That would make Evan's post so much more ironic.
magnumP5's RX-7 Build Thread
- Thread starter magnumP5
- Start date
That would make Evan's post so much more ironic.
Nope, not sold. It's heading over to the exhaust shop to get everything welded up. I spent a few hours today going over everything before the move. I've loosened so many bolts and nuts over the past two years I wanted to make sure the something doesn't fall off during transport. I also killed two more small jobs. I finally shortened the transmission wiring harness and plugged the last hole in the firewall. I still need to loom the transmission wires and make the O2 sensor harness but otherwise the wiring is done.
PICTURES! Well, in a minute. So the exhaust is done, but I feel the need to recap the entire day as it was certainly an ordeal:
Skip to the end if you don't want to read my play-by-play of my actions yesterday.
Everything started Tuesday night. I picked up a car dolly after work and once Ian went to bed I went about backing it up the driveway to make it easier to load the car. Thus starts my hatred of car dollies. My plan was to take 1/2 day vacation yesterday so I could get up a little later than normal, load up the car, and make it to the shop between 8 and 9 AM. After fiddling with the dolly a little more and removing the driveshaft (required for towing with a dolly) I started to load the car but something kept me from clearing the last "bump." To load the car the dolly has a hinge in the middle, which, when a lever is turned, causes the dolly to bend allowing the car to be driven up its ramps. When the car reaches the top the dolly un-bends and locks back into position for travel. Apparently the RX-7 is so low the ramps were hitting the bottom of the car (bent some pinch welds, argh!) when the dolly attempted to un-bend. Once I realized this I rolled the car back into the garage and raised the front suspension 1.5 inches. With that done the car made it onto the dolly (with effort) and cleared the ramps by about 0.5 inches. By this time it's 8:30 so I ran inside and changed (sweating like crazy because it was already 80+ degrees outside) and left for the shop.
I got to the shop exactly at 9 AM and they were waiting for me. We unloaded the car and pushed it to the lift where it was promptly raised. Aside from transmission fluid leaking all over the place (apparently I didn't drain it enough and it was leaking from the open driveshaft connection) everything was ready to go. We spent about 30 minutes discussion placement and setup. We decided to mount the muffler "vertically" to give additional clearance to the fuel tank heat shields and rear tire. A big concern was how low the exhaust was going to be. Since I wanted the pre-silencer under the driveshaft the shop was concerned it would be too low. After coming up with a game plan I left the shop around 9:30 to go home, shower, and take care of a few things before heading to the office for the afternoon.
Around 11:45 AM I get a call from the shop as I'm getting ready to leave for the office. I'm thinking the worst and something bad has happened or they've run into a snag. Nope, they're done and they want me to pick up the car. At this point I'm thinking I can save some money by picking up the car today before my rental period on the dolly ends. If I waited until next Monday (out of town this weekend) it'd be another $60 for the dolly for a day. So I decide the take the entire day off and call into work and let everyone know before heading back to the shop.
I get to the shop around 12:15 and the car is sitting outside. I had hoped they would have left it on the lift so I could easily check everything out but that wasn't the case. I crawled around the ground for a few minutes inspecting everything and it all looks pretty good actually (see pictures below). I go inside to pay, expecting a $1200 price, but instead I'm quoted $800. $400 off is pretty nice but I found out it's because they used 409 SS instead of 304 SS I had requested. That's a little frustrating but it's too late now. I guess I need to look into coating the entire exhaust now for better corrosion resistance. I paid, loaded up the car and left around 1 PM after getting some body shop references.
I get home a few minutes later and immediately after trying to back the car and dolly up the driveway I realize this isn't possible. Something in the way the dolly is designed wouldn't let me back everything up as it'd start to bind after about 6 feet. So I park in the road not knowing how I'm going to push the RX-7, backwards, up my decently-sloped driveway. I end up pushing the car around the cul de sac getting it ready for a reverse run at the driveway at an angle (there's a pretty big initial bump). With this effort I'm able to get all four wheels on the driveway after quickly jumping into the car to pull the e-brake before the whole thing rolls back into the street. After putting chucks in front of the wheels and releasing the e-brake I quickly realized my 5'-9", 160 lb frame isn't going to be able to push this 2500+ lb car up the driveway. After 15 more minutes of thinking I had an idea. I ran into the garage and started up the lawn tractor and back it up to the RX-7. After securing the two together with several passes of 1/2" nylon rope I proceeded to slowly pull the car up the driveway. I had to stop every 3 feet or so fearing damage to the tractor's transmission (a gear drive would have been nice hear). Slowly I get the car to the lip of the garage and the driveway has leveled out signficantly. At this point I could push the car myself over the small bump and back into the garage. Soaked in sweat again, I called it quite around 2:30 in the afternoon.
