What to do...
 

Let me give you a rundown on my life. In college, everything is payed for other than gas. I buy my own groceries as well to help out. I work 20 hours a week during school and have a few ideas on what to do with the money. inb4 save. I'll have all kinds of time to save once I'm working out of college. So anyways.

Considering I don't make too much money I can do a few things.

1. Save up 4,000 cash by the end of my first year (April) and just go to town on buying a large amount of items and putting everything on the car at once.

2. Buying parts one pay check at a time (other than wheels, coilovers and tires)

3. Save the 4,000, sell my rx7 for 3,500-4,000 and buy an NA Miata which I can't seem to get my mind off after being on clubroadster so often and looking at build threads and then put the left over money into that car. The Miata is more reliable, more fuel efficient, just as fast as my stock '91 N/A coupe (well almost as fast) and tiny so parking in massive college lots will be simple and the roads here are very narrow. I drive 100% city.

4. Save up 4,000 and sell rx7 for 3,500-4,000 and then put that 8,000 down on an s2000 or c5 'vette and get a loan for the rest.

The problem I see is putting 4k into my 4,000$ rx7 would not help it's value. I'd still have a 4,000 rx7 that just looks good. List of mods I want are Shine Auto lip, aero guards, side skirts, roof spoiler, crown vics with new tires, coilovers, a subwoofer and amp to complete my aftermarket audio system and basic maintenance. Same could be said for the Miata. *Fully aware I can part it out before selling*

5. Considering turbo swap. Engine and drivetrain. The problem with this is I use my car as a daily driver. I drive about 150kms a week. I can't afford to have my car taken apart for 2 days to do the swap. Not to mention I'd be doing it by myself and have nobody to tune it. I live 5 minutes from the border to Michigan, but the nearest tuner/dyno could be hundreds of kilometer/smiles away.

Those of you who have read my massive useless post be free to give advice. This has been running through my mind for days now and I'm struggling on deciding what to do with my money. Go on a troll me, give actual advice or call me an idiot and that I spend my money stupidly. All is welcome!

Sounds like you already know what you want to do. Know this now no mods ever pay you back financially as in up the value of the car.

I personally went with option two back in '06-'07 or so. I was only making about $450-$500 every two weeks, buying my JDM TII swap paycheck to paycheck, part by part. I was pleased with the end result. It worked for me at that time, but the car was down for two or three years. That had a lot to do with the fact that I was fixing my own mistakes, still learning about the FC3S platform and cars in general. (I am still learning things every day.) - Luckily I had another car as a daily driver. It seems that this would be a pretty legitimate option for you as long as you had another car to drive. It also depends on whether or not you're wanting to perform the complete TII swap. If you're more concerned about looks and a few bolt-ons, your car won't see as much down time.

It is always exciting planning for things like this. Seeing that you don't have another car to drive for your daily commute, you may want to consider option one. You better be good at budgeting if you choose option one, though. Sometimes when you see those G's piling up you tend to get a bit crazy. Haha

I won't even comment on options three and four. It is up to you whether you choose to ditch such a sweet ride as the FC3S. When I put thousands into my $700 FC, I knew damn well that I wasn't ever going to get my money back... I also knew that I was keeping it, too.


The best advice that I can give you is that no matter what you choose to do, NEVER cut any corners. <- Ask me how I know.

If those G's make me want to buy other things, by all means, I'll buy them. Saving 4g's by April won't be difficult since it's only 70% of my paychecks. The other 30% goes towards food and gas and still have plenty left over. Saving could also help out if anything goes wrong, blowing the engine, perhaps.

Nothing you put on your car will help it's value, look at Furb's thread where he's forced to part out a spectacular RX because he can't get it's value as a running car.

Anything you do to a car must be for your enjoyment, never expect anyone else to place the same importance to the mods as you do.

Don't buy parts "one paycheck at a time", wait till you can splurge on the entire package and see if that's really what you still want to do. Other, better options might turn up, you may have a total change of heart, the RX of your dreams may appear...who knows?
A pile of cash is much more versatile than a pile of parts.

I really like Miatas, if they weren't convertibles, I'd have one myself.

Well first off choose between a miata and the rx7 first...then what I would do is buy a second car. Preferably a little truck, decent on gas and well a mazda can almost fit in the back of one so your parts are taken car of lmao. I had to do this in 08. I had a trans am with a broken frame and a car on its last leg. Financed me a descent little truck (Dakota) and used 5 grand to buy and fc and send me well on my way on a nice build...and plenty of alcohole lmao

That's where things change. I love driving. I love looking and washing the cars I own. I enjoy being noticed by others as well. You pointed out exactly why I have #1 as an option. Who knows what I want 8 months from now come spring. The reason why I have this 8 month deadline is winter is useless for modding. By the time I'm home from school it's dark and cold. I don't own a garage.

