After i got the engine running, i had to sort out a couple of things before i could attempt to drive the car down the driveway. First was the leaking oil cooler lines. Luckily, the only thing i needed to do was tighten the fittings a little bit more and the leak went away. The other thing i needed to do was fix the the midpipe that was rubbing against the driveshaft. Knowing that no solution i concocted would give me the confidence i needed to drive the car long distances, i decided to just order a new midpipe from RX7store.net. In the meantime, to be able to test drive the car, i made a makeshift bracket to push the midpipe down enough so it doesn't rub when the driveshaft starts spinning. Once those two things were fixed, i took it out for it's maiden voyage which Isaac helped me capture with my phone:
And here are some pictures from the same day to commemorate this special day:
After a couple drives up and down my street, the car went straight back into the garage in preparation for the exterior transformation. To be honest, i didn't feel quite ready to move on to the next phase of the rebuild. It almost felt too sudden to be on the last phase of the build, but since i wasn't planning to drive the car in it's current condition, i had to move on.
First up was fitting the widebody kit. I pretty much followed the same procedure i did the last time i did the install, although there are a couple of small differences this time around. For one, this time i decided to cut more off the rear quarter panels. The last time i did it, i didn't cut enough and ended up with some rubbing issues, so not wanting to make the same mistake, i made a much larger cut this time around. After reading multiple build articles on Speedhunters and seeing them use an air saw to cut the fenders, i decided to buy one as well since i didn't have a great experience last time with the Dremel Saw Max. The main benefit of the air saw is a much cleaner cut, and the added benefit is you're putting much less heat into the material you're cutting. Here's the air saw i picked up:
In the end, i'm really glad i bought the tool because it was a joy to use in comparison to the Dremel and it really made the cut SO much cleaner! This is probably my new favorite tool. Here's a picture of the cut:
Like last time, i'm still not quite sure how to seal the two pieces together. Ideally, i should be welding the two parts together, but i don't have a welder, so for now, i decided to just push the inner fender up and leave some material for sealing up later on down the road. I might do what Speedhunters did and cut an opening then weld in a new piece to fill the gap.
As with a lot of things i passed over, i will come back and deal with this later one. To make that possible, i decided to forgo riveting the rear fenders like i did last time and picked up some stainless steel security torx sheet metal screws.
And here's the widebody bolted up.
There's a still a few brackets i need to put in, but i've gotten most of the big cutting parts done, including the fuel door section. Next up was lining up and fitting the front bumper to the fenders. The initial fitment was a little disappointing. If i'm honest, i felt like the first bumper i got was much better fitting than this one. At first i thought i wouldn't be able to get it to line up without a lot of modification. Luckily, after i started working on it, it didn't take too much effort to line it up and in the end the fitment is pretty much the same as my first bumper.
Quite possibly one of the most exciting parts of the rebuild was the radiator/bumper fitment. The first time around, one of the things i liked least about the build was how the radiator fitted in the front bumper. Not only did i have to spend a good amount of time cutting the bumper/undersweep to fit the radiator, the radiator actually sat much higher up.
BEFORE
AFTER
You can see now the bottom of the radiator sits underneath the lip of the bumper/undersweep which means i didn't need to do any cutting to fit it. One of the things i was worried about was bolting the bottom of the undersweep to the car. Luckily, the undersweep was flexible enough that i could get it to bolt up without doing anything additional cutting like i did last time.
And here's the front of the car with the hood thrown on for a quick photo:
It's hard to believe that after 255 days, i'm finally approaching the light at the end of the tunnel. Although i'm close, i still have a lot of work to do, including fitting the headlights, install the rear wing, paint the door jambs, and paint the kit. It just so happens to i'm changing jobs for the first time in 8 years, so i'll have 2 weeks in between jobs which i'm hoping to dedicate a portion to completing the car. I really want to have the car done before i start my new job so i can focus on work rather than trying to finish my rebuild. Gotta keep my head down and keep chipping away.
Approaching the Light at the End of the Tunnel 
