FC RX7 5.0 race car thread

[Teeson1111]

Will do, once I get around to it lol. And if this build is "on a budget," then mine will be an example of building a car without money hahaha. At least not for a while, it's gonna be a slow moving project. I have problems with toys, I'm still making payments on my daily driven 04 WRX and my Yamaha Banshee that I recently bought....love them both but its a lot of $$$. Car's looking good though! That cage is making me think I might go a little further with a cage in mine than I'd planned

haha I understand. At this point i've spent just over 4k. Theres a lot you can save by buying used, hawking eBay and craigslist, and doing as much of it yourself as you can.

Great build! Everything looks awesome so far and I always like seeing someone doing another proper 302 powered car. We won't have quite the power of the LSx guys, but the cost of admission is much more reasonable.

thanks! ya I always refer to the 302 as the poor mans LS1. While it wont make the same power, they are lighter and simpler. I don't ever see a need to leave the 302 platform. Friend of mine has a turbo fox, the thing is insane. His kit was only like $1500 and he's probably making 550 hp at the wheels. Stock long block, stock tranny. He's even had it up to around 30 psi (well so the gauge says, maxed the turbo) in attempt to try and kill the motor without using detonation, still hasn't split the block or anything. I don't see myself ever need more than that lol.

[motocaddy]

Great build! Everything looks awesome so far and I always like seeing someone doing another proper 302 powered car. We won't have quite the power of the LSx guys, but the cost of admission is much more reasonable.

[Zach Thomas]

Nice! post a build thread if you're so inclined, and if you do link me. Love to see others work on the same idea/platform.

And ya from what I understand the FC stuff is even better than the 240 stuff with Abercrombie. We'll see I suppose lol.
Stickers came from my dads friends, or well a good chunk anyway. Many came from trades shows, some I bought, some came with parts, some are gifts from friends, some I found in my dads toolbox, some I've kept for a long time planning to sticker bomb something lol.
My last project was a V6 swapped protege5, so not much relation to hot rods.

Will do, once I get around to it lol. And if this build is "on a budget," then mine will be an example of building a car without money hahaha. At least not for a while, it's gonna be a slow moving project. I have problems with toys, I'm still making payments on my daily driven 04 WRX and my Yamaha Banshee that I recently bought....love them both but its a lot of $$$. Car's looking good though! That cage is making me think I might go a little further with a cage in mine than I'd planned

[Teeson1111]

Looked at a few threads on Stance Works before, but this one forced me to register. I just picked up an 88 Turbo II shell that is pretty stripped drivetrain-wise and interior and am planning on a 5.0 swap. Car looks great so far, good job!

And take this with a grain of salt, but one of the local drifter kids that I work with said that abercrombie motorsports stuff is "pretty good." He's into 240s but "knows" some guys with FCs that run them and have no issues.

Second edit: classic industries sticker + all the hot rod brand stickers, have you done up any muscle cars?

Nice! post a build thread if you're so inclined, and if you do link me. Love to see others work on the same idea/platform.

And ya from what I understand the FC stuff is even better than the 240 stuff with Abercrombie. We'll see I suppose lol.
Stickers came from my dads friends, or well a good chunk anyway. Many came from trades shows, some I bought, some came with parts, some are gifts from friends, some I found in my dads toolbox, some I've kept for a long time planning to sticker bomb something lol.
My last project was a V6 swapped protege5, so not much relation to hot rods.

Effort on the cage! looks awesome.

thanx!

This thing is the bizness. Love the progress.

haha thanks man

Great, great work!

thanks!

i love this build alot more than i should

glad to hear lol



So i'll have a bigger update coming, that deadline I mentioned has me pushing hard to get as much welding done as possible in time. So haven't had much time/energy to take pictures. So I have a few for now, but come the weekend I'll do a bigger one.




Music of choice has been this, The Classic Crime - The Silver Cord. Epic rock music, great to work to. Awesome vocals, awesome instrumentals, awesome dynamics and diversity throughout the album. Great band out of Seattle, worth checking out their other albums as well.

