My RX7 FC Cabriolet - Old skool style

[rob192]

Hi all, my project for this summer is an RX7 FC3S cabriolet. I purchased a white RX7 from Driftworks that was worse than swiss cheese underneath, properly properly rusted to holy hell. I'd said that I was going to repair it, but unfortunately, it's worse than we could see when it was up on the ramp. Dal stripped the shell down and it's gone, truly and utterly beyond repair that anyone would deem economical. Here is the sorry looking beast:



Where does that leave me then? Good engine (lots of receipts) and nothing to put it in.

Not any more! I went down to see a guy in Maidenhead and picked up this beast:





It's a very late FC cab and it's so clean. Pretty well specced - it's got cruise control (although I assume that'll die once the manual box goes in), air con (will probably be removed - who needs air con in a cabrio!), headrest speakers so clean door panels etc. Also happened to be missing an engine which suited my needs fantastically well. A number of pounds changed hands and I came to collect it a couple of weeks later. It's now being worked on down in deepest Kent by the one and only DAL Performance.

Spec:

Engine

Banzai Racing Dual Belt Alternator Pulley Kit
Apexi exhaust system
Blitz mesh air filter & hardpipe intake
Blitz dump valve
Mitsi Evo Intercooler - v-mounted
Godspeed alloy radiator
Massive Kenlowe rad fan
Silicone rad hoses
Sard magnetic oil filter
Billion Super Low temp thermostat
Trust/Greddy Rotary engine oil
NGK platinum plugs
Holley Annihilator 9mm kevlar plug wires
Fuel Performance 255 fuel pump
FAMC Stage 1 ECU
Gen. Mocal oil cooler & filter relocation kit w/ Earl's lines/connectors & Mocal remote thermostat
Super Now! Response Up! air pump blanking plates kit
Genuine Mazda full engine gasket set
Exedy stage 1 clutch

Chassis

HSD DT coilovers
Front/Rear Strut braces
Super Now! tie rod end set
Uras Super Lock tie rod set
Prothane Total Suspension bush kit
Level Zero DTSS Eliminator bushes
Centreline Auto Drag billet wheels 15x8 ET-19 15x10 ET-38
New Continental ContiSport Premium Contact 2 tyres Fr 175/55/15 Rr 205/50/15

Brakes

Cusco brake master cylinder stopper
APP Stainless Brake Lines F/R
EBC Pads and Discs F/R
Caliper rebuild kits F/R
ABS has been removed

Interior/Gadgets

Cusco fly off handbrake knob
YoshiBits handbrake extension
AEM UEGO wideband AFR gauge
Nardi Personal 300mm steering wheel
218 hub spacing converter
Nardi Ergo Gearknob
Blitz 75mm boost gauge with Attain dash holder
Apexi SAFC Fuel Controller
Apexi AVCD old skool RPM based boost controller
MX5 1.6 OEM shifter (short throw on an FC) w/ new OEM lower and upper shift boots
New leather gaitor
Arc DFM Down Force/lateral G Meter

Exterior

70mm plastic bolt on arches
6000k HIDs
Twin low-pro headlights
OEM JDM Fogs v.rare
OEM Sideskirts
Turbo II Ali bonnet vented for v-mount
Aero wipers

Standard Equipment

Cruise control
Electric roof
Headrest speakers
PAS
Electric windows
Foglights
Full tan leather with uncut door cards, extremely rare

And probably more besides.

So, all in all, pretty damn excited and I'm hoping to be the owner of a very very cool FC once it's all put together.

Cheers,

Rob.

[rob192]

The project rumbles on in the background, the white car is fully stripped and the black one is now in to have anything refitted. I think this will be the most outrageous car I've ever owned. More to come.

[rob192]

Bit of progress, black one's in now the white one is completely disassembled.

Some interior pieces being swapped, pedal box etc. Engine bay cleaned up and rear lights put into place.

[rob192]

Little more progress

[rob192]

Pop ups are up, the engine bay is ready for the engine and the engine is ready for the engine bay! WOOO!

[rob192]

Engine/gearbox in and mounted.



Plumbing n stuff begins.



