RX-2 rescued
 

Check out what I just "rescued" from basically the middle of a forest. Been sitting there for ages. Take a wild guess as to how long.

she's a definite project, anyone got a pressure washer? heh

Mike

I got a pressure washer
 

Hey Mike,

How did you find that, I sure there is a pretty cool story behind it.

For the record, I am going to say 25 years under the tree.

Are you gonna rescue it or part it? Nice find, man.

I think I would start with a leaf blower, before the power washer. Too bad they didn't build a barn around first. Nice find.

please tell me green was the original color of the car.

Yes I'm pretty sure that's the original color.. which I really like, I've only seen a few sedans in that color.

I plan to try getting it running/streetable, would be a shame to part it out as the car is 99% complete & stock, but I am not sure if any wiring or other vital things were chewed through by the local wildlife. It has rat turds strewn throughout the interior, heh.

They told me it has been there 15 years. Reg. tag says 88 so it might even be longer.

Mike

i wish i could find things like that.

Nice find Mike.

Thanks. I'll get some "before & after" pics once we take the pressure washer to it.

Mike

That's a nice little add to the collection.

Congrats! Did you think of any plans for it yet?

Holy Fuznuk! Another lucky bastard! Hell Yeah, RARE original color and white interior.

:bigthumb: Nice find!

Gotta love those sedans...

wow, some people have all the luck, very nice find!

Well, today we performed the actual "rescue/extraction." Man, what a pain. Surprisingly, the tires held air after sitting for so long, but we had to dig/rock the car out of the holes it was sitting in as it was on really soft dirt. After that it was fairly easy, although the ramps on the trailer I rented did give us some resistance.

Then we went off to the spray car wash. Heh, you should have seen the looks on some peoples faces. Moss, dirt, twigs, animals, etc. were flying everywhere. After we pulled the car out there was a mountain of debris about 5" tall. Needless to say the car wash guys were cool, they came over to check out the car and swept up all the crap even after we offered to do it since we made the mess.

Then there's the rats. I'm actually still fighting this battle, there's one hiding in the car right now that I swear is 7" long. I'm no rat expert but that seems like a large bastard. You'd think they would have got the hint after the trailer ride, spray wash, and my constant prodding at all the nests they built under the hood. They also pretty much tore up all the padding on the back seats (probably fronts too, haven't removed them yet), all the padding/rubber/cardboard pieces in the trunk, and some random wiring here and there. Why a rat would want to eat wiring is beyond me. You should see the wiring harness that goes underneath the passenger side rear seat, they knawed right through every wire and like a 8" section is completely gone. Not 100% sure but I think that's the taillight wiring.

So I went to get some rat traps but all they had left were mouse traps. I'm not sure that's going to work on that big mofo, but I put 4 of them throughout the car anyway. Guess we'll see tomorrow.

soo, anyone got any other tips on getting rid of this rat(s)? I think there is only one left, but I want to make sure. It was hilarious, on the trailer ride home I was watching in the side view mirror and all the sudden I see this rat flying through the air doing cartwheels and finally landing on the side of the road and scurrying off into the brush. Guess the relocation was too much to handle, looked like he jumped out from the strut tower. I'm not sure why his pal didn't follow. Then when we got the car here we found another one in the same strut tower, all you could see was this tail hanging down next to the spring. I was tempted to yank it out of there and just hurl it over the fence, but I didn't want to risk being bitten by some wild crazed rat. who knows, maybe they can't do anything if you grab 'em by the tail. Can't say I've tried it before.

anyhow, I think this message is getting too long. Anyone got any decent sedan seats (front & backs) in preferrably white? I may have them redone at an upholstery shop, but that might cost 5x what I could get another set for. The rats really tore things up, so they'd have to be rebuilt from scratch.

I'll put some more pics up here soon as I scale them down. These are actually from the other day.

Mike

I can round up some stray cats for you...
 

Sorry I missed it, would have been fun to have tagged along. I have a rusty red repu that would go great with it. Good luck with it.

Funny you mention cats, I looked out there last night and there were a few cats circling the car trying to get to that rat. I doubt they were successful, but we'll see. I'm about to go check on those traps.

