Hi, so I've typically been a Subaru guy, but a couple years ago I picked up a cheap RX8 Shinka. Recently just swapped out the engine and fell in love with the noise it makes.

Anyway, been looking out for a project Rx-7, and one popped up for $1200 locally. Just got her towed yesterday. She's scruffy but seems pretty complete. Looking forward to getting her going again.

Details:

• Car fox says 258,000 miles, LOLOLOL, 100,000 more than the odo,
• No idea about the engine, other than it turns over but won't start,
• Exterior is pretty straight overall aside from dings on both front quarters,
• Missing door protectors
• Front lower bumper is pretty messed up,
• Riding on z wheels, but I have a set of clean stock FC wheels, and a rough set of black rattle-canned vert BBS wheels,
• Hood appears to be made of lead and will be the first thing off the car,
• Interior is ragged and needs a lot of love,
• A good part of it is loose and tossed in the back, hopefully including door sill trims, original radio etc.

Pictures


Looks complete


Manual windows


Cracks and breakages


Interior trim


Pretty dirty but dry and bug-free - maybe a few ants running around


After a quick wipe down - hood was up so still filthy

Car will be a project with my 9 y/o who's showing some interest in cars. plenty of cleaning and interior work, as well as getting the 13B running again.

 

Picked up some wheels:

BBS!!!!!! No centers sadly ;( But not complaining for the price.


Clean stockers, 87 so matches car!

 

Rainy Saturday. Pottering about on a few car things:

• Oiled door hinges, handles, lock mechanisms,
• Oiled hood and hatch latches,
• PB blasted all fasteners in the engine bay, plus all electrical,
• Wiped down all corroded metal on window and windshield surrounds,
• Plugged in desulphated and charged battery.

Quick update: the car is a Sport model:

• T2 brakes and suspension, 4 pot calipers.
• Non-tilt steering wheel,
• Spoiler
• Aero kit
• Fancy seats

Super cool. Couple of pics after doing some vacuuming:

 

Looks like a good start to a big project!

Good luck Matey!

 

welcome to the board.

looks like it's seen better days, but altogether, it looks like a pretty solid base. i like it. it's one of my favorite OEM colors.

i can't wait to see what you do with it.

 

Thanks for the good wishes.
Nate Rist had a few suggestions for me on the engine, 4 port irons and Rx-8 rotors. I'd like this Rx-7 to pack a bit of a punch.

I didn't get much today as I watched the Grand Prix then spent a bunch of time derusting my Rx-8 brake rotors. Car sat since since 2014 to 2021, so the rotors were pretty bad, and brakes a bit juddery unless used really gently.
I also found that my clutch pedal bracket has cracked and will need to be replaced. And I also need to get it registered. Riding about on a 30 day permit for now. Great car though.

I had meant to compression test the 13b in the Rx-7. It does crank over at least. No tinkly noises! I ordered a few things for the car: sunvisors, and some less cracked taillights. My next few posts, I'll be compression testing the engine, and going through and cleaning what trim I do have, including doing my best to clean and recondition the seats, and fix the front quarters dents.

Wanted: I do want an OEM aluminum hood. Color no problem, though blue or whilte would work best. NA preferred. Interior trim also needed. Dash pieces, center console, etc. I have the carpet and storage bins, and most of the pillar plastics.

Couple of pics:


Rotary twins.



Love this interior. Cleanest $1200 car ever.

 

This came out a bit nicer. I emptied a can of Bissell PRO Oxy Power Shot into it, then came back and went over everything with 1/4 cup baking soda into 1 cup hot water. Then washed the baking soda off with a microfibre and a bucket of clean water.


Passenger seat before.


Pretty choice stains.


Not dry yet, but a lot cleaner!

 

Did some work with my daughter, pulling out the driver's seat and cleaning it.



Unbolting driver seat


Vacuuming dirt


Scrubbed driver seat parts

 

Well, I can hardly say I wasn't warned, but the dash on the car is so bad that I really had to suck it up and pull it. The plan is to clean it up as much as possible, then repair as necessary with fiberglass, then cover in blue Alcantara, or whatever cheap knock-off will work.

I also need to pull the carpet, in order to clean it up properly.

