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Hey Everyone,
This is my first post on RX7 Club, but I have had an account on the forum for just over a year. The knowledge and years of shared experience in this forum is truly impressive and I am extremely grateful to be apart of a community of like-minded rotary enthusiasts.
I come from BimmerForums and VW Vortex. I wasn't active in those communities as I used them as a tool rather than a social platform. BimmerForums was for my '95 e36 M3 5spd m/t Coupe, Black Metallic over Grey with the Vaders. VW Vortex is for my daily, '17 GTI Sport, 5 door, 6spd m/t and Carbon Steel Grey Metallic over cloth interior.
A couple of years ago I was presented with the deal of a lifetime and an opportunity to own a '93 FD Touring 5spd m/t. I have always wanted to own an RX-7, and when a friend of mine told me that a coworker's father was selling his I jumped on the opportunity. The car is a Brilliant Black over Tan and for what it is, the car was in decent shape, the paint was shot but the exterior was completely dent free. The car was a 1 owner car and had stayed in Sothern California all its life but due to some issues within the cluster I had no idea what the mileage was. It had very little modifications done ('99 spec Turbos, Apexi downpipe with dual exit exhaust, Apexi pfc and a Greddy Turbo Timer) the PO was getting up there in age and couldn't tell me much about the car, but some receipts indicated that the car underwent a rebuild in 2007 at Rotary Racing and Reliability in Santa Ana, CA with 67k miles on the body. At the time of my purchase, it hadn't ran since 2014 and had essentially been a driveway ornament, hence the destroyed paint. Upon changing the plugs, filters and fluids, the car was running rough, I was lucky to cover a mile in it without needing a tow. I ultimately decided that if I wanted to do this I couldn't keep half assing the project and had to commit.
Since my ownership I have rebuilt the motor with all new gaskets and seals, new rotors and new irons. My goal is to be able to enjoy the car and drive it as much as possible, so I went with a Greddy V-Mount Kit and a Mazmart water pump. I am also running a sard thermo and FC fan switch with the PO's Apexi pfc. I have a Ballenger 500v3 per the recommendation of Howard Coleman. Michael Gagne was able to repair my cluster and revealed the car had 95k miles on it. I also repaired the fuel level sensor, the passenger window switch/motor and both the left and right pop-up motors. I also had to repair the sunroof tray, as a cracking seal had allowed rain to pool on the tray and rust (Classic FD sunroof). I have also relocated the battery to the rear bin. Which I did so through the use of two-part foam and resin to make a battery box that is perfectly molded to the bin.
I am very proud of the work I have done as I have done almost everything myself and with the help of my dad who lives in the area and has always wanted to own an FD. My plans for the future are to repaint it and to enjoy it. I have slowly been accumulating the parts to get it back to its former glory (exterior seals, trim pieces and whatnot). Maybe down the line I will go with a big single but for the time being I am enjoying the twins.
Attached are some photos I have taken along the way:
welcome. really nice find and great story. u mentioned being ur first post but the system shows u haveing 4 posts. in searching, i only find this one. now it is possible u have posted in other threads, but they need a moderator to approve them. i have actually seen this in the sections i moderate. but never mind bout all that, let's get back to the FD. by my calculations, a 7 yr old build that has roughly 28k on it. when u had the engine rebuilt, did u go back to RRR or even contact them? not that they would have warranted anything, just my thinking is, with no more miles on it maybe they could have suggested a plan that would have saved the cost of another rebuild.
welcome. really nice find and great story. u mentioned being ur first post but the system shows u haveing 4 posts. in searching, i only find this one. now it is possible u have posted in other threads, but they need a moderator to approve them. i have actually seen this in the sections i moderate. but never mind bout all that, let's get back to the FD. by my calculations, a 7 yr old build that has roughly 28k on it. when u had the engine rebuilt, did u go back to RRR or even contact them? not that they would have warranted anything, just my thinking is, with no more miles on it maybe they could have suggested a plan that would have saved the cost of another rebuild.
Yeah I attempted to contact RRR a couple of times and they were rather uncommunicative. When I finally was able to get through to them they told me that they dont keep detail records of their work and they likely threw out their part of the invoice as it had happened almost a decade previously. As for the rebuild I did it myself, I just followed the rebuild manual closely and read/watched about a lot of peoples experiences. I also called a lot shops to ask for advice and went to Sevenstock to get even more questions answered.
To be completely frank I am unsure. Since the PO swapped in an Apexi ECU Im rather unfamilliar with what info it would have stored or if it would be able to carry info over from the stock ecu. Anyhow, although it would be nice to have a low milage FD, Im not to worried about the car almost having 100k because the FD was always one of my dream cars and I dont plan on getting rid of it. Interestingly enough Michael Gagne told me that the PO had installed a jdm 180km speedo board but had opted to install a mph face on it, so depending on what that could entail the car could technically be a TMU
07-05-24, 03:11 PM
