1UZ swap into Series 2 RX7

[Muzza_NZ]

Dashboard progress

Hi everyone,
It's been ages since I've posted an update, so here you go.

Changed tack a little on the dashboard. The polystyrene mold just didn't look good enough, so we binned it. It was a heap of wasted work, but it happens...

We decided an aluminium dash would be better, about the same weight and look tidier in the long run. A sheet of 1.2m x 2.4m x 2mm was only $100, and seeing as the glare from a big shiny piece of ali in the cockpit would be distracting, we decided that black powder coating it would be the go.

Anyway, here are some pics of us building it

 

[Muzza_NZ]

some more pics...

some more pics. Still have to cut some more material out around the steering column so that we can take the dash out with the windscreen in, but will do that once we've fully welded it all up.

 

[drifty325i]

That looks bloody awesome, wish i had your skills Muzz

 

[Muzza_NZ]

Hi Riley,
cheers for the comments. The job was actually pretty easy once we'd planned exactly how it was going to look (that's where the real hard work was). What you didn't see from the pics was the masses of cardboard that we went through trying to get the shapes exactly right.
I wouldn't attempt this sort of thing if we didn't have access to the proper tools (ie sheet metal bender, guillotine, ali TIG etc) It makes things look easy.

Muzz

 

[4000GT]

Hey mate FYI, the company I work for owns a non ferris metal distributor...

Also, if you have not got it coated yet, I can probably help out there with my brothers work. You should consider just using a material though as powdercoat typically has a shine since its melted plastic...

 

[Muzza_NZ]

Cheers for the info Andrew,
there are still a few parts to make up in the centre console and then the whole lot will get coated, so I might come and have a chat. I've seen some satin black powder coated finishes and they look about right, I'll do some more research during the week.

Nick

 

[Muzza_NZ]

Cabin progress

here's some a pic of the progress made so far this weekend,
The gauges are in now, the placement may look a strange, but that's so the driver can see them all when he or she (yeah right!) is strapped in.
The centre console is all done, just have to stitch up a leather boot to cover the corrugated rubber one on the shifter.

The cabin is starting to look pretty functional, can't wait to have it all done.

Other stuff that has been done recently, oil pressure sender has been mounted, bonnet pins and pin mounts made, will MIG them in this week.

Chris, the owner, has started buying bits for the turbo conversion, going to look for a R154 too as the W58 will likely get minced...

Nick M

 

[4000GT]

Nice, I now have a couple of turbosmart wastegates and HKS turbo and IC etc for the turbo conversion. Cant wait! Will be interesting to compare.

I know someone with an R154, if he still has it that is.

PS you seen the spray can material that the rally guys use as a coating to deflect sunlight off dashes? I was watching discovery and they used a spray can and it layed a fabric like matt application on the dash...

 

[Muzza_NZ]

Hi Andrew,
I've seen the flocked dashes on rally cars, if that's what you're meaning, and have had a look at some DIY flocking kits, but haven't yet managed to find a solution in a spray can.

Here are a few examples for those of you that don't know what flocking is:

Proper electrostatic application
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d90/Garage19/dash4.jpg

DIY flocking kit
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v514/elg4n/NovaGLF/stackdash/flocked3.jpg

Some more examples:
http://www.suffolkflockingservices.co.uk/examples-flocking-dashboard.asp

Still undecided on exactly what to cover/coat the dash with at this stage... I suppose it could easily wait till after cert, as it's all going to come apart when the car gets painted anyway.

NickM

 

[Muzza_NZ]

Update

Here's a few pics to update the build.

First pics are of the exhaust and gearbox mounts. That gearbox mount is version 2, as the first one sat quite low and didn't have that much clearance from the exhaust (plus it looked rubbish).

Third pic. We cut the door skins out and secured them with riv-nuts and 5mm button head allen heads. The blue stuff will come off when it goes to get polished.

Fourth pic. I took some time off from my Ph.d this week and welded up a radiator over flow tank. It's definitely overkill but that doesn't matter. I polished it too as a precursor to having all of the engine parts done. Didn't take that long either with the polisher attachment on the bench grinder.

One of the pics shows it snowing last weekend while we were working in the garage. It doesn't usually snow in Christchurch, and this was pretty novel. It wasn't easy working at 0 deg C, especially once my fingers went numb (I can hear 'Big' saying "get hard Muzza you blouse!")

waiting on getting some side skirts and rear bumper sorted.

