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And here I consider it an achievement if I wipe most of the dust off of an always-visible interior piece before it goes back on the car.
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Mar 30, 2024 16:41
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Yeah, I don't think I've ever gone farther than dunking a horribly greasy part in a bucket of gasoline and maybe hitting it with a wire brush to loosen the crud, other than that I clean mating surfaces only. And here you are turning out what look like concourse level restorations on underhood subassemblies for the hell of it "while you're in there".
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Mar 30, 2024 16:59
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nah, concours has to look original, which usually means intentionally leaving imperfections that the factory would have had. this looks better than factory.
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Mar 31, 2024 01:34
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I definitely went down the "how far can I push my skillset" path here. This car will never be perfect, I don't have the time/patience/money to do so. Plus I build drivers, not museum pieces. Yesterday I was about 50%, I'm thinking it's allergies/tail end of a cold at this point. It was a beautiful ~65 degree spring day and everything is in bloom. I first focused on getting the upper intake and remaining vacuum/pressure/check valves installed.    With the intake side complete, I started on the turbos. I don't have a good set for this car, which is a common issue now a days due to age/scarcity. I had to choose between the originals, which leaked oil from the secondary turbo at an alarming rate OR a set that I pulled from a 36k mile car that underwent a single turbo swap with a questionable primary turbo that's definitely outside the shaft play tolerances. I chose the questionable used set and I'll rebuild the originals this summer. So, with that in mind - I'm not coating/blasting/caring about how the turbos look. A quick wipedown with APC and some fresh gaskets/hoses is all they need.      With the turbos on I was able to snake the control hardline and finish the rats nest plumbing. It's a tight fit, but it's done.  I pulled the transmission out from storage and started to bolt back on the covers and brackets I sent out to be plated. I also replaced one of the sensors I damaged. If I could, I would 100% break this down, vapor blast and coat this, but no one will ever see it. Plus it's a PITA to break these transmissions down just for funzies.  I needed a break after working on the engine for three days straight, so I started to work on reassembling the engine bay. Lot's of fasteners, brackets, hard lines all needed to be reinstalled.   I ended up removing the old beat up front lip the PO used as a parking assist. I should have a replacement in the loft.  This passenger brake duct is held together with 90% zip ties. I'll have to find a replacement in my collection.  Before reinstalling the steering rack mounts and hard line isolators, I wanted to clean up the rubber mounts. So, into vapor blaster they went.  It's neat that the process does not damage the rubber, but cleans off any contaminates.  While I was in here, one of the OEM+ mods I'm doing is replacing the cheese grade sway bar/radiator mounts. This is one area Mazda went way too far saving weight. I've seen low mile cars with them bent.  A cheap KTS (AutoEXE) mount/reinforcement bar was sourced from RHD and installed.  I started to clean up and pull out the rest of the engine bay parts, like the intercooler and airbox. I'll clean and treat all the plastics with aerospace 303. When I was grabbing parts, I gave both these couplers a light squeeze and they cracked like peanut brittle.   I've got some silicone in stock, but it's ugly. So I guess I'm coughing up the $46/each for OEM. After all of that, I'm down to a single folding table worth of parts.  I had been waiting all day for a UPS delivery and just as the sun sets, guess who showed up?  With the sun setting, I quickly masked up and sprayed the last parts. I was mainly focused on getting the oil lines I had blasted yesterday done, but I had a spare shifter and wanted to see how it would turn out. I decided to try a military green cerakote to replicate the OEM plating.  I can't believe how close this turned out.  Today's goal is to install the engine, if the kids will let me.  
the spyder fucked around with this message at 18:49 on Mar 31, 2024 |
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Mar 31, 2024 18:44
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Sweet work. I'm going to have to try the Cerakote. My go-to is the epoxy appliance paint - it's tough, but still, you know, paint, not to mention limited colors.
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Apr 1, 2024 17:22
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Sunday was busy, as expected with the holiday. Seeing as I still needed half a day for the paint to dry from the night before, no time was wasted. I realized I've got quite a collection going.  To start the day I pulled all the intake/hoses/airbox out and cleaned/coated it with aerospace 303.  I replaced a broken/heat damaged clip on the air pump. It was badly heat damaged.  I decided to check the loft for couplers after seeing that the OEM ones are $56 each. I found two good used ones.  I also found a nicer alternator stud boot tucked away in my electrical parts bin.  With that done, I started to final-check the engine bay. The PS pump was pretty nasty, soooooo....    In the loft I had this pump, less corrosion and I could just drop it right in. I'll rebuild the old one and find a new reservoir. Last I saw them, they wanted $336 for that stupid part.  And with that out of the way and everything checked over, it was time to install the engine.       It's great to see this back together.  Next up I'll work on rebuilding the shifter. 
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Apr 2, 2024 19:38
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Monday I snuck away from meetings and worked on the remaining tasks. Lots of fiddly bits, like finishing installing the exhaust, connecting fuel lines, and installing the dozen remaining hoses/intakes/coolant lines. Annoyingly one of the first things I did was break this clip for the wiper motor. I always remove it to make more room to route the wiring harness. I don't have nearly small enough hands. Thankfully a few months ago I ordered this Nissan part that works great.   Next up, filled the transmission.   Filled the oil.  Pre-filled the oil to the rear stationary gear through the filter housing - always recommended on a rebuild/fresh engine.  ECU installed.  The stock air filter was nasty and falling apart. All I had in stock was this K+N removed from a project car, so it will have to do for now.  Found a new front lip and installed it, using all newly plated hardware.   I dug this stock exhaust out of the attic, the one that came with the car was rotted out. I touched up the faded black paint with some of the aforementioned caliper paint.   Filled the coolant.  And snuck in a new hood blanket I had hiding upstairs.  Shifter installed.   Turns out every battery I had was dead, so tonight it gets to sit on the charger.  Tomorrow I'll connect electrical for the first time since tearing it down and crank it over to build oil pressure. Fingers crossed it starts after that.
