It's my first day!!
(always feels so fun joining a new forum)

Happy to be here.

Just bought my first RX7

1980 model LS

She's incredibly worse for wear. I plan on restoring her to the best of my abilities

I cannot believe someone actually painted over the original black paint. AND THE GOLD RIMS!!!



Her interior is certainly painful to look at but I plan on doing her justice!!

 

You're off to a great start, posting pictures with your intro.

What are you first plans for the car?

 

I always try to make a good first impression when moving into a new forum

This will be a personal project, planning on keeping her

She nearly went to the big scrap yard in the sky before I scooped her up

Order of operations for this little guy
1.) solve my carburetor troubles (car runs but is having some weird problems)
2.) completely rebuild the suspension and steering components (it is awful down there. Many of the bushings are non existent with metal on metal contact.
3.) new tires, brakes ect.
4.) full interior restore.
5.) full sanding, body filler, rust hole repair and a shiny new paint job!!!

I've actually nearly fully restored a couple 80 model Chevy C-10s

Sad to see there's not quite the same aftermarket/reproduction market as the C-10s

 

Congrats, it does appear to be heavily altered and missing quite a few of its LS specific parts. They did make non-LS's in Brilliant black in 80 also. What tells you its an actual LS?

 

You know. Other than the fact she has the LS badges and brown interior I'm not 100% positive that it is. I hadn't thought of the possibility that someone would dress up a normal one to be an LS

Are the LS models desirable?

With the basic information I went off. Everything seems to point to it being an LS. The gold waffle wheels. The LS badges. The black paint. brown interior. (The carpet in the photo is some cheap stuff someone threw in and hacked to pieces to get it to fit. Bur near the rear hatch there's a section of the original carpet still intact. And it's brown) Interior door panels also appear to match the LS interiors. Seatbelts are brown as well.

A lot of the interior panels are spray painted black and are flaking off. But the upper pillar trim panels are original.

The one big thing that stands out to me is the seats not being the original brown leather. (Entirely possible they were replaced at some point? )

 

Welcome to the forum! As a fellow 80 LS owner, I believe you have a true LS. What is the build date on the car? Look at the spare tire and see if it has the original Solar Gold painted wheel. Most people forget that its there and its sometimes untouched. I'm glad to hear you are going to restore the car. They are pretty rare these days and deserve to be restored. Only 2500 Leather Sport's were produced in 1980. Please feel free to reach out should you have any questions about the car or specific features of the car. Here's my 80 LS:

 

Welcome to forum

 

She's beautiful!

The My spare is gold! completely untouched (thank God)

May I see a close up of your interior center console / shifter and stereo console?

my interior trim has been painted black

I'm unsure what the build date of the car is, how can I check

 

Check the sticker in the door sill, drivers side. That should have the manufacturing data, including VIN and build date.

 

Here are a couple of older pictures of the interior of my first LS that I have. My car is under a cover in the garage and it has some Corvette carpeting on it. Plus my stereo is aftermarket and my first LS was completely original. The close up picture is not of my car's stereo but will give you an idea of what was there originally.







I also have the original spare with the original Bridgestone Steel Belted 70 tire on it:

 

And here is the original window sticker and manuals that came with my car when it was new. I have every receipt and paper from day one. I was blessed to get the car from the original owner. You may get lucky and have all of these or even some in your car:

 

It's not that uncommon to see non original badges to show up on other cars. Not saying thats the case here, but you shouldn't always trust a badge. The LS package was mostly a cosmetic one. It's believed that 1000 were produced in Black and yes, that would make them worth a little more to a serious collector. Unfortunately, in the cars current condition, with most all of its unique, identifiable parts not present, its value would take a huge hit.

The positive things are it has the correct style of seats (even though they don't have the original covers) the B pillar badges and the gold spare waffle. Those are pretty strong indicators that is is a genuine LS. The other identifiers would be the original stereo system, brown leather wrapped steering wheel and shift ****. They were also the first import Rx-7's to have remote mirrors controlled by 2 joy sticks on the lower left of the dash. Daves interior pic shows them.



To bring your car back to original would be a huge undertaking as many of these special parts are very hard to find. Nothing is impossible but realistically this would be more expensive than finding a nice car with all its parts already there and in good condition. It would be more feasible to bring it back as a nice standard GS car. Even trying to replicate an original 1980 car requires a few "one year only" parts.