A great thing about the Miata is that the aftermarket is huge. You can go on gomiata and have the time of your life putting together your dream Miata, aha. The fact it's a convertible is a plus for me.



That's what saving all 4k would help me decide. If I have problems with the rx7 over the next 8 months, I'll pick up a Miata, or put money down on a s2000 or c5 'vette. Buying two cars isn't possible for me because 1. I'm still under parents insurance since I have 1 point left on my license and 2. I don't have the room or money for that.

I know for a fact I'm buying a subwoofer and swapping out all the old fluids and filters in the next month. So all that's left is coilovers andwheels and tires. I want the Shine body parts, but they aren't a necessity. But since my car is slow, all I could do is basically make it look good. So all mods will be aesthetic. Unless I did the turbo swap, but then I can run into issues which will cost even more.

or be realistic, because with these cars the moment you spend the $4k on suspension, body and other parts the motor will leave you by the side of the road with a blown coolant/apex seal.

buy the miata and if you drive it hard hope it lasts. living paycheck by paycheck and going to college, relying on transportation that you beat on is a recipe for disaster. you should always keep backup funds to actually fix the car if it breaks first.

i basically tell every customer who has the original, not rebuilt or overhauled engine, that they are on borrowed time. that is NOT to try and sell them work either. i don't see other import shops around me constantly taking in rebuilds just because those cars are 20+ years old but i'm constantly getting rotaries in diagnosed with faulty coolant seals, improper maintenance, blown apex seals, etc. most other engines won't leave you stranded with a little neglect like these will(unless you overheat a boinger or run it without oil). problem is the neglect may have been from before you owned the car and you cannot erase that, it is in the engines memory, little things will help but only marginally.

Heres my advice.....

Finish school. Dont worry so much about cars.

I know that even though my engine only has 98,000 original kilometers that it could still go randomly. The good thing about saving the money for the parts is that I do have that backup fund for a blown engine, brakes, suspension, etc.

Included in that 4k estimated amount is maintenance. I get paid next week and I'm changing the diff, trans, engine oils. I'm also buying aux sleeves, new plugs, new wires and new clutch and brake fluids.

Then I would have no reason to work during college since everything is paid for. The only thing I do is Sleep, school, work. I want something to spice up my day every time I have to leave for one of those things or come home with a smile on my face. Otherwise I'm just stressing myself out working after school and taking away homework and assignment time with no payoff.

Also, could anyone remind me the name of the company who makes the sleeves? I can't for the life of me figure it out. I know Pineapple Racing makes the inserts, but I'm talking about the 75$ sleeves.

^cptpain, listen to the man.

Get your school done first, drive the car as is and save all your money up like clokker said. Better yet, if you could take the bus, do that and you would save a lot on fuel and insurance.

It's a lot about priorities vs. interest/hobby, if I went back 3 years ago before I bought the car knowing how much I'd end up spending, there is a high possibility I may not have bought the car. However, the trade off was I gained lots of mechanical knowledge, greatly improved my driving skills, and had tonnes of fun owning the car.

So in the end the choice is yours, but getting education done first would better assist you finding a good paying job, where you will be able to save more money and do everything all at once in the future.

Think it's atkins that makes the insrrts

The nearest bus going to my school is a km walk downtown so that's not happening, especially when it's -30 out.

For those of you who are suggesting not spending the money on the car and focus on school and such, what are your opinions on only buying wheels, tires, lowering springs, 100k maintenance and subwoofer/amp. I'd only spend 1500 and it's basically everything I want in the car. The Shine Auto stuff was just incase I had extra money to blow. And I don't necessarily need coilovers since I drive 100% city, no auto-x, no tracking, etc. But I wanted that extra tunability and height adjustment. I absolute want a subwoofer and to do a tune-up.

so where the fuck did you come up with 4k? lol you could sell the car buy a civic and put all the goofy shit you want on that for half the price!

Ah, barkz. I've been expecting you. Your replies are always the same. Anyways, 4k includes coilovers and body mods + paint, whereas 1500 does not. No matter what car I ever buy I will always want wheels, springs or coilovers and an upgraded stereo.

Also, I just came from a '97 Civic that's bone stock and automatic to my '91 rx7. If I wanted to keep that piece of shit I would have.


YES! Thank you.

so then 1500 doesnt cover everything you want. make up your mind.
not a surprise that you've owned a civic either.

