Rotary Car Club - Waking up the FD, the rebuild of car and life

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Waking up the FD, the rebuild of car and life

I am moving my build thread over here, so bare with me abit here, lots of pics and posts inc :coolgleamA:

Ok, so i was bored outta my head and have a bad back at the moment, blown through all the newspapers, forums and internet-games, so i decided to make a small worklog on my FD. Feel free to post suggestions, better solutions etc, thats what forums are for
Translating my worklog from norwegian to english now, so the first few posts might be abit misleading regarding time spent, work etc..

Short story, the last 2,5 years has been a living nightmare for me. While work has been a madness the last 4-5 years, with sick work hours, bad management and selv-centered bosses and leaders wearing out people in their 20s so bad they get sick for months and dont care to replace em or pay the ones hanging in there good money, i have this self-pride in what i do, and i will go to any means to get the work done. It wears you down bit by bit, but you hang in there for the others and try to keep em afloat and on their feet. the management takes advantage of this and put more work on us, selv pride kicks in, we manage, and so the evil circle has been drawn... the downward spiral...

First, the FD broke down due to a waterseal blown on a mazda reman engine. Picked the engine down, when i suddenly and unexpectedly lost a close friend of mine. He`d killed himself for reasons nobody knew about and nobody knows about this day. Barely got inside the front door from the funeral when i got another phonecall, a friend of mine had died in a car accident, so new funeral... cant get any worse..?
A short while later, i lost a dear family member to brain anurism after decades of diabetes-years....
Then, a while later i had to go through a loong fight with insurance company about a drywall behind the kitchen that had been waterdamaged.. Me and my girlfriend had bought a house, everything seemed fine, until i one day got curious about the back wall underneath the sink.. It was completely soaked and molded..... as im allergic and have astma, i cant live in a house like that, so we used all our savings and fixed the wall, and then take the fight with the insurancecompany...
finally got it sorted after months... and then she dropped the bomb on me.. Its over, she didnt wanna be with me anymore...
I hit the wall...bad...! Buried myself in work, more work, cut contact with all of my friends, and just lived under the radar for 1,5 years, staid with friends and family, while she(my ex) stayed in the house... finally, after 1,5 years, she contacted me and said she`d moved out and someone needs to live in the house... I moved in, and decided to keep the house... So, i bought her out and now own a house of my own, 30 years old. 135 sq.metres, double garage, 2 bathrooms, 4 bedrooms, dining room, seaside view, beach 5 mins down the road... LOVE IT!
So, to "refurbish and renovate" my own life, i started fixing up my house, and "renovate" her out of the house... Walked into the garage a week after i`d moved in again, and sat down and just looked at my downed poor FD sitting there... And decided that house is house, it will have to wait... I need the FD on the road again to move on and get myself sorted once again...! So, i began the restauration and rebuild of my old FD, and see it as "therapeutic" selv-help...!

Plans:

Car, 1993 silver touring FD. Painted it spirit R grey.

Engine and surroundings:

Streetport 13B rew, built by Banzai racing. RA black superseals, TII lowcomp rotors etc.
KG 850/1600 fuel setup with walboro 400pump rewired.
HKS twin power with LS/yukon coils, 11" raceplugs and FAT magnecor coilwires
Big FMIC kit
big radiator
3" turboback exhaust from GP-sports
BNR stage 3s in seq mode, going to push em to the max(21psi area)
AEM water injection setup
Apexi PFC and commander with datalogit
Innovate LM-1 wideband, wired to the datalogit
Blitz SBC-ID dual boostcontroller with a Blitz datalogger on the side.
Aezknights simplified viton seal industrial strength solenoid setup with viton checkvalves etc(100psi setup)
Self-designed oil baffle pan with one-way valves to keep oil centered by the pickup at all times.
Fuel baffle setup

suspension and braces:
Yellow koni shocks, Eibach springs
Tanabe rollbars
a known brand of strutbraces front and back, yet to be decided.
dragon performance diff-brace and gearbox brace
Polybushes diffmount and enginemounts

Wheels and brakes:
RO_JA R2 rims 9x8 front on 245s, 10x18 rear on 275s.
standard FD brakes

Drivetrain:
FD gearbox
Kaaz 1,5 way diff, with new seals, bearings etc.

Looks:
99spec front
99spec wing with carbon winglip
Feed side underskirts in carbon
shine auto street diffuser rear.
99spec lights
CF hood

Prolly a ton of things ive left out or forgotten, but im going for a mild and "stock" look with small touchups. enginebay will be simple black on black with no crome. Reason for this is simple. My car is imported on a silly rule that states that the car has to appear original to keep its plates... If im busted by the vehicle inspectors with this setup, im screwed and have to put it all back to original state again.. So, fingers crossed

Starting point:
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2.../rx7_yvind.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b2...n/Bilde068.jpg

GPsports midpipe and back. Nice and shiney!!! Nomatter WHAT the ladies says, boys... Size matters...ALLWAYS!!! :D
Or maybe im just compensating for a small displacement...? :D
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...idpipeback.jpg

Using a well known measuring stick:
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2.../rx7deler2.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2.../rx7deler5.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2.../rx7deler7.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2.../rx7deler8.jpg

Diffbrace and transmission brace from dragon performance
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2.../rx7deler1.jpg

Innovative LM1 wideband
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...0/rx7deler.jpg

Finally, we bought the house and i have a nice garage to do work on my cars..!
Started taring down the engine from the top, just to inspect, study and have a look.
The engine blew a waterseal, so complete stripdown is in order. As i dont have an engine lift available now, ill start with the stripdown while the engine is in the car...
MILLIONS of clips and connectors, crisp dry wires and bonehard small hoses and crap...! This has a mazda reman engine in it, but it appears that the people that swapped the engine, pulled loose the clips and connectors by pulling the wires.. wich exposed the copper... that started to erode in the seaside salty weathercondidions... And having a lol-vented hood alowing water to drip down on wires and connectors probably havent helped much... a new wiring harness is in order..!

