Major Restoration Effort. 85 S
 

A customer dropped her once beloved 85 RX-7 off to me to have a full restoration done on the car. She said that she bought the car with very low miles as a lease turn in back in 1987. She drove it and parked it after a light tap on the right rear caused intermittent running issues. She had been taking parts off of this car to keep her current 85 GS on the road. She decided it was time to bring this car back to life and chose me to perform the much needed work. I will document the progress as this car unfolds to a car that is ready for service once again. Most people would part this one out, but this will go to show you that they are all worth saving. Here are some pics of the car:

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She's a late build, June of 85:

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Jealous! i would love to be restoring a 1st gen.

that one looks like a good candidate too, its complete, and seems mostly to be decent.

what is the time frame on the build?

With the new floor sections that will have to go in and the rust repair I quoted her 6-8 months on the restoration. I work 12 hours a day and I have four kids and a wife so I can't devote all of my free time to the project. Tanya understood and said that she will be happy to wait as long as it takes. The car has been sitting over 10 years. The engine actually spins freely... Compression is very little unfortunately.

Should be a fun project and will be a nice car when finished.

DUDE!!! I want your center caps!! Dibs.

That is if she is going with aftermarket wheels... Push the aftermarket wheels please. :D

Sweet I love hardtop cars

Sorry Qingdao, this is going to be a factory restoration, so no aftermarket wheels lol. And on the center caps..Its missing one so I will need to locate one from an 84-85 S model. Probably one of the tougher parts that I am going to need to find.

She absolutely picked the right guy for the job. Your attention to detail and knowledge of how these things are supposed to be put together will def give her a car that will be roadworthy and nostalgic all at the same time. I will follow this thread closely as I am a major fan of 85's. Good luck with the build!

I'm not worthy.... I can't imagine doing this for anyone else, let alone in 6 to 8 months. While working 12 hours a day. With a wife. And 4 kids. I'd soon be single, lose my two car garage and I'd be sleeping in a hulk of an RX-7 body somewhere on the streets! :lol:

I agree completely!

Looking forward to seeing how the build goes, especially the rust repair so I can compare it to mine (a natural male thing to do) and see how the rebuild part goes.

Im all in to watch this rx get brought back to life in great shape but im jelly of the color I would love to have it anything but brown. Haha

I appreciate the compliments guys! I'm really going to try and save this car and bring it back to is former glory. The rust is going to be the most challenging part as a section of the unibody is missing from rust. I have another shell from an 85 GSL that I believe has good floor sections that I can use. The first thing that needs to be done is making the car able to roll around freely. The brakes are locked up and all of the tires are flat. Brakes will be done first and I plan on swapping another set of wheels onto the car that have good tires. This will help me roll the car and will allow me to restore the steel wheels.

Was cleaning the interior out today and located the fourth center cap. Its a shame that it has broken clips on the inside. Not much gained there I guess:

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I like the copper colored center:

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I vacuumed the interior and engine bay and fixed the hood latch. I also emptied the crap out of the hatch area and reset the carpet and mat. I will be sure to take more pictures tomorrow. Will hopefully get some good wheels and tires on the thing tomorrow.

Looks good! For sure in need of TLC.

Are those the factory centercaps that would have came with the base model wheels?

Any idea on availability of them? I am wondering if they would fit on my Cheviot Hotwires...

Yes, they are the factory center caps/ Only available with the steel wheels on the base model. Scarce as hens teeth.

Subscribing, will be a fun build to watch. Do you like viewing the forum with reversed colors like that?Does it help eye fatigue at all? I'm really feeling it right now in my eye sockets...

I have always used the dark setting. Its easier for me to read and to see pictures clearly. Try it, you may like it. I've used the dark setting since i registered in 2003.

Damn that's a mess, looks like something I'd restore LOL. You gonna try your hand at body work or is someone else doing the door and quarter panel repair? I'll be watching this :)

I'll take a look, I might have some of the steel center caps from my S still, I'll let you know.

Center cap for steel wheel available. Check it out!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1979-1985-MAZDA-RX7-FACTORY-OEM-WHEEL-CENTER-CAP-STEEL-WHEEL-/151235987151?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item23365e06cf&vxp=mtr

I appreciate the link, however upon further inspection, two of the mounting clips are broken on that center cap. Very similar to the one I found inside of the car.

Not much in the way of progress as of yet. I have the engine's internals soaking in some MMO trying to loosen and lubricate the seals. We'll see what happens.

I embarked on a very similar project back in July. My car is an '84 GS - silver with burgundy interior. It sat outside for 20 years in Connecticut, so it also needs some love to bring it back. I'm my own customer, so there isn't much urgency here.

One thing I have to fix is the smell. If yours is like mine, it has a musky old car odor that really needs to go. I plan to use a carpet cleaning machine on it when it gets warmer. Any other suggestions?

I would pull the carpet and steam clean it. Check the padding underneath for saturation from water or animal urine. If you don't want to pull the dash out to remove the front carpet section you can just peel the carpet back enough to access the padding. But, I would pull out as much as you can and clean it it properly and clean the metal underneath. You'd be surprised how much smell can come form some nasty liquid under the carpet.

Here are a couple pics of the car after I swept it out and fixed the hood latch. Wheels are next:

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This thing has GOT TO GO:

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