After a couple or hours or so of disassembly and wrestling with stiff connectors, and many (further) splintered bits of 'plastic' this was the result:



Dash filth


Overall filth


Driver side filth


Passenger side filth


Carpet filth

Thanks to my lovely wife for helping me pull the dash out.

 

Looking a bit better. Lots to do, but the worst part is starting to look better!

Wow, there was some color under the filth.



Running the hose took out a bunch more of the ingrained dirt.

 

A cheap electric pressure washer would work wonders on that carpet. They come in handy for lots of things.

 

Wow, your moving fast. Let us know how your dash refurbish goes. Mine is just like yours and I don;t have a clue what to do.

 

Excellent work thus far!! You're doing a great job and its awesome to see the amount of love and attention you are giving the car! Well done sir!

 

Thanks for the kind words. I definitely want to do something reasonable with the interior.
Thanks for the note on the pressure washer. My wife has been 'pressuring' me to get one for a while to clean windows etc.
So, one nice thing about this project is there's always something small I can accomplish. So up next is some cleaning on the shell, then reconstructing some of the broken trim, then some glassfiber and Alcantara wrapping. Need to remove all the bad tint also.
Bride fabric is in hand. I have a bunch of Alcantara samples coming, a momo corse wheel coming from Thailand, and a generic cf shift **** that should work out pretty good.

 

Did some more work on some small things, and tidying up the garage.



Cleaned up the windshield trim - razer blade and some sandpaper


Useful when fitting the S5 tails


S5 tail in place


Primer on the window trim


Pile o trim


Pile o trim


Going with the darkest blue - Navy Blue - on the Alcantara


Dash and pile o trim


Pile o carpet


Pile o trim


Pile o trim


Rotor themed soft furnishings

 

A bunch of work to do on the interior, but the real meat is pulling the engine and seeing what needs to be done for the rebuild. To that end, I read the faq a few times, then just started into it. This is after a couple of hours, somewhat assisted by my smallest child.



Intake piping, undertray, radiator out. Casualties - one undertray bolt.

 

I was lucky there. While all the stuff in the engine bay and exterior engine parts were still old and nasty the actual main part was rebuilt a few hundred miles ago. Was kinda lame to get an engine rebuilt but bolt on all the old worn out stuff.

 

Pulling the engine isn't too big a deal on its own, but since you need to pull the upper intake to get the harness off it's very time consuming. Luckily you have a helper!

Also, be careful when pulling it not to crunch the headlines on the steering rack (mine aren't leaky but they're pretty banged up).

Really interested to see how the interior turns out after the alcantara.

 

Yeah, I'm planning to clean up what goes back as best I can, with an emissions delete, as pre-96 cars here in Texas are exempt from emissions. Just a safety inspection is required.

 

Yeah, I swapped my Rx-8, so not too worried. Just taking it carefully. What are the 'headlines'?
And yeah, the Alcantara ... It's a bit scary to me, but couldn't be worse than before, unless I really mess up. I will keep trying. Nothing saying I have to have the interior done, before I put the engine back in!

 

The "headlines" are a typo on my part, I meant to type "hardlines".

There are steel lines that run from the passenger side of the steering rack to the spot where the soft lines from the pump connect. These lines can be damaged if the engine swings into them when removing it.

 

Doing some clean up on the 'interior'. Here's the p/s tint, yuk, and the d/s window after cleanup. Much better.
Just used a steamer and a razor blade.


Horrible tint.


After cleanup on driver side.


Better on outside too.

 

Thanks, makes sense. I was thinking about a power steering delete anyway, so I could remove the power steering pump. It's not a heavy car.

 

Made some serious progress on prepping the engine for removal. Power steering pump, A/c pump, alternator, air pump are all off. Inlet manifold is just held by some vacuum lines, then should come straight off. There was nothing in the a/c system, so felt able to remove it.
Not too much to note, aside from a major oil leak around the OMP. Planning to delete this, and just premix with 2 stroke oil, Idemitsu etc. Vacuum lines totally hard and in the main just fell off their nipples.
I also worked a bit on the tint removal, and with windex and some black bags, the tint cam off the back window pretty easily.



Keg, there's a keg.


Tint removed.

 

I currently have depowered steering (haven't driven the car yet) and it's fairly stiff when stationary. I imagine it's really only an issue when parallel parking though.

A true manual rack would be easier on the arms but you lose the 15:1 ratio and end up with a 20:1 ratio.