BOOSTD 7

Wow, where have I been? Well, after the new owners of the site basically bent me over a bar stool and didn't even spit before the violation, I felt awfully bitter. Add to it yet another in my long list of rotary shops that didn't deliver, and a decade flew by without me being a part of the scene like I used to be. Starting a new business (VAPOR AUDIO :: Exquisite Sound) sure helped make the years fly by.

Maybe one of two of you will remember the Project FD I started for RX Tuner magazine, this was in like 2005. I bought a super clean '93 PEP in Montego Blue (60K miles, never been wrecked) and had plans, but nothing crazy. Shortly after, side seals stuck, so I said screw it and decided to go all out. At the time, the GT35/40 was the best option for a lag-free street/track car, so I got an ASE Australia kit. Brian at BNR built a fresh street port motor for the magazine project car, and of course all sorts of other goodies like XCessive LIM with a 4-injector rail, Pettit large SMIC, Power FC, etc, etc.

Things were going well, I installed the motor with a new lightweight flywheel and clutch. But then decided to get it out of St Louis, where there was nobody with real attention to detail, and take it to Sean at A-Spec. At the time I thought Sean was as rock solid as anybody in the biz, no way would he leave me hanging!

Again I was wrong, Sean did leave me hanging. But at least it appears as though the car isn't a loss. Sean is gone, but the new owners of the shop sent me these pictures today. It seems to have survived ok for being outside the last 8 years (Sean assured me it was inside the entire time). And the new owners also say my parts are there too, in a separate covered area.

So now I have a decision to make, head back down the rabbit hole and try to salvage the dream, or just part ways and get what I can out of it as is. I'm leaning toward making a run at restoring this beauty, but afraid of getting the shaft yet again.

The good part is there shouldn't be much expense for parts, mainly labor. The motor is hard to know what sort of condition it's like inside. But I should have everything else I need, circa 2005. In addition there's a nice half cage in the car, the dual oil coller kit you can see, some suspension goodies, lots of Autometer Nexus gauges, a full body kit with a killer one-off flush headlight kit, some 18x10 Enkei RPF1 Type-RC rims, even a brand new pair of Bride Vios III Seats.

So what does the hive think? Am I asking for another headache? I don't have time to devote to it myself, I have to be able to trust a shop fully to execute how I want. But my success in finding that shop has been 0 for thus far.

Let's hear it, what would you do?

TougeSpirit

iTrader: (12)

This is just my opinion and in no way professional, but man. Did you look at those pictures?

If you were the DIYer, like ***** to the walls devoted to restoring a FD then yeah, this has potential. It's gonna be a ton of work, it's on the edge of turning into a rust bucket ... But if it was dirt cheap and you had the time and skills to restore it slowly as a hobby, then it would be worthwhile for sure.

For a shop to bring this back in its current state.. You might as well find a simple and already running car and save yourself the headache in dealing with the logistics it will require to be up to your standards.

Narfle

iTrader: (16)

Part that thing and start fresh. It's a whole new game, and that thing looks a long way off.

Brekyrself

iTrader: (30)

Is the car still sitting in Chicago or did you bring it back to MO?

It may be less of a headache to sell this as a roller and simply buy something running. There is always decent demand for a roller.

EUROX

iTrader: (15)

As a counterpoint, look at bzebern's build thread to see someone try to bring something back from a grave so deep it might as well be fracking, lol! Anything's possible given the determination.

And welcome back!

BOOSTD 7

Most of the body work I'd do, and that's where the biggest headaches will be. But no, I still haven't seen it in person and don't have it back to St Louis. There aren't any shops worth anything here, so the only reason it'll come to STL is if I'm going to part it out.

I'll have to think and chew on it this weekend. Hopefully the shop where it is can send me some better, closeup shots of the rust problem areas.

BOOSTD 7

Seriously? My car looks like a Concours winner compared to where that car started.

And thanks, good to be back

EUROX

iTrader: (15)

It is! I'm just giving an example of a way worse situation as counterpoint. Good luck with whatever you choose to do.

7_rocket

iTrader: (6)

Rx tuner sounds so damn familiar. I sold my last FD in 2009 and bought another last year. I missed the damn car so much.

Sgtblue

iTrader: (16)

Seems like you're operating in a vacuum right now. Go up and see it, look it over and make notes. Do the 'goesintahs' both ways...parting it out or continuing on, and then figure out what makes sense. At least from here in fly-over it seems like a short haul to Banzai.

Molotovman

iTrader: (49)

Have it shipped to IR Performance.

DaleClark

iTrader: (55)

Hey man welcome back!

