NA FC Daily skid wip Hey guys! So after much lurking, scrolling and moaning that I can't insure a RWD as a first car. I went ahead and bought a heap/sensible/cheap daily to get me through for the first year or so till I can insure a daily skidder, that was a MK1 Clio... £180, 60K on it. Thought can't be that bad, then I got tired of not being able to join the motorways at a reasonable speed So I swapped a 1.8 in it, did a bunch of other stuff. Overall didn't think it was too bad after that, it got me round to events, ended up being loaded with tyres and wheels at a few events, haha. Went FINALBOSS Did a few DWYB days as a support car Now after owning my daily for a year and a few months the insurance quotes have seemed to go down, with that being said I started saving up for a project. Was mainly looking at E30's and E36's until I realised that FC's are actually still quite cheap! So I found this one on ebay sitting at £750, apparently had the engine rebuilt a thousand miles ago, usual rust spot, have been used as a track car for the past two years, the last owner has owned since 1999 so I'd think he'd taken good care of it. It came with a bunch of spares, full set of 15" wheels and tyres, spare rear bumper, spoiler etc etc Other little bits and bobs. I'll let the pictures do the talking mostly now as I imagine I'm already boring everyone as I'm writing this. When we picked it up, 3 hour trip turned to 7 hours with the help of roadworks real quick Got it home, started taking off the cold air feed the last owner made up. Oooooft, that brown interior though. The following day I changed the driver's door, got a rust free one as a spare. Changed the spoiler for a black one, the white one had paint cracked all over it. And finally gave it a little polish as the new (old) door didn't really look white, lol. Still doesn't. After that, I'v sprayed the front bumper trim some random grey I had laying about. Then went around poking shit, first of all took off the mad JDM WOOD STYLE side skirts that last owner seemed to put on. Fake lows blad? Saw a nice little crack above the sill, poked it! Woop, 10 points, found a bit of silicone and a plastic bottle filling up the hole. Genius, another thing to do later on :/ Mean while I started collecting some stickers Next up, was reading about this rear steer thing that Mazda invented. Apparently not good for skids, so I ordered some DTSS eliminator bushes, + it was time to weld the diff. So I went and dropped the rear frame
Minted brake pads, plenty of track days left on the right one After dropping the rear frame, I went ahead and refreshed it a little. In the mean time while it was drying I went and fitted the right hand side headlight back on. Most of the headlights parts were in the boot with the spares but it was missing a arm that goes from the motor lifting the headlight up so had to make that up. Later on I received my HKB Boss from So I fitted that along with my nardi I had left over from the clio Then I fitted up the DTSS eliminator bushes, and painted up the diff. ALL GOLD EVERYTHING. That's it for now! Sorry for the BIG ASS POST! Thanks for reading
Love the build thread so far, looks like you have the right attitude, will be interesting to see how this turns out.. Daily though???
I like where this thread is going! Would love an FC, hope it will make an appearance up at Driftland if you drove up in a Clio! haha.
Never see enough FC's around. Good to see more people getting into them. I'm in the same boat as you for first cars, can't afford insurance on anything decent and RWD. Still managed to go RWD though, with an old bug
Thanks mate, yes I'd love to daily it. Although looking at the MPG's people get I'm semi tempted to keep the clio ! haha Thanks, yes! Defo going to driftland Finalboss matsuri in it next year Thanks keef Thanks mate! Yeah, real struggle to insure anything skiddable at this age. But good job on the old bug, their so cool when done right. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Little update! Been at Drift Matsuri all weekend! What a sick event, shot a load of coverage for Stylecase. The wind was roughless though, I think I had 4 layers of clothes on and was still cold. If you want click on the link below to check out the pictures I took at the Matsuri ! https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.620959988015469.1073741868.216965708414901&type=1 Today after work I put the rear frame back together ready to go in. Tomorrow want to underseal the rear section of the chassis where the rear frame goes and then start assembling the whole rear end. Thanks for viewing
Nice build so far. Watch out for rust at both end of the sills too. They are prone to rot through there too. I'll keep an eye on this build. It might motivate me to finish mine off!!! Oh and the brown/burgandy interior can be quite sought after.
