MRWEST's 73 RX3 Coupe

[MRWEST]

Another piece to the puzzle completed.

I couldnt justify the $2k + for a factory steering wheel they go for, if you can even find one and jump on it fast enough.

Managed to come across one for a fair bit cheaper that had a horn pad but was missing the horn spring/housing/mechanism. Was hoping id be able to find that easy enough,
Turns out it wasnt that easy and finding a complete wheel would of been easier id say!
A chance conversation with Andy Duffin and he mentioned a guy who had messaged him with a damaged RX3 wheel which would have the parts i needed.
A quick FB message and was able to nab the damaged wheel which had been sitting in the guys workshop for 20 years +.

Was able to make a complete wheel with my decent condition one so pretty happy about that!
Will help make the interior look how im planning. 

 

[MRWEST]

All happening this week.

Got sent some pics last night from Mark at Revolution Engine Services of the new block all together.
13B PP all brand new bits, franklin engineering bolt on's, polishing by Toby Gollop and plates smoothed and painted by Tony. 

Pick it up this week, another big piece ticked off.

Body is basically baremetalled now and we are throwing some epoxy on the shell on Friday this week then she will be all go in the new year into the filler etc.

All starting to come together nicely!

 

[MRWEST]

Well things have been all go to end 2021 on this.

The couple of weeks before xmas the painter baremetalled the shell and last of the panels.
Bolt on panels have been epoxied and all the steel work done.
Xmas eve we put the shell in the booth and cleaned it up and blew some epoxy over it.
Stoked there is only a couple of minor repairs required to the steel work, on the whole its a very good shell. 

 

 

[MRWEST]

An yesterday i picked it up from the booth and took it back to the panel/painters place so he can fit up panels and get stuck into it.

 

 

[MRWEST]

Have just had Kaz at KP Upholstery retrim the factory seats i had that had been covered in some sort of velvet material in a past life ha.

Picked them up today along with the doorcards.
Vast improvement!
Very happy how they have turned out,
He has recreated the factory interior style which will look the part im sure!

 

 

 

 

[MRWEST]

Well thinks are happening,

The shell exterior has had the filler work done, and on saturday got it down to the booth and got it into spritz,
Bloody stoked how its looking,

Engine bay and boot floor is getting blasted and epoxied next week weather dependant,

Then its off to fab in Hamilton early August:

- Exhaust manifold & full exhaust,
-Rad & Oil cooler
-Mounts
-Catch can & overflow
-Battery box
-Few other bits and pieces/

 

 

[MRWEST]

Test fit some wheels last night now we have rolled the rear guards nicely and iv got the car home for a couple of weeks, 

The BBS RS is a 15X9 with a 195 45 r15 on it, but you cant get any decent tyres in that size in a 45 profile so going to grab a couple of 50 profiles to test fit, cause theres heaps of semis and other good options in 50 profile. But happy how it sits.

Will run a 15x8 on the front which i know fits with the 45 profile, just need to get back the front guards and i can test fit it with a 50 profile.

 

The 15s cant get legal without a stupid size tyre so will need some rims to get it legal on,

Have 3 sets of ROH Z's in different stud patterns and width haha.
I need spacers in the rear to get it sitting right so grabbed some 5 stud 8.5" wide deep dish ZS, 

They fit perfect on the back with a 20mm 4x114.3 to 5x114.3 adaptor and a 215/40 R17 tyre which is a legal easy to find option, tried to find 215 35 profile but not really any decent options in this size.

The front needs a 20mm spacer to sit right and clear the strut so picked up some 5 stud 7.5" ZS which will do the trick for the front.

Will get them all polished like my 4 stud set iv had done already.

Got a few jobs to chip away at over the next couple of weeks before it goes to fab.

 

[MRWEST]

Scored a couple of hours on the weekend to shoot out to the shed to test fit the BBS,

Got 2x Hankook Z232 RS4 Semis and fitted one to a 8 and one to a 9 to see how they fit.
Good looking tyre and the reviews seem to be decent for them.

Rears fit perfect with a 5mm spacer (the 3 piece nuts hit the caliper with no spacer as the brakes only just fit inside the 15).
Fronts look allgood with no spacer, just got to test fit with a guard and make sure they clear at lock.

 

 

Picked up the front guards today so ill test fit them with the coilovers and both sets of wheels to make sure they fit,

Have just had a guy radius the front edge of the guards so 17s can actually turn (they hit the front edge of the guards if they arent cut/modified).
Booked in to get engine bay and boot sandplasted and epoxied on Friday weather permitting.

 

 

[MRWEST]

Managed to get a couple hours out in the shed this week and do some more test fitting of wheels and bits.

Got the guards back from the panelbeaters to test fit everything before they go into spritz.
They had cut and radius the front edge to clear 17s turning (they dont clear factory)

Test fit the 17x7.5 ZS and it fits perfectly with a spacer to clear strut etc.
Can fit a legal 195/40 R17 on it which is ideal.

