www.RX7fb.com

Nice one Derek!!coming along good - you think you will have it running in 2013??

Hi Damon,

That would be good mate, but to be honest it will be when it is ready !

An important part of rally preparation is strengthening the bodyshell. The roll cage does a lot of this, but for additional strength and to increase the torsional strenght, it is a good idea to seam weld the shell. This provides a stronger fusion than the spot weld used by the manufacturers.

You can see from the inside the penetration of the weld has burned the internal paint coating.



Some of my better welding........



Seam welding is hampered on the underside, by oil, dirt, and worst of all seam sealant. It is impossible (without acid dipping the shell) to get rid of all of it and it does this to your welds:

I cannot believe how clean that shell is.
Happy welding.

"I managed to find a company that could supply a rollover spit for a sensible price that would enable me to get the car at any angle needed to seam weld the shell."

Can you post web address of where you got the spit from??

The more I visit here, the grander my aspirations beccome.

Hi Mr Swann,

I got the rollover jig from this fella:

http://www.rolloverjigs.com

Time for a bit of an update perhaps ?

Much welding has been done and much gas and welding wire used !

It seems as if I have spent the last year welding, which I suppose is true !

The Mazda competition manual recommends certain strengthening plates, this one is for the steering box.



Having said that my plan now is to convert the steering to a rack and pinion set up. Depending on the difficulties of fitting, I am hoping to use an Escort "quick rack". If the rack is fitted behind the engine, then this minimizes any negative effect on steering geometry.

This photo shows how it is done on the Group B cars, unfortunately on a std format FB, it is not so simple.



This photo highlights the issue with installing a rack on the FB, it will require some serious rack mounts for rally use, the solution adopted here may well work, but looks a little fragile.







The reason for the difference is that the Group B cars engine and crossmember sit further back to improve weight distribution. To replicate that, I would need to dry sump the engine, which is not incorporated into the budget right now !

If the motor sits further back, why not reverse the sump like an RX2?

Anyway, back to the welding.





The rear O/S sill needed some work to rebuild it.







The outside of the cill needed some work too.

TOOL wrote:If the motor sits further back, why not reverse the sump like an RX2?

Many reasons Tool, but it's difficult to get hold of a Group B crossmember, also to run in classes other than Group B, the engine has to be in it's original position.