 

This is all really interesting. I'm away from home at the moment (truck driver) so I haven't had time to get photos of the info plate.

I can say however that it has the remote control mirrors. Sadly both joysticks are ripped off. And laying in the passenger foot well. present but broken. the mirrors have the wires going to them as I inspected one.

I'm starting to really question weather it's actually an LS now that you mentioned it. The shifter isn't leather wrapped. And I don't recall if the steering wheel is. I do know it's black. But I can't recall anything else. The center console has had everything removed. Including the radio housing. Which looks like someone took a hacksaw to it trying to cut a square out (presumably for a newer radio)


Shifter **** is plastic ... And was loose when I first got it. As if it had been removed at some point

The wheel is simple black leather / hide of some kind


Until I can get home to get a photo of the build plate I'm thinking it might just be dressed up.

Undoubtedly it began it's life black as black paint can be seen under the badges and behind where the license plate goes. With brown interior. The original carpet still exists in a tiny scrap stuck under one of the trim panels where it was cut with a razer knife.

Perhaps someone tried to increase the value. I'll report back with more once I get home

 

As far as restoring a car way past its stage of redemption I want to say you're probably right.. though I still love a good underdog story...

I've already pulled my hair out just looking for those mirror joy stick modules. I literally cannot find one. I found one that was non functioning on eBay for $187 didn't feel like burning that kind of cash for a non working piece. My plan was to just get a later year model and fabricate a spot for it. Which isn't ideal but realistic.

If it ends up NOT being an LS. Ill remove the badges.

Ironically I'm kind of hoping it's not because I wanted to paint it gloss red before I found out it might be an LS

I saved an 82 quare body farm truck from the scrap yard and really turned it around before I sold it. (Needed the money for schooling)


Day one of ownership (1982 Chevy c-10)



After several months of restoration work...photo taken before I replaced the door cards... Even managed to find the correct radio and everything for it.

Even added a cheeky seat heater and hidden switch for it

Got the air conditioning working. Whole nine yards!

 

If it has the power mirrors, its a Leather Sport. No other SA other than the LS had power mirrors in the U.S. The Solar Gold painted spare is another huge indicator. It will have a Bridgestone Steel Belted 70 raised white letter tire mounted on it. The LS badges are extremely hard to come by and it would be senseless to have mounted them to the B-pillar, as it would not have added much value to a car that had already been modified by painting the body, wheels, and interior. The seat shape is correct for the LS is corfect as well. It appears they were recovered at some point, but the separate headrest is a very good indicator of the original LS seats. The base seats did not have a separate head rest and leather seats were not available in any other RX-7 in 1980 in the U.S. I wouldn't doubt what you have. It may be a large undertaking to restore it, but it will be beautiful if you do! I would restore it without question. This is not my car, but this would be the end result of your car if you decided to fully restore it:

 

If it has the mirror controls it most likely is a real LS. (LS's were not the only model that used them however, they were also used in the 1980 10th A/E car, another special model that year) I agree with Dave that along with the seats and badges, it most likely is a genuine LS. The silver spoked steering wheel was never sold in the US, that was a JDM thing, but someone could have just stripped the paint off a regular wheel.

Last I knew, the owner of the Black LS car Dave pictured, gave the car to his son who was thinking about selling it. I believe he still has it however (SA22C 624091) and know how to contact him. I would be interested in your S/N once you get back to the car.

The nuts and bolts of it are, even if you do the mechanical work, a full repaint plus interior work will set you back 15K plus for quality work. From the looks of your old truck, you know what work needs to be done. Big difference between square body trucks and these cars is parts availability. Finding nice SA parts are difficult at best, almost non-existent for the LS specific ones in good condition. There is no aftermarket or classic industries book to order from. You end up underwater in short order compared to the cars current value. (probably 15-20K for an nice example)

That why restorations on cars like this are usually done due to an emotional attachment rather than straight arithmetic. I'm 90% sure you can find the LS radio gear and mirror controls rat holed away by someone or come along by a car being parted out. A close match of the leather can probably be found also but it would be nice to have a small sample to go by. All this of course adds to the complexity, cost and time of the restoration compared to just bringing it back as a regular car, painted any color you wanted.

