1983 RX-7 GSL "FB" gets it's new lease on life

[P71]

As almost all of you know I bought an 83 RX-7 GSL from the nephew of it's original owner back in February. It's a Sunrise Red Metallic FB with every option except leather. I have the metal and glass tops, and everything works including the rear wiper and A/C. It has 232K miles on the original engine and trans with NO rebuilds! It got hurt in a hit-and-run and now it needs a driver's door. So since I'll actually modify something beyond wheels/tires in 2009 I decided a build thread was in order.

Here's some pics of me and "Blinky" autocrossing last year where after some practice and a set of fresh Falken Azenis Rt-615's we started running with Porsche Boxter's!

http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/456/20070101p1010243241lz1.jpg

http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/238/20070101p1010244242ft8.jpg

http://img371.imageshack.us/img371/1639/mg1611hh8.jpg

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/1718/mg1614ac4.jpg

Here's the only real mod to happen so far, a set of 14" LE Meshies that I restored over 2 days by hand sanding and hand polishing the lips and painting the centers bronze. I also added an NOS set of "+" center caps to replace the hideous meshie plastic ones and new Falken Azenis RT-615's in 195/60/14.

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/7799/20070101p101006363gp6.jpg

Here's the damage:

http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/7730/20070101p101008181qu7.jpg

And here's the new door as I'm sanding:

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/2736/20070101p101005252bh4.jpg

Here's just how good this thing looked before the hit (this was taken after the hit, it's just the passenger side):

http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/4742/20070101p1010100100bz1.jpg

Blinky saw more then just a dozen autocrosses (93 runs!), it also hit the drag strip a few times and helped me secure my first Drag Racing Season Championship!

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/5959/img0614cb5.jpg

Overall it was a great year and I met a ton of cool people. Here's Blinks with Josh's killer LS1 FC and Adam's Track-Attack winning FD. We were all the scourge of the Porsche Club Autocrosses along with Jared's FD.

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/6319/20080905p9050158158vf4.jpg


To go along with the wheels/tires I also had to do some other stuff last year. I replaced the ailing clutch with an SCCA stock-replacement legal Zoom MU-series clutch kit from Mazda. A massive driveline failure drag racing caused me to backdate to an SA driveshaft with new u-joints. The gear oil in the trans and rear end were both changed to Royal Purple. I restored the battery tray, installed a new battery, a new starter, and restored the radiator intakes. I changed the plugs with NGK's and upgraded the wires to Magnecor SV85 Competition ones. I also installed FC seats and new brake pads.

Right now the poor thing is buried in snow, but in the garage is a Racing Beat header, Magnaflow Resonator, and Summit fully-welded race muffler to go with a shiny new stainless dual-outlet tip. I will have it all custom installed by the same shop that did the exhaust on my P71 cop car. I also have a COMPLETE black interior to replace the faded maroon. I'm also slowly doing the bodywork in preparation of painting the car myself this spring. I hope to have everything done for the opening autocross in late March. It's a tall order as I also want to upgrade the suspension and cooling system during the downtime. I already have a new thermostat and electric fan.

Well, that's all for now. Any questions or comments would be appreciated and I will hopefully be updating this every few weeks.

[Fidelity101]

I love the riken meshies! I would have had a set for my FC but they are diff bolt pattern :(

[rotarygreg]

wow, very cool. inspirational. My father and i have an 84/85 gslse project thats been stalled for easily 5 years. This, among others, is just the fuel i need to get moving on it again. can just imagine, father and son rx's. me in my young rx8, him in the not so young rx7. haha. both velocity red. its gonna be cool. i really like bronze wheels on the red. looks very nice. i might try that with a couple different wheels i have for my GSLSE to see what goes well with it. if it just took some time and turned out that well, its worth a shot. thanks for the inspiration

Greg

[josh18_2k]

havnt been on here in forever..
i am also getting some work done!! the kinda work you cant see ;-)
cant wait to race with you this year!

[P71]

Fidelity,
They are the only good looking wheel for the 4x110 bolt pattern! They absolutely make the car.

rotarygreg,
Wow, that's really cool man. I'd love to see that in a show field, original 7 with a new 8 father/son tag team. My dad's first car was an R100 if that tells you anything! I'd love to see a build thread of it.

josh,
Welcome back man! I've seen your T56 ad so I know what you did there. I'm going to get to drag race it again right? Please? :D


Update for everybody:
Haven't done much the past 2 weeks as I started a new job and college started back up. Anyways, I have a giant pile of parts and I'm going to get moving on installing them. I did manage to clean the garage up really nice so I have room to work. It's sunny today and above 40* for the first time in like 2 months so I'm going to wash all of the dirt off of the car when I get home. If it stays sunny all weekend I plan on getting more bodywork done. I'll post pics if I accomplish anything!

