Duffman's 79 Spark Yellow Restoration Project
Ah the memories. In 1987 my best friend bought a bone stock Spark Yellow '79 RX7, original owner and paint. It was the first time I drove an RX7, we had a blast in that car. When we graduated from HS we drove from Oregon down 101 and PCH, camped at Pismo Beach and cruised Sepulveda Blvd in Cal and ran out of gas in Leguna Beach (gas gauge was inop, gas mileage was worse than ever stoplight racing and cruising).
I love good yellow cars and restored my own yellow RX7, see sig. Good luck on the project!
I love good yellow cars and restored my own yellow RX7, see sig. Good luck on the project!
Thread Starter
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 1,027
Likes: 5
From: Quinlan, TX
So I figure its time for an update for those of you who still remember this, lol.
The reason I haven't been updating is simple, I haven't touched the car. My FB decided it didn't wanna keep the coolant in the coolant passages and started filling the front housing. Here are a few pics and a vid to show ya what I've been up to.
You'll have to excuse the poor quality, kept forgetting my camera so the phone was all I had.
What killed the old motor:

What replaced it:

Assembled:

And in the car:

Short vid of the first 5 min of its life:
The reason I haven't been updating is simple, I haven't touched the car. My FB decided it didn't wanna keep the coolant in the coolant passages and started filling the front housing. Here are a few pics and a vid to show ya what I've been up to.

You'll have to excuse the poor quality, kept forgetting my camera so the phone was all I had.
What killed the old motor:

What replaced it:

Assembled:

And in the car:

Short vid of the first 5 min of its life:
Thread Starter
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 1,027
Likes: 5
From: Quinlan, TX
Oh crap. Your photo of the engine bay just reminded me I've got a fuel pump and regulator that came in almost a month ago at Autozone that I should really pick up this weekend. I wonder what I did with that receipt?
Thread Starter
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 1,027
Likes: 5
From: Quinlan, TX
Thread Starter
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 1,027
Likes: 5
From: Quinlan, TX
Could somebody post up a picture of their points distributor and or L/H side of their engine bay for me please? Getting started on replacing the engine harnes and I'm trying to identify some of these toasted wires. At some point mine got a later ignitor distributor.
Thanks guys.
Thanks guys.
duff I'll be in the garage 113% of the time this weekend getting 4000 and the GSL ready for WHiV if you still need any pics you can email me at 13x@sincityrotary.com it goes to the berry so can respond quick between 4000 and 1140 and a later 79 nearby I am sure we can get you what ever you need.
Thread Starter
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 1,027
Likes: 5
From: Quinlan, TX
duff I'll be in the garage 113% of the time this weekend getting 4000 and the GSL ready for WHiV if you still need any pics you can email me at 13x@sincityrotary.com it goes to the berry so can respond quick between 4000 and 1140 and a later 79 nearby I am sure we can get you what ever you need.

Gonna spend the weekend working on the harnesses, hoping I can repair the main harnes w/o pulling the whole thing. Don't really want to pull the rest of the dash out unless I have too. We'll see.
Thread Starter
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 1,027
Likes: 5
From: Quinlan, TX
sorry I didn't get those to you duff, 4k and the white have been converted from points the wires are there but don't look right and the early spark yellow is in the mist of a harness job.
I do apologize with WHiV this weekend it has been crazy over here.
ps: don't hesitate to hollar at me as well, getting old sucks lol
I do apologize with WHiV this weekend it has been crazy over here.
ps: don't hesitate to hollar at me as well, getting old sucks lol
Thread Starter
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 1,027
Likes: 5
From: Quinlan, TX
Been buying new suspension bits, have almost everything sans the rear brake componets. Got a large pile of things to be rezinced and rebuilt most of the engine bay harness. Got a running 12a to use till i can afford to rebuild the orginal though i still need the 'midpipe' from the header back to the mid section of exhaust, turns out thats a bastard to find. Nothing too spectacular yet hence the lack of updates, new job doesn't pay as well as the previous so progress isn't as fast as I had once hoped. Slowly but surely.
Been buying new suspension bits, have almost everything sans the rear brake componets. Got a large pile of things to be rezinced and rebuilt most of the engine bay harness. Got a running 12a to use till i can afford to rebuild the orginal though i still need the 'midpipe' from the header back to the mid section of exhaust, turns out thats a bastard to find. Nothing too spectacular yet hence the lack of updates, new job doesn't pay as well as the previous so progress isn't as fast as I had once hoped. Slowly but surely. 

Thread Starter
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 1,027
Likes: 5
From: Quinlan, TX
Thread Starter
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 1,027
Likes: 5
From: Quinlan, TX
Thread Starter
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 1,027
Likes: 5
From: Quinlan, TX
Duffman uses resurrection! It's SUPER EFFECTIVE!
So 3 jobs later and I finally make enough to spend some time, and money, on the ol' girl.
Today I worked on getting the dash and HVAC out of the car. The dash will probably be going to California to be stripped and recovered, I'm waiting on quote from Just Dashes. If anyone has used them post up your experience.
The dash:
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They say they can redo armrest too so I'm sending them pictures of them as well:

I got the blower motor out, all the HVAC ducting out, and was working on getting the heater core out when I found out a bunch of red wasp had taken up residence in two places on the hood and another inside of the bumper. After a short war, two nest were down, 4 wasp dead, but the one in the bumper remains. I'll deal with that next week.
Cleaned up all the ducting and literally poured sand out of the elbows, I'm sure the blower motor and heater core are probably full of it too. The mounting tabs were brittle and broke off all of the dash vents and the defrost vents as soon at the screw turned, maybe I can glue them back together.
[IMG]
[/IMG]
Not much progress I know but it feels good to be working on her again. I'm gonna try to post an update every Saturday
So 3 jobs later and I finally make enough to spend some time, and money, on the ol' girl.
Today I worked on getting the dash and HVAC out of the car. The dash will probably be going to California to be stripped and recovered, I'm waiting on quote from Just Dashes. If anyone has used them post up your experience.
The dash:
[IMG]
[/IMG][IMG]
[/IMG][IMG]
[/IMG][IMG]
[/IMG]They say they can redo armrest too so I'm sending them pictures of them as well:

I got the blower motor out, all the HVAC ducting out, and was working on getting the heater core out when I found out a bunch of red wasp had taken up residence in two places on the hood and another inside of the bumper. After a short war, two nest were down, 4 wasp dead, but the one in the bumper remains. I'll deal with that next week.
Cleaned up all the ducting and literally poured sand out of the elbows, I'm sure the blower motor and heater core are probably full of it too. The mounting tabs were brittle and broke off all of the dash vents and the defrost vents as soon at the screw turned, maybe I can glue them back together.
[IMG]
[/IMG]Not much progress I know but it feels good to be working on her again. I'm gonna try to post an update every Saturday



