My 6 year FC project

WE3RX7 · 04-29-2009, 09:23 PM

Well I'm up in the air on who to have do the body work, so it may wait until June, etc. I'm also still waiting on a few exterior items that I'll need before it goes to paint.

I'm a long way from having my car on the road, so you'll have some time to bask in the glory for a while

You should come out sometime when you get the car done, my new place is off Ira Hoffman. You can come check out my car and we can pick apart should haves and could haves about our rides, lol...

vex · 04-29-2009, 09:51 PM

for sure! This summer is going to be hectic as poop though. We should definitely meet up on a weekend or something and I can drag along my fiancee.

WE3RX7 · 04-30-2009, 01:29 PM

When are you all getting hitched?

We'll get Jon over with his 8 and wife and the women can all hang out inside and talk about kitchens or something, lol....

vex · 04-30-2009, 02:18 PM

we're getting hitched aug 7th.

WE3RX7 · 06-18-2009, 10:16 PM

Ok - so it's been a while since I've had an update.

Unfortunately, amongst moving, wedding plans, and other commitments - I'm not where I'd like to be on the body shop situation. Mainly, I can't figure out which hood I want to go with.

While dwelling on these aero decisions, I've decided I should wrap up the rest of the undercarriage of the car.

In the next few weeks I plan to strip the under belly, remove rear end, rear suspension, etc and install all new bushings, coat the under belly and trans tunnel with lizard skin's ceramic coating (over top of POR15).

I will use this time to drop the gas tank, refinish it and add a sump setup.

This will also be a good time to look at installing a new LSD and cooler. When all of this is completed, the entire underside of the car will be done, so when the car goes to the body shop and comes back, I HOPEFULLY won't have to have it lifted so much and the rest of the work can be done w/ the car on the ground (mostly).

Here are some shots of the most recent work to include the new coilovers up front, my new homemade workbench will should save me lots of headache, and of course a little idea of what RX8 styled wheels would look like on an FC. (Actually, I used these for measuring to order my new wheels/tires - I can go 255 up front on +45 w/out rubbing so it would seem - more on this once the suspension and steering is buttoned up)

Also - it would appear that to get the MAX adjustment on the camber plates, a little grinding will be in order. I wont do this until the car is close to done and ready for an alignment. I'm hoping my setup will not need me to go to those extremes...

vex · 06-18-2009, 10:34 PM

I don't think you need to grind it. You can move closer cap screws to a hole closer to the other one. That should give you full adjustability and range on the Coilovers.

Edit: I just realized that made no sense at all. Move the screws a few holes over. You shouldn't have any interference problems from the looks of the pictures.

WE3RX7 · 06-18-2009, 10:49 PM

I see what you mean... I wasn't thinking about it that way, lol... so simple.

MaczPayne · 06-21-2009, 01:13 AM

Yup, that's how I have mine. I have full range of adjustability from that.

***TitaniumTT*** · 06-21-2009, 02:11 AM

Yup. Easy -2.5* doing it that way. Unless you're running Rcomps you dom't really need more than that. What kind of racing are you planning, Bill?

WE3RX7 · 06-21-2009, 04:33 PM

Its for time attack open class with NASA Mid atlantic.

I was so tired when I was putting them on it didn't even dawn on me to move the screws as vex mentioned - although, in reality, as you said w/ the R comps I wouldnt really need it and i wasnt going to grind until finish everything else, so I'd like to think I would have caught that before hacking into my towers...

A small update, I got the hubs cleaned up and ready for the new bearings, got side tracked stripping my jeep down today

no more top and doors til labor day!

***TitaniumTT*** · 06-21-2009, 05:15 PM

With the R-comps, I have no experience. From what I've read though they like more negative camber than the streets. Some say as much as 3.5*. I have a set, but I was going to save them until a track day. Depending on which class they stick me in next week will determine whether or not I bolt them on. We'll see. Right now I'm running about -2.5* with my Azenis. I think I can put a little more in on the track, but for the street they seem about right.

