Rx7Ay07

Hi everyone,

I bought my first car ever recently after years of owning two motorcycles and exclusively getting around on those and by bus. I ended up selling one of my motorcycles and had just enough to pick up a decent 1985 Rx7 GSL. I am the type of person who prefers vintage vehicles and am really into the JDM car scene from Japan. Interestingly, I recently got back from a trip in Japan where I visited Tokyo, Shiga, Kyoto, Nara, and other places. I saw so many sick cars there and ran into a parked FD on my first day in Kyoto :P (not to mention the Lancia Delta, Mitsubishi FTO, and R32 that I also ran into in Kyoto)

Anyway I've always been into motorcycles and completely rebuilt a 1982 CB125S in my garage and sold another bike I was using for transportation. I ended up getting a "brown" 1985 RX7 GSL from a guy in Longueil Quebec who was a mechanic working at ma & pa shop which are steadily disappearing. He bought it from a guy who was the original owner and had kept it well maintained and only ran it in the summer. The mechanic I bought it from did some good work such as undercoating the car after checking for rust and finding none (very rare and very hard to have a 100% no rust car in Quebec let me tell you), a bit of exhaust work (removing cats), swapping the LSD diff from the SE model and adding it to the car, and he also installed new suspension coils and air-ride suspension mod.

I have some pictures attached. I love the sound my car makes, I love how insanely low to the ground it is (which is a horrible idea in my pot hole ridden town), and how it makes people on the street turn their heads all the time. I bought it in September 2017 and have spent almost everyday since then re-searching everything RX7.

The mechanic guy couldn't afford to get a new paint job. The clear coat was peeling, the paint was faded, and there was some chips. He ended up spraying black contour lines on the car, blacking out some badges, adding "MRX7 85" spraypainted onto two panels, and a little Japanese flag under the driverside window. It's not great but it's also not super awful. I've had a few people tell me that they like the rattyness of it.

When I bought it here were the faults:
- Gas gauge doesn't work
- Rear wiper doesn't work
- Radio works but cassette player doesn't work
- Cig lighter doens't work
- Turning signals don't work
- Sunroof dial crumbling and has broken so I can't open my sunroof and keep it open.
- "add coolant" and "brake" signals on dashboard constantly on.

I've since removed the original flasher CPU box, which was a bitch to reach, and installed a replacement I sourced from ebay. That worked and my turning signals function now. I just received a new fuel sender unit to replace the faulty one and hope to do that this Sunday and have a working gas gauge again. I also have a very slow leak in one of the coolant hoses from radiator > engine so I will likely purchase the RB upgrade ones and install those.

My dream is to find some Group C or IMSA style body kit for my car but that dream is all but over considering they are impossible to get or very expensive to buy through Mariah. For now I am content with focusing on getting a paint job, cleaning the engine bay, and getting things into tip top shape. Maybe a 13b swap in the future.

Hopefully I can figure out 9 other useful posts so I can unlock the rest of the forum and get some answers to my questions.....

Thanks for reading.

mazdaverx713b

iTrader: (91)

Welcome! Honestly with some new paint that car would look amazing!! How does it run and drive?

Rx7Ay07

When I bought it the mechanic guy told me that it had just been rebuilt and only has 60'000k on it. It seems to be true because the car starts up without any issues (so long as you use the choke initially). I stored it for 6 months for last winter and put some fuel stabilizer and that was it. When I took it out, it started up first shot. Although you can definitely tell the car runs way better once it warms up.

I have to investigate my cooling hose and sensors because I have the "Add coolant" light always on while driving. Until recently driving the car would get it to warm up to the half mark on the temp gauge. The reservoir was a little low so I refilled it with some 50/50 Honda premix coolant and since then the temp gauge now only goes to about 1/3 instead of halfway. It also takes less time to "warm up" which I think is an improvement. I have a super slow leak on one of the coolant hose though so I will replace them with racing beat coolant hoses.

I knew I wanted to buy the car on the sound alone. When the choke is pulled out a bit initially to start the car the exhaust braps like it was bridge-ported (my engine has no port mods), when I am in 3rd or 4th gear and I am approaching a stop and let the RPMs slow down the exhaust pulsates and lets out this like pulsating push noise and sometimes pops a few flames. Love that soooo much everyone who takes a ride in the car thinks it's super cool and unlike any car they've been in.

So yeah I got really lucky in that it needs no transmission work, no clutch work, and no engine work as of now.

I just need to replace the fuel sender, fix the non working rear wiper motor, and get the tape-deck to work. Every element of my radio works but when I insert a tape it just clicks and doesn't start playing. Manual says it only accepts 60/90 min tapes not 120min but it's a reggo 90 min tape. I think I need to clean the inside of the tape player maybe.