1991 Mazda RX7 - From junk, to showcar in $3,000

[Miroteknik]

Hey. Bro. Just wire it up ! (by the way you've got my sub)

throw in some wire and youre good to go brah

Did it fire right up?

I am so freaking jazzed to see how this goes! Just spent the first 20 minutes of my Micro class not listening to the lecture and instead reading this. ahhaha well worth it! Subbed for sure.

This could be one of my builds, def. subd.

Thanks dudes!

I didn't think anybody except hot rod guys knew about the LT1 All my buddies were sad that I bought a 5.0 for my FC project instead of something out of a Chevy but I still can't justify the cost of a T56 (guess I'm cheap). Good luck with the build!

Its true, T-56's are hard to find, and when you do find them, they're expensive. I paid $1,500 for mine, but I just wanted it that bad. Hope its in good shape, its going to suck if it turns out to be trashed.

This is so me. The only difference is that you are actually getting stuff done.
Car looks very promising so far, impatient to see it finished.

It looks like I'm getting things done, but that's three years of progress right there. That's pathetic. Just keep moving forward. When I decided I was going to do this build, I vowed to myself that I would see it through, or shut up about it forever, and never attempt something this big again. The greatest failure for me, would be to not finish the car. That's the goal this far. Just finish what I've started. Nothing is more discouraging to me, than giving up on something.

[stancefag]

I took the time to fall into deeper depression, re-evaluate my life, and warm up to the idea of the car never getting done

This is so me. The only difference is that you are actually getting stuff done.

Car looks very promising so far, impatient to see it finished.

[floatingdino]

Did it fire right up?

[Zach Thomas]

I didn't think anybody except hot rod guys knew about the LT1 All my buddies were sad that I bought a 5.0 for my FC project instead of something out of a Chevy but I still can't justify the cost of a T56 (guess I'm cheap). Good luck with the build!

[Lunik]

This could be one of my builds, def. subd.

[RolledAndPulledG]

throw in some wire and youre good to go brah

[DaguerrotypeI]

I am so freaking jazzed to see how this goes! Just spent the first 20 minutes of my Micro class not listening to the lecture and instead reading this. ahhaha well worth it! Subbed for sure.

[Julian]

Hey. Bro. Just wire it up ! (by the way you've got my sub)

[Miroteknik]

10/10, would read again.
And also stoked for progress.

Thanks dude, more to come!

Door cards are money! $$$$

Mah nigga

Damn hipster doorcards.

Yeah its really the only thing going on here, lets talk about it.

Your door panels look like 2 caterpillars mating.

Are you an entomologist?

This is cool. I guess I always thought you owned the car in your sig.
I hope the car is done at this point. I want to see it drift.

Broham, the RX7 is not done yet, so I can't show you mad skids. When its done though, I'll have a special shoutout for ju. Also, I sold the car in my sig. It was a complete blast the whole time I owned it. I have so many memories, and miss it all the time. I had huge plans for it, but backed out when the excitement of it wore off, and I realized I cared more about the RX7 than the Ghia. Here's another pic of it though, for old times sake

I love the way you narrate your build, you've got my sub.

Stick around, it'll get worse.

This is an entertaining short story that you abruptly cut short...I'm going to wait until this is finished and ice my blue balls in the meantime.

You said short story and that I cut it short, doesn't that mean I'm doing it right?

I should have another update next week.

[lublub]

This is an entertaining short story that you abruptly cut short...I'm going to wait until this is finished and ice my blue balls in the meantime.

[Commodore]

I love the way you narrate your build, you've got my sub.

[Lobster]

i like this thread because it doesnt like me.

[M.Doban]

This is cool. I guess I always thought you owned the car in your sig.

I hope the car is done at this point. I want to see it drift.

[Jlyons617]

Your door panels look like 2 caterpillars mating.

[Miroteknik]

Some time later, progress picked back up on the RX7. I got a stage 2 clutch kit, and installed that.



Forgot to put the throwout bearing in the first time, classic. You'll also notice the engine is not centered in the tunnel. Well to get an idea of what we were up against, we had to pull the engine out a number of times. Yay.