Honestly, it doesn't look THAT bad. The interior doesn't look like it ate a lot of weather or got leaked in, that's a biggie. Paint is shot, but it's THERE, and it doesn't look like the body is rusty.

One of the guys here (Kurt - K-Tune, see his Hamado Resurrection build thread) took a REALLY REALLY dead FD that had been sitting in a backyard for 10+ years and resurrected it. Turned it from a writeoff to a regular autocross FTD car and VERY reliable and fast daily driver. And, did it CHEAP.

For peace of mind I'd go through the motor, it may be rusty/stuck seals/dryrotted in there. But, all the hard parts are there and probably good.

That would be a WAY fun car to put back together and make happy again!

Dale

BOOSTD 7

Good to see you too Dale!

So I think I have a plan in place. I'll hold details until it happens, but it sounds promising. Somebody checked it out closer for me and said he couldn't see any signs of rust after going all around the car. That's essentially what I needed to know before making a decision. If I have a chance to restore a 60K mile chassis that's never been hit, and is rust free, I'm going to do it!

So yes, of course the motor will get torn down. The hope is internals are fine, and clearly all seals would get replaced.

The other still unknown is exactly what of my original pile of parts is still remaining. The car got picked over a bit as a parts car while sitting. If all my good parts are there still, then we'll be able to get this thing together mechanically how I want and still be on budget.

Once underhood is together how I want, it'll be immaculate btw, it'll come back to STL where I'll take care of suspension/brakes and a complete stripped to bare metal and glass removed repaint along with body kit fitment.

ZoomZoom

iTrader: (2)

That car may have some challenges but it's not much worse than most cars that have had hard miles put on them for the last 8 years while yours sat parked.
Welcome back. I've returned and am living the dream again. If you have the money and the passion for the car I can't think of a better ending to the story than to see it thru to completion.

Plenty of part out threads on here already so you can source parts if you need them.
You may as well go start that build thread now so I can go subscribe.

BOOSTD 7

A couple threads that show just how far this whole mess goes back ...

https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generati...ge-1-a-472976/

And then after a couple years and getting hosed by the first builder, it then went to A-Spec:

https://www.rx7club.com/midwest-rx-7...gether-860457/

I had forgotten I bought a brand new wiring harness, sure hope it's still there, but unlikely.

BTW, I think there's a plan in place. A builder contacted me, sounded VERY enthusiastic about the project, and is anxious to get started. He will be picking up the car this week, and then next week I'll be road tripping to give it a visit. Expect a Build Thread to be started very soon!

GoodfellaFD3S

iTrader: (213)

And who pray tell is this builder you speak of?

BOOSTD 7

Patience, young one.

Will I get screwed again? Who knows, but I do know that if I do, I may never dip my toes in the high hp rotary pool again. All the BS and sleepless night, frustration from not knowing a damn thing and nobody returning phone calls, has taken a lot out of my enthusiasm level over the last 15 years. Because really it started before this FD, with my Purple FC turbo (which I eventually gave up on and sold for $500).

Narfle

iTrader: (16)

There seem to be a few vendors pumping out reliable work at this time: Banzai, RP, Addicted, IRP...
Sorry if I left ppl off. Feel free to call them out for Ole' Boosted here.

Banzai-Racing

iTrader: (11)

Good luck, I have my suspicions who is picking up this car. Just remember the old saying "you get what you pay for". You might want to do a quick search in the Midwest section.

Sgtblue

iTrader: (16)

Euh Oh.

BOOSTD 7

Listen Chris, I'm as familiar as anyone here with two important things relating to this. 1 - forum politics and half truths, 2 - the laundry list of come and gone shops that have scammed people out of combined millions.

Yes, I read all those threads about you vs Sal, and honestly I see no smoking gun at all. In fact it all seems as though you're over-personalizing things for a reason which I cannot possibly know. I have no doubt you would dispute that observation, but that is how it reads to me. I cannot and will not ever know whatever truth there is behind the dispute, and for that reason I simply don't care. If there were undeniable evidence of willful fraud on Sal's part, he would have quickly been checked off my list.

So when this car was found, and it was told to me my parts are intact, I contacted yourself and 3 other persons about taking the reigns. Of them, Sal had one big advantage, he is local and has seen the car many times over the years. But that alone isn't anywhere enough to give him the go-ahead. What did it, well two things that did it. He quickly called me, discussed at length, and showed true enthusiasm. The other consideration was Howard Coleman, another guy I know enough about personally from my time here (I was the Allspark remember). If Howard is happy with his work, assuming I receive the same level of attention, I likely will be as well.

Sal also went back on a weekend and inspected my car futher, he offered to do that without me asking, and afterward called with good news that the chassis is clean.

