Tweety and Sylvester, Two RX7s are better than one!

[gt_james]

With most of the clutter gone, I checked and although there was no oil leak at the OMP now I removed it, there were oil leaks at the Beehive. I really don't like the Beehive so decided to get rid, and Ian was selling an FC oil cooler and lines, so I bought it and got it fitted.


and also fitted some air horns. There were a few rusty spots under the battery tray and on the RH side of the engine bay at the front, these spots got some rust treatment. I'd like to paint the engine bay but job for another day.

leaky horribleness


With the radiator off, the shroud sheet metal parts, anti roll bar and front chassis cross tube were rusty, so whilst I was in there I stripped and painted them



The engine bay was a right state really so as I did this, I cleaned up the oil/sludge covered engine bay from all the leaks, which hopefully are now sorted.




post elbow grease (petrol and thinners) also here you can see the oscillator- more on that later. Oh and you can see the accuspark rev limiters on the coils, these need moving to a better place, they're installed a bit "temporarily".


and some chassis black on the areas I stripped, and also some rust converter on some of the body under the battery tray. I wasn't doing a full restoration, just whilst I was there type jobs. One day the engine bay will be completely stripped and re painted, but for now some rust converter will do.



oil lines installed


FC cooler mounted to the painted chassis tube




You can see I fitted some air horns


After getting the Oil cooler fitted, I replaced the engine block to exhaust manifold gasket as I had a leak. The exhaust I have I think is a Janspeed mild steel manifold, and a custom stainless system from the manifold back. These Janspeed manifolds are really weird, they don't have a normal flat flange to seal against the block, the flange has big counterbores (recesses) in, and uses the diffuser tubes from a thermal reactor cut down to make discs. The reactor tubes like to crack and split, and the cut down rings also split. I cleaned mine up (could see the cut marks after cleaning), covered in firegum and assembled with a new manifold gasket, and it seems better.









Still a few jobs on the list as always. The oscillator on my car has never worked since I've had it, and I would like to re instate it, and since doing all this work my dash lamps have stopped lighting up with the ignition on and the engine not running. How annoying!

[gt_james]

No pictures, but I did also remove the rear anti roll bar completely after an end link had snapped, and I put a bit of chassis paint on the underside on a few spots where the old paint had worn away. I think maybe over next winter I will strip the underside and re do completely as it's been probably 10 years since the underseal was last done and its not holding up as well as when I first got the car! I also changed some of the bungs in the floorpan holes.

I just got all this work done in time for my daily to fail it's MOT, so at the moment I'm using it for work, until parts arrive to fix the daily.

[Casey]

You have been busy James

Very nice work - a messy task clearing rust and cleaning stuff, but great to look at (and satisfying) when completed

[gt_james]

I've done a few other jobs, this car is basically NC500 ready now. Still have a bunch of jobs on the "nice to do" list, but the "essential" list I think is done.

I fitted a rear tow eye. Was always missing and I thought it best to get one fitted for driving a long way from home.



I had solid delrin (engineering plastic) anti roll bar end links, which after having one snap on the rear, I decided to change the front ones for "energy suspension" Polyurethane end links. I don't think solid links/bushes belong on a street driven car, bushes with some compliance are much longer lasting/quieter.





After buying the new bushes, my spares hoard revealed some poly end links in reasonable condition, but I fitted the brand spankers anyway. Solid delrin at the bottom.



The rear trailing arm bushes were looking pretty knackered (crumbling would be a reasonable term for them) so I refurbed the arms and fitted new energy suspension polyurethane bushes. What I will say about poly bushes on the rear is that these are ideal for the lower arms, but for the upper trailing arms I would prefer a softer suspension bush, to reduce bind. I don't think the rear arms are available anymore, so its not possible to replace your old knackered bushes with new soft rubber ones. I know people say don't poly bush the uppers, but I would much rather poly bush them than use old, age hardened, cracked ones anyway. Also these are not a bonded bush, the inner sleeve can rotate, so no need for the Nyloc/locking nut mod. Shouldn't need to torque the bolts with the weight of the car on them either, but I did anyway.

In an ideal world I'd 3 link it like the race car to solve the binding problem properly not bodge it with sloppy soft bushings, but I don't have the time to fabricate the 3 link before my trip, but one day I probably will be doing that.







Sometime after the above picture I started running out of time to get the job finished and didn't take any more pictures, but the de rusted, painted and re bushed arms are indeed fitted. And to be honest can't tell much difference driving it since, but peace of mind that the old knackered bushes aren't going to collapse! The old ones were a right state.

I was planning to change the watts linkage arms for some adjustable ones from my yellow car whilst I was at it, but I had the arms and watts link off and on about 10 times under the car trying to get them adjusted and axle centred, and I just couldn't get them to work with my ride height, the axle centred and the right amount of thread engagement on the adjustable rod ends, so in the end after lots of time spent, I put it back together unchanged with the old arms back on exactly as I started. Annoying.

I hate the watts link, it weighs too much, is difficult to adjust and flat out doesn't work well, again I will probably try and convert to a panhard bar like my track car. Much easier to work on and adjust, lighter, lower roll centre. Much better way to engineer the rear of these cars. But as per 3 link above, not a job I had time for, a job for another day.

I also changed my brake pads for some new ones (Rock auto Rocks, few days after ordering and at my door for a good price). Unfortunately, one of my rear caliper sliders is a bit sticky/stuck, so will be rebuilding soon, but again, ran out of time so will be living with them as is for now. Car stops nicely, and holds on a steep hill with the handbrake a few clicks on, and wheels don't drag excessively. Maybe I'm just picky but I'm never totally happy with single piston sliding calipers, and they seem to need rebuilding somewhat regularly to avoid sticking. Not just mazdas, other cars I've had with single pot sliders I seem to have refurbed/replaced a lot.

[Casey]

Excellent work James

Loving your attention to getting things as perfect as possible

[gt_james]

Will try and post some pictures soon, but I completed the NC500 trip with "Tweety". Pretty much fault free 1700 mile road trip around north coast of Scotland, plus isle of sky and a stop off at lake Windermere. Pretty chuffed to have completed it in a 40odd year old obscure car I've fettled myself. Only issue I had was front indicator bulb holder has some corrosion on, and stopped working briefly, quick fix was taking the lens off and pushing the bulb in and out the bulb holder a few times to scratch the corrosion away. Will replace the bulb holder with new soon though. Handbrake worked well, plenty of hill starts on some extreme mountain roads and it held well, but still planning to refurb the rear calipers soon.

I did find the stock 12a rather lacking on some of the steep roads, lots of first and second gear revving out to get myself around, and a lowered car on coilovers and loud exhaust isn't exactly ideal, but good fun and it did the job, and lots of compliments and thumbs up from people.

Europe road trip next?

[spirit r]

Europe road trip next?

You know where your roadtrip highlight is James?

[Hobbawobba]

Pics or it didn't happen

[gt_james]

Realised I never posted pics from NC500. Better late than never:



This is the group of us that went, two sensible modern estate cars, two bikes and me in my RX-7.








John O'groats milestone!






Would've been rude not to stop at the odd pub.

[Casey]

Great pictures James. You even good weather for some of the trip at least