i've owned other sports cars along the way, and its a bit odd that people don't make more things for the FC, or Rx7's in general.

for example MG sold something like 499,000 MGB's, and you can buy brand new cylinder heads in iron and aluminum, and for a while in the 90's you could even buy complete new body shells, along with ALL the lights, interior trim, even wiring harnesses.

Mazda sold 650,000 FC's...

 

might have something to do with the nostalgia factor, i think as the quality of FC's go down more demand will come for restoration parts

 

I know theres a company selling almost everything to fully restore the 1st gen rx7s it jus seems like there isnt much support for the FC 😔especially with these 2013 sports cars like the frs n civic every time i look at a magazine all u see is new parts specifically developed for those cars witch is cool but all i have is my 89 RX7 lol

 

Now posting in this thread: people who have no idea about the realities and economics of business.

 

I may not know anything about business, but it seems to me (for whatever reason) that the FD and FB have more aftermarket support then the FC has. It just seems that way.

 

The point I was trying to make, without being as blunt as I'm about to have to be, is that FC owners are notorious cheapasses. IF you could take an accurate sampling of the cars owned by members of this forum, I bet at least 60% of them are beaters or primered projects that either aren't in running condition, or are driven around when they are on their last legs and probably shouldn't be. FC owners would rather put a set of camber plates or catback exhaust on their car than fix the suspect leaky radiator or the dented quarter panel. They'd rather spend $60 on a bunch of cans of plastidip to "murder out" their car than spend a few hundred bucks on paint and materials to restore the car to it's correct appearance.

These are the same people driving around 86 base model non turbo cars with 186k miles that smoke on decel, won't stay full of coolant, and flood every shutdown, and when the engine finally pops they have a hard time justifying a decent rebuilt motor for 1500 bucks. They'd rather go to pullapart and get another used 186k mile NA for $225 and drop it in for better or worse.

Now do you really think that these same people are going to pay a grand for JUST rotor housing refurbishing, plus another grand in other parts/seals/etc?

So unless you are selling exhaust or suspension parts, you're unlikely to make any money with FC aftermarket parts, not because of the low volume of cars or lack of demand, but because of the mentality of the average owner. And the problem with those two categories of parts is that the market is already saturated with expensive JDM and cheap chinese stuff, so there's not much room for new stuff there either.

 

I agree with RR but a "decent rebuilt motor" only cost $1500 if your doing the work yourself or all the parts in the core are reusable which is mostly not the case in high mileage 2nd gen engines or engines that have had a failure.

 

1500 gets you a professional rebuild. Kevin did mine. Works great so far. I went ahead and opted for Mazda apex seals that cost a little more. I think you could do a diy for half that. But would you want to?

 

I am a cheap *** who has an 86 na base model thats 3 different colors and a dent in my quarter panel. I had an exhaust built and got an rb header and presilencer for free, and 10 mile old style pbm coils. I have a dented fender from drifting. its been this way for 2 years and now I am doing coolant system maintenence items and prepping for paint. lol. I've had a t2 motor sitting up in my barn with the intention of rebuilding for 3 years. still need a turbo and exhaust mani.

I'm just a statistic, how lame . I'm trying with all the money I don't make. thats so funny how well I fit the profile though. I'm not really cheap but building a project car within my means and I have a daughter. not taking offense.

Really just look at the FC group buy INTEREST threads and the actual group buy thread. 75% of the interested party fell off the wagon.

 

RR states the unfortunate truth about these car in current car culture. they are getting bought up by "bros" who just want the looks of the car and the car for its name, not actually for what the car is. My car is mechanically in good condition but very poor in the body department (michigan car FML). literally every suspension component has ether been replaced or re-bushing'd. all knew wheel bearings around, brakes all around, brake lines all around, every piece of rubber and every sealing washer regarding vacuum or fuel lines replaced and up-rated. rebuilt charging, starting, and CAS harness, etc etc etc etc.... and thats all before we even start adding any power...

the thing that really sets me off is ppl asking stupid amounts of money for their blown out FC rx7, I talked to a guy about an hr south of me wanting 2800 for a 90 NA with 150xxx miles, un-maintained, ran rough, and had been backed into something. then he refused to send me pictures of the underside of the car. I was ready to go down there with 2k cash until he flat out refused to take underside pictures of the car.

PS: about a grand will get you new S5/S4 housings via mazdatrix, not including if your on mazdas competition contingency program (cheap even yet). If someone could come up with a coating solution that recoats or re-sleeves an existing housing i would pay probably up to 600 when i got ready to do the engine build (double the cost of the goopy refinish or turblowns coating).

 

Apples v. oranges for two reasons:
-The MGB was in production for nearly 20 years and was (mostly) unchanged for that time.

-British car lovers are freaks...I've seen restorations undertaken (and completed!) on cars that were hardly more than a VIN plate and a rust shadow of the real car. Besides, the entire mentality of the British car owner is completely different than that of an American. Devastated by WW2, they weren't patching/repairing their cars because they wanted to, they had no choice. You could (and probably still can) get patch panels for almost any POS little sedan because the Brits could not just get a new car every three years like Americans could.

 

fixed...

 

1100 if you buy two rear s4 turbo housings LOL, anyone on the mazda competition plan got a price on housings?

 

freelance motorsports are offers a similar service

 

With the same limitations as goopy's service (albeit at a better price). I have examples of both on my shelf currently.

 

the S4 rear housing is about $100 cheaper through Mazda comp, two fewer middlemen.

 

the problem is in the machining processes, you can take any block or cylinder head to a machine shop and have it reworked.

take a rotor housing in to have anything done to it, even spec'ed and the shop workers will send you out the door kindly. having rotor seal slots opened up results in the same response, the only shops that usually will touch these parts are industrial machine shops which charge premiums for labor. you also have to hold their hand and be willing to accept the byproduct may be unusable and may take several attempts to get right.