Mike

here's some pics from yesterday, you can see in that one where they chewed through the side of the bottom back seat section. That entire lower back seat section was a huge rats den, heh.

oops forgot there was a max. of 5 pics

I would seriously have to say that is the COOLEST thing I have seen/read today!

I wish I had such encounters.

Watch yourself. Rat turds contain some serious diseases. I'd get some good filtered dust masks.

You got a buddy with a garage and a cat (Not declawed)? Park the car in there, turn the cat loose, and watch your own live National Geographic special.

Either that, or pack the car with bug bombs. They contain nerve toxin, so they'll kill almost anything if the concentration is good enough. Also eliminates any possibility of black widows or brown recluse spiders that may be hiding out somewhere.

Here's pics of the my old 2. I daily drove it for 2 years and never gave me problems.Good luck, nice find.

Nice, thanks guys.

Yeah, I'm worried about weird rat turd diseases. I think all the rats are gone now, as no traps have gone off recently and I displaced all their nests, also haven't seen any 'new' turd piles. It was odd, when I checked the traps I had set the night before I found 3 of them had been triggered, but nothing was in them. Soo, they either went off by themselves (heat maybe?) or the rat sprung them and then just pulled the lever back, heh.. or they missed him completely and just scared him off.

I've also sprayed the entire engine bay down with WD-40 and am letting it sit, can't imagine they'd still want to hang around in there after that. I'm still working on removing all the interior carpets, which unfortunately will go straight to the trash. I don't even want to attempt cleaning that up.

My question now is what's a good method of disinfectant? I was thinking of spraying the whole bottom inside of the car with a bleach/water mix, but am not sure what to do on non metal surfaces though, like the dash area, door panels, seats, headliner, etc. Not that they ever made it to the headliner, but it would still be nice to clean.

Mike

I've always had good luck with Simple Green. It was forced on me in the Army (it's damn near the only thing they use) and the smell still takes me back. It's good stuff, though and isn't too aggressive. Biodegradable too, so just spray it and hose it down.

wow, an rx-2..real nice..i remember when my uncle had an rx-2..always won shows, but he traded it for a 93 r1..wat a guy..lysol works great...or you could even goto a pet store and get those kinds of cleaners, thatll really clean shit up..literally.

Amazing find man!!! When I was 19 (ten years ago) I stumbled upon a RX-3 coupe from the original owner. I was naive at the time and didn't think I could build it so I traded the guy I worked for and RX7. Damn, I've been kicking myself ever since. RX7s are great but all over the place.

Awesome job and thanks for sharing all the pictures!!! Good luck bro!

Thanks. I'm working on some "after" pics (at least of the semi-stripped interior & engine bay).

Today I pulled out 3/4s of the carpets & padding, for some reason the passenger door won't open so I haven't made it to that area yet. I sprayed everything down with a 1:3 bleach:water mixture, then I'll follow that with some simple green and a garden hose.

on a sad note one of the traps caught what looked like a baby rat, it was about the size of a mouse and looked just like that mammoth one I saw the other day but was about 1/4th the size. You'd think the babies would have followed mom the heck out of there. I'm pretty sure the big mama is gone, there's nowhere left for her to hide now that I have 75% of the interior stripped out.

Anyone know a good source for carpet kits?

Thanks,
Mike

RX-2 Carpets

https://www.rx7club.com/old-school-other-rotary-63/rx-2-carpet-kit-219118/

The guy in the thread bought carpet from Autostyles in Texas, but their website no longer lists the carpet. Give 'em a call and see if they still have the template.

I bought my carpet from a guy on ebay and it's a nice fit, but he doesn't have anything up right now, and I can't find his contact info. Check ebay, and I'll let you know if I find it (got it 4 months ago, so he's still around).

A very long time ago we pulled a hay bailler out of a swamp, About half way home we stopped for lunch, as we got pulled off the road two very large rats jumped out and run for the woods.


Last mouse I had in a car it let the mouse hunter take care it.

http://www.matthewnanney.com/images/85SE/85SE-10-tn.jpg

Heh, I wish I had one of those. Fortunately there are enough random stray cats around here that I think they scared the rats off. It was either that or the 5 traps, WD-40, or bleach I sprayed everywhere.

