hey everyone, I'm based in Reston/Herndon area and looking to get a rebuild and street port done to my NA 13B.


What's the most reputable shop around here?

 

I would contact Vlad (Max_Spd) , he is very knowledgeable and even willing to come out and help with repairs.

 

Thread resurrection! Is COVID over yet? Can we get on with normalcy now?

Dusted off the FD fairly recently and been driving it around to get its parts moving. A little more paranoid now with how much they're worth. Anyone else back on the road with their RX-7's? Let's get a Spring Drive or at least a meet going.

Any of you see this barn find video? It's so satisfying.

 

Anybody in the NOVA area know any good bodyshops for some rust repair and painting?

 

Dang, the local DC Metro FD scene is really dead. Deader than dead. Another victim of covid. Sucks.

Get your car to the body shop yet red comet? I had taken mine to Mr Spoiler in 2010 and their paint just started fading last year. They did good work on my car back then although it took a long time. Not sure how they are these days though, as I've heard good and bad since. I'm not sure the clearcoat can be revived so it might be time for a new paint job or wrap soon for my FD. Or plasti-dip.

Anyways, one of my fans stopped working so the car is down. Haven't wrenched in a long time - not looking forward to it as the car was running so well for so long I'm way out of practice. Found the RX-8 fan motor mod thread and it sounds like Ray is still around for me to secure the parts. Any one with experience swapping their RX-7 fans for the RX-8 ones?

 

Who wakes me from my deep slumber??

Yea, it's been dead alright. I pretty much stopped doing car events when the pandemic started and never picked them back up afterwards since I got into other hobbies in the meantime. That said, I have been driving the RX-7 a bunch this spring since we've had such nice weather. I am also thinking about getting some bodywork and paint done since my track days are all but over now. Sorry to hear about your fans - hopefully you caught the problem before the car overheated. I have read about the RX-8 mod but I haven't done it myself. I have a laundry list of things to fix but haven't wrenched on the car in 3 or 4 years.

 

I’ve been slowly putting my car back together. I hit a wall with the dang AC txv though, an FYI to all of you- none of the ones on RockAuto fit, just buy the JP3 offering.

I could install the dash now but it’s easier to do the evap with it out. Once it’s back ok I wrap up my doors and finish the interior to move onto the engine bay build out, a trans swap, and the engine install.

I also ran into a snag with my turbo manifold. I have one of the first IR Performance EFR kits and I found several cracks in the turbo manifold. I’ve got them welded up and had egt bungs put into it but I have zero confidence it’s going to last. That was truly disappointing

 

It's alive!!!!!!

Good to hear the car has been driven Matt and all is well. The fans were making a clicking noise, as if it was hitting something, and then it just spontaneously stopped - yes, fixed!!!, I thought. Got to my destination which was only another mile, popped the hood to see that it was only "fixed" because one of them just stopped spinning. Then I smelled burnt coolant. Shut it down, played nine holes of golf, and drove another 5 miles to get home. Luckily it was cool out, so hopefully no damage done. There's a member parting out a clean '95 and he has a fan assembly - but I think I'm going to mod it with RX-8 fans. Hopefully I can get back on the road soon. Maybe in time for a Fall Drive/Meet?

 

I haven't gotten it to any bodyshop yet. It needs so much more before I get to that point. But thankfully she's getting put back together and made better.

 

Guys we should plan a some thing sooner than later. Cars running well, its a rotary so no that won't happen. Doesn't mean we can't grab beer or such!

 

I would love to be driving the FC around this spring but I dropped it off at IRP around Thanksgiving last year for a new ecu and some wiring and I haven't gotten it back yet.

 

Lord willing ill be up and running this weekend with some break in miles that need to be driven! Ill be ready for anything

 

anything going on in the DMV area for 7/7 day ?? i was thinking about heading down to angel motorsports next friday.
a few years ago a bunch of 7's went to time square, that was pretty cool

 

I hate to reinforce an unfortunate stereotype re: the reliability of the rotary engine, but ... I need a recommendation for getting my car trailered.

Thankfully, it's a starter-related issue, not a 13b-related issue (I've replaced the security immobilizer relay and next is to replace or jump the clutch position relay), but I'm moving next week and will most likely need to trailer it before I fix it.

It's a hyper-local trip (5.2 miles, from Great Falls, VA to Vienna, VA) any time between today (August 7) and next Monday (August 14).

Thanks in advance!

 

Jay,
Have you been able to try jumping the starter? All you have to do is jump 12v from the power lead on the starter to the solenoid terminal with the car in the "on" position and it should crank.

If you prefer to just stick with the trailer option you can rent a U-haul pickup truck and auto transport (flat trailer) for a day if you want to DIY. Outside of that you may have local towing included as part of your car insurance coverage and with that you could just call and request a tow from a flatbed tow truck.

 

Also since I am local I can assist in troubleshooting and getting the car started so that you can simply drive it! (I do side jobs on these cars for local members on a regular basis)

 

Hey sorry guys, just popping in doing my due diligence before I begin this build... Long story less long, I was looking to get my 13b rew bridgeported and possibly some other shop work done if they can manage that... Are majority of the past trusted East coast shops just outta business now?? Should I just freight it off to a reputable shop to have any porting/ rebuilding done?

Through my searching so far, I'm finding majority of the support is located west/ mid-west... unfortunate

 

I've been on this forum for years and the only two more prominent non West coast shops I have never heard stories about are Banzai Racing and Rotary Performance. IRP seems to be backed up and has several people with unfulfilled orders so even though my experience was good, I'm not confidence that experience now would be the same. Angel Motorsports seem to have a mixed bag of work, I've been unimpressed by what I've seen locally but their prices are cheaper. RPM seems like a revolving scam.
Rotorsports and JPR imports have decent reputations, Rotorsports seems to prefer older "tired and true" strategies with builds instead of staying with current tech and what I've heard about JPR is that they do what works.

I would DIY or ship it out to one of the first two mentioned shops expecting a build bill of around $20k.

 

@TomU , any update on when your car will be done?
I'm still making slow progress and hoping to hit DGRR in the spring.

 

Sounds about right, and thank you for the prompt response. I'll look into those shops you've mentioned were reputable again and see which fits my needs. While of course look into what things I'll be doing myself... Honestly I just don't have a welder or the experience to fab. And I don't trust myself to port the motor. Outside of that I can make it happen. I've also tried Angel on a previous build before... Don't think I wanna go back quite frankly, so I agree with you there. Again, thanks again for your help! I'll dive back in and see what works for me.

 

Double post, apologies!

 

Best of luck. As much as I want to say "these cars are getting harder to own" I don't think the shop situation is substantially different that the historical ebb and flow.

 

Not sure if Rotary Resurrection is still around, as his prices were pretty good for sending in your engine and having a good turnaround time for build and mods. Maybe worth contacting him for a quote and options. What other mods do you need done to your car. As I have a welder but also interested in finding out what other stuff you need done. I do stuff on the side in the area when time allows. I just don't have garage space to keep a car.

 

Good call on Kevin. He's still around and is a good no-nonsense option.

 

Changed the oil in the FD a few days ago. According to my notes, the last time I did an oil change was 3 years and 1 month ago. In that time, I have driven the car exactly 469 miles. I hope everyone's doing well!