Jerry's RX-7 Turbo II restoration

[JerryLH3]

It's pretty hot outside today, so after my girlfriend and I did yard work this morning, then cleaned up and went to breakfast, I wasn't about to do anything that required me to stay in the garage today. So, I worked on finishing up the instrument surround and reinstalling the switches into the cluster.

One of the locating tabs was broken, so I went to work on that first:





A little epoxy and it will work. There's another broken off piece that I must have lost, so this will have to do.



After we went to the Mazda dealer to order some parts and then lunch, the epoxy was set up enough I could work on it without fear. The bag is 100 Neo Wedge 14V lamps for the headlight, turn signal, wiper and cruise control switches and the warning light cluster. I got them from allelectronics.com and after I saw it was a $7.00 S&H fee regardless of how many bulbs I ordered, I went ahead and ordered 100 of them to get the bulk discount. To replace all lights of this type in an FC requires 19, so I've got plenty if anyone needs them. The green silicone cover is easily removed to expose a regular tiny incandescent bulb.





Removal of the old bulbs is straightforward enough, just a simple twist lock that requires a small flathead screwdriver. The lower bulb on the headlight and wiper switches has an amber cover that should be transferred to the new bulbs.



When reinstalling the switches, extreme care should be taken. The mounting posts on my surround already had tiny cracks and I definitely made them bigger and even broke a couple of the posts. Luckily, everything is still secure and none of the switches flop around at all.



I installed some new knobs and it's now ready to be reinstalled in the car (whenever that day may arrive).









Here's a comparison of a twenty year old knob and a brand new one. The old one may have had "patina", but I'll take the new one. I'm not out to win the all original concours d'elegance.