can someone explain this to me? im thinking about picking up this RX7. its a 1987 but has a black engine bay with red exterior. the rest of the car checks out from my hawkish eyes, but this is a BIG BIG red flag to me. anyone have any ideas? is it some type of factory undercoating or something? car is in the rust belt.

 

Can't tell from the pic how nice the black paint is but I don't believe any FC came with a stock black bay unless the exterior was also black.
If it looks good, why is the black raising red flags?
What color is under the rear deck carpet?

 

?? 1987 *Mazda RX7* ??

1987 Mazda RX7 Stock: U3068 | Approval Powersports



thats a good point, ill ask that. its in detriot and at a dealership that can finance the car for me. i dont think any fc came with black engine bay, no matter how much they can vary. the black engine bay paint looks low quality IMHO, perhaps even gooey/chunky. the engine does look great for its age, so its really perplexing the crap out of me how this is all possible. bermuda triangle, no pun intended.

the car has no PS, no sunroof, and no AC (from the looks of it). exactly what im looking for. but the sales guy saying its PERFECTx3+bring your magnafining glass when ive been in the game for 13 years has me totally crawling under my skin.

 

I'm betting someone painted the bay when the engine was out for a rebuild. I don't care what he says about original milage. Unless, of course, there are areas unpainted like under the AC lines and such.

 

ah so maybe it needed a rebuild before 28k based on the age alone? why would someone paint it black randomly.....

so im guessing this raises red flags with you guys, too. im not sure if i should continue interest based on frame quality and component quality for a street car or if this is a deal breaker.

the interior is alright but kinda bland. 4 seats is nice but gray everything doesnt do anything for me at all besides remind me its a lighter s4 model.

again its the perfect storm except that black engine bay. perfect engine accessories and no sunroof, even financing. red is something i love/hate on a boxy car.

maybe i should just keep my GTUS race car and continue on rather than divert, wanting a streetable interior car. ........if i wanted a street car w interior i would have kept a FD. please keep posting your opinions on this engine bay quandary.

 

5900 for a FOUR LUG?...
screw that.

 

i can convert to 5 lug tii brakes wayyy easier than turning back time on these old cars. or deleting a sunroof. xD. 4 lug gets better gas milage for street use before i butcher the car with my race parts anyway xD. i should just stick with my GTUS.


ohhhh in the video i see some red poking through the black paint on the driver side front shock tower. got them!!!! now i feel dirty...

im gonna call this guy up tomorrow and ask about it just so he sweats a little under the collar. "bring your magnifying glass". i did. touche. check mate.

 

Checking the various FC cars for sale, '86/'91, every engine bay is the color of the car.
Interesting to see what the dealer has to say.

 

It doesn't make sense to see a different color engine bay from Factory.
Think about it..they Spray or Dip the whole body to paint it,so If they did do the engine bay it would have to be done separate and cost more in labor.
All cars I have seen have the same paint outside the engine bay as inside the bay so someone either painted the whole car or did the engine bay.

If you buy this Car FIN ..can I interest you in a Swamp that I just astro-turfed?...it is soggy in ONE area..bring a punt....Free Gator with purchase..or 2..or 3..not sure..Last owner missing..we think...........hmm...also got a really good right leg..found it..cheap..tooth marks on it but looks to be workable...

 

My 2 cents.....

Never buy an FC from a dealer. Unless they are giving a warranty, and they aren't, they over price these vehicles like crazy!

 

pics aren't good enough. however it does have a few details that make it look like it might be undercoating. for instance the radiator hoses are original and have never been off, as are the spark plug wires.

you should hope that somebody changed the coolant, at 28K its not due by milage yet, although it should have been done every couple of years.

2+2 is kind of a neat, if you look closer it does have AC, and cruise control, so its just manual steer.

you should leave it 4 lug, believe it or not the wheel selection is much better

 

To each his own but this thing is way overpriced to me. Yeah sure 28k original miles is cool but obviously the car isn't original just based on the engine bay. Which raises the question..... was it rebuilt? By who? How long ago? If it wasn't rebuilt then why did someone pull the motor? Totally ruins the "originality" to me. Max i would give would be 3k. And that's if I really wanted a 4 Lug for some reason (you stated better mpg)

 

Unless the dealer can prove the highly touted 28k mileage figure with a detailed service history, I wouldn't believe it. You don't have to mess with the odometer to alter mileage, just change the cluster altogether.
My 1990, which I purchased with 175k miles, currently displays 45k miles after swapping in a different gauge pack.

One has to wonder why the exterior paint looks so good but the bay was painted black. Because it's covered, the engine bay paint would typically be in even better condition than the rest of the car and the fastidious owner of a low mileage vehicle wouldn't just randomly paint it black for no reason. And if he did- maybe just out of personal preference- I'd expect the black to be at least as nice as the red outside.

