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Joe Maddox Rx7 Right Hand Drive Build
Back in the early 2000's, when it was not logal to import the fc3s, I really wanted a RHD rx7. This is the build I did years ago and found a folder of pictures of and thought I would share! This could work for someone who might have a clip and would like to do the same thing?
So... Where to start. I guess I will start with where I was and why I decided to do it this way. I was driving a 1983 Mazda rx7 Widebody FB at the time. I had been into rotary cars and working on them since 1999. I fell in love with one years before that and had to have one! https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...0ee7df5ae8.jpg https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...54fa2d56bb.jpg https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...4c4f820f2e.jpg https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...68ca6e5239.jpg https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...78e5ae879c.jpg https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...fa0b34eccb.jpg https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...d076195217.jpg https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...d276bae9ef.jpg I was content... Then one day when I was over at a friends house prepping to restore his FB so we could both have one https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...a13621da53.jpg He later brought over this little toy of the Initial D car. I fell in love with it! https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...7cdef8716d.png |
Re: Joe Maddox Rx7 Right Hand Drive Build
I was not sure how I could ever own that car and so I kinda just gave up on thinking about it that day, but the gift was awesome and got me plotting on how I might own one someday. literally the next day I was heading out of town to my wife's parents ranch in the middle of nowhere. Little service if any. Hell. But they are good peeps and she grew up on the 3500 acres and the city is a cramped to her. So we bailed. Sitting bored as hell all day up there ( I am not a rancher ) I was surfing the rx7club and found JD Daniels (ehime) selling a complete RHD front clip! I wrote him right then. I had nothing, just put it all into the build for chris weigel's widebody rx7. I was doing that build for free and took a bit of the cost myself. So I asked if he wanted a payment or two as I was not willing to touch my credit for it. Not that big of a deal. They used to be a dime a dozen back then. Not so much these days.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...de333ce5f6.jpg https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...bc0ef2a887.jpg https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...2142d60798.jpg https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...927f38b8a4.jpg He was not interested in payments, so I went home and opened the savings up and took out the money for it. The clip was missing a few parts, but had the metal and the dash and that was all I really needed. He ended up also having the rack and crossmember as well as the doors. They were a bit beat up, but looked usable. I ended up then needing a dummy car! I wanted an S4 as they all have manual belts in JDM cars and was trying to stay close to stock looking with the interior. So I found a nice 1987 SE to start with. It was local and only 300 bucks or so! https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...b9c3668eeb.jpg https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...09000a8e1c.jpg https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...92a611fb5c.jpg https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...bcadacae04.jpg |
Re: Joe Maddox Rx7 Right Hand Drive Build
All welded up and painted the car was now ready to get to the body and paint!
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...c2d9ffab21.jpg I gave the cars engine bay a coat of paint before I started on the body. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...ca237aeb16.jpg I ended up getting a rare s4 body kit. I wanted to keep it s4 as I had some Bi color lights I wanted to run on it. https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...5a432b5c84.jpg https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...23bbb6e6b4.jpg I ended up getting a turbo parts car and using all the body panels from it and passing the shell onto a friend after taking the diff and the trans (as seen in the last pic already installed). https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...7ac2cf0247.jpg https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...614cd8e511.jpg https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...9e2094cb0a.jpg https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...a68ab1edc5.jpg https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...6d8ec8da56.jpg I spent many hours after this point. Making all the edges right, smoothing the dings and making the prep perfect. When it was ready to shoot I pulled everything together and got ready to lay primer and color down! I was by myself from the firewall on, so no pics of me doing it unlike the other builds. Late nights only car guys can understand lol. https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...dde1fe8a9f.jpg https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...12dbd84f9f.jpg https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...d4740d90ef.jpg https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...b02cdb096a.jpg https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...7f42a46749.jpg |
Re: Joe Maddox Rx7 Right Hand Drive Build
It turned out perfect! I was pretty happy. I had instantly had some regrets with choosing the s4/5 trim to run the lights. But was otherwise content with it.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...1ee207ecfc.png https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...0d85c02503.png https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...e7050e674d.png https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...00af521188.jpg https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...2c92da85c0.jpg https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...9d5f130a13.jpg https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...0fc9c75bd6.jpg I started putting the interior back into it. The wiring was all wrong. after many days of trying to figure out what was wrong with all the blinkers and why turning on the hazzards killed the headlights, ect... After dozens of friends like Marc from Pineapple Racing came down and could not figure it out and left with it not being functional. I gave up. I rewired a USDM harness and ran all us relays and switches. It was not easy, but it worked perfect and I had everything for a 91 GXL model now! ( Obviously I parted one, I bought the NW moderators car, Fumi). https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...35074f03ae.jpg https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...7e851a1f11.jpg https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...4775d3a67b.jpg https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...eec574b331.jpg https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...1252406e7a.jpg I had all the options of what lights to run on it. However I decided that for now I was just going to run some clean s5 USDM lights! https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...90c2b5bde9.jpg decisions decisions https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...94e52ca17a.jpg There was a lot of wiring to do, I ended up putting in a touch screen system I loved. Had everything as an option. Lateral G's, acceleration in g's, the a neat digital speedo. However I wanted the stock cluster still and everything working, So I wired in everything separate. It ended up all working amazing! Loved the EDFC (at first). https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...e5aaa120af.jpg https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...0bc8eb5add.jpg |
Re: Joe Maddox Rx7 Right Hand Drive Build
I started building a motor for it. I had helped marc heynderickx of pineapple racing move his shop FD3S engineering from the original place in beaverton to his fathers house in Canby after his falling out with his engine builder Daniel Leed from pineapple racing. It was a big mess. He ended up calling him a scammer and said they had a falling out because Daniel was on drugs and he would help me build my motor and just avoid the guy. (foreshadowing into my own life later ahaha,ugh) So when I was up there, I had Rob at pineapple port my s5 Irons I got for the build.