You can see on the side pic of the car that it looks low at the front and a bit high further back, in what I call the 'hammer head shark' look (wider at the front than rest of the car). The rear ride height will get sorted this week, I'll machine up the rear wheel spacers so that they sit correctly on the hilux axle spigot. They're 20mm, so will put the wheels just outside of the guards. That may mean for certification that we need to add some extra flares, but we'll address that if we have problems.

Last pic is the oil pressure sender, as there doesn't seem to be many pics of these on Lextreme.

Authority card inspection should be before the end of the month, so with any luck the car'll certified by early July...

Picked up a pod filter tonight and will mount it tomorrow.

Then it's just replacing nuts and bolts with new shiny ones, and torquing others up. Oh and putting the glass back in...

Super verbose post complete. More pics soon (hopefully of the car on the road or track)

Nick M

 

[drifty325i]

Dam fine work, cant wait to to see it

 

[Muzza_NZ]

Cheers mate. We're about 2-3 weeks away from cert it would appear.

It all seems to be coming together quite well now, but I suppose we've both been pretty focussed on getting it all done. It's been an awesome team effort, with the work split about 50:50 between me and Chris (except his wallet has taken a significant thrashing). Having two perspectives (and therefore at least two solutions) to each problem has been brilliant too. Synergy, bloody marvellous.

We're aiming to put the glass, trims etc back on the car this weekend, but we might have hit a slight snag... We've stored some essential bits in Chris's parts RX7, and it would appear that filthy bastards have helped themselves to some of the contents... F%$kers

 

[Muzza_NZ]

Hi Nige,
Cheers, it's very picturesque and eerily quiet when it snows, I guess it's novel enough that people stay home to enjoy? it...

I didn't take many pics last time it snowed, my camera wasn't keen on the cold... The best I can do is a pic of our neighbours house, and of a snowy corner near our place where some twits were out practising their snow drifting - pic was taken before they got started, sorry.

Google has plenty of snowy Chch pics:
http://img.scoop.co.nz/stories/images/0408/dae9a4f63cb192fbba1f.jpeg

 

[Muzza_NZ]

progress

Hi all,
We made some more progress over the weekend.

Got all of the glass in and high stop light mounted.

Pod filter adapter made and filter mounted.

Springs reset to get the ride height correct, but that has meant that we can't fit the wheel spacers in the rear. As a result the springs aren't captive anymore, so we took the rear shocks out and have some shortened ones coming.

We spent a very frosty Saturday morning nabbing all sorts of bungs, rubbers, stoppers, linkages, surrounds etc off the junk RX7.

It definitely looks like a car again...

Chris picked up some wing mirrors and a rear view mirror (definitely want as many mirrors as possible in the car, the harness allows very limited movement!)

With the car sitting for almost a year (damn, has it really been that long...??!) some of the steering ball joint rubbers have perished so we'll have to replace all of them before certification

Still to do:
Drive shaft loop
Hand brake cable shortened
Speedo calibrated
weld in a couple of reinforcing plates for gearbox mounts and harness
A bit of panelbeating, guards need attaching permanently
Lots of holes in the floor to be blanked plus some around cage where it goes through firewall
number plate light needs to be mounted
squirty bottle
Some more nuts and bolts still need to be replaced with shiny new or HT ones


Cert is in 2 weeks, fingers crossed...

Oh, and Anodyne, there's some more snow forecast for tomorrow so I'll get some better pics.

Muzz

 

[JustenGT8]

Engine bay looks to have a surprising amount of room?

 

[Muzza_NZ]

Hi Justen,
it sure does. Height is the main issue (had to remove the Toyota badge on the plenum to close the bonnet! and that's with only 82mm of ground clearance), but there's still enough of room in there for a turbo or two!
The large front air dam also affords plenty of space for some decent intercooling and piping too.
We'll be doing that a little way down the track once we've ironed out the handling bugs and Chris's bank account has recovered a little.

Muzz

 

[JustenGT8]

Hmmm, tempting donor car for the twincharge setup i want to run ;-) Have always had a soft spot for the early RXs.

 

[Muzza_NZ]

engine bay

Hi Justen,
That would be mint. You're welcome to send the bits over and we'll try them out for ya!!!

Here are a couple of pics of the engine bay as it was at the weekend. Still lots of tidying up to do, but that's to be expected. There is quite a lot of room up front for turbos, but we do have to give the headlight motors a bit of space. I'm sure you've encountered the same thing.

Still, plenty of room for some forced induction...

Muzz

 

[4000GT]

A braided brake booster line? Fancy! haha

 

[4000GT]

PS that guy in was it Timaru or Dunedin had that 2 turbo 1UZ Series 1 RX7, made insane power, was in performance car I think some time ago.