Joel's LS1 FC parts list/swap thread (remixed)

[frijolee]

Not just no, but hell no!



Brown widows spiders (black widow cousin) made a nest and hatched on the back of my FC.  This was waiting for me on the antenna....  This was the tightest cluster but I must have killed a 80-100 of them.  Apparently I need to fix my car.

[AKINA FC]

Holy smokes Joel, I hope you bombed your garage after that. Any updates? 

[Chigliakus]

We have a lot more problems with the brown recluse than black widow around here, but both are pretty nasty.  The brown widow isn't nearly as bad: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latrodectus_geometricus "Like all Latrodectus species, L. geometricus has a neurotoxic venom that, drop for drop, is as toxic as the black widow's. However, brown widow bites are usually not very dangerous; usually much less dangerous than the black widow's. The effects of the toxin are usually confined to the bite area and surrounding tissue, unlike the black widow's. Mere toxicity of the venom is not the only factor in dangerousness. Brown widow bites are minor compared to black widow bites, because they cannot deliver the same amount of venom as the black widow."

[digitalsolo]

Spiders on the whole don't bother me, but if they choose to come into my house...  well all bets are off.   We mostly have wolf spiders around here (some recluse, too, but not as many), I shoo them out of the garage, but now and then one gets cocky.   Not a wise life choice.

[ITSWILL]

I haven't read this build since it was on the V8RX7Club, but just found it again looking for some pics of the Ronin trans crossmember installed.  I know it was a while ago now, but I'm happy to hear no one got hurt.  It sounds like the sort of thing I could do showing off to the wife.  I had a pretty close call one time just passing a slow car early in the morning, pulled a quick 3-4 shift and next thing you know my car was facing the drivers side of their car as I was passing sideways.  Luckily there was enough road to pull it back straight and I went on my way, but it could have been a lot worse.  Your post is really making me think about adding some sort of traction control.  We had a baby girl last year and  man does that change things, I would have never considered traction control a year ago.

[frijolee]

Finally getting into my repair, and looking for some parts:

I need:
-an excellent condition s5 bumper (white if possible)
-the factory wheel well duct pieces for both sides (they close out the bottom of the car on either side of the splash guard and peak out under the fender liners into the well).
-the close out bits that go around the headlight motors
-the rectangular black plastic vertical support that ties in the bottom edge of the bumper skin
-If you have a clean undertray/splash guard I'd take that as well.

If we ship I'd likely use Greyhound.  I'd be picking up at the Santa Ana, CA station.

Thanks,
Joel


Sad FC needs love...

[frijolee]

The junkyard was kind to me last weekend.  There was a 40% off New Year's sale going and Pick Your Part's website now lets you do a search of recent inventory additions so I knew there was a donor FC to be had close by.   You have to check inventory store by store, but it's not too bad and sure beats going junkyarding blindly.   http://www.lkqpickyourpart.com/locations/LKQ_Pick_Your_Part_-_Stanton-268/ Only three of the dozen or so pick your parts in a 50 mile radius from me claimed they had S5 FCs...  FD, you better find someone parting it because I've never seen one in a yard.

Showed up early on the first day of the sale and scored...  I was actually surprised how quickly a battery powered sawzall made this happen.  I got everything except the front bumper skin and main cross bar, but I think mine can be reused.



Carrying this out of the yard by hand while lugging tools kinda sucked but I got it done.  I'm going to send both car and donor nose to a local body shop.  If anyone in SoCal needs a referral let me know:  RC Empire in Orange has taken care of me on several things and I'm stoked on them.  Heck, the owner made a house call to check out the RX7 on Saturday so we could talk options given I'm paying for this one.  We made a plan that we'll have them put the structural parts back together like stock then then I'll redo the mods to make my custom parts fit once I know I'm back to a straight/true foundation. 

I also spend a solid week, cleaning and organizing the garage over the holidays (let the family ditch me for in-laws), so as soon as the RX7 leaves, I'll paint the walls and pull the Land Cruiser in.  Then maybe I can finally start catching up to @digitalsolo and his Mustang effort. 

[digitalsolo]

See, these threats of progress make me motivated to get to work on my car. 

