nothingsfree

I wasnt happy with my diff setup, as it had been abit rushed, to get the car rolling again. It was always my intention to extend the lower diff mounts to bring the angle of the arms back to level, but I didnt want to just extend/add on to the mounts I already had on there. So it was time to start afresh.. I cut off the ke70 diff mounts that I had welded on, and cleaned up the surface in preperation for these. I worked out what length lower mount I could work with, that wouldnt sit lower than a 13inch rim, and would bring the lower arm back as close to flat as possible at the ride height that I wanted. The upper mounts I couldnt really extend much, as there is very little room under the floor, but there wasnt much need, as I had already moved the front of the arm up into the floor to regain that level angle. With the new laser cut mounts bolted to the arms, I lowered the car down over the diff to check the ride height, angles, and make sure it was located centrally, once I was happy with it, I tacked all the mounts in place, before removing the diff to weld them fully.

I am all about this! Im hoping to have it on the road by the end of the year, and am very very keen to do a road trip up north late summer..

Cheers boys, yeah I was planning to paint the wheels, but I actually like it with the raw spun alloy, think Im gonna leave em..

The car will be staying road legal, so I'll hang onto my 15x9 Longchamps for road duties. But I was going to need something smaller for the track, as I am going to use the Toyota Racing Series slicks, which are 13 inch. So the hunt was on for a set of 13 inch Longchamps, which is where these little fellas come in... 13x5.5 inches of fury! Obviously lacking the girth to run a slick, so I sent them off to Royce Clive Engineering to have the outer band lathed off. After a few measurements, I phoned Gavin from Bateman, and got him to spin up four new alloy bands. Then it was back to Kev at Royce Clive to have the new bands pressed on and the bolt holes drilled. Factory the 13's only had 6 bolts, so I got Kev to double the number of holes. Old dish, new dish, red fish, blue fish. Then put some new bolts in them, and threw on an old set of TRS slicks. Stoked how they turned out, tough looking little wheels, and they are surprisingly light. New specs are, 13x8.5, -15. Big thanks to Kev at Royce Clive Engineering, real gc, who knows his stuff, is more than happy to help, and gets the job done fast.

So the FC is being parted out, and Kermit will be having a jungle gym welded in. Because I had spent alot of time and effort with the suspension trying to get it slammed without losing the handling, there isnt alot Im going to have to change to put it on the track. Remove rear seat, add a cage, harnesses, flares, and 13's with slicks! Im going to have to run flares to be able to keep the car low, while allowing room for the tire to move before rubbing on the guard. I didnt want to run the typical dx/modgie/bolt ons style, so I got a pair of CBY ae86 flares. These will be getting chopped up and modified to suit a ke70, mainly getting rid of the kink in the rear of the flare that fits the bumper. Once we are happy with them, then Mike and I will take a mold and pop out some fresh ones for the car.

Because race car!

I have been ridiculously slack in updating this thread, I had to dredge it up from the 9th page! Luckily, I have been slightly less slack in working on it, but only just.. So I'll try fill you in on whats happened, and do a bunch of updates over the next week or so. Sometime this year, I came to the conclusion that I didnt really have the time/space/money for two race cars, the rx7, and Kermit, which although a road car, is effectively a race car without a cage. So a decision had to be made, and this was the result...

I have also just bought four 13 inch outer bands from Bateman. Had no issues whatsoever, infact, he was really good to deal with. Other than taking 4-5 days longer than first told it would, which is hardly an issue with everything else thats going on. I would def would use him again. Cheers

Nice to see another one gettin built down here.. Iv got a very short hilux diff all cleaned up with no mounts on it if you decide to go down that route?

Yes it can work. A mate did it to his, before turfing it and going Link. From memory he got it down to a few wires that needed to be wired in, cant remember tho, was a while ago.

Haha thats how we build cars in Woolston, removal of firewall/tunnel is mandatory. As is changing your mind about the choice of engine multiple times, only after they have been dropped into the engine bay tho...

Dont bother. You can buy aftermarket bellhousings for 1uz to W gboxes. Having had both gboxes, I would much prefer a W. With new shifter bushes, the W is quite a nice shifting box, rx7 gboxes can handle similar power, but the syncros are shit.

Epic work getting it back together so quickly bro, hanging to see some final figures! Good luck..

Fuck this build makes me happy.

Lol sorry I should have worded that better. I realise the F1 cars arent actually using ply, nor that it is for aero. The point was more that they are still using wood. Even if it is high tech wood. Tarmac rally obviously it would need to be higher than on the track, but its still better than nothing.

As everyone else has mentioned, kinda sad to see the red beauty go. But I am all about a rx3 race car! After seeing your other work, I cant wait to see how this project turns out. Good luck..

Plywood is still used on a number of high end racecars, for the reasons mentioned by Truenotch. Even F1 cars still use a length of plywood under the car. Alot of GT racecars etc use plywood for their front splitters, sometimes prettied up with a layer of carbon over it. Its lightweight, cheap to replace, and doesnt bite when it scrapes on the tarmac, instead just wearing away. Really keen to see how the new set up turns out. Decided yet whether you are going to take some meat off the head? Other than that, are you planning to change much internally?

Yes it can be done, but its not quite as straight forward as doing it to an FC gbox. You have to cut and shorten the shifter linkage, and then remount the surrounding cup, but it can be done. A mate did it to his one after moving the engine back abit in his FD. Im not sure where he bolted the surrounding cup to tho when he moved it..

Check first if the 82 shocks you have are the right size for the struts, there are several different sizes for ke70s, and it seems sometimes that they fitted whatever was in the parts bin next to them. Secondly, if you dont want it bouncy you may want to get some different shocks anyway. If they are standard ones and you fit stiffer springs, they will have issues with the dampening. Also, if you are planning to slam it and keep it legal, then you are going to need to make the springs captive, if you have standard shocks, you will have to get them shortened which will prolly cost about $60ish unless you know somebody who can machine them down. By the time you have done that, you are prolly better off just getting some new ones from repco to suit, that are also suited to a stiffer spring. I can get you the part number for the ones we use for customers cars, they are REAL short, and still pretty cheap. Or the cheapest option is just cut the springs you have and run it. Until you get rolled, then it prolly wont be so cheap anymore..

Cheers for the advice boys, I got it pressure tested, which came back all good. Then had it cleaned and skimmed as well. Hopefully get it back on the car and running tonight.. Hopefully.

The strut towers are getting tied into the cage, so that will stiffen it up.

Picked up a jzx90 mark 2, with a 2jzge, auto etc. Got it cheap with a blown head gasket, was due to the water pump dying. Have got a new head gasket, waterpump and cambelt while I was at it. Now the question is, do I need to get the head checked? Will it be ok to just throw back on? Now I realise thats abit of a how long is a piece of string question, just wondering if they are known for cracking the head, or going soft etc? I would get it checked, but I really need to get it back together asap, as Iv sold my daily..

Almost got another car gone, so will be heaps of room for activities!

Haha sweet! That what I wana hear, good luck dude..

What wheels are you planning to run? Wantanabes like your pic? Keep in mind that on factoryish guards you can fit about a 15x8 to 15x9 if its roughly a 0 offset. If you increase your rear track by 90mm, even with shitloads of camber, youre going to be struggling to get a decent size/offset in there. The other issue is that a wider rear track has a tendency to make a car understeer, even if you increase the LCA length by an inch a side, thats still roughly 40mm less than the rear. Please dont think Im bagging your idea, Im all about it, and wana see ya get it done. It might be that you need to shorten the subframe/axles, or look at doing some gnarly widebody dtm style guards etc..