Hey,

I'm about to start buying parts to work on my RXX-7, but I'm not sure which direction to go.

Either I can just start replacing/upgrading different parts with aftermarket pieces, till it looks and rides to my custom likes...

Or I can try to restore it with original parts to get it looking just like it did out of the factory.

If it was any other RX-7, I would go aftermarket hands down...but it being a rare GTUs, I'm not sure if I'd be losing out on the worth of the car going aftermarket.

So what do you think?

Restore....or....Aftermarket?

 

Resto-mod!
Just leave it clean looking, no body kit, wing, crazy bumper... whatever. Keep it factory looking, but change the things underneath. You can't go wrong with proper suspension & brake upgrades.

Or drive it into a ditch.

 

^^^agreed. Keep it original looking but upgrade the weak points and have it ride better

 

Resto mod

 

I wasn't planning on doing all that Jap nonsense...mostly interior stuff.

If you look in my pics, you will see how it looks now with its stock color and TII hood.

I'm leaving the exterior "as is"...I'm mostly talking about things I need to replace, like the interior.

Seats are toast...ceiling and front/side panels are gone...small pieces of trim...and carpet...

Should I try to get all that in OEM or just customize it with aftermarket?

 

No thoughts?

 

My thoughts on a perfect GTUs would be something like....

A nice set of wheels, good suspension, nice exhaust, a set of quality aftermarket seats or mint factory seats. Just simple bolt on stuff, that can be reversed to stock if pleased to do so in the future. The main focus would be keeping all parts of the car in mint condition.

I would leave the interior all original, at most just an aftermarket steering wheel and seats.

 

anything you do on the interior can always be changed back to stock,its not like your going to be mutilating things,i cant stand the all red and all blue interiors,personally thats the only peeve i have with the 2nd gens,the grey and black is fine though i would prefer a few diff. colors to liven it up,as far as seats go,i think the oem turbo seats are some of the best styling you could go with,havent checked your pics out yet,thats just my general opinion,if your going to have the car for awhile then you should do whatever the f*ck you want

 

Thanks Nate...

I have the Blue/Gray interior, so it's not all the same color anyway. I do like the seats in my car and I'm pretty sure the GTUs came with Turbo II seats, right?

I think I'll just hold out and watch the Classifieds to try and piece together the interior with OEM parts and keep it as close to original as I can...

 

Right.

 

Clean and stock looking but enough modding to make it your own.

 

I'm keeping mine stock looking, except I like seeing them sit lower. The only thing is, it will not ride as it was intended.
I also want more speed than stock.
And I want a really good sound system. I'm done.

 

whoops.... He just named off the very parts I have sitting in my corner...



This is the path I have for mine. beefy-all-out suspension/brake/tire upgrades, performance minded interior upgrades.... aaaaannnd done.

 

I already have a bunch of performance mods done...like bridgeport, thermostat, intake, exhaust, short shifter, stage III clutch, injectors (which apparently is holding me back bc of a stock ecu), and maybe a few other things.

I was mainly questioning interior parts. I saw some pictures of complete aftermarket interiors that looked really nice and gave it a modern look, but I don't want to dump money in aftermarket interior parts, if I should just replace the needed interior pieces with stock and make it "factory new" looking, so the value of the GTUs remains....

I was considering an all black interior with my stock Noble white exterior color....but my stock interior is blue/gray. So for me it's either stay OEM and replace the missing/broken parts....or say screw it and replace it to all black, piece by piece...

 

Whats the point?

What do you want to do with the car. Are you only interested in trying to sell it and make money, or do you want something that you can cherish and always have, and only you enjoy because its been conformed to your liking.

If your trying to retain value, then do what the previous owner of my car did. Put it in storage for 25 years.


Then you can wait for some punk kid like me to show up, buy it for next to nothing, and then start to mod it. Youve already done too much. whatever "OE" value you were trying to keep has been looong gone once you went over the deep end with engine mods.



retain value or mod and keep until you run into a ditch. Cant have both.



(Now to eat my own words, yes, *for the moment* I am limiting what I do to the car incase some old fart wants to show up and hand me a check for $80k. Until then, I plan to grow up into that old fart and still have the car... My story is a little different. I said it before, and I'll say it again: I tried to buy this exact car when I was 14... 27 and I finally own it. WE love FCs.... but the rest of the world is more interested in pristine all original FDs.... or at least from my experience. FCs are more or less disposable 80s cars. The racing legacy with them is unreal, but that does not seem to keep them in the spotlight. Its a special breed to love these cars.... is that not why we are posting in this particular section of the forum?)

 

You're right...thanks for giving me another angle to look at it. I guess I figured that it being a GTUs, I may have some rich guy drop me a check for it down the road. I have it in my head that stock is worth more.