[P71]

Got a TON of work done yesterday, pics and an updat coming later today ;)

[P71]

Well I promised an update and it's a big one, so grab a beer and take a seat.

I bought the car in February of 08. The original owner had given it to her nephew to sell. He traded it to me for a running 87 5.0 EFI motor with AOD trans and wiring for his Falcon. The title was still in her name and it had a folder of service history in the glovebox with the original owners manual. Here's what it looked like after a quick detail:

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/1790/p3210003io9.jpg

It was straight, clean, and most importantly, rust free. It had never been in a major accident, but it did get backed into on the nose messing up some paint and the bumper cover. I got the metal and glass tops with it as well as the original leather carrying bag.

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/5540/p3210007sq8.jpg

It's a 1983 GSL so it has the 4-wheel disc brakes, LSD rear, and the 4-spoke 13" alloy wheels. It's fairly well optioned with a rear wiper, power windows, power mirrors, cruise, A/C, power antenna, and a sweet 80's graphic equalizer. Everything worked!

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/8975/p3210008zj4.jpg

The car was all-original, never rebuilt, and had 227K miles! The engine bay was so unmolested that all of the emissions were present and functioning! The nephew did disengage the flapper thing that deactivated a rotor and took off the heat riser tube to the air filter assembly. Here's some "before" photos:

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/8099/p1010007qw8.jpg
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/4912/p1010008sl1.jpg

A few hours of cleaning and some elbow grease later the engine bay was presentable. The radiator shrouding had some surface rust and scale so I cleaned all of it up, sanded it, primed it, and painted it. I also sealed all of the gaps and holes to better keep airflow going to the radiator. Afters:

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/7886/p1010018rw0.jpg
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/797/p1010019zb2.jpg
http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/9792/p1010020hy5.jpg

I then dove into general maintenance. I changed the oil and filter, flushed the coolant, installed new pads and bled the brakes, new battery, new starter, new rotor and car, new NGK plugs, and even did the first upgrade of Magnecor Competition wires. Then I made the mistake of taking it drag racing twice. The first time everything went excellent. The second time the driveshaft failed...

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/2369/p3220020uw2.jpg

I luckily found a S3 driveshaft at a local shop and had it rebuilt with new HD U-joints and rebalanced. That's when I figured out I needed an S4 rear flange for the diff. So I got one of those too and "Blinky" was back on the road.

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/3870/p3220023hv1.jpg

The original seats didn't work out so hot on the autocross course so I swapped in a set of blue S4 GXL seats using a combo of FB and FC sliders (check the 1st Gen section for that thread). The red/maroon interior has held up surprisingly well, but I'm still swapping it our for the black interior I have in the garage.

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/9548/p1010006ac1.jpg
http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/3938/p1010004js2.jpg

I started autocrossing like crazy but I also drove the car on nice days. Then I started driving it whenever I felt like it. I just loved driving it! You can't say Rx-7's aren't useful though. We had to buy some 2x12's that were 10 feet long to build some flower boxes. Buy were the F350 guys at the Lowe's embarrassed!

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/2935/20070101p101000202hs5.jpg
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/5715/20070101p101000101uz0.jpg

That should pretty well catch us up to the original post about the racing. I competed in over a dozen autocrosses and made nearly 100 runs in my Rx-7, without a single failure! It's been a great car and never let me down. It has 233K miles on it now, and yes, I did drive it Saturday and Sunday.

[P71]

Well, onward to the mods. As previously mentioned I have installed a set of Magnecor Competition plug wires and a set of 14" LE "meshie" wheels with 195/60/14 Falken Azenis Rt615's (a 200 treadwear sticky autocross tire).

The next round is starting now. I have a Summit electric fan that will replace the clutch fan. I'm also swapping in a set of aftermarket gauges to monitor water temp, oil pressure, oil temperature, and amps accurately. The big deal is going to be the exhaust though! Currently it still has the original reactor/manifold, 2" piping, and can muffler (it hasn't had a cat since I got it, it was clogged and the car is emissions exempt).

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/5041/0039p1010039cp6.jpg

Well that's not going to make any power and it's heavy and ugly. So I did a little shopping and came away with a used Racing Beat header from a IT race car. I then called up Summit and ordered a DEI header wrap kit, a 2.5" Dynomax UltraFlo welded bullet race muffler (which I'm using as a resonator), a 2.5" Summit fully-welded race muffler, and some exhaust paint.

