PO gets credit for the compact spare tire mount and it is nicely done. Yes that is a Holly 120 fuel pump on left and unfortunately I have no info on the fuel filter on the right but I believe it is a Holly as well, both done with AN 6 tube and fittings to engine compartment by PO. Yes the louver panel was spot welded in hence the sealing by me. I tried to find the filter on line but could not find it, there are no markings on it.

Have been looking for months for the cir-clip that hold the rear roof latch on the shaft that it rides on. Found it at Marshalls Hardware, huge selection of parts. San Diego Off Miramar Rd. Like I always say the devil is in the details.

Engine compartment insulation was not installed when I got the car but the original insulation did come loose with the car but it was very tired. Also, it had a lot of extraneous holes in it so I used it for a template. Found some foil backed heat shield at ORW = Off Road Warehouse made by Competition Specialities (about $50). It worked well fitting it and glueing it in, mostly scissor work. Still need to do the back side of the access panel from the passenger compartment.

Insulation Installed

To continue on with the front trunk, oil cooler, and shroud. It should be noted that I started a thread "Mazda RX7 Oil Cooler Flow" to try to figure out in fact which way the oil should flow or if it really mattered. That thread has taken on a life of is own and I will try not to duplicate here. In fact that post preceded this thread because through that thread I decided I would share my experience of taking over a project started by someone else to complete it. The PO fabricated a bracket for the oil cooler and fans and it is the support for the shroud. Pictured

The PO installed oil cooler and card board mock up shroud. It is my understanding the Mazda cooler is wider making it harder to just buy a shroud.

So I started with the mock up and some spare galvanized sheet metal. It would take a total 5 brake bends to shape the top piece and then cut to fit the two sides. Note it is much more difficult to cut the metal to contour the trunk than cardboard but with careful trial fits it works. I located a local metal fabricator for the first 5 bends which are the one main bend across the top and then the 4 flaps which would attach to the sides. Fabricator charged $20.00 which seemed fair as a walk in customer. Rivits $6.50 Depot. Finally, 9 feet of Trim Lok edge protector $11.50 which also serves as additonal contour to the floor. Total cost $38.00 One last bend was done at the back to allow a clamping flange. Three bolts through the top to the cooler bracket bold it firmly in place and camps have yet to be completed.

Very nicely done!

Very nice!

The fuel filter is a Fram HPG1. We used their remote filter bases for both oil and fuel on the race cars. You can find them at JEGS and Amazon.

I got my bumpers triple plate chromed out in Salt Lake City. Both bumpers came in at a little over $700 in total. Sourcing the old bumpers was another $800; so, it's about a $1500+ mod to do it right. But, mine came out great and I would gladly spend the money on another set if I were doing another car. But, you do need to get them triple plated, meaning that a copper strike is first plated onto the bumpers. The copper will fill minor imperfections (such as corrosion pitting) and can then be sanded smooth by the plater before moving on to the nickle and chrome strikes.

Most shops just do a coat of nickle followed by chrome, which allows any pitting to show through the plating.

The real elephant in the room for me is the wiring for and under the dash. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, mechanically I am ok but electrical not so much. I have spent countless hours under the dash so far tracking and identifying wires from the fuse panel making some headway. Bought diagram's from Prosperos Garage and if you haven't seen them they are done very well and reasonably priced about $20. There is a lot of extraneous wires from a major bundle that were cut cut to the gone console, wires for a stereo, wires from some sort of long gone alarm system, wires to the electric and heated mirrors, and wires that used to go to the 4 cylinder engine for something(?). Add to that the PO found a 6 cyl tach (no year identified) and a really cool quad guage made both yet to be installed and challenges for both. PO bought and included small aux fuse box intended for the oil cooler fans, electric fuel pump, and whatever else. PO also included and intended to change the old main fuse panel to the modern fuses. Don;t get me wrong I think the harness is OK I think it worked but after reading a post the other day from a guy who fried his wires TWICE! I am just a bit skiddish. First the dash current state.

The Tach is a 911 641 303 03 which is for a 78-83 so appears appropriate for my 79 engine. It was rebuilt by North Hollywood Speedometer. One difference on the Tach from the 4 cyl (that I do not have to actually look at) is that the 4 cyl had a single turn signal light that blinked whether you turn left or right (just like an old VW) and now the the 6 cyl tach has two seperate bulb locations for left and right so of course the wiring does not support that. Delima #one just hook up two bulbs and let them both blink when turing or figure out where to bring wires up for true left and right blinking? Dunno.

