My new car!

[chickenwafer]

hey, I'm new to this site was on rx8club before but vary briefly as i have recently bout a rx8. I have a background in cars and working on them. I have thought the rotary is just about the best thought out and engineered motor ever... anyways i was told to come over here via "Greek Racer 8" so just saying whats up, my name on rx8club is spowerrx.

What's up man? Good to have you on the site. Make an introduction thread.

I thought it was John Voight's old car. Didn't it have the pencil with his teeth-marks in the glovebox? LOL

Okay now you lost me haha

[chickenwafer]

New carpet is ordered! Says it should be here in 5-7 days. Then I'm moving on to some other finishing touches in the interior. Wish I could redo the seats right now but it's just not in the cards.

Also installed the Mocal thermostat. Went smooth enough, time will tell if it works well and doesn't leak, but I doubt it will.

[speedjunkie]

It's a Seinfeld reference lol.

[chickenwafer]

Ah, gotcha haha.

Ordered some more parts to complete the interior, including some custom piece I haven't seen anyone do yet, I'm really excited about it. Pictures will be posted once I get them installed!

Also, my center console was cracked in the center (common problem), so I hot glued it back together and it seems to be much stronger. And did some custom work on the shifter console plastic I think will come out awesome.

I finished dyeing the headliner and it come out great, I highly recommend the Duplicolor vinyl dye paints, they work great. I also used Duplicolor bumper matte black paint on the OEM plastics and it matches the factory finish 100% and seems to hold up really well. It just takes some extra coats to get good coverage.

[chickenwafer]

Installed the dyed headliner, sunroof felt, sunroof vinyl, sun visors, and the little sun visor plastic clips I painted with the Bumper Paint. Everything went good except I did somehow managed to chip/flake off a small section of dye on the headliner near the windshield during installation. I was able to use some scrap cardboard as a mask and re-spray it though, no big deal. Hopefully it doesn't mean this stuff isn't durable....

Should have some parts shipping out today and some new ones getting here either today or tomorrow. Once I get the new black carpet it will start rolling together.

[speedjunkie]

Where did you get the carpet from and how much? I'm not altogether pleased with my free black carpet, it's not holding up as well as I'd like and it's bunched up in some places.

[chickenwafer]

Got it from here http://www.auto-interior.com/Mazda10.htm?gclid=CNX5k7iW8q8CFQFeTAodQigBVw#RX7

Heard real good stuff about this carpet and it's about 1/3rd the price of OEM. It's pre molded but not cut for holes like the shifter or bolt holes. I also got the mass backing option to added sound deadening.

[speedjunkie]

I think that's the same place that used my car as a mold, which is why my carpet and installation was free. I dont think mine is as good as the ones they sold later though.

[chickenwafer]

It says they're based out of Iowa, maybe the same people though.

I've heard lots of good stuff about the carpet. I just got a tracking number today for it so we'll see once I get it haha.

[speedjunkie]

Well either they moved or it's not the same people lol. But that logo and company name look familiar.

[chickenwafer]

Snagged a short shifter and it came in the mail today so I got busy installing it. Real simple install save for the bolt on the top passenger side of the shifter mount that is blocked by the chassis...holy shit that's a stupid design haha. Took a lot of persuasion but I eventually got the bolt in there and threaded.

I had planned on taking some pictures of the install but really, it was just so short and uneventful I didn't. My old stock shifter had a lot of slop and play in it, the new one is much, much tighter. Throws aren't as short as I had hoped, but the effort is minimally more, so a fair trade-off.

Installed picture, although there is nothing to really look at:



Also did the best $6 mod I've ever done to any car:



Replaced the map lights with some circular SMD panel LED's. For some reason beyond my knowledge my camera captures the light as blue but they are a "hyper white", similar to an HID headlight, with a very gradual blue tint to them. I'm more than happy with the LED's though, they bask the entire interior in a bright, white light and take a very minimal voltage draw (especially when compared to the stock lights) and they don't put out any heat- very impressive. And when you factor in the fact the pair was $6 bucks, can't beat that.

Carpet tracking number shows it will be here tomorrow. I have to let the carpet "relax" from being bundled up in a shipping box so I'll lay it out tomorrow overnight and probably start on the install this Sunday.

[speedjunkie]

Is that a Carbing short shifter? Looks like what it says anyway.

[chickenwafer]

It's a Carbing High Grip shift knob which is fantastic. The short shifter itself is just a Ralco eBay shifter. I saw no need to spend 4x the money on a "name brand" shifter that accomplishes the same exact thing haha.

Also got the ACC carpet today. So far it looks good but it doesn't look like molded very well and basically just a large square. I knew it was uncut but it's a little extreme. It is nice that it has a bonded on heel pad under the pedals. I unboxed it and it's currently unfolded "relaxing" in my spare bedroom. I will probably get started on the install tomorrow evening.

[speedjunkie]

Oh I've never heard of Ralco.

I still wanna see that carpet. Some trimming shouldn't be too bad, as long as it molds well to the floorboard.

Oh, and I took my laptop to a computer repair place today and they'll have it about a week, so I definitely need you to come down on Sunday LOL. And we can look at Mike's car too. Unless someone around here has a laptop we can load the program onto.

[VRx8]

I bought one of those eBay short shifters, much better than my stock one.