What's the dumbest things a previous owner did to your RX7?
 

I have an RX7 that was driven by a highschool student for maybe a year. My list of "WHAT THE HECK WERE YOU THINKING!?" mods keeps getting longer every time I look at the car. Here's the best (or worse)

The first thing you'll notice is the single exhaust pipe at the back of the car and the horrible exhaust leak. The PO cut one of the pipes off right where it splits and put what looks like a soup can over the hole and pinched it closed with pliers. Then he put an aftermarket pipe onto the remaining side. Instead of getting a pipe made for the car he just unbolted the stock one and removed the flange part of the new pipe and simply stuffed in the hole. No gasket, no bolts just a pipe shoved in a hole.

Secondly, the vacuum system on the carbs is kinda crazy, a couple hoses going no where with things shoved in the end to clog them. I found a twisty tie tied between the secondary's valve and whatever it originally goes to. Dumbest part is the original hook was still there, just onhooked lol.

Still has 1 original tire.

Fuel pump is wired using wiring nuts.

Autozone ignition switch poorly wired caught fire on me.

No carpet and seats from some other vehicle not even bolted down.

Exhaust muffler installed upside-down.

I'm sure I'll find more. Share yours!

the bread tie on the secondaries is a mod. "or so i heard" lol

Why did you buy the car? Sounds like something most of us would run from screaming!
if that's stuff you can see, image what you can't see!

Crispy

It was $500 with a verifiable 35,000 miles. I figured I could part it out if I decided it's not worth fixing and make money.

1st gen?

rebuilding the engine without the oil pressure regulator valve... or rebuilding the engine without the triagular part of the apex seal... or putting the brake booster check valve on backwards...

The list goes on, but these stuck out the most. :P

....... painted it black

Haha what a noob


Yes.

Painted a perfectly good '79 Limited Edition "Rattlecan Red"!

oh god where to begin..how bout the front end? ok lets cut out the area under the headlights then istall foglights inplace of actual headlights (Illegal) then remove the fuse so the headlights wont go up, C C C C CUSTOM???!!!:scratch::scratch: IT JUST BOGGLES MY MIND!!

next i bring you to the hood, how bout a custom autozone hood scoop BOLTED through the hood?? or better yet lets cust a hole in the hood and make it FUNCTIONAL!!:facepalm3:

lowering spring clamps, gi joe cobra bra?? hey at least the wheels are decient.

interior oh holy hell, painted most of the panels bright orange......lets not go there.

when i got my 1st gen it was wired with 2 colors of wire, red in the front half, black in the rear!

i put stock wiring harnesses back into it, which is the second dumbest thing, i spent 6 months removing the wires i didn't need, which was a weight savings of about 8oz, and it took 6 months.

BTW the factory rear wire harness weighs about 3oz, and the custom race car wiring was about 3 lbs! i guess zipties, scotch locks and big wire get heavy?

the other stupid stuff was a flipped brake pad, yes they put it on backwards. there was also a missing gland nut for the strut.

i just bought an Rx8, which has the most interesting collection of bailing wire, zip ties and even a bungee cord (there is also evidence of duct tape) holding the undercover on. the scary part is that its actually working!

Drilled holes in the Dash to mount a gauge cluster

Greased the clutch cylinder

Attachment 681802

Oh, and ducking the rear iron coolent nipple to the the Edelbrock brake booster port.... This one took me a while to figure out why coolent was pouring out of my carburator. (In my defence I had owned the car for about 3 hours).

How a about a 13b fuel injection pump operating a 12a carbed engine. front engine brace mounted right to the cross member, ducted tape "filler panels" over rust holes, left turn signal operated head lights, right one for reverse, high beam would pop the fuel door, rear hatch had a button in the cig. lighter compartment.

omg lmao

Here's the new ones I found out today.
PO did not gap the spark plugs
3 of 4 of the spark plugs were correct, the fourth seemed like a motorcycle plug.

The first time I drove it at night was tonight. I forgot to turn the headlights off since everything I drive has automatic lights. APPARENTLY THE HEADLIGHTS ARE SOMEHOW WIRED TO THE IGNITION AND WILL LEAVE THE CAR RUNNING UNTIL I TURN THEM OFF. da fu.

How the fu?

when I was shopping for a rx-7, I saw in the used car dealer's lot, an RX-7 with bailing wire holding the catalytic converter up. I ran.

The paint on the whole car was still tacky, and there was water droplets in the luggage compartment.

Rattle canned 1/2 the engine block flat black, standing on the passenger side. Then rattlecanned the radiator with non high temp black and bubbled it like crazy.

Hey - I was going to wire wheel polish it anyways so I guess it doesn't matter? And it's only half an engine I have to strip. That's some glass half full shit right there.

Parked it unstarted for 13years with a full tank of gas and the battery hooked up

clogged hatch & sunroof drains: fix- silicone seal EVERY SEAM (hatch glass to frame (FC), sunroof to body (now glued shut), windshield.. etc. ) Now everything's starting to rust since the silicone trapped the moisture

Never changing coolant, ever, to the point the corrosion was so bad inside the engine, a dime size hole opened up on the top of the rear rotor housing, under the rats nest. So coolant geisered up when it would run. lol

The plug issue sounds like my bro-in-laws Jeep except every 2 were different (I6) usually atleast the ones I have bought were pre-gapped. Never had an issue like the headlights though thats just weird.

My cars po wasn't too dumb about most of the things done, that jeep though. . . good god can you say wiring mess and that was BEFORE the po cobbled a gm tbi system and wired it ALL red cj jeeps have factory duck tape in the harness and was just awful, we gave up and got a new harness to get it running.

i bought one that had a dowel pin leak so long it caught fire, on the engine was a 6" thick concoction of JB weld, bottle caps, silicon and who knows what else, didn't even slow the leak down

Haha that sucks. Did you take any pics?