Next up is the very cool quad guage custom built for PO by New Vintage Guages in Detroit MI. It has Oil Press, Temp, Fuel, Volts. Actually it also has 4 warning lights as well. I have a buddy with a 914-6 clone who wants to kill me for it and get rid of his console, so I get why the console is gone. Much better to look at the quad guage than down at the console. As mentioned in the recent "elephant in the room post" this car had a console with gages (all gone) and a wad of cut wires that went to it. So I have figured out some from the console for the quad guage but now with the 6 conversion and different sending units it is a stretch to figure out what goes to what and this is where the wiring diagram falls apart.

Oh, and forgot to mention engine came with PO installed Perry Kiel 914-6 engine conversion wiring harness which is very nice and clean and marked.

I can't help but laugh @ your comments ,I'am doing the exact same job as you right now,PO had just popped the gauges in the dash on my car the only thing hooked up was the speedo cable .
My combo gauge is a 77 911 one and I have standalone fuel gauge already wired in the dash,its certainly a lot of wires to play with,I spent an hour and marked them all from the Bowlby diagram,like me you will have to run extra wires for earths and backlighting etc for the combo gauge.
I will watch and maybe learnt from your mistakes/success ,as it sounds like we both share the same electrical skills,cheers.

I can't help but laugh @ your comments ,I'am doing the exact same job as you right now,PO had just popped the gauges in the dash on my car the only thing hooked up was the speedo cable .
My combo gauge is a 77 911 one and I have standalone fuel gauge already wired in the dash,its certainly a lot of wires to play with,I spent an hour and marked them all from the Bowlby diagram,like me you will have to run extra wires for earths and backlighting etc for the combo gauge.
I will watch and maybe learnt from your mistakes/success ,as it sounds like we both share the same electrical skills,cheers.
[/quote]

Response above shows misery loves company and I wish you luck too! BTW my speedo was the only guage hooked up too. Ha ha. But your comment promted me to go back and look at my stuff I found a note from boxster fan back in June, early when I was trying to sort things out and still am! He provided the following tip which some may find helpful on Bowlsby he referred to.

boxsterfan
914 relays, Jun 14 2015, 09:28 PM
914's are kewl
Group: Members
Posts: 1,282
Member No.: 791
Joined: 6-June 03

Here is info in the wiring for under the passenger seat.

http://bowlsby.net/914/Classic/zTN_Elect_R...ltInterlock.jpg

Other stuff on Bowlsby's site also:
http://bowlsby.net/914/Classic/TechNotebook.htm

boxsterfan
1974 2.0L

The "elephant in the room" continues by adding to the wiring "opportunity" with the concept of an aux fuse box furnished by the PO to handle the new electric fuel pump, and oil cooler fans as well as whatever else. PO had some great concepts which I agree with but looking for ideas on best location to put it aux fuse box and how to wire it in for my application. Kit form with all the afore mentioned is a lot!

Along with that is the the PO idea of converting to modern day fuses with a furnished brand new fuse panel. Thinking I need to just get it running first with old fuse panel and not add any more complexity to the issue. This is JWest clone made by Engman I believe.

Pro's Con's suggestions are welcome.

Your other thread sent me here... There should be a link in the other thread...

I just did this work today For RobW. I can't really help over the internet but if you were closer, I could have it sorted out in a few days...

I speak wires...

Since you have the fuseboard put it in ,they seem to get good press,however I would leave it till later as you suggested.
Did you find your other indicator switch lamp wire?my missing one was tucked down the far left hand side near the headlight switch wiring,I think it was a black/green or similar this one is for the RH side.
Have you a wire for your oil pressure gauge? I foolishly run new wiring into the engine space and forgot this one....bugger.
In regards to your aux fuse box,i think they are a good idea,I ran a new 30amp rated cable for future amp and others devices and have a nice little 4 fuse block I intent to tuck up under the dash.

Thanks porschetub for the reply I was out of town with no access to computer. I will look for the other turn wire that would be cool if there. No have not tried running new wiring at all yet. Still hoping for more input. Just returned from Laguna Seca Races and the Works Reunion amazing time I highly recommend it. Monterey Penunisula is beautiful.

It is my understanding that from '73 up the vehicles had the wiring harness for the center console regardless of whether the console was installed or not. There was connector just forward of the shifter in the main loom that runs in the center tunnel. It not only provided for the wires from the sender, but power to the gauge lighting and grounds. I this picture shows the connector but it is behind the shifter? The wiring for the PO removed console in my car did not come from here but came from elsewhere.

