GRM Challenge RX-7

Day one

2009-10-09T17:22:00.002-04:00

Day one is over and the car still runs! We were not anywhere near the fastest autocross times, but we didn't have the slowest time either. Here are a couple photos:

At the starting line for one of the autocross runs
The paddock on day one, autocross and concours judging
The car on the trailer before leaving GA on Thursday morning

2009-10-05T08:02:00.007-04:00

Radiator shroud fabbed out of pieces of scrap metal

Spiders every where... you can tell this car sat for a while...

New wheels picked up from a local seller...

Take off tires came from Calvin's autox wheels, the car looks better with these wheels.

The new exhaust...

On the car...

Cleaning the interior, still needs seat covers!

Door panel on the passenger side

The headlight switch fell apart and the lights don't work without it. Zip ties to the rescue.

The painted switch panel. Unfortunately, we didn't find a nitrous kit in time...

Cut out a stencil of the new logo to paint it on the car. We weren't happy with how it turned out so we started to paint over it...

After a light coat of black, we decided we liked the "aged" look, so we left the logos on the car.

Are we ready for this weekend? Definitely not. Are we going anyway? Of course.

running out of time

2009-09-22T12:13:00.002-04:00

Update from Sunday's work day:
1. Radiator shroud completed.
2. Exhaust fabbed and installed
3. Fuel lines replaced using scrap pieces
4. Air filter housing cleaned up
5. Finished up interior painting and under the hood.
6. Dash blank for switches cut, cleaned, and sent home with Scott for finish work.
7. Mocked up new wheels, need tires
8. Discovered the tee for the coolant is bent, looking for replacement.
9. Many donuts consumed.

Car looks like it's almost ready to try some shakedown action. Quote of the day from a friend who was helping out, "thanks for the paint fumes, I was still blowing nasty black colored s**t out of my nose this morning."

every team needs a name

2009-09-10T13:00:00.003-04:00

We cranked the car and drove it on Monday... only to have a radiator hose work itself loose and spray down 2 people who were standing nearby with hot water. Luckily, no one was hurt!

When submitting our application for the event, we had to name the team. We ended up with BFH Racing and have been playing around with a logo for the team. It looks like we've almost settled on this one.

2009-09-01T20:15:00.006-04:00

The dash is in.

The engine bay received a coat of black paint. It looks 100% better now.

Dash Progress

2009-08-31T15:07:00.005-04:00

I found a scrap of old automotive carpet at my parent's shop, Town and Country Campers. After a little vacuuming, it actually cleaned up OK. We're going to vinyl over the carpet, so who cares what the carpet looks like.
I had some spray adhesive in the garage, so it was used to glue the carpet onto the dash.

After getting the carpet on, it actually turned out OK. We decided to skip the vinyl and just leave it as carpet. Furry dash anyone?

2009-08-18T13:22:00.004-04:00

We wired up an old toggle switch that was laying around to control the radiator fan.
Cleaning up the hatch prior to paint.

BBQ black paint going in the hatch. It looks much better than the OEM color.

The doors needed something, so we cut door panels out of scrap particle board. They will get painted black.

Painting the door edges.

We don't have time to watch paint dry, a heat gun speeds up the process.

Radiator bracket in place.

Z-bend in the bracket to clear the sway bar.

The Radiator is in!

It took a little work to figure out how to connect the civic radiator to the engine. We ended up using the old lower hose and the elbow that we cut off the old radiator as our new upper hose system.

The finished upper hoses. Lucky for us, the previous owner had two hose clamps on every hose connection, so we had plenty of clamps.

The lower hose set up, it just clears the motor mount. Hopefully it won't rub!

more dash progress

2009-08-15T20:11:00.002-04:00

I spent some time cutting down the foam and sanding it. The cracks are filled in pretty well, now I need to find some scraps of something "soft" to hide some of the imperfections before we put down the scrap vinyl.

Dash and door pulls

2009-08-14T08:07:00.004-04:00

Since the event requires that the car have a dashboard, we decided that the old, cracked dash needed to be cleaned up. Here are a couple before shots:

Since the edges were curled up, we trimmed them back, which makes it look it worse.