The BBS not so great.
Its a 15x8 , test fit with the 195/50 Semi slick and it was way to big,
Thought i would chuck a normal road tyre back on with a 195/45 and hope that fits,
Turns out it kind of does with maximum camber but its not ideal probably got a bit too much poke still

Not sure what im going to do about this one, could possibly get new lips with half an inch less dish, this may fix it?
Need to ponder it a bit more cause i really want them to work, and they fit perfect on the back with either tyre.

 

Then managed to pick up the billet adaptor to fit the Wilwood Master cylinder so test fit that and the Wilwood Clutch Master,
Pretty happy how they look, will get the adaptor anodized black before final fitment.

All going to plan ill get some brake hard lines made this week to tick those off.
Off to blaster tomorrow to get the engine bay and boot floor blasted and epoxied.

 

[MRWEST]

Bit more progress yesterday.

Blaster did a good job of blasting the engine bay and the boot floor to get rid of all the textured/underseal and chucked some etch on it.

Also a mate dropped off a mint asf 10a grill badge as the one i had wasnt that good of condition.

 

 

[MRWEST]

Well this week its been dropped off to fabricators for the following works:

-Engine and gearbox mounts
-Radiator & oil cooler fab with PWR cores
-Catch can and overflow bottle
-Battery box
-Exhaust and exhaust manifold

Painter has been working on the guards an nose cone so they will be in spritz shortly and will go back on the car.

Also some 2" BBS 30 Hole 15" lips popped up on FB Marketplace so i grabbed them in the hope itll solve the BBS RS Fitment issues on the front and replace the 2.5" lips on it.
Once the guards back on ill test fit that.

 

[MRWEST]

Well the RX3 Project has taken a little turn of late,

My long term plan/dream for the car was to go 20BPP N/A but i was planning to get the 13BPP running and use that for a couple years then switch it out down the track.
It wasnt till i booked it in for fab i was asking myself WTF am i doing, 
There was going to be so much rework to get it changed later on down the track, mounts, loom, ecu, intake, cooling system, exhaust to name a few.
Didnt make much sense doing that all twice within a few years $$$$. Or risk scratching the fresh paint to bits pulling it apart and refabbing.

So decided to bite the bullet and commit to building the dream even though i didnt have a motor and 20B's and 20B parts are bloody hard to find these days.
After a heap of asking round here, Aus, USA, Canada looking for even a 20B Fat plate and crank to buy i ended up finding something here in NZ.

A guy down the line posted up a cosmo that had been parked up for years after it stopped running and he was wanting to sell the whole car.
So i ended up commiting to buying and Scott Barrabil picked it up on one of his runs south and got it up to me a couple of weeks ago.

 

The car turned up and was actually really tidy considering, had been parked in a shed for quite a few years. Plenty of 90s clear coat peel but apart from that its straight and rust free.

Pulled the motor out last weekend 

 

 

Turns out motor is all numbers matching plates/housings etc all original.

Went in to see Mark Haynes at Revolution Engine Services yesterday and we pulled it down to see what we were dealing with.
Failed water seals in the front housing which would of been why it was parked up originally.
All looking like itll be useable with a bit of tidying up and work so pretty bloody happy with that!

Will stack back together next week and get to fabricator to dummy up for mounts etc and then will worry about building motor later this year or early next year once we are a bit further along.

 

 

[MRWEST]

Wee while no update. Things have slowly been ticking away in the background.

Car has sat at fabricators for a while parts have been collected and he finished existing workload.

Plan is for him to do the following:
-Custom sump/engine mount & gearbox mount
-Custom radiator (Tucked under rad support panel) with PWR core and Oil cooler to suit
-Full stainless headers/exhaust
-Catch cans/overflow bottles
-Battery box for in the boot

Hes made a start in the last few weeks and its coming along nicely!
Motors mounted in the hole and fits nicely. Going to go to steel bellhousing for my S5 FC box which will give me a little more tunnel clearance and mean i don't have to try jam a scatter blanket or shield in if im wanting to run the drags once its done. 
Will also be converting to hydraulic release bearing to remove the clutch fork and slave again for tunnel clearance.
Can get away without cutting firewall or tunnel doing all of the above which im stoked about as didnt want to cut up.

Hopefully next month or so will be done here and on to the next stage.

 

 

[MRWEST]

Managed to get back into the fab shop this week check on progress,

Has been a bit of progress
Mounts all done, headers and exhaust tacked up, battery box and washer bottle made up,
Shes a tight squeeze but all going to fit just.
Still a fair bit to go to finish off this stage but progress is good!

