1992 Mazda RX7 Type-R
Discussion
Thought I'd start a proper build thread for this as things are (very slowly) moving again...
In 2011, I decided to stop being a fanboy and put my money where my heart was - into an FD RX7, a car I have lusted after for as long as I can remember. I picked up a clean '92 JDM car with a basic spec and fresh (DIY) rebuild having only recently been a grade-4 import into the UK. The only thing I didn't like was the R-Magic Type-II spoiler (which I still have if anyone wants it!). The way I saw it, these cars were at the lowest prices they were ever going to be so if it did the inevitable and died on me, I probably wouldn't lose much money on it and I could at least scratch the itch.
I did exactly what you should do when buying a car like this. I read every google link I could, signed up to all the rotary forums I could find and asked all the right questions so I knew what to look for. Then I came face-to-face with the first one I'd seen and couldn't throw my money at the guy fast enough. It broke down on the way home, but still, happy.
Dat spoiler doe.
Obviously, the first thing I did was rip that off. Then I grabbed some halfrauds paint for the wheels and took the rear lights apart to spray them up too.
I would love to tell you that this is where I went mad, buying anything and everything I could to add power or make it look better, but the truth is I was head over heels in love with it. Everything about the car was every bit as good as I could have hoped for. I used the car every day (averaging 9MPG...) until I was sent away to the Middle East with work for a two week exercise. Then while we were away, Iran started saber-rattling and my two week jolly turned into a four month tour. I missed lots of things while I was away but especially my missus and my car.
I landed back in England to a foggy winters afternoon and the first thing I did was fire up the FD for a drive. She repaid me by over-pressurising, over-heating and spitting a huge chunk of radiator out onto the roundabout. I didn't know it at the time, but this was to be my last drive of her.
She was whisked away to the garage for what I suspected would be a new radiator and a clean bill of health. However she failed the dreaded 'champagne test' and that was that. Engine dead, in need of a rebuild - £3.5k. Suspected cause was fuel sat in the engine had eaten the coolant seals. For the next two years, this is where our story ends. She sat there for two years and I'd all but given up hope. I managed to get my 99-spec spoiler at some point but that was it.
In the feels:
I thought about the car most days, felt horrific that my dream car was sat rotting outside in the elements. I finally moved into my own house having become a civilian again and got enough spare cash together to bring the FD to her new home - my first garage! In the mean-time I'd bought this MX5 as a daily too.
I was happy, but sad. I knew deep-down that the ever-growing list of things I wanted to do to my MX5 would likely keep my engine rebuild a distant dream and I was right. I washed the FD and got rid of the weathering that had occurred, but I was no closer to driving her again.
Then one morning on my way to work, a nice young lady stoved into the back of my MX5, subsequently writing it off. Typically, the insurance has been an absolute clusterf*ck to get any money back and I figured I might as well put the money to good use. So straight on to a trailer she went!
In 2011, I decided to stop being a fanboy and put my money where my heart was - into an FD RX7, a car I have lusted after for as long as I can remember. I picked up a clean '92 JDM car with a basic spec and fresh (DIY) rebuild having only recently been a grade-4 import into the UK. The only thing I didn't like was the R-Magic Type-II spoiler (which I still have if anyone wants it!). The way I saw it, these cars were at the lowest prices they were ever going to be so if it did the inevitable and died on me, I probably wouldn't lose much money on it and I could at least scratch the itch.
I did exactly what you should do when buying a car like this. I read every google link I could, signed up to all the rotary forums I could find and asked all the right questions so I knew what to look for. Then I came face-to-face with the first one I'd seen and couldn't throw my money at the guy fast enough. It broke down on the way home, but still, happy.
Dat spoiler doe.
Obviously, the first thing I did was rip that off. Then I grabbed some halfrauds paint for the wheels and took the rear lights apart to spray them up too.
I would love to tell you that this is where I went mad, buying anything and everything I could to add power or make it look better, but the truth is I was head over heels in love with it. Everything about the car was every bit as good as I could have hoped for. I used the car every day (averaging 9MPG...) until I was sent away to the Middle East with work for a two week exercise. Then while we were away, Iran started saber-rattling and my two week jolly turned into a four month tour. I missed lots of things while I was away but especially my missus and my car.
I landed back in England to a foggy winters afternoon and the first thing I did was fire up the FD for a drive. She repaid me by over-pressurising, over-heating and spitting a huge chunk of radiator out onto the roundabout. I didn't know it at the time, but this was to be my last drive of her.
She was whisked away to the garage for what I suspected would be a new radiator and a clean bill of health. However she failed the dreaded 'champagne test' and that was that. Engine dead, in need of a rebuild - £3.5k. Suspected cause was fuel sat in the engine had eaten the coolant seals. For the next two years, this is where our story ends. She sat there for two years and I'd all but given up hope. I managed to get my 99-spec spoiler at some point but that was it.
In the feels:
I thought about the car most days, felt horrific that my dream car was sat rotting outside in the elements. I finally moved into my own house having become a civilian again and got enough spare cash together to bring the FD to her new home - my first garage! In the mean-time I'd bought this MX5 as a daily too.
I was happy, but sad. I knew deep-down that the ever-growing list of things I wanted to do to my MX5 would likely keep my engine rebuild a distant dream and I was right. I washed the FD and got rid of the weathering that had occurred, but I was no closer to driving her again.
Then one morning on my way to work, a nice young lady stoved into the back of my MX5, subsequently writing it off. Typically, the insurance has been an absolute clusterf*ck to get any money back and I figured I might as well put the money to good use. So straight on to a trailer she went!
Edited by Rogue86 on Friday 17th June 12:54
Work finally begins...