Great Stuff? We'll find out after it hardens. We'll trim it back and sand it down and recover the whole thing. In theory, this should be an improvement.

Anyone want a muffin top?

I had an old camping strap with a cracked plastic end on it. It was the perfect candidate for door pulls straps. The strap before:

The new door pull loops:

Pictures of our progress

2009-08-12T12:37:00.005-04:00

After removing the stock radiator, we realized that we might need the tee that is in this elbow. Out comes the cut off wheel!

How many redheads does it take to put a civic radiator in an rx7?

A free 240sx fan fits our radiator perfectly. Scrap metal straps make good fan brackets.

No more heavy air pump on the engine...

No more radiator in the car!

2 months to go...

2009-08-11T08:09:00.002-04:00

Another slow update on our slow progress… the steering rack is in, no more slop in the steering! We were able to drop a good bit of weight out of the car by removing the stock (HEAVY) exhaust, and a majority of the AC system. As you can imagine, the car is a bit loud without any exhaust. We’ll be fabbing up some sort of exhaust out of scrap parts, it probably won’t quiet the car down too much!

The radiator was leaking so we ordered up a new aluminum radiator, see pictures below. We mocked up the mounting brackets for the radiator out of some scrap steel and we’ll get those welded together this week. Once that is in, we’ll be able to drive the car again!

We also found the two mystery bolts that were keeping the dash from coming out of the car. With it removed, we will be able to hopefully smooth it out and cover the cracks caused by years of sun exposure.

We haven’t made too much visible progress and time is quickly becoming an issue… the event is only two months away!!!

Progress?

2009-06-16T12:39:00.004-04:00

Yes, it has been over a month since we posted any updates. Unfortunately, we haven't done too much since we last posted. A little bit of cleaning and removing un-necessary parts is all we've done... until now. We got a great deal on ebay for a rack and pinion steering conversion for the car. We have started installing it, but haven’t finished yet.

Here is the new rack:

The steering lock was a pain in the @$$ to remove, it required some cutting.

Hopefully we'll get the steering in soon, Some of us still haven't even driven the car yet!

More info on the car

2009-04-27T21:12:00.002-04:00

It is a 1983 Mazda RX-7 GLS with under 125k miles on the odometer. It has the limited slip differential, four wheel disc brakes, and it also has the removeable sunroof.

we need to get to work cleaning this thing up.

2009-04-24T12:27:00.011-04:00

Here are some additional photos of the car, we definitely have some work to do!

They body is pretty straight, no major dents or dings. The previous owner didn't doo too much prep work before he sprayed the car flat black... notice the striping running down the side of the car above the door handle.

Nice leopard print seat cover, eh? That will be removed, let us know if you want to buy it for your car! The dash and door panels (those were in the trunk) will be recovered to clean up the interior a little bit. We will either replace or recover the seats too. Once that is all done, it won’t be too bad…

There was a lot of junk in the trunk... including door panels and an extra carburetor. We'll probably be selling the extra carb to recover some of the purchase price. The door panels will be recovered and reinstalled in the car.

The rear storage bins held a few surprises for us as well, including all the emblems that were taken off the car.

The rotary engine still runs! If it's lucky, we'll be leaving it in to power the car. There have been talks of V8 power, but I think we are going to wait for next year to do that.

What is the $2009 challenge?

2009-04-23T20:21:00.001-04:00

So, what is the GRM $2009 challenge you ask? Why did we buy this cheap car for a "racing" event? Well, here is a quick summary: Grassroots Motorsports magazine puts on this "low bucks" challenge for those of us who want to race, but on a limited budget. Teams entering the challenge can spend no more dollars than the year that the event is held in. So, for 2009 we get $2009 to spend on the car and any modifications to the car. Parts taken off the car can be sold to recover some extra money. The vehicles entered into the challenge compete in 3 events: Drag racing, Autocross and a Concours judging.

Here is a link to more info on the link: 2009 Challenge

The challenge begins

2009-04-22T17:29:00.000-04:00

Here is where it all begins, we picked up this flat black 1983 Mazda RX-7 to build a car for the Grassroots Motorsports $2009 Challenge.