magnumP5's RX-7 Build Thread

[magnumP5]

Coming along nicely!

Now if only I could find some time to work on it! The body parts shouldn't take too long but I'm seriously going to have to set an entire day aside to reassembly the transmission.

Are those swiffer wiper blades?

LOL, those are foam pad things that were on the corners of the hood. I put them there to make sure I didn't lose them.

The plan is to tackle the fenders this weekend to verify the new wheels/tires fit. If I have any leftover time I'll try to clean up the transmission cases some more before painting. I need to at least paint the bearing support plate and intermediate housing before I can start reassembling the transmission.

 

[magnumP5]

I've said it before and I'll say it again; I have a problem. Just ordered:

1) New intake manifold gasket (I ripped the old one)
2) Clutch alignment tool (clutch didn't come with one)
3) Rotary engine rebuild DVD (i.e. my new favorite DVD)
4) Aluminum driveshaft (why not?)

Been thinking about radiator ducting again and I think I have a solution. The trick was looking at it from another angle. Now the question is if I stay simple and keep everything in the stock location or go kind of crazy and make a "v-mount" setup. The latter would improve flow and simplify the ducting a little.

 

[Lewis7789]

If clutch alignment tools are pretty universal for Mazdas I have one I can ship to you for free. I've got 3 of them in my tool box. haha

I like your philosophy though. "Why not?". haha

 

[magnumP5]

If clutch alignment tools are pretty universal for Mazdas I have one I can ship to you for free. I've got 3 of them in my tool box. haha

I like your philosophy though. "Why not?". haha

Meh, it was $3 so I just went ahead and ordered. I'm not sure if they're all the same because Mazdatrix had different ones listed for turbo and non-turbo RX-7's.

At this point I might as well just throw everything at this car aside from going back and redoing things I've already completed. Though with the driveshaft I don't think there's really anything else I can buy aside from another seat and harness. I'm really getting toward the end now.

 

[magnumP5]

Got bored last night:

I have to admit it looks pretty badass; almost makes me want to paint the car black. You can see there's plenty of clearance with the new fender. The hood is bolted down in the pictures so I'm going to have to play with the latch and rear bumpstops a little more to get it to sit flush with the headlights. My plan is to get everything roughly lined up and bolted on so I can make the splitter mount and work on the radiator ducting. I hope to have the hood and both fenders on as well as both rear fenders rolled this weekend.

 

[hat1018]

Looks nice and proper Jon.

 

[Lewis7789]

Those wheels and tires, those fenders, that hood! Looking good, man.

Are you considering a Plastidip paint job? For about $500 you can bang it out in a weekend. What color would you consider?

 

[magnumP5]

Those wheels and tires, those fenders, that hood! Looking good, man.

Are you considering a Plastidip paint job? For about $500 you can bang it out in a weekend. What color would you consider?

I'm still considering it. It's either that or a (relatively) inexpensive paint job. The only thing about plasti-dip is I don't know how it will bond to a coated, fiberglass surface. If I do plasti-dip the only colors I'd consider are black, white, and orange. If I go paint I'll probably just get it resprayed the factory color.

 

[Lewis7789]

I know they did a test on a primered surface and it stuck just fine, but there was some trouble peeling it off as easily as a painted surface. You could always test a panel with a spray can first, of course.

And good call on the colors. But orange, eh? That kinda surprised me.

 

[o0n8]

starting to look like a real racecar and less of a street car. I'm partial to red but it's not my car

 

[mymmeryloss]

I say if you are going to spend $500 on plastidip then i suggest just going with a cheap paintjob...

 

[magnumP5]

I know they did a test on a primered surface and it stuck just fine, but there was some trouble peeling it off as easily as a painted surface. You could always test a panel with a spray can first, of course.

And good call on the colors. But orange, eh? That kinda surprised me.

That's what I was afraid of. The fiberglass has a gel coating over it but it's still "rough." If plasti-dip is hard to remove it kind of defeats the purpose.

As for colors black and white are easy choices because they both look decent flat or satin. Black would be easy but white would be difficult with the darker surfaces. I think there's a red plasti-dip but I don't think flat red looks good, and half my car is already that color anyway. Orange because of this:

But maybe a bit darker.

starting to look like a real racecar and less of a street car. I'm partial to red but it's not my car

I think it's the lack of and mismatched body panels that makes it look like a racecar. If I do paint, I'll stick with the factory red because (1) it'll be easier and (2) because I'm also fond of red Mazdas I just can't get over how menacing it looks with the flat black though.

I say if you are going to spend $500 on plastidip then i suggest just going with a cheap paintjob...

This is the major downside of the plasti-dip. I could spend another $500 and get a decent paint job. I'm not looking for car show, "I can see myself in the paint" quality. Just a respray of the base color to bring it back and a clear over top. The only "other" work I'd want is to fit the hood and fenders as best as possible and to fix a small spot of rust on the sunroof.

 

[Lewis7789]

2:55
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvkq-qyY9aY

I'm not sponsored by Plastidip in anyway haha, I just think it's a great, cheap paint job that can be removed for repairs (rust, dents, etc) then resprayed.

That orange does look badass. And Plastidip does sell gloss clearcoats too.

