www.RX7fb.com

Congrats and welcome to the forum Jesse. Looks like you're making great progress and the engine bay is coming along in leaps and bounds
It is definitely cheaper to buy good examples here in the UK than in NZ where there was a bit of a cult following for the FB.

Keen to see more pics as the project progresses.

Biznatch

Shot, Biznatch

Time for a little update I think! Haven't done a whole lot yet again with this horrible weather haha. Replaced the air filter with a K&N version.

Ordered some leather shift and handbrake boots from redlinegoods.com for about £35-40. That was with one of their regular discounts. Free shipping and based in Europe too, so there were no extra import costs. Installation was pretty straightforward and looks much better than the original whatever that stuff is! I've made the handbrake one a bit less baggy since haha.



Noticed the foamy bit under the carpet in the passenger foot area was a little damp.. Took the seats and door panels off and poured water over the closed door. Found that this monster of a hole was letting in so much water that it was splashing onto the door card and running down to the inside part of the plastic sill. Then running down to the footwell! Plastered some black silicone sealant over drivers and passenger sides and it seems to of worked.


Although the drivers side outer window-door seal has a bit of a gap which I cant really do much about. Like its too long for the window. Foamy stuff under carpet behind the drivers seat is damp too. Think I've narrowed it down to the disintegrated door seal at the top corner. Will email Mazda about new ones if available.


Nearly turned into Noah's Ark during the great Worcester floods of 2014 Moved the car around front which is higher ground. Was allgood.



Got my club stickers on. Same place on drivers side too. Thanks Marc!



Amazon.com emailed me about some cheap NGK plug leads which a few others have on here. Was about £22 all up, then had a refund of about £3-4 a month later for import tax or whatever. So about £18 total . Cleaned up and painted the coil bracket in satin black. Little things



The red wire separators I have were a little loose on the NGK leads. Ordered some black single sided foam tape to try and help the problem without looking out of place. 20mm wide x 1.5mm thick. Had to cut it slightly. Was easy. Looks just the same and works fine



Not much aye!
Anyway, the reason I've decided to actually update this haha. Was driving to KFC with some mates this-evening and my mate said "I smell something burning". I smelt it a few seconds later and pulled over instantly. Smoke was coming from the front passengers wheel which gave me a bit of a fright. Figured the caliper was stuck and called Steve-A to double check what he thought! I'm still learning. Walked about a mile to KFC and let it cool down for a while then drove back.

Luckily http://www.biggred.co.uk/ who have been mentioned here before are only a 10 min walk away from my house! So I gave them a message and will probably pop into the shop next week at some point to see my options.

Currently sorting out my permanent residence in the UK. Gotta be done by June. So hopefully once that's sorted I'll be able to start on some bigger things aye!

Thanks for reading
Jesse

Well glad your fb didn't get ruined in the floods. Whole different type of flooding with a rotary mind.
I got my rx8 through MOT, just passed the 100k mile mark and the MOT woman kept spinning the engine over, before she learned how to start the
damm thing right. it's as well i have the faster starter and battery, at least she said she knows how to start rotaries from now on, nerve wrecking when
someone else drives my 8.

That engine bay is certainly coming along! Night and day compared to what you started with.

When is the 13b going n?

spoddy wrote:nerve wrecking when
someone else drives my 8.

I think a lot of people are the same with their cars aye.. I know I am!

RamoNZ wrote:That engine bay is certainly coming along! Night and day compared to what you started with.

When is the 13b going n?

Chur bro! Still got loads planned aye. Shame I can't quite get it to idle "just right" aye! Haha.
13B will be longggg away. I want to sort out all the underbody/coilovers and stuff first aye. Being sensible . Trying to figure out which way I want to eventually take this car though. 13B bridge, or 13BT. Hmmmmm?

So I got my calipers off today ready to be cleaned up and new seals put in. What do you guys think off these? How would be best to clean them up? Or do I need new ones Pistons/bores/discs? Half the hardware for my calipers are missing too

Before I started




Best way to clean all this crap out?


The piston is pretty smooth on the outside. Seems stained or something?


Once again. How to clean this up or do I need new ones?

they'll clean up fine Jesse, no worries, just as long as the chrome on the outside of the pistons isn't flaking off or scored. Get some very very fine grade wet and dry and clean them up with that. The pistons will polish up great and all that staining will disappear and the bore of the caliper will clean up too. The only surfaces which actually seal the fluid in and must be undamaged are the polished surface of the piston and the main seal. It's very important that you get all the rust out of the groove in the caliper bore where the main seal fits..... this rust is what causes your caliper to stick and bind on...... the rust grows behind the seal and forces the seal outwards causing it to bind on the piston so you need the groove to be rust free..... wire wool and an old flat bladed screwdriver with clean it up. Make sure your wet and dry is very fine though.

Time for a little update I guess! I'll repost some before pictures of the brakes since I must of moved them haha.








Filthy!





Thaaaats better!


Sprayed them with VHT brand caliper paint which went on really nicely. The spray nozzle was really easy to press also with its strange design







It was a major pain to clean them and also to put in the damn metal spring clip thing on the dust boot of the caliper! I'm really happy with how they turned out though. I used the Bigg Red 205118 rebuild kit which cost about £26 I think. I didn't pay shipping as they are only a 5 min walk away from me
I also installed some Russell 639570 speed bleeders all round which I got from http://www.amazon.com/Edelbrock-Russell ... B000CPCOB6. I read you have to bleed the system with the normal ones first before putting these in, which I did. But future bleeds should be eaaasy!


Gave it a good wash which had it looking nice... For about 3 days until leaves and crap got all over it I'm loving the camera quality on my new phone though aye haha.




Last of all.. I had an old Piranha immobiliser system installed in the car which was annoying me. I have no remote for it or anything, so I wanted it out to clear up some more space in the engine bay and some weight savings I guess! haha. I hadn't touched it because I was a bit scared of messing with the wiring under the dash. Turns out it was about 4 scotch locks under the dash and only 1 wire in the engine bay had been cut into which was easy to connect back together. Anyway here is what I removed




Next plans are to get an exhaust made up as mine is leaking badly. I'm thinking 2.25" or 2.5" with a resonator before the axle and a decent muffler on the back. If anyone suggests different the I'm listenin'! Also trying to find someone who can do a bit of welding for me as I have some rust

Hobbawobba wrote:Anyway here is what I removed

a flipflop?
Car's looking good after a wash Jesse.... and good job on those brakes... it's a ball-aching tedious job to do but worthwhile one it's done and you soon forget what a miserable experience it was.

lol, I believe the correct NZ terminology is "Jandal" isn't it?

Scary alarm wiring is scary Looks like it was more likely to set the car on fire than stop anyone nicking it! +1 on the brakes; hateful job, extremely satisfying when it's done