trickshot

Dave may do it for free, but I'd offer to pay him. If the car is relatively local, maybe you can talk the seller into driving it up there.
Sometimes an owner who has his car at Dave's shop also has the car for sale. Dave will be able to tell which cars are good and which have problems. I remember once he told me about a customer's car for sale and he said he would be willing to buy it if he had the spare cash at the time. That's the kind of car you want to buy.

In any case, drive up to his shop and look around. You'll learn something about FD's just by doing that. He usually has a relatively large # of cars on hand and they display a diversity from relatively stock to highly modified. It'll give you a good idea of what's out there.

berfles

Thanks, maybe I'll take a road trip up there sometime soon.

HAYWIRE93

Well I will tell you I have owned six cars before buying my FD.I have pulled engines from cars rebuilt both V8's and rotaries.I have taught myself the whole process of rebuilding engines through books,videos and just asking local mechanics for advice.One thing you do need is time and patience.Do it right the first time and that will save you a lot of time and money in the long run.Good luck.

scotty305

iTrader: (2)

Be sure you've got the right tools for the job. Among other things, I love my:

Mechanix gloves
Stubby-handle socket wrench
Sockets: 10mm, 12mm, 14mm, 17mm (maybe 15mm also, but I don't think that one occurs often).
Various-length socket drive extensions (short, med, long)
Ratcheting wrenches (because sockets don't fit everywhere, and open-end wrenches are a pain sometimes)
Assortment of needle-nosed pliers (short, long, straight, bent, and curved ends for removing hoses)
Telescoping magnet tool (because dropping bolts sucks, but not being able to retreive them sucks even worse)
Zip-lock freezer bags (for nuts, bolts, and the parts they belong to)
Pocket-sized notepad, with Sharpie marker (use Sharpie for labeling Zip-lock bags)
Fram Sure-Drain bolt on the oil pan
Three-prong oil-filter remover tool, attaches to socket wrench
Universal joint, attaches to socket wrench and lets oil-filter tool swivel into the correct position.
Tons and tons of Scott blue shop rags. Use generously, and then trash 'em.
Degreaser and an old toothbrush.
Long-handle socket wrench, without ratcheting action, used for breaking loose tough fasteners.
PB blaster / WD40, absolutely necessary for removing downpipe hardware.



Hope this helps,
-s-

ferragame

iTrader: (1)

Yeah Dave at KD is a great guy. The shop is busy as hell but thats a sign of a good shop IMHO. Also I think Dave can get someone in for a check over rather fast, its the motor rebuilds that have a waiting list.

When I bought my 2nd FD (about 4 weeks ago) I took it in for a check up and some various maintance items (oil, trans, rear fluid changes, hook up heater, etc,etc). Dave started on my car about 3PM and finished up about 7:30. Now my car is no where near stock and Dave knew everything at a glance. He even knew what computer I was running without taking the side panel off (I'm not sure how he pulled that off). He found a couple of vacume leaks due to holes that aren't used on a single turbo conversion and plugged them otherwise everything checked out and I paid and was on my way. When he told me what I owed, I almost fell over. It was much lower than I expected to pay for his time and materials.

Plus Dave will let you watch him work and answer questions and go over the car with you while he is wrenching. Find another mechanic of his expertise that will do that......there aren't many.

Plus he is only about 40-45 minutes from me in PA

Prophet7000

I know people say "don't buy an FD in school" and "don't let an FD be your first wrenching experience". Me, I'm in school (and will be until I'm 30) and had very little practical car knowledge when I bought the FD. I think that if you're careful, think long and hard before you act modification wise, use the FSM, do all your regular maintenance/reliability mods, and soak up all the info you can on rx7club. . . you'll be fine. That's not to say the car isn't going to be down with issues here and there. That's absolutely going to happen. It may frustrate you more than anything you've ever had, but when she's running smoothly there's just nothing that can top it. Just take things nice and slow.

berfles

That's awesome, I was hoping maybe he would do that.

darthrotary

to add to list of tools, i add:
a used coffee can- for everytime you cuss at the car, put a dollar in it! watch how quickly it fills up to pay for parts you need!
when theyre down it hurts, but when they run it is heaven on earth!

spandy

iTrader: (1)

If you can afford to put 50-75 bucks a week away for repairs, and can start off with a good reliable set up and make it a year or two without any problems or just minor ones, and you aren't constantly upgrading and you do as much work on it yourself as possible, I would assume that this would be more than enough to keep the car on the road and up to date on the repairs and maintenance and have left over for some upgrading along the way.

In some cases this is not even close to enough, and others it is over kill...just depends on the cars condition to begin with and how well you take care of it on a day to day basis. It's 15 years old.....**** is going to break and many things that are working properly at the time, need replacing or will eventually. Don't get caught with 200 bucks in your pocket and a 7 that is falling apart....you will never be able to keep it on the road.


And as far as working on it yourself.....do what you can or feel confident in doing, and the rest take it to someone that knows what they are doing. Alot of the labor involved in working on certain aspects of the car is just nut and bolt turning....any monkey could do it and there is no sense in paying a mechanic 75+ an hour to wrench on your car for the little stuff. I was intimidated by something as simple as pulling my motor, and finally this last weekend I decided to grow some ***** and do it....******* simple as hell using rotaryresurrection's engine pull writeup, it was just a matter of getting in there and doing it. We'll see how the rest goes this weekend though as I think I'm getting to the point that I will require an experiance hand to work on certain things for me .

Twinnos

wow! probe to future FD owner. same here. i had a 95 ford probe: www.twinnos.com sold it and got an FD. i did a lot of research and soon as i got it i dumped about a grand into the engine getting maintenance reliability mods done, since i didnt know what the previous owner did. the car runs great. smoke comes out during start up, but thats natural from what i have heard. my last reliability mod before i put my greddy fmic kit in is a fan temp switch to help keep things cool

berfles

I don't plan on upgrading much at all at first. The only "upgrades" will be like Twinnos talked about, reliability upgrades. Performance will come once I know for sure that the car is reliable in stock form.