magnumP5's RX-7 Build Thread

BadBandar said:
subin. Might be picking up a S5 soon. Any updates?
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Not really. The wife and I have been renovating our kitchen so I've been spending all my free time on that.

I've accumulated quite a few parts though. The wheels have tires mounted now, but they're not on the car. The driver's side power window switch broke on me a couple weeks ago so I got a replacement. I have a single din triple gauge pod coming in so I can finally install my gauges. I also tore out the entire shifter assembly - that was fun. Somehow the transmission was leaking fluid through the shifter assembly and it pretty much destroyed all the sound deadening material and rubber shifter boots (all four of them) so I spent a while fishing all that out. I also managed to shear off a bolt in the process, and then break the bolt extractor trying to get it out so that will be drilled out and replaced with a bolt/nut combo. I had a short shifter, but had some issues with the threading so it went back to the vendor to be fixed, but I haven't heard anything in like two weeks.

On a completely different note another member is supposed to be looking at an unknown trim, non-running S5 for me up in Columbus. Supposedly the seller is looking to get rid of it for cheap so I'm thinking it might be worth to pick up at the very least as a parts car.
 
^Fill us in on the details... I sold my gtus to a guy outside of c-bus who was planning on converting it for road racing. *It must be the same one right?* (lol2)
 
Quick (lengthy) update as I have been neglecting this thread.

Wheels and tires are on the car - they look great! The fronts are perfectly flush with the fender and have like 1/8" gap with the spring perch. I am likely going to go with 5-10 mm spacers for the rears to bring them out to be more even with the fronts (stupid stock understeer arrangement). The only problem is I haven't been able to find any hub-centric spacers for the FC...

The stock shifter is garbage - there was some kind of transmission fluid leak and it destroyed pretty much everything that is not metal (seals, bushings and boots) down there. Still waiting on my short shifter - the shop has had some machining backups and I am calling again this week.

Replacement wiper switch came in and everything works again - w00t.

Oh yeah, still no word on the other RX-7 :(
Got a new oil filter pedestal with two 1/8" NPT ports for my oil pressure and temperature gauges. Now I just need to clean up my gauge pod and paint it then figure out a way to mount the AEM gauges (the bezels are so wide two gauges won't fit next to eachother in the pod).

Suspension has arrived! Stance GR+ coilovers were delivered last weekend - 8k/6k F/R. The next time I get a free weekend I will be installing these. Not looking to slam the car - probably 1"/1.5" F/R drop for now; just enough to close the wheel gap. I need to come up with a solution for the rear camber. RX-7's get some crazy negative camber in the rear when lowered so I'm looking at either an adjustable vertical link ($150) that adjusted both sides at the same time or Mazdatrix has these cool little camber links that allow both sides to be adjusted independently ($150/ea). After that, need an alignment.

Aside from the rear camber situation the next mods will be brake rotors and pads (likely Powerslot rotors with Hawk HPS pads) and possibly an Energy Suspension bushing kit or seat brackets for my Sparco's.

I need to take some new pictures too...
 
I need to update this thread with pictures badly...

Coilovers are in. Working on a camber solution currently...

EDIT: Some teaser pics:

Teaser1.jpg


Teaser2.jpg


Lowered approximately 1.5" front and 2" rear. Currently about -1.5 degree front camber (hitting spring perch) and -3 degrees rear camber (no factory camber adjustment). Working on sourcing some additional suspension components next: camber bolts for the front (to get the strut away from the tires), some adjustable links for the rear (camber adjustment), DTSS deletes and a bunch of Energy Suspension bushings. Hopefully have all that installed within two weeks or so then it's off to another alignment and probably corner balance as well. After alignment I'll be getting some 10mm or so spacers for the rear.