 

 

[MRWEST]

Well things are progressing slowly,

 

Went back for a visit this week and radiator is now all made bar mounts,
PWR Core, twin pass end tanks made up, AN fittings for lines.
Custom sized/made to tuck under rad support to allow maximum room for the motor.

 

Plan is to pick it up next week to get the sump done by Mark Haynes and that will more or less complete the fab work.

 

 

 

 

[MRWEST]

Bit of progress last week,

 

Finally picked up the car from fab, albeit not quite done but bulk of stuff done,

Full stainless headers and 3.5" exhaust with promuff resonator and muffler,
custom radiator with maradyne fan, PWR Core, twin pass with shroud etc, overflow bottle,
catch can, engine and gearbox mounts, battery box in boot and washer bottle in boot. 
Beattys had built my driveshaft which fit just thankfully (designed a 3.25") so was a bit worried it wouldnt fit but we are in.

Managed to fit it all in without cutting the tunnel or firewall which was my goal, had to cut the floor to clear starter but all good otherwise.

 

 

Car is at Revolution Engine Services to get the sump done currently then off to Tauranga back to the Painter tomorrow and couple minor fab jobs (mount DBW pedal, mount PWR oil cooler, patch floor where starter had to be clearanced and whip up a jig for body to sit on).

 

[MRWEST]

Well a few steps forward few steps back.

Engine is at Revolution getting the sump fabbed up after they measured up engine in car.
Should get that back shortly.

Car went to where my painter works over in Tauranga and ended up doing a few more things than planned.

Oil cooler is mounted, tucked up nice a high which is what i wanted without cutting the lower valance.

 

Someone had patched in front of the struts/tubs on both sides (common rust spot) and the swages didnt line up with what was left of the factory swages and the widths were different so we decided to cut them both out and redo them as want the engine bay to be looking a million bucks. Came up really good bloody happy with it all.

Needed to do a small notch to clear that starter so they fabbed up a wee bulge.

 

Then we ended up cutting out the boot floor. Upon further inspection it had like 5 or 6 patches in the boot and the tyre well was either original or replaced with a pretty manky one that was really pitted.
OCD of myself and the painter got the better of us and decided we would cut that out and just do a flat floor and remove the tyre well.

Got this pic this morning, still to be welded in but fabbed up and sitting in place.

 

Also decided to bite the bullet and replace my factory fuel tank, was looking a bit manky and wanted to modify anyway to have intank pump with a swirl pot to avoid having external pump and surge tank etc.
So have got an order in with Dynamic Metalcraft in Aussie to get one of their fabbed alloy powder coated tanks with intank pump and swirl pot around pick up etc and my chosen dimensions so i can still have some boot space.

So a bits happening ,hoping to have car back in the next month or so and then i can get back onto it and im going to chuck motor back in check sump clearance, plumb up water, oil, fuel and brakes and do a final test fit of everything to make sure i dont need to drill anymore holes etc.

 

[MRWEST]

Few more things happening in the background.

 

Marks finished my sump so ill pick that up next week.

Azhar has sent me a few more goodies, 
They got stock of coupe boot lids so i got a new one instead of fixing my old one/s up.
Also got some BC Gold damper adjustable rear shocks and the new power front window kits they released, thought why not be kinda handy having electric fronts while im at it!

Cars finished at fab now flat boot floor, patches in the engine bay, oil cooler mounted, DBW pedal mounted, couple of other minor jobs done as well as a hidden washer botle setup under the front guard.
Will pick it up one day next week when the weather is good and bring it home.
Next mission will be to chuck motor/box back in and do all the brake, fuel, oil, water plumbing probably over summer holidays before pulling down for final time for paint.

 

 

[MRWEST]

Been a bit slow last few months as been trying to get new shed finished but finally in there and got hoist up so back into the car.
Motor and box need to go in as one piece from underneath with front subframe so bought a trolly lifter thing which made life so easy.

Chucked the motor and box back in with the cooling system last weekend to work out a plumbing list to order all the oil, water, fuel braided lines and fittings.
Also working out brake line routes and working out what else i need to do to finish off prep to strip it and get it back to the painter.

Basically want to have the car dummied up in full then get painted/motor built etc so once painted its just assembly to finish.

 

 

 

[MRWEST]

Been chipping away at this slowllllyyy.

DMA alloy tank with intank pump turned up from auzzie to replace the factory tank
Have ordered a mountain of speedflow fittings and hose and am working on plumbing at the moment.
Have decided to delete the masters from firewall and run reverse swing wilwood master to help with intake/filter clearance and clean engine bay up a bit more.
Also measured up my BBS RS currently 15s but have ordered 15-16"step lips and barrels from Pine Engineering. Should work out at 16x7.5 with 2 inch lips and 15x8.5 with 3 inch lips in the back. Slightly better tyre choice on the 16s and fills the guards out a bit better.

Have bolted a heap of bits and pieces on ready for wiring.