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Apr 2, 2024 19:54
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the spyder posted:...  the spyder posted:...
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Apr 2, 2024 20:14
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I swear that transmission shifter and floor boot are identical to the NA Miata I've been working on the last few months. I just did the shifter rebuild on it Saturday.
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Apr 2, 2024 20:58
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Krakkles posted:I did a double take when I saw this picture and wondered how you got my old car It came with my power fill - which was half the price when I ordered it. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0119DHX7O/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
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Apr 2, 2024 21:05
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kastein posted:I swear that transmission shifter and floor boot are identical to the NA Miata I've been working on the last few months. I just did the shifter rebuild on it Saturday. They probably are. All the RX-7s have similar parts to each other, varying through the years, but Mazda likes to use the same stuff across models a lot. The NA Miata shares a lot of the same or similar parts with late first gen RX-7s. The console ashtray is literally identical to the one in my ‘79! Shifters are very similar if not same from post ‘81 - I can use a Miata short shifter, since I’m using an ‘84 trans. For that matter, I can use a Miata gear set in that transmission. Case is the same except for the engine mounting face and other small details. Not quite as Lego as Jeeps, but still quite a bit.
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Apr 2, 2024 21:09
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Darchangel posted:They probably are. All the RX-7s have similar parts to each other, varying through the years, but Mazda likes to use the same stuff across models a lot. The NA Miata shares a lot of the same or similar parts with late first gen RX-7s. We've always jokingly called it parts bin shopping. The FD shares parts with 323, Miata, B2200, and 929 from my travels. Although they are simple things like interior fasteners, shifter bushings, trim clips, and glove box handles.
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Apr 2, 2024 21:25
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I never knew I needed that Power Fill until today. How much of a pain in the rear end is it to clean out when changing fluids?
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Apr 3, 2024 01:10
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PitViper posted:I never knew I needed that Power Fill until today. How much of a pain in the rear end is it to clean out when changing fluids? I've always used it for the same fluid, but it's just a nicer version of a garden sprayer. I would allow it to drip out above your oil collection and wash it out. IMO, for home gamers, a decent garden sprayer with $20 in brass nipple, ball valve, and copper tube would do the same thing.
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Apr 3, 2024 05:51
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the spyder posted:It came with my power fill - which was half the price when I ordered it.
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Apr 3, 2024 18:47
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The last two days have been... fun? I want to say my excitement to get this running took over and bad things happened, but that was not case. I started Tuesday, fully intent on cranking this over for the first time. Banana for scale compliments of my buddy.  It's recommended to pull the EGI fuse and crank the car until the oil pressure gauge moves. This took several 30sec intervals to fill the oil lines, coolers, and such.  The next part... well that's where every thing went terribly wrong. After reinstalling the EGI fuse, I hopped in the car and cranked it over. It lit, immediately. But it ran like rear end - it was only running on one rotor and shaking. It loosened my new coolant funnel, dumping cups of fluid all over the shiny clean engine. But that was nothing. The giant puddle? Yea. That's 30 seconds of running. It had sprung a fuel leak.  I've been... meticulous, some may say anal about every step of the engine build. Double, triple checking everything. So when I found no leaks around any EXTERNAL fuel system components, I started to question what 4 month ago me did. Fuel was pouring from the exhaust manifold.  4 month ago me is who cleaned, tested, and assembled the fuel rails. With no external leaks, there was only one thing to do. Tear it down to inspect. Now before I got too crazy, I went ahead and pulled the plugs, it was clearly the REAR rotor having the problem.     The culprit was a pinched o-ring on the secondary injector. It did not roll into its seat, despite the use of lube. I inspected everything and grabbed some thicker/tackier lube. Thankfully I had new o-rings and not wanting to risk anything on this car, I changed them all. Past me should have done this, but the o-rings had not arrived yet. Lame excuse on such an otherwise nice build, I know.   Doing this in the car, fully dressed, is a royal PITA. Many tricks, like this taped nut to get under the air control valve, had to be used.   How much fuel did it leak? The rear rotor stopped perfectly, covering the intake ports. I pulled THREE cups of gas out of the intake/ports. Much of this was from removing the injectors and allowing the rails to leak out. I went as far to run air through them for 20 minutes, just to help dry everything out. Once the fuel was gone, I added several tablespoons of oil to help replace the assembly lube that had been washed away by the fuel bath.   Back together and ready to try this again tomorrow. My back hurts too much to do much more today.   Spoiler: Past me has some 'splainin to do. Another thing I'll have to fix tomorrow. 
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Apr 4, 2024 04:47
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Oh no, what's happening. Welp.  Check in next time to see what bad decision I've made now!
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Apr 17, 2024 03:24
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Mazdaspeed front bumper for that full Initial D replica look?
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Apr 17, 2024 03:34
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| # ? Apr 20, 2024 00:12 |
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McTinkerson posted:Mazdaspeed front bumper for that full Initial D replica look? Seconded.
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Apr 17, 2024 17:49
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