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First, thanks to all of the write ups and projects on here. I have been perusing the site since I picked up my Rx7 learning what has worked and what has not.
I came to owning an RX7 last August. I wasn’t really in the market to buy a car, but always looking for a good project. Have bought, sold, repaired and restored several motorcycles over the past couple years – made a few bucks, had fun and was able to ride several different makes and models. The Rx7 was owned by a friend and had been sitting in their garage since 2003 or so (year last inspected in NYS). It is a 1985 with all of 38,000 miles on the clock. One owner vehicle and always covered and kept in the garage. I found more spider webs and spider egg sacs than I ever though was imaginable under this car, but once vacuumed all was good. The original factory undercoating was flaking in areas, but the frame from what I can see is clean and rust free.
I towed the car home with my truck. There was no battery in the car, so I wasn’t sure if it ran or not. Figured with the price I paid, I could always sell for parts and get my $$$ back out of it. The clutch went right to the floor, figured no big deal. Tires obviously had dry rot, but who would use the 20 year old tires anyway.
To date I have:
Installed a new battery after the first few days of owning it – turned the key, just to see if it would turn over, ended up starting right up. Ran a little rough, but smoothed out and idled well. I turned it off then went through the list below …
New front brake calipers, pads, rotors, new flexible brake lines to the calipers, and new master cylinder
New Rear brake shoes
New brake master cylinder
Pumped out the old fuel, scoped the fuel tank and it looked relatively clean. Installed a new fuel filter, a short side fuel line, and filled it with non-ethanol fuel.
New clutch slave cylinder
New clutch master cylinder
New clutch lines between master cylinder and slave cylinder
New thermostat
New upper and lower radiator hoses
Removed and painted the front under engine tray
Replaced the oil pan gasket (Oil change obviously)
Coolant change
Replaced the spark plugs and plug wires
New tires
Sanded and clear coated the wheels due to the oxidation that existed. Cleaned up pretty nice.
Then I got into quite a bit of cleaning and waxing.
Day i brought it home Interior didnt even need armorall Seats look like new Wheels had sone oxidation
Sanded and cleared the wheels Finished project - still need to address headlights. Did the fusable link mod, but need to dive deeper. She can still shine.
Took it for a ride yesterday after the coolant change and all appears to be good. Stalled a few times when starting out, but appears to slowly be getting better. I plan to get it inspected Friday and see where that takes me. Not sure what I am going to do yet. Probably drive it for a while this year and decide to either keep it or let it go to make room for the next project….
Last edited by Savage99; Apr 29, 2021 at 05:26 AM.
You've done an awesome job on the car this far! It looks to be in great condition overall and with 38k miles, it will last darn near forever if you maintain it properly. The car appears to be an S model given the lack of power mirrors. Good to see it has the aluminum wheels. Does it have A.C.?
The needles on the gauges are still mostly orange and have not yellowed. This is a sign that the car has been stored indoors. So you were no misled in any way that it was stored for so long. Would definitely love to see more pictures of the car!
Thank you and yes the car has AC. The previous owner bought it as a graduation gift to herself from college. Drove it for a while as a summer only vehicle. Had twins about 18 years ago and stopped driving it. It sat in her garage with a cover on it for all these years. According to her husband, they did go out and start it every year and let it run for a while. The interior looks like brand new. The exterior has some dings and isn't perfect by any means, but after cleaning and polishing, it looks fairly decent. Under the hood will definitely need some attention, but all in all the car is a solid 7.5 out of 10. I will get some more pics posted up soon. Thanks!
Last edited by Savage99; Apr 29, 2021 at 11:20 AM.
Good to hear that it has A.C. to go with the aluminum wheels. The S model would not have had those as standard. They were both optional on the S. The color combo is very uncommon. I've had several black FB's and only one with a gray interior. The rest were maroon.
The car seems to have great history and the condition overall is absolutely fantastic. You just don't see them that nice very often. Did the previous owner include any paperwork or the original window sticker?
That's really cool to see not only the original window sticker but a copy of the original bill of laden! I've been collecting and restoring RX-7's for 22 years and I have never seen a copy of the original bill of laden! Super cool to have that! Its also very cool to ha e the Finish Line catalog from 85 as well. Thise are hard to come by!
17-23mpg seems optimistic for my stock 85 GS! I know they measured consumption differently back then, but still! Maybe I'm just too addicted to redline...
