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Farewell to the Project

June 19th, 2010 · General, RX-7

All the other “projects” I’ve had on this site, from the miata to the numerous bicycles, have all since been sold. Some were short-lived, others were a little longer. Now, the time has come for the departure of the RX-7…

This car was definitely my pride and joy, but I ultimately decided it’d be a wise choice to sell it. Aside from pouring in money and work, I hardly ever got to actually enjoy the car. I owned the car just a few weeks shy of 2 years, and I only drove it 1500 miles. I was usually away at school, and when I was actually home I was either too occupied working on it or just for some reason refrained from driving it. Maybe it was because I wanted to keep the miles low, maybe I never really saw a need to drive it, maybe I’m just crazy, who knows.

While parting with the car was hard, especially because it stood for so much effort and time… it was without question the right choice. I actually became burned out with modding it, and didn’t want to touch it anymore. It was “done” in my eyes.

I sold the car to an older gentleman. Here’s a picture I snapped quickly as the car drove away with its new owner.

I will keep this website going in case any of the information should prove valuable to anyone. Plus, it should be nice to look back on in the future, and appreciate the experience I gained from all this.

This might seem like the end, but it’s far from it. Things have just begun, and I’m excited for the future. During the sale, I was working on my M1 license and obtained my passion, in the form of 2 wheels. I’ll leave ProjectFD to a closure, and I will be posting and updating on the new path in my life on GRANDMIGHTY.com!

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Broke No More

May 24th, 2010 · Fixed Gear

After all the trouble I went through to get the Pipebomb set up, I ended up deciding to sell it only about a week or 2 after it was finally done. Even from my point of view, that is incredibly fastidious; however, I have my reasons. I was never completely happy in my mind with the paintjob, even though it was done twice. I also found 3 mysterious dings that appeared after the first horrific attempt at paint… starting off on such a wrong foot really set the tone for me with the Broakland. Secondly, I’ve come to the point where I didn’t see the need in investing so much money on just a bicycle. It definitely became a status symbol type thing more than anything, and that’s not something I’m down with. With that, I was motivated to just cut my losses and get sell it, then get a cheaper bike that will work the same/as nicely in the future.

I first tried to sell the bike entirely, but it was obvious no one wanted to drop that much coin on a bicycle in one go. So I slowly parted everything out. I ended up selling all of the smaller components first, and the wheels + frameset last.

Now, the sale of the Broakland concludes the last chapter in my “other” projects.

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Taming the Boost

May 17th, 2010 · RX-7

Lately, I’ve been purposely controlling myself by not conceding into any further parts purchases. The past approximately 2 years have gone by far too quick, and the amount of money I’ve spent on this car in that period of time is somewhat numbing to think about. I’m finally happy at the car’s current state, I’ve been striving to reach this point ever since day one.

Now that I’m personally there, I turned my attention to a lingering demon so to speak. Ever since the flow mods went on (exhaust, intake), I’ve been extremely cautious with the car’s boost. I had been without a boost gauge for the majority of the time, so I would never romp on the car. It helped that the car was barely ever driven to begin with, but that’s another story…

With the recent boost gauge addition, I finally had an idea where the boost levels were at. While the car pulled well, there’s a reason behind it. The boost would climb to 0.7 bar (10psi) rather quickly, but I noticed that it would continue to climb if I stayed on throttle. First and Second gear weren’t too bad because of the reduced load, but Third to Fifth saw much higher boost levels. I would always let off before the boost could climb any higher, and apparently there’s a bit too much flow in the system…

I knew that there was a way to run the car off the Wastegate pressure of 7psi. After asking around, the helpful people on the RX7 forums pointed me the right way. I started by taking off the black plastic pressure chamber in the middle of the engine.

Which unveiled the “rats nest” below.

The foreground’s red arrow is pointing to a pipe that connects to one of the lines from the pressure box I just removed. The other red arrow is pointing to what turns out to be an Empty Pipe, which is only used on Automatic transmissions.

Here’s a picture of the car’s vacuum system for reference.

To run the car off the wastegate pressure / TCA spring, you can cap the top lines going to the Wastegate and Turbo Pre Control solenoids (I,J). Or, by simply unplugging the electrical connectors to the 2 solenoids, this effectively closes them and does the same job. I tried it and it did the trick.

After closing off the solenoids, the car boosted at a stable 0.5bar. There would be some minor creep in 4th-5th gear, but this was to be predicted and the larger buffer room now compensates for it.

By choosing to go this route, it simplified things and now the car is much more worry free. I can actually boost on it knowing that the boost levels are finally controlled. Sure, the car might be boosting less than before, but it’s a trade-off I’m willing to take. My primary goal is to achieve reliability and lower temps, which the lower boost contributes to almost symbiotically.

