I just test drove an 87 FC NA... only 87000 miles, strong clutch, very minor rust on the hatch and sunroof, fairly low quality red paint, sloppy shifter and a suprisingly clean interior. There was no "infamous 3800RPM hesitation" and the suspension felt solid! This is the first FC i have ever driven and i LOVED it... the owner bought it new and has had it ever since. They are moving in mid-june and im gonna pick it up for under a grand! finally.. after about 2 years of research and fc envy..


now.. ive got 900 to spend once i get ahold of it.. wut u guys think i should go for? i wanna keep it NA.. suspension first? intake? paintjob? let me know what you think...

 

I've also done lots of research like you and I'm about to buy an N/A FC of my own. As far as modding goes, I'm going to do all of the suspension/wheels/tires/weight reduction first, then go from there with exhaust and intake, etc.

 

hmmm NA... I would almost say save your money for a rebuild, but that n/a could last another 100k miles. I'd be careful about intake and exhaust on an n/a... especially depending on where you live. if there are no emissions buzzards around, then free up your intake and exhaust. SAFC. lean out the rich areas. lightweight STEEL flywheel.

that is if you want power...

its really up to you what you do. I don't know if you want to do suspension mods or not, but I would start with small stuff like strut bars (I have heard good things about the 3 point bars... I would want to go to that and skip the tower only brace...) rear strut brace, sway bars, and unless you are going from track to track and do lots of suspension adjusting, you don't really need a coilover kit. you would probably benefit from struts and springs though. new bushings. Actually, I would think replacing all of that old beat up stock stuff should be a priority, but replacing all of that can get expensive and you can add a strut bar for 100 bucks and get a noticeable improvement.

and for the paint job... unless you have peeling paint/clearcoat dings etc. etc. REAL damage, I would check out www.autopia.org first... you would be amazed at what you can do for a chalky paint job with some chemicals. scratches, paint chips... lots of information on touch up, wetsanding, all kinds of fun stuff like that there. and if you only have a ding or 2, it might be worth calling a paintless dent repair tech to come and fix them.

 

As most people will tell you the first thing to do is do a full tune up first before you attempt any thing else. New plugs,wires, oil, rad flush,etc. Try to get it running as close to stock as possible.
As for mods after that if you say the suspension is decent for now, you might want to go for power, NA's respond best to exhaust mods, get rid of the cat, they like to clog, and replace it with a presilencer and bigger pipes etc. given your budget N1, true duals would be the way to go. Then a good intake would probably be the next best thing to do.
Good luck,
Chris

 

very good find, congrats!

however DO NOT go buy ANY mods... go take it to a shop that KNOWS rotary, and tell them to give it a complete tune up, that outta use up your $900 depending on parts that need to be replaced, then youll have a strong FC to mod.

 

good point, I didn't consider that.

 

Thats some very solid advice, the one regret I have with my car is that I didnt restore it to stock before I started modding it.

 

thanks a lot for all your input.. yeah i didnt even consider getting a full tune up.. i was just going to do what i could myself but having someone qualified definitely sounds like a good idea. problem is, i dont believe there is a shop in hawaii that really KNOWS rotary! off to the phone books and google..

 

btw.. what is the CHEAPEST way to get an lsd?

 

Find an old GXL or TII I believe it was standand on both

Also you can check out the FS/WTB section of the fourm.

 

Doh, not another one...


-Ted

 

Oh yeah! Ted will take care of ya

 

It's really not that hard to do a tune up yourself. The only benefit of taking your car somewhere is they might have parts in stock. No one within 100 miles of where i am knows anything about RX7s so i've had to do everything myself. Download the FSM and go buy a book, it'll save you a lot. With a car only having 87,000 I'd be more lenient with the tune up. It should still be in excellent condition...at least better then mine.