$1500 doesn't even come close to getting a decent set of coilovers, which are a waste on a street car anyway.
Get some good shocks and a set of springs instead.

$4000 will barely cover a same color repaint around here, things must be very cheap in Sudbury.

Given to me for free with 97,000kms in incredible shape. As a first car, it was perfect.

It covers the absolute needs in a car that I want.

1500 would cover springs (230 shipped), wheels (350 for vics shipped), tires (500 shipped), subwoofer and amp (230) and 250-300 bucks in maintenance.

If I did buy those Shine parts, I'd be painting them myself. My dad has a paint gun and it would just be a matter of getting the paint matched at home depot or something. I'm not repainting the whole car. 4k would cover everything I want for the rx7, 1500 would cover everything I absolutely need in a car.

Either way, I think I'll just hold on to my money, possibly work less and spend more time on homework and assignments. Of course my friends said to get everything, but I need the internets opinion (I know right). I usually get put in my place, which helps me with my decision. A lot of you have experience owning and tuning/modding cars and know how much it's worth it, or how much of a waste it was. Winter's coming up in less than 4 months, so lowering or wheels are useless at this point. I'm also considering a 250 bike for cruising around town.

You have a car(an Rx-7) and a job and you go to school. Drive the car to school and work.
Spend your brain power studing. Then get a good job and then you will have saved 16K dollars to buy yourself a graduation car. come on man think.:slap:

I've never considered saving for my 3-5 years of schooling. I could save up for a house during that instead. Which would be a better choice IMO, since I want a house as soon as I could.

I don't feel like making a new thread for something so simple, but how much brake fluid will I need to do the brakes and clutch. Just so I don't buy too much or too little.

1 quart

1. i did this with my 20B, and i like #2 better.

2. i like doing FC's this way, the fun part is driving the car, and its neat when the car changes, and the car changes more often this way, #1 it only changes once.

3. i've had a miata too, for city driving it makes a lot of sense, mileage is better, the car fits everywhere, and its FUN. for 4k you can buy a really nice miata too

4. i like the saving 4k part, but the vette and s2k = pushing rope...

5. this is the one i haven't actually done. i'd buy JDM engine/trans, reseal engine, and install it so its almost OEM. IMO simple/quick and reliable is better than giant project.

Thanks. Either I'm terrible at using the search engine, or the engine is just terrible.

1&2. I'm with you for buying parts one at a time. You don't get bored of your car this way, it's always changing like you said.

3. I drive 100%. No highways, no roads with a limit faster than 60kph. I park at a college which involves idiotic drivers and hard to find spaces. My girlfriend already got backed into within a week. Having a small car could help with this. I may drive home(600km round trip) once or twice a year. But I find my N/A RX7 really slow, I can just imagine a Miata. I'm aware that the power-to-weight is about the same for the 1.8L '94-'97's, but there's just something about having 100whp that makes me think I'll want to upgrade to a faster car.

4. I've always wanted an S2k. I had a down payment on one two years ago, but I couldn't get the loan due to not working long enough. I was inlove with it 71,000kms, OEM painted hardtop, 5zigen wheels and it was the cleanest s2k I've seen in person. Oh well, shit happens.

5. If I go with a turbo swap, I'd be buying from jdmtigerjapanese since they're in Ontario. I could get a whole front clip shipped to me for around 2,000. That gets me a JDM engine, transmission, wiring, TII hood and anything else I needed. Then I'd be buying the turbo driveshaft, LSD and axles. I would eventually upgrade to the 4-piston brakes as well. But all of this could be bought with 3-4k and from what I've heard for S5's, basically plug and play.

Oddly, my dream car would be a bridgeported 20b single turbo in an NA Miata. One day...

I went for a drive downtown today and seen my reflection off the buildings and realized I did love this car and want to keep it. I'm going to buy parts as the paychecks come in over the next few winter months and then come spring, buy wheels and tires then once I'm working 40+ hours a week during the summer, buy my turbo swap.

I can relate to wanting to have a hobby outside of school being a top priority. Having hobbies is healthy psychologically, because we all know that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. ;)

If you're dead set on working on your car, go with #2. Since you make next to no money right now, even with all things paid for, you can spend a little out of pocket on your car and still have a little left over for routine or emergency maintenance. Also, the advantage of installing a piece at a time is that you can easily diagnose and fix a problem when it arises.

What to install first though? I'd make it a point to get wise on your car, and hunt down all of the pertinent Service Bulletins. Get a compression test done and get a baseline as to the overall health of your engine. After that, I would take care of all of the documented reliability mods.

Cheers