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...d/IMG_7284.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...d/IMG_7286.jpg

hmnmm, no wonder it started to leak water on that last trip..! :lol:
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...d/IMG_7287.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...d/IMG_7288.jpg

the infamous "crows nest" DjeeeZUZ...!

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...d/IMG_7291.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...d/IMG_7292.jpg

discovered why the car leaked a small amount of steering fluid I believe... the old owner(norwegian with a barn) had mice...!
The window-washer hose had also been chewed over.
I really hope the steering rack has survived, i dont dare thing how expensive this thing is..

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...0/IMG_7295.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...0/IMG_7296.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...0/IMG_7297.jpg

A nice treat of a radiator suddenly appeared from the deep darks of the engine bay:
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...0/IMG_7298.jpg

The only rust on the car, to be fixed with an engine bay respray in satin black for clean and neat looks, while keeping it "inspection friendly"
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...0/IMG_7300.jpg

Yes, we defo need new wiring harness...!
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...0/IMG_7302.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...0/IMG_7301.jpg

engine out
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...0/IMG_7303.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...0/IMG_7304.jpg

Took me a fair bit of swaring, a phonecall and a glance at a youtube vid before i understood the clutchthing on this car..!
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...0/IMG_7309.jpg

the end
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...0/IMG_7310.jpg

striped down the engine to shortblock... and tilted the engine over...
this is what came out of the exhaust ports, minus the oil...

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...0/IMG_7322.jpg

waterseal much ye...!

Nice sound from the engine too, ayeh? :lol:

See vid, sounds like a blown water pump :lol:

http://s21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...90309_1850.mp4

at this point, the relationship went to pieces.... and the car sat for 1,5 years while i was away... Finally have the house now, so i have access to the poor thing... It is time to revive this japanese supersportscar..!

Testfitted the exhaust, cant wait to hear this baby BRAP once again...!
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...5-04165029.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...5-04165051.jpg

99spec rears in, looks so much better!

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...5-06185532.jpg

FMIC fitted, like a glove! Used the hoodlatchbolt to bolt it dead centre, worked like a charm!

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...5-05224048.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...5-05223442.jpg

The end of the day, a cold beer, good work done, nice and warm, sunset... and oh.. what do i spot in the background there...? ;)

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...5-08212726.jpg

So, engine is away...I had fitted other major parts...What to do...?
Was sitting in the garage one day after i`d had a major cleanup, enjoying a cold beer in the nice weather, looked at the car and wondered if any of the bolts on the suspension was possible to loosen at all.. And then, the snowball started to roll..

Thanks to WD-40, airtools, elbowgrease and sledgehammer, i had the front subframe with all attachments out after about one hour... Man, those steering end joints, hate em...! And the ABS sensor unit on the hubs...? Dont even mention it..!:icon_tdow Most of theese bolts i dont think has been turned since the car was new...!

So, i disassembled the front subframe, started to clean off old rust, wash all units separately and paint em. Used simple and good rustpreventing(yes i know alot of the parts are aluminium, but wanted to keep it simple and clean looking) paint that you use on iron fences. Went with glossy black. Clean and inspection friendly.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...25223115-1.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...5-26225041.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...5-26215132.jpg

Now that the front subframe was all nice and shiney, the rear had to be done as well. Pulled it out and compared with cleaned front subframe:

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...6-02204937.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...6-02210906.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...6-16194743.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...6-16194809.jpg

Just some light work done today, reasembled the rear subframe after paint

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...6-23201959.jpg

mmm, cant wait to get the car on the ground on theese again:

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...6-23202121.jpg

My dog was going about its business in the garden when he got very curious about something he found :lol:
Two hedgehogs just...doin their thang:icon_tup:

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...6-11040216.jpg

Dennis(my dog) got abit too curious when he poked his nose too close to the small rascals, so when the male hedgehog felt Dennis nose touch him, he jumped up, so here we are, picking a few small hedgehogpins outta his nose :lol:
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...5-14204650.jpg

Now its midsummerfest over here, the beer is out and the bondfires are lit up, have a good one all!:egrin:

mmmmm, next to new engine wiring loom arrived today, courtesy of Boxer2rotary here on the forum. Great seller!

No more crispy connectors and wires!:icon_tup:

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...6-25185000.jpg

got some stuff done today. Washed down the engine bay, sanded down old flaky paint, zink-primed it and went for simple satin black for a pure clean look. Offc. i ran outta zink-primer and paint, so only got left side done...

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...6-30232732.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...6-30235114.jpg

got some stuff done today.

drivers side being sanded down and cleaned..

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...7-04004016.jpg

Hmmm, found rust underneath the battery tray, seems like its caused by a semi-loose batterytray, vibrating/grinding against the chassie, wearing off the old paint and primer..... Salty norwegian coastal weather have not helped on the situation.....:icon_tdow

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...7-04004028.jpg

What is this item, found it under the igniter on the drivers side:

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...7-03220722.jpg

Found a second "rats nest" under the breaking-unit..! :lol: Also found the remnants of my previously posted semi-eaten window-washer hose and end covers on the steering rack...:scratch:

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...7-03220702.jpg

Engine bay done, satin black:

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...7-04224908.jpg

looks soo much better against the titanium grey paintjob:

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...7-04225110.jpg

brakeunit picked apart and refurbished:

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...7-04225212.jpg

ABS unit picked down for washing, sanding off and painting:

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...7-04225137.jpg

all pipes on the torpedo-wall grinded down, primed and painted:

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...7-04004050.jpg