Hello fellow rotary enthusiests,

I have plans this Spring to begin body work on my '88 Rx7, using pieces from an '86 parts car. I've had the parts car for almost two years now, but just the other day I discovered that it has an aluminum hood! Perhaps this is old news to anyone who knows these cars well, but I was delighted. I had heard somewhere that the turbo (intercooler-scoop hoods) were aluminum, but I had no clue about the base '86. Before storing my '88 I removed its crumpled front fenders and hood, and saw then they were steel; this made me think that the '86 had a steel hood too. The '88 has power steering, while the '86 is manual. Is this why they used the lighter hood, for easier steering?

How rare are the no-scoop, aluminum hoods?

Thanks.

 

S5 n/a's have aluminum hoods. Mine did.

 

Not all S5's do though, cause mine didn't.

 

Hey man, I used to live in Bowling Green..I just moved to Gainesville this summer to get masters degree..I am actually sitting here listening to the WKU north texas basketball game on the web. Got my bachelors from WKU in 97'

 

The aluminum hoods seem almost to have been put on at complete random intervals. My first FC was an 86 base, and it had an aluminum hood. Of the 7 other 7's I've owned, two had aluminum hoods, and one of those had a TII hood. Then again, not all TII hoods are aluminum, either, because I've seen one in the junkyard with a steel hood.

I have no idea what the determination was for which models got steel and which got aluminum. Common sense would dictate that the heavier cars (GXL's, TII's, vert's) got the aluminum moods to try to keep overall weight down, but that's obviously not what Mazda was thinking.

Ren

 

I think all factory TII hoods are aluminum but there might be an aftermarket piece that is made of steel.

 

No- there are steel TII hoods, I owned one for about a year, then I sold it.

 

I guess I got lucky with my TII. Aluminum Hood I do have.