Motor mounts In and Christmas Gifts!

Got the motor mounts in the other day and finally I can take the rope that was holding the engine up from falling over. It sits a bit lower now too. Also picked up a 5-speed from a friend of mine so thats sitting in the garage now waiting for a new clutch which I should have next week. Also was thinking that I was going make this into full track car and strip it fully. Also with Christmas money I'm hoping to get the Stance GR+ coilovers for the car as well. Here are some pictures of the mounts on the car.

Now for Christmas Santa brought me a tool cart and tool box as well as some ratcheting wrenches to go with them. So I built the cart and moved it to the garage to get all my tools organized.

Looks like I will have enough after Christmas to get the coilovers so I will be putting them on order next week!
Merry Christmas everyone!


-Garren

Motor mounts!

Made my motor mounts today out of hockey pucks and grade 8 hardware. Used a drill press a neighbor gave to me for free. Was super easy and took no time.

-Garren

Shedding some more weight!

So this afternoon I removed the power steering pump and the air conditioning pump. They all added up to be around 28lbs! Thats about it for now, I ordered some hockey pucks to make new motor mounts. I'll update on that later.

-Garren

New wheels and engine!!

Well this weekend was hectic with getting front wheels for the FC and selling the Rota's. Then getting the rear wheels and getting the motor put in.

So Saturday I went and picked up the motor with a friend and brought it into the garage for the night. Later that night I sold the Rota's which paid for the Rear Grenade GX-01's 18x9 +20. Sunday I went up to West Covina to pick up the Grenades for the rear. Then when I got back my dad, a friend and me just put the motor in and tied it up so it wouldn't fall foreword as the motor mounts had broken. that was about it for this weekend should get some more progress now on getting the motor all cleaned up and wired.

 My friend who helped me get the motor to my house

 Bye bye Rota's you wont be missed

 And it is in!!

 These are the rears I picked up before putting the motor in.

This is how it sits now looking like a car!

-Garren

New Wheels Getting rid of the Rota's

So went and picked up two Grenade GX-01's with the money i got from the Ls1. They are 17x9 +15 and have some Federal 595's on them which have a ton of life on them. I also sourced two 18x9 +20 Grenades for sale so I plan to pick those up on Sunday once my Evo wheels are sold. They also have some tires on them so that will same me some money I was going to have to use if I were to go with the RPF1's. Next post I should have the rear wheels on the car.

Also because I have these wheels now, the Rota's are for sale! So if anyone wants them I am asking $350 OBO. They are 17x8.5 +20 all around.

Here is one of the Rota D2's

- Garren

No more torque and new camera!

So I literally just sold the LS1 short block so that is gone and now I am closer to getting the RPF1's. Should be selling the rotas pretty soon for a 5 speed and some cash. I also picked up a Canon 10D yesterday with a couple lenses. So far it's super fun but I suck at taking pictures. I'll figure it out sooner or later. So yay for no more cell phone pictures!

Also I was offered to help coach a middle school Lacrosse team and practices just started and it feels great to be back with the game now I just need to shake off some of the rust!

Where the Ls1 used to be :(

Time to break my gloves in again!

-Garren

Took some pictures

Well didn't really do anything to the car today but just decided to take some random pictures. Here they are.

-Garren

Headlights mounted and sound deadening out!

So went over to Lowe's and picked up some bolts so that I could get my head lights mounted to the frame. That didn't take too long so I helped my friend de-badge his s14. I'll get some pics of his car later. Next I started to sand down my s14 se wheels to get them ready for paint. Didn't get to finish them so I'll finish them on Sunday maybe. Also finished taking out all the sound deadening in the rear bin areas. here are some pics from the stuff today.

-Garren

Quick pics

Just finished getting the Rota's on the car I believe they are 17x8.5 +20 and the fitment is pretty spot on. But still I do not like these wheels at all I got them so a friend could buy them. Unfortunately I had to use my new Muteki lug nuts because the OEM lugs wouldn't fit. I also took some pictures of my carbon fiber delete panels in the interior.

-Garren

New shoes!

So I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to post up tonight so I thought I'd do it now. I am going to be getting the Rota's tonight and putting them on my car. I also may have found a buyer for the evo 8 wheels on my maxima. Sooo this means the maxima should be rollin' on 240sx se wheels soon and the fc will either be jacked up or i may borrow a set of wheel from my friend till I can order my RPF1's. So that is all I have for now If I can get back on later I'll get some pictures up of the wheels on the car if not then I'll do it tomorrow!

-Garren

A pre-Christmas gift to myself

Got into work today and noticed we had a Tomei Duracon shift knob in one of our cases so I went to check out pricing on it. Boy was I in for a surprise retail for these is only $28!!!! So I grabbed that as quick as possible.