 

When I get home I'll be sure to provide the S/N and info plates likely won't be for 4-5 days. (Home time kind of sucks in my profession)

I'll also be sure to take more photos of the aforementioned power mirrors and the associated switch box that goes to it.

Out of curiosity. How rare was it for the car to have a sunroof?

I have seen many with the solid top vent roof but I don't think I've seen a single car with a glass roof like mine.

Thanks for your input Your knowledge on the topic has been eye opening

As far as a paint job. I've actually got some basic skills doing paint work. Im not a professional by any means. But I have painted a number of cars to reasonably acceptable levels. Which I intend on doing to save on costs.

Here's a camaro I painted up before selling her.




Ignore the bike

I'm going to do my best to restore her. it might not be perfect but it will at least be better than the pitiful state she's in.

 

I fully plan on it!

The only hard part is going to be locating those joy stick modules. I'm actually not sure if they are working. since I can't actuate them. I suppose I could try to reglue the stick back inside the module were the plastic snapped. it's worth a shot.

I recently found a working 1980 radio and cassette player. As well as a new (unmolested) front radio bezel

I know a guy who runs an upholstery shop who I believe can make new seat covers in the correct color. there's so much potential here. I'm excited.

Ill keep you guys updated

 

Sunroof equipped cars were a GS model option, not available on S models. From the factory, they only offered body colored panels. The glass roofs (moon roof) were first available as aftermarket items in 79, thru Pacific T Tops and Rotary Engineering brands. It wasn't until 81 or 82 that they became available from Mazda. No exact numbers exist but they are not that exceptionally rare. Many moon roofs were made and sold those first few years and were a popular add on.

 

In regards to the sunroof on the LS, the Leather Sport was based on the GS sunroof model. All Leather Sports came with a sunroof from the factory. With that said, the glass panel was not on the car when new and was added by someone later on. Its a great thing to have because they can be somewhat difficult to find in nice shape these days. And when you do find one, people price gouge on them. I have a glass roof in the sunroof bag in the back of my LS and the gold painted roof is in place in the roof. The glass panel did not come with my car. Its something I've had for years and figured I would store it in the car that I use it in.

 

I had my father go over and get some pictures for me since I'm away. This is what he sent back. sadly one of the stickers is really difficult to make out.

I believe the vehicle was made or at least purchased around late June?? I saw a photo someone posted here of SA vin number purchases by month and year and this vin number is well after July of 1980 before it cuts off


SA22C-616370

Sadly this one is almost impossible to make out.

 

The one that is washed out is the Federal safety and bumper label on the drivers door jam and is the one that contains the month / yr of manufacture. June / July of 1980 is when 79 production ended and 80 began. I believe the 1st 80 was S/N 568501 or 03 so a 61 number would probably be July of 80.

That label can be delicate, I had one damaged and another one that was starting to go. I've had good luck with this place for replacements. At $120, it's not exactly cheap but they give you two. https://autorepairvinstickers.com

Before and after:

 

Thanks for the link!

The sticker under my hood mentions something about 1984 the color is also brown not black. I'm wondering if the hood had been replaced at some point. Wouldn't make sense to me why an emissions sticker mentioned a year 4 years after the cars manufacture date

The fact I can get new stickers has really made me excited to finally get it sanded down and painted

You and everyone else have been immensely helpful

 

I would feel confident that the hood has been replaced. No big deal, as they are the same from 79-85. If you do repaint, it would be awesome to get the correct stickers for the car at the link that Banzai posted. I'll look at my car today and post a picture of the sticker. I don't remember when my car was built.

 

That link is only for the Safety and Bumper label. You can find a lot of the other ones on eBay. Here's a link to one place.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_dkr...w=mazda%20rx-7

Your emissions label under the hood should be specific to your year. 79 and 80 actually had their own labels. In reality, the emissions one is only really important if you are trying to get your car smogged. 1980 cars do have an extra vacuum routing decal under the hood that 79's don't. There are a few smaller, misc. ones that aren't available but if you are resourceful and want to go the extra mile, you can have them reproduced at some local sign printers. Of course, the labels have more of an impact if the rest of the car is up to the same standards.