yah..
so i was crusing around those fun twistys yesterday, and desaster struck. lost traction, back end spun out, and ended up on the side of a growing hill.. well, for lack of better term, my body is fucked...

so i was figuring, instead of spending 3k or so at for a body shop to fix it, that maybe i would just try to find a new body to swap.. any one had experience with this? any ideas on what $$ i am looking at...

thanks,

 

Id def just find a new straight body and dump in your internals, its a GREAT learning experience, and you wont have to worry about a car that might not drive straight or just feal wierd.... and besides a body will be like less than 1/3rd the cost of getting it fixed, you can than spend that extra few thousand on mods to incorperate on your swap of the internals !

 

That sucks riffraff I agree with serzy, the price of a dead RX7 has to be considerably less that fixing the one you have. Just for giggles take it to a body shop and get an estimate. That should help you make up your mind on what to do..

How bad did you munch yours?

 

You can find a non running rex for 50-500 over 500 that thing better have new parts on it. Saw an ad in my local paper for a rex that didn't run with good body 150$....dizzam, wish I had motors and trannys laying around my place.

Joe

 

P.O.S.: right now, i donot think that it is drivable. engine still runs fine, just a lot of body damage.. looks like rear axel, and possibly a lot of the frame, was shifted over a couple inches.. drivers side door will not open...

i think the best thing for me to do would be find a body in fairly nice condition, and start swaping everything that is still good in the old one...

and hey, maybe if i can get stuff cheap enough, and if there is not much damage to my current one besides the frame and body; then perhaps i would have some left over cash to make some changes to it that i was going to before hand.. like a new exaust.

 

I'm gettin rid of my motor 12A this october/november

 

as far as i can tell, my 13b is fine..but thanks. i just need to find a place to transplant it

 

check the pics I just sent you.... also I also have your exhaust for the 13b as well .jeff

 

Man you squished it good. Hope your O.K., figured the body shop estimate would be a great motivator on you swap project.

 

RiffRaff, if you're in socal, get a trailer and make a day trip to Vegas. I've got an 85 body that you can have - just take it out of my garage, it has been fully gutted on the inside but is a good rolling frame. Only needs driver's fender, front bumper and the part between the hood and front bumper. Color is white - if that matters.

Drop me an email if you want it.

kmann@hotmail.com

Kamal

 

Dude I almost did the same a few evenings back...

I was positively ripping, ie 150 km/hr, around some sweepers on a wide 3-lane road at 2am when I hit a big bump and a patch of rough shitty pavement. Well, my suspension unloaded itself and, as our rexs are prone to do, decided it liked travelling sideways rather than forwards. That's a live-beam rear axle for ya I guess. So as calmly as possible, I immediately dialed in about a full turn of the steering wheel. I overcorrected just a hair, pitched the wheel the other way, and straightened her out nice.

This kind of **** is fun when it is intentional around slow/medium speed corners, but positively scary when unintentional at high speed. I am so lucky I had a wide road to play with or my paint job would be toast...

It's times like that when I start to think about how irreplaceable my 7 actually is, and just maybe I should contain my 21-year old delusions of invicibility and take it easy....

 

silver rocket, you are lucky as hell.. i was on a narrow two lane road. tried to correct, but did not have the room.. unfortunitally, i am not just finding out the rairity of my car, being an '80 in damn good condition (well, used to be).. i knew that the back end of our cars are kinda squelly, but damn did not think that it would be that uncontrollable.. everyone that i know around here who had a first gen tell me about the same type of thing happening to them (just most of theres did not turn out like mine).


jeff: i will let you know about that exhaust when i figure out exactly what i am doing.


p.o.s: yah, i am alright. just kinda pissed. only had the car for a few months. i was so jazzed about finding one in good enough condition to be worth while, and splat

kinda funny though, my car used to be the rotary god in town's car.. he redid the back end, sweetest looking rear end of a first gen i have seen, and so everyone around knew whos it was.. probably half the mechanics in town know about my reck now, because when anyone sees it they imeditally know that it was his...

 

Sorry yours didn't work out as well

But you're dealing with it in the best possible way I'm sure your car will only be that much cooler when you have it back together (plus the obligatory couple of mods...)

I find that the car is USUALLY very forgiving and controllable - and grips like hell. But when it hits a bump or choppy road transition through a corner, all hell breaks loose. The good thing is that it is balanced, and thus is easier than many cars to recover once it gets out of order. It is counter-intuitive though, that if you let off the gas quickly once this starts happening, you're toast.

I hear about many folks removing their rear sway bar for more understeer, I haven't tried this, but I love the handling the way it is 99% of the time.

Do you have any pics of your ride before?

 

unfortunitally i donot have any pics from before..
but i will probably go and take a few when i go back to get some stuff out of the car.. just need to track down someone with a digital camera... i will post them when i get them

 

got2race and kamal, thanks for the offers on the bodies. but i think that if i am going to try to do this, i want to stick with the 79-80 series. those are the easiest to work on, and i know that all my parts will fit into them with no problem.. plus i kinda like the way they look better than the 81-85 series...but thanks again..