that expensive) I took my stock mount



and cut everything useless off



then took some leftover metal from the cage and boxed it



I'm now going to hand it over to a professional welder to make sure it's strong.

around 11:00 pm last night I decided it would be a good idea to paint my dash!



the dye stuff is a bit harder to work with so I'm glad I have all that practice from painting the car. Spraying it is a little tedious, it gets thick and shows lines really easy. But once its properly dry it becomes a nice finish.

I also started modifying my gas tank pump cover thing..



I need to get -6AN to attach to it, so I bought 2 bulkheads and went to work.



I determined that I would have to cut off the hanger part to be able to get the feed line in place. So after being as careful as I could to not warp the cover I got it off. Still warped the cover lol. The drilled the holes out and filled in the holes where the spot welds were, again being careful to not nick the screw threads with a grinder. And I nicked like 3 lol. Arrg.



then tacked it in place, careful not to move it too far from where it was but enough that the bulkhead nuts clear. I also checked that it all fits in the tank. Then painted it and let it dry overnight. And thats where I stopped. I throw a few completed pics up when it done.

[TruTaing]

Man! This thing is moving along! That rattle can paint looks solid!

[Zach Thomas]

Evergreen is 20 minutes away from my house lol. Let me know if you make it down here. I won't say I'm too familiar with the drift "scene" since I really don't follow it a whole lot but I know some helpful people that are very familiar with the track.

Also, what exactly is going on with the fuel tank thing there? Different feed line locations?

[Teeson1111]

Man! This thing is moving along! That rattle can paint looks solid!

thanx!

Evergreen is 20 minutes away from my house lol. Let me know if you make it down here. I won't say I'm too familiar with the drift "scene" since I really don't follow it a whole lot but I know some helpful people that are very familiar with the track.

Also, what exactly is going on with the fuel tank thing there? Different feed line locations?

oh really? are you planning of hitting up Formula Drift in july this year?

fuel tank is getting -6 feed and return. I wouldn't feel right doing all new line and what not on the rest of the car just to have rubber line connecting the tank to the new line. That and I'd need to adapt it down to a 5/16ths line, so that'll cost about the same as doing this lol.

[Zach Thomas]

Makes sense for the fuel lines haha.

And I will probably try to go, I meant to last year but didn't make it. Even with my ultimate goal being to drift my car, I've been pretty lazy about making it to an event as even just a spectator lol. I've only been down to evergreen a handful of times to watch their open drift sessions, which became the reason I have the FC sitting in the garage

[Teeson1111]

Makes sense for the fuel lines haha.

And I will probably try to go, I meant to last year but didn't make it. Even with my ultimate goal being to drift my car, I've been pretty lazy about making it to an event as even just a spectator lol. I've only been down to evergreen a handful of times to watch their open drift sessions, which became the reason I have the FC sitting in the garage

nice, I'm going to drive mine down and go as a spectator this year methinks. If you go lemme know!

updates, it feels like its been a while since i've updated.. work got busier and i've spent a bit less time on the car. Wiring also doesn't look like much progress but anyway:




Seabird is possibly my favourite band ever (thats a ballsy title I know).
kinda pop, kinda rock not really sure which category they fall into. Love the lead vocalists voice, he pulls of some amazing range and long winded stuff. Great live too, they didn't miss a thing. These albums are both amazing cover to cover, not very often do I find a band that can do that and back to back.

finished the fuel tank mod





didn't go back in as easily as I had thought.. some things just didn't want to line up. RTV'd the bananas out of the seal as to prevent leaking.



got more thingz..



some relays and wiring connectors, circuit breakers, fuse holders, a light for the CEL, wire, heat shrink, rubber P clips, pinion snubber, front brake lines and a buddy gave me the Russell EFI adapter that the local parts store is waiting for. It's blue so eventually I'll get a black one but hey it was free(ish).
Also built all my AN line and put them on



not too thrilled with how difficult it is to get them on.. going to move the flare down the tube a few inches. I wanted to be able to remove them with out have the car up, but the steering column and exhaust get in the way too much.

mocked up the glove box



still have to get some aluminum to make the panel for it but you get the idea.

also finally got around to painting my brake callipers




and sanded the mazda logo



so I took that mess of wiring from before, and cut about this much out



(most of it lol)

then did the rear of the fuse panel



I'm not overly thrilled with how this came out... its all functional but I feel if the wire were a bit longer I could've made it much tidier. The compromise of re-using factory wiring in an effort to save money I suppose. Couldn't imagine how much it would cost to buy all new copper wire...



have the front of the car mostly buttoned up, I will be going back and covering it all in loom once I'm confident it all works properly. Even as I go through it I keep changing my mind and discovering flaws in my original plans.



the rear of the car is done tho



which now leaves me with the hardest part, the fuse and relay panel. Solder and heat shrink e'erythang takes time.

also can't find the 02 harness... not sure if I got it with the engine. Not a huge deal as I want to put them out the back, as opposed to the ridiculous around the front and along the oil pan oem way.

I feel as I'm about 30% through the wiring. Then buy fluids and start it up!

[Suburuuh]

The start (and running) of an engine in a build is like putting fuel on a fire!
This gives even more motivation to continue and finish it.