Feature: Franklin's Twin Turbo 1st Gen RX-7

I was topping off my ever decreasing oil at the auto parts store when up rolls my favorite build I've done a feature on so far. I said, "Huh, that surely looks nice". A white and black 1982 Mazda RX-7; vintage rotor power. Nothing gave away that it was a beast. I thought it looked really nice and I expected a clean engine but not what I saw.

What caught my eye was actually the detail. This man, Franklin (a pleasure to meet you!), had fabricated a windbreaker for the roof rack and it's unique things like that that make a car stand out. The whole car has little details everywhere. I know he must have put a lot of time and effort into Bassrotor - the name of this beastly vehicle. I didn't want to bother him for an hour going through it all!

My favorite part about the build is that Franklin did it himself. Okay, let's talk about the motor first because I know you guys are itching. He put this together. Let's see...

Holy crap. What do we have here? Well, a rebuilt motor with two turbos. The main 80mm Garrett turbo is powered by a secondary 70mm turbo, also by Garrett. I'm sure that huge second turbo helps a lot with turbo lag! (Sarcasm.) I'm joking about it but I shouldn't because it will probably throw a half inch chunk of tire at me if the car gets mad and does a burnout.

Edit: Silly me. Because of some miscommunication, I thought this was a twin turbo build. Franklin informed me today that it is indeed "only" one turbo. Only one 80mm turbo. Just one lonely huge turbo boosting only 10psi, surprising because of the 350whp.

Franklin, want to come over and do this to Lexi?

The car makes 350whp. Yes, wheel horsepower. Actually, can I call it zebrapower? Cause the car is black and white and probably can't be tamed! Ba-dum-chi.

The way everything is put together is top notch!

Here are some details about the engine and other components. This is a 12a turbo engine. The car runs Racing Beat exhaust and suspension. The exhaust does have a cat and muffler unless I understood him wrong. The man does the tuning himself.

It has a Mariah body kit and a whale tail. I have no idea what that means because although I really like RX-7s, they're not really for me. I personally don't know much about them. Suffice it to say, however, this car has had an amazing amount of time and effort put into it. It just reeks of character. Bassrotor is not just my favorite car I've featured but one of my favorite modified cars of all time.

There's so much yet so little to say about the engine. I mean, look at it! It's a work of art. And it's so clean... Damn. Again people, Franklin did this himself! I'm sure he had help here and there (maybe) but this is not a car built by a crew. It's amazing. The quality is off the charts.

The owner apparently owns some other RX-7s. I want to see those...

The owner taught himself to do upholstery so he could do his own seats. That embodies the spirit of this website. It also inspires me to hurry up and do mine... 

Let's go to the interior for now. The man reupholstered his seats. When he told me that is basically when I fell in love with the build. You guys know I'm teaching myself upholstery so I can do the same thing! Bassrotor left me inspired. It literally made me feel like I can do better when it comes to my own car and because of this, I'm going to do my seats very soon.

He did a good job. Unfortunately I didn't ask if he did the stitching by hand or not but that's a lot to do by hand anyway. But completely worth it when you're done. Yes dear readers, I am re-upholstering my seats soon. I figure I can keep the covers on when I take the original leather off until I can put the new leather on. I'm stupid excited.

Thank you for reading. I know you enjoyed this amazing build. Bookmark this website and come back sometimes. We always post new tutorials, reviews, and miscellaneous things. Happy wrenching! Scroll down for a couple more pictures.

True tuner. Laptop hooked up to the ECM.

- Rokas K.

Fruit of My Labor II: Lexi

Aesthetically, I got my car pretty much how I want it from the exterior. Mechanically, I got all of the major services done. That includes the timing belt, waterpump, alternator, spark plugs, and spark plug wires. I took the car from having a really bad misfire where it would buck between 50 to 70 mph to driving like a dream.

Kinda looks like angel wings... 

During the last week, I put the last touches on it. The day before yesterday I replaced the Coolant Temp Sensor - one cheap part that robs your car of power and throttle response. If it hasn't been changed in 100,000 miles, you should change it. I've done it twice now and both times I got the same effect. Throttle response was immediately improved, some power came back, and the transmission shifts faster.

For example, doing something like quickly slowing down and then giving it some throttle would make the tranny lag for a split second. Seems like now it shifts quickly and efficiently. It also made my idle smoother. The car would mildly shake before whereas it's smooth now sitting in one spot.

