I went for a bike ride today and found this first gen for sale. the guy was mowing his lawn, so I asked him how much he wanted. he said $300, and the motor was blown, but everything else worked. the body looked clean except the paint was really dull and faded (yellow). no obvious rust, dash was thoroughly cracked, and interior looked like it could use some work.... not sure how bad it is though. not sure what year, but it looked like a pretty early model SA.

anyway, I'm planning on going to take a look at it better tomorrow hopefully. anything specifically I should look for, besides the obvious rust and typical car stuff? anything besides motor failure on these cars that can be really expensive or hard to fix? and how is the price? I'm assuming its a good price if the rest of the car checks out... I mean how much cheaper can you get ? lol.


anyway, I've owned my FC for almost 5 years, and am very familiar with rotary engines, and working on cars. I've taken apart several motors(although I haven't put one back together yet), I've been wanting to for quite some time, and I've got a few S4 13b cores laying around that I might be able to swap in... (I'll search for that) and I've always loved the 1st gens.... so hopefully I can get this and make it into a fun little daily driver.

 

If the dash is black and you get the car I have a good black dash pad I can't use anymore.

 

was the guy on rx7 club?
there was a yellow sa in boulder that i had pics sent to me a while back.
if its the same one, granted i never saw it in person, $300 sounds about right.
if it is rust free and the interior isnt trashed maybe $500.?

 

hmm... cool. I think the dash was brown...

I'll take a bunch of pics tomorrow and post them here.

thanks guys.

edit: I have no idea if he was on rx7club or not. didn't really talk much to him as he was trying to mow his yard before it rained.

 

Fellow member and friend kory-yahi picked this Sa up for him that was a non-running car. After spending some time on it i got it running. Unfortuneatly low compression in one housing but stilll a good deal. Pics will show original paint before and after detailing.

 

wha?!?!?!? thats the same paint? what all did he do to it? (thats what the paint on this car looks like...)

 

It's what i'm teaching him about detailing. I use Meguiars #2 Professional cut cleaner by hand. And i mean alot of elbow pressure then going over the top with Meguiars NXT.
You probably will have to go over it more than once to get all the dead paint off. Use terry towels to apply the #2, turning it over and over then wipe it off with another terry towel. I use the diaper soft towels to remove the wax after it's been applied with the supplied apllicator pad.

 

cool. I think I have some of that cleaner stuff. would an electric buffer help at all?

I rode my bike by it again tonight and took a better look at it. there was some really light surface rust underneath behind the left rear wheel. and a real small little dent behind the drivers door. otherwise (besides dull paint) the body looks really good. frame rails looked straight, looked like its never been wrecked. NO rust underneath whatsoever. pretty sure its a 79', as the speedo goes up to 130. interior didn't look half bad actually. dash was cracked pretty bad, but thats it. it was a brown/tan interior. seats had ugly blue covers on them so I dunno how good those are. besides everything needing a serious cleaning, it looked pretty decent though.

anyway, hopefully I can take a closer look tomorrow. I'm really getting excited about this thing. lol.

 

You would be amazed how much these cars can come from faded paint to great looking by just detailing it. I use some stuff that blows even Meguiars out of the water. It is called S&N products. You can only get it off of the detail truck around here. Here is some pics of mine before and after. Mine wasn't as bad as that yellow one though.

 

wow, yeah, that looks really good. there may just be hope for this car! lol.. there was actually still a hint of a shine on the right side of the car. hahaha.


also, anyone have links for any write ups on what all is needed for an FC 13b swap into an SA... I've been searching all night and can't find anything except people mentioning write-ups. lol. and I don't wanna start another thread just for that.

 

fyi, the 12a is a better motor.

 

so I've heard... the thing though thats making me lean towards the 13b swap, is, well, first of all, I wouldn't need to buy near as many parts as I probably would if I rebuilt the 12a, since I have like 3 13b cores laying around. also, I want to keep the motor relatively stock(no real porting or anything), just like an intake, and exhaust if I can keep it quiet, and the 13b will give me a little more power in stock form (I think? it at least comes with more power), plus a little more torque which would help for driving up to the mountains(and I live pretty much in the mountains). plus if I could keep EFI....

 

just went over to look at it. its an early 79'. made in 09/78. he added on the pass. side mirror. 88700 or something original miles. no rust.... he said it was running when he parked it 2 years ago, he could just tell it was getting ready to go. and it was converted to an electronic dizzy, rather than the original points type. passed emissions in california (where he bought it) no problem...

pics:

I think I'm gonna go offer him $250. but I'll take it

 

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...hlight=boulder

 

Buy it, it is well work 300 or more. Unless he overheated it badly, there may be hope for the engine, i.e., engine is carboned up or the exhaust is plugged.

 

I 2nd that.

 

well, I went ahead and got it for $300. he wouldn't take any less... not that I tired real hard. lol. but anyway, yeah. hopefully I can get it towed home tomorrow and start to look into it. maybe I can get it to fire up. but first step is to clean the hell out of it before it gets any worse. lol.

 

post better pictures of the hood before I used the maguires HEAVY CUT. The fine cut was used by hand AFTER I used the heavy cut with a professional rotary buffer.

 

so heavy cut with a electric buffer, then fine cut by hand, then wax like hell and wipe with a diaper soft rag? sounds like fun! lol.

 

I was gonnasay..BUT IT NOW!! lol. Good desicion on getting it. Yes wash her up and start cleaning the hell out of her.

 

Junior still has not listened or learned anything yet,lol.

Do not use the heavy cut Meguiars.
Use the #2 like i stated with a buffer if you have one then go back over it by hand, like i said you might have to do it multiple times.

 

ok cool. thanks for clarifying.

 

Sweet, I love early models.


http://www.matthewnanney.com/195.htm

 

so got it home and started to work on it a little... just trying to make it pretty.
this is just some turtle wax rubbing compound I found in my garage. its working amazingly... can't wait to put some wax on it after I finish the whole car.

 

You lucky dog. The Spark Yellow is brighter when fresh, but I don't think you would want to cut that deep into the old paint to find it. Touch up the rust pits before they grow any bigger.