tmking66

I am in the process of restoring my 79. I dropped in a rebuilt engine last year after the original gave up the ghost at 283K. The car runs great now. No known mechanical issues at all. All restoration from this point on will be cosmetics. The body is in excellent shape. No rust. It is in need of new paint. This is where I am having trouble making the next decision. The original color is bronze metalic which I am not real crazy about. My first decision is should I stay with the original color or should I go which a color change. Next decision is whether or not to install ground effects and spoiler. I am looking for opinions here. Should I keep it as much stock as possible stay with the original paint color and forget the ground effects and spoiler). Or should I change the color and install the spoiler, air dam and side skirts? This is a very early model 79 actually built in Nov. of 78. What would you do?

Thanks for the opinions in advance.

Rx7carl

Thats a very tough and ultimately personal decision. The compromise could be to make no alterations that cant be reversed later on. Like the paint. Your gonna have it painted anyway so doesnt matter what color. The original factory paint will be gone. And if down the road you want a perferct concours car, then itll just have to go back to the booth.

slashdawg00110

I agree with Carl. It's a very personal decision. But if it was me, I'd do the paint and skip the other mods. You *can* always repaint.

tmking66

So, if I understand you both, you are saying paint my color of preference but keep the body stock. That is sort of what I am beginning to lean towards but I just want to get some other opinions.

Thanks guys!

slashdawg00110

Yeah. I'm not a huge fan of the body changes anyway. But as Carl pointed out, you can paint it now, then repaint original color later. It's reversible. I like the idea of having a concours car, too.

Rx7carl

No I'm saying do what makes you happy. Its your car. Someday I'd like to have a perfect 100 point concours 1st gen. Of course Id only drive it on rare occasion.

tmking66

The reason I posed the question is that I was not sure exactly what I would be most happy with. I am pretty much decided now not to install any of the body kit parts. I have still not made up my mind completely on the paint (stay original color or do a change). How rare are the early 79 models these days (good running condition)? I like the looks of the air dams, spoilers, etc. but I did not want to mess up a fairly rare car. I think that I will use those things on another project a little later on down the road.

Thanks again guys!

LongDuck

Well, here's an alternate perspective on your quandry;

A few years ago, I was doing the same thing as you - trying to figure out what you want out of your car. I have an 80LS in the garage, my 84SE next to it, and my 93 Infiniti Q45 out on the driveway (!). Anyway, you can see where my priorities lie. I ran the 80LS in SCCA Solo II for a few years and the engine was blown from overheating, so the 84SE became the 'project car'.

I really enjoy driving around in a modern (maybe futuristic?) looking car, clean wheels, smooth design that has style. That means adding aftermarket cosmetic components to get that look, combined with fresh paint in a much more modern color than the Tan that my SE originally came with.

The decision when it came to paint was to switch the color. I could have gone 'concourse', but that's not very interesting to me, and my car is a daily driver, so it's gonna get door dinged and dirty. Anything I own is going to get used, so I don't baby anything. Picked a 2004 paint color (to go with my revamp of this 20 year old car), and had them paint in a way that all body components can be removed and still be yellow underneath (BZ-21T Chrome Yellow Clearcoat).

This offers me the ability to remove components that might get damaged without driving a car with primer under the aero effects.

If I needed to return the car to 'bone stock' would I? No way. It took me 5 years to get this car to what you see today, and it's so much more fun to drive this way. Plus, it costs a lot more money to keep a car in showroom condition than you think. These cars were built to drive, but they were also built to please. I am pleased with the outcome, and will probably go the racecar route on my 80LS if I don't get rid of it in the near future to make room for an RX-8.

You just need to settle on what you want from the car, and then go from there. If you drive it a lot, I'd ditch the points-and-condensor ignition for an 80 electronic ignition dizzy and ignitors just to get better performance and reliability, but then you'd be going down the road of 'upgrade and customize'. YMMV, literally,

1stgen_tn

Long Duck,

We are just alike. I wish I had a early 90's Q45 but, I had to settle for my 94 J30 (also an awesome car but not V8). If I had my pick of cars it would go like this: Ferrari (any), Porshe 911 Turbo, Shelby Cobra, Infiniti Q45, and of course the Mazda Rx-7. Therefore, for financial reasons, I have the J30 and my 83 Rx-7 GSL....

TMKING66: If I were as fortunate as you, I would paint it to your liking and keep the body stock. I would keep the color fairly close to normal (no baby blues, pinks, lime greens, etc.) Do that, and there will be a whole bunch of us Rx-7 folks out there jealous of your car. Me for instance. That is just my 2 cents.

Whatever you do, drive the thing....Please don't just let it sit in your garage like so many other collectors out there do. That kills a part inside of me. =(