Project FD RX-7

[Goodspeed]

That's it for now, I'll try to get some pics of the wheel when it gets back and I have a new airbag for it 

No new airbag yet, but I just got the wheel back from Craft Customs in Texas this evening and they did a gorgeous job.  The leather is so supple that I barely resisted the urge to rub my face on it.  In fact, I don't think I'll be able to drive this car for fear of touching this:





They were great to work with - very communicative.  I actually gave my mom (who is big into hobbyist knitting) my Spirit R shift knob and she went to a knitting supply store to match the red stitching color to a sample color spool of thread that I sent with the wheel to Craft.  They matched the red nicely, and the baseball stitch will match both the shift knob and the e-brake handle.  Interestingly, the factory '02 Spirit R wheel doesn't use a baseball stitch, but a euro-style diamond stitch.  I'm guessing this is because it was supplied by Nardi in Italy, but who knows.  I felt it clashed too much so baseball stitch all around it is.

Another dumb-luck story: there were a few panels behind the B-pillars and into the trunk area that I wanted to source replacements for.  Mine aren't bad at all for a 25 year old car, but they just had the usual wear and tear from being panels in the storage compartment area over the years.  The most annoying to me were the rear storage bins behind the seats - at some point in the car's life it had a bumpin' audio system installed and they drilled & cut holes in them to mount an amp and run wires.

Well, I'm cruising FB the other night and come across a post 17 minutes-old by a Marine stationed at Quantico who is building a FD shell he brought back from California into a track car.  He had every panel I was looking for and they were damn near mint, so next thing I know I'm meeting him on base and getting theses panels from him.  Another set of parts that people are constantly searching for (the bins especially disappear immediately) and now I'm nearing the end on my quest of having a brandy new looking interior in this car.



Random: I'm kinda sad I'm not shooting for 1000hp here because I wish I had a use for an eye-candy 12 injector billet manifold setup