Vk304's 87 Mazda rx7 series 4 bridgeport

[Vk304]

I have solid engine mounts so I had to make the gearbox xmember solid too ...

And I hooked the reverse lights up to the gearbox switch...

[Vk304]

[Vk304]

Ok so went for another cert, because mine was from 2011 and was missing a bunch of details, whether it was different rules or things were changed- I dont know, but I have a few things to fix, it failed on power steering modified, and a fuel line rubbing, I fixed the fuel line in 5 minutes...

The rack that I modified to be depowered would not pass a cert without professional inspection by a third party and that was going to cost, I checked my parts in storage, and found that I actually had the whole powersteering setup bar the the rack, so I found a unmodified one in auckland at a reasonable price and got that.

To install it I had to weld a line that had the fitting cut off, and make a crank pulley spacer that accommodated the gilmer setup and pump pulley, I made a makeshift one to make it work and provide measurements for a new one to be made by cnc, aand have the recesses and all that cut into it. To provide a true centered pulley. 

Beck cnc ltd, reccomended by a friend, made the spacer for me and did a good job of it, it's tight and the belt is straight and true, all I had to do is drill the through holes ...I had to relocate the blow-off-valve to fit it in there ..

power steering is sorted now and asked the cert man if I needed to do an alignment report and he informed me I did....

[Vk304]

So another fc owner Ashley, who put me on to the rack in auckland, had spare fc parts and I ended up getting a full set of belts for the car, and a panel for under the glove box.... for the cost of shipping, sometimes the car community is just awesome here, this gets me closer to having a back seat, which I wouldn't mind having one day, and the interior looks a bit less stripped ...

 

Then I got an alignment

rear camber way out, and front caster, both of which are not very adjustable, especially with a lowered car...

Rolled both guards as tyres were already rubbing a bit

Then got some part shop max camber links for the rear, pricy at 360$ or so... I tried buying the shortest heim joints/rod ends with male/female threads and right hole id...to make these but it is not possible to achieve the shorter distance with what the bearing shop was able to provide so I bit the bullet and got psm links...

But this took a lot of camber out. Not sure on the caster because it's not that far out... I will try sort something out for that.

[Vk304]

Certs done 

[Vk304]

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[Vk304]

Final wheels... maybe, I think it looks good. 17x9, +10,  245 and 225 tyres 

[Vk304]

Road legal, no more green sticker, or potential impound lol

Aaand full comprehensive insurance for 40$ a month with star, which is great.

Now just a muffler that's a bit quiet but doesn't choke it to hell 

[Vk304]

Well that diddnt last long, and I had an exhaust leak apparently 

Checked last oil filter, clean no metal, just junk from cutting it open and a little silicone, plugs fouled but have new ones on the way.

[Vk304]

Did some roll racing, went well, but I was having some issues shifting into gear at high revs lol

[Vk304]

Cut open the maxfab resonator which was having a hard time

brought a louvered 3.5inch core from Adrenalin r and repacked it with stainless as well as the glass packing that it did have, should last longer hopefully, also the core is only welded on one side inside so it has some room to expand with heat.

 

Hopefully it's a bit better now and i won't be worried it's gonna collapse and damage stuff. Adrenalin r stuff is pricy, but the quality is definetly there, my rear muffler is also Adrenalin r, non louvered 3 inch now.

sounds nice and takes a lot of the drone out of it . 

[Vk304]

It's just as loud with the louvered core resonator, but not too loud? Less droning for sure. Lol and I did a fd reman altenator, because the 60 amp one was not cutting it at low revs with fan on etc... all I had to buy was a 90 amp fd rx7 altenator, from strange workshop about 300$, a ls plug kit- (ls, nissan, mazda- share the same style 2pin plug for Mitsubishi / hitachi alt )- from a aeroflow supplier- about 6$ and attach it to my wiring.

Drill my pulley out to 17mm, and space pulley out about 6mm ( i used a thin nut, dilled out to 17mm and the hex ground off- because im a hoarder...and it works)..  and now it charges 14 plus volts at idle. Not sure if the old altenator was bad or the demand was too great, but now it doesn't seem to have the same issues- stalling at lights etc...

Other than that they just bolt in to s4 housings...

[Vk304]

Also got a racetech linelock for drag butnouts etc to not smoke my rear brakes and i prefer mechnical things so no solenoid, it turned out to have bsp threads in it...... ?  So i had to get a bunch of adapters to make that work bsp to npt to brakeline fittings, ran the lines through a gromet hole and to the rear split into a m10x1.0 joiner.. the idea being it's fully removable... because it's not legal, but can remove handle to render it un operable

and got a front bumper to fix my cut up one, as well as a carpet and gear shifter surround and boot, little more tidy inside because street car? Bumper will have to wait till I paint the car someday because it's white... still looking for a reasonably priced dash facia...rear still needs something, yes my battery box is a sealed ammo box bolted to the floor lol

[Vk304]

Found rear seat and carpet etc

[Vk304]

Home job, epoxy primer, going with tornado dark metallic mazda colour, even got a new compressor to do it hopefully semi decent!

[Vk304]

Also new clutch, old one was smoked, warped badly, and was impossible to drive stop starting , they do not do a sprung center twin plate for fc, so solid it is, imported through north shore toyota os giken dealers, they were great to deal with. Sanding the car for a while now taking my time, up to 800 grit wet, should be ready to do a final paint soon when the weather is right... 

[Vk304]

Sooo, being naive, I thought I could do a good paint job 1st time around, I sprayed it and came across several obstacles, one I did not wipe the whole thing 100% and had a bunch of small fish eyes, but I managed to catch this and wipe the whole thing again much more thoroughly before continuing.

2 my sanding was not 1000% and some light sanding shows through some of the base.

Three because I had 2 different shades of primer in some areas they also show but this may have been rectified by more coats..

Four, my gun setting were not ideal and I was getting some runs, blotchyness and un even coating, which by the end of spraying I had dialed out and I got a pretty good feel for spraying uniform.

5 I had some dust contamination but really not much.

six, all is not lost, I used 500ml of the 2l paint, but now I have a car in one colour, everything is much more visible and now I can wet sand the whole thing again at 800 grit, and my theory is the next time around I will be much farther ahead, all panels are straight...exept the rear bumper which is wavy on the top ..but im not filling that up with bog...

And if anything the sanding should easily smooth out the light scratching, and I have a feel for spraying metallic, should have around 5 more coats left in paint I estimate 3 or 4 should do it, and I'll do clear straight after.

 

[Vk304]

Finallllyyyy done painting, this time I took it real easy on base coats, light 1st and just wetting the following 5 or 6 coats then 3 coats of clear, will show car in daylight when I've got a moment 

 

 

 

[Vk304]

Hard to capture colour, but it looks good for a shed job haha, better front bumper, passenger mirror, works well with the carbon fiber bonnet

[Vk304]

Been working on these in the background

tig welder run over the buckled parts, beat back into shape and lots of sanding and polishing later...

, 17x8 because of the offsets but they are just running on street so 205 to keep it all in the guards . I believe these are zauber mesh correct me if I'm wrong and I'm looking for center dish and caps for these if anyone knows of any ...