Kudo for real racing

WE3RX7 · 06-21-2009, 09:27 PM

Yup - I'm in NASA-X right now w/ my 8 refining my skills since I haven't really race in a few years and I'd like to get the feel back for it. My goal is to complete six NASA-X events this year, at least HPDE1 and then do HPDE2,3,4 next year and apply it towards getting my competition license for TT events. This way, when the FC is ready to go, I can do some test/tune days at auto-x and jump right into the TT events at my own pace... should be fun.

WE3RX7 · 08-22-2009, 05:36 PM

I feel like time is going by entirely too fast these days! Getting married in just over a molnth, keeping up with the auto-x schedule in the 8 and absolutely slammed by work (day and moonlight job)... but even still, I have some updates.

I was hoping by now to have a much better update, but with the delays at Shine on body parts and getting parts surfaced shipped from RHDJapan I'm still not as far along as I'd hoped.

What I have done though, is completed the rebuild of the front suspension, steering knuckle, ball joints and rebuilt the hub.

Very pleased with how its coming together though and my OCD isn't getting in the way too bad - I only double checked the torque settings on every nut/bolt twice, lol..

I'm expecting the RHDJapan order to be in next week, so I can finish off my steering and some misc items... who knows when the rest of the body parts will be here... I'm hoping by end of September, but we'll see.

WE3RX7 · 08-22-2009, 05:48 PM

Here are some shots of the hubs. New hubs are entirely too expensive and finding 4 lug versions is even more difficult. SuperNow makes a nice set, but only in 5 lug and I'm keeping to my plan and staying 4 lug.

Original hub once I pulled the bearings:

The original bearings and races were actually in good shape, but I replaced them anyway. I followed the write up on Mazdatrix, but they leave some details out. Long story short, get a good strong bit - a dremel and sharp punch. You need the sharp punch to get the large race out as its difficult to get behind it. I didnt take pics of my notches that I cut, but its best to make the large. I used a normal grinding bit to clean them up. VERY IMPORTANT for the new races to sit down flush as possible.

Hub before removing races/cleaning:

Another shot of the outer race... these have 112K miles on them and are damn near perfect... but I pulled them anyway and replaced with new:

Original spindle:

I cleaned the spindle up (soaked in gasoline, wirebrushed and then coated w/ three coats of rust proof gloss black). You can see the cleaned hub underneath it with new races installed. I am getting another set of spindles from a friend of mine to modify (more steering angle still) and will powdercoat those set:

Installed the refinished spindle:

Installed the new ball joints:

Installed the new repacked hub and dust cover. I didnt snap any pics of packing the bearings.. at this point the SLR went inside and my old digi cam came out - that grease is nasty shit to have around expensive electronics! Side note... I ended up packing the bearings by hand instead of a bearing packer, hand worked better:

The drivers side is the same deal... no need for pics on that one.

As with the entire project, every bit of hardware was inspected, cleaned and recoated as needed. I also modified the stock brake dust shield as you can see in the last pic. The new brake rotors will measure almost 12" and the stock cover is for 10.2" rotors... Once the new brakes come in, I'll have to find a handy tig welder to make my new dust covers. I want to integrate a cooling duct into it as well...

WE3RX7 · 08-22-2009, 05:56 PM

Those nasty stock tie rods and steering crap is what I'm waiting on from RHDJapan.. That'll come in the next update.

I have collected another part of the project... my dual oil coolers! These are from the old '04 RX8 I had which is now a parts car. Honestly, you can buy new oil coolers and rig something up, but I've found these coolers worked well on the '04 8 (which was boosted as well) and through my autox days with my 8 now they seem to do well too. Tried and true is good enough for me. And they make fan kits for these now. I got the brackets, lines, etc as I'm not sure just yet what parts I'll need to make it all work. I love how Brian did his on his FC, but I'll have to see if I can route mine similarly or not due to charge pipes...