Here's the car as it stands. To me, it's almost perfect. I want it lower and I need to get better rims but besides that, I've installed everything I want already. Oh yeah, it needs paint too. Let's go through the design idea in general. You would not believe how much hate this car gets on a typical Lexus forums yet everyone seems to like it in real life. Weird, huh?

That's only for Mustangs, man! -Purist

The car has a few details that aren't supposed to be on an LS400 according to some internet experts. According to me, they can stuff it because I've created a car with a unique style, on a budget, that I love very much. And it's reliable. It's my daily driver of 50+ miles per day (more like 80 - the car just hit 225,000).

Inside

It is now February 23rd, 2019, and I just took pictures of the details. I'm going to do one of these articles whenever the car reaches a milestone. Sure, the other article talks about a lot of the same things but I used a better camera and I'm going to make it quick and simple.

One of four LED strips. The kit comes with a remote control with a variety of settings. You can choose from nine colors or so and you can make them fade to different colors or respond to music. Works best at night.

I'm using seat covers until I can get my seats reupholstered (or do it myself). Thing is, the seat covers alone are pretty bad because they constantly slide off but with the secondary covers you see (it hangs from the headrest and only covers the back and bottom - black and grey here), I don't have that problem anymore, it looks decent, and it's very comfortable.

You can see my fog light button located in the Crown Royal bag. I've been pulled over for it because I guess the cop thought I had a bottle of it on the dash? He said nothing about my tints...

I used a better camera for these pictures so you can actually see that the leather for the shifter, dash, and armrest are one and the same. By the way, I love my sunroof. I think everyone does though, right?

The damn shifter needed a better pic! I'm loving it. Soon, I will be taking off the plastic cover around the shifter to clean up under there and get the moisture out.

The seat cover on the passenger side. See what I mean? Best cover you're gonna get because they kinda suck. Just my opinion.

Guys, having the curtains and the windshield banner in a tinted car gives you so much shade that it's incredible. I live in Florida and trust me, it helps. Too bad driving around with the curtains completely open can be a bitch (hard to pull out of places).

I am using a different seat cover in the back. It's somewhat hard to find rear covers that fit nicely for this car but these aren't bad. As you can see, they're just the right size and they even go under the seatbelts. Also, if you feel like taking the seat out, this cover has loops that let you attach it very well.

Problem: Can't find a cleaning agent to get this out. What do I do?!

Outside

That's the interior for the most part so let's see what's up outside.

Someone said I should rip out everything I've put on the car and then drive over the headlights and start over. I thought about it for a second... I don't think I'm going to but it was constructive criticism.

I love the way the fenders look, especially in the back. It has that "body in trunk with shot suspension" look. The paint keeps coming off. Will have to re-do them all. That can wait until I paint the whole thing.

Still love the fake carbon fiber wing. I recommend it to anybody. Also, I just wanna say... The car looks as long as my home...

Revision; I decided to add to this article before more than two people read it (seven and I can beat my record!). What I meant to point out in this article besides what I've done to the car is the problems it still has and what still needs to be done. This is basically my to-do list as far as getting Lexi2 the Chariot as perfect as possible.

1. The only mechanical issue is an unidentified oil leak. Right now I surely don't have the money to fix it so I top off the oil a lot. Yes, it bothers me a lot but... Finances. Me and the ol' ball and chain are still having a hard time after just moving. It IS however my #1 priority. I am hoping it's the valve cover gasket but if not, it's almost a grand to replace the crankshaft and camshaft seals.

I don't like my car having this issue at all but I can't do anything about it at the moment. It's a problem that doesn't affect the reliability of the car so I have to deal with it. I've developed a natural clock that tells me it's about time to put in a quart but the low oil pressure light does come on if the oil gets too low while I'm driving.

2. Stains. The carpets are stained extremely badly. I don't know how much mud and Hennessey had to go in some of these spots but man! The cleaner I had on hand barely did anything. However this bothers me enough that I will get whatever I need to truly clean these carpets.

3. Ripped leather. The seats and front center armrest all have rips and holes in them. The armrest is okay for now with the cover but I'm eventually going to reupholster it. Of course I can eventually find one in good condition at the junkyard but I have certain design plans I want to implement.

4. Stock rims. I like the stock rims but the ones I have have been through hell. One has the top layer of metal coming off. All of the plastic center pieces are a different color around the edges where the paint peeled off. And most of the tires have curb rash.

Now the deal with that is that I do want nicer rims in the future, for sure, but I also want to make the ones I have now look good. I plan on restoring them as best as I can. I'm thinking of painting them gold but if it's not that or flat black, you can bet it will be metallic.

