Hades12

over the last few years I have learned that RX-7 Production for North america started in March of 1978. The cars start at vin # 500001 and go up, The car I just bought, Pictured below is # 500195.

Currently the car has been put into a storage state and the plan is for a mostly Factory restore of the car.


The story
Two weeks ago rotarycrazy posted HERE that he had found a 3/78 car in a junk yard in Chesnee SC. I requested and he gave me the name of the yard, after a bit of yellowpages.com I found a phone number and talked to a guy at the yard. He confirmed that they had some rx-7 and that they would sale cars whole. I had to wait two full weeks before I could get there to see and try to buy the car. It took about 5 minutes to find the car in the yard. First Impression was DAMN it. Winsheld is busted, front end had been hit and new metal welded in, Rocker was crushed when they forked the car, no keys. BUT Vin is # 195 and as a stoke of luck the last owner parked it with the front wheels straight (real important when you try to tow dolly a car with no keys. I talked to them and worked a deal for XXX without any paper work. So no title. The yard manager took the forks off the Kamatosu and lifted the car by the rear and rolled/draged it out side the gate for me to pick it up later.


The Differences
The car is a little different then any 79 I have owned, Including the 9/78 I have.
Shifter is Different.
There is a metal vin plate in the door jab, Later ones are just a sticker there.
Carpet Covering the tail lights is attached different.
Has Keystone Mag wheels <- Most likely aftermarket
The bolts that hold the key switch in are run in from the bottem, <- later cars they thread in from the top.


All the pics here
http://www.matthewnanney.com/195.htm

Mazdax605

iTrader: (5)

Nice score.That car looks to be in decent shape,with a little elbow grease it will make a fine example of probably the earliest US spec SA still alive in the US.I thought my 5/78 build date on my 79 SA was early,but that one,and 64mgb's car blow it away.I still maintain my 79 is one of the earliest ones in the northeast as we got the cars later than the rest of the country.I can't wait to get it fired up,and driving.

Thanks for the pics,and good luck with the restortation.Keep us updated.

Chris
79 GS
83 LE parts car
74 RE/PU
92 Cummins diesel(for sale)
03 Ram 1500 quad cab Hemi

Max7

Wow, that is just to sweet!!!

64mgb

iTrader: (1)

We should have a register. I belong to an MGB club and they have a registrar that keeps a database of information about the members' MGBs. We should have one.

Just my $0.02.

Rich

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

we have decent parts info too, so we kinda know when stuff was changed, like the mgb. bout as many 1st gens as mgbs too

mazdaverx713b

iTrader: (91)

awesome find!!! you are very lucky to find that car!! its very restorable!!

as far as a registry, most definatly!!! we could put our cars vins into a program that would sort the vins in number sequence and have our name next to the vin.

get the car running and let us know how things go!! im excited and its not even my car!!

Hades12

The tag on the car was last updated in 88 so the 62K miles is most likely origonal. Meaning the engine is practlly new. Should not be much trouble to get it started.

But dont expect to see any work on it till mid summer or later. I have two cars to sale and 3 to do something with before this one sees any work.


I would like to see an owner registry and a Pictures Database. where the database has pics of Under hood, interior, and parts pics for each year car. I plan to start taking full tear down pics on any whole car I part to get this DB going.

mazdaverx713b

iTrader: (91)

awesome! i have saved the registration for every car i have sold or parted. only one 7 has gone to the crusher. again, a great find! i like your website as well!! i may need some aprts, so i'll let you know when i have my new 85 gsl delivered this week.

PaulFitzwarryne

It will be really great if the car is brought back to life again. So congratulations to Hades12; if anyone can do it, it's him. Certainly there were many minor changes to the '79' model as production became established and flaws eliminated without recall.

I agree with 64mgb that a registry would be useful. It certainly works for smaller run cars, my Lotus 47 GT is chassis 57 of less than a hundred built. However, it would be a major job for a RX-7 registrar as some 8.000 gen 1s change hands every year.

The earliest vin sold to the public in this sequence was 500025. Another sequence is 1xx,xxx, one being advertised recently in the US was 107678 on a 78 built 'late 79' model. At that time Mazda had the vin plates prestamped, and they were fixed not necessarily in production sequence.

My son currently studying in Montreal has 500166 which was bought two years ago in LA. As some 6% of the early SA survive, in theory there should be at least ten cars still alive with a vin below 200 in the 5xx,xxx sequence. The problem is to locate them when only around 5% of gen 1 owners use this website.

Mine, a 85 vert with registration number SA22, has vin number 006, but that is a only because it was part of a special run which the government gave numbers to in line with approval for production. The engine, a stock 12AT, is numbered 6712.

rotaryxperamental

Looks good, was there anything missing other than what can be seen in the photos?

Hades12

Thanks


Now I have to start looking again

Hades12

Did not look like it had been touched yet. The front Lower valance was gone but I think that was busted in the wreck that gave it the black eye.

gmanuser

you no its sad when you start drooling over the vin number lol hahahahha that is so f!#@$# awsome tho i am way jelous lol.

rotaryxperamental

now that I think about it, this makes me want to start looking around for locally for SA22Cs

PaulFitzwarryne

As they built 230 on the first day of lhd production 5xxx,xxx sequence, the two cars share the same birthdate and midwives! The date is probably Monday 14 March 1978.

I would love to get my hands on one of 50 preproduction models built in January 77. The three month delay in full scale production was, I believe, caused by tooling rather than design problems.

shepski

hmm, gotta check my SA's VIN, havent checked the number since i got it

64mgb

iTrader: (1)

Hey Hades12 -

I was just going through my subscriptions looking for one about tires and wheels and noticed this one. Whatever happened to this? Are you working on it? While I'd hate to lose the title of "oldest RX-7 on the street", it would be kewl to see you get this thing on the road. Let me know!

Rich

Hyper4mance2k

iTrader: (40)

There is a RHD 78 in seattle for sale w/o a US title. gawd I want it!!

rotary_full

do you need i title with a car that is over 25 years old that was imported? im not sure, i remember reading someting about being able to get a 25+ year car without dealing with customs and street laws.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

we had a 99 miata like that. it was actually a show car. outside was silver, under the hood was black, all the little brackets under hood were hand made.

neat stuff.

RE-Amemiya

I'm not really a 1st gen guy, but that's still a nice find. Good luck fixing her up!!

razorback

i ran into the ignitionless/keyless problem when i picked up the 84 gsl-se i have, wheels were turned a little so there was no way to get them on the trailer without turning them. what i did was got a wide secrewdriver (entire ignition was out, so it made it easier) and stick the screw driver all the way to the back of the cylinder, took the steering wheel, and kept turning it back and forth, while turning the screwdriver in the cylinder to get it to unlock so i could turn the wheels.

oh and nice find.

Hades12

For now it is parked out of the way, Will be a minimun of a year before I do anything to it. So much going on right now that I dont even have time to sale parts off of my parts cars.



For the Title on the 78 IN Ga a title is not needed on 85 and older cars so it could be run on the street using just a bill of sale. Getting a title could be very hard, Would have to find a state that does not require an inspection to issue a new title.

razorback

oh really? i wonder what the year limit is in arkansas..

Hades12

Ga did not have titles on any cars until 86 that is why it is this way. NC has them on all year cars.