A little cleaning and these should do great:

04-29-2009, 09:51 PM	#77
vex RCC Loves Me Not You Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Influx. iTrader: (6) Posts: 2,113 Rep Power: 19	for sure! This summer is going to be hectic as poop though. We should definitely meet up on a weekend or something and I can drag along my fiancee. __________________ The Official FC Radiator Thread My Project Thread: Cerberus CCVT Virginia Rotary Group

04-30-2009, 02:18 PM	#79
vex RCC Loves Me Not You Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Influx. iTrader: (6) Posts: 2,113 Rep Power: 19	we're getting hitched aug 7th. __________________ The Official FC Radiator Thread My Project Thread: Cerberus CCVT Virginia Rotary Group

06-18-2009, 10:34 PM	#81
vex RCC Loves Me Not You Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Influx. iTrader: (6) Posts: 2,113 Rep Power: 19	I don't think you need to grind it. You can move closer cap screws to a hole closer to the other one. That should give you full adjustability and range on the Coilovers. Edit: I just realized that made no sense at all. Move the screws a few holes over. You shouldn't have any interference problems from the looks of the pictures. __________________ The Official FC Radiator Thread My Project Thread: Cerberus CCVT Virginia Rotary Group

06-21-2009, 01:13 AM	#83
MaczPayne Bah! Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Riverside, SoCal iTrader: (1) Posts: 442 Rep Power: 17	Yup, that's how I have mine. I have full range of adjustability from that. __________________ Johnson TA FC in the works!

06-21-2009, 02:11 AM	#84
*TitaniumTT* Test Whore - Admin Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Right Behind you son iTrader: (4) Posts: 4,581 Rep Power: 10	Yup. Easy -2.5* doing it that way. Unless you're running Rcomps you dom't really need more than that. What kind of racing are you planning, Bill? __________________ -The Angry Stig- DGRR 2009, 2011, 2012 & 2013 - Best FC DEALS GAP!! WOOHOOOO!!!!! 2015 Audi S4 - Samantha - Zero Brap S4 2004 RX8 - Jocelyn - 196rwhp, 19mpg fuel to noise converter 2000 Jeep Cherokee Sport - Wifey mobile - Now with 2.5" OME lift and 30" BFG AT KO's! So it begins 1998 Jeep Cherokee - 5 spd, 4" lift, 33" BFG's - Rotary Tow Vehicle 1988 'Vert - In progress 1988 FC Coupe - Gretchen -The attention whore BEAST! I'm a sick individual, what's wrong with you? I'm pure Evil I'm still insane, in the best possible way. I think Brian's idea of romance is using lube. Your rage caused the meteor strike in Russia. The Antichrist would be proud of his minion. You win with your thread. Most everything It's a truck with a steel gate on the back. Just a statement of fact Motec M820, AIM dash, ported 13B-RE Cosmo, 6-spd trans, 4.3 Torsen, custom twin wg fully divided mani, Custom 4" split into 2x 3" exhaust, Custom HMIC, Custom custom custom custom I like to welder stuff.... No Bolt-ons allowed. Dyno'ed @ Speed1 Tuned by me - 405rwhp on WG.... WM50 cuming soon. *-Angry Motherfcker Mode ENGAGED-**

04-29-2009, 09:23 PM	#76
WE3RX7 RCC Addict Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: VA iTrader: (1) Posts: 1,812 Rep Power: 18	Well I'm up in the air on who to have do the body work, so it may wait until June, etc. I'm also still waiting on a few exterior items that I'll need before it goes to paint. I'm a long way from having my car on the road, so you'll have some time to bask in the glory for a while You should come out sometime when you get the car done, my new place is off Ira Hoffman. You can come check out my car and we can pick apart should haves and could haves about our rides, lol...

04-30-2009, 01:29 PM	#78
WE3RX7 RCC Addict Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: VA iTrader: (1) Posts: 1,812 Rep Power: 18	When are you all getting hitched? We'll get Jon over with his 8 and wife and the women can all hang out inside and talk about kitchens or something, lol....

