Advice on Selling '93 RX-7 for parts
 

Last night my rx-7 caught on fire and burned for long enough that it is beyond repair. However, a lot of the parts (body panels, seats, doors, etc) are still fine. But I don't know anything about cars.

I'm wondering if it would in fact be possible to sell the whole thing for parts and if I did that what I could expect to get for it.

What color/condition is the interior in?? ;)

Man sorry for the bad news what happened? If you have alot of time on your hands, can probably part out piece by piece and end up making a little more money than just selling the totaled car as a whole. But if you have no patience for that than just sell it as a roller.

You will have plenty of vultures on this forum that want parts, try posting in the for sale section. They are just preying on people like you :naughty: jk haha.

Like the gentlemen up top said, depending on how bad the fire was, a roller sells anywhere from 3-7k, price accordingly. GL

The interior is the black. And it actually held up amazingly well. The floor mats are useless, but everything from the bottom of the door up looks unaffected. Same deal with the dashboard, and the seats. The fire really only burned in/on the engine. The smell however is pretty overpowering. My wife has the keys with her, but when she comes home I'm going to try to post some pictures of what it looks like.

It's heartbreaking to even look at let alone take pictures of. The bulk of the visible damage is to the front (the plastic all along the bottom and the headlights). I'm despondent...

Roto7FD -- thanks for the kind words. My wife was driving it up a hill to a location and when she parked it started smoking under the hood. She got out of the car and the smoke kept getting worse and then the flames started. Thank goodness she wasn't hurt and that it didn't happen on the freeway.

Thanks for the advice as well. I'll check out the for sale section.

First off, I'm really sorry to hear about your loss.

Next, you really need to weigh your options. Is the car paid for? If so, that helps a lot. Might be worth looking into what insurance would give you - that might be more than you could get selling the car as parts.

You can always make the most money parting the car out yourself, but unless you know the parts, know how to take everything apart, and have the time to deal with finding buyers, collecting money, shipping parts, etc. it might not be worth it for you. The big plus is the black interior - it's saught after, and will really add to the parts value of the car.

Big one is hold off a bit on making a decision - right now, you're apt to make more of an emotional decision. Look into all your options and go from there. Good thing is being in LA, finding someone local to buy the car would be VERY easy. But, check with insurance as well.

I hope it turns out well for you and you end up with another RX-7, hopefully one even nicer than your old one!

Dale

what happened to you is a real shame...it's somewhat common with these cars, thus most of us carry at least 1 fire extinguisher in the bins.

so how much you want for some of those interior panels? :D

Thanks Dale.

The good news: the car is totally paid for, I own it outright.

The bad news: I didn't drive the car that much and as a result I only had liability insurance on it so Allstate will give me nothing. That's a tough lesson to learn.

I'm totally useless with cars (I just loved driving my RX-7). So I can't do anything with the parts on my own. I really need to sell the whole thing.

You're also totally right about me likely to make an emotional decision. It really breaks my heart to see the car parked in my garage still in the spot where the tow truck left it.

Thanks for the advice.

hey sorry to hear about yer 7 man.... i prolly would've cried if that happened to me... but the good part is, is that you bought a legendary car that still holds its value even if it was toasted...

for best results, i'd say take pictures all around of the car inside and out and post it up on this forum... see what people would throw at you for it... Good luck!

Sean...

Get some pictures of the car and post them up here. People can help you "price it to sell" once they see the damage.

93VRTouring --

I'm probably going to try to sell the whole thing seeing as how I wouldn't even know how to take off the interior panels, and my best chance is tell sell it with everything intact.

I'll post pictures later today after my wife brings me the keys (I think she's worried that if I had them I would do something drastic).

ow, bro. that is painful. in many ways. I'd hate to see my FD sittng in the same spot, knowing I'll never be able to drive it again (of course, mine doesn't run right now, but she will, so that's totally different). And about the insurance thing, that is hard medicine to take. Either pay what feels like way too much money that rarely sees the road, or run the risk of losing your exotic and not being compensated.

Sorry for your loss...

DoH!!!! Thought you had full coverage so they would pay you market value for total loss, you buy the car back, and sell it as a roller for more than you bought it back for from insurance. Well at least that is what i would do.

Man, are you going to get back into the game with the 7?? Or is this the end of the road for sports cars?

Since you admittedly know little about cars, please have someone who knows cars and is particularly familiar with the RX7 (someone from a reputable rotary shop) inspect it and give you some advice. Fire damage very often looks much worse than it is, and the car may still be structurally sound, the engine may be fixable if only the plastic stuff burned, etc.

You may be able to resurrect it to where either (1) you will want to keep it, or (2) you can sell it as a running car for a net financial gain (as opposed to selling it as a burned-out roller).

Dave

I'll take the panels off.......off of your hands ;)

By the way,I am very sorry about your loss,however,I am one of those "parts vultures" that roto7FD mentioned lol

I know how you feel.

I totalled my FD due to a fire back in 98. The fire was contained in the engine bay so other than that the car immaculate. Pristine with 36k miles.

Here are some pictures
 

How screwed am I?

http://www.atadbazaar.com/g/rx7/DSC_0014.jpg

http://www.atadbazaar.com/g/rx7/DSC_0013.jpg

http://www.atadbazaar.com/g/rx7/DSC_0008.jpg

http://www.atadbazaar.com/g/rx7/DSC_0019.jpg

http://www.atadbazaar.com/g/rx7/DSC_0017.jpg

http://www.atadbazaar.com/g/rx7/DSC_0022.jpg

http://www.atadbazaar.com/g/rx7/DSC_0006.jpg

wow the rest of the car appears to be in immaculate condition

Yeah -- it has spent most of its life in a garage and for the last couple of years I was putting no more than 2.5K miles a year on it.

It would look even better if it wasn't covered in mud from when the fire department hosed it down.

I don't think you'll have much of a problem selling it. Getting decent money out of it will depend on how long you want to hang on to it for the right buyer.

you will sell it
 

As one of the post said it will go for 3-7K. A recent fire damage one went at the high end of the range on ebay-not as nice as yours - but you need to find the right buyer. You will make a bit more parting it out but not that much and you still need to dispose of the remains and you need to take it apart ship it etc. Sorry for your loss.

Yeah that car is repairable, and depending on the condition of things it may be rebuilt for under $10k. It would make a good project for someone who knows what they're doing and is willing to replace all the stuff in the engine bay and front body panels.

If/when you decide to sell it, post the pics again in the classifieds section. (I can see the buzzards circling already). This section is not for selling.

Dave

I'd agree, the car is in great shape and it wouldn't take much to fix the stuff that burned in the fire. You could probably get a JDM clip and replace alot of the stuff that burned. Since your not going through the ins. and I dont think DMV will total the car, so your vin and title will have a note that there was fire damage but not salvaged.

It is not easy to repair that car. You will have to have a complete donor car for everything in the engine bay. It's highly possible that items behind the dash were burnt as well. My FD caught on fire a while back and I repaired it but it was a lot of work. The interior is pretty easy but its the items under the hood that took the most time.

The motor will also have to be taken apart to make sure nothing got in there. Sometimes the dipstick plastic items melt or the cover for the oil etc... Either way you will have to take the motor apart to check things.

Anthony