Without getting into TOO much detail about my status of the project, I need some wheels :)

My original plan was to run the Gram Light 57C Pro, but they no longer offer the gold centers in the width/offset I wanted in my 4x4.5 bolt pattern... so I moved on to my second choice which were the Work Meister S1 - issue here being they dont regularly sell the gold centers, but I contacted them and they said they can still do the gold, but the turn around is much greater.. and I need them quicker.

So, I'm shifting priorities a bit. My plan has always been to have both a set of 18" street wheels and a 17" set of track wheels. So I'm going to go for the street wheels now since I need them and they are cheaper :)

My current options are:
Rota D2 18x8 +25 up front, 18x9 +30 out back
http://www.rotawheels.com/images/products/d2_2.jpg

Rota P45R 17x9 + 25 up front, 17x9.5 +30 out back
http://www.rotawheels.com/images/products/p45r_2.jpg

5Zigen FN01RC Hot version 17x9 +20 all around
(no pic)


A few things I'm hung up on is that only the D2 is available in the 18" size in gold (yes, gold) that I want to run. It will most resemble the Work Meisters when I get them (almost identical in appearance) - but I'm not sure that I want to have two sets of wheels be the same basically (I know the difference in quality, weight, etc which is why I want the works for the track setup but I dont care about that when driving on the street).

The other two wheels are more "bronze" and a different design so they would allow me to have different looks on the car at different times.

All wheels will let me run a decent tire for the street compared to the power I'll be putting out. I'm also not planning on running spacers for the street, but will if needed.

Thoughts? I'll need to get these within the next month as well to move forward with the current phase of my project...

I say if you want the "chrome dish" look go for the D2's. I honestley would have went this route if they would have offered a 17'' rim wider then 8''.

HOWEVER the 5zigen hot version in Bronze look bad-ass on blue, just less bling.

Either two would be sick, I am a fan of chrome lip though soooo......:)

The chrome dish is my preference, but I still plan to use the meister s1s for the track in the gold/chrome finish so I wouldnt mind the FNs, they were actually my favorite wheel for a long time and I tried getting them for my rx8 last year but they were almost always out of stock (so I ended up with Enkeis which I love now).

I will need to place some phone calls next week to vendors as its difficult to find the Rotas in the size/offset I want online other than on Rota's website... The FNs are currently "simple" to find although we'll see when I go to order if I decide on them. I could always get the Rota D2 as the reg wheel and use the FN 17s as the track wheel, they are fairly light and strong....

Moving servers, so the pics may disappear briefly :)


Maybe being locked down for this blizzard will allow me to get a few updates done to the car. Right now its just been a bunch of cleaning, preparing and stripping. I did manage to get the RB front sway back on. I'm going to have so much suspension tuning to do when this car is done!

Currently working on:
- Removal of rear sub frame
- Cleaning of fuel tank / prep for exterior restoration (no rust currently so I'm NOT coating the inside of the tank, just going to thoroughly clean it)
- *cough* custom brakes *cough*


I've also made up the list of new bushings, links, etc that I need to order up soon so that can get under way. IF all goes to plan, the underside of the car will be completely coated and done by end of Feb... bunch of misc things as well that I will keep under cover for now :)

More to come...

Go with the ROTA's.

I love this car so much. Outcast says it best "so fresh so clean"

If I didnt have my heart set on a 10AE I would make my car like yours.

Can wait to see the finished photos.

P.S. I am making a VMIC kit for the FC. Will be done around April. I'll open it for sale with a GB.
You will be able to see it installed on an RX7club forum members 10AE. I'm sure he will give his honest input.

What ever you decide, it will be awsome when it's done.

Another VMIC system for the FC huh? I'll definitely be interested to see what you come up with... per my PM, I'm still up in the air as to which way to go. It really is going to come down to room and ducting capability.

Is there a thread somewhere talking about your kit?

I have an FC vmount interest in the RX7club forum.

but per the PM we just exchanged, I really like your set-up, that can work just as well. From what Ive seen a FMIC works great with the radiator sitting under the vent in the vented hood, also I have seen best results using a pusher fan on the bottom of the rad. Explained in PM...lol.

The Vmount for the FC can be used with and without a vented hood, but it works better with a vented hood. A top mount radiator MUST have a vented hood. Thats the main difference in the two.

Ben

You ever decide on your wheels yet?

18x8 +30 offset?

Isn't that a little too high? I know for a fact that people can easily fit +15 offset wheels on the back with a mild pull and roll. Or are you trying to go for a set of same size wheels all around?

I havent decided fully... the +30 will need spacers to be flush and not rub probably. I can make them work...



