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Great looking RX! congrats. I have seen enough early RX7s in my European travels to know most have succumbed to rust and mistreatment (a fate shared here too). Looks like minor detailing like repainting the radiator, the ignition coil brackets, etc will bring the engine comp up to showroom standards.
As others may have advised here, would recommend:
-remove and thoroughly clean the radiator. Simply changing the coolant (also a god idea!) will be insufficient on this old a car.
-take a hard look at how your mud guards are attached to the fenders. These dealer-mounted guards are usually just screw-tapped into place, making a very likely source of rust to start in what is already a very vulnerable area!
-the addition of the rear window louvers tends to make all but new support struts unable to hold up the rear glass. Especially with the added weight of the rear wiper motor. In the USA these struts are available (eg on ebay) for very cheap $$: $20 each or even less.
You will be driving a very unique, rare car in the Old World.
Oh what a nice pretty detailed car! Check the rear wheel wells, just infront of the rear tire, where the control rods attach to the body. Better yet, pull the rear storage bins. It just takes a philips screwdriver.
This is just me, but I find washing and waxing the car's topside to be incredibily boring. Keeping everything in good running condition is what seperates me from the metrosexuals. Now, I'm going to saddle soap my red wing steel toed work boots.
And so it started.
My wife and I are currently on our way back from Copenhagen to Italy, driving the RX-7!
As we learn her character, we're finding out the good and the bad.
Good: the car is sound. Certainly better than some other classic cars that I've brought home and fixed over time. It drives, steers, brakes properly and is surprisingly comfortable. So far I've not come across anything major. Almost everything works. It starts without trouble.
There are, however, some things that are to be expected on a car that sat for 5 years, and is overall 38 years old:
- idle speed was too low and the engine stalled often. Now fixed.
- OMP needs to be rebuilt - I'm premixing now.
- rust on the inner leverage of the windshield wiper make it seized while driving in the rain on the German Autobahn - not fun at all, as I had to follow blindly some truck's rear light until the fuelling station appeared. A good dose of WD40 temporarily solved it.
- there must be some sludge in the tank. Car started slowly losing power then stuttering on an uphill part of the Motorway when running (relatively) low on fuel, until it stopped. At that point I thought we needed to be towed by a 'schlepper' (German word for tow truck). Not fun at all on the Motorway, but as it stopped, it cranked to a familiar 'braaaap' again and took us to the nearest fuel station.
- as it has to be expected, rubber bushings and shocks need to be replaced.
Anyway, all this said and done, she's behaving really well and we're heaving a great time!
Congrats! Appears to be a US-spec RX, what with lack of headlight washers or rear spoiler. What a great opportunity to drive one of these in europe!!
Power Loss - yep - sounds like the same problem I had: gummed up fuel tank. Of course, you changed the fuel filter? Rear left in front of back wheel /suspension.
But suspect this will not help. And this is pretty typical of long-storage cars that were not properly 'pickled' for storage.
You RX does have a fuel tank drain plug. But am guessing, based on my experience, the gunk in the tank is partially stuff floating and sticking to the tank's inner walls. The
best solution is to drop the tank and have a shop, such as a radiator specialist, clean out the tank. I don't know if you are handy enough to drop it yourself, its actually fairly simple.
Just be sure to drain the tank first, since any fuel remaining and sloshing around in there makes something this big pretty unwieldily to maneuver ! Use a jack to lower it. Its basically held in by 2 straps, then disconnecting a series fo hoses either in front of the tank or at the top. BE sure to photograph and label where each hose goes!!
wipers: there are a series of nylon pivot points that can fail. The only factory option is a whole new rack/transmission assy. But there is a fellow on the Forum who has remanufactured these nylon inserts, for all of about $30US. Again, the rack/motor assy comes out pretty easily. You just need to remember to park the wipers in the 12-o'clock (upright!) position to allow the rack to come out of its bay.
and-
-perhaps obvious, but would certainly change EVERY fluid and rubber hose in the engine comp. (and fluids in gearbox and rear diff of course)
-do check the drains on the sunroof and rear hatch glass channels to be sure they are not plugged. Lift the sunroof and hatch rubber seals to be sure rust is not present. I am sure there will be at least some, and you will want to seal these areas up ASAP. I use POR15 here in USA for rust mitigation with great results.
-presume tires are not out dated? Long storage suggest this should be an issue. Tires have date codes. Unless previous owner can assure you new tires were mounted in the last five yrs, I would suggest you replace them. Esp with, you know, autobahns!!
We made it all the way home!
About 1100 miles from Copenhagen to home.
I'll take her tomorrow to start the process to get the new Italian licence plates. We were stopped in Germany as the Danish export plates are literally a self adhesive sheet of paper - the young couple of German policemen stared at the documents, then at us, realized that we were not Bonny and Clyde on a run, and greeted us with a smile and 'Alles in Ordnung' eventually!
I wonder if there are any other GSLs in Europe. I've only once seen a GSL-SE for sale, and wasn't advertised as such.
Neither was mine. I spotted the GSL badge on it by chance, after looking at the car many times on the web. When the price was dropped, I looked better @7aull thanks for all the suggestions.
Luckily I can do quite a lot of things myself, except 'heavy duty' work such as engine and gearbox teardown.
Tyres are of year 2016. The importer did a good job, I believe. Sure, now I have some work to do, but that is part of the fun.
Thanks. I learned English at a very early age and kept practicing.
I sure will. In the meanwhile I've made contact with the old US owner - this is the car as it was when it was for sale in the US.
The front bumber has been repainted since. All the rest is exactly the same http://LCN.fototime.com/1982%20Mazda%20RX7%20GSL
To finish this thread, she's now registered (4 months 4 of dreaded Italian red tape ) and we went out for her first ride yesterday after being parked in a garage since October 2020.
Yes I'll gladly do that, but it's raining today and at least tomorrow, and I don't want to take her out in the rain. I live on a hill with scenic drives around.
As for getting out, it's not that bad now as it was one year ago. My wife and I go to work and do most things except cinemas, eating out, and social activities. Mask on when we go around, and so on.
) and we went out for her first ride yesterday after being parked in a garage since October 2020.