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/5399/0033p1010033ku5.jpg

I'm going to clean up the header and wrap it and my exhaust guy is going to cut off the previously messed with collector and make a new true 2.5" collector. He's also going to connect everything together with 2.5" mandrel-bent tubing and weld the whole thing front-to-back. This is the same guy that handbuilt my 1-piece 2.5" mandrel bent under-axle exhaust on the cop car.

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/3039/0025p1010025ct0.jpg

As you can see I have a special plan for the finishing touch. A custom ordered Stainless Steel 2.5" dual tip.

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/1562/0026p1010026ab9.jpg

I also ordered a new header gasket from Racing Beat and as soon as it gets here the whole system is going in. It should be loud. :rofl:

[P71]

And lastly for today, the bodywork update. This is the stuff I've been working hardest on lately! Now when I got the 7 it was pretty straight and clean, but the original clear coat was peeling here and there and it had some damage on the nose. It wasn't great but shined up it was presentable and looked great on the track. Then some jerk truck driver decided to back into it!

Before:
http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/1853/p1010036ng5.jpg

After:
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/7730/20070101p101008181qu7.jpg

Notice that the skin is pinched up and over the a-pillar. I was furious! (Still am honestly). I found a door locally but it was the wrong color and has about 8 layers of paint on it. I pulled the trim and got to sanding. Luckily it's rust free though it does have some bondo or sandable primer in it.

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/2736/20070101p101005252bh4.jpg

I found a crack in the metal at the a-pillar joint which was not good! I decided that the door was nice enough to save so I had the crack welded up to bring some structural rigidity back in. I'll finish it off with a skim coat of Gold Bondo.

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/8439/0002p1010002pw5.jpg
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/2493/0002p101000201rj0.jpg
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/2968/0003p101000301bo0.jpg

Finally after the welding, sanding, and priming:

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/23/0001p101000101al4.jpg

I have enough primer to do the whole car, plus some Gold Bondo, sandpaper, etc. Basically I can finish all of the bodywork in the garage up until actually spraying the paint. I plan on primering the whole car after sanding off the defective and peeling clearcoat. I'm still up in the air on the final "look", but it will still be a form of Red Metallic. I kind of want to paint the roof black ala new ZR1 Vette, but I also kind of want to paint the whole thing red and do a white center strip ala Ferrari 360 Stradale or 430 Scuderia. All of the black bumper car trim is coming off. Also the #'s won't be permanent anymore, I ordered magnetic meatballs. :D

Here it is just a few days ago:

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/646/0020p1010020gx6.jpg

More coming later this week :001_005:

[Eatmyclutch]

I see you got w00d there.

[ProjectD]

Nice work! Looks like a fun project.

[FCRotary]

Hey man, it's Aaron from the red robbins that one time, just joined this forum. Your cars lookin good, I'm looking at planning a meet here soon somewhere near me in WA if you're interested, I got a thread for it on rx7club in the NW section.

Good luck with the work. :D

[P71]

Hey Aaron, how have you been? A meet sounds cool. Don't forget to post about here as well.

I have another big update coming today. I did a LOT of work yesterday and the new exhaust goes on today. Hopefully it's not too loud :P

[FCRotary]

I've been pretty good, I'll let you know about it, I'm totally blanking on your name right now dude, remind me? haha - I'll shoot you a PM hopefully. I'm looking at mid-marchish for the time schedule.

Look forward to the update, keep up the work.

[P71]

It's Michael (that's why it's in my sig :P ). March sounds cool. I'll be doing the "Spring Break-out" autocross event at PIR at the end of February.

[FCRotary]

Awesome, I'll have to come watch, I doubt my GXL will be completed by then, I still need to find half of the interior... haha

Good luck with it. :D

[P71]

New update for everybody!

Well I did a TON of bodywork on the the new door. The welded crack is better than new now.

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/766/0009p101000901ig6.jpg

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/9881/0023p101002301or7.jpg

I sanded the whole thing with 100 grit and primed with 2 coats of primer.

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/9167/0010p101001001ih1.jpg

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/3886/0020p101002001ri9.jpg

It's starting to look respectable up close and I've maintained the body lines and "blood strake" well.

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/5939/0011p101001101ac2.jpg

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/3213/0022p101002201vn6.jpg

I actually painted the thing Red yesterday, but it didn't turn out so hot :( I think there's just no good way to self-paint metallics. I'm going to have to have it painted when the time for color comes. Unfortunately the rest of the body has to be sanded because of clear coat peel.

