My rescue RX7, and its cont. build
 

Here's the story:

Just picked up my 1995 3000gt VR4, had all these big plans with it. Cut a long story short none of that happened because of my new favorite place to hide money.

It all started on craigslist one day, probably bored at work or something along those lines. I was looking at RX7's because well, i'd wanted one forever. Came across a few of the normal ad's that have been up, and then there was mine. I wish i would have saved the ad because i knew that there was no way it was not a scam. So knowing it was a scam, i emailed and set up an appointment. Kind of thinking i was going to get raped or something, ya never know.

Show up to the house and there she is. A 1993 Vintage Red brown, (brown for dirt) R1 RX7. Dirty as all hell and sitting out in the open. The lady was kind of an interesting breed (meth addict im pretty sure :D ) but oh well, made it easier to bargain with her especially because she knew nothing about the car. She assured me it had been rebuild about 50,000 miles ago and some other stuff which i didnt listen too all that much.

After a little hesitation i told her i would buy it if i could get it to turn over. She agreed. That day I started working on it in her driveway, got some new spark plugs, and got the engine to start.

She made me promise her that she could drive it again once I had it fixed up. I nodded said sure, and looked at my friend shaking my head with the F*CK no expression.

Had her sign the title over and i got the hell out of there as fast as i could, which wasn't very fast since the engine was running very poorly.

Here's the night i got it (after a car wash, i wouldn't shame the forums by showing you guys what she looked like at first). Don't mind the kid in the car, he was a little excited i let him ride with me lol

Couple things I hope to bring some joy to people on the forum.

1) The muffler on this thing goes from the 2.5 inch exhaust pipe, to a 1 inch muffler inlet. Someone probably cut that PoS off of a 1985 camry
2)The green scooter .... lol its a scooter not much more to say

The maintinance and Build begins
 

Started getting ideas about what it would need, i did a bit of an inspection and found that it was pretty moist on the inside, which had led to some small surface rust that just wiped off. Except in the hatch, where the spare tire was sitting.

Took about 2 hours to grind the whole thing out and another hour to spray it down with rustoleum but got it looking good. Well better than rusty that's for sure.

The other major thing that realllllly bothered me was the 8 holes in the back of the car where the spoiler was supposed to go, but had been ripped off by someone previously. They had duct tape over them. So i found a spoiler on the forums, got it painted, and put it on the car simply to ease my mind. And trust me it did.

The spare tire cover had been destroyed, so i had to find the fabric for it, learn how to sew, and made a replacement, that actually ended up lookin pretty good. I will have to get some pictures of that. My camera died so i can't right now.

Next thing was to take out the seats and clean under them, which was fun. Found some gross mold under there but now she's lookin really pretty.

Just need a front lip, and a little touch up on the detailing, plus cleaning the wheels. Then she's ready to start getting built.

Finally started picking up performance parts for it.

Started with a 3'' M2 Stainless down pipe to be put on with the 3" exhaust, minus the cat since i am yet to remove the air pump. But thats on the to do list.

Next was a Koyo aluminum radiator. Mainly because the stock one wouldnt hold coolant :D Plus some new OEM hoses, since It wont be hot enough anytime soon to make the racing or upgraded hoses worth it.

Then i went ahead and got the Power FC + Commander, since i figured why not get it now i found a good deal.

A couple Greddy gauges, the 52mm white ones with green background, they looked cool. Temp and oil Pressure. Two pretty important ones so i've read :D

I need to get rid of that damn Muffler, still am yet to get it in place so i picked up a Blitz Nur spec muffler just because i've always loved the look and the sound is great :)

Will have pictures up this weekend, my stupid camera is broken and My phone camera is garbage!

Would it be terribly rude of me to ask how much you picked it up for?

I don't give a shit lol got it for 6800. Came with the engine not running well, but compression is good and now she's running pretty good again.

