Project: "Last RX-7" by Herblenny

[metalgearunltd]

you have had some very clean rx-7s. good luck with your build and keep up the good work

[EspoNation]

Hey Phillip! I have that issue of Modified. I have to say almost framed it. I love pretty much anything that has a rotary in it. Awesome build. Sub'd.

[Herblenny]

Originally Posted by EspoNation

Hey Phillip! I have that issue of Modified. I have to say almost framed it. I love pretty much anything that has a rotary in it. Awesome build. Sub'd.

Thank you for the kind words!


more update...

January 10th, 2012 - Well, I would of made an earlier update but I had to put 14 hour day at work yesterday and didn't have much time to tell you all what happened to my trip.

Well, last week I was running around town trying to get my shell ready for a swap with an R1 shell (without sunroof) that a friend of mine had in GA. So, I had to pull the 20B out, get the hatch from my friend's shop (which I was going to paint it and put on my MB FD), find a trailer, and a friend to help me tow it. Because my fabricator does not come in on saturday, I also had to go there day early to pull the car out so I can load it day after.

Saturday morning (Jan. 7th) - We loaded up the car and got to my friend's place in GA. We started taking stuff off of his car and started to transfer to my shell.



During this process, the car smelled really bad and we found some crazy stuff. Like dead mouse





I guess the car was sitting outside for awhile and a mouse made a nice home out of this RX-7.

Since I was going to strip this car to bare metal, I didn't really care about the smell or the dead mouse.... but I did care about what I found next, a bent frame that lead to bent head light assembly mounting points. This is a bad sign as when headlights are mounted and pop ups go up and down, the geometry is messed up so the lights might not line up. At this point, I was quite upset.. Just because I asked my friend to check the car as he knew the car was in an accident before. Also because my car was on hold for 2-3 weeks as my fabricator couldn't cut anything on the shell because of this swap. And I wasted my weekend, other people's time, etc just because my friend didn't take 10 mins to check over the car carefully and to see where the accident was. But he's a friend and he feels bad and going to help me out later so I cant be mad at him.

Anyhow, we loaded the car back up and drove it back to my fabricator.



Hopefully, I'll have more fabrication updates later this week!

[renn]

haha... deadmau5

[Herblenny]

January 12, 2012 - Last night, I went over to www.MPFab.com to install the 20B back in to the car and get the car ready so that owner of MPfab.com can start building the exhaust system and the V-mount.

Since its important that everything needs to sit the way it is, we needed to install the tranny, ppf, catback, MP, etc... but like always, we ran into other issues..

Issue #1 - Defined Auto kit did not level the engine.



This might be because I had issue lining up one of their motor mount bracket and I had to enlarge the hole in order to get the brackets to slid into the motor. But, that's not it as one of the top hole should of kept the height in order..

Issue #2 - Correcting leveling issue.

We measured everything to make sure if it was the mount or if it was the car. After measuring the chassis, subframe, core support, etc, we came to the conclusion it was the mount. So, we added couple of spacers to see how much it was off..



After adding the spacers (3/8 inch), we had other issues.. which is now the engine was sitting bit to high and PPF was hitting the tranny tunnel. So, we lifted the engine, pull the passenger side mount and cut 3/8 to level it back out. After that, we wanted to make sure if everything else was going to fit so, we dropped the sub frame and bolted the oil pan on to double check everything...



At this point, everything seems ok after cutting but the PPF still seems bit close to the top of the tranny tunnel.

Next, I'm going to bring my AutoEXE braces so Walker from MPFab.com could build the exhaust that will clear all the bracing.

[davin]

That is a pretty short LIM...

[Vince@R/TTuning]

is this the chassis with the bent frame?? Hope that wasnt a contributing factor

[Herblenny]

Originally Posted by davin

That is a pretty short LIM...

yeah, its lowered to clear the hood.. and i'll be selling this soon to go with something else.

Originally Posted by Vince@R/TTuning

is this the chassis with the bent frame?? Hope that wasnt a contributing factor

No this is the straight from that I bought earlier.. I decided it wasn't worth it to pick up the bent shell.

The issue was the mounting kit I bought.. shortening one of the delrin motor mount fix the issue.. but took 5 hours to do it.

anyhow, Not much update over the weekend so here is a random pic of my MB FD

[jesse096]

So in for this build, looks amazing so far!

-Jesse

[lownslow95]

Wow. Looks like you are making some serious progress on this.

[Herblenny]

Thank you!

More update... but a lot more update tomorrow as I'll be spending this afternoon on the car.

January 18th, 2012 - Got my wheels in from WORK Wheels (http://www.workwheelsusa.com/).





WORK CR Ultimate aka Kiwami.

Spec: 18x9.5 +30 and 18x10.5 +23

[davin]

Nice Killer!

Looking at the FD wheel calculator, you are looking at -0.57" poke on the front and -0.85" back. Are you going to roll the fenders or put on a wide kit?

[lownslow95]

Need better pics of the wheels.

[Herblenny]

Originally Posted by davin

Nice Killer!

Looking at the FD wheel calculator, you are looking at -0.57" poke on the front and -0.85" back. Are you going to roll the fenders or put on a wide kit?

I'll have a wide body kit on this.. similar to my MB FD.

Originally Posted by lownslow95

Need better pics of the wheels.

I just ordered some tires and when I get them mounted I'll post better pics.

Anyhow... random update..

January 19th, 2012 - Few pics of the update...

Interior.. took the dash out and put just the rebar to hold the steering column in place..



Also installed my Ti Catback



And my MB FD was featured in S3 Mag and they are using one of the photo of my car on their website..


www.s3mag.com

I have a ton of photos of the new set up tomorrow...

[McVicker]

Phil I didn't know you moved up to the tri-sate area

How many build threads are you up to now? lol

[tooslow1]

awesome build!! cant wait to see the progress on this thing

[Herblenny]

January 20th, 2012 - Update from my fabricator's work. Walker Morgan from www.MPFab.com did an awesome job on these parts.









Downpipe









Inside the DP.. you could almost see through..

[Erik@R/TTuning]

Fantastic welding.

[rocknrace03]

x2 on amazing welds, this car is gonna be sweet

[Herblenny]

January 22nd, 2012 - I've ordered a new wastegate from a friend from the past who owns www.znperformance.com

Gave me a great deal the Tial 44mm MVR wastegate!





www.znperformance.com

While I was at it, I also ordered one of these from ZNPerformance..