superstock2

iTrader: (9)

So i have the opportunity to pick up a 91 coupe. There are a few pros and cons to the purchase, and i also have a few questions about the vehicle itself, as i'm not sure on its exact specifications.

if i were to purchase the car i would be doing a full turbo swap FYI

anyway lets get to the pros and cons...

PROS:
the car only has 60k on it
body and interior are in awesome shape
recently painted

CONS:
started life as an automatic n/a (dear god, who would want this car new haha)
has some horrendous PAINTED on graphics
has a double stacker aluminum wing (hoping its not drilled into the body)

my concerns are with the swap itself... mechanically i'm not to worried about the work, but is the wiring just going to be a major PITA?
Also as i mentioned above, i'm not clear as to what the coupes came with factory in 91' i.e. what brakes do they have, or more specifically what parts if any do they share with the turbo model.

the main reason i'm interested in the car is the mileage and condition of the chassis... i live in montana and you might not believe it, but sevens are hard to come by up here, especially turbo models haha. but the amount of work involved to make the car the way i like it (turbo) are definitely factors for a poor college student like me.

ideally i would by a turbo II with a shitty body and then just swap everything over...

anyway let me know what you guys think.

Evil Aviator

That car will take entirely too much work to get it into the condition that you would like, especially if there are not any local TII parts available for a swap. If you want an FC RX-7, just find one that is in good running condition and put as little money into it as possible. I recommend a non-turbo with a manual transmission for students. You can take on elaborate projects once you are established in a good job after college.

2slow4stock

iTrader: (18)

I would second that.

breezetime

i spent 2 years in great falls very cold and long winters, you should have a lot of time to do. this swap,just take your time. I just hope this is not your DD this will be alot of work, GO FOR IT.

superstock2

iTrader: (9)

thanks for the comments guys... for one its not going to be my daily driver, and two it has to be turbo... i mean i could wait it out and find a turbo car that is the right price, but this shell is only going to cost me $800 bucks... i mean the parts on it alone are worth that much.

ATRON3000

for 800 you cant go wrong(as long as its running)... just enjoy the cars handling as long as its N/A, while you look for a turbo... but as Evil said earlier, as a student allocate your time & money wisely and hold off on the swap till your done with school and have a good job.

Evil Aviator

In that case your idea is completely and utterly retarded. The insurance alone is going to cost at least $400/year.

A shell normally goes for about $50.

OK, then buy the car and part it out to help fund your college costs. That way you get to have fun working on the car and actually make a small profit as opposed to opening up a huge money pit. Do NOT register it or insure it.

I almost hate to ask this, but where does a "poor college student" get $800? When I was a poor college student I was lucky if I had enough money to go to the dollar movie theater, and several times a week I had to eat at the freebie happy hours around town to keep from starving.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

I'll take two at that price, please.
Around here (Denver), if you can find a decent shell (roller w/wo drivetrain), I'd expect to pay anywhere between $350 and $750.

If you can buy 'em for $50, I'm envious.

Evil Aviator

Yeah, $50 is typical for a hideous NA roller nowadays, especially if it has a sunroof or automatic transmission. If you think about it, a basic paint job is about $2,000, sunroof and AT cars are a pain to get race legal, so cars like that are only useful for parts anyway. A good NA roller is usually around $300 or so. A TII roller usually costs a bit more because all of the kids want the TII drivetrain. I think my friend paid $350 for his last TII roller, but it had everything in it, including the blown engine with many good parts, a good transmission and differential, and it even had new EBC greens on it.

Since the RX-7 community is pretty tight, you can sometimes get a decent shell for free if the previous owner knows that it is going to a good home. A friend of mine got a free FC similar to the S5 in this thread but with really nice original paint. When I bought my FB race car, the seller gave me a free SA roller with a newly-rebuilt 12A and a perfectly good S4 TII car just to clear out of his garage. I gave away the SA roller and engine for free because I didn't want to spend the time and money to fix it up, had no place to park it, and it wasn't worth my time to try and sell it.