In other news I gave up and rebuild the stock shifter - still waiting on my short shifter (three months now). Installed Redline shift boot and Mazdaspeed shift knob (no picture yet); still need to install Redline e-brake boot. Goal after suspension work is brakes. Hawk HPS pads and some decent rotors as well as painting the calipers black (w/ polished MAZDA logo on fronts). I'd like to have this all done before MWMF...
 
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Looks really good, man! Gotta love those RPF1's!

One of my co-workers has a '83 RX-7 GSL with about 80k miles on it he wants to sell for $4000 (I'm sure he'll come down in price, he's in a tight spot financially). I haven't seen it in person but could check it out for you. It's silver, no rust on the body but a few bubbles on the moonroof. He had the motor rebuilt a few years ago and has the paperwork for it. But he said he needed to give it some throttle to keep it from stalling at idle then just stopped driving it. It's been sitting in his garage for 4 years now. Let me know if you're interested in it as a parts car or to swap things to it, or whatever. I can do some recon for ya.
 
Lewis7789 said:
Looks really good, man! Gotta love those RPF1's!

One of my co-workers has a '83 RX-7 GSL with about 80k miles on it he wants to sell for $4000 (I'm sure he'll come down in price, he's in a tight spot financially). I haven't seen it in person but could check it out for you. It's silver, no rust on the body but a few bubbles on the moonroof. He had the motor rebuilt a few years ago and has the paperwork for it. But he said he needed to give it some throttle to keep it from stalling at idle then just stopped driving it. It's been sitting in his garage for 4 years now. Let me know if you're interested in it as a parts car or to swap things to it, or whatever. I can do some recon for ya.
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Thanks! I don't know about the '83 - I got my '89 with 98k miles on it for $3k. I love me a good '83 but I'm not really looking to pick up another project car unless it's a steal. There was supposedly one in Columbus for like $500, but I guess that fell through.
ucMP3 said:
+1 !!

Drop looks very nice.
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Haha, I know, but not slammed! I'm still playing with the height. It's mostly where I want but depending where I'm parked either the front right/rear left look lower or the front left/rear right look lower (like the pics above). I probably won't get it sorted until the corner balance.

Oh yeah, rear wheels look sunken in but that's because there's more than -3 degrees of camber back there. Ordering some adjustable arms from Mazdatrix shortly and will take that hopefully down to -1.5 or so. After that it's 10mm spacers to bring the wheels out some.
 
^So you are gonna go with the spacers, huh? My 15mm's should be here early next week, I think. I'm excited. I'm gonna start doing prep work and maybe start paint on my 2 new wheels this weekend, hopefully. Excited.
 
ucMP3 said:
^So you are gonna go with the spacers, huh? My 15mm's should be here early next week, I think. I'm excited. I'm gonna start doing prep work and maybe start paint on my 2 new wheels this weekend, hopefully. Excited.
Click to expand...
Only for the rear. Either 10 or 15mm - won't know until I get the camber where I want it. Gonna pull it into the other side of the garage today to check the height again. Also check how level the floor is...
 
magnumP5 said:
Only for the rear. Either 10 or 15mm - won't know until I get the camber where I want it. Gonna pull it into the other side of the garage today to check the height again. Also check how level the floor is...
Click to expand...

Ya, fronts don't need a spacer. Rears will look nice brought flush! With 15mm, you can get ones with new studs in place, and not have to get extended studs... A nice convenience. (shrug)
 
I'm being technical here, but it doesn't actually move the center of gravity at all. a wider stance keeps the center of force closer to the center of gravity.

basically makes the care more stable.
 
Yeah everyone else pretty much got it although it is partially for looks - even I don't like the appearance of sunken wheels. From the factory the RX-7's wheels are terribly staggered in favor of the front to promote understeer. Mazda's engineers did this due to the car's tendency to want to spin due to its low center of gravity and 50/50 weight distribution. I just want more neutral handling - not a tail-happy drifter.

I'm going to try to clean it up today and take some better pictures...
 
Looks good. Guess who just picked up a 7 too? :D

You live soo close we need to meet up sometime lol.
 
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