On the downside of things, i broke my left forearm on saturday and will be in a hard cast for 6-8 weeks. This blows my next few races and may change how DGRR goes too... kind of sucks....

Bummer! at least its the left not right. This year you won't get a sunburn on it in the window

I might if Im riding instead of driving....

A shot of the damage..

http://www.findtuners.com/FCProject/wv12.jpg

hard cast tomorrow... if all goes well, the cast SHOULD be off by april 15th... dgrr is my reward, lol.

Anybody want lend the hand I lost, lol? I have a crap ton planned for march and april on both the rx7 and rx8....

...So... What happened?

He was talkin smack to his wife and the last thing he remembered was "Talk S*it get hit" :) She prob told him its OK if you tell your buddies you fell down lol... I'll call you billy.

I couldnt hit her back... she's preggers, lol.



I got rocked at the terrain park snowboarding at snowshoe on saturday...

Psh, wimp. You could have totally just walked that off.

Snow boarding, HAHAHA.


Crap back to compressible homework I go.

When are you back in culpeper tyler? You should come by sometime...

I'm thinking about doing some kind of local mazda meet...

Just a quick observation, but it looks like the rx8 fmoc will not work. The bungs are simply in the wrong place! The cost of making them work isnt worth it over buying different coolers...

Wow - March 4th was my last update??? I really am a slacker.

I cut back on the amount of work I put into the project the last several months for sure, but no worries, this is the project that never ends :)

I spent a good portion of time working on my rx8 getting it ready for some events that ended up getting canceled due to lack of attendance :( I'm pretty bummed out by that one... it sucks seeing the motorsports in our area take a dive. I'll toss up some updates in my rx8 thread though highlighted that work... now onto the FC again.


I am still toying around with a few different parts of this project. Right now focusing on trying to get the interior squared away. I actually picked up another FC for parts in hopes that it'll finally put an end to my search for good interior parts. The rest of the FC will be parted out most likely to fund a new daily driver project (FB).

I will get some pics up shortly of some of the progress on this car. With the slowing race schedule this year, I should have more time to devote to the cars themselves! Things will move slow through the next few weeks as I'm on vacation and building a new nursery and deck/patio.. so with all good luck, I should still have the interior 75% there by August and the car to paint sometime shortly thereafter. We're expecting our baby girl in October so after that I will begin building the engine.

I completely blew away my original timeline for this year (dont I always??) but am still hopeful that DGRRXI will be possible for the FC.

Time will tell, lol.. pics to come...

As mentioned, I did get another FC with the mindset of having a complete black interior to swap over to mine. I have searched high and low for a REALLY clean and COMPLETE black interior. Its a lot harder than some may think, so others looking to go this route, if you find a deal... TAKE IT!!!

I bought this '90 Coupe with the intent of swapping interior since the pics looked great and the price was right. Now that the car is in my possession, I'm a little weary. The interior is in great shape for 184K on the clock, but it is worthy of my project??? It has no cracks, tears, etc.. even the grills are in good shape (for now, we'll see if they'll survive the removal) BUT its a bit dry and has very minor MINOR blisters on the top of the hood. Still the best I've seen thus far and rumor has it there is a compound that can refresh it a good bit...

So, here is my issue. Do I swap this interior in, use it as is (minus the seats and carpet, those will be new) and then keep an eye out on better parts in the future? The interior is somewhat holding me up right now, so I need to move on it I guess. Then, I could part the rest of the car out, and scrap the body (or sell).

Or....

I could simply rebuild the NA engine for cheap, get a door and fender (already have a source for them), slap a DIY cheapo spray job on her and daily drive it for a while... commuting in the RX8 is brutal (105miles a day) and this would be a good beater and get better MPG... I just don't know. I really want an FB my buddy has instead since I'd like to have each generation...

Thoughts? We'll see how it plays out over the next few days. I plan to have a FS thread on the entire car, part out thread and a WTB thread on a used NA engine. Whichever happens first I guess is what I'll do.

Here are some pics.

http://www.findtuners.com/FCProject/driversside.jpg
http://www.findtuners.com/FCProject/rear.jpg
http://www.findtuners.com/FCProject/interior3.jpg
http://www.findtuners.com/FCProject/interior2.jpg
http://www.findtuners.com/FCProject/interior1.jpg
http://www.findtuners.com/FCProject/engine_bay.jpg


Here's the damage, completely repairable though (replaceable):
http://www.findtuners.com/FCProject/passenger_side.jpg

Hell Bill the car actually looks better than what I thought it would. I say cheap DD with forsale sign untill FB is roadworthy

hmmm, I may take you up on the engine depending on the price...