OMG they were minty! Rob Golden at pineapple sure can port a motor! Those templates are gold, use them! That aside, I lost the pics. Many pics faded to time unfortunately. That was one of them. I picked them up and went over to marcs house. He was there and we set up another day to assemble it! I showed up later and had the rotors and the housings,ect. He was not happy with the cleaning and only the irons were prepped well enough. I had not a media blaster and did my best. So I spent the day cleaning and prepping the motor! I got the motor ready as Derek of Rotary Power Northwest showed up! Marc then let me know I was building it. I kinda freaked out, but Derek assured me it was going to be ok, I got this. I was a body, paint and interior guy, this rotary engine build was new to me! So I said **** it and went for it! I assembled the rotors with crisco and superglue as he and Rob has said. Marc would come out from the house and check on each stage to make sure I was doing it right! https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...e024ecbe52.jpg https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...1d1a08016c.jpg https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...dbd3059dc8.jpg What was going to be a couple hour build I went up for turned into a 12 hour day working on the motor. I snapped a couple pics that I sent to my wife to explain I was a little busy but ok lol! After I ended up getting the rotors ready and all the seals in and glued, he ended up coming out and helped/showed me how to stack it! We stacked it and then we called it at a short block with just the tension bolts in as it was the 12 hour mark for me with two hour drive and he had work in the morning. But the right hand drive had a s5 turbo motor ready for it! Loaded it up and headed home! https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...196ddecbdd.jpg https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...b280717c63.jpg https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...da29c8867d.jpg Note marc is in clean slacks. lol :-P |
Re: Joe Maddox Rx7 Right Hand Drive Build
i got it home and the next day started putting the motor together. I had lots of goodies. Not even sure of everything now. Act, trust, ect. It was good.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...13dabfef34.jpg https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...0484c09871.jpg https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...cde3e529fa.jpg https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...dd124dd5ae.jpg I ended up putting it in by myself right there. That was not easy, but I did it without a chip in the paint! https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...a2f89e4139.jpg https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...a3f223063d.jpg |
Re: Joe Maddox Rx7 Right Hand Drive Build
The car was nearly done! I needed to finish the exhaust and a few other things but the car was going to be finished soon!
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...437fae842a.jpg I ended up getting some rear seats for it. they ended up giving it a nice touch! https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...ac65de8c6f.jpg |
Re: Joe Maddox Rx7 Right Hand Drive Build
Now it took a lot to get it to this point. I was working a lot and was doing favors for everyone. I had moved marcs shop, sold his cars and he was not the only one. So I had many other cars and projects going at this time. One of the problems and projects I had going on the side was Chris Weigel's widebody rx7 I had build for him. I had finished that build a while back and it was on the road. However it blew the 12a it had in it and he was talking LS swap. He had had blown another 13bt he tried to put in after rotary shack scammed him into a failed carb attempt with it. I gave him the entire motor with everything from my right hand drive for 1500, at a later payment when his taxes came in. Only one warning came with it and that was it was being sold as a my first motor and only for what I had into it so far, no promises lol! I just wanted to see the car I built still on the road! I went over and helped him install it and it was back on the road!
You can see this cars build here: https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...01f07aa600.jpg |
Re: Joe Maddox Rx7 Right Hand Drive Build
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...5faa7bf955.jpg
When chris weigel was hired onto rotaryworkz! https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...c5fb713bde.jpg https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...ab30a13990.jpg First day at rotaryworkz! https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...00dc575923.jpg After I helped him put my rhd motor in I gave him the rad and a few things to really spice up the interior! https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nop...90d8be3c59.jpg To assure there was no more talk about the LS swap in his car I gave him this Brand new JDM Cosmo 13bt RE motor! A gift to assure the future of the rotary shop's enthusiasm! |
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