It's official. I'm making my triumphant return to the rotary world with an 1987 FC. The chassis has 220,000KMS on it but new engine and tranny with approx. 10,000kms (paperwork on these items is available) and i'm buying the car off a friend so i'm not too worried.

He tells me the only htings blatantly wrong with the car are the seized water pump that will need fixing (i'm looking about about 300$CDN for a brand new mazda one installed) and he says tere's some surface rust around the sunroof.

he is asking 1000$ Canadian for the car as is.

my question to you guys is: after so many kms on the chassis, are there any other things i should look for, i.e. bushings, rust underneath etc etc, other problems that tend 2 pop up.

i'm not too familiar with rust and body work on cars. how serious would it be to get the rust around the sunroof removed? (also..i might get the car sanded and sprayed white in my attempt to make an initial d replicar ).

and finally, any preparations i should take/make in order to drive the car year round in winter as well? i was considering re-rustproofing the car to combat the salt and crap they have on toronto roads.

any advice you guys can offer would be great as i've been out of the game for a while.

best regards,
omar.

(Edit for sig violation...check your PMs)

 

Check the for sale section. You could get one off a member alot Cheeper. It is allso easy to install. If you are uncomfy with it take it to a local shop, they will be cheaper then dealer.
With that meany miles dont bother debating it. Evrything will need replaced. All bushings the struts and springs and maybe strut mounts. Check the fenders strut towers for rust or seperation. If there is you should sand it down and stitch weld back the towers. Not that big of deal. View the FAQ for links to several web sites about what to look for when buying a FC. The sun roof you should pull it down and have it sanded and rust cut out then bondod up repainted and re wether striped. Not to dificult.



Allso coverd well in the FAQ.

 

Siezed water pump on a car with a new engine? Lets see, the owner was too cheap to go with a new pump on his new engine, I wonder where else he went cheap . . . . . .

220,000 kilometers isn't bad. The car's 19 years old so, that's less than 7500 miles per year. As for what's worn out, was the car driven in winter? If so, do they use salt? The standard answer for what's worn is nothing if the car was maintained/everything if not.


The Southern California Rx-Club Beach BBQ is August 20th. The last biggie B4 SevenStock.

 

Basically, you will prob need to replace struts and springs. For that you can get some aftermarket ones that will totally transform how the car handles. Also, just kinda go over the stuff under the hood like coolant hoses and such and look for cracks. Also, change all the filters and the fluids. As for the rustproofing, do it every year up there.

 

I wouldn't care about rush unless we're talking about HOLES you can see through!
I'd worry more about the condition of the engine and drivetrain is...

I wouldn't take a friend's word on it either, unless you know them VERY well.

Do a compression test - this is minimum for all rotary vehicle potential purchases.

Take a test drive - questions ALL weird noises and vibrations - the car should drive (and shift) smoothly.


-Ted

 

When I look at an RX-7, everything is secondary to the condition of the body. If there is even one spec of rust, I walk away. Those who live in our area of Ontario refer to it as the "rust belt", because average life for any car is generally 10 years before the body turns to powder. Consequently, it is VERY hard to find a good FC. The rust you can see is only about 10% of the problem, and fixing it is time consuming and expensive.

Engines and transmissions can be easily rebuilt, and bearings and brakes are cheap compared to body work.

That said, read the FAQ. Answers to probably 90% of your questions.