Pictures!
Overall I'm pleased.
Cons:
-Hangers are mild steel and will rust quickly if not coated.
-409 SS used instead of 304 SS so less corrosion resistance.
-Crush bends.
-Hangs below the pinch welds in some locations.
Pros:
-Everything fits!
-Uses stock hangers and locations.
-Has only three bends ignoring the tailpipe.
-Flange configuration allows me to access the driveshaft without having to removal the entire exhaust.
Going forward I think I'm going to angle the tailpipe outlet slightly for that "JDM rotary exhaust look." I'm want to get the exhaust manifold coated by Swaintech with their super thick, ceramic TBC to help keep temperature away from the intake manifold. I'm thinking about getting the intake manifold and the rest of the exhaust coated with some more run-of-the-mill Cerakote stuff. The IM for additional heat reduction and the rest of the exhaust for additional corrosiion resistance.
Skip to the end if you don't want to read my play-by-play of my actions yesterday.
Everything started Tuesday night. I picked up a car dolly after work and once Ian went to bed I went about backing it up the driveway to make it easier to load the car. Thus starts my hatred of car dollies. My plan was to take 1/2 day vacation yesterday so I could get up a little later than normal, load up the car, and make it to the shop between 8 and 9 AM. After fiddling with the dolly a little more and removing the driveshaft (required for towing with a dolly) I started to load the car but something kept me from clearing the last "bump." To load the car the dolly has a hinge in the middle, which, when a lever is turned, causes the dolly to bend allowing the car to be driven up its ramps. When the car reaches the top the dolly un-bends and locks back into position for travel. Apparently the RX-7 is so low the ramps were hitting the bottom of the car (bent some pinch welds, argh!) when the dolly attempted to un-bend. Once I realized this I rolled the car back into the garage and raised the front suspension 1.5 inches. With that done the car made it onto the dolly (with effort) and cleared the ramps by about 0.5 inches. By this time it's 8:30 so I ran inside and changed (sweating like crazy because it was already 80+ degrees outside) and left for the shop.
I got to the shop exactly at 9 AM and they were waiting for me. We unloaded the car and pushed it to the lift where it was promptly raised. Aside from transmission fluid leaking all over the place (apparently I didn't drain it enough and it was leaking from the open driveshaft connection) everything was ready to go. We spent about 30 minutes discussion placement and setup. We decided to mount the muffler "vertically" to give additional clearance to the fuel tank heat shields and rear tire. A big concern was how low the exhaust was going to be. Since I wanted the pre-silencer under the driveshaft the shop was concerned it would be too low. After coming up with a game plan I left the shop around 9:30 to go home, shower, and take care of a few things before heading to the office for the afternoon.
Around 11:45 AM I get a call from the shop as I'm getting ready to leave for the office. I'm thinking the worst and something bad has happened or they've run into a snag. Nope, they're done and they want me to pick up the car. At this point I'm thinking I can save some money by picking up the car today before my rental period on the dolly ends. If I waited until next Monday (out of town this weekend) it'd be another $60 for the dolly for a day. So I decide the take the entire day off and call into work and let everyone know before heading back to the shop.
I get to the shop around 12:15 and the car is sitting outside. I had hoped they would have left it on the lift so I could easily check everything out but that wasn't the case. I crawled around the ground for a few minutes inspecting everything and it all looks pretty good actually (see pictures below). I go inside to pay, expecting a $1200 price, but instead I'm quoted $800. $400 off is pretty nice but I found out it's because they used 409 SS instead of 304 SS I had requested. That's a little frustrating but it's too late now. I guess I need to look into coating the entire exhaust now for better corrosion resistance. I paid, loaded up the car and left around 1 PM after getting some body shop references.
