I rebuilt the oil metering pump last Thursday. I used Pineapple Racing’s Mechanical OMP Kit & DVD. The rebuild was very straightforward and the DVD was easy to follow.  I broke the o-ring on the piston and had a little trouble finding a replacement.  I was able to find a very close replacement at Ace Hardware.  I’m most likely going to order a new rebuild kit unless I’m sure it isn’t leaking. The kit cost $25 plus shipping so it isn’t a huge expense.  If I was to just replace the OMP with a new one from Mazda, I’d be spending $250.  Since I pulled the OMP, I replaced the oil line crush washers.

Friday I swapped out the shifter boot with the one I recieved a couple of weeks ago.  I had to spend quite a bit of time cleaning the boot but in the end it was better looking than the one off my car.  I also rebuilt the switch for the rear hatch area light.  I was able to use the switch off the car and another switch I already had to make one good switch.  It was a little hard to do because the switch was so small.  It is now working great. I’m slowly checking little projects off my list.

I got an estimate for the frame repair, body work, and paint.  The cost should be somewhere around $1500 for the work plus paint.  We will most likely use 2 quarts of paint and he only uses PPG.  I’m also looking at replacing all the seals, emblems, etc at the same time with a total cost of about $1200. I’m looking at a complete total cost of about $3000.  I’m going to be cutting the front of the car off from the strut towers forward off my old car so we can use them on the SE.  The damage is very hard to see. With the hood closed, you can see that the front is pushed to the right about a 1/4″.  It looks like this was repaired at some point but not done very well.  I would rather do it right once and spend the extra money than have a car I’m not happy with. I will be helping with the complete repaint of the car, including front end repair.

I installed the inner shifter boot and shifter surround over the weekend.  The shifter surround looked to have a number of very light scratches that the seller told me about.  Once I cleaned the surround, all but one of the “scratches” tuned out to be dirt.  The brown shifter boot is covered in what looks like black grease so I haven’t installed it yet.  I temperarily mounted the existing boot to the surround. Mounting the boot took some time because the tabs that hold it were all broken.  One of the local RX-7 owners showed my how to use real small screws from my

I also installed the heater vent.  I was able to use the ywo vents I already had and the one I just got to make one good vent. I had to pull all three apart and use a dremel and epoxy to get the project done.

I’ve been thinking more about restomod part of this build. I think I’m going to skip most of it and keep this car more original.

New list:

• Bönez Street Exhaust System $245
• Hawk HPS pads $122
• SS Brake lines (already have)
• SS clutch line (already installed)
• Racing Beat Muffler (already installed)
• Eibach Springs (already installed)
• Tokico Illumina Shocks $450
• Energy Suspension Polyurethane Bushings $160

Parts I may or may not get:

• Re-Speed Tubular Competition Sway Bar $250
• Power Slot Brake Rotors $238

I figure that these parts would improve the car just slightly without changing the original feel of the car.

Thanks to help from one of the local RX-7 people, the motor mounts are changed out. We also replaced the crush washers for the oil injectors, belts, and fusable links. Today I replaced the starter and negative battery cable.

I still need to replace the shifter boot, and rebuild the oil metering pump. My list is starting to get really small.

I took the car to it’s first car show this morning.  It was a free informal car show they do once a month in Colorado Springs.

You can see the new (used) bumper installed on the car in the picture.  I repainted it with Duplicolor Toyota Cream spray paint to match as closely as I could.  The color is very close but is a little yellower.  I’ve worked on it over the past month.

I plan to have a big install weekend this coming weekend.  I also have a guy from FL sending me a heater vent and shifter suround/boot. That will complete the interior repair.

Here are all the new interior parts:

Headliner Rear Clips, Switch Panel, Inside Door Pull Cups, Door Lock Trim pieces, and Brake/Clutch Pedal Pads

Here are the rest of the new parts:

Engine Mounts, Negative Battery Cable, Positive Battery Cable, Fusible Links, Belts, inner transmission boot, and Oil Metering and Oil Injector Sealing Washers

I have a ton of parts ordered:
Headliner Rear Clips – 4
Switch Panel Brown (around p/w switches and balancer)
Shifter Cover Panel and Boot Brown
Inside Door Pull Cup Left Brown
Inside Door Pull Cup Right Brown
Door Lock Trim Brown – 2
Brake/Clutch Pedal Pad – 2
Engine Mount Left
Engine Mount Right
Negative Battery Cable
Positive Battery Cable
Fusible Link – Brown – 3
Fusible Link – Black
Fusible Link – Green
Belt – Alternator
Belt – Air Pump
Inner Transmission Boot
Oil Metering Copper 5-Hole
Oil Metering Copper Outer @ Pump to Line – 4
Oil Injector Sealing Washer – 8

I found out that the shifter cover panel and boot have been discontinued after I made the order but everything else is on its way.  Total cost is $305  The parts will be shipped on the 26th.

Today I got a quote to have the driver’s seat repaired.  I went to Timberline Upholstery in Colorado Springs.  The quoted me $150 for the seat repair.  The repair included replacing a section of foam, replacing vinyl on the side of the seat, and replacing vinyl piping.

Here is the what needs to be fixed:

I took a trip to Denver yesterday and on the way back lost the speedometer cable. I knew it was something I’d have to change at some point because the threads where it screws into the transmission were slightly stripped.  I was able to replace it with a good cable that I had in the garage today.  I lubricated the cable with graphite lube before I installed it.