Next we got a package from Mackin Industries full of lug nuts and brand new MXP titanium shift knobs. I just wanted to check on pricing on some Muteki short open end lug nuts for the car and I was in for another surprise! They were dirt cheap so I ended up picking those up too.

Here are some pics of the knob and lug nuts!

I am absolutely in love with this shift knob! It is very light and just the perfect size and feel. Plus I won't have to worry about it getting too hot in the sun as the duracon material does not get as hot as metal knobs.

It's funny because one lug nut weighs about the same as the shift knob!

Also this post kind of catches me up to today, Nov. 23, so I probably wont have large updates till around Christmas time but I hope to have the motor by then; at least in the car maybe not running.

-Garren

Bye bye torque I never got to know you :(

So I have the short block up for sale I kept thinking about it and I decided that I want to focus my spending on the car not an engine that I don't need. I promise I'll get another one later! I've got a couple people interested now hopefully someone can take this and give it the life it deserves.

Also the guy I am getting the drive train from has some Rota D2 wheels on his car and he was saying how he wanted some stock wheels for his car. He then offered to trade his wheels for mine straight up. Now I am in no way a knock off wheel type of person. So I am going to trade them and sell them to a friend of mine and put some Evo 8 wheels on the FC that are on my maxima right now.

I have a set of s14 se wheel that I am going to put on my maxima and they need tires so I plan on buying tires with the money I get from the wheels. Everything works out I love it!!!

No pics this time I'll get some of the wheels once I get them in my hands.

-Garren

Time for a small diet

Alright the car has been sitting for too long with out anything done to it so I decided to take out the sound deadening in the rear. I didn't use any dry ice just a hammer and chisel. took me a couple short nights to finish but it's all out. The chisel took some small spot of metal off so I think I'll sand it all down in a week or two and repaint the interior. I haven't got to weigh how much of the stuff I took out but if I had to guess it would be around 10 pounds.

The car also has carbon fiber delete panels in the dash and glove box which save a couple pounds as well. I am looking to make my own aluminum door panels for the car but I'll get to that later.

-Garren

Torque in a Rx-7??

Well this was something that I was planning on doing wayyyyy later when the car was near completion. I picked up an ls1 short block with a friend of mine who also got one. It was a nice deal on it so I figured I'd just start building this on the side.

 Mine is the one on the left

-Garren

Now I can sit in something and make engine noises!

Alright I got a bucket seat for the car. It is the NRG one with the fiberglass back to it. I know it's not the best but if you knew the deal I get on this stuff you would be criticizing me as much. I do plan on getting a better seat but for now it'll do. What is awesome about this seat that surprised me is that it comes with the side mount brackets. Here is a pic of the seat

As I'm sure you noticed the Scroth harness this was something I just had left over from a s14 shell I had a while ago. I will be getting a different harness later. I still have a bit of catching up to do!

-Garren

Prepping for new drivetrain

I have found a drive train to put into this car now. One of my buddies works over at Competition GT and his boss just purchased a FC as well. He plans on putting a ls1 in his car and he offered to give me his n/a drive train for my tII rear end. So I dropped my rear subframe, which surprisingly only took about 45 minutes. Here is a pic of the subframe.

I have already gotten his rear subframe with the n/a diff and axles and put that back on the car and I should be getting everything else in a couple weeks from now! Stay tuned

-Garren

Momo and NRG goodies!

So, just to start catching up a bit I bought a Momo hub for the car as well as the 320mm Montecarlo wheel. I also picked up a NRG thin quick release. I really love this wheel it feels amazing in my hands and the leather is sweet! I will probably end up getting a larger diameter wheel for street use as I don't want the steering too twitchy. The quick release is also not like most where you pull on the sides this one you twist to get off so that took a little getting used to. I really am pleased with these product and I have no complaints about them! Here are some pictures on the hub, quick release and steering wheel.

Well thats all I have for this post!

-Garren

First post lets introduce the car!

Alright so a buddy of mine who I used to work with had a 1987 Mazda Rx-7 shell he was planning on building. Long story short he didn't have the time to finish it so he put it up for sale. I decided that it was something I wanted to take on. Got the shell it is a Turbo II with the manual steering rack and has 87,xxx miles on the chassis. It is missing the steering wheel, seats, hood, engine, transmision, and interior behind the front seats. I plan on making this car into a daily driver that is capable of tearing up the track.

Also I curently work at Gruppe-s Engineering in sales and will definitely be using my wholesale pricing for most of my parts. Now here are some pictures of the car how I got it.

So I have made some progress on the car since I got it and have bought some parts but this post is getting a little long so I'm going to make a new one for more recent stuff!

-Garren