Build thread

[speedjunkie]

OK I weighed the moonroof and panel on a bathroom scale. Probably not incredibly accurate but it's not really that important either lol. Together they weighed 16lbs. The moonroof weighed 13 and the panel weighed 3. That's fairly heavy at the top of the car. So I'm now on the search for an aluminum sunroof. Thanks for the idea!

I replaced the two broken rivets I was talking about. This is the bottom side of the moonroof with the panel installed.


I took this pic last night of one of the broken rivets.


And here is the piece that I broke, so I used JB Weld, hopefully it works.


And here is kinda how the panels fit on, for those that don't own an FD with a sunroof/moonroof. They're not fully installed, I just laid them where they attach in order to take the pic.


And the new windshield cowl came in today. It's beautiful lol. It even came with all the plastic clips to hold it in, and the covers for the screws. Well, the two outer most clips aren't there, and one of mine (driver's side) is bad. Go figure. I have a pic of the back but it came out horribly lol. You can't see anything on that one.



I know this is all very exciting lol. All the boring stuff I post is really for me to look up later if I need to.

[FDEEZ]

Thanks for posting pics. Now I can say I saw one, lol.

To be honest, I wouldn't bother getting a metal sunroof. I don't think the benefits outweigh the costs involved in finding, buying, and installing one... and possibly repainting one if it doesn't match your car or is dented. Besides, the bulk of the weight is in the slider assembly. That assembly alone probably weighs about 30+ pounds. Your money and time can be spent better elsewhere.

If I had that sunshade, I probably wouldn't ever remove my moonroof. It just looks killer on a white FD. I love the sun... just not all the time. When I get tired of the sun, I have an excuse to lose weight by switching to the sunroof.

[speedjunkie]

Well for me it's not so much blocking out the sun, not anymore anyway haha. I wouldn't mind losing as much weight up top as possible, especially for track days or for fun drives through the mountains. Although it won't be as much as a non-sunroof FD. I saw a couple metal ones for sale on the forum so far, but they're probably long gone. Two for $35 each and one for $75. I'm going to look on facebook. If it costs too much I'll skip it. BTW do you know how much the aluminum panel weighs? Now I'm on the hunt for the coin and card holder for the map pocket lol.

Last night I installed the windshield cowl and tucked the part of the harness that goes to the cruise control, MAP sensor, and master cylinder reservoir, like Brad did his. Now it looks cleaner. I also installed the moonroof but I left the plastics off and let them sit overnight to make sure the JB Weld was as dry and strong as possible. And I finished the install tonight after work, including the panel.

[FDEEZ]

I'm pretty sure my sunroof is thin steel (not aluminum). It's definitely magnetic. If I were to guesstimate, I would think it weighs 2 pounds or so...but don't take my word for it...I'm terrible with guessing weight. It is significantly lighter than the moonroof though. Be cautious...these things dent very, very, very easily. I'm actually on my second sunroof because of that. They have a nice bubble formation in them that I thought the painter wouldn't be able to replicate...so I just bought another one.

Like I said though, this isn't the spot I would try shedding weight. The moonroof just looks too good (even in race trim). A carbon hatch with lexan is probably better (if you're wanting to shed weight up top).

[speedjunkie]

Yeah you're probably right. I think I read someone said they were aluminum so I assumed they were.

What do you mean you were concerned about the painter replicating it? What did you want him to replicate? Someone told me that they thought the bubble was a defect so they smoothed it out, then discovered it's on all FDs lol. Ooops!

If I go to the expense of a carbon hatch and lexan, I'll just get a base or R1 FD to race lol. Or I'll look at doing a CF blank in place of the moonroof that I can swap out. I just figured the sunroof would be the cheapest option.

[speedjunkie]

Oh were you wanting the painter to fix the dents but keep the bubble?

[speedjunkie]

I took off this afternoon towards the base so I could go weigh the car (I'm getting antsy lol) and it died on me at Constitution and Powers. At first I didn't hear that it wasn't running and I just saw that the oil pressure was zero and freaked out. I pulled over to the side and Zico came and gave me a jump. When I started the car at the house I noticed that the battery seemed like it was a little low because it was cranking slower than normal but not as slow as my slow cranking issue. I used a multimeter while I was waiting on Zico and it said 13v but would drop to around 11v during cranking, and eventually got down to about 10v. Another thing that was weird was that most of the time it would crank really slow, but twice it cranked much faster like nothing was wrong, which led me to believe the starting problem is getting worse. But it fired like normal when we jumped it so I'm assuming it was mainly the battery. I'm still going to do the larger cables for the battery though, along with the brass pass-through bolt. I got the car home and put the charger on it at 20a for a trickle charge. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

For anyone in the Springs that is reading this, Zico is thinking of doing a lunch meet tomorrow since it'll be nice.

[FDEEZ]

Oh were you wanting the painter to fix the dents but keep the bubble?

Correct, I didn't want the painter to mistakenly flatten my sunroof.