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Boost Gauge Take Two

May 8th, 2010 · RX-7

I had previously tried to install the RE-Amemiya boost gauge… but a lot of things went wrong. I never thought installing a simple boost gauge could be so difficult, but this is a perfect example that somethings are just hard for some reason…

Before, when I put on the gauge, there were a number of things wrong. The Column pod I was using was for RHD, so the holes for the levers didn’t line up. Secondly, the boost gauge itself was defective. After checking everything over, this was really the only possibility left. As unlikely as it is for a brand new product to be a non-working unit… Luckily, I ordered it from RHDJapan and they were good about returning and exchanging for another gauge; however, as the name implies, they’re located in Japan so it became a waiting game…

Once I received the replacement gauge, I bought another column pod that was molded for LHD. The paint on it was rough, so I decided to try covering it in 3M Di-Noc. I bought 4 yards of material, and somehow screwed up repeatedly and wasted all of it. It’s impossible to wrap the pod in one piece of material, there had to be atleast one cut seam…

I decided to keep it simple after that, and just paint it. I wanted the color to match as closely as possible to the bottom half of the steering column trim, which is a very matte black. I bought some black trim paint to try it out, but after painting it turned out to be slightly too glossy. The black primer I used was actually a super close match, so I repainted again with just the primer. That turned out rough, so I went to the store and bought another paint, called Krylon Ultra Flat Black which ended up being the right match.

After getting the lines and such hooked back up, I get to the very end and realize that the pod isn’t even remotely close to fitting well. I knew I should’ve test fitted before I did all that work. The corners are off, and if one side fits flush, then the other doesn’t…

There does not exist a proper steering column gauge pod for LHD cars. The Re-Amemiya one is actually very good quality, if only they made it for LHD…

Finally, I changed directions and bought a Autometer Gaugeworks A-Pillar Single Pod. I had to solder in an extension to the light wire in order to reach the A-Pillar. The boost line and light wires tuck in nicely between the dashboard and door moulding up to the A-Pillar. I eventually had to bust out the dremel and cut a “tunnel” on the lower half of the pod in order for the boost line to go through, otherwise there was no way the pod could sit flush.

After everything was said and done, here’s what it looks like. Thankfully, this gauge actually works how it’s supposed to.

In this picture you can faintly see the cut and line routing on the lower side of the pod. You can only really see this part at the angle the picture was taken.

When lit up:

Since I was taking a shot of the gauge in the dark, I decided to grab a couple more of what the interior and tails look like at night:

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Pipebomb Current

April 16th, 2010 · Fixed Gear

Here’s my bicycle right now… took quite a bit of work to get to this point. I decided the HED3 I had was too flashy and not needed for something on the street, so I sold it and got a H Plus Son rim built to a Phil Low Flange hub. Since I rode in the rain a few times previously, it made a couple things “click.” I had the bottom bracket retightened, and then I took off the pedals and chainring bolts to regrease them. This solved the clicking issue, but then my rear wheel started clicking not long after. I found out the spokes were getting detensioned, so I had the local bike shop fix that.

I had been riding on Riser bars for close to 2 years by now, and decided it was time to get drops a try. I picked up some 39CM Nitto B123AAs, but didn’t like how my old stem pointed so far upward. So I had to buy the exact same stem, but at a steeper drop (15 degrees). Then I decided to lower down the stem on the steerer tube, so I got that chopped down as well. It was a long journey with this new frame, but finally it’s at a satisfactory point and rides excellent.

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Spring Time Photos

March 27th, 2010 · RX-7

This might have been something a bit overdue, I never properly got some shots of the car after the recent updates. A buddy of mine was cool enough to loan me his camera for the day, so I went out and snapped some pictures. Here’s how they came out:

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Re-Amemiya Boost Gauge and Pioneer AVH-P4200DVD

March 20th, 2010 · RX-7

A boost gauge and Double DIN headunit were something I had in mind for a while, and finally got around to it. I wasn’t a fan of A-pillar mounted gauges, they looked too out of place and not as clean. Re-Amemiya had a boost gauge with a mount that goes above the steering column, so I ordered one from RHDJapan. I got tired of not knowing how much psi the car was boosting, so I always had to baby it as a precautionary measure. The electronic readout on the Apex’i Commander was shown in the millimeter of mercury and had a delay, so it wasn’t useful… had to have a direct gauge for boost.

The Pioneer AVH-P4200DVD headunit definitely updated the interior. I did my research on various double DIN units, and concluded that I didn’t need a lot of fancy features like navigation in this car, just something with good usability and touchscreen. I decided to wait on the P4200 which just released in March, 2010 and I’m glad I did. It has a handy SD card slot, too.

I didn’t feel like it was necessary to change out all the speakers. I personally loved the way the Bose speakers sounded and they worked great. In order to adapt to the Bose system, I had to get a special wiring harness from Scosche. Wiring and soldering everything up was straightforward, except for some dumb reason the Power Antenna/Amp Turn-On wire was in the completely wrong pin slot on the harness (blue/white wire). The pin it was in lead to an empty slot on the car’s harness, and was on the wrong connector all together.

