Woo Hoo!!!

I finally got myself an RX-7. Today I bought a 1990 RX-7 GXL for $500. The body is in good shape minus paint and a dinged up frong right fender, but at least it's straight. I'm not sure where to start with it though... apparently she doesn't run, and i need to buy a battery, so i know that's one place to start for sure. I'm really hoping i can get her running without a rebuild, but she's been sitting for about a year, so i have a feeling that's not going to happen. also, the clutch went straight to the floor when i tapped it with my foot, and it won't come up, anyone know what that might be? i'll be putting pictures up soon, but it pretty much looks identical to DJ_Merle's. I'm going to start working on her this saturday, and i'll get pictures up by then.

would y'all say it was a good deal as far as a rolling chasis?

damn that sucks. i got my running 87 FC for 500. maybe its worth more since its a S5, i dont know. its likely parting that out would yield more than what you paid. hell, i've heard of some guys getting TII's for 500.

however it can be a decent project car if its a good chasiss. if it doesnt run after you get the battery, change the spark plugs, do a compression test (or do the ghetto one where you pull the leading [bottom] plug and count the pulses as you turn the engine by hand. maybe even doing the ATF/MMO trick wuold work.

if the clutch drops to the floor, likely something is wrong with the hydraulics, so try to fix the pedal and get a new clutch line (stainless recommended).

keep us posted ok?

yeah, i'm definetly making this project public. I'm dropping a battery in this saturday, and we'll see how things go. i'm hoping the only thing wrong with the clutch is just a small easy to fix leak somewhere... but that's just wishful thinking. i'm probably going to have to replace the slave cylinder.

how long would you be willing to wait for a slave cylinder? because i'll be pulling my n/a tranny soon for the turbo one. i'll let it go for cheap

hm... well i can wait a while since the engine isn't running yet, so i definetly like the sound of that. but keep in mind, i haven't really gotten to look at the problem yet. if that's the case, i'll know for sure saturday.

how many miles are on the car

i'll get back to you on that one, the car isn't at my place, i'll go look tomorrow.

115,191 miles on the RX, less than i thought. I thought it had like 145k ish

yea so when you get the car, take some pictures... helps keep things interesting around here :)

Ok, well i didn't get many pictures, nor did i get a chance to work on it. It took us about 2 hrs to get it up on the trailer... and unfortunately it suffered some damage to the front bumper, as well as the front right fender, i'll tell more about that in a sec. as you can see, it looks almost identical to DJ_merle's. Well here are some quick pics I took:

Here are the good pics, the good side, and the back side:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/Aruba27flr/RX7005.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/Aruba27flr/RX7006.jpg

now for the damage. When we pushed the car up onto the trailer... a little bit of damage was done to the front bumper, you can kind of see it in the upper pics, but the worst part was that my friends thought you could back up with that kind of trailer, and after warning them multiple times, they still went ahead and tried it. the trailer jacknifed into the car and pushed in the fender to where the driver's door doesn't open all the way anymore.... luckily i know a body man that will do the work for cheap, but i'm still pissed. the flat tire was like that, we didn't get a chance to put air in it. all the gas stations were filled with bikers since we were near where the Republic of Texas Bike Rally was being held. monday morning i'm picking up a battery from a friend and bringing a compressor to put air in the tires. i'm also going to take pictures of the interior and of the engine compartment as well. this will be the thread where all my updates on the car will be i've decided. anyway, here's the pics that make it look crappy, but i still think it was a good deal for $500:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/Aruba27flr/4e287d5b.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/Aruba27flr/RX7003.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/Aruba27flr/4c1e728a.jpg

you can see the before and after on the driver's side fender... grr.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/Aruba27flr/4e287d5b.jpg

you can see the before and after on the driver's side fender... grr.

yo.

i have the SAME EXACT FUCKING DENT on my car. same side and all. but my door opens fine. at least your car doesnt look like shit like mine does.

what mirrors are those?

nice flat tire

They're the stock Series V mirrors.

yea, the supposedly give you way better aerodynamics... but who knows

They sure do look good at least.

oh yeah they are. looked different for some reason.

Ok, here's the update. the tires hold air, thank god, and i put in a battery and spark plug wires. SHE RUNS!!! sorta... the clamps on the battery need to be replaced, so i my friend held them down while i started it, and she started on the first try... on 1 year old gas. however, she runs like complete shit. i don't think i can get her over 60 mph. Oh, i found the clutch problem, leaky master cylinder. well here's what worried me A LOT. after running around the parking lot trying to see if she would idle.... which she doesn't, smoke was coming out of the arm rest... when we looked underneat, the cat was glowing big time. even the heat shield was glowing... well, does anyone know what's going on with the engine? i'm guessing it needs a rebuild... but i'm still hoping it's something else. anyone got any ideas?

just rebuild it and eliminate some problems now, and in the future all in one shot

maybe you have a clogged cat, which would explain why you cant get it to 60 (no power). i would run it till it blows, then get a medium size streetport when you have to rebuild it.

So you don't think the engine is already blown? my friend and i were talking about the clogged cat, but it looked kind of new.... i dunno, i'll try and see what happens when i take the cat off :evillol:

*quick update*

i went to see what i'd have to do to take the cat off... looks like a new one was welded on, unless that's just how they came? it's welded all the way up to the mufflers, so i think i'm going to have to put this thing on a jack stand and take the exhaust off from the downpipe all the way back, and see what happens. if she's running well after that, i'll get a new cat. i think tomorrow i'm going to change the oil, spark plugs and fuel filter, and see about borrowing some jack stands... i don't have any yet. I'd love to rebuild her now, but it's a little out of my budget. my plans are to have her running near perfect by september if it does need a rebuild though. otherwise, yeah, i'm going to drive it till it blows, and go with aggressive street port for sure.

the worst case scenario is the motors blown. so just find out whats wrong and try to run with that.