Week-by-Week Progress

It may be noteworthy to share that I moved places to San Jose at the beginning of the year. I’ve been spending much of my attention towards settling in and bringing my condo up to speed, on top of everything else around me getting busier. The paralleling decline in cadence with the RX-7 really puts things into perspective. During the beginning 2 years, I proceeded with rapid fire on the build and the pieces fell into place with an impetus. I’m glad the RX-7 is near the finish line, because I’ve shifted into a lifestyle that no longer permits accelerated projects.

I used to be able to walk a few steps out to the garage and start tinkering whenever I had a break in the day, or late at night. Now, I live 5 cities away from where the car sits, which certainly impacts the “fluid” workflow I’ve been accustomed to. If I want to work on anything, I have to plan and schedule ahead of time.

After cranking out a few errands this morning, I grabbed what I needed and drove over to the car. Aside from a quick dinner, there was never a moment’s rest from the second I arrived to when I left 6 hours later. I noticed that I can fall into a deep and fixated zone when working on my car. I have yet to come to grasps with meditation or activities of that nature, the state of nothingness is awkward and leaves me impatient. Counterintuitively, I think delving into work with a high productivity yield is my way of finding peace.

I started by throwing on the -6AN hose separators I ordered from Billet Specialties.

The anterior pair of stainless braided crankcase ventilation lines were tied together, and I figured separating them apart would remove the chance of abrasion. I opted to use only 2 of the 3 separators, however, as the straight section ran along the fuel rail. The metal on metal contact there would not have been as preferable.

Next, I moved onto reinstalling the passenger side door panel. I am aiming to tackle all supplemental tasks before the rest of the interior is ready from Broadfield.

I ordered a new trim piece for the door panel from Mazda. The idea is to keep the color scheme 2-toned like the Spirit R interior. The driver side plastics will be grey, while this passenger side door piece will remain black.

For added measure, I picked up a new window switch as well.

Trim piece swapped and door panel reinstalled. The RX-7 is in dire need of a detail, inside and out, which I plan to do once everything is installed and completed.

I then decided to pull off the radiator’s intake shroud to wrap in gold heat shielding. The upkeep of the bare aluminum was too difficult and the finish always looked dull. This is also a reason why I’m not a fan of polished metal. On the other hand, you can never have too much gold… I’ve always wanted my engine bay to bear resemblance to a NASA satellite…

Wrapping the 2-piece shroud proved to be more difficult and time consuming than anticipated. The multiple curves and holes added to the challenge. Once I was done with the wrapping, I was running out of time. I quickly returned the shroud to the engine bay and hand-tightened the fasteners back on. I will have to wrestle on the intake’s coupler another day.

With that, I had to rush back to San Jose and get my grocery shopping for the week done before the Trader Joe’s closed…