Almost done!

... stripping the donor.



I had quite the productive day on Saturday further tearing down Adam. The only things I have left to take off are the gas tank, fuel lines, fuel filter, A/C condenser, oil cooler, front sub-frame, rear bumper and windshield. And wow... there are SOOOOO many wires in a car.


Its amazing that I didn't have to cut but more than a couple wires (3 out of 100's) to take the entire wiring harnesses out.

A car definitely takes up a lot more space in pieces than it does as a whole. I had to put the doors BACK on the car because I didn't have anywhere to put them. There's also a lot of parts sitting in the car since I didn't have room for them as well.

I also had a bit of fun with some spilled gas as is evidenced by this picture:



Who wants to buy some RX-7 parts? I need room to build a frame!

Yes, kids are great for providing lots of diaper and wipe boxes for parts and baby food jars for nuts and bolts.

Yes, my wife let me use that comforter, its old, has a big tear in it and for some reason we had two of them?!?

Yes, this is going to be a big For Sale list.

IM IN UR BAYZ STEALIN UR ENGINEZ!!1

Yup, this is my dad. He is quite happy if you can't tell.

And here is me, taking a break and relaxing.


My dad was a humongous help this Memorial Day weekend. We got the whole rear end out, the engine and trans out, the dash cover, the vert top off, vert motors out, the doors off, the rest of the exhaust, rear brakes and suspension and probably some other things. No one was seriously hurt (few scrapes) and a number of sore bones and muscles, and we only made a little bit of a mess!!

The transmission decided it couldn't hold its bladder anymore and it peed tranny fluid all over the garage floor. But thanks to O'Reilly Auto being open on Memorial Day we were able to get a nice big bag of 'kitty litter' aka Oil Dry, so now my garage floor is covered in clumps of tranny turds (not THAT kind of tranny!!!).

A guy I work with, Gary, was nice enough to let me borrow his 2 ton engine lift. And while we (my Dad and I) were picking it up, Gary said, "hey, I got an engine stand and a balance bar in the shop, you want to borrow those too?" Two tons of hydraulic lifting is probably a bit overkill for a 300lb engine.

Its a lot of hard work, but man, tearing a car apart is a lot of fun! I can only hope putting one together is as fun.

I CAN SEE THE FLOOR THROUGH THE ENGINE BAY!

Well, busy in the sense that I got a lot removed from Adam today.

In the past few days I have made a lot of progress on tearing Adam apart. Here is a (incomplete) list of everything that has been removed:

Alternator

Power Steering Pump

A/C Compressor

Radiator

Fan

Both front lower control arms

Both front shocks

Both front spindles

Front brakes (calipers, discs)

Both front quarter panels

Bumper Cover

Bumper

Both Headlights and motors

My shed is really starting to fill up.


On another note, it is a lot of fun talking to other people about this project. I am really feeding off of their enthusiasm which most people get after I explain that I am NOT keeping the frame/restoring the RX-7/souping it up.

A bunch of our (my wife and I) friends came over last night after dinner to watch a movie. It is fun hearing friends ask "can I see your car?" And then the "Someone stole your wheels and your radio!!" jokes started...

WTB: Custom Seats

My dad just sent me a  clip from Jay Leno's Garage that featured a company that makes custom seats. WOW! These Stitch Corp seats look really nice.  Maybe someday I'll be able to afford custom seats that are not made for some average person that is 5' to 6' tall.  Just about every seat I sit in, the lumbar support is too low and the upperback/shoulder support is too low as well and ends up pushing my shoulders forward. Oh, and the "head rest" lands at about the base of my neck. The seatpans are usually too short as well. They are just not comfortable. 

And while we're on the subject, a LOT of modern cars have negligible headroom in the back seat. There are VERY few cars these days where I can sit up straight in the back without the top of my head cramming into the headliner or in a worse scenario, the rear window. In some cases there isn't any room for my entire head and I end up having to lean over sideways (*cough* Mustang *cough*). I bet that is really safe in the event of an accident. Then there is the Toyota Celica GT-S which I can't even sit up relatively straight in the front seat because my head hits the roof. I have to lean the seat way back and pimp it big all the time.

I feel sorry for Yao Ming and Shaquille O'Neal.

Japanese have Tiny Hands

I know I said this before but I think the Japanese build their cars like a puzzle... the whole thing, not just the dash. I was working on taking the body panels off today so I wouldn't have to worry about denting or scraping them and I only managed to get the bottom trim piece off of the front bumper.  From what the repair manual says (in a picture), the bumper cover is attached at a few easy to get to places... and then two nuts, which happen to be located in the space between the bumper cover, the headlights and the quarter panels.  How I am supposed to get my giant, fat, American hand in that area, WITH A WRENCH to take them off is beyond me. There's also one bolt or something I havent removed from the headlights and it must be underneath all that black skirting (you know, the black stuff in the wheel wells, what is that stuff anyway?). If I can get the black stuff out and/or the headlights, I might be able to get to those two bolts. 

So, I left that alone for now, and put the front of the car up on blocks and took the wheels off. I can now get to that black stuff.  Then I can take the front suspension off next week. (Note to self: buy another set of jack stands and some more cinder blocks for the rear end.)

I also had the A/C *ahem* discharged so I can take the compressor and all that stuff out after I take the power steering pump off. 

If you didn't know, Georgia is hot. Its hot most of the year, but its exceptionally hot in the summer. And it doesn't help that the sun sets shining S-T-R-A-I-G-H-T into my garage. 

And if you read the title and are Japanese and/or a person with tiny hands, don't feel bad, my 9 month old daughter has tiny hands, too. 

Running: Destruct Sequence...