99% sure those connectors plug into a seperate (small) wire loom in the center console.

and yes, the mid and late year cars came with the connections reguardless if it had a console or not.

Hi, interested to see from this pic that you have a parking brake lever situated centrally. I have 930 discs on the back, and hence no parking brake. Any info on your set up would be much appreciated.

Cheers,
Tony

Tony,
Good eye! Afraid its a good news bads news scenario. I picked up on this car where someone else left off and that PO= Previous Owner installed the console e-brake. I love the idea btw. It has yet to be hooked up and he had custom cables made to boot. He later found a post of a much nicer setup that someone else had done using standard cables that when he saw it he liked it better and wished he had done it, but he felt pretty comitted with welded in nuts and all already. And so I went looking and found the link for you of the better set up. Hope this helps! Let me know if link does not work and I will try again. I can show more pictures if you like of mine but it is not yet proven. So if I had it to do from scratch I would probaby go with the better set up.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...6791&st=380

Take care
Update I can't get the link to work sorry but the guy who posted it was Jeff Hail search him out and the post was Feb 2011

You found the center console connectors. Sent a PM with info.

Thanks for the info. I am off to gather the bits that I need !

Anybody with a 74 take a look at my newly installed oil tank area. What a pain but the tank is in. A lot of "trial fits" but done. There is a strut on my car for the engine lid but it looks like the strut mount/ bracket is suppose to do a lot more by the looks of it. I don't know. Anyway the upper most corner of the bracket is in the way of installing the oil filter. The strut itself will clear it is just the upper corner of the bracket is in the way. Did you have to cut or modify this mount/ bracket thing to get the oil filter to fit?

Pm sent.

So learn as you go. Seems the lower bracket for my GT lid strut is affixed to an aux fan mount. Interesting. Strut works ok! Modified said bracket thanks Rhodyguy for the info.

I wasn't sure what that bracket on mine was for either - I figured it was something a six wouldn't need and I hadn't seen it on other conversions so I just lopped it off!…so it was an aux fan mount, hmm.

Nice job with the oil tank btw..

Jim
Link to the seats you were looking for...

anyone here has had experience with these type of seats? (914 type)

here is the link:

http://www.exoticcarseats.com/

My last post was mid August so it has been very slow with mostly wiring. And lots of it.

But before I get to that, I did carpet the back interior wall and access cover.

The first of the wiring challenge was locating and installing the MSD in the trunk. Wiring the MSD in, coupled with the engine conversion wiring Harness from Perry Kiehl, proved to be quite the challenge. For me anyway. Have to say that Perry Kiehl was extremely helpful in getting through it. Especially so, since I did not buy it from him directly, the PO did and Perry really came through to help out. I made a aluminum mounting plate as seen in the picture to adapt to the trunk forward wall.

Had to modify the Gas tank to make room for the oil cooler lines heading to the longitudinal as mentioned earlier. Local radiator shop did excellent work and resealed the tank as well. Thought it was going to take more modification than it did mostly cutting the flange off and a small indentation provided enough room.

Also carpeted the wall in the front trunk.

Much more wiring in the next post.

You're doing some nice work. Keep up the momentum and you'll be done before you know it. I remember seeing this car for sale...it is a nice project with many great parts. All the best to ya and I will continue to watch your progress

Gas tank looks REALLY nice

This is some awesome work!

Jeff B

Thanks to those who responded to my last post with encouraging feedback.

The engine compartment is all wired now and very cleaned up looking. I like how it came out. Hid the wires to the original fuel pump and also hid the wires to the blower, ran the new wire for the oil temp in eng compartment too. Still want to keep my options open as far as putting the engine in, so holding off for now. Looking to still add a starter relay.

Quad gage wiring completed recently. What a challenge that was! It is actually a quad gage with 4 warning lights, pretty slick. 4 days invested here on this alone. Lots of calls to New Vintage Gage in Detroit. Ben was very helpful. Again, the gage was not purchased by me directly, it was puchased by the PO. So Ben went above and beyond to help sort out a gage they sold about 4 years ago. Pretty cool. Had to run several new wires replacing wires and additional wires. Also thanks to Matt at CPR and Dave Walker toolguy.

Cool gauge!

