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?

Gs to gslse conversion... Both wiring harnesses were in there. One half hacked out but both connected somehow.

On Iotus' new ride, gslse to carb conversion, main relay fried, bypassed with switches fed off the battery and starter, straight to the coils, bypassed fuel pump start relay because they wanted to tuck away the rats nest wire harness. Man I pulled my hair out for a week or 2.

Dumbest thing the previous owner did was sell me this dexy bitch......lol

nice man

Spray paint interior panels

Replace the front carpet by first spreading Elmer's wood glue over *the entire floor pan*--including exposed wiring harnesses, electrical connection blocks, temperature sensors, etc.

Replace the rear carpet by first spreading Elmer's wood glue over the sheet metal for the bins. Oh, the metal's rusty? Ahh don't worry about it, it'll be covered with carpet! Just put more glue on the rusty parts.

I bet that sucked to pull the carpet.

You're a legend my friend.
 

Oh man thank you SO much for figuring out that whole mess! I wouldnt have even known where to start looking!

Cheers man
~Geoff

Hey I did this, but I used that krylon fusion crap. Looks stock.

How about installing a "custom" tow hitch AND using it as a positive selling point! He was also planning a v8 swap, and was hauling a dirt bike/trailer around from the hitch connected by three giant drilled holes into floor of hatch right above rear bumper. I HAD to rescue it.

Did this to my headlight wiring http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...20368376_n.jpg

Installed an Rtek 1.7 and didn't upgrade the secondary injectors to 720s....ran like that for over a year....

Ouch! Can you spell LEAN!

Well, the last parts car had:
Bondo on every corner of the car, on every panel
Rear control arms held to the frame with chicken wire and Bondo
Angle iron and stainless bolts holding the front frame by the firewall to the rest of the frame
Zip tied oil cooler to skid plate
Custom air pump pipe to straight exhaust tubing
Festering mouse nests
And the list goes on and on...

Put a v8 in it...
O wait that was me and it was awwwwesome.

got the door hinges tweaked... it collapsed the driver fender when i opened it, cut the exhaust off at the beginning of the head-pipe(1/2 and inch from the bolts), gorilla glued a mirror to the passenger visor,put tacks in the front speakers:scratch:....oh and my favorite was the magnetic dish inside my air cleaner

but all in all $100 for a 79 with a 04/78 bd i can live with it... i mean i got a complete exhaust for it now... and i tracked down a back seat just have to install it... now i can tell my wife its a family car:lol:.... yeah right its my fun car and no food,feces, or beverages allowed.... so no messes.... i mean kids in my car

cooling fan held in place by a bungee cord

Give it a year... sometimes it takes two depending on how much you use your car.

Apparantly lost the bolt that holds the belt tension on the air pump. Overtightened the hinge bolt to compensate. I discovered this when I tried to replace the belts. Couldn't find the bolt to loosen and realized it was missing. Squeezed the belt with my hands and was able to rotate the air pump. Of course the hinge bolt broke off when I was working on this because they had tightened it up until it started to fail.

Dumbest thing the previous owner did? Hard to remember that far back, as I've had the car for 24 years or so.

Probably the dumbest thing they did from their standpoint, was selling it... unless you count the cheesy sheepskin seat covers they had in it. Otherwise, she came to me fairly unmolested.

looks like orange coolant leaking from a pinhole hose. reminds me of the days working at General Motors.

dumbest thing???

on the '82 that i had, it would be thinking that he was capable of installing a sound system. he cut and spliced wires that i still have trouble figuring out the logic to - including the fuel pump, which ended almost burning the bloody car up with me in it one night.

on the '84 that i still have, it would have been the 7 pound radiator cap he installed! sold it to me saying that the water pump was bad.

on the '87 that i still have, holy mother of God ... wiring debauchery, missing/broken interior panels - both in the supposed name of sound. then there was all the missing pieces in the engine bay, the cut up air filter box, the bullshit wheels, spray painting the car with little to no prep, what appears to be a trailer hitch, bullshit exhaust, cheesy pedal covers and dual wiper blades. finally, i haven't quite figured out what's the deal with the clutch yet and the shifter is quite loose.

needless to say, i have A LOT of work ahead of me. :(

What sucked was grinding off the remnants of glue, dirt, shreds of carpet and rust after pulling it all out...

one of the previous owners installed drum brakes on my gsl cuz he damaged the discs and spooled the diff so its locked permanent. not that i care much. car is still a blast to drive and the locked diff is fun in the rain.

PO swapped a 13b in, decided to carb it not knowing what they were doing, and carbon locked it. they would start it once a month and just let it idle for about 10 minutes. seat uphoulstry is horrible looking, and the "new" "short throw shifter" has so much slop and play its unreal. atleast they upgraded the oil cooler and gave me a nice monza exhaust.

Dumbest thing haha some of these are pretty stupid
The previous owner of my car had weeds growing up and around it and two Rx5s (not giving location of those I want them!) for and I qoute "protection."

hmm lets think here, the FC had this huge fast and furious tach in it that destroyed the perfect condition dash.
my FD has sharpie to color the seatbelt clickers, upgraded bov on a comletely stock engine, no rear view mirror, "didnt bother him", cheap looking carbon fiber wrap on all the interior accents, and he put those god-awful Super Advans on it. :scratch: