Phewwww I've been busy....

But not on the 7 haha. I have done a few many things in the way of the 7 but none of which will get it on the road any sooner other than having the 5th gear syncro updated in the trans before install which has yet to happen....These things take time and lots of money...both of which are limited in my case lol.

A buddy of mine was so generous to have given me for Christmas a set of Hella horns! Pardon the bad cell phone pic but times are "hard" lol just kidding.

As you can see in the pic the Koyo sits in nicely, I hope I won't have to adjust much one the 13B gets in there.

I finally picked up a matching front bumper and r1 lip that need refurbishing but looks decent.

 I mentioned these little beauties early on.

 Also got a good deal on this aftermarket bumper lights off of a buddy on the 7Tuned forums.

That empty bay needs filling but I've realized I've got to take care of a few things before I can even get that far.

The Parts Collector

Well I've had this car for a little over two months now and find that searching for parts can be pretty fun. I love waiting for UPS and USPS to drop off cool stuff that I can stuff into my little project car.

In the midst of my bringing this little gem back from the bermuda triangle I planned to swap out the auto goodness for some non auto goodness. Finally picked up a 5 spd that I immediately dropped
off at Lucky 7 Racing in Duarte California. I have a ton to do but the swap has taken priority.

Also picked up a lightweight Koyo racing radiator and stock fans as well as the stock intercooler and ducting. An Exedy clutch and lightened flywheel was also picked up along with the 99 spec front lip that I'll post later and the 99 spec taillights. I'm real happy about those although I should've bought the complete set for reasons that I'll get into later on.

Fender Duty

I'm kind of weird and very use to doing double work, but as I grow older I realize that $#!% is for the birds. With that said I've forgone my previous statement in the blink of an eye with this FD. I couldn't stand to look at the scratched black fenders so I sanded them down and primed them up, knowing full well that I wouldn't be able to get this thing on the street without touching down on a body shop first. I've got little dings here and there some worse than others but those I can deal with.

Upon soft inspection I found peeling paint which is normal and didn't bother me much but the fact that when the car was repainted whom ever painted it was a bit of a tool. Paint on Gas tank, head light plastics, fender lining, wires, ducting...everything.

Back to black that feels much better!

After I primed the JDM fenders I found a fellow member who had some USDM SS fenders that matched my current paint so I snagged those up and sat the other fenders in my FD storage.

The Lock-set

Well just prior to my buying the car I was notified that there was an issue with the keys....There were none.
Bummer....
Then I was notified of a second issue out of some kind of frustration to move this key-less beauty around, the ignition switch had been jammed into power mode allowing the steering to move freely without locking.

Thus needing replacement...easy but not really lol lock-sets have been discontinued for this car for a long while the only real way to fix this issue and maintain some kind of oem-ness is to wait for a fellow FD owner to part their car out. So I waited....for about a day. I was fortunate enough to have a generous RX7Club forum member send me his from a car he'd parted out. Hard to come by to say the least...Thank you sir!

Did some refreshing old school on the right new school on the left

Updated and installed, just a note replacing the rear lock is a pain in the ass....well the lock itself is easy the rear bumper is another story not hard at all just a pain. Who knew it was design to stay on through and beyond the test of time. I love this kind of crap, it really is all about the journey!

Removing the Dirt Layers

First plan of action remove a few layers of earth from the surface and subsurface of this car with the least expensive (99cent store) cleaning solutions on the market and examine and make note of how much work will be ahead of me.

A little back story to this dear 7.

It's been non-mobile for over 10 years kind of like an orphan moving from place to place without any dedicated attention. A good thing for me I suppose but it still needs lots of love. Many battle scares that I'll get into later but still loads of unadulterated potential.

I plan to spruce up the man cave just for this car.... I literally threw away tons of stuff to make some space.You know the space you stand in when you need to think about all of the mistakes you just made buying one of the most pocket draining pieces of man made machinery ever known...and at the end of that thought realizing you would have it no other way...yeah that space. I'll be there for a long while.

The interior was pretty okay as well...

More to come soon.

Day One....Well Sorta

Welcome to The Under Dawg Build, my feeble attempt at building up what I think is one of the most interesting cars of all time. I mean there are many but Mazda's RX7 is definitely one of them. This has been done many times in the past and might be done more so in the future......who cares!

Many of my buddies have told and asked me to doc this build so here you go folks...

I feel everyone's individual approach to anything in the world is unique enough to have its own voice thus sparking some kind of flame in others right?! I'm an artist by trade and more specifically a visionary lol, just saying I like the way some things look when some thought has been put into them and I like doing that kind of thinking. I'm sure my taste and approach to things here aren't the views of many...its coo.

So I picked up this life long dream car, I mean to say a within reason dream car... Wanted one for a while but never had the balls to make it a reality. Consider the stones grown...

Ain't she a beaut... Pics from the seller.

Yeah work is needed here....a lot of work...

The car has some kind of long story of which I'll get into at a much later date.

As she sits she is an optioned Touring/base model automatic 3rd generation RX7 the nice thing about this is that its one of the lighter weight models being that there is no sunroof or Bose acoustic system. No crummy back seats either. The interior came stock in all black with black leather seats hence the optioned bit. 43k on the clock not that it really matters at this point...

So yeah I got work to do...so it begins.