 

[magnumP5]

Busy weekend. I decided to take advantage of the warmer weather and spend more time painting than originally planned but more on that later. I managed to get the passenger's side front fender off and mock up the fiberglass one:

Unfortunately, I did manage to shear off one stud. It's a PITA to get to (need to remove the inner fender line) but it's pretty important to hold the shape of the fender. I plan on drilling out the remaining stud and using a bolt in its place. I'm not sure if I'll weld the bolt to the bracket or not. So that took all of a 1/2 hour so what else did I do all weekend? I rolled and pulled the #$%^! out of the rear fenders:

Overall it's a ~1 inch pull, which is a lot more than I though was needed. I do plan on running more camber in the rear so now I have extra clearance. The roll/pull isn't perfect but it's "good enough" for me. Again, this isn't going to be a show car. I did chip the hell out of the paint but I don't care because I've decided to repaint the car once the bodywork's done.

So as I said up front I spent a lot more time painting and prepping for paint than I planned. Friday night and Saturday morning were dedicated to scrubbing the transmission housings some more. Aluminum oxide is a lot harder to remove than rust. After the rear fenders were rolled I attacked the transmission and brake booster with high temperature paint. The end result(s):

The transmission is just sprayed with "aluminum" but I decided to paint all the misc. brackets and panels black for a little contrast. The area where the started is bolted was left unpainted so the starter can ground through the transmission to the engine. For the brake booster I decided not to try to fill in any of the pitting (had some Bondo handy). I was hoping the paint would fill the pits in a little better, but oh well. Three layers each of primer, paint, and clear should keep it from rusting again for a while.

Finally here's a shot with the new wheels on front/back. I need to raise the front and lower the rear some, I think.

I still need to drill the mounting holes in the fenders and work on the hood but I don't know when I'll get around to that. Next weekend is going to be dedicated to reassembling the transmission.

 

[magnumP5]

I feel like I've said this before but supposedly my exhaust manifold is done. I finally got through to Defined Autoworks yesterday and they said it's been done for a few days but they didn't have my shipping address on file. They also only welded in one oxygen sensor bung where I asked for two so they'll need to do that. They have my shipping address so now all I can do is wait.

Now I'm left with the question of exhaust. Do I stick with a dual setup for more sound supression or go with a simpler, lighter, single setup? To keep noise even remotely tolerable I'm told I need to have at least two MUFFLERS (not muffler + resonator or presilencer). This can be accomplished by splitting the exhaust and running two parallel mufflers or keeping a single outlet and run them in series. I'm told dual outlet is quieter and that due to the length of the exhaust manifold it may be hard to fit two mufflers in series. Thoughts?

 

[mymmeryloss]

How much cleaning did you do before you painted that trans?

Looks great! I need to do that to mine now...

 

[magnumP5]

How much cleaning did you do before you painted that trans?

Looks great! I need to do that to mine now...

Quite a bit and in the end it still wasn't completely clean. I degreased the hell out of the inside and outsides to get the 24 years of oil and road grime off. That actually wasn't too bad with brake cleaner, degreaser, and a power sprayer. The biggest difficulty was removing the aluminum oxide. I hit that with a wire wheel on an angle grinder and a steel wire brush for the smaller areas and still didn't get everything off. I didn't have to be perfect; I just wanted to clean it up and try to slow down the oxidation.

This came in yesterday along with an engine rebuild DVD, intake manifold gasket, and clutch alignment tool:

Aluminum driveshaft. Weights less than 11 lbs. Why? Because I could. It was relatively cheap and less rotating mass is always a good thing.

I also started reassembling the transmission ahead of schedule. I only got the bearing plate reassembled because taking measurements and keeping everything as clean as possible takes time, which I don't have much of when I can only work after the baby's asleep.

I know this part is going to give me a hard time this weekend. When removing the main and countershafts the bearings came out of the plate with them so there's more interference between the bearings and the shafts than the bearings and the plate, which means the bearings could back out if not properly supported. I don't know why Mazda designed the transmission such that the bearings and shafts were driven in from opposite sides. I'm going to try to polish the bearing contact surfaces, heat up the inner races and freeze the shafts to make the assembly go as smoothly as possible.

 

[magnumP5]

Well I didn't get the transmission completely assembled over the weekend. I spent way to much time Saturday morning looking for vice jaw pads and some material to make a bearing driver. I can't believe Home Depot, Lowe's, Ace Hardware, and eve Harbor Freight don't carry rubber or plastic vice jaw pads! I needed a bearing driver so I could reintall the bearings (duh) and clutch hub assemblies over the mainshaft. It needed to have an ID of 1.37" or greater and be 22" long to fit the length of the shaft. After much searching I decided to use 1-1/4" galvenize steel pipe with one of the threaded ends cut off. I got two 12" lengths and a butt connector so I could very the length of the driver. The opposite end is plugged with a cap that I whack with a hammer to drive the bearing/clutch hub down. I'll have to take a picture of this sometime...

Cleaning parts also took a whole lot longer than I thought. I easily spent 2 hours cleaning the mainshaft assembly parts alone. Parts were all sprayed and scrubbed with Purple Power and then left to soak in a bucket filled with water and dish soap for a bit. They were scrubbed again, rinsed off, and drived with a shop vac on reverse. It also doesn't help when you take a picture of every small step (going to make a how-to thread on another forum).

Clean parts:

Clutch hub before assembly:

and after:

Mainshaft assembly completed:

I was hoping to get more work done on Sunday but life happened. Hopefully, I'll be able to work on the next assembly tonight.

 

[Lewis7789]

Your updated build thread is the only thing I have to look forward to on Mondays. (2thumbs)

 

[hat1018]

If you plan to drive te car on the road I think that a dual exhaust would be best. Loud is not always better for making power and loud exhaust gets old fast on the highway.

"fix me" that's funny. Evan needs that on his windshield too.