I finally got all the carpets/seats out, no more suprises so far. I still need to explore the dash area, who knows what I'll find behind there.

Mike

just becareful with tha shiet..you dont wanna get bit by sumthin..

Great find... I bet that RX2 was mint when they left it there!

I know, that's the sad part.

update: all carpets out, 95% of the rat turds out (heh), yesterday I drained the gas tank and pulled it out. I was going to have the tank cleaned somewhere, but it doesn't look too bad inside. I sprayed a few cans of carb cleaner in there and dumped it out, but it's really hard to see all the way inside. I might just put it back in, change the filters and run a few tanks through it (assuming it even runs).

the crap that was in the tank sure wasn't gas though, it was more like brown water.. pretty nasty.

Mike

Was it still flamable?... Did you try to start a fire with that brown water stuff?...:naughty:

Every season that goes by, I have to empty the old gas from my power tools (trimmer, mower, chain saw, and snow thrower). Instead of dumping it in the soil some where. I have this tree stump i pour it on and start a little fire.:devil:

awesome! congrats on a very lucky find... series 2 rx2s have always been my favs! ;)

the guy I got my rx-2 from hat another one an he left it out side and the car rusted completly( I live on an island), its wortless.

Am I the only one that's really looking for pics of the cleaned up car? Come on, Smeagol, don't be so cruel. I'm curious what a complete abandoned survivor looks like after a good clean.

Heh, sorry Crit.. I'm really close. I still need to "power wash" out the interior and trunk areas, so far all I've done is sweep up the turds and big debris, and remove the seats/carpets so it still looks a little dirty. I went to borrow my pals power washer but it turns out he's got a huge gas powered industrial version that would be difficult for me to manage living in apartments -- nowhere to keep it. I'm also trying to think up a way to safely remove the rest of the vinyl top, since it's mostly gone anyway I figured I might as well strip the rest of it off.

RX7UP: nah I don't think it was flammable, it didn't even smell. Seemed just like oily dirty water.

Yesterday I pulled the plugs & checked all the ignition wiring, I think I might have an idea why they may have parked the car originally. Someone had the plug wires backwards, L1 was on the top plug and T1 was on the bottom plug, same with T2/L2. I'm not sure how that would run (never tried it), but I don't think it would be really smooth.

I've also been able to get the engine to spin over by hand. I dumped a bunch of ATF down the carb first and let it sit awhile. I could hear the compression pulses, but won't really know for sure if a seal is gone or something like that until I try to start her up.

Mike

Any updates?

Put in some new spark plugs and some premium gas and I bet that thing will start right up on the first try... It is going to smoke like a mofo until all that ATF burns out.....

heh, yeah I know.

I have all this week off, so there will definitely be more updates. Tomorrow I'm going to put the gas tank back in and hopefully get her started up. Then I need to strip out the center console/carpet and vacuum out the dash area and she should be ready for some rough 'after' pics if everything goes well.

will premium gas clean out the tank/lines better?

Mike

I took my fuel tank out a while back, had it cleaned and relined with this red sealant stuff. I remade the fuel feed line out of aluminum and am currently not using the return. The original was full of crap and rusty. I would change both lines without even thinking about it. It wasn't that hard to bend up new ones....I just removed the old one and used it as a template. I wouldn't use the old lines if they've been sitting like that for so long.

dang, what a pain.

Today I put the gas tank back in, which was a blast. So after I get everything hooked up and put about 3 gallons of gas in there I'm ready to try starting her up. I had previously cleaned the plugs really well and checked all the ignition wiring. So I put a battery in and hear a "click" when I hook up a battery. So far so good.

So after that I turn her over and realized there's no gas flowing. Silly me, I totally forgot that wiring harness that goes to the trunk was chewed completely in half. So eventually I figure out what wire is the fuel pump one and get it to start pumping. It pumps and pumps but it's not moving any gas. At this point I'm thinking "damn Jamie was right," and am dreading taking the tank down again, heh. Just as a test I drain out about 1/2 a gallon of gas and try to run the pump with the hose just hanging into an oil drain pan, thereby eliminating the tank so I can try to find where the problem is. Nothing, it just vibrates and clicks but doesn't pull any gas. So I'm thinking the fuel pump is really gummed up inside or just flat out bad. any ideas? I tried removing the pump but those nuts that hold it in are half rusted away and won't budge. Might have to end up drilling them out tomorrow so I can try another test pump.