Got this:



Energy suspension master kit for FC RX7s
First of many suspensions. Ordered from Part Shop Max, Abercrombie, and Racing Beat. hope to run across the border sometime this week, in between fab work. Pretty stinking excited!



got this mocked/tacked together. Fits perfect, I can remove it even with the dash and steering column in place. Number 1 goal with this build is to make it easy to work on and adjust. Will get it welded up, then probably weld the pedal box in place, its kinda floppy with all the metal I took out lol.



rear seatbelt mounts welded up nice



Got these for a steal, and while I don't need to run two I'm gonna. Because having your car die from leaving your lights on for 20 min isn't cool. And in future I want to have an electric water pump and fat fan running in the pits with the engine shut off. They are like 11 lbs each, Odyessy PC545. boo rah





dat gusseting





trimmed the dash up perfect, did the bottoms too. Dremel then finished with a knife for a clean edge.
Now before you say "Tysy! those holes are way off, you're blind. They're way bigger on the one side."
Well thats on purpose. Makes getting the dash in and out easier, and so it will clear the reservoirs mounted where the idiot lights were. The front piece almost has to go through the sunroof opening to clear the cage.

more to come probably after the weekend

Have a hydraulic slave setup to make, welding to finish, brake lines to run, and engine to drop in, the list is long.

[Belvader]

i love this build alot more than i should

[Zacne_4]

Great, great work!

['70dim]

This thing is the bizness. Love the progress.

[Ratcliffe33]

Effort on the cage! looks awesome.

[Zach Thomas]

Looked at a few threads on Stance Works before, but this one forced me to register. I just picked up an 88 Turbo II shell that is pretty stripped drivetrain-wise and interior and am planning on a 5.0 swap. Car looks great so far, good job!

And take this with a grain of salt, but one of the local drifter kids that I work with said that abercrombie motorsports stuff is "pretty good." He's into 240s but "knows" some guys with FCs that run them and have no issues.

Second edit: classic industries sticker + all the hot rod brand stickers, have you done up any muscle cars?

[Teeson1111]

dat tach



No its no auto meter or anything, but it'll do what I need to. One day i'd like to get a racepak dash thingy instead of a billion gauges.



so I threw it in to see how it looked, and well I like it. I wish it didn't go to 10, because the pride of Ford america in 1994's V8 don't go to 10. Goes to like 6, on a good day.

and as promised:



Baller bling things that will be hidden under the dash when done.



Had these welded back together, after I broke all but one nut with an impact gun. That's what happens when Mazda decided welding them in with a soldering iron would be fine. Honestly they don't experience much force in that direction, but I broke them anyway

For kicks I'd thought I would throw this on here too:





My toolbox. Had it for 3 years now, been sticker-ing it ever since I got it. Some cheesy, some legit ones, some free, some I bought, some rare, many freebies. Kinda the only thing i do that I have zero rules for or thought. Its a sticker, find a place, stick it. Chaos. But it looks artsy that way. And I didn't just go buy some JDM ebay sticker bomb sheet.

Oh and no I haven't broken tradition yet,
Tonights tunes:



The 1975 - IV

Great band no ones heard of, very british, very hipster. Kinda feels like it was made for the hipsters, but I like it anyway. Pop rock to a deep dreamy type sound, try it out.

Spent a bit of time mocking up and measuring stuff. Have to put a full night in this week so we can accomplish some welding on sat. Found out I have a deadline, as my welder is going to school for 6 weeks or so. So we need everything critical done before that.

Ordered a Energy Suspension master kit, should be here by the end of the week.
Also sold some stuff so I have a bit of $$ to throw at it, looking at Abercrombie Motorsports knuckle kit. And some Parts Shop Max/PBM bushings solid diff/subframe bushings.
Any one have experience with either these? The abercrombie knuckles look the business, 72* with only 4* of Ackerman spread. This is more angle than I've seen out of any kit for the FC, which isn't blessed with lock from the factory, and more than a lot of 240sx kits.

abercrombiemotorsports

also looking at Lucky10, its a company local to me that also has a sweet time attack FC build happening. They make nice stuff also, but a little on the expensive side to say PSM/PBM.

that's all for tonight, feel free to comment shy people

[Teeson1111]

Well. It has been a while hasn't it? I was out of town for a week, but Andy (my welder) was going crazy to finish the cage, so thats what we've been doing. Until we run out of gas at least.