I took off this afternoon towards the base so I could go weigh the car (I'm getting antsy lol) and it died on me at Constitution and Powers. At first I didn't hear that it wasn't running and I just saw that the oil pressure was zero and freaked out. I pulled over to the side and Zico came and gave me a jump. When I started the car at the house I noticed that the battery seemed like it was a little low because it was cranking slower than normal but not as slow as my slow cranking issue. I used a multimeter while I was waiting on Zico and it said 13v but would drop to around 11v during cranking, and eventually got down to about 10v. Another thing that was weird was that most of the time it would crank really slow, but twice it cranked much faster like nothing was wrong, which led me to believe the starting problem is getting worse. But it fired like normal when we jumped it so I'm assuming it was mainly the battery. I'm still going to do the larger cables for the battery though, along with the brass pass-through bolt. I got the car home and put the charger on it at 20a for a trickle charge. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

For anyone in the Springs that is reading this, Zico is thinking of doing a lunch meet tomorrow since it'll be nice.

Your starter problems sound exactly like the problems I was having. Three things could be bad: 1. Corroded battery terminals (just needs cleaning), 2.Bad wire crimps or connections, and 3. Insufficient grounding (most likely). I recommend running 0 gauge from the negative terminal directly to your engine block.

[speedjunkie]

Your starter problems sound exactly like the problems I was having. Three things could be bad: 1. Corroded battery terminals (just needs cleaning), 2.Bad wire crimps or connections, and 3. Insufficient grounding (most likely). I recommend running 0 gauge from the negative terminal directly to your engine block.

The terminals are still perfectly clean. I don't see a bit of corrosion on them. Bad crimps or connections could be a problem. Are you thinking just on the battery cables or you're talking about other places as well? I'm putting 0 gauge in place of all the battery cables, both power and ground. As of right now I have about 4 grounding cables off the battery though, one of which going to the transmission. I'm also swapping the pass-through bolt to the starter for a brass one like the regular bulkhead fittings come with. I'm thinking about doing another pass-through on the opposite side so I can ground straight to the engine.

I'm not sure those are the only three things it could be though. But I hope it's something that I'm planning on fixing soon, because I will lose my mind if this problem persists much further lol.

[Dwduc]

Man here I was waiting curiously to see what the difference between your HEAVILY modified FD weight was from my nearly stock type R. Us springs guys need to chip in and get a community car trailer, Something low and with a winch!!

[speedjunkie]

Man here I was waiting curiously to see what the difference between your HEAVILY modified FD weight was from my nearly stock type R. Us springs guys need to chip in and get a community car trailer, Something low and with a winch!!

I just realized I hadn't updated this and said I weighed the car today haha. My car still has a full interior, I really haven't removed too much weight, in fact I've added some. So it's not far off stock weight. Not to mention the tools and stuff in the back is probably about 30lbs. Here's how it came out...

driver front 660
passenger front 700
driver rear 740 (actually fluctuated between 730 and 740)
passenger rear 710

So it came out to 2800-2810lbs total.

One of the scales was messed up so I had to swap it with another one, but I kept all four on scales while weighing so it would be accurate. Although I don't know how level the ground is right there. I don't think it's way off though. I'd really like to get a set of scales so I can weigh it whenever, but I looked today and the cheapest set of Longacre scales I found was almost $1k.

Also, here is a pic of my right rear tire. I think I need to leave the car parked until I get new tires.

[RX-7 Chris]

I didn't realize they were that heavy I always thought they were closer to FB weight. The GSL-SE is the heaviest FB made and it is about 2650. Mine should be a little lighter since I lost the three cats and just have one high flow cat.

[Shadowden]

Side blocks look good, but centers gone. What are you running for tire pressure?

[speedjunkie]

I didn't realize they were that heavy I always thought they were closer to FB weight. The GSL-SE is the heaviest FB made and it is about 2650. Mine should be a little lighter since I lost the three cats and just have one high flow cat.

I knew they were the heaviest generation, or at least I think they are. I always assumed they got heavier with each generation, but I think recently someone told me FCs are heavier. I'm not sure. I wouldn't mind getting mine down to FB weight, but as long as I keep it a street car that'll never happen.

Side blocks look good, but centers gone. What are you running for tire pressure?

To be honest, I have no idea lol. They never looked flat so I never messed with them. It looks like they were overinflated due to the wear pattern, but I don't think they are. That makes this really strange though.

[Saul_Good]

I didn't realize they were that heavy I always thought they were closer to FB weight. The GSL-SE is the heaviest FB made and it is about 2650. Mine should be a little lighter since I lost the three cats and just have one high flow cat.

I knew they were the heaviest generation, or at least I think they are. I always assumed they got heavier with each generation, but I think recently someone told me FCs are heavier. I'm not sure. I wouldn't mind getting mine down to FB weight, but as long as I keep it a street car that'll never happen.

Side blocks look good, but centers gone. What are you running for tire pressure?

To be honest, I have no idea lol. They never looked flat so I never messed with them. It looks like they were overinflated due to the wear pattern, but I don't think they are. That makes this really strange though.

The FC is definitely the heaviest of all the generations. IIRC it was around 2900-3000-ish lbs.


The wear looks normal for a car with camber. Just needs more strong right and left hand sweepers at ~1g's to even it out