You might have noticed the lip that I threw on, and that I removed the license plate from the front, and cut the plastic webbing out of the front bumper. I originally really ***** the S5 bumpers, but kind of warmed up to it after I threw the lip on and cut the bumper up a bit.

Also, I thought I'd change up the blinker/running lights a bit. They shine blue in running/parking mode, and also flash amber for the turning signal. Mixed feelings on it overall, but its an easy project for when I get a better idea.



Got a T-56 because I refused to buy anything else. Guess what? This is where the build hit my $3,000.00 cap. I was just getting started, and my budget was already maxed out! I was getting things for pretty good prices, and doing my best to save money, but there I was, maxxed out, with a shell, an engine, and a tranny. Time to give up.









Lol no. As I started buying big items like the engine and the tranny, I began to see the reality of building a project like this. Luckily, I had the money to keep going. I named the build thread the way I did, because people like me don't always understand what things cost, until they get knee deep in themselves. I finally realized how retarded people sounded when they spouted gems like "just drop a LSX in it" or "throw another tranny in it and its good to go!". I was learning, and I got a whole new appreciation for projects like mine, and even more respect for people who went farther than me. (Blake Olsen and Hert <3)

Moving on... I ***** the all-white look of the car, so I hit it with some paint.



We finally got the tranny and driveshaft in, and bolted things up nice and straight.







Got some badges for it.



Tinted the windows...



As you can see, I continued the paisley in a few other spots.



More time went by, and progress was slow. The car was never off my mind. I was always looking for parts, and thinking of my next step. I knew I wanted a Turbo II hood to lighten things up front, but mostly for the scoop haha. Found this...



Cleaned it up a bit. It isn't gorgeous, but its much lighter!



Did other stuff that isn't important or interesting, but then there's this fun little story. I am taller than average, and the OEM seats make me feel awkward. So I found some cheap racing seats that were replica versions of these.



....and got started on mounting them up in the car. They didn't quite line-up onto the stock sliders, so I took the bottom of the seat apart, and had my buddy try and weld some tabs on it so I could mount them to the stock locations. It turned out better than I could have ever imagined.



Luckily, I managed to throw the seat into the woods before it burned the whole shop down. Oh well, it was the passenger one, and it only cost me $200 if I remember right. (Don't buy cheap seats, they catch on fire and burn down your shop.)

Here's a pic I bothered saving because I was real proud of these fittings, or something. Look at them.



Also bought a triple core Ron Davis radiator but those pics have me in it so I won't post those. Its nice and cost a lot. Here's a pic of stickers I put on the car. You can also see that I got a body kit. A full kit, but all that you see is the skirt. This is when the car started looking more and more like the cars in the drift scene as we know it today. (jk it still looks pretty terrible) Do you even driftbro







A lot of you were probably hoping I wouldn't do the drift/sticker thing, but I did. Also, here is a pic of 400 bungs in the radiator wtf that's just one side too.



And then this happened.



Came around to wiring, this is where I completely gtfo and let my friend dig in.



I didn't want camber so I replaced this:



With this:



Some of you FC guys might tell me that it won't work, which will break my heart. I hear George Marstanovickolovski how do you spell his name is coming out with a rear camber correction kit, so my eyes are peeled. The idea, is to have 0 camber out back. We'll see. Heres the rear end, since we're talking about it.




Then I got this shiny blue cap that matches nothing else in the car, and these mazdabeat or something endlinks.



By this time, the build cost was at about.... $6,000.00 or so? The point is, the number was climbing, and you should know that. Progress slowed down, because wiring is horrible and I had no part of it, and also the guy that was doing the wiring for me, was not doing the wiring for me. I took the time to fall into deeper depression, re-evaluate my life, and warm up to the idea of the car never getting done, and rotting away like most amateur projects do.

Oh and also I want you guys to know, that everyone I knew was super helpful. They asked about the car when I least wanted to talk about it, and would offer soothing encouragement like: "bro just wire it up!" and "button it up and dial it in dude!" "did you drop the engine in yet? Did it fire right up?!". It was words like this that kept me going. Just when I felt like a complete failure, and I was about to give up, a friend would always be there and "Hey. Bro. Just wire it up."