So, to prevent myself from getting attached to "Adam", I started tearing him apart yesterday (5/3) and continued today after I got home from work. Mazda put the dash together like a puzzle, although it does help that some of the plastic is so brittle that it breaks when I pull gently to try and figure out where more screws are that need to be removed.  

You can see my boxes, duct tape, and sharpie in the pic. I am trying to label everything I remove and keep things organized. Thanks to my 9 month old daughter I have quite a few formula cans and baby food jars for nuts, bolts and screws. 

Thanks to RX-7 City I have the factory service manual for Adam. 

I also registered at LocostUSA.com at William's prompting. There is a ton of great information in the forums. I poked around in a few place and can already tell that this site is going to be invaluable during my build. 

Searching... Complete!

I found a donor!!!1



Here he is. A 1990 Mazda RX-7 5-speed convertible. I think I'll name him "Adam" since he's donating a bunch of parts to make another car, although he is giving a bit more than a rib. A guy posted it on Craig's List last night. I was the first to get to it. :) Its got 160k miles on the body, 30k on a rebuilt 13B motor. It runs and drives and has had a lot of upkeep done to it recently like a full tune up and a new clutch disc, pressure plate, master/slave cylinders, etc... Easily could have paid more than I did for this. It should be a GREAT donor for 'the cause'.

Now... where to start pulling things apart?

*HINT* You can click on the picture to go to flicker and see a couple more pictures of Adam.

The Ideal Donor

Ideally, here are the things I would like to get from my donor vehicle:

- complete engine
- transmission
- drive shaft
- rear axle
- steering
- suspension
- brakes
- gauges
- seats
- rims/tires


My ideal donor for this project would be something that meets the following criteria:

- Costs < $1k
- A V-6 < 4.0L || a straight 6 || an I4
- Manual transmission
- 4 wheel disc brakes
- RWD (or AWD/4WD)
- 13-15" rims
- bucket seats
- independent rear suspension (or at least a limited slip)


Nice to haves:
- Turbo/Super charger
- All of the above in good condition


Examples:

- Mazda Miata, RX-7, RX-8
- Datsun/Nissan 200SX/240SX/280ZX/300ZX, Hardbody, 720
- Chevy S-10/S-15/Blazer/etc..., Camaro (V6)
- BMW 3 series
- Pontiac Trans Am (V6)
- Ford Ranger, Mustang (V6)
- Toyota Supra
- Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4

So, now you can see why its so hard to find the 'perfect' donor.

Seaching for a Donor

Trying to find the perfect donor vehicle sucks.  What was that a smart man once said?  "Waiting is the hardest part"?  Well, he speaks no lies. 

Ideally, the perfect donor would be something like a Mazda Miata, with low mileage and ran really strong. Sadly, for doing something on a budget you can't just go out and get a $3000-$15000 car only to tear it apart. So, lets say you set your donor vehicle budget at $1000, like moi. This leaves you to scour every nook and cranny of the we web and your local area for a late 70's/early 80's car. Something like an RX-7 or 280zx that more than likely barely runs and looks like it went through a hurricane or two. And when you DO find a descent one, its either been sold (after it was posted like an hour ago) or its got an automatic transmission. Why would I want to spend another 400-500 bucks on a manual transmission. I am on a budget here people! Thankfully one of my good friends from the great white north (I'm talking about Canada for you ig'nint folks) who hauls cars for a living, offered to haul any car I can find on the Eastern seaboard straight to my house. (Thanks, Chris!) This exponentially increased my search radius, though sadly the story up North is the same as it is down here, except all of their cars are rusted on the bottom, too. *sigh* Maybe I'll start trying to find the steel tubing for the frame instead and work on a donor later.

Top of the world

Top of the world
Originally uploaded by Se7en-Up

It is too bad there are no places to drive around here that look like this. Its no wonder Europeans are so fond of their automobiles, since they allow them to get to places like this.

Initiating...

There seems to be a lot of interest in this project, and I have not really even started it yet.  This seems to be the easiest way to keep all interested parties up to date on its progress.  

Hi, my name is Mike, and I have a car project. 

But, not just any car project.  Noooo... that would be too easy.  I am building a car from the ground up.  A good friend of my family one remarked, "You Hope's don't do anything normal, do you!" and so I plan on living up to that reputation, because I would hate to tarnish my family's good name.  

You are probably wondering what kind of car, that is, unless you looked around the page first before reading this.  So, go ahead and do that now, I'll wait.  Done?  Yep, a Caterham 7.  That is correct.  Here, have a *.  And you are probably also wondering, 'a 7?!  That's not too out of the ordinary, afterall, it IS one of the (if not THE) most popular kit car known to man.'  And again, you are correct.  Here, *.  But, not too many people undertake the monumental of assembling the car themselves.  Caterham sells them in turn key form.  Or for a bit less you can get the car in a box (some assembly required).  All the parts are there, well engineered and brand new so you don't have to worry about making a bracket to hold your rear differential in place and hope that it doesn't break when you are going around a corner at 97mph.  No, sir, only the crazy and the cheap attempt to do it them selves.  Hence, the 'low cost'.  Give yourself another * if you figured that out before I said something.  (Man you are really racking up those * today).

As most of my friends and family know, I am crazy (check) and cheap, well that is until I want something, then I have to have the best (... check anyways).  Thankfully my lovely wife and father are going to be watching over my budget to keep me in line.  Google Docs is great for share documents like budget and what you are looking for in a donor vehicle.  Thanks, Google!  Now, if only Google SketchUp could do finite element analysis...

Anyway, check back often, leave comments, suggestions, spare change, whatever.  I will hopefully be updating this as much as I have news to post.  I am planning on this project taking a couple of years to get to the 'done' stage, so I can progress into the endless tuning stage.  So, no promises.