Democrat-controlled major US cities are one of the better places to get a cheap/free car because many of them will fine the owners if an unregistered car is parked at their house or apartment.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Yeah, $50 is typical for a hideous NA roller nowadays, especially if it has a sunroof or automatic transmission. If you think about it, a basic paint job is about $2,000[/quote]
I want to go to there.
Deals like that simply don't exist around here...neither do $2000 paintjobs.
Cheapest paint quote I've gotten- no color change, no major body work- was $4K.



"Democrat- controlled"?
What does that have to do with anything?

Evil Aviator

$4K is normal for a big-name paint shop that will do a good job. A friend of mine got an $8K quote for a pearl paint job for his 10AE. My $2K quote was for a basic enamel paint job (no color change or body work) at the 2-bay local privately-owned auto shop down the street from my house. I intended my $2K quote to be a MINIMUM to demonstrate just one of the reasons why it is not worth the trouble to try and make a hideous parts car into a nice-looking street car unless you have a lot of time and money on your hands. It is much smarter to buy a good RX-7 for $2-4K rather than spend $4-8K getting a piece of junk up to the same level.

My guess is that they tend to support such policies as part of their environmental platform. I can see advantages and disadvantages to such vehicle restrictions, but I try to focus on the advantages.

Just FYI, I am not a member of any political party, and have supported Democrats, Republicans, and Independents in US elections.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

My HOA has had such policies in place since I bought in 1990.
Can't remember whether we were Dems or Repubs or what back then.
I guess that since Obama came in the policy is now socialist.

Wording hasn't changed though, which is odd.

Evil Aviator

LOL, no, federal policies rarely directly affect city governments. Besides, Congress makes federal laws, not the president. The only recent significant federal act was the Car Allowance Rebate System (aka Cash for Clunkers), which did not seem to have much of an effect on the automotive economy, good or bad.

Terrapin_turtle

iTrader: (2)

60k orig. is really good for a 20+ yr old car...

superstock2

iTrader: (9)

poor college student in my book is a little different than yours lol... i know where your coming form, but this car isn't your typical fc roller... i mean the body is perfect, Zero dents, and today i found out it has a corksport mazdaspeed knockoff lip, and the corksport 30mm wide front fenders. plus the interior is cherry, and its black. i know this car could be a pain, but realistically if i can get my hands on an average turbo II ( i.e. your typical bad body and ratty interior) then i can just transfer literally everything over, and whats your average junker T2 cost these days? 2-3k plus the 800 dollar roller... doesn't seem that bad... who knows though, as usual Evil raises some good points lol (damn wise and realistic old man!). sometimes your eyes get excited and tell your brain to shut up... happens with women all the time

slpin

iTrader: (9)

dont do it you will never be able to complete that project
buy my t2 instead

Evil Aviator

Yeah, my university was freaking expensive. The current estimated costs are $53,300/year for my degree program.
http://www.erau.edu/db/admissions/costs-db.html

Regardless, I still think it is a bad idea to take on an RX-7 project even if you are living at home and your college is in the more typical $9K/year range. The main reasons are that these old cars cost more to operate than you may think, and most college students seriously underestimate the cost of moving to their (hopefully) new job. To give you some good estimates, my convertible costs me an average of $250/month not including gas and oil, and my most recent move to a new job cost over $8,000 (single guy living in an 800sqft apartment moving 1,000 miles).

Typical build:

$800 Car you are currently looking at
$2,000 New paint to fix said car
$200 New coolant hoses, vacuum hose, etc., for the TII engine
$250 TII hood or Chinese Ebay FMIC kit

$800 S5 TII car with a blown engine
or
$1,400 J-Spec S5 engine (usually needs a rebuild) and transmission
$250 VLSD and TII halfshafts from a junk yard
$200 Other various junk yard parts like a TII AFM, throttle cable, boost sensor, brake vacuum pipe, etc.
$100 Custom cheapie downpipe

$50 Cheapie aftermarket boost gauge
$150 Walbro 255 fuel pump
$275 New aftermarket TII driveshaft
$350 New TII clutch pack
$40 New TII clutch slave cylinder
$1,000 TII engine rebuild kit