5. Paint. Last but certainly not least, the beast needs a fresh, shiny, dripping (well maybe not that) coat(s) of fresh white paint. Some of you know that the white part of the bumper is painted in the planned color. I wanted to see if I could do a good job and I definitely think I accomplished that. I think I did four layers, waiting fifteen minutes between each, with two layers of clear coat on top. The paint is Paint and Primer Gloss White. I know myself - one day I will realize I can afford a ten pack of paint and have access to someone's garage and I'll go over and do it in a day. Honestly, I've been wanting to do this for months and I don't want to paint the car panel by panel outside. Best case, I can tape everything off and do it in one go.

- Rokas K.

Tutorial: Re-upholstering a Shifter

The other day I figured I would try to reupholster an old shifter I had to match the center armrest cover and dash cover. The result came out very good. It looks kind of like a boxing glove but I think it looks nice. Of course, you can disagree, but you can reupholster your own and do it better.

Finished product with the bottom plastic silver colored piece attached back on.

This shifter took a total of about two hours to finish. I kept taking breaks so I don't know for sure but that's about the right time. This was my first true reupholstery job; I took off the original leather, cut new leather, and stitched it back onto the shifter. The result? It's very soft but sturdy. I love it but some people hate my car period (that's a future article - I want to talk about purists).

I will say the stitching isn't very good. Yes, it was my first time doing this specifically, but I should have paid more attention to the lines. My stitch lines aren't very even - try to make sure they line up when you sew. I was using a curved needle to go from above the center piece and come out of the bottom of the larger piece of leather. I repeated this process until I was finished.

What I should have paid more attention to is the angle at which the string sits; you want them all to line up as best as possible. You can see mine getting better as I was going from left to right.

You're going to need:
- A black marker.
- Scissors good enough to cut your leather.
- A razor.
- A bent needle - bend your own. I've been using the same one for a long time.
- String. Because I had basic string which isn't very strong, I folded it over so it's twice as strong. Otherwise I would recommend trying to find stronger string. I've also used clear fishing line before but only in places you couldn't see. That stuff does not come off.
- Vinyl adhesive or some good glue.

Use the razor to cut the original string on the shifter. You need to separate the pieces of leather from the shifter. That is what you will use to make your new pieces.

Tip: they might be bent, meaning they won't lay flat immediately, so do this. Get the pieces wet, clean them (just with water - I guarantee dirt will come off), and then when they're wet, give it a little pull to both sides to flatten it and put something flat on top.

Next, set them on the bottom side of your new leather and trace around them with your marker. Cut right where the marker starts to get the same dimensions.

Now just test fit your pieces. Do they look okay? I cut about 1mm off of one side of the middle piece because it seemed bigger than the original leather and it worked out perfect.

Use vinyl adhesive (preferred) or some other glue to adhere the main piece to the shifter. Put the other piece on to make sure everything lines up and is also centered. Having the main piece glued onto your shifter will not only give it extra strength but it will be easier to stitch the two pieces together.

Bending a normal needle really helps to get under that main part. If you look at my project, the string goes into the smaller middle leather part and comes back up from under the main leather. Just repeat until it's done.

Pushing a sewing needle through leather is somewhat hard at times so keep some pliers nearby. Most stitches you can do by hand but sometimes the needle will have a hard time going through and that's when you grab the pliers to pull the needle through.

Let's talk about how you should use normal string for clothes to do this. Like I said, double it up. Get twice the length you want and bend it in half. Next, insert the two ends into the needle hole. Yes, both of them. Tie them together with maybe five simple knots - it will help hold it in the spot where you first start stitching.

Now, move the needle to the other side where the string is looped. Tie one knot about an inch from the end of the string. That's where you want your needle to be. Also, this way you don't have to cut anything to get the needle off.

This helps in a couple ways. First, it's stronger (doubled up). Second, when you run out of string, it's easy to add more. Think about it; you don't want four feet of string because each stitch will take longer having to manage all that length. A shifter like that, I would do in two parts preferrably.

So what do you do when you're at the end of your string? Honestly that knot holding the needle should be almost coming undone already but if not, that's what you need to do. Untie it and get your needle. Here's the beauty; you have a loop to attach the next length of string.

It's pretty self-explanatory but here it goes. Get your length of string. Make sure this time you will have enough length to finish the shifter. You need to loop one side of the string through the old one, pull it through enough to where the two ends of your new string line up, and use that end to tie onto your needle.

