Chris Weigel has one of the rare mazda rx7's first gens here in Oregon and this is the story of its build!



I meet chris through a person who worked at the auto parts store we both got rotary parts at. That guy also had a first gen. We three had similar interests lol. I had a dead rotary:




they did not. I asked some trouble shooting questions and he called chris to help. Chris came out to my house to look at it. I was pretty stoked about that and was really appreciative. I was not really knowledgeable on trouble shooting rotary engines. I had owned them for years but I never blew a motor, so I never bothered rebuilding one yet. This was the early/mid 2000's. I had however been doing body and paint for many years in the classic world and had a shop to do so. It was a side hobby I did for extra cash. We ended up hanging out as I got another rx7. The NW "super"moderator Robert White lived next to us and had a cheap FB he sold me for a few hundred. Ran great!






So we all drove around often. Hit up some meets. All the good stuff!


That is chris watching Robert do a burn out. We were envious of his GSLSE lol

 

After a few meets I ended up buying this little gem:











Then I got another one...

 

We ended up talking one day he came over and I was swapping parts around.


We ended up talking about how we should get a body kit on his car and he should go widebody. I ended up convincing him that I would be willing to fix any kit he could get and do the job for free under conditions. The first that I get credit for the build. Any one asks who built the car, he would allow me the credit I deserve. It is an artists thing. Also that he pay for supplies. I can cover little things, but he needs to pay for paint and papers and glass. We ended up talking with Robert when he came over one day for my carb... ( he bought for 25 and sold to another person for 550. but that is another story.)




We ended up going to hoofhearted (bob putman of rotards in salem) for the kit. It was smaaaaaashed up mad. There was no front bumper and it had lost of bad bondo all over it. I said I can do it though. He paid them a few hundred and we took it to his house!



This was the best panel on the car... This is what I was starting with. The rest was going to need to be redone in major ways.

 

So it began! The project was decided! he was going to be using a Mariah Racing front bumper to go with the rest of the kit and I was going to repair and customize the rear spoiler. It was to be a dark cherry red/purple. I brought the car in and got started on it!

 

There was so much body work to do. I first started mocking up the body kit and seeing what it was going to look like.

 

As you can see the rubber door trim was removed. I used one of the wife's hair dryers from the salon. Got hotter than the heat gun did ahahaha.

 

I started getting the panels ready to be put on.




Despite my wants to not hack the qtrs and only scuff the metal for the epoxy Chris decided to cut it anyway.




was not my choice, however I am not the owner and he was convinced that it needed to happen to bring the rims out flush with the kit when he ordered new ones. Unfortunately he ended up sticking with the rims he had and just bought wheel spacers, so the hacking was not needed after all. So I continued on.




It was time to put the qtrs on and then bond the skirts. This epoxy was gross and make sure the area is prepped before you put it down. I could not imagine having to take it off it it was done wrong!





The spoiler was hideous. I cannot stand it and he was open to a change so I started looking at how to make it more functional.

 

Both sides of the spoiler were cracked and the mounting points where gone.







After I got them all fixed up I mounted the spoiler. Seriously hideous.

 

The new Mariah bumper arrived! It was clearly not going to fit... I needed to mod it.




I cut to the closest fit but found that there was little to no ability to make the curve of the inner fender fit right. I was going to need to do major glass work. I got started on meshing the two together.

 

Chris came over and set up the bar that held it on and I started modding it!





The fenders... I do not know where to start with this. I guess it was best to start with nearly nothing so I could really appreciate the build. ahahaha.