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/6181/0025p101002501nl7.jpg

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/3504/0024p101002401nl6.jpg

I figure I'll keep chipping away at it. Part of me wants to prime the whole car but that looks crappier then primer spots. :banghead:

Here's the exhaust all cleaned up, painted with header paint, and wrapped with DEI wrap.

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/5753/0026p101002601au5.jpg

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/539/0027p101002701zg2.jpg

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/4738/0014p101001401fh7.jpg

I even got a real RB header gasket :rofl:

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/8962/0019p101001901on2.jpg

I'll post an update with installed pics soon. Homework is getting crazy and I got laid off so I'm trying to find work and doing a lot of side jobs to keep the moola rolling in. First autocross is in a little over a week! I think I'm ready! :rofl:

[josh18_2k]

time is allllmmmost here! better get that thing finished!

[P71]

Hey it runs and drives great! I've been terrorizing the neighborhood with it all week :rofl:

[P71]

Header and exhaust installed!

http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/9961/01012007p1010004004bz9.jpg

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/1620/01012007p1010001001gr6.jpg

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/3333/01012007p1010002002oq3.jpg

(Taken upside down :P)

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/8738/01012007p1010043043kh2.jpg

Lots of ground clearance for the anticipated suspension drop.

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/586/01012007p1010042042is6.jpg

Resonator all the way at the back. 2.5" pipe goes up and over the axle, mandrel bent. Fits perfect!

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/7730/01012007p1010040040fz4.jpg

And the end.

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/5130/01012007p1010038038dv5.jpg

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/1371/01012007p1010037037dq4.jpg

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/2572/01012007p1010036036gy6.jpg

I literally just took these :rofl:

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/8572/01012007p1010034034oa8.jpg

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/999/01012007p1010032032th5.jpg

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/2682/01012007p1010030030bk4.jpg

:driving:

[P71]

Results of the first autocross of 2009:

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_forum/showthread.php?p=75132#post75132

[P71]

Pics from the first autocross, the "Spring Break Out".

http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/338/01012007052p1010052sr8.jpg

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/8180/01012007096p1010096gx3.jpg

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/5240/01012007101p1010101wr4.jpg

http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/4438/01012007102p1010102fg1.jpg

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/5919/01012007099p1010099vq8.jpg

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/1466/01012007100p1010100yb5.jpg

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/4251/01012007094p1010094oe1.jpg

Fastest RX-7 of the day Sunday! :rofl: Beating a 300+RWHP FD and a 300+RWHP LS1 FC. Thank God for rain! :rofl:

[josh18_2k]

i think jared is closer to 400... ;)
but yah- awesome job mike!!

[P71]

UPDATE TIME!!!

I've been getting a TON of work done the last few days during the nice weather! So let's dive right in. First I figured out my rear wiper was leaking so I swapped out hatches for a standard one and put all of my rear wiper stuff up for sale. I also changed out the rear hatch rubber and did a bunch of little things here and there that were getting on my nerves.

The big news is that I now have race seats! Yes, they really do fit in 1st Gens. Grab a beer and read how:

This is what I started with, blue FC seats on FB/FC hybrid sliders (read about that swap in the 1st Gen Tech Section).

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/701/p1010009l.jpg

And this is what I finished with! They are red and black suede and I picked them up used for a trade.

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/2341/p1010028g.jpg

In order to get them to fit I took some measurements and figured out they have identical track width and even rail tops with RX-7's! If I could figure out how to separate the rail tops and bottoms that would have been the easiest route, but it wasn't meant to be. I did figure out that a little time with the Dremel and a grinding stone to wallow out the mounting holes was all I needed to do to bolt the FB/FC tracks to the seats. Driver's seat worked perfectly but the passenger has a slight problem. The inner front mount doesn't work because the track won't slide up far enough. This is remedied by drilling and tapping a new hole in the seat frame. As an aside, make sure you check the function of the sliders, mine required some clearance grinding on the spring cams so as not to interfere with the seats bottom.

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/128/p1010019x.jpg

Clearance is TIGHT with such large seats! The drivers side inner thigh bolster rubs the parking brake handle.

http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/9076/p1010027zce.jpg

Both shoulder bolsters run perilously close to the glass, door panels, and b-pillars. Any wider and this wouldn't work. You have to grab the seatbelt before closing the door, otherwise they are fine.

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/2699/p1010026uim.jpg

As you can see they look pretty awesome in there. As you can also see some of my door panel turned black! I have a complete black interior for the car (except seats, door panels, and the dash top) so I decided it was high time I started installing it.