Will be getting some better pictures up as soon as it is a bit less rainy around here. Considering it's seattle though, it might be a little while.

Good stuff man, I recently picked up a rescue Red 93 R1 as well. Mine is wayyy far worse than yours though. Hoping to get it done by end of this summer, I have a deployment in the middle of restoring it but still hoping to get it done. Keep up the good work man.

Thanks a lot. I wish i had pictures of when i first got it! Had to do some grinding, i'll just leave it at that lol

Good luck on your build keep me updated on what you do and if you have any questions etc let me know. My knowledge on random things tends to be better than the common ones :D

Don't forget to be safe where ever you're going to get deployed

Got Volk Kuwagata's from a fellow forum member today, put them on with some brand new tires. Looks sexy.

To do list:

- Air pump delete kit, install
- Weld or fit on both BoV's
- Get a deck that isnt trash (the one i have is from kmart i swear)
- Replace front windshield, and remount rear windshield.
- Fix the half ass mount job on the Front/Rear Emblems.
- Replace locking mechanism on my gas door

Forgot the picture :D

http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/a...g/IMAG0263.jpg

I thought that gas station looked familiar. Nice to see another FD enthusiast in Seattle. I gotta ask though, I've been browsing craigslist for 2 months now looking at FD's, and I have never seen this one (or any FD below 9k for that matter). Did you pick it up before that? I'm probably being kinda nosy, but I'm kicking myself right now for missing this one haha.

Anyway that's a super clean FD man, gonna be a nice build!

I found it probably 8 weeks ago or right around there. I actually stumbles upon it in the auto parts section. It was mislabeled. Which I think was most likely the main reason I even had a shot at getting it lol

It will be a fun build hopefully, just gotta set a goal and stop when I get there otherwise k don't think I will be able to stop spending money lol

The part about finding mold and surface rust seems a bit odd - most Seattle cars have no rust at all, not even surface rust (unless we're talking about the under body or battery tray area). Sounds as if the car was neglected and left outside in the rain, which makes sense because you said when you found it it wasn't running. Thus I would definitely check the hoses and make sure they're all tight and not leaking. Hoses exposed to the elements atrophy way faster than hoses on a car that's parked in the garage.

Also, random question, how clean is the underbody?

Underbody is pretty clean actually. I had all the hoses replaced, due to the fact that it was left outside. The rust is from a leaky hatch. Had the spoiler holes open, and the rear windshield was not sealed properly. One of the radiator hoses went to shit, so i got a new radiator and installed it, and now the car stays cool as ice. Considering its usually about 45 and cloudy here though, its not like its combating the weather to stay cold :D

Picked up some new stuff yesterday, although it wasn't on my to do list, i'm glad i did it.

1) Got a new head unit to suit my listening needs. Its one of the dvd ones so i had the guy put a bypass button on my drivers side so movies can go while the e brake is off lol
2) Wired my sub/amp to the back, and made it look all pretty
3) Also installed push to start on the fog light button, more of a security thing than anything else, but its pretty cool to have a botton that starts your car instead of twisting the key lol

I'll get pictures up tonight.

Selling it already? What happened?

I may have too, I'm selling all my stuff. Hopefully the 7 gets to stay. Unfortunately I have to get the money ASAP. So I am just gonna keep the car that doesn't sell.
What happened is my business has been in a really slow patch, andi have to figure out a way to keep paying the lease and my last two quarters in school. Its very sad I am hoping I get to keep it but we will see. If I had any other way of keeping her I would do it. But right now I don't see a way :'(

That sucks man. Well if you do end up selling it I hope you at least spin a profit, shouldn't be too hard given the price you got it for haha. I can see people buying it for 13k or more

Yeah that would be nice. I'm like 15k into it So that's what I'm tryin to get out of it haha figured I'll price it high, so that when someone tried to negotiate it down ill be in my price range lol

I think you got a good deal I have seen rollers going for 8k and you at least got a motor and trans