I also noticed no gas came out of the line on the tank when I pulled the fuel filter to do that test, but then I did only put about 3 gallons in it and the car is on a slight downward slant so I'm hoping the tank is fine and it's just the pump. I figured the tank lines themselves were fine because when I sprayed carb cleaned through that back fitting where the return line goes it would come out the front line where the fuel pump draws from.

on a good note the starter works, and there were no explosions or arcing wires when I hooked up the battery so that's a bonus. No dash lights though, so the rats might have gotten to that wiring harness.

Mike

Dude...you gotta suck it through. Happens every time I run low on gas and the car just suddenly stops.

Turn on the car and prime the system, either with a vacuum pump or with your mouth/hose combo and you should be fine. Undo the rubber line at the hard line in the engine bay and do the dirty! A bit more gas will help too.

Since the rubber hose is off way in the back...try it there (didn't read that part). You may want to ream out the hard feed pipe from the tank with a pipecleaner or wire just to be sure the pickup is clear....BTW OUR TANKS SUCK...no good baffle or sump...gotta get a fuel cell of some sort....Mr.Enforcer in Oz sells a killer one for Rx3's (damnit)

hmm, how much gas do I have to drink? Heh, I'll try that tomorrow. I figured the fuel pump would be strong enough to pull it through, but I guess it's pretty wimpy.

Mike

Well, I was just out there trying to get the gas flowin' but it won't even come out the back line. I shoved a wire in there, it went in about 18" and then hit something and wouldn't go any further. Put a hose on there and sucked, got nothing. Tried the same thing on the hard line @ the carburetor but all I got was old nasty gas. It's still not filling the filter @ the gas tank. Hmm, guess I'll have to drop the tank again. yay

Called around a couple places and they want $175-250 to clean/coat the tank.

Mike

well now I'm an expert @ installing/removing RX-2 gas tanks. Just finished dropping the tank, took like 10 min., heh. Gonna take it to a radiator shop and have them clean/coat it. Even with the tank off that back line is jammed solid, I blew/sucked as hard as I could and it wouldn't budge. Whatever is in there is really gooped up or rusted solid.

Later while the tank is being worked on I'm gonna go through the feed/return lines and make sure they're OK. Any tips/tricks for doing that? Also will probably take off the carb and spray it down really well with carb cleaner.

Mike

Man...if the tank was that bad...change out those lines. Go to your local V8 oriented speed shop, grab at a 50' spool of aluminum line and bend some up....it sort of sucks but its worth it in the long haul. Stainless is nicer but more $$$.

What is coming out of the main lines when you spray in cleaner? Brown flaky rust? I would just do it now...the tank is out..just pull back the little tabs that hold the fuel line in place and remove. I don't know...that's just me.

Yeah that's an idea. I haven't actually gotten to spraying anything in the lines yet, it might turn out that they're fine. Right now if I blow on the feed line it doesn't do anything, but the fuel pump is still hooked up so I imagine it wouldn't anyway. I'm gonna remove the rubber hose from the lines tomorrow and test them out. I also want to take off the fuel pump but the only way to do that is drill out those rusted nuts. Might have too anyway if the pump is gummed. I might test it with the pan of gas again now that the feed/return lines are unhooked from the tank. I'm thinking it might work now since that feed line was jammed up, we'll see though.

Mike

Somebody in your area has to have a stock RX-7 fuel pump that is good, put that in don't go through the hassle. Use a gas can in lieu of your tank for right now. My 79 had a coffee colored liquid in the gas tank, I cleaned it and it even looked like chrome, but if you don't reline the inside it will eventually start to rust and get FUBARed again. I ended up getting another gas tank. My buddy just got rid of an almost brand new RX-2 gas tank, I wish I read this thread 3 days ago. I believe he still has an almost brand new winshield and rear glass for a four door RX-2.