I don't really plan on selling it within the next few years...at least, so I guess I'll just do an all black interior, like I want

 

You mean completely custom work, right?
I've seen very little in the way of buyable aftermarket FC specific interior parts.

For your interior color swap I'd get the nicest black carpet I could find, preferably OEM (so we're talking used). Clean it and redye if necessary.

Keep your plastic panels and cover them in black Alcantara. Buy the black fuzzy/molded trunk trim.

Seats (especially the passengers) are a royal pain to adapt, so stay with FC OEM unless you're willing to do some fab work.

Dash, I'm not sure.

 

Theres NOTHING wrong with wanting to restore to OEM... I've already spent over $1300 between Atkins and Mazda buying OEM knickknacks to replace stuff. (Those for sale threads with gauge cluster hoods? I decided to spend the $300 for a new one vs taking the chance with used.)

spend the money on fixing stuff to OEM, keep it ALWAYS cleaned (I mean... literally... I sometimes will wash it a few days in a row cause of some little rain.) and keep after all maintenance it does/could need....

You could have a great car, and get lucky down the road with someone wanting to buy it for a chunk of money.
Although, I kind of think the only way your going to make an investment pay off is to NEVER drive it, and keep it in storage... it becomes no fun after that... Thankfully my previous owner was more interested in building 10 second civics than touch the FC... and over 10 years through the grape vine, I heard him lower the price from 60k to 30k, to 20k... to 10.. 8.. 3...


Im offering help to keep you happy and have something that brings you enjoyment. I wish I could sell my car for lots of money, but Im starting to feel like the only people who flip out over a "$80k" car are the ones who no way in hell even have that 80k....

(And like everyone said... and like I am doing... Keep it to boltons... You could get lucky. a few hours in the garage and my OEM seats are back in, and OEM wheels are back on... stock car for sale. Bam.)

 

I'm doing a return-to-stock restoration, and it's very satisfying. I want to have a car that is almost exactly what you would drive off the lot in 1988. To me, the nostalgic experience is very cool. It's all preference.

 

Well I don't necessarily need to keep the interior stock to "feel" like it's out of the factory....I was only like 2 years old then, so it doesn't really matter.

I would probably only fully restore the interior to stock if 1) I really liked the color scheme 2) I want to keep it garaged (as mentioned above) in case an enthusiast decides to drop a ton of money to take it from me.

I've personally always wanted it to have an all black interior. I just like the feeling it gives when riding in cars with all black interior....and with my white exterior, it will look phenomenal.

It's still going to be a little while before I start buying interior pieces for it...who knows...maybe I'll decide to just bring it back to stock again.....which isn't THAT bad...I like the grey/blue color scheme....just not as much as black...

 

I have a red GTUs with black interior. I'm restoring the interior to new and beefing the motor. I like the suspensions on S5s. It will look stock and drive stock. except it will be faster. It will be lots of fun to drive and it will get compliments on being in such good shape. If I cared about resale value and making money, I'd buy a different car. Anyway after I make this car right, people will be coming to me wanting to buy the car.

 

I don't think the FC- anyFC- is particularly collectible, nor will it ever be.
The nuances and rarities (GTUs and 10th AE) amuse and excite us but have little to no effect on the market.
The shittiest Ferrari will always have more cachet and command more money than the cherriest GTUs and will have a larger buyers pool to boot.

I'm a bit troubled by the assumption in your first post that "If it was any other RX-7, I would go aftermarket hands down.." because it assumes that aftermarket/custom is inherently better than stock, which I'm learning is not particularly valid.

It's simple to make your car different- much trickier, and expensive, to make it better.

 

I wish my GTUs had a stock black interior. Then I wouldn't have any problem with the decision.

I'm keeping everything stock too except the motor, which is bridge-ported already and I put a TII hood on...you can see in my Avatar.

I really like all black interior...but don't really mind the blue/gray...so I'll keep thinking about it till I decide.

That quote of mine, wasn't an assumption. I merely stated that if my car wasn't a GTUs, I wouldn't have the word "rarity" in my mind, so doing more aftermarket changes wouldn't be a problem for me.

I'm not one to do body kits, LED's, and other dressings....If I was going to do what I wanted with the car, with no regard to it's rarity, I would have my painter change the color, do all black interior, get chrome or black chrome rims, and that's probably all.

Where as now, I'm keeping the stock exterior color, keeping the rims, beefing up motor more, and deciding whether to stay stock blue gray interior, or go all black.

 

I want to see some pics of the blue interior. please

 

Here's a few pics of my interior...

You can see some missing pieces...and torn pieces