On Sunday my family and I attended a local car show where I brought my 1980 LS. Towards the end of the show I let my boys play in my car and a reporter for one of the newspapers came by and shot some pictures of the boys playing in my car. He said he loved the car and thought them playing in the car was very special for them to be able to do that. He asked if he could publish the picture and took down our info and thanked us for our time. Out of the 2700 cars that were there, our car was selected. That really meant a lot to me. The guy said he had never seen a car like the LS and that it really stood out among the other cars there. So, even being a little dated, the 39 year old 7 is still a thing of beauty to people and I wanted to share the above with you because I felt proud in many ways. My boys and my car on the front page of the paper, and to share with everyone that people still find our cars to be beautiful.










My son Grant by the car:

 

You're famous Dave! And I'm not surprised that pretty LS would stand out among the other 2,599 cars.

Is it true that the 1980 LS originally came with a brown leather wrapped steering wheel?

 

Ray, don't tease the animals. Thats a good start to your own LS now that you have the LE done.

 

I don't recall if it was brown or black but mine is trashed and has a nasty cover on it. That's a beautiful steering wheel you have there though Ray!

 

Added a couple pics of the car at the show. I forgot to add them this morning when I made the post.

 

That's really cool! Nice to a rotary stand out amongst the crowd!

 

Where's the pics you added from the show Dave? I can't find them.

I never get tired of looking at that LS you got and your kid parked beside it. Looks he's ready to drive.

When the Rotary Gods tell you it's time to pass it to me I'll be sure to put the brown steering wheel in pronto.

In the mean time, can you or anybody else, maybe LS Stu from AZ (previously AK) tell me where that wheel came from?

I've heard it's LS, but it could be RX-4 or something.

I got it on ebay from a clueless seller, $50 shipped.

 

Great article Dave! very cool. thanks for posting.

Ray - I think you are right, this tan leather wheel came with the Leather Sports as part of the interior leather package.It was the only N.Am SA to offer this color choice, black leather being the more common. I recall the shift **** was also matched in tan leather too. $50? You stole it.

Dave - I had my black leather JDM St wheel rewrapped in leather by a specialist. They matched the stitching perfectly. So Ray's notwithstanding, your could get yours redone to OE spec. Think it cost me about $300. Worth every penny on the road and to my eyeballs...


Stu A
80GS
AZ

 

I'll look today before I leave for work and let you know if the wheel is brown or black. I think it's dark brown but don't quote me on that. I would not be opposed to having it recovered if I were able to find someone that would be able to do it.

 

80 LS's were available in Aurora White (1000) Brilliant Black (1000) and Solar Gold (500). All of them had the same brown leather interior, including the steering wheel and shift ****. Craft Customs can redo any wheel. Excellent service and workmanship. http://www.craftcustoms.com/

 

I second Craft Customs!

 

I did check and the steering wheel is in fact brown leather. The shift **** is black as was my other LS. I'll look into craft customs, thank you!

 

Thanks for the confirmation on the color Stu and Banzai it looks like I do indeed have an original LS survivor. I gotta say however I like that JDM wheel as much as the original, very pretty!

The "matching" leather shifter **** you're remembering Stu was a maroon leather S3 shifter ****, factory original, never installed. I stole it from Dave to match my mint maroon leather S3 steering wheel, both since sold when I switched to S2 interiors when I got the LE.

Does anyone know if the horn button on those brown LS steering wheels was also brown to match the leather? The one I have didn't come with a horn button so I added a generic black one.

 

The horn button is black. Same as the standard 7.

 

So glad to see that you got in the paper Dave, I liked this on Facebook as soon as I saw it. Keep it up man, and make sure to frame that paper for the future!

 

That’s awesome! Get a dozen copies of that newspaper and keep some in the dark space so it can be preserved. And frame 3 of them...one for u and for each of ur boys

 

We did get several copies of it. Gave some away to family. We are framing a few copies. One to hang in the boys room, one in the garage, and one in our bedroom. I would love to somehow get each copy laminated so they will be preserved.

 

That's so awesome! Not that they weren't, but now your boys will be tied to you and that car even more. What a moment to have captured. Love it!

 

My youngest son asked for the car to be passed to him when I am ready to part with it. He's pretty much laid claim to it lol. The car has a very sentimental back story for me and to make it short, its THE car that got me interested in RX-7's when inwas a child. I remember seeing it and falling in love with it as a 10 year old kid. Pretty amazing to be able to own the car as an adult.