So will I be happy? Who friggin knows, with my luck the car will be on a dyno putting down insane numbers, and at that exact moment an asteroid will strike.

This stuff isn't rocket science, and I know plenty to poo poo any decisions made that aren't in my best interest. Assuming the work gets done, nobody is going to slip shoddy craftsmanship or worn out parts by me. I have extreme attention to detail, I know what perfect is and isn't. I plan to be heavily involved as the Project Manager, I just don't have time to do it myself.

If I could have anybody do the job, it would be IR Performance. Not because I know Ihor or Rich so well, but I do know the NY scene well enough to know that they're a group that pushes all others in the group to greatness. They're just to damn far away from St Louis. I'm not just looking for someone to build my car, I want to make new friends as well. Remembering all the things I've done to build the rotary community, it should be obvious that's a huge aspect of this for me. I want to get back in head first, I want to start going to events again with a car I'm proud off, and Sal's enthusiasm made me feel that again. I imagine once the car is together (fingers crossed), that I will drive it to NY and let the IRP guys give it a look over. They might find a few things they'd prefer be done differently, but my main reason for road trippin would just be to hang out with the NY crew again and get immersed in it all.

So yes, Elite Rotary is going to be picking up the car this week. I was going to wait to wait and disclose that afterward, but your personal issues with Sal have now been brought into this thread, and forced me to just type out this page long response.

Banzai-Racing

iTrader: (11)

You don't know what the issue is? Sal stole my FD, which I detailed in that thread. The fact that he has never once disputed anything in that thread is "smoking gun" enough. Not to mention that the guy has contributed absolutely nothing to the rotary community or this forum and wants to pretend to be a rotary shop, try not to trip over the lawn equipment while there.

This is exactly the same decision making process that has got you into trouble with this car. I find it strange that you would go with a no-name shop that just popped up with a banner ad on this forum a few months ago, and expect a better result. Do a search on the Illinois business registry and you will find out how long it has even been an entity.

You have contacted us multiple times over the years about this car and have opted to take it to other shops typically because of location. Fact is we have always answered the phone and your emails have always been answered even though you make a requests for prices that can't be properly answered without inspecting the car. Seriously, asking for a "ballpark" price based of the pictures you provided in this thread is asking a lot.

Honestly, we are far too busy to take on a restoration project of this nature without knowing that the customer has a substantial budget set aside to start the project. We currently have 17 customer cars in the shop, that have all been delivered in much better shape than this one. Additionally, since every single car is kept inside at all times, we have to schedule non-operational cars into our main shop which is full for the next several months.

Personally I think you should go retrieve your car and all your parts yourself from Aspec, then do an inventory. This would resolve a lot of the "I dropped the car off with this...."statements. I would not even want to be in the middle of that mess.

If you think IR would do a better job, then by all means send it to NJ, I can't come up with a single reason why you wouldn't. We have cars and engines in the shop from all over the country, transportation is cheap when considering restoring a car.

Good luck with the car, I wish you the best.

GoodfellaFD3S

iTrader: (213)

BOOSTD 7

I read the thread a couple times, and it didn't come off to me the way you think it does obviously. Maybe you should take the time to detail your case better, with evidence. What's in the thread now is just one-liner accusations, and it's hard to tell who committed the impropriety, Sal or his buddies. But it does seem as though Sal is being blamed for wrong doings of any of his friends.

Like I said, don't know what the truth is and can't care until a more clear case is made from either side.

No, it's not exactly the same at all. In 2009 would you have said A-Spec was a no-name fly by night shop? No, of course not.

Your location is just fine with me, maybe an hour tops farther than Chicago ... and no traffic or tolls to deal with. Location isn't the issue, it's that every time I get a luke warm response. Same this time, even though we only exchanged a couple emails, it was clear to me that you didn't really want the job. I have no doubt you'd do an excellent job, but I didn't feel like you cared to mess with it. If you do/did, you didn't convey that to me.

I'm going to be in Chicago next week, we'll do an inventory at Sal's shop. If I see things there I don't like, the car will go somewhere else. Sal is talking serious progress in 45 days, if that doesn't happen the car will go somewhere else.

Chris, please stop with the drama here. If what you say happened did happen, use legal means to make sure others aren't victimized. But stop using the forum to extract revenge, and more pointedly, stop using my thread.

TomU

iTrader: (11)

What's up with people leaving their cars for soooooo long

https://www.rx7club.com/ne-rx-7-foru...years-1096597/

Time should be part of the contract along with price. I'm no lawyer, but I'd be heading to small claims court if I got my car back in worse shape than when I dropped it off.