First off, I'd like to say thanks to RX7 Club in general and Pele & Vipernicus42 specifically. Without the advice, I probably wouldn't be about to start this.

A little background: I've wanted a project car for over a decade. Unfortunately that wasn't possible for a long time. I moved to costal NC about 4 months ago, and with a little more space to work, I had been kicking the idea around for a First Gen (parents used to have an '81 when it was new), though I didn't have a huge budget.

Along comes an SA, only a couple hours away. Price is perfect, but it doesn't run and has some body blemishes. Now I'm not afraid to get into an engine and I've worked on Pistons years ago, but I'm far from experienced. Without the collective info on here I wouldn't have pulled the trigger. After towing it home, I spent this afternoon cleaning out the warehouse and building a work bench.

Below is my to-do list roughly in my intended order, and I'm sure it will only grow as I dig into this project. If anyone has recommendations, tips etc. it would be greatly appreciated.

1.) Gut the interior. Parts of it are bad (driver seat torn up, dash cracked) parts are just faded. Also need to see if I can get into some body panels to pop out dents. This is my project for Sunday.

2.) Body work. Pop out all dings, sand down any rough spots, check the undercarrige, prime, etc.

Oh, and I need a hood.

3.) Engine: plan is to strip off the top of the engine. This will give me a chance to get more familiar with the setup of the rotary engine and check all the vacuum lines, etc. Once that's done I'll pull the plugs and try the MMO treatment. Next day I'll rebuilt the top and crank the engine (after replacing fuel, oil filters etc.) Plenty of questions to come here, but I promise I'll search first.

4.) Check brakes tranny etc. Much of this was supposedly rebuilt by last owner.

5.) Body finish. check primer and fix any problem spots. Paint & install trim.

6.) Drive to SevenStock 2012.

I'll get some starter photos up soon and I'll post updates, but I might be a little quiet during the body work. Rest assured, when the engine stuff starts I'll have plenty of questions.

Thanks again for getting me started and I look forward to your help.

Matt

 

good luck man, kinda sounds like what im doing right now, same story with interior as urs. body is sorta the same story as urs, got some rust spots and whatnot, and mine also doesnt run. haha, good luck man.

 

Thanks food, good luck to you too.

Attached are a few photos, hopefully they will work.





https://7714943072080300914-a-180274...attredirects=0

 

Doesn't look like a bad little car. There are a few FB guys in NC that are very experienced and have shown themselves to be more than helpful. I'm sure they'll jump in here if they feel up to lending a hand. You mentioned undercarriage, but in the context I think you were referring to the underbody, not suspension.

Be sure to check the suspension and steering components thoroughly. The steering system is by design, sort of loose, but it isn't supposed to be excessive. Wear on parts such as the idler arm, pitman arm, control arm ball joints, inner and outer tie rod ends as well as an out of adjustment steering box can all contribute to very poor handling, vague feedback and response. The suspension is most likely stock, which means old and worn. Check springs for sag and the dampers to ensure they are not blown. Check all bushings to make sure A: they haven't disintegrated and B: they aren't going to.

Good luck and don't get too carried away working to update this thread.

 

its a nice project car, hopefuly sometime within the next year it will be running.

 

Very nice, that car has character. Hoods are fairly easy to come by, check with these guys for hoods and more in your area:

https://www.rx7club.com/se-rx-7-forum-35/i77-i40-crossroads-rotary-meet-618153/

 

Nice car, I picked mine up in Jacksonville, just up the road from you. Good Luck

Dont want to hijack thread but I do want to ask one question, how do you pop out the dings?

 

Thanks for the kind words Ray. You aren't so bad yourself. If there is anything you need help with or information, just hit one of us up. The car looks like it could be pretty nice. Good luck with your project.

 

First question, this one should be easy. (White81Z28 I have my answer for you at the bottom.)

Got most of the interior out of the car today. Trying to remove the dash, though I don't think I've found the last screw yet and ran out of time. I'm waiting on the shop manual which will hopefully help.

My question: on top of the floor pans, there is a material, I assume its a sound dampening product. Any tips on removing this? I've searched but can't seem to find much. I assume I should just use a scraper and rip it out but if anyone knows tricks its appreciated.

White, I know of 2 ways to get dings out. The first, if you can get inside the panels and can get leverage on the spots, you can actually push / bang them out pretty easily. The second option that I've never tried but heard about from various people involves a small toilet plunger and a clean & wet body panel. As you might guess get a good seal with the plunger, push it down then yank. The pressure should pop it right out. Neither of these is complete though. both will need to be finished with primer and possibly bondo since the paint will be cracked and there will be creases from the dings. Good luck.

 

To remove the material that is under the carpet I've used dry ice with great success. The way I did it was to hold a large chunk of dry ice with a leather glove on my non-dominant hand (left for me), and freeze the material. Hit it with a claw hammer held in my right hand and it should shatter and come free of the metal. I have heard of others spreading small chunks of dry ice all over the floor and letting it freeze, but I have not personally do it, so I cannot say how well it will work.

G'luck with it all. Keep us updated.

 

yeha, that stuff is tar, its sooo annyoing to get out.

 

FSMs and wiring diagrams can be downloaded from either of these links.

http://foxed.ca/foxed/index.php?page=rx7manual or
http://wright-here.net/cars/rx7/manuals.html


Check out the 1st gen FAQ thread also.
https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generation-specific-1979-1985-18/1st-gen-rx-7-faq-page-237777/

 

I was wondering if anyone had an opinion about cleaning up the floor pans. I'm going to take a wire brush to the rust spots, but would you generally recommend stripping all of the old paint, or just the spots where it's rusted.

My plan is to use a self etching primer to coat the entire thing (I'm taking from orange/red to black, so all surfaces will need to be primed, but I wasn't sure if I should go down to bare metal everywhere, or if I should leave the factory paint where applicable.

Once it's all primed I'm going to put a couple of coats of the rubberized underbody coating on it before re-laying the carpet & padding.

Thanks,
Matt

 

Anyone have any recommendations for fixing small rust holes in the floor pan? Everything was going fine till I got to the driver side up front.

The problem is I don't have a welder and don't know a welder. Plus it's right along the cross member that the seats bolt in to. I've got a rust neutrilizer on it and ground it down pretty well with a wire brush & die grinder, but don't think I can cut it out. Biggest whole is about 3/8" with pitting covering an area about 3" x 12". Like I said, it's also been ground down twice. I'm also going to get underneath this weekend and make sure that the rust is also taken care of from that side.

Can anyone suggest anything short of cutting it out and welding in a patch?

Thanks

Matt

 

I am watching with great interest. I just picked up an 82 in Oklahoma City Monday, and am experiencing the same issues that you are only with a lot more rust. What kind of rust inhibitor are you using, I thought about Naval Jelly?

 

I suggest the first thing is to get to the bottom of the problem so a proper assessment can be done. Get it up on jack stands and take a good look at the underbelly and wheel wells, especially the rears and under the storage bins.

Then take off everything you can in the vicinity of the rust and knock out or remove everything that's not solid. Then a good cleaning with a wire brush, degreaser and hot detergent to get rid of grease and surface rust and corruption to reveal the real damage.

Then take lots of photos and post them up, the experts will take over (not me, we don't have rust down here in Georgia).

But here's a job I did on the Brown One a few years ago, a nice car that had spent one too many winters in Ohio.

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/479957/8

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/479957/9

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/479957/10