Dal had an eek moment earlier where the manual prop was too short (car started life as an auto) but the auto prop fits just fine luckily

[rob192]

[Ross.]

Nice project! I'm completely unsure of those wheels. They could look good or terrible, lets hope its not the latter! I like the tan interior, it all seems to be in good condition too, nice one.

If its a clean car then don't drill or rivet those arches on!!

I'd love an FC one day... one day.

[rob192]

Mate, I was completely in 2 minds about the wheels/arches set up but I went down to Dal's the other day to have a look myself so I could gauge tyre sizes and it looks proper in the metal. It shouldn't work as well as it does!

This was meant to be a cheapo fix up and drive project it's turned into 5 months and me throwing cash as it like it's going out of fashion. The end result is going to be something I'm very happy with and obviously having built it up from scratch with all the right parts first time around it'll be completely me and I'm very much looking forward to it.

Tan interior was also marmite for me, I had the black interior from the white car I was going to put in but it's in shit nick so I'll stick with the tan. Tan with headrest speakers and uncut doorcards is pretty rare apparently.

Just hope she runs alright, I've elected to (have Dal) completely remove the EGR, air pump, rats nest all that shit. Also done a mod to the fuel recirculation flux capicitor contiuum time transfunctioner thingy which is apparently quite a fire hazard as these come up to 25 years old. Fingers crossed!

And I'm glad SXOC can't handle your pizza Japan babies, that thing was ****ing horrible!

[Ross.]

Good stuff, hope all works out well! I know these cars can throw up some nasty surprises! Aahahaha that's funny!! Time for a new sig I think... aha.

[rob192]

Thanks man.

We're both reading a lot and Dal's doing what he can with the wiring, running gear and engine to try and anticipate and correct the problems we hear about before they arise but it's yet to see the road and I'm sure there'll be some niggles at some point.

At least there's no rust lol.

[Si]

So much awesome is brewing right here

Got any chassis snuff pr0n of the old shell? We want to see how bad!
Stock turbo?

[rob192]

Thanks

Dal might have, I'll ask. I have a few from when I first picked it up.







Those are all around the bottoms of the pillars. It turned out that it was a pick a point in the floor pan, push your finger on it and you'd be through to the cabin or boot job lol. It was awful, whole floor was just rust with paint on it.

Stock turbo has gone back on, yeah, I don't want to go mental on the power side of things. It'll be quick enough for a bit of tooling around with 250~ ponies. The hope in going v-mount is that with the small turbo and proximity to the cooler it'll just be on boost and the lack of top end grunt will be forgotten about with a low down fun factor. We'll see, this is a learning experience for me.

[ANDY black s13]

Cool project man! I like the rims and arches , I need check out dals new place soon

[rob192]

Thanks Andy

[rob192]

After a frustrating morning getting shafted by the V-Mount set up that now looks destined to become a Front Mount setup some suspension bushes were done so it felt like the day wasn't wasted.

Dal's doing his best to get it V-Mounted but it's just impractical in terms of time compared with end result, I'm sure he'll figure something out - he always does!

[R3K1355]

Sard magnetic oil filter
Trust/Greddy Rotary engine oil

You're not going to run that surely??

It sounds like a monumental waste of money to me.

[rob192]

Have you ever got anything good to say? Everything you type seems like a monumental waste of time to me.

The filter was £9 and the oil was £40 from RHD-Japan, hardly millions is it.

[ANDY black s13]

Nice up date and looking good, that radiator is massive and looks very nice, did the filter come from RHD as well ?
as they are like 30 notes odd normally I thought, good idea imo catching any metal in the filter

[rob192]

Yeah filter was from RHD, it might have been a bit more including a bit of postage from the overall postage cost. Rad is massive yup, they need a lot of cooling.

So, front mounting the intercooler would have meant routing the pipe either through the chassis rails or using about 20ft of piping and having to relocate the battery so we decided to persevere with the v-mount route.

Intercooler was positioned and front bar notched.





Dal then cracked on with making the mounts for the radiator, you'll notice the pipes have been cut off the radiator and will be TIG'd back on in the correct position later.