I get home a few minutes later and immediately after trying to back the car and dolly up the driveway I realize this isn't possible. Something in the way the dolly is designed wouldn't let me back everything up as it'd start to bind after about 6 feet. So I park in the road not knowing how I'm going to push the RX-7, backwards, up my decently-sloped driveway. I end up pushing the car around the cul de sac getting it ready for a reverse run at the driveway at an angle (there's a pretty big initial bump). With this effort I'm able to get all four wheels on the driveway after quickly jumping into the car to pull the e-brake before the whole thing rolls back into the street. After putting chucks in front of the wheels and releasing the e-brake I quickly realized my 5'-9", 160 lb frame isn't going to be able to push this 2500+ lb car up the driveway. After 15 more minutes of thinking I had an idea. I ran into the garage and started up the lawn tractor and back it up to the RX-7. After securing the two together with several passes of 1/2" nylon rope I proceeded to slowly pull the car up the driveway. I had to stop every 3 feet or so fearing damage to the tractor's transmission (a gear drive would have been nice hear). Slowly I get the car to the lip of the garage and the driveway has leveled out signficantly. At this point I could push the car myself over the small bump and back into the garage. Soaked in sweat again, I called it quite around 2:30 in the afternoon.
Pictures!
Overall I'm pleased.
Cons:
-Hangers are mild steel and will rust quickly if not coated.
-409 SS used instead of 304 SS so less corrosion resistance.
-Crush bends.
-Hangs below the pinch welds in some locations.
Pros:
-Everything fits!
-Uses stock hangers and locations.
-Has only three bends ignoring the tailpipe.
-Flange configuration allows me to access the driveshaft without having to removal the entire exhaust.
Going forward I think I'm going to angle the tailpipe outlet slightly for that "JDM rotary exhaust look." I'm want to get the exhaust manifold coated by Swaintech with their super thick, ceramic TBC to help keep temperature away from the intake manifold. I'm thinking about getting the intake manifold and the rest of the exhaust coated with some more run-of-the-mill Cerakote stuff. The IM for additional heat reduction and the rest of the exhaust for additional corrosiion resistance.
Jon the Exhaust looks good, but I don't understand why you want to protect the exhaust from corrosion? You will probably never drive this car in the snow/salt and the pipes and muffler are stainless. So I am not see the big deal here unless you are just as OCD as me about how a car looks.
BTW I am getting my exhaust installed this weekend, I am going with a single 3" Stainless pipe to a Burns Stainless muffler with a turn down pipe at the bumper.
BTW I am getting my exhaust installed this weekend, I am going with a single 3" Stainless pipe to a Burns Stainless muffler with a turn down pipe at the bumper.
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The pipes are 409 SS, which isn't as corrosion resistant as 304 SS. The car will definitely never see snow/salt but I won't be able to keep it out of the rain/wet forever. But yeah I'm slightly less OCD about how the car looks. I don't like how the shiny 304 SS muffler is visible from the side of the car. A nice satin/matte grey will make it more inconspicuous.
I assume this was on the race car? I'm curious how everything turned out. That still has the 12A, right? 3" seems pretty big! You'll have to let me know how loud it is.
I want to make "filler" plates for the exhaust cut outs in the rear bumper cover. There's a company out there that makes them but I figure it shouldn't be too hard to make something out of a single layer of fiberglass. I was always going to do this on the passenger side but since the turndown is below/in front of the bumper cover I think it'll work on the driver's side as well.
Is this the same 12A with the ridiculously light flywheel? What kind of port is it running? I'll definitely be waiting to hear everything once it's done. Depending on my power and sound levels I may increase the megaphone on my exhaust manifold up to 3" and go with a larger exhaust and would consider the Burn's Stainless stuff.
Got to do some sanding on the fan shroud:
Went a little crazy on a couple places so I had to do a quick repair. That's the benefit of using fiberglass I guess. I'll probably do a little more sanding with a finer grit and then start the filler. In the meantime I've been looking around town for a good body shop to properly install the hood and fenders and give me a good "5-10 ft" paint job. Not looking for perfection as the car will see extensive track time but I would like to bring the stock color back to life and minimize overspray.
No updates. Can't find time to work on it. Did find a very clean '86 in SE Wisconsin w/ no engine or transmission for less than $1K that's "straigter" than my car. Very tempting because it has no sunroof, manual windows and mirrors, no rear wiper, and is the lightest of all FC's. Do I really want to redo all the wiring, fuel system, rear end swap, etc?
