my ugly rx7 88 convertible build
 

Hopefully this will help some people feel better and say "wow, mine isn't that bad looking...."

I paid $1k for this garage-kept beauty. Aside from the parking lot hit on the front left fender and some tape added to the top, this is exactly how it looked when we first met. It came with a new top, a spare transmission, a spare alternator, and a slew of miscellaneous parts. The guy told me that it had a highly coveted aluminum hood (as I'm holding the hood up to check out the engine), that it had never been hit just as I'm inspecting the damage on the driver's-side door, and that the car wouldn't start with the spare trans. It wouldn't hold a charge even after I replaced the battery (required some grounds to be cleaned up - which also fixed the screwy tach issues) and the first transmission went out after a month of driving. The carpet has some nasty burns from a power cable which was run all the way to the rear of the car but never had a fuse installed. Luckily the spare transmission worked in the car once the switches (which were completely broken off) were swapped from the original. While I was under the car replacing the transmission, I discovered that it had been re-ended because the bumper was completely pushed in - which explained why the passenger seat acts more of a rocking chair than anything.

So, aside from how rough it looks, the body is fairly straight, the car is incredibly rust-free which is a blessing, and amazingly the engine has run very well and has been dependable. I was using this as my daily-driver over the summer but have switched my work car and run it just on the weekends.

I've discovered a stock TII turbo rx7 at a local yard so I pulled the trans and drive-shaft this weekend, and will be pulling the rear / half-shafts as well as the engine in the coming month for a complete rebuild and swap.

Now that it's too cool outside to have the top down, my wife says the car's completely disgusting and refuses to ride in it - so I reminder her of all my other toys she's now claimed as her own and explained how she'll be racing around in it once it's cleaned up.

http://www.teslaradio.net/rx7/Old%20...t/DSC03304.JPG
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damn.... that needs A LOT of work...

sweet... it needs work but its all there, a major plus. and it runs so your miles ahead of alot of people

It doesn't need too much work. Just some seats, trim peices a ragtop and some paint.....from what i can see anyway.

It could be worse, far worse.

well your right after looking that over I dont feel so bad about my vert at all. But at least you have your engine running solid and have a game plan for the turbo setup

wow.

nice project car though...

I can't wait to see where this car goes! I really love project cars and this is a great start.

wow. who would do that to a car? at least its getting a turbo :icon_tup:

Sweet, another PA RX7 owner. Good luck with the project.

Nice project, im local to you and have almost all the misc interior pieces you need. Let me know if you need something.

I've located most things but there are some which have definitely been a hard find - like the little defrost vents in the dash for the side windows and the radio bezel. Thanks a ton for the offer - I'll definitely be in touch.

time to get to work.