So basically you are looking at $5,915 to $7,065 for the initial cost of the conversion. The items in the last block are not required if the TII donor parts are still good, but most people choose them in order to gain some resemblance of reliability for their car. You could cut corners and/or find good deals to reduce the cost, but then again you may have extra costs (tires, brakes, exhaust, etc.). Therefore, I think the above is a pretty good average estimate.

superstock2

iTrader: (9)

oh ****! with a little help from the gov't i get to go to college for a little over 500 bucks a semester... what school did you got to aviator?

anyway, i may be getting my turbo TII roller back that i sold a while back, and my buddy has a streetported s5 motor that was just rebuilt... this looks like it could get rediculous here real fast haha... i'll keep you guys updated...

superstock2

iTrader: (9)

ps i'm going to look at this roller again tomorrow so i'll snap some pics

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Does your car have a coke habit or something?
I don't spend $250/month including gas/oil/insurance.

slpin

iTrader: (9)

that is because you dont drive your car
or maintain your car :P

clokker

iTrader: (2)

It's my only car and is maintained quite well, thank you very much.

$250 per month- not counting gas/oil, mind you- is three grand a year.

I can see wanting to spend that much- Spirit R stickers and gas line magnets aren't free, I know- but, needing to?
Hell, even my Jags weren't that expensive.

Vdub2002

dude, fuel line magnets added 25 hp to the pavement! wow gimmicks make me laugh, i spent 500$ on a decent FC N/A manual, i have invested 350$ for various stuff. I own a turbo vw, and want to turbo the FC, but i know what it takes to build a proper turbo engine. N/A's are probably the best way to learn how a rotory works.

My suggestion is to buy the car, keep it N/A, and drive it. I'm sure you have never had a turbo car. The power can be addicting, but money investment isn't.

Fix it up, im working on the N/A and im in college

Evil Aviator

No, I quoted the car that is "clean", lol. Some of the major components that I have replaced in the last year are tires, tie rod ends, battery, halfshafts, stereo (not an expensive one), and rust/paint repair. While those should last for many years, I anticipate future repairs over the next couple of years that will be about the same cost (new convertible top, engine rebuild, transmission rebuild, new clutch, new weather seals, new struts and springs, various broken interior parts, headlights, brake pads and brake fluid, coolant, etc.). Once those are done, the battery and tires will need to be replaced again... rinse and repeat.

I would post the costs of my crackhead car, but it is too depressing.

FYI for others reading this...

- The average mileage of a car in the US is about 10,000 miles/year. The EPA city mileage of an FC RX-7 is about 17mpg. The current national average price of unleaded gas is $2.50/gal. Therefore, 10,000 / 17 = 588 gal/year * $2.50 = $1,470 /year / 12 months = $122.50 / month fuel costs on average.

- The oil in an NA RX-7 should be changed at least every 5,000 miles, although I change mine every 3,000 miles because that is when it is a quart low anyway. The engine usually takes 5.5 quarts per oil change, and burns 1 quart per 3,000 miles. The last Mazda oil filter I bought was about $7 with tax, and the last Castrol GTX oil I bought was about $3/qt. Assuming you change your own oil at a 5,000 mile interval and drive 10,000 miles per year, 5.5 qts * $3 = $16.50 of oil per change + $7 for the filter = $23.50 per change. Add to that 1 qt burn-off at 3,000 miles and you get $26.50 per 5,000 miles * 2 = $53/year = $4.42/month. Like most people, since I change my oil at 3,000 mile intervals, my costs are a bit more at nearly $6/month.

- My RX-7 added about $35/month (most of which is not required by law) to my current policy, and that is with a multiple-car discount for an old guy with an excellent driving record and a special low-priced insurance company that is only available to military veterans. The teenagers on this forum will pay as much as $160/month.

... or keep your finances on Quicken.

Vdub2002

I've gone threw 25$ in fuel so far this weekend... you dont own an rx7 for the fuel savings

if you want that drive a prius...