My 6 year FC project

[Whitney]

Oooooo - Shiny!! Girls love shiny things!

[WE3RX7]

These updates are coming slowly. With holidays and side work I havent had much time for the seven (as usual with this project, lol).

Here are some current pics... I'm waiting for everything to settle down and I still need a few more parts to come in before I can put the car back on the ground for now. Its looking like it'll be after X-mas though....

Sometime in January it'll be wrapped up though, which will be nice. Then I'm going to move inside the car for a bit to put in the new carpet set, dash and seats.


Pictured below are the control arms. I ended up burning the rest of the D bushing out. It is far easier than any other method, lol. I havent finished polishing either arm yet, but you can see what a big difference it can make. This is all done by hand, it would go faster if I had my own work bench w/ a buffer... that'll have to wait though!

Before:


After/During Polishing:



Side by Side:


New MS bushings:



This is the first time I've used MS bushings. They say 40% stiffer and I'll admit I was nervous they'd be more "rubbery" - but I was way wrong. HUGE difference compared to the stock ones. You cant even put your finger nail into these suckers. A drawback is they do weigh a good bit more. But oh well.

[WE3RX7]

Finally, some minor progress.

I got the subframe out, steering rack out and finished coating both upper inner fenders.

Plans for next week are to undercoat lower inner fenders and finish polishing the control arms. My new wheel bearings should be in by that time as well so I will install those and clean/repaint the hubs while they're out.

Also, I plan to modify the front subframe after christmas. I noticed there were areas that lacked reinforcement that would be easily added in without altering any mounting points, etc. I'll get pics up of the modifications.

Here are some pics:

Driver's side upper inner fender:


Passenger side (lil blurry):


Subframe out:


All the parts ready to be stripped, cleaned and re-used if needed. Only things going back on are the hubs and parts of the steering rack:


Oh, and a little early XMas gift that I couldn't pass up, my 13B-RE engine mount adapters courtesy of RPM Motorsports:


probably wont have much to update until after Xmas.... but it'll be a good update next time...

[WE3RX7]

So its been pretty busy for me, just not on the FC project unfortunately. I'm in the process of buying a new home and getting things sold off / cleaned up.

I'm SLOWLY accumulating the parts for the FC though. Even with a heater in the garage, my doors dont seal 100% and its been below freezing for about a month now at night, so no POR for now. Hopefully in the next few weeks.

On the upside about the new home, is a new garage and a new garage means more toys


Project Update: I've got all brand new parts ready before I start to put the car together. New inner/outer wheel bearings for the hubs w/ new seals, new hardware (almost all of it for the front suspension) and new ball joints. I should have the MS bushings pressed on this month as well.

A quick note on the ball joints. A friend of mine who works for a general auto parts company ordered a set for me from Beck Arnley as his company is owned by them and the rumor I heard that Beck Arnley is producing Mazda genuine parts now was true... the new ball joints came FROM Beck Arnley in MAZDA bagging just like dealership parts, lol...

Anyways, I'll get a better update sometime this month for you all. I did manage to clean and prep the under-inner fender for the POR15 coatings though....

Inner fender (exposed small rust areas around bolt holes, etc):


Cleaned up, just used a high concentrate of Simple Green:


All the new OE & MS parts:


New "Mazda" Beck Arnley Ball joints:

[WE3RX7]

Got an extended weekend coming up with decent weather for February so I'm going to tackle a few things to get this phase of the project nearing completion.

I finished polishing both control arms. In a bit of hurry, but they turned out good enough for me for now. After I get the bushings pressed in I'm going to run it through a buffer and that should finish them up.

Bushings should be in on Sunday.

Subframe will be welded, reinforced, painted on Saturday.

POR15 undercoating should be done Monday and subframe will be back under the car!

After that, I'll hang the control arms and hopefully sometime next week I'll get the new wheel bearings put in and can put the hubs back on.

I will not be reinstalling the brakes though as I'm just trying to get the car back on the ground so I can make it roll onto a trailer and into its new home after we move

[WE3RX7]

Finally, a "good" update.

I made use of the crazy nice feb weather and the extra day off today to start putting things back ON the car!


I started yesterday actually. Took the control arms to a friend's house and he was able to get the new MS bushings in place with ease. It took longer to talk about doing it, than actually doing it.








Then today, I took some simple green, concrete cleaner and a sanding block to the subframe to clean it up and paint it. Its had years of engines in and out and it just needed to be "fresh" for its new powerplant




While letting the subframe dry in between cleaning/coats of paint, I started to lay some coats of POR15 in the inner fenders. Overall, I'm ok with the end results, but it was a bit more PIA to apply than expected. I think it has to do w/ the weather and lack of consistent temps in my garage right now, but oh well.

Masked tons of little holes and applied a first "light" coat:



This is their "semi-gloss" black which came out MUCH glossier than I wanted. But oh well.


I coated all the way into the shock tower, and underside of the frame rail which showed rust from brake fluid getting trapped there between the subframe and body. Its all good to go now


Once all that had dried, I reinstalled the subframe:


Then the control arms:



Replaced all the lock washers and installed the new "fresh" hardware which was basically just cleaned and coated old hardware.


Finally, I was able to install my MS Lower Control Arm Brace that I've had for about 3 years now!! I know... i know....




It took the better half of 6 hours to do all this for the dry times, etc. I'm very happy now though and cant wait to get the rest of the suspension on.


Later this week, I hope to install the ball joints, wheel bearings, reinstall the spindle and hub.. and await the new brake kit and coilovers

I'm still up in the air about getting gachiri braces for the fenders... Either way, once this is done, its getting put on the ground and towed to the body shop for the rest of the paint and body work. That should be around April/May