06-18-2009, 10:16 PM	#80
WE3RX7 RCC Addict Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: VA iTrader: (1) Posts: 1,812 Rep Power: 18	Ok - so it's been a while since I've had an update. Unfortunately, amongst moving, wedding plans, and other commitments - I'm not where I'd like to be on the body shop situation. Mainly, I can't figure out which hood I want to go with. While dwelling on these aero decisions, I've decided I should wrap up the rest of the undercarriage of the car. In the next few weeks I plan to strip the under belly, remove rear end, rear suspension, etc and install all new bushings, coat the under belly and trans tunnel with lizard skin's ceramic coating (over top of POR15). I will use this time to drop the gas tank, refinish it and add a sump setup. This will also be a good time to look at installing a new LSD and cooler. When all of this is completed, the entire underside of the car will be done, so when the car goes to the body shop and comes back, I HOPEFULLY won't have to have it lifted so much and the rest of the work can be done w/ the car on the ground (mostly). Here are some shots of the most recent work to include the new coilovers up front, my new homemade workbench will should save me lots of headache, and of course a little idea of what RX8 styled wheels would look like on an FC. (Actually, I used these for measuring to order my new wheels/tires - I can go 255 up front on +45 w/out rubbing so it would seem - more on this once the suspension and steering is buttoned up) Also - it would appear that to get the MAX adjustment on the camber plates, a little grinding will be in order. I wont do this until the car is close to done and ready for an alignment. I'm hoping my setup will not need me to go to those extremes...

06-18-2009, 10:49 PM	#82
WE3RX7 RCC Addict Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: VA iTrader: (1) Posts: 1,812 Rep Power: 18	I see what you mean... I wasn't thinking about it that way, lol... so simple.

06-21-2009, 04:33 PM	#85
WE3RX7 RCC Addict Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: VA iTrader: (1) Posts: 1,812 Rep Power: 18	Its for time attack open class with NASA Mid atlantic. I was so tired when I was putting them on it didn't even dawn on me to move the screws as vex mentioned - although, in reality, as you said w/ the R comps I wouldnt really need it and i wasnt going to grind until finish everything else, so I'd like to think I would have caught that before hacking into my towers... A small update, I got the hubs cleaned up and ready for the new bearings, got side tracked stripping my jeep down today no more top and doors til labor day!

06-21-2009, 05:15 PM	#86
*TitaniumTT* Test Whore - Admin Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Right Behind you son iTrader: (4) Posts: 4,581 Rep Power: 10	With the R-comps, I have no experience. From what I've read though they like more negative camber than the streets. Some say as much as 3.5. I have a set, but I was going to save them until a track day. Depending on which class they stick me in next week will determine whether or not I bolt them on. We'll see. Right now I'm running about -2.5 with my Azenis. I think I can put a little more in on the track, but for the street they seem about right. Kudo for real racing __________________ -The Angry Stig- DGRR 2009, 2011, 2012 & 2013 - Best FC DEALS GAP!! WOOHOOOO!!!!! 2015 Audi S4 - Samantha - Zero Brap S4 2004 RX8 - Jocelyn - 196rwhp, 19mpg fuel to noise converter 2000 Jeep Cherokee Sport - Wifey mobile - Now with 2.5" OME lift and 30" BFG AT KO's! So it begins 1998 Jeep Cherokee - 5 spd, 4" lift, 33" BFG's - Rotary Tow Vehicle 1988 'Vert - In progress 1988 FC Coupe - Gretchen -The attention whore BEAST! I'm a sick individual, what's wrong with you? I'm pure Evil I'm still insane, in the best possible way. I think Brian's idea of romance is using lube. Your rage caused the meteor strike in Russia. The Antichrist would be proud of his minion. You win with your thread. Most everything It's a truck with a steel gate on the back. Just a statement of fact Motec M820, AIM dash, ported 13B-RE Cosmo, 6-spd trans, 4.3 Torsen, custom twin wg fully divided mani, Custom 4" split into 2x 3" exhaust, Custom HMIC, Custom custom custom custom I like to welder stuff.... No Bolt-ons allowed. Dyno'ed @ Speed1 Tuned by me - 405rwhp on WG.... WM50 cuming soon. *-Angry Motherfcker Mode ENGAGED-**

06-21-2009, 09:27 PM	#87
WE3RX7 RCC Addict Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: VA iTrader: (1) Posts: 1,812 Rep Power: 18	Yup - I'm in NASA-X right now w/ my 8 refining my skills since I haven't really race in a few years and I'd like to get the feel back for it. My goal is to complete six NASA-X events this year, at least HPDE1 and then do HPDE2,3,4 next year and apply it towards getting my competition license for TT events. This way, when the FC is ready to go, I can do some test/tune days at auto-x and jump right into the TT events at my own pace... should be fun.