Why do you need to do this? Because it's the best way to hide the fact that you added extra string. That part where the string connects will end up somewhere under the leather. It's the best way I've found. It's ugly to just knot it which you can do if you choose to or if you make a mistake. If you position that right, it won't show either.

Re-upholstering a seat is the same process but how many times bigger is it than the shifter? Doing it by hand like me, it would take forever to do each seat. Nonetheless, if you can reupholster your shifter perfectly then you can reupholster anything, really. The basics are the same.

Dear readers; life came at me hard and so I haven't been able to write as much. I am sorry for the lack of content. I have been working on Lexi2 however so I have pictures and new information for future articles.

I mentioned something about purists earlier in the article and I am struggling to write this piece in a non-biased way. The problem with the car community I'm in is that people are too close minded. If you do something different with an LS400, you're going to get trolled. That's on the internet. In real life, at worst I've had people point out things that I should fix but if anything, people compliment the car and love it.

It's a sketchy subject but I want to explore the psychology of it. I've even tried to ask these people some questions and they weren't able to come up with anything valid.

Thank you so much for reading; come back soon! P.S. Tell me what article you would like to see. You can find me on Instagram as @rokask1 or you can email me at norgin@gmail.com. You can also post a comment here.

- Rokas K.

The Fruit of My Labor

Besides an oil leak that I'm saving money for to fix, Lexi is running great. I just changed out the alternator which was the last part of the maintenance a car needs at 200k miles. Some people, including friends in real life, want to see everything I've done to the car so I figured I would make a post about this project.

Let me just say that I started this journey almost two years ago now, this is my second Lexus, and I've put a lot of effort into it. When people really notice and comment on it, that's what keeps me going. It was HARD to keep this car as I purchased it basically 5-10k miles from needing major maintenance. Anyway, slowly I was able to acquire different accessories for the car that really makes it feel like my own.

Pictures don't do justice. I want to explain the feeling of this car. During broad daylight, you get in and immediately everything is darkened. You feel cozy. In the back, you can completely tune out the world with the curtains. I built it like a car meant to be driven by a chauffeur.

It has really made me think about what VIP style means. I didn't think my car was but the only thing it lacks - right now - is rims and it needs to be lowered. It actually became a budget VIP car, my original goal, and I am so proud of it.

The roof illuminates blue from the LED shifter. Also you can see the wide view rear view mirror.

To start, the maintenance I've done to this car in the 10k miles or so that I've had it includes timing belt, water pump, fuel pump, fuel filter, spark plugs and wires (have distributor caps - it's okay for now), and alternator. The only thing left to fix right now is this oil leak.

The car drives as perfect as can be. 95% of the time, there is absolutely no rattling or any weird noises driving unless the sunroof lid is sitting weird and moving up and down or something. The suspension is good and the car drives over bumps very smoothly yet has a sporty feel when you want to use it like that.

Anyway, let me get to the features of the car:

1. LED Backup Lights. They're tinted yellow and are very bright. They turn on when I'm reversing.

2. Floor LEDs. With a remote control, I can turn on the mood LEDs which light up the floor. There is about nine colors to choose from. It also has different settings. It can react to music, fade into different colors continuously, and I think you can program your own pattern. This is one of my favorites.

3. VIP Curtains. I have curtains for the rear windows. For those who don't know where this comes from, the Yakuza started this trend because in Japan, it was illegal to tint your windows. It wasn't illegal to put curtains on your car, though, thankfully. Now they could do their blow in peace.

4. Interior LED Bulbs. Most of the normal bulbs on the car, such as the lights on the corners of the doors or the ones that come on when you open the mirror located on the sun visor, have been replaced with blue LED bulbs. A very dear reader bought these for me when I was broke, getting me into LEDs. If that dear reader reads this, please contact me on Instagram. (I have memory issues resulting from a near fatal car crash.)

I lost all of my pictures with my last phone so instead of a picture of the interior LEDs, how about a different look at the floor LEDs?

5. Windshield Banner. I recommend this to anyone that is considering it. Sometimes you don't need the sun visor at all, it makes it darker in the car during the day, and looks cool as hell from the outside. How can you not like it? By the way, I'm somebody that doesn't like the sun visor for some reason so if I don't have to use it half the time compared to before, I'm happy.

Yes, I'm using two seat covers. The top one is padded and only covers the top of the back and bottom. They go together well. You can also see the embossed Lexus logo armrest cover in this picture.

6. Fog Lights. Nobody notices the fog lights unless it's nighttime. I really like these as well. They add to the look of the car and personally, I like how the blue goes with the yellow headlights. I actually like the button setup I'm using, too - a Crown Royal bag covering the wires, the button cozily sitting at the top where the bag closes and ties.

