Restoration pics 88 turbo
 

Hello all,

A few pics of my 88 turbo I took today.
I like to keep my cars looking as original as possible, and this one is really a special car.
I have spent a few years restoring it where needed. I rebuilt the engine and replaced every component with mazda NOS parts from the dealer.
Dozens of switches, all new vac hoses, oil lines, all new everything, where needed. If it looked even a little wear, I replaced it.
Quite a stack of reciepts.

The interior is original and stock. A few new new trim pieces also. Looks flawless.

All original exterior paint on car. For a 21 year old black car, it still looks great.

I have decided to repaint the front bumper, as it needs it, to really match the rest of the car.... it has paint chips, as the front bumpers often do. Maybe next year.
It still looks passable, though.

The driver side door also needs a 4" by 2 " spot repainted. The original owners said a thief knocked a hole in it, trying to open the door, to take the radio.
The repair has been started and the surface is flat, ready for paint.

I went with all new mazda parts, thruout. Yeah, it was expensive. I feel worth it.
I like the original stock look and feel. The way the designers did it.
Flaws and all, ha.

All drivetrain, shocks, suspension,etc are original too, and it all still feels extremely tight, very glued to the road. Original brakes,rotors,bushings all.
No rust or corrosion on any of the aluminum suspension parts either.
As clean underneath as on top.
It still does drive like a new car.

You know when you see and drive a car, and it feels tight and new, this definately has that in all regards.
I especially like the way the car turns. Effortlessly and on a dime.

And of course, what all rx7 owners know, how cool things look at night, the lights,etc... and the way the car molds itself to the road.

I did replace the rear mufflers, one had a hole in it. Kinda funny... mazda said they had 3 original turbo mufflers left, in japan, so I got the last 2, they said.
They still do make most of the parts... I used the cd/microfiche to find them all.

The entire car really finished very nice, looks super and drives rock solid.
I have always been impressed with the fit and finish of mazdas.

Seeing how rare these cars are becoming, I wont be selling it, its a keeper, too much time and money into it. 76,000 miles on car, about 3k on engine.
It gets babied now.

I havent downloaded pics on here yet, I will give it a try...

I have enjoyed Mazda rx-7s for over 22 years... and these cars really do have soul.

I will upload a few pics.

a few more pics...

Very clean, always nice to see a restored 7.

Thanks !

Yeah, rx7's have always been a favorite of mine.
The thing about restoring a car is, and Im sure you know, taking each part on its own individually... and cleaning, repairing or replacing each...

One part may look and operate 100% as new, and then a part right next to it, might break when you touch it, ha.

Most of the car was super... just needed cleaned, but I had my share of broken stuff too, ha.

I have a lot of pics, will download more...

Please do.

You have done a great job. Clean as hell. I forget sometimes how beautiful the stock body is.

john ny

Thanks all... your cars look great too.

A few more pics, these are from 2005, when I did the engine rebuild.
I went with an entire rebuild kit, and I used one of those rebuild videos too.
I reccommendteh video to anyone.. it makes it easy. The manual was hard to understand, yet I always used it as a back-check though.

I took it slow,and double, triple checked everything. My wife even helped, a second pair of eyes, so I wouldnt mess up, ha.
Worked like a charm.

I would say the parts that were in the worst shape were the vac hoses, spider injection ones too, very brittle. And that coldstart system routing.
Also the transparant oil metering lines. All replaced. Every little thing I made as good as possible.

I used my pool table as bench to hold all the stuff, then moved it to my garage when I had the sandwich thing assembled and all the other things to add on.

As most of you know, the actual assembled engine isnt very big or heavy... its all the add on things, turbo, manifolds, intake, pulleys, etc... its amazing all that little engine has attached to it.

About the only thing I went different from stock was the vac hoses. I upgraded.
I also color coded the vac hoses for the 5-6 diff systems. Made it easy to route.

I left the intake off, of course, so I run the wire harness things. Exhaust things all
were attached to engine, and when we tilted it all back in, it all hooked up nice.

looks good

nice car.

Love how clean it looks and how great you've done! Amazing job man, definitely stock body and clean is the way to go.

nice

very clean car, sweet to see.

really nice looking car
was it always 2 seater?

Definitely the cleanest I have ever seen, nice job but the wheels are on backwards.

damn that looks good, i can tell you put a lot of work into it...

Wish your pictures were bigger...

Always good to see somebody else big into restoration and preserving these cars. :)

beautiful 7!! i also own a brilliant black 88 TII. its in the garage now for its winter restoration. i really love my TII as much as you love yours. every time i look at the car it just makes me smile. i would love to see some more higher res pics of your TII. do you have any of the original paperwork for the car? which interior parts dod you replace with nos mazda parts?

Thanks all for the great comments. It is a clean car, ha. Im happy its in the completion stage and I can definately start to enjoy it more.

Groshun, I guess I never realized that a wheel or two was on backwards, good eye ! I went out and looked... Ive should have 2 of each direction, for each side...
I have 3 facing back and 1 forward... I guess one wheel isnt original, and was replaced. I will be looking for a wheel on ebay now, ha. In a few months, no hurry.

Morgo - yeah I believe it always was a 2 seater. I cant see any evidence of it being different. When I had the rear carpet out, everything back there looked original.

Mazdaverx - thanks for the comments, I will post some higher res pics.
I took some in a park setting and they are much better.

I dont have any of the original paperwork, yet the original owner lives a few miles away, in a smaller town. It has stayed in the area since new.

I did replace a few of the interior pieces. Mainly all cleaned first, I removed every interior part, most of dash, seats, carpet, every trim piece. Then cleaned, etc.
Or replaced as needed.

The new interior parts are ... the radio surround, central trim piece, which seems to be the norm. Also a new console lid, new foot pedals, a couple of those footwell
quarter panel triangle things, the corner triangle dash vents, the mirror triangles,
the handle cup things, the gear shift boot and trim piece. A few other small things.

Mazda does have most of the NOS parts still, but as most people know, they dont sell them cheap.

A good cleaning really goes a long way. When I did the engine bay, I had almost every piece out and got one of those industrial steam cleaning machines. It worked great. Under the car looks as new too.

Even like cleaning by hand those little dome light squares you push, they have clear plastic cleaner, polish... it makes things look sparkly new... that new vibe.

I have a stack of reciepts for sure, for roughly 300 items. Total cost has been about 4500. for materials. Not counting about 3k for the car initially.
I did all the labor. That may sound high but considering what people spend to restore cars... hey 4500 { 7500.00 total } is cheap. And look what at the end result. Im happy.

I will try and get some bigger pics up. Thanks again.