Warm weather at last!

**clocker** · 04-24-2007, 02:19 AM

After months of brutal, depressing cold, spring has finally sprung and I took maximum advantage of the nice weather.

Since buying my new car in December, I've been hoarding parts and waiting for the opportunity to install them.
This weekend I began.

Bright and early yesterday (Sun.) I put the car up on stands and pulled the wheels.
Crawling under the chassis, I undid the speedo cable and then went into the cabin and removed the gauge cluster (it's sooo much easier with slack in the cable, you see...).
All this in preparation for installing the new Indiglo gauge faces and painting the indicator needles.
The stock orange/black gauges are hard on my old eyes at night and I'm hoping these bluish/white faces will be less taxing. If not, I have another stock cluster I can reinstall.

Whilst waiting for the needles to dry I put in a new fuel filter and lines, spark plugs and wires and cleaned the grounds in the engine bay.

Upon reassembly of the gauge cluster I also installed a Grant mahogany steering wheel- I had one in my 240Z and really liked it.
Cockpit now looks like so...

Should be interesting to see (!!) how that works out.

Next up were the hydraulics...all of 'em.
First was the clutch system- new master, slave and braided steel flex hose.
That was simple and I finished the day optimistically.

Up today were the brakes...again (almost) all new- rotors, braided lines, master cylinder, vacuum booster and rebuilt calipers (stock NA in the rear and upgrade to 4-piston Turbos in the front).
Rear done...

And the front...

.
The front rotors really kicked my ass, almost welded to the hubs and required (seemingly) endless beating from the rear with a brass mallet to break them free.
Never in all my days have I worked so hard to get a set of rotors off a bloody car...I'm guessing these might be the originals and have been getting settled in for the past 16 years, cause they surely didn't want to leave.
Perseverance paid off however and I was on to the engine bay for the rest of the system.
Here's the firewall cleaned up and ready for the booster and master cylinder...

And the rest of the hydraulics installed...

Bleeding was boring but went smoothly and at last I was again on the road.
Tomorrow on the way to work I'll detour to a place that will allow a couple of sustained braking maneuvers and begin to bed in the new Hawk brake pads.
Next weekend I'll rebleed the brakes and should be good to go.

Up next is a Racing Beat catback exhaust but first I have to scrounge up the heatshields that are missing (thanks for nothing, previous owners...).

**S!X** · 04-24-2007, 02:37 AM

Looks like you'll have a fun project on your hands. What kind of car it btw?

**clocker** · 04-24-2007, 03:04 AM

1991 Mazda RX7...

It's red and I'm sore.

**S!X** · 04-24-2007, 03:07 AM

Nice, That looks like the same color I tried paining one of my RC car bodies. Nissan Cherry Red Pearl I believe it was.

**mbucari1** · 04-24-2007, 07:13 AM

kool car.

**Snee** · 04-24-2007, 11:08 AM

I like the original gauge-set as well, bur those new ones are nice.
The new ones will sure be a lot nicer in the dark.

Dunno if that's my kind of steering wheel, but it goes well with those gauges.

**clocker** · 04-24-2007, 12:11 PM

Originally Posted by Snee

Dunno if that's my kind of steering wheel, but it goes well with those gauges.

The steering wheel is probably better suited to an older British sportscar but for me it's all about feel and the rim thickness/finger indents are perfect IMO.
I've tried Momos and just couldn't grow to like them even though they look very nice.
I've also mounted closed cell waffle foam (thanks Seagate!) on the center console and door armrest cause the stock plastic was too hard. It looks funky but is very comfortable and I'm all about pampering myself these days.

The car came with AC and power steering and I'd like to delete them both for aesthetic reasons but am waiting for better weather to see if AC works and trying to scrounge up a second steering rack to modify (in case I want to go back).

Jeez, I am so sore today...this never happened when I just built PCs...

**tesco** · 04-25-2007, 05:12 PM

You're removing power steering and ac for aesthetics?

Not like clocker at all.

**clocker** · 04-25-2007, 05:42 PM

I said I was considering it, Ross.
Their removal would really clean up the front driver's side of the engine bay and make routine maintenance easier, not to mention dropping about 60lbs. from that suspension strut.

We'll see.