hey all, im new here.
well ive been lurking for a couple of months but this is my first post.
im pretty new to the rotary world and i just picked up my first rx7 last night.
here is the story on the car. got it from an older dude who says it was his daughters car, she didnt really drive it very much because she's in florida and the car is in michigan.
He says that an rx7 was her first car (now she's in her 30's) and she bought this one to restore because she always wanted an rx7. Anyways, i dont see a reason for him to lie about that so i'll believe him for now.
Anyways here is the car. its a 1986 rx7 (i have no idea what model, maybe a base model?? it has no markings anywhere). And here is the best part, IT HAS NO RUST. AT ALL. ANYWHERE. There is a dent in the drivers side fender/bumper and its starting to develop some surface rust but other than that NOTHING!!! i spent a half an hour underneath the car last night looking for rust and NOTHING!!. The exhaust is rusted out but the underbody looks almost brand new. Not even surface rust under there, you can still see the underbody paint it looks GREAT!!!
The PO says that they've only put a couple of hundred miles on the car in the last 2 years they've owned it and its always been garaged. He also states that the owner before him always garaged it as well. So the point is this car is 20 years old and it has absolutely no rust. Im amazed. The paint is actually in very good shape and im going to take a buffer to it this weekend. I have a feeling it will look brand new.
Moving on. I picked up the car last night and drove it home. Made a 75 mile trip without any incidents. The car feels good going down the road, doesnt pull or make any weird noises. The engine feels great, all of the electrical components work great, all the lights work, everything works so far that ive tried. The interior is very clean, the seats are clean.
It does have a new trans according to the PO, it shifts AWESOME!! The clutch feels very nice.
The car has 89,000 miles and it looks like someone took really good care of it.
The only issues that the car has right now are:

the exhaust is falling off. Its rusty as hell, all of it needs to be replaced. (Anyone got exhaust parts for sale??).
The battery only holds charge for a couple of days, if you dont drive it everyday it dies. (Any recomendations of what type of battery to replace it with?? i would like to maybe spend a little more money and get something good)
And the dent. (Ive done plenty of body work so i'll just be doing that myself. If anyone has a front bumper and/or driverside fender to sell, let me know.)
Also the wheels say Fittipaldi. Are they stock?? i havent seen them on other rx's.
Also how hot are these cars supposed to run?? Mine stayed under half on my first trip.
And what is normal for oil pressure?
And last, i was at about 3500 in 5th gear going 75/80. is that normal?

im sure i'll have lots more questions but thats all for now.
and here are some pics:

 

Looks nice. 3500 in 5rth at 75 is normal. lol btw, not many rx-7's have rust. As far as your ehaust, check this out. racingbeat.com

 

its normal for them to run under half....i dont know about the pressure my guage is broken(got a new one but dont have time to install) Welcome to the rotary forum and the rotary world

 

ah, i had no idea. i come from a VW world where rust is everywhere. so its kind of odd for me to see a 20 year old car with no rust.
i'll check out racingbeat.com for some stuff. Thanks.

 

Detroit Rock City is in the house. Welcome to our obsession. You are now hooked. I would look for some used exhaust parts just to get it streetable and then you can tell if you want to fix up after awhile. There is a kid here in the Twin Cities who spent $1,300 on a kick *** exhaust and then found out his motor is shot and he has no money to fix. Check the for sale sections or the local section. Rotorheads always have extra parts laying around.

Want to share with us how much she cost?

B

 

Thanks, yeah i dont see many rx's around metro detroit area.
I paid 1100 for it. I bought off ebay. I think i either got lucky or there is a world of hurt waiting for me haha. Im hoping for the first condering the car runs great so far.

 

I may be mistakened but does your car have power steering? I dont see the component in your bay.

 

Hey I was watching this auction just to see mow much it would sell for. Glad to know that a fellow rx7 club member bought it. congrats and I have the same car well almost. I am in the process of doing a TII swap...

 

im pretty sure it does. it feels like it has power steering. i will have to look under the hood sometime today. i picked it up yesterday at 9pm so i wasnt able to really go through the car..it was too dark.

 

awesome, i was gonna do buy it now when it was at 1000 but totally missed it.
but i didnt end up paying that much more for it so it worked out pretty good.

 

Nice find, no PS is a good thing. If you want power steering, I have a rack and all the necessary parts to swap, you just have to drive to TN!! LOL.

Anyway, nice looking RX, and the wheels are not stock, but actually do not look bad.

 

welcome and nice 7.

 

nope, you got manual steering (unless someone removed the powersteering components). see you got 3 belts, 1 for the altenator, 1 for the airpump and 1 more for the AC. usually the powersterring components are above the AC compressor.

 

 

Hey, don't let that exhaust go, I let the back of a muffler burn out, and it set the bumper ABLAZE! Lucky enough to have a friend go by my boy driving it, he flagged my boy down, and killed the blaze with my extinquisher (Get one of those, too). We found out the bumper can burn with flames two feet high.

Take care of your car, you'll enjoy it!

Rootsgroup

 

oh man, i remember seeing this on ebay when i was looking for a new car a few weeks ago, i was oging to buy it but its too far away and i didnt want to haul it that far on a trailer, good find man! im jealous now... no rust...

 

lookin at your car i got a front bumper just like that one but red. also do have that drivers fender but it has a small dent in it right in the front like yours but not nearly as bad. if your interested. an i'm not certain but i think i might have that little plastic peice that goes on the side of your headlight. o an also welcome to the world of rotary(i'm new here to) just got mine about two months ago.

 

nice RX, man. I'm in the same boat as you are.. well, not quite. I just got my RX-7, too, although I just picked mine up from the junkyard. =P

That car is hot.. Its in great shape for what you paid.

 

$1100 is a really good deal.

- The exhaust is the best place to up your power. You have a good excuse to get a performance exhaust. Racing Beat and Bonez are good. www.racingbeat.com, www.rx7.com. You'll get about 25HP from a cat plus catback. ~$750 brand new for both, but you can get the catback used.
- That dent will cost you $400-$800 to fix, or a similar amount in headaches if you pop, bondo and paint it yourself. Get the car running first.
- Fittipaldi are not stock.
- Temp guage: 1/8-1/4 is normal. 7/8 is overheat. If you have problems, lookup "OEM thermostat" and "fan clutch" first. Overheating will kill a rotary quick.
- Oil pressure: ~30psi idle, ~60psi otherwise. The gauge isn't that accurate.

Don't forget regular maintenance, especially but definately not limited to oil & coolant.