SAEJP

Hello everybody my name is JP, I am from San Diego CA! Just picked up a $600 rx7 from 1980 with a friend, we split the cost as we plan to turn it into a race car for CHUMP car and other series.

The car has been one amazement after another! we picked it up from an old widow who put 150,000 miles on it with her husband, had the motor rebuilt, then parked it for 20 years. The exterior is in great condition other than the paint which is just a rough semi-matte silver now. However in interior was very well kept! No tears in the headliner, seats weren't too bad, everything had been pretty well maintained and stayed safe during the two decades of sitting.

As we got the car off the trailer and into the shop I work at over here we were beginning to think, what have we gotten ourselves into, the coolant hoses were full of gunk, the fuel was now kerosene, wires had been eaten by some large marsupial, who had also at one point probably called the engine bay home. (It smelled pretty bad!)

Anyways changed all the fluids, did some re-wiring, put a battery in it, a little ATF into the rotor, and hand cranked it, at this point I was finally given hope that she would start, it cranked very smoothly with no resistance, rotor wasn't siezed everything felt amazing. Put the key in and all the electronics from 33 years earlier sprang to life, this put a huge smile on my face. Some carb cleaner and starter fluid and 30minutes later she finally cranked over.

Thanks for reading, I would really appreciate any suggestions or comments from people who have worked specifically with these cars before. Great to meet all of you and look forward to the future. I would like to make a build thread and go over the process of what we will be doing/have already done to this car to get it race ready so keep an eye out for it!