Bentheretoo

Greetings!

I am a long time lurker of this forum, but haven't posted much in a long time. I had a black '89 TII Vert back in high school in Okinawa (Kadena AB, for those interested), but sold it when we moved back Stateside. I've been pining for another rotary ever since. My wife has always believed that having a unique car is way more fun. She wanted to get a Fiat 500, but since the sticker price is a little outside of our desired budget I was able to convince her that an FC could be fun too. I just had to promise to show her how to work on it any time she wants. Yeah, I'm that lucky! :3

We picked up a red '87 GXL at the end of October, with the intention of getting a vehicle for our weekend trips to the mountains (we live downtown and both work within walking distance, so “daily driver” isn't entirely applicable). We found this little bundle of joy on Craigslist right after the listing had received a $500 price drop from a fellow in need of some quick cash. I guess something happened involving him, his gf, and the police. Court or jail or some similar sort of fees needed to be payed. Obviously I'm not too clear on the situation. A test drive and a good look all over with a checklist I had put together from a few “How to Buy a Used RX-7” guides including from Aaron Cake's site and we quickly settled on a price. A day or two later and she was ours!

Belts are all fresh and all the fluid (oil, coolant, PS, etc) looks good. P/O claimed to have had everything changed when he bought it from a used car dealer in New York Spring 2013 (about 2400 miles ago, before his move this direction), but I doubt that included transmission fluid. He also just gave her some new brakes. She's had a few issues from the get go, but as I'm sure we all know, those are really just personality quirks The running lights were spray painted over (?!?!) along with the headlight covers and the wheels (._.). That seems like a good idea... The driver's side exterior door handle doesn't work, which is a common enough problem. The AC belt is off, but the P/O says it just needs that and a recharge. Looks like the first owner (bought new in 1987 through 2012, apparently) had it converted to R134 back in 2007, according to a sticker under the hood. The passenger's side window worked when we test drove it, but on the way to the DMV it had died. Odd, but it would still move if the driver pulled his switch, so w/e.

So I pulled both door panels and found that the passenger side window switch was fine, but the driver's side switch had a bunch of scorch marks on the contacts! Cleaned those bad boys up and found now neither window worked! And it was getting cold enough that my jacket wasn't cutting it any more. I drove to a parts store with both windows down (I was trying to get a look at the door handle situation). Got a volt meter dealio and got odd results. Started hunting for the fuse box (why didn't I do this first?) and there was a blown power window fuse! Joy! Popped a new 30A and both windows got moving! All the other fuses look peachy keen, too.

Ok, now back to that door handle. That's a pain to pull out of there, let me tell you! But I finally got it off and it had the same failed bit everyone with an FC has seen or heard of. Something tells me I should invest in a drill... Anyway, I got a little length of metal and will be cutting, drilling, gluing and maybe even bolting it to try and reattached all my handle bits. In the mean time I took some measurements and bolted it back into my car so that nobody could just reach in and get into my car (I know, if someone I motivated enough I'm sure they'd have no problem, but still). I buttoned everything up and that was that. I even got started wiping down the engine, just to start getting used to how it's laid out. Having had a stock TII, the N/A engine bay looks pretty empty! It also has been a lot cooler when I pop the hood after driving. I guess that makes sense :P I took Seven (as in Seven of Nine, from Voyager. That was the wife's suggestion! :O She wants me to make a shifter **** from a diecast Borg Sphere. I love my nerd!) on a run up into the mountains and she hardly warmed up at all :3 Considering heat was the biggest issue in my old FC, this continues to amaze me :P

Ok, that's not entirely accurate. The biggest issue was the awful transmission, followed by a lame alternator and a useless AFM. But after those...

Anyway, I'll be keeping track of my progress here. First I want to clean/update what I can, then we may make some modest upgrades and take her to some SCCA Solo events, depending on how much my wife enjoys driving her (she needs to learn stick first...).

Thanks for looking. Any suggestions are appreciated

Edit: Yep, I carefully censored my license plate, then posted another, newer pic with it clearly visible. yay me!

vipers

iTrader: (8)

good luck with the project!! NA transmissions are crap! i went through a few of those! lol.

and i never really understood the reasoning as to why to blur a plate... everyone can see it when you're driving.. so whats the difference.. lol. ive never blurred my plates

Bentheretoo

Huh, good point. I just figured there must be a reason that so many people do block it out...and now I feel like a sheep :P