The asking price is absurd anyway.

@j9...5 x 114.3 is about the most common bolt pattern around for a Japanese car. The Z has 4 x 114.3 (which I think is the same as the 4 lug FCs) and wheel selection is abysmal.

 

One old way to confirm mileage is to take a look at the pedals. How worn is the clutch pedal? A 28K car should have like-new pedals.
My 150K car, not so much.

EDIT: Also, coming from a guy who's first FC was an SE on phone dials, if possible get something better. That's a cool car and it IS an FC3S with low miles, but I promise you won't regret if you save up and buy a T2. 28k is great but it's still almost a 30 years old car. With an open dif. With the smallest brakes available on an FC. With a mysterious black engine bay.

I don't know the seller, and have no affiliation with them at all. I just know this is a pretty good deal on a pretty rare car.
https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generati...seals-1103626/

 

As a side note. I don't know how big they were anywhere else but, there was a very popular undercoating and rust prevention company here in the midwest back then that went by the name of Ziebart. If they got the full deal there would also be plugs in the door where drilled holes to coat the inside of the door. My father use to get this done to his cars and, I have to say, I don't recall them doing under the hood. That doesn't mean it was not an option though.

Just a thought.

 

the engine has likely been removed at some point to paint the engine bay(easiest way to do a half decent job of it actually), so if the owner is lying about that then the car isn't worth what he is asking. wouldn't be worth it anyways being its a 4 lug base model n/a.

NO ONE undercoats an engine bay for any sort of preventative maintenance.... you guys have to realize that it takes a full day to mask off everything or a week to remove all the parts bolted to the body aside from the engine to do a clean job of it. so, someone is fibbing.

it is a nice car nonetheless but something is just wrong about the whole presentation.

 

I had a red super base model '86 FC from Indianapolis Mazda dealer that had black undercoating up into the engine bay.

It must have been a dealer option.
This undercoating was kinda waxy and amber colored where it was really thin, but black where it was thicker. They had masked some engine parts/hoses, but it was on the brackets where they attached to the unibody.

Not as complete coverage as what you show.

I see in the video that this is how the undercoat looked on my FC as well over on the wiper motor and some brackets as well as on the dr. strut tower where its thin.

 

If this car hasn't had extensive paint/body work and you like FCs over whatever else you could buy for that $ then I think its worth it.

Sure its 4 lug with the little brakes, but that is about the only way you are going to get that non-sunroof shell and manual windows.

All the other stuff can be swapped on including TII parts if you want.

If I was wanting an FC again this is the kind of deal I would be looking for.

 

its hard to tell, but look at the VIN plate under the hood on the firewall, you can KINDA see it in the video, that should tell you alot, not to many people remove that, usually just spray over it. It looked like it had overspray on the corners of it. Look underneath too to see if its been undercoated, if the oil pan and part of the engine is coated in undercoating, I'd say its actually the real deal.

Also, if its ANY reputable dealership, they have the carfax on hand and will show it to you immediately

Did I hear him right in the video???? $9900??? No one is going to buy it at the price, and they will sit on it, and it will goto auction, and they won't even get $2K for it I bet in auction. Unless they get a real sucker to pay almost 10K for a 29 year old vehicle, they should know they are going to lose money

He says they have all the service records from the mazda dealer, look at them and see if it coincides with everything

 

I've found the 5 lug wheel selection to be much better.

This would make an great daily driver V8 swap..

 

i've seen it before, its not common as it would have been expensive, but people did do it.

and as usual, BMW the poster child for bad examples, used to slobber their engines with cosmoline, some dealers cleaned it off when the car was new, most didn't.

 

Porsche did it too.

 

cosmoline was BIG in the 80's, God I can remember having to clean it ALL OFF when I had my detail shop for the cars going through the auction

good thing is the stuff did work- the paint under it was usually really freakin shiny

 

theyve lowered the price down to 5600, but i think i found a better one locally. the problem is they also want 6k for one with 40k miles, a 1988 GXL in red full power everything, 1 owner. i just want something more base, and would prefer a gold, arctic blue, or silver, or red/red interior. its a heavy model even though its mint and i dont think i could resell it for any profit at 6k. its a really nice car, but its hard to make a call with my savings.

with this touring model i would have to treat it like a luxurious, stylized rx8 that cant perform like one, for the same money. im much more into the non sunroof variants.

 

i would be jumping all over that GXL.. FACTORY LSD 6k is alot, but 40k one owner? how many cars can you buy for 6k and likely get 100k miles of usage with nothing more then tires and brakes.... you cant do that with a new car?
i bought my rx8 at 40k for 6k... now 4 years later at 82k miles... i put one used coil and a set of plugs, and... one f brakes. one set of tires.

my first rx7 was an 88 gxl, and i fell in love with power everything and leather seats.