Put power to the chassis recently for the first time since I have owned the car! This car has not seen power in 18 years!!! Matt at CPR suggested a good systematic approach to applying power for the first time. No fuses blew, no melted wires and a lot worked, some not so much. Had some burned out bulbs, bad ground, and normal stuff. The reason I had not put power to the chassis is there were a bunch of extraneous wires to figure out, sort out, and rip out. Plus there were a couple of previously burned/ blistered wires to replace. (picture) Thanks dlewis for the box of 914 wires to use. Also read here on world from a guy who burned his harness not once but twice, freaked me out. It is nice to see head lights, running lights, gage lights, flashers, horn, wipers, fog lights, and turn signals. Still bugs to work out like parking brake light, and interior light. I even got the radio and power antenna working!

This car originally being a 4 cyl had the single bulb blinker in the tach. With the 6 cyl tach it actually has a left and right. I needed to run wires from the flasher area the grn/blk right turn and grey/ blk left turn. Now the white/blue original wire for single turn signal is now not used!?? oh well. I have correct turn signals now on the 6 cyl tach!!! Blink normal and everything!!! There is hope for me yet. (Disclaimer: It didn’t work first time). Wiring diagrams from Dave Walker toolguy sure helped.

Next focus was wiring on the oil cooler fans and fuel pump. I finally get it! Thanks to Dave Walker toolguy I finally do get it how the wiring is suppose to work with a relay. So re-did the wiring to the fans because I thought it could look way better (before and after pictures) Want to use the small 4 fuse block and took the in line fuse previously installed for the fans and moved it to a small fuse / relay panel. It will be so much easier to see on that little fuse block than bundled up in a wiring harness under the oil cooler shroud.

Used Porsche relays on the panel since I had the bases (thanks dlewis) and relays so made a fuse box/ relay tray out of aluminum, toolguy helped me out with his slick machine shop in punching and bending the alum panel. The 4 fuse panel has a fuse for the fans and fuse for the fuel pump with 2 empty fuse positions for anything future. Note that the fan had its own relay so that is still located on the fan frame. Also I left myself a spare relay base on the panel to potentially run a relay for the headlights or anything else.

Wow! Clean. Nice work.

Unfortunately I have not been able to devote much time to the project over the last month but I was able to complete the installation of the front bumper. This was actually no small feat and a culmination of a several month process but dammit I really wanted a chrome front bumper!

The car as I bought it had a fiberglass bumper and lower valance. First of course was finding a decent front bumper that would be able to be chromed. The bumper I found was just ok and it did have a good bumper top. Second was having the bumper modified to accommodate the intake for the front oil cooler PLUS match up to the fiberglass lower valance. Thanks Chris! Then there was the chrome shop and almost 4 months later. Next was finding some sort of mesh screen to go in the intake. Lastly was fitting it all to the car. Trial fit, trail fit, trial fit, and trial fit.

For those looking for an inexpensive solution for the mesh screen I found at the Home Depot that gutter guard worked great and was already painted black, was close to the right size, fairly easy to work with, and like $3.00. How many parts can you buy for $3.00?

Note the PO cut extra holes for the oil cooler intake in the front panel, I just blacked out around it. Attaching the mesh to the fiberglass valance was accomplished with strategically placed tie wraps.

Looking Good!

I hope to redo my front bumper soon as well. Did you modify the bumper yourself?

Nice work on the bumper It's one of those details that "make' your car. No one that looks at it will have any idea how much effort went into it. But you will always look at it with eyes that show and remind you that it was all worth the effort.

Nice work! Makes me want to get my orange car back on the road. Our builds are very similar.

-Steve

No, did not modify myself wish I could say I did. A guy I know here in San Diego who is a metal wizard did it for me. He has done some amazing stuff so this was like a minor thing for him but I sure appreciated it.

Thanks, I know what you mean about getting it on the road. Yes yours does look similar. Unfortunately mine is getting too used to the jack stands. The way things are going it looks like 2016 for me. Still lots to do.

Very nice....yep, attention to detail makes a huge difference, great job.

Wow! Excellent attention to detail. Your car is looking beautiful. Full speed ahead.

I was the prior owner of this car and must say that I am very impressed with the work Jim has done since he has had it. I also realize that i would not have had the skills to complete the car to this level and I applaud his patience and perseverance in picking up the pieces and bringing this project ever so close to completion.

I can't wait to see it running when he is able to devote more time to the project. Needless to say - SUBSCRIBED!

At your convenience, can you post a picture of the access port open to see the engine front / and loosely describe your cover's dimensions? I have built a cover from doner firewall but want to confirm that I will be able to get at everything necessary in the engine bay with my dimensions. Thanks and nice work.

I am just so impressed with the build. The bumper rechrome seams really cheap.. Do you have some contact info?