Sorry, just been really busy the past few weekends and it's hard to get into the garage during the week. I know I don't want to do all that work again but I'm really debating if it's worth it. There are several things I'm not happy with on this car (front end damage, messed up pinch welds, sunroof, power mirrors, windows, and seatbelts, etc.) and several things I kind of wish I could do over (driver's seat mount, some of the wiring choices, part of the fuel system). The end product would be the same (swap over S5 body parts. It'd be a lot of extra work (probably a year or more delay) but I could definitely do a better job with the wiring a second time around. The guy is asking $900 right now. If I can get him lower it may be worth the effort.
bikingpro5
Member
- :
- 03 Protege5
IMO if you are not in a hurry and the new chassis is a better one for what you plan on using the car than why not?
Can't argue with that logic.
No engine or transmission so it doesn't run or stop. I asked the owner for more information on the chassis. It's a WI car so I have to wonder how mush rust and rot is underneath. It's not just saving a few pounds it'd also make a simpler car in the end - no wiring to deal with for power accessories, no alarm integrated with the stock CPU, no extraneous hole for a rear wiper or sprayer, smaller fuel tank. I'd also do a few things differently the second time around. The wiring - different arrangement, cleaner harness, and better materials. I'd delete the radio. I'd probably go with a full weld-in cage with a halo and a-pillar bars to make upgrading to a full cage easier in the future. No sunroof means more stock headroom means I may not need to rig up another seat mount. Because the '86 uses different (ugly) gauges I'd make my own cluster to get rid of the oil temp/oil pressure/water temp redundancy I've got going right now. I just need to really think about this. $900 isn't that much considering I could make some money back selling stock parts (aluminum hood, extra set of "TII/GXL/Sport" brakes, etc.) and scrapping the current chassis.
I understand and agree completely. As long as you're still set on keeping the FC body and not going to a Miata like that crazy talk before, it does make more sense to switch chassis now before you put even more work into your red chassis. Assuming the WI chassis isn't rusted or smashed up. It makes sense to have a chassis with all manual options and the no sun-roof for helmet clearance is worth the swap in itself. IMHO, of course.
Will you be able to use the whole garage while swapping parts or will the wife be upset?
Will you be able to use the whole garage while swapping parts or will the wife be upset?
Haha, I'd have to rent a storage unit or store one car in the driveway. I'd remove all the parts-worth-saving from the red chassis, sell what left I can and probably just cut the rest to pieces for scrap. I don't think I'd feel comfortable selling it to someone with some of the modifications I've made. With that gone the other chassis would be moved into the garage. I'd get the most crap for storing spare and extra parts in the house.
No word yet on the other chassis. In the meantime I've been tempted to redo my wiring. After reading some things online I'm not happy with how everything turned out. I have corrugated loom and electrical tape everywhere. My CAS signal wires may be too close to the alternator and spark plug wires. My coil/ignitor wires may be too small for the current load. Some of the routing isn't optimized because I made the harness before I finalized the engine bay configuration. I'm getting tempted to unwrap everything, strip everything down, and start over:
-Use tefzel Mil-spec wire, TechFlex loom, Raychem adhesive-lined heatshrink boots and tube, and Deutsch connectors.
-Separate the engine and chassis harnesses completely (tuck chassis harness?).
-Make my own gage cluster.
-Strip out the seatbelt and wiper sprayer wires.
-Ditch the radio and speakers and strip out those wires as well.
-Use tefzel Mil-spec wire, TechFlex loom, Raychem adhesive-lined heatshrink boots and tube, and Deutsch connectors.
-Separate the engine and chassis harnesses completely (tuck chassis harness?).
-Make my own gage cluster.
-Strip out the seatbelt and wiper sprayer wires.
-Ditch the radio and speakers and strip out those wires as well.
How close are you to being able to fire the motor up with the current wiring configuration? Maybe fire her up, make sure everything runs well and the gauges are working. Then strip it all down and start over just making everything cleaner?
The wiring is done. Well, except for tidying up the transmission harness a little, but other than that it's ready for the engine. Is it really worth to put everything together, verify it runs, then pull everything apart again?
I also meant to ask you how your engine bay painting on your old P5 turned out. I'm considering painting it myself to save some money, but only if it can turn out reasonably well.