Glad to see the RX7 will be living and breathing again soon.

[frijolee]

See, these threats of progress make me motivated to get to work on my car. 

That's kind of the whole reason I offered the race!  I've actually been making a ton of progress and working my ass off, but it's all things that needed to happen before I get back into the cars, (living room stereo wiring tucked instead of dangling, new computers setup, counter-tops sealed, Ronin filing, fixed a fence in a way that gives me RV access, big-ass cabinets painted since they were starting to rust).  Oh man, when my dryer broke a week before the holidays I was so mad.  I was successful in troubleshooting, ordering parts, and fixing it, but it was a couple hours on a day where that wasn't at all the project I wanted to be playing with. 

The good news is that garage is in great shape and that including a bunch of organizing toolboxes and finding homes for things I've been tripping on for months.  I don't think I've had this much space to work since I moved in.

[frijolee]

Before I bailed for China I dropped off the 7 at the body shop.  Then I got stuck there for longer than I meant to so they held onto it for about 4 months.  The good news is that the nose is already repaired.




Since getting back I already spend one Saturday redoing some of the modifications before paint (getting my intake tract to fit and what not).  I'm going to have them paint the whole car.  Goal is to get it back to daily driver status as fast as possible and then focus build efforts on the FJ40.  Little helpers always appreciated.

Party on Wayne!

[frijolee]

Shattered Lip Repair

Ever do one of those jobs you're kicking yourself the whole time you're doing it, because you probably should have started over with something else?  Yeah, this is one of those.  Problem is that I just don't like very many of the lip options on the market (the Mazdaspeed version is only ok) and then I'd still have to cut it wider for my widebody.  So I decided to stop waffling and just get to work.

Reminder:




Time to fix that.  Pieces lined up better than I thought they would.




Little hot glue, pop-sickle sticks I stole from my kids, epoxy (etc), to hold it on the topside.




Dremel shave on the backside to clean up the fragments and give a fresh surface for more glass.




Re-glass:




Now I'm working on the topside grinding out all the cracks. 




Thinking I may shim this down a 1/2" or so to change up the look a bit.  More in harm's way, but it was already in harms way so not much new there.  Plenty of work to go but that's progress.  Hours vs. time not at all penciling out on this one, but at least it'll be something I'm ok with.

[Bowtie7]

Should've called me, we've got the one from the red car that was already widened for the flared fronts. You would end up being alot less itchy from all that nasty ass fiberglass. Why not just be a big baller and build a real splitter like the Mazcare car?

[Sho Amo]

Im happy to see this coming back together. 

[frijolee]

Should've called me, we've got the one from the red car that was already widened for the flared fronts. You would end up being alot less itchy from all that nasty ass fiberglass. Why not just be a big baller and build a real splitter like the Mazcare car?

Bah, this just points out that it's been too long since we've caught up properly.  I'm getting close so I think I'll stay the course, but I'll certainly hit you up if I smack the lip again (easy to do on parking curbs without actually screwing up the car.  I debated a splitter but dammit, I want to drive this thing so that means making it more street car than race car.  Part of the motivation is starting in the fall I have exactly one year of dropping of only one of my two daughters at school every day (1st grade while the other is in pre-school).  Best chance to take a kid in a two seater every day.

Im happy to see this coming back together. 

Me too.

[frijolee]

Progress:

Fender had a small crack so it got the re-glass treatment as well.




Bumper cover had a few tears so I decided to rework a few things up there as well.  Started by cutting out the grill (planning woven metal for better rock protection)




Rough cut done.  Used heavy body seam sealer for some repairs.  But what's all that black doing in the middle of the face?  Who knows their FCs?




There wasn't a good reference line for the bottom cut at the angle I cut the grill out at, so I made a quick template as a reference for the shave.




Filled the side voids with some more sealer backed up against non-stick tape.




Tear repairs. 




Spent a healthy piece of Saturday at the body shop doing nose modifications.  Cross bar shaved and brackets moved.




Adding and deleting holes in the upper core support.  I used a Harbor Freight copper Welding Spoon (http://www.harborfreight.com/welding-spoon-66785.html) to back up the holes I was filling.  Kudos to www.weldmonger.com for the tip.