I did put a FS thread up on the "other" forum to sell the car as a whole... we'll see. I'm giving it two weeks. If somebody takes the car off my hands all together, great... if not, no sweat... I'll keep on truck'n.

Only catch with that is where do I build the FB, lol. I suppose I do have an empty spot in the garage, but I like to keep one bay open for maintenance on the cars that actually run :)

Sell me your original 12A from the other car and I'll drop it in at your place and its all set ;)

What do you want with a pidly 'ol 12A when you got that monster RE to drop in!!?

I still don't know what I'll do with it. it will prob be the best thing to do with it otherwise it may become an industrial strength paperweight.

See, now we're thinking, lol....

It doesn't really matter to me either way - I thought maybe you'd drop it in the Repu or something? If you do decide to sell it, I could use the original 12A as a core/rebuildable unit later.

We'll figure something out, no big deal...

If I ever get to the REPU it will be a proper 13b in the hole it has been shamed once before in its life with a piston engine and then back to the rotary.

Yet another non-entertaining update. My main project hasn't been touched in about two months now. Baby stuff took over and its been hectic ever since, in a good way. With about 65% of the home projects (building a nursery, fence, etc) I'm looking forward to more time with my main FC in the fall.

I've given it some thought and it looks like the body parts will go into the basement for the winter and I'll hold off on the bodywork until yet another year (spring '11).

My quest for the perfect interior has turned a full 180 back to my original plan of not installing interior at all. I like the "idea" of interior but the "function" loses me for a track car. All this car will have is the dash, seats, center console and custom door cards. The rest of the interior will be soaked up by a cage and fuel equipment, coolers, etc. IF I decide to do interior later down the road, I can add it in around the safety equipment, etc.


So... why do ask do I keep saying my "main FC" :)

Behold the new beater...
http://www.findtuners.com/FCProject/87rx7.jpg
1987 Bone stock sport model. I put some vert wheels on it today with newer rubber and its all set. Plan is to just drive this until its dead with no real modifications. I want to park the RX8 for the winter and focus on my main FC, lol.

The nice touch here is that this car is also fairly straight w/ little rust so when I complete my main FC, SHOULD I put it in a wall or otherwise total it, I'll have a nice transferable path to this one.


And yes, I still have the 1990 coupe, please... somebody take it away, lol!!!

I'll take the ENGINE.... and Maybe the Right tail light. But I'm poor and in college, and I still need to put my 7 into the shop to get some actual exhaust welded up.... speaking of which.... CRAPAPPAPPPPPP! I forgot to grab my exhaust ticket to pay it today.

Nice... Well, I'm pulling the engine out and probably selling the body separate. If I don't have cash in hand so to speak by the time the engine is out, I'm just pulling all the S5 stuff off, the engine, etc and getting the body towed out of here....

I'm just going to tear the engine down to see what's good and whats not and probably rebuild it for the S4 someday. I need the rebuild practice anyway since its been a few years....

Don't send it to the grave yard!

Lol, I may have to swing by once I get my car together and tuned. I need to pick some parts from the car...even if you are taking the engine.

Looks like a guy in MD will save the car from destruction. He's coming on Saturday morning to pick the car up. Sorry T - no parts for you! You should still bring the car by once you get it tuned though, lol...

NOooooOoOOOoOOOOOOOoooooo... well at least it's all going to a good home. How's your 'other' projects coming? I'll have to update mine when I drop my car off to get my new exhaust welded up...or just right now.

Honestly though, let me know if you come across another FC you're going to part out, I need a few odds and ends that the dealership no longer sells.

I will have a new update on the real project soon enough. Been busy with the nursery setup, etc but they has been some progress and I hope to have even more in a few weeks. Right now its another phase of parts gathering, not a lot of installs, etc.

You should come by at some point, let me know what parts you need and I'll be sure to source them. I know of at least two parts cars right now not at my place, but easy enough to get to.

Nursery....FC....I see no reason why this has to be two seperate projects ;)

Teaser exhaust pic for the SE. Can't wait to get the undercarriage done and all back together to start putting the shiny parts on!!

http://www.findtuners.com/FCProject/88s_n1duals.jpg

Plan right now is to get the fuel tank situated, finish getting all the tar out of the car and finding a good upholstery guy... once that is done, I'll pick up my engine and start the engine build. That should be more exciting then looking at undercarriage pictures of a 22 year old car!

Those look ear bleedingly loud.

Yea.. on an NA car, I would never use them, but they are fine w/ a boosted application. I loved this exhaust when I first saw it years ago and always wanted to run it. Something "dark" about dual angled mufflers spitting bright yellow flames....mmmmmm..