And I think I'm gonna start a trend, Royal T and Blake both have craft beer and food that accompany each update, I like the Idea. But since I neither drink nor have such awesome food places at my disposal, I'm gonna do what album I'm listening to while working in the garage. Sometimes two, like now, if it's been a while.
And I listen to a diverse selection btw, you'll see everything from indie to rap to just weird etc

So Andy's jam lately when welding has been this:



It's a slightly weird combo, but it works so well. Throwback to high school I guess.

Tonight though was:



Kinda a throwback, but still awesome. Every time. Not a fan of his latest album however.. maybe it will grow on me.

Back to the build at hand:



weld weld weld weld



ooooh! lets guess what this is (because it looks cool)








kinda looks funky, but then it makes sense





Came out steezy for the little access he had with the windshield in the way.

Speaking of "little access"



Sometimes kids, you have to do things that work safe programs frown upon. Even strongly frown upon. Andy's lady likes a little sun tan on his face, and hands. Lol. So in order to get at the angle required and be able to see it, this happened.
Don't try that at home he's a paid pro, when he works for me, Mcd's is on the house. (well often anyway)

So we got almost all of it done, theres a few to finish and I mis-cut the other side of the harness bar. I'll have to get more DOM when I get the gas filled. There's a bit of gusseting to do as well, then the back wall. So who am I kidding, theres a good bit of welding to do.

Tonight while rocking out to JT, I trimmed the dash and fit it in place and through the rest of the pieces in to see how it looked/felt.







Needless to say, I love it. Bit more bling to get yet, but feels good. I don't even hit my long elbows on the roll bar.
I can get used to this view



So we ran outta gas for the welder, which gave us time to do the brake master and booster in Andy's jeep. He had to run to the parts store to get a wrench and brake fluid or something and challenged me to get the coils on the car while he was gone. 25 min later, I had the coils in. About 2 minutes after that he got back. Fought a seized bolt and managed to swap the front wheels which don't fit. Then I went overtime to adjust them, swap the rears and crank the preload so the fronts clear. I think I'll need some decent spacers to push them away from rubbing the coil. And it wouldn't hurt in the rear either to fill that wheel gap..







sits much prettier.

Was gifted this:



Off a Nissan Sentra, so naturally the plates don't fit. But the length is pretty ideal. I kinda wanted an adjustable/removable strut brace for the rear. So another project will be to make plates and weld them to work.



Thrifty tip: take your old seat belts that you don't need anymore because you bought RCI harness (cam lock and all boi!) and steal the grade 8 hardware. Then cut a bunch off and make some tow straps! then dye them red. Or you know JDM purple, however you wanna go with it. I just have to sow a loop into the end part, but they should work awesome. And save me like $25 from spending on eBay.

Oh and I bought some Wilwood master cylinder kits.
Remote resevoirs, matte black nice pieces. But after mocking them up with the pedal box I had planned, it ain't gonna fit easy like. So I'm gonna have to get creative. Anyone have tips or ideas from how they did theirs? key here is easy to get at them for adjustment and such.
Ill take pics when I don't forget (see what I did there?) or when I buy the third one. I gotta decide on a slave and then do some math.

I leave with this:



Oh and I ordered a tach today, much excite

[Teeson1111]

some weld porn for ya

stackin' dimes as they say in the industry



Jermaine, one handing his welds like a boss






sorry for blurries



I love the way this center bar looks, it makes it seem even more race car-like (best term I can think of right now....)



And then we ran out of gas, so the night ended. And we all went to bed.
Or to stanceworks.

[Teeson1111]

livin the dream.

looks like your off to a solid start!
pick your welder buddys brain every chance you get.

thanx! and oh I do. helps me prep for him better when I understand how to weld a bit. I just don't have his hands or experience.

[parttimeprojectionist]

livin the dream.

looks like your off to a solid start!
pick your welder buddys brain every chance you get.

[RolledAndPulledG]

Means a lot



haha