restoring a 88 vert
 

Hello all,
I am new to the forum and would like to ask for a little help.
My son was killed in an accident at work last month at the age of 21, he was the very proud owner of a 1988 convertable with about 150,000 miles on it, The age is showing and the motor smokes when I start it.
My wife and I have decided to restore the love of his life to as good a condition as possible to give the car to his little sister.
Now where to start. I need to have a engine rebuild, new interior including carpet and seats and some of the interior trim pieces, air conditioner compressor replaced and new window motors installed.
After the above off to paint and body and the car should be in good shape.
Where do I start , can someone recommend a good engine shop that will do a good job and not rip me off? Where is the best source for interior parts?
Thanks for any help you can offer, my son loved his mazda very much and I think restoring the car for his sister would be what he would have wanted.
I am in granbury Texas near Fort Worth/Dallas


Thanks again
Trent

Good engine shop for what you're looking for is RotaryResurrection (www.rotaryresurrection.com) Kevin Landers would be the gent behind it.

As for parts, the classified here are a good place for used, and www.mazdatrix.com carries a lot of new parts. You may try hitting up IndyParts on AOL Instant Messenger for parts, as I know he has a ton, though not sure how much he has for 'Verts.

Best of luck to your family, and best wishes through your hard times,

-Blake

Most rotary engines smoke when first started, but with 150,000 miles it wouldn't be a bad idea to rebuild. Rotary resurrection will do it for around $1000.00, but you would have to pull it out and send it to him. There's a guy on ebay (rx7addict) that's in central Texas. He sells used parts and can probably help with some of the stuff on your list (he's cheap too) You may want to try some advanced searches in this forum (2nd gen specific) a lot of questions can be answered by searching. Sorry about your son, and good luck.

yeah I'm sorry to hear about your son I know that must be some tuff times your going through. Like everyone has said already kevin with rotary resurrection is probably one of the most reliable and trusted name with rotary rebuilds and his prices are great as well! I have restored my 88 turbo and done some modifications but in all I had to get carpet, leather seats, interior pieces, all sorts of engine things and after about 2 years of off and on work on it now it is complete so if you are going to be doing this alot then you should finnish it rather quickly. A word of advice when using the for sale section on this forum is make sure and use someone that is reputable on this forum (lots of posts) Always use paypal and never use money order. Keep these things in mind any time you do stuff on the net not just here. If you notice something to good to be true on the forsale section it usually is! GO with people like banzairacing, banzaitoyota, rotaryresurrection, and check the good guy bad guy section of this forum when you are about to make a purchase. If the guy has good feedback go with him and if he doesn't, use caution. Good luck with the restoration!

Sorry about your son.
i have an 89 convertible that i am restoring from a junkyard.
i have purchased alot of my trim peices from ebay. as far as new pieces like carpets and convertible top. i brought them online. for the carpet no one that i have found is selling a convertible molded carpet. you must get the coupe carpet and cut it. if you need anything feel free to contact me
here are some of the less expensive sites i have used.
http://roadworksauto.com
http://aabestco.com
http://www.autoupholsterykits.com
god bless you and your family
al

Most any local upholstery shop should be able to do the convertible top, but there are a few sights that make convertible tops for our cars. http://www.autostyles.com/mazdarx7.htm has the tops

As for the engine, i'd go with www.rotaryresurrection.com like everyone is recommending.

Another reputable Engine Rebuild shop would be www.banzairacing.net . Ask to speak to Chris Sanders, He is very knowledgeable and trustworthy. and does exceptional work.

My sympathies and Best wishes with your project and beware of scammers wanting to take advantage of your situation.

For restoring a FC, a Victoria British catologe is a MUST.

http://www.victoriabritish.com/

Get a free catologe from their website.

GET IT! you will not regret it.

victoriabritish is almost and sometimes more expensive than the dealer
this is from my experience
al

They have things that you can't get from the dealer.

Pics of the project
 

Thanks for everyone that has helped on this project, Take a look and see how far we have come restoring my son's car. Engine has been rebuilt, paint is finished, everything works and the stereo is going in this week.
I really appreciate all the advise

. a few pics here:

http://members.cardomain.com/trent1059

The seat covers are in OKC their website is leatherseats.com. You'll need somebody to take your old ones off and put the new ones on. Any upholstry shopsouldbe able to help.

aabestco.com for the top. again some handy work needs to be done to make it work but the top is inexpesnive

IF you are building the car for your daughter Kevin Landers will do the job but don't be cheap with him. Let him know (he already knows, cause he is reading this thread) that you want new housings ($500 ea.). You need lots of NEW items as well for reliablilty issues.
things like the Pulsation dampner. This PD thing will catch your car on fire if it fails. YOu don'twant your daughter in that situation. Ask Kevin when you talk with him, he'll know more.

Your local parts store will not have the items you need for this car. It would be a good idea to find a good source for the parts I spoke of. You say rotary in the parts store and they hang garlic around their neck and start making crosses with screwdrivers.

god bless you and your familiy, My sympathies.

John