Luckily there was this handy diagram I could resort to, and it was a matter of taking out the blue/white wire from the connector, and placing it in location 1J.

Completed wiring harness…

The installation of the boost gauge and headunit coincided well, so I was able to do them simultaneously. Right off the bat I was faced with a disenchanting obstacle. I had to remove the trim surround around the gauge cluster in order to release the trim around the headunit… all I can say is that trim piece was a major pain to get loose. There were 2 screws on the bottom, and the rest of it was held on by clips that might as well have been cemented to the dash. This required battling at a breaking threshold constantly, with the weak plastic a moment away from completely splitting in 2. That, and there was almost no where to grab on.

Perseverance prevailed, luckily, and it eventually came loose. Here’s a picture with the main trim pieces uninstalled, it looks like some carnage swept through the interior:

Using some removal tools and getting ready to pull the old junk out. The CD player never worked properly for me, and the Bose unit was plain. Since I hate the radio, I ended up using a cassette tape with an auxiliary input to my iPod… felt ghetto. Electronics such as these need to advance with technology.

Almost there… checking things over and setting the gain settings on the Scosche harness before locking things in.

Installed:

With the headunit taken care of, it was time to focus on the boost gauge and finish up. Coincidentally enough, Mazda left a nipple on the UIM capped off that was perfect for tapping into with the boost vacuum line. I ran the hose across the firewall down into the driver side’s fender. After pulling back the fender liners, there’s this plug that offered a clean entrance into the cabin. Using a straightened coat hanger, I fed it through and it appeared near the dead pedal.

Here’s the plug drilled to accomadate the hose:

Installed… unfortunately the column pod was designed for RHD cars and it doesn’t fit that great, I’ll have to take care of that later:

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Project Kics R40 Neo Chrome Lugnuts

March 19th, 2010 · RX-7

Much like the 3 different cat-backs I’ve been through, this is the third set of lugnuts I’ve gotten. I guess third time’s the charm, right?

I first got some standard Work aluminum ones, then wanted extended versions so I bought a set of Ray’s extended. Later I found the Ray’s to be too plain and grew out of the red color. Sticking with the titanium theme, I decided to pick up these Project Kics Neo Chrome lugnuts. Call me picky or fastidious when it comes to parts… but that’s just part of the fun.

These lugnuts have a pretty convincing resume: Lug body produced by Cold-Forged SCM-435 material, Attached rotating taper-seat made with A7075-T6 aluminum and ultra-hard alumite finish, etc. When I read the words forged and all those cool metal names, I pretty much had to have them at that point. Pitfall is they’re a super expensive, especially for lugnuts, so I’m trying not to think about that.

They do look nice though.

Installed at 75ft-lbs, nice and subtle in my opinion.

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FEED Carbon Fiber Hood and Low Profile Spoiler

March 7th, 2010 · RX-7

I’ll start this off with a picture of the box the hood came in (along with the diffuser and spoiler):

Unwrapping all the bubble wrap to unveil this carbon fiber beauty:

I also got this nice low profile spoiler that sits on top of the tail light section. I wasn’t a fan of any of the other spoilers that actually bolt into the hatch, this one is much cleaner and makes the car look more Viper-esque.

Test mounting it. Unfortunately, the finish quality of the spoiler wasn’t too great, there were scratches and other imperfections scattered around. I ended up having it painted a gloss black.

The quality of the hood was much, much better thankfully. One small corner did somehow end up broken off when I received it. This meant spending a few hours sculpting, sanding, and painting to get it back.

Here’s the car with the OEM hood removed.

Fitment is great, I did run into a problem trying to close it shut initially. Turns out, the latch locking mechanism couldn’t fit over the U handle (for lack of a better name) on the hood; it was too thick in diameter. Comparing it to the one on the stock hood, there’s a groove in the part where the latch hooks over. So I busted out some dremel bits and made a similar recessed groove, and it did the trick.

Excuse all the finger print marks on the front of the car, that’s from compulsively getting everything to align correctly.

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Apex’i N1 ExTi Exhaust and Carbon Kevlar Diffuser

March 7th, 2010 · RX-7

This is actually my third time changing out the cat-back. The first one I put on was a GT-Spec, but I eventually found it too bulbous looking. Then I wanted something louder, so I had the straight pipe made at a local shop… that was fun and all but I wasn’t thoroughly happy with the quality of work on it. Finally, I went with a N1 ExTi and have an exhaust I’m very pleased with. I always wanted something Tianium, and the level of craftsmanship on this thing is amazing.

Comes with a cool adjustable tip.

Colorful, uniform welds:

I also put on a Carbon Kevlar version of the diffuser I previously had. I loved the style of the diffuser, but the old one was in FRP. This was something I had been eagerly waiting on for a while, and really ties together the other carbon kevlar parts I have.

Both the new exhaust and diffuser installed:

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