yeah I guess we are beating a dead horse here...I am on my way to the gym and I will snap pics...dammit and end this! HA!

my car was bought all original as well with 88K and the guy was 2nd owner with all paperwork. The car was never touched...so I will post pics within 2 hours to end this!

wood cover or no wood cover???


I will investigate!

 

Fellas
I'm telling you this ain't my imagination. I bought the wood for the replacement at Lowe's. Given its size, it will make two. I am making one for myself and one for mazdaverx713b. When I finish them, I will post a picture. Then, mazdaverx713b, you will have to decide if you want it. If so, you can send your mailing address privately. If you don't want it; then, you can pass the torch (the board) to whomever you desire and I will send it to that RX7er. Wish I could make you all boards but the material alone was $22.00. It really makes the carpet lie flush and flat.

 

Oh, and mazdaverx713b, I sending it to you free. Can't beat that deal.

 

OK..back...and I am sorry. What you have must be a dealer installed option as there is NO WOOD COVER....here are my pics.

back of the car...


ok so peeling back the FIRST LAYER...Which is CARPET ONLY...


now peeling back the SECOND LAYER...Which is BLACK RUBBER W/ A WOOL LIKE BOTTOM...



detail on wool piece...and you can see in the bottom right corner there is the little snap button piece too.



here is a shot from the side...there is no way a piece of wood or particle board would and should go over the spare....the proof is in the pics. Again, my car was completely unmolested, 2nd owner for over 20 years, with original "pink" slip and old school "sunset" California Plates. I have all the manuals and service records etc. Car even has dealer installed "BlackJack" security system. This is how the car came...WITHOUT a wood cover...

 

It was probably optional. Most likely a dealer option, as others have said, just like the duck-tail spoilers and such.

 

Try to understand we are NOT telling you you're full of ****. Not at all. We are just saying that is must have been an option from somewhere or maybe even an aftermarket thing because of the number of people who have even heard of it. There are guys on here who bought them new back in the 80's first coming out and not very many people had ever seen one.

It is possible as mazdaver said, they were a shitty part so people just ripped em out, or it could have been a dealer option that maybe wasnt offered at every dealership....

pics of the new one or the old one (someone else said they had one) would be much appreciated just so we can see what the **** it looks like, and add it into our brains!

 

Djessence,
Thanks, I was wrong, and I appreciate you taking the time to go thru all the motions to take the pics - I could have sworn the thing was factory. It just seems odd that the dealer would install something so crappy.
Well, I'm still making the replacement out of a sturdier composite. I will send the pictures when I finish it.
So to all of you, I apologize for hanging onto my belief like a stubborn ***. I still am offering the second one out of the spare wood to mazdaverx713b for free because he always answers my dumbass questions. I wish I could make you all one. It really does make the back carpet lay nicely.

 

You guys have spare tires?!

 

not a chance, that thing is heavy!

clash, we all have our stubborn days/weeks lol

 

if by spare tires you mean..a football...baseball....and a set of jumper cables

 

Both my original 1982 and my 1983 had a removable white'ish plastic cover over the spare tire... My current ride does not.

Scott

 

ok, someone has to post a pic. clashboy, thank you for the offer on the cover!! i may take you up on it! perhaps this is an elusive part that only a few of us 7 owners have seen. does the wood sit over the rim and cover just to the tire or did it cover the entire spare itself?

 

the suspense is killing me!

 

mazdaverx713b
The cover fits over the entire floor area. Cut to accommodate the wells. It is placed over the tire, under the mat and carpet. It has a 1 inch hole drilled at the bottom; i.e., tail of the hatch, for pulling it out to access the spare.

 

How does it sit with the tire a little higher than the floor of the hatch?

Clashboy what does your car look like? We need to meet up some time.

 

When I got my FB, the tire and rim were literally filled with water. So much rust in the wheel, I threw it out. I guess that area would be a good spot for a fuel cell now

 

ive been playing with these since 92-93, and i've never seen one of these wood things....

maybe its out of another car? like a 626?

 

I am the original owner of my '83. Car was ordered by me, not off the lot, and it didn't come with a tire cover. Not run across one in the parts manual or on other FB's that I have owned.

 

Both of my FBs had this cardboard hatch deck thing when I bought them. The first one was an 85 GS, and the second one was an 83 GS. Unforunately, I threw both of them out because they were rotten and deteriorating. Strangely, the 83 GS that I bought as a parts car had the heavy rubber/fiberglass batted spare tire cover. It looks like they used both methods. I can tell you guys without a doubt that these cardboard hatch deck covers are factory equipment. I've been around here for a while and I have no reason to lie to anyone. Both of the ones that I had in my FBs were identical. There's no other way that two separate cars from two years apart would have the same exact hatch cover.

I may have some pictures on the archive at home, but I doubt it. I'll take a look though, when I get home. There may be a picture that shows it sitting in the corner of the garage when I had the interior pulled out. I'll do my best.

Jamie

P.S. I replaced both of mine with some thin underlayment/masonite from Lowes.

 

The board has little blocks of foam attached to the bottom of it to make it the height of the spare tire. Most of the time the foam is gone though, so the board wobbles around on top of the spare tire like you'd expect it to.

 

Was waiting for one of these guys to chime in here. Pics would be good from someone so we can see what it looked like.

Sounds like it was in fact just a **** product that probably deteriorated in most of these cars. Still seems strange VERY few people have heard of it/owned a car that had one.

Was it a factory option though? (like tick the box kinda deal) or did they all come with one Jamie??

 

I doubt that it was a factory option. It's so meaningless that no one would really care about it. It's literally just a fancy piece of cardboard that covers the spare tire. I'm guessing Mazda switched between it and the black rubber mat as a cost cutting measure. My guess would be that they abandoned the black rubber mat to cut costs and went to the cardboard piece instead.

 

Haha, mine was exactly the same. I also had mold growing all over the rear carpet. Out it came.

 

RX-7 Chris,
The piece-o-crap old wood cover sat on small blocks of wood glued to the board at each corner. This allows for the entire schbang to be level in terms of the tire height. The new ones I am constructing are significantly stronger than the original and I am using small pieces of wood as the original to raise it above the spare. The RX7 I own is an 85 1st gen with the 13b engine and is all original with the exception of it is catless, has a cold intake system and has a wide single pipe Vibrant performance exhaust. It is the T9 metallic brown (dark bronzish) with a cream colored small pinstipe down each side.

 

alright, i think we pretty much covered that either it was some dealer option or something mazda decided to do for some odd reason like "surprise!!! you get a piece of wood!!!!" ...but we really wanna see pics!!!!!...pretty please ....