Damn, like that clio! This body of rx-7 has always been my favourite one, only two left of them in my country Will be watching this thread
Thanks man, mine is rotten through at the end of the sills. Really a priority job to do before mot, gonna need to fab up most of it from scratch :/ Thanks man! Been following your thread for a while, your FC is real nice man (Y) haha, thanks mate - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Little update Put the rear frame back on along with the welded diff and the DTSS delete bushes, also unseized the brake calipers, whacked new pads on and bled the system. Then put the 15"s on the back that I plan to drift on and did a wheel slip test. Realised parking is now a whole nother world with the welder hahahah With the first drift day just being over a week away I needed to sort the harnesses out, as of now the car has no harnesses nor standard seat belts. Found a pair of these Willans harnesses in good condition, good price etc. When they arrived I went to fit them and quickly realised these are the kit car type harnesses. Lot shorter than the standard length I guess... So.... could ever sell them on and buy new harnesses on ebay or try and make them fit. Most of the harnesses I looked at on ebay had estimated delivery of two days before the actual drift day so I didn't want to risk it. So I decided to keep those and make a harness bar. Did some drawings and the next morning headed down to B&Q for some metal pipes. Got some help of the old man as he is definitely a better welder Here's what we came up with, pretty happy with it considering its the first time we tried fabricating something like this At the end of the day gave it a lick of etch primer followed by gloss black. Tomorrow after work I will assemble it in the car and see how it all goes together with the harnesses
Today after work just fitted the harness bar and the harnesses. All works sweet, so I'm happy with that. Now I can't wait to get some side mounted seats so I can literally mount them to the floor for better driving position. Being 6"5 and not exactly skinny doesn't help this.
Nice build so far. I used to have one of these albeit it an S5. Mine was really rotten though and my S13 ended up taking priority. Will be keeping a keen eye on this build.
Thanks mate I'd really like a S5 Turbo engine, maybe in the future if funds allow (Y) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Little update, just checked over a few things before first drift day on Sunday. Replaced the fan belt, tried fixing a vacuum leak to get the idle right but didn't achieve that yet lol. Just cleared out the interior ready to pack it tomorrow, and other little bits and bobs. Here's just a quick picture to make this post less boring Oh and also made myself a early christmas and bought the HSD Monopro's! Can't wait to receive them on monday
Saturday after work got to doing some last bits on the RX7 and then packing it with tyres and tools. A bit later on my mate in a MX-5 came up and we got started on fabricating a harness bar, started pretty late, about 10PM.... Managed to finish around 1:00 AM. Got few hours sleep, and set off to buxton around 7 AM First time going out whacked 60PSI in the back, was struggling to loose grip but slowly got the hang of it. After a bit decided the 205 Maxxis tyres were still grippy, they were what I got on the 15s from the last owner, even though they were worn to death still gripped well. So I tried my old 195 tyres off the clio and it was a lot better. Handbrake did fuck all, all day. New rear brake pads and adjusted the lines tight and it wouldn't lock up in the wet. Proof of slips Later on the day the car started loosing power all of a sudden, when hitting full throttle the engine would hit a wall at 4k rpm. Although when reving lightly it will go to redline. Internet says it could be the secondary injectors, bad earth grounds and all sorts. Since my FC has got shit idle and other little hesitation problems I want to try and sort it out over the winter. Preferably do a big service on it and replace all shit brittle 20yo wiring/ cracked hoses and stuff. So seat time for me ended about 2. Wasn't too mad as I'm still really happy to have taken it out before the end of the year. Now at least I know what to fix asap before next drift day. Afterwards we have packed up the car and did some passenger runs in my friends MX5. Monday after work I went to DPD to collect my parcel, FC looking rather dirty after buxton ! Got my HSD's from DW! Really happy with them, I gave them some preventative maintenance, then put them on the car. Only did the fronts today, but will do rears tomorrow hopefully Old shocks cracked and rusted round the bottom, complete dog shite! Colors fit our new StyleCase Team stickers! After getting the ride height roughly where I want it. Later on I will get some nicer 16"s or 17"s I think to get the car lower without a hench kit. Also want to get some spacers and extended lower ball joints to get a nicer stance up front That's it for now, thanks for looking !