08-22-2009, 05:36 PM	#88
WE3RX7 RCC Addict Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: VA iTrader: (1) Posts: 1,812 Rep Power: 18	I feel like time is going by entirely too fast these days! Getting married in just over a molnth, keeping up with the auto-x schedule in the 8 and absolutely slammed by work (day and moonlight job)... but even still, I have some updates. I was hoping by now to have a much better update, but with the delays at Shine on body parts and getting parts surfaced shipped from RHDJapan I'm still not as far along as I'd hoped. What I have done though, is completed the rebuild of the front suspension, steering knuckle, ball joints and rebuilt the hub. Very pleased with how its coming together though and my OCD isn't getting in the way too bad - I only double checked the torque settings on every nut/bolt twice, lol.. I'm expecting the RHDJapan order to be in next week, so I can finish off my steering and some misc items... who knows when the rest of the body parts will be here... I'm hoping by end of September, but we'll see.

08-22-2009, 05:48 PM	#89
WE3RX7 RCC Addict Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: VA iTrader: (1) Posts: 1,812 Rep Power: 18	Here are some shots of the hubs. New hubs are entirely too expensive and finding 4 lug versions is even more difficult. SuperNow makes a nice set, but only in 5 lug and I'm keeping to my plan and staying 4 lug. Original hub once I pulled the bearings: The original bearings and races were actually in good shape, but I replaced them anyway. I followed the write up on Mazdatrix, but they leave some details out. Long story short, get a good strong bit - a dremel and sharp punch. You need the sharp punch to get the large race out as its difficult to get behind it. I didnt take pics of my notches that I cut, but its best to make the large. I used a normal grinding bit to clean them up. VERY IMPORTANT for the new races to sit down flush as possible. Hub before removing races/cleaning: Another shot of the outer race... these have 112K miles on them and are damn near perfect... but I pulled them anyway and replaced with new: Original spindle: I cleaned the spindle up (soaked in gasoline, wirebrushed and then coated w/ three coats of rust proof gloss black). You can see the cleaned hub underneath it with new races installed. I am getting another set of spindles from a friend of mine to modify (more steering angle still) and will powdercoat those set: Installed the refinished spindle: Installed the new ball joints: Installed the new repacked hub and dust cover. I didnt snap any pics of packing the bearings.. at this point the SLR went inside and my old digi cam came out - that grease is nasty shit to have around expensive electronics! Side note... I ended up packing the bearings by hand instead of a bearing packer, hand worked better: The drivers side is the same deal... no need for pics on that one. As with the entire project, every bit of hardware was inspected, cleaned and recoated as needed. I also modified the stock brake dust shield as you can see in the last pic. The new brake rotors will measure almost 12" and the stock cover is for 10.2" rotors... Once the new brakes come in, I'll have to find a handy tig welder to make my new dust covers. I want to integrate a cooling duct into it as well...

08-22-2009, 05:56 PM	#90
WE3RX7 RCC Addict Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: VA iTrader: (1) Posts: 1,812 Rep Power: 18	Those nasty stock tie rods and steering crap is what I'm waiting on from RHDJapan.. That'll come in the next update. I have collected another part of the project... my dual oil coolers! These are from the old '04 RX8 I had which is now a parts car. Honestly, you can buy new oil coolers and rig something up, but I've found these coolers worked well on the '04 8 (which was boosted as well) and through my autox days with my 8 now they seem to do well too. Tried and true is good enough for me. And they make fan kits for these now. I got the brackets, lines, etc as I'm not sure just yet what parts I'll need to make it all work. I love how Brian did his on his FC, but I'll have to see if I can route mine similarly or not due to charge pipes... A little cleaning and these should do great: