Opinion on a 3rd Gen
 

A friend of mine was looking for an FD in the 10-15k range. We saw a 93 Montego Blue Touring/manual with good paint and decent interior. It has around 110k miles on it with 18-20k on a recently rebuilt motor. All paperwork on the rebuild is present. Car is completely stock. Does a $15-16k seem about right for for a car like this? It seems finding a decent car is getting very difficult, most look badly beaten up or are priced way outside of the range he was looking at.

Do you know who rebuilt the engine? What exacrly they changed in the engine? You might be taking a risk if you dont know who rebuilt the engine.
compresion tested?
check for rust. If you are satisfied with those things and are good. 14k-15k

I believe the rebuild was by PFS in Maryland. I don't have additional details yet on the build, I'm waiting for my friend to gather the info. IF the car has good compression, good boost and no other serious discernable issues then maybe this one will be a possibility. Would it be worth waiting for another, or is this as good as it gets given his price range? I bought my own stock 93 R1 with 100k and 15k on a rebuild, great compression no issues and decent re-spray for 11k, I either lucked out or prices have indeed crept upwards even for 100k miles cars.

Yep, all FD prices have been steadily climbing. That sounds like a fair price for the car.

PFS is a reputable shop so that's good. You may want to look into a compression test just to cover your bases, but in general there are signs that the engine is weak - hard to start, rough idle, etc.

General boost issues aren't a big deal killer in my book, they are common and not that terribly difficult to fix. Big thing is a straight, clean body with a decent interior - those are the things that are REALLY hard to fix. Hell, even a rebuild isn't that expensive all things considered.

Good luck!

Dale

This:
Having a recent compression test trumps paperwork on who performed the rebuild.

Is this the car?
https://baltimore.craigslist.org/cto...511006505.html

Yes this is the car, my friend is going to wait till he finds something else. Im not sure what kind of unicorn hes looking for. I did a search on multiple craigslist/autotrader and other sites looking for FDs, they were either insanely priced from dealers or completely beaten to hell. Only a handful of cars in the 10-15k range in good condition.

With regards to interior plastics, where are good sources for them now? My own car has no issues and the plastics are in good shape (minus the map pocket lid) but in case stuff breaks I will need to source parts.

^Sourcing parts:

Contact Ray Crowe (crowe.ray@aol.com) for OEM stuff (if/when available);

Contact Fritz Flynn (parts go-to guru/resident forum member) for securing quality used parts;

Search Classifieds section (Parts for Sale/3rd Generation RX-7) here on forum.

Used is the only resource unfortunately. Or try and repair yours as best you can.

Bubble Tech makes a replacement map pocket lid that's outstanding - looks and fits just like OEM but is BULLETPROOF. He brought it to Deal's Gap one year, handed me one, and dared me to break it in half. It ain't happening.

Dale

if you can't find what you are looking for at the price range you are at, save more money and go higher, just like buying anything in life.