7. 15mm Spacers. I put 15mm spacers just in the rear because the rear tires seemed way too far in for me. The spacers are perfect. I didn't want to get anything bigger for fear of damage but I would probably be fine. Also, now both wheels pretty much match the edge which is wider because of...

8. Fenders. This is another favorite of mine. It makes the car look SO much better in my opinion. It changes the look completely with the spacers I mentioned and...

9. Carbon Fiber Wing. It fits the LS400 perfect. It's tiny - something I wanted in a spoiler. It would at least have to be tasteful but a huge spoiler doesn't belong on an LS400 unless it's a time trial car or something.

10. LED Shifter. I like this one a lot. It has four settings if you include off. You press the top to turn it on. It begins in the first pattern where the one blue light goes back and forth along the shifter. My favorite during daytime. Next you get all five lights strobing which is not one of my favorites. It's distracting to be honest. However, with the first setting and the last one consisting of all the lights simply staying on, it's still great.

At night, I turn it on to where all the lights are on. During the day, I might have it going back and forth. The shifter actually runs off a watch battery that lasts forever (remember, LEDs need very little energy). It complements the floor lights almost too good.

11. Misc. I have a custom made dashboard cover by yours truly and a center armrest cover with an embossed Lexus logo to match. I'm using pretty good seat covers right now but I want to eventually either reupholster the seats or just get nice, clean ones from the junkyard.

I really do like how they add black to the interior, though, so even when I get new seats, there will still be something. Probably like the one of the two front seat covers I'm using that just goes on top as opposed to covering the whole seat.

The car has a bunch of things I've picked up and added along the way like a wide view rear view mirror - a recommendation to anyone. I have a charger that works off the cigarette lighter and has an extension cigarette lighter-type port that I use for the LED lights and the charger also has a USB port on top to charge your phone at the same time.

The car is TINTED. When I say that, I mean it is tinted to the fullest extent of the law here in Florida. The back windows are 80% tint with the front being 70%. 80% on the front would be illegal. The sunroof is tinted too to probably 80%, the front windshield and back window came tinted stock (turquoise). Now, remember I also have not just a windshield banner but curtains as well. Yeah, you can't see inside if I don't want you to.

Much love,

- Rokas K.

Tutorial: How to Make a Tester for Car Accessories

Sometimes you want to test a part before you put it on your car, especially aftermarket accessories such as fog lights. I will teach you how to create a simple source of power that you can use to test any 12V accessory.

You're going to need to find a small battery that makes 12V. I got lucky and mine came with an off-road light that I purchased. It was part of the package so you could press the button and see how bright the light is before buying it.

The directions also state that the battery is for testing purposes only so that's how I'm using it. You can make it yourself. The one I use has a button hooked up to it which is a good idea but you don't really need it. You should be able to find a pretty small battery that produces 12V.

This is how simple it is to build this:
1. Take your 12V battery and attach one wire to the positive side and another to the negative side. If you can't solder, it's okay, just make sure the wires have good contact and wrap it all in duct tape.

2. You can go ahead and install a button if you want. If you don't install an on/off button, just be careful to not let the wires touch but it's really no big deal.

2b. Installing a button is easy. You're going to connect your positive wire to the button and connect a wire from the button to the battery. When you press the button, it will allow current to flow. This lets you set up whatever you're testing before trying it. It IS handy.

Two and a half steps. Now you have a battery with two wires - a positive and a negative. Make sure you color coordinate that. Now you can apply those wires to the positive and negative terminals of whatever appliance you want to test.

See the light bulb in the first picture? I had problems holding it and taking a picture so I just set up my "wires" (in my case, I used some iron I had laying around) in a way where they are connected to the battery. This way, all I had to do was hit the button for power and take my picture. Mine is a little different. Yours will probably just have a positive and negative wire so simply expose some wire and you can touch those ends to your appliance.

You can see how I connected the bulb to the power source via two bent wires.

I used it to see if these two different LED bulbs I got shine the same. When I purchased them individually, I didn't realize they are slightly different. By taking a picture of both, I have a good idea of the difference - not much or zero. I'll be putting LED headlights in probably today. If I'm blinding people, I'll take it back off but I hope that's not the case.

Hope this helps somebody. I use that tester on everything. I'll find some lights, see if they work, and see if I can adapt them or something. It's pretty useful when you first start messing with electronics.

Have a good day, show your car some love, and come back.

- Rokas K.