Archetype Posted September 11, 2011 Author Share Posted September 11, 2011 Now the fun part begins, with the interior of the car and all other unnecessary external parts being removed. The factory sideskirts were gently heated up to soften the adhesive, then slowly pulled off. It's amazing how much dirt and grime has been trapped underneath them over the years. The rear spoiler proved to be quite difficult to remove as one of the studs inside the spoiler has come loose, allowing it to spin freely. Grinding the stud and bolt off seemed like the best way to get around the problem, but in the end the heat from the grinder melted the stud out, allowing the spoiler to come away. Even after a good cut and polish, the factory spoiler marks are still highly visible, so I'll come back to this area later when the car's aesthetics are addressed. The front bumper, spotlights and heavy impact bar are removed. The factory front bumper will be replaced with a fibreglass C-West style one, as required by the Pro7 regulations. To ensure easy refitting later, the dash was removed as carefully as possible to ensure the fragile clips and plastics weren't damaged. The carpet is no longer required so this was torn out quickly, revealing the ugly rubber and sound deadening underneath. All other interior parts have now been removed as well. Now I'm ready for a task that I enjoy quite a lot - removing the sound deadening with dry ice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archetype Posted September 16, 2011 Author Share Posted September 16, 2011 I bought a few kilograms of dry ice from BOC and took it home in a chilly bin. Using gloves and towels, I spread the dry ice across sections of the RX-7's interior and let it sit for a few minutes. The dry ice freezes the sound deadening and weakens the adhesion on the metal underneath. The frozen sound deadening can then be hit with a hammer or rubber mallet, which breaks the sound deadening up into large, clean pieces. This is a much quicker and cleaner way of removing the sound deadening, compared to chipping away at the normally sticky material with a hammer and chisel. This large piece of sound deadening came off nicely... ...leaving the spare wheel well looking virtually spotless. The almost-final result which only took a few hours, compared to what can be sometimes be a horribly messy, time-consuming job using the hammer and chisel method. Now there are just a few little areas that I need to go over with a solvent and rough rag to remove the small patches left behind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SHGWAG Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 Are you going to use the S8 indicators? or just blank them off? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archetype Posted September 16, 2011 Author Share Posted September 16, 2011 I'm either going to take the Series 8 indicators out when I'm racing, or put some nicely shaped fibreglass protectors over them. Whichever is easiest. Someone in or around Hamilton makes the fibreglass covers, apparently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 How much was the dry ice? Looks super clean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archetype Posted September 19, 2011 Author Share Posted September 19, 2011 I did it in 2 lots, and each time it cost me around $25. From memory it was about 4-5kg worth each time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truenotch Posted November 9, 2011 Share Posted November 9, 2011 Saw this thing roll into PN Automotive today filled with pre-bent cage bars - will be sweet to see the cage go into it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EURON8 Posted November 9, 2011 Share Posted November 9, 2011 Wow, im glad someone finally posted pics of dry ice method. Usually you get half a sentence and i never thought it was actually that easy. Might try it sometime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evan Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 I tried the dry ice method. for the most part it worked, there was still chiseling involved however. and it didnt come off as clean as that ^^ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingbrick Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 I did my supra and AW11 like that. It is quite possibly the most satisfying task in the whole wide world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archetype Posted November 10, 2011 Author Share Posted November 10, 2011 Saw this thing roll into PN Automotive today filled with pre-bent cage bars - will be sweet to see the cage go into it! Ha, good spotting! Yep, the project is finally on the move again after a few delays. How did the outside of the car look? It had a thick layer of dust on it when it left Hamilton, but hopefully the majority of it was blown off on the trip down. What was the weather like in Palmy when you saw it? I was worried about it getting wet, as the windows were down and sunroof has been removed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archetype Posted November 10, 2011 Author Share Posted November 10, 2011 I did my supra and AW11 like that. It is quite possibly the most satisfying task in the whole wide world. Yep, I enjoyed it too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truenotch Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 Weather was overcast, with rain threatening but it didn't get wet. Was definitely still dusty when it arrived, not too bad though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EURON8 Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 No cage builders in Hamilton or Auckland? Why all the way to Palmy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archetype Posted November 13, 2011 Author Share Posted November 13, 2011 I had someone lined up in Hamilton (a contact through the NIMRRA) months ago who was going to do it, but it fell through as they're too busy. The guy who is helping me with a few things on the car suggested Palmerston North Automotive after having dealt with them a lot before. Since he was heading down there to have his Pro7 engine rebuilt, the distance wasn't really an issue. If it were just up to me, I probably would have just found someone local, even if it cost a bit more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhyscar Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 put your car on our new trailer (also built by craig:- just picked up this morning) today and towed it round to get cage welded in. would have got pic for thread but don't have a decent phone to pic it with etc. will be interesting to see how well the cage all fits together etc. todd (palmerston north automotive) got an AMAZING cage built for his FD by craig, really top notch job. craig was saying if he isn't happy with the bends or fit he will make his own and fit it in there. RX7's have such limited space you can't afford to use a bit of extra room with cage unfortunately or you won't have any space to sit/have head hitting cage etc which isn't ideal. palmy has some real clever guys into building fast race cars if you know who to talk to. they don't have huge names (or ego's for that matter) but they really know how to make a car go fast. todd built a pro7 plus winning car and really knows how to build a special rotary engine. and craig builds amazing cages/nick who works for craig is ace at setting up racecars for wheel alignment etc. i can guarantee you won't be dissapointed. /ok now back to drinking piss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archetype Posted November 18, 2011 Author Share Posted November 18, 2011 That's great to hear, cheers. I'll give them a call early next week to see how they're getting on. I've been sidetracked this week with other things, including picking up my new engine for my Series 1 RX-7 yesterday. I'll update my other build thread once I've taken some pics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 What is power limits etc for this kind of racing? What motor specs are you going to run? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truenotch Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 These ones just run a standard turbo engine with the turbos removed. Built to be low-spec and reliable compared to the Pro-7 Plus cars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archetype Posted December 8, 2011 Author Share Posted December 8, 2011 Just got back from Tokyo and spoke to Todd at PN Automotive. It all seems to be going well, and will be ready within the next week or two. Will hopefully get some pics emailed to me tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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