Having finally got the engine apart, unsurprisingly lots of parts are needed now (new rotors, housings, eccentric shaft) so I'm waiting for them to be found and ordered. I've also learned a fairly obvious lesson and that is not to buy a car based on it having a rebuild. The chap who built this car has bodged everything to within an inch of its life and it's a wonder the engine lasted as long as it did!
The upside of waiting is that, having been paid a couple of times, I could buy some bits for that car in time to have them fitted. So I did - as well as buying a new daily (seen in the garage here):
So the work being carried out:
- Engine rebuild and street port
- Apexi PFC fit and base map
- Bride seat fit
- Kouki front end fit/paint (+lights)
- Respray boot spoiler
- RE-A diffuser fit/paint
- Toyo T1R fit
- Wheel bearing replace
- MOT
Then once she's bedded in I can finally have her mapped properly and enjoy her again!
We're four-months into the build at this point and here's how she looks at the moment.
'99 spec front offered up. Not the best fit to be honest and it's going to take some work to get it lined up properly but it completely transforms the front end. Cant wait to see it finished and painted:
Diffuser is also on. Unfortunately while underneath they've found that someone has knocked my exhaust and broken it so I'm waiting for a price on one at the moment.
So much room for activities:
Now the engine is apart we've also got to the bottom of why it died in the first place so soon after a DIY rebuild from the previous owner. Turned out he had a slight twist in the main water seal. Of all the things he bodged on the engine, I'm surprised this is what failed and I wasn't instead burned in a fireball of cheapness as one of the glued solenoids exploded. As a result my rotors look like this:
Currently waiting on some oil-pump metering lines to arrive so the engine can be built back up.
Having finally got the engine apart, unsurprisingly lots of parts are needed now (new rotors, housings, eccentric shaft) so I'm waiting for them to be found and ordered. I've also learned a fairly obvious lesson and that is not to buy a car based on it having a rebuild. The chap who built this car has bodged everything to within an inch of its life and it's a wonder the engine lasted as long as it did!
The upside of waiting is that, having been paid a couple of times, I could buy some bits for that car in time to have them fitted. So I did - as well as buying a new daily (seen in the garage here):
So the work being carried out:
- Engine rebuild and street port
- Apexi PFC fit and base map
- Bride seat fit
- Kouki front end fit/paint (+lights)
- Respray boot spoiler
- RE-A diffuser fit/paint
- Toyo T1R fit
- Wheel bearing replace
- MOT
Then once she's bedded in I can finally have her mapped properly and enjoy her again!
We're four-months into the build at this point and here's how she looks at the moment.
'99 spec front offered up. Not the best fit to be honest and it's going to take some work to get it lined up properly but it completely transforms the front end. Cant wait to see it finished and painted:
Diffuser is also on. Unfortunately while underneath they've found that someone has knocked my exhaust and broken it so I'm waiting for a price on one at the moment.
So much room for activities:
Now the engine is apart we've also got to the bottom of why it died in the first place so soon after a DIY rebuild from the previous owner. Turned out he had a slight twist in the main water seal. Of all the things he bodged on the engine, I'm surprised this is what failed and I wasn't instead burned in a fireball of cheapness as one of the glued solenoids exploded. As a result my rotors look like this:
Currently waiting on some oil-pump metering lines to arrive so the engine can be built back up.
Stunning car. One of the prettiest cars to come out of Japan, if not the prettiest. The perfect FD is a stock 99 spec. These cars have been seriously ruined by body kits.
I had a red 92 FD. I must have covered 20k minimum in 2 years and it never let me down apart from a coolant pipe bursting.
I sold it because I was working in Europe and the fear of the engine going pop abroad drove me to buy a sensible Audi A4 diesel which let me down a few times. The FD is the car I miss the most along with the Z3M coupe.
Keep us updated.
I had a red 92 FD. I must have covered 20k minimum in 2 years and it never let me down apart from a coolant pipe bursting.
I sold it because I was working in Europe and the fear of the engine going pop abroad drove me to buy a sensible Audi A4 diesel which let me down a few times. The FD is the car I miss the most along with the Z3M coupe.
Keep us updated.
Ved said:
If they're doing a good job...
That's a bit of a sore point at the moment unfortunately which is why Ive deliberately not mentioned any names. Certainly the quality of what work I have seen has been excellent and what I would expect from a chap as knowledgeable as he is. But four months of delays and at least five completely ignored deadlines had made the process pretty stressful, certainly not something Id wish on anyone else or one that Id go through again. Im hoping the car will be better than I could ever have hoped for to try and take some of the bitterness of the process away.Rogue86 said:
That's a bit of a sore point at the moment unfortunately which is why Ive deliberately not mentioned any names. Certainly the quality of what work I have seen has been excellent and what I would expect from a chap as knowledgeable as he is. But four months of delays and at least five completely ignored deadlines had made the process pretty stressful, certainly not something Id wish on anyone else or one that Id go through again. Im hoping the car will be better than I could ever have hoped for to try and take some of the bitterness of the process away.
Shame to hear that. Too many Jap specialists are absolute cowboys and time wasters.Good luck with the car though, FD's are one of my affordable dream cars. Maybe next year.
Some good news for a change - having waited and waited for my OMP lines to turn up, they finally did, which means work can start on putting this back in the car:
Also a bit more progress on the bumper, with the damage caused in-transit repaired and lots of attention paid to the panel-gaps to make it look as OEM and keep it as strong as possible. Really happy with the way this is shaping up now, though still some work to do where the OS headlight sits:
Also a bit more progress on the bumper, with the damage caused in-transit repaired and lots of attention paid to the panel-gaps to make it look as OEM and keep it as strong as possible. Really happy with the way this is shaping up now, though still some work to do where the OS headlight sits:
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