THE STORY

I was building rides for Disney/Universal at the time and had at my disposal every tool you can imagine, a giant shop and various Structural Engineers, a couple of Kart racers/fabricators and a bodyman for input/advise. I found a good used 83 GSL, and another 1StGen parts car.

 was going to build the car very inexpensively at first,...my idea being that we could weld steel tubing across the upper door openings, cut out the doors, close them, install the door panels and never open them again. To get in/out I figured you would just have to climb OVER the door/s(?!). To cover the large gapping hole in back I was going to make a vinyl "tonneau" style cover and affix it to associated body mounted screw in snaps.

My brother and me welded in the steel tubing one night after work and cut off the roof.   

It would have worked,...but,...we were sitting around having a few beers one Friday after work,  the car sitting over in the corner, and my bodyman friend mentioned that he thought the car had great lines,...and that he thought it was a crime not to really finish off the car "properly", and have the doors open/close. He had a great idea of building a back deck with a "trunk lid", using the stock sunroof and hinges. We took a closer look at the underside of the car and noticed that it had flat and straight "frame rails" running front to back,...the Kart racers/fabricators came up with a couple of good ideas for tying the car together structurally and I decided to go for it, I'm glad we did,...the car turned out very nicely I think. 

 By far the largest amount of time/$ went into the bodywork, in particular the back hatch area. I also like the "clean" look, so we "debadged" and really straightened out the rest of the body. I learned a lot about bodywork.

A few things were changed along the way,...I wanted the car to be as stiff  as possible, AND there was no longer anywhere to mount the shoulder harnesses so we built and welded the roll bar in to tie the car together and provide a place to mount the seatbelt shoulder belt holders. I had the top tube mandrel bent to follow the hatch lines and welded in a perforated steel wind screen. We also had originally made windscreen braces that came out of the door, like the other convert conversions I'd seen in pictures,...but I really didn't like the way they looked,...I  figured out a way to brace the stock windscreen posts, boxing the original posts in. (note: even with this mod, the windscreen would surely not support a hit from a wayward animal).

Mechanically I did most of the engine/flywheel and suspension mods buy searching out the guys who used to race these cars locally,...they had, or knew who had a lot of what I needed. For example I got the nice SuspTech springs out of a wreck I got turned on to by a local Rotary builder. 

There is no glass or hardware in the doors, no convertible roof either, although I thought of building one out of boat top hardware,...I built this strictly as a fair weather ride. I did install a solid bulkhead behind the seats(CRX seats) to make the very roomy trunk "secure".

I get a lot of positive comments on the car, most other 1StGen RX7 owners really like it, most others think it's factory stock and ask what kind of car it is(?!)(no badges remember).  

The car is very light, 2,000lbs."wet". It drives really well being that light n tight. I really want to add the R+P Steering mod and I also want a LOT more torque. So I guess this project isn't over yet.

Lastly, I'd like to thank all the people around Vancouver, B.C., Canada who helped me build this car, quite a trip. 

Jeff