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/1959/p1010039f.jpg

This is what I'm starting with door panel wise. In good shape but faded to brown and generally ugly.

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/5966/p1010037jhm.jpg

I disassembled everything and masked it off and re-dyed it with Dupli-Color Fabric & Vinyl dye in Satin Black. The dye works perfectly, doesn't rub off, and looks factory. I'm going to dye the carpet on the bottom black and dye the red cloth in the middle bright red to match the seats.

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/7742/p1010030x.jpg

As a factory sunroof car (with the glass roof) some of the plastics are destroyed. The a-pillars are the worse though the hatch plastic comes close!

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/9809/p1010036r.jpg

I took out my nice black ones and did a quick re-dye to get them back to factory coloring. I swapped out the passenger a-pillar and roof rail to see what it was going to look like and I'm pleased!

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/8210/p1010034p.jpg

And finally I swapped out my rear finish panel for the black one after re-dyeing the plastic and cleaning the carpet. For this piece and the a-pillars I used Dupli-Color Fusion for Plastic paint in Satin Black. I will be doing the entire rest of the interior at the same time in some point soon.

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/4381/p1010038e.jpg

Finally, I placed a Racing Beat order today, so I will have even more updates next week ;)

[josh18_2k]

this looks really classy- i like it. like vintage and nice at the same time
http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/7742/p1010030x.jpg

[P71]

I told you I was dangerous with a can of paint and some tape ;)

I'm going to dye the carpet black to match the black carpet for the floor and change the red to match the seats though.

You going to stab your seats in or what?

[Phoenix7]

werd, you did a great job....keep it up man.

[josh18_2k]

i'll be working on my seat this coming week. hopefully i can use my OEM slider without damaging it.. so if im not done by sat i can throw my stock seat back in lol.
mine will take a little more 'customization'. its a side mount.

[P71]

Oooh, ouch! Good luck with that! :P Did you only get one?

[jtbshaw]

Wow, what a blast from the past. Those Ractive seats are the exact ones I used in my 83 buildup 7 years ago...same color combo too. Very easy to make fit. The seats lasted great. I drove the car with those seats for over 2 years as my daily and no tears/rips and comfy too. Just a little fading on the upper bolsters.

Not to hijack (and I think I posted this somewhere on this board), but here's my old cardomain page: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/852654

Todd B.

[josh18_2k]

yup only one. i dont care if the passenger flies around over there. just dont hit the shifter.

[P71]

I couldn't get over the off-kilter aesthetics. Then again your car is a few more colors than mine... :P

Mine is starting to look bad with all the sanding marks everywhere :(

[P71]

UPDATE TIME!!!

Went to the Oregon Region SCCA's opening race and got 1st in class (woot!)


out of 2 :rofl: Anyways, more importantly I was #42 of 105 overall. Check out the results:

http://www.oregonscca.com/index2.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1443&pop=1&page=0&Itemid=287

Pics!

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/8541/march2009052.jpg

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/7936/march2009051.jpg

http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/1725/march2009047.jpg


And John's GTO (which is 100% stock except for an LS7 clutch and some DBA slotted stock-size rotors, so he would have been in F Stock and taken 2nd (1st if that cone hadn't of fallen over)):

http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/4117/march2009044.jpg

[P71]

I've been getting some work done for the ORPCA opening AutoX in a little over a week, plus my first drag race of the year. Hoping for 14's... :rofl:

I need to get the RB twin pulley onto the alt and dump the smog and A/C along with the mechanical fan so I can throw on my electric.

[Twilightoptics]

Good luck! Post when you go! I'd like to come watch. I'll bring something to cross the stripes with.

Still need to rebuild my trans. 3rd gear's synchro isn't grabbing well at high RPM.

[JShiz]

Where did you pick up your dye? I'm in the process of dying my carpet and doors black. (will the dye work on that vinyl/ faux leather stuff?)

Here's a quick shot of my interior but I'm probably gonna change the red to silver. Red looks too much for me.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y18/blustrike/DSCF0487.jpg

[JoeNoble]

I started autocrossing like crazy but I also drove the car on nice days. Then I started driving it whenever I felt like it. I just loved driving it! You can't say Rx-7's aren't useful though. We had to buy some 2x12's that were 10 feet long to build some flower boxes. Buy were the F350 guys at the Lowe's embarrassed!

I fit a medium sized deep freeze in mine. It just barely fit even with 1/3 of it sticking out the hatch lol. wish i had snapped some pics.