Ok, I've reached a quandary. I looked up under the 85 today and found some rust that scared the hell out of me. I'm completely torn as to which car would be the better one to restore. The candidates are an 84 GS and an 85 GSL.. the body on the 84 is WAY better... but the 84 doesn't run. The 84 is stock.. the 85 in addition to the stock benefits of a gsl, has RB suspension package. I imagine that I could swap the suspension over, would it all fit?
Where I'm at right now is trying to decide if the condition of the 84 body is good enough to warrant doing the engine and supsension swap (and losing the sunroof :[. Or given the condition of the cars, am I better off doing the body work on the 85.
Sorry for being such a pain in the ***, but thanks everybody.

 

up to the point you said no sunroof the swap sounded good... is the rust that bad?

 

yea man, if the rust isnt all too bad, just sand it all out and do some welding

 

I can't get any pics to upload on this forum, so I posted them here http://www.geocities.com/frigidmonkey/rx7.html
thanks again everybody

 

yeah, my 82 GS has rust in that same spot. Im sure its fixable, but I think is going to be pretty expensive (or really difficult, if you do it yourself).

oh, I forgot to add my 2 cents: I think you should cut the roof off the 85 and put it on the 84. That way you get the sunroof and a good body with minimal work.

 

cutting the roof off has crossed my mind MANY times, I'm not sure if I trust myself on that one though

 

Well this is what I have to say. Dont worry about the 85 and just keep it so its not falling apart. Start gutting the 84 out, and you'll be able to do the engine compartment NIIICE if you just get the stuff out. You can swap all that suspension stuff over and while your in the process clean it all, paint it with chassis paint and it'll all be nice and last. It's pretty much a clean swap, you just have to set some goals and make a list of order of the things to do. You have a good chance to do something right, and I cant see it being that hard.

 

maybe you could have a body shop do it for you, I dont think it would cost too much... getting it repainted afterwards would be the expensive part

 

I'm going to do the paint myself

 

I really dont think it would be that hard to cut the roof out and weld it on another car. If I had a welder and a cutting torch I would try it.

I think thats your best bet, that rust on the 85 is only going to get worse, eventually to the point where the controll arm there will fall off (not good).

I think the sunroof is worth the effort

 

cutting torch seems kinda harsh....that and I don't have one, lol. How bout a welder and a reciprocating saw???