Defeat

"therotaryisdeadlonglivetherotary" (therotaryisdeadlonglivetherotary) 10/03/2013 at 10:00 • Filed to: None

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This, people, is a picture of defeat.

Just one in the line of many as I try to make the driveway ornament at my parents place into a vehicle once again.

Let us rewind, back to the beginning and I'll tell you about the genesis of my current vehicular albatross, a car I like to refer to as 'The Lesson'.

It was spring and I was young(-ish, this happened approximately a year and a half ago) and I wanted an FB RX-7. It would be cheap, fun and I'd wanted a rotary since my Dad told stories of my Mom embarrassing guys at the stoplights, redline buzzer sounding, with their RX-3.

So off I went through the internet tube jungle to search for this mythical beast.

What I found was a $1,500 car in a town 4 hrs from mine. I went, checked it out and everything went well. I pulled up to the house and saw it there, sitting outside the garage (redflag, or it should have been) and it fired right up when I twisted the key(imagine that, a warm engine firing right up), and I thought it looked clean (which it shouldn't have to the son of an autobody man by trade. I caught flak for that when my Dad finally saw the car in the sheet metal). It was leaking oil, but I had just driven four hours and knew less than I should have and let my desire run roughshod over reason, i.e. I bought it.

The car was a basket case that had been hit hard enough to bend the frame, which they had 'fixed' by brazing the bumper cover/nosecone back on so everything looked straight. The engine dripped oil like an incontinent 90 year-old and I suspect, though I haven't checked, that it's slowly losing compression.

Not content with one lemon of a car, I searched for another, so I could push the parts together, transformers-like, into one new, perfect car.

I found my parts car in the garage of a dead man. The family was auctioning off his possessions as he know longer had need of them. One of those was an '83 RX-7 GSL with rear disk brakes and and LSD. $500 and I was a bit poorer but rich in rotors.

I took the non-running engine from the 'new' (i.e. black) RX-7 and put in the leaky rotary from the 'old' (i.e. blue) one, intending to rebuild the rotary from the black car, the fruits of which you see above this post – a motor with not one, but two housings too shot to use.

Of course, that I found out just recently. Over the summer, while the motor remained a closed pandora's box, I wrestled a new suspension under the car as it drove like a whaler on the high seas, in desperate need of new shock and struts. The suspension is a whole other story of waiting for parts, getting wrong parts, finding worn out parts and ordering new parts, and trying to figure out how exactly to put coil-over sleeves on the front struts in a way that I will not regret a couple years down the road. (Also a continuing story as the front still sits on jackstands).

All this happened over the summer, when I wasn't concerned about my car sitting, as I was riding a motorbike, but now it's winter, and the insurance is gone and I'm borrowing my mothers joy mobile, a yellow new beetle with tail light covers in the shape of a flower.

But let us not be completely defeatist, because I have a line on a 13B that, with some caressing, will slide right in and bring a couple extra horses to the party.

And for those of you with the patience to not tl;dr, here is a (cellphone) picture of my, very ratty, RX-7 (don't judge).

MonkeePuzzle > therotaryisdeadlonglivetherotary 10/03/2013 at 10:07

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I'm rooting for the underdog in this story. Making mistakes is a great way to learn :)

CobraJoe > therotaryisdeadlonglivetherotary 10/03/2013 at 10:27

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I certainly know the disappointment of buying a car you probably shouldn't have, but I also know the joy of bringing a car back to a usable state after it was neglected for too long.

In other words, it'll get there, and you'll feel extremely good about it.

roflcopter > therotaryisdeadlonglivetherotary 10/03/2013 at 10:53

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I feel your pain, I bought an absolute lemon of a Volvo at the beginning of this summer, but I'm now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel on this one.

On an unrelated note, do you have plans for the two 12A's you have? I mean the housings of one are shot, but the one in the car might be better, and the oil leak is probably a galley o-ring, not too hard if the engine is already apart. I ask this questions because I too have big aspirations for a little project of my own, and it involves a 12A, and it doesn't have to be a good one, it will be molested beyond recognition. But anyways... if you happen to want those out of the garage, I know of a garage they will be welcome in.

therotaryisdeadlonglivetherotary > roflcopter 10/03/2013 at 15:31

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I have no plans so far for the 12As. I'll probably see if anyone wants the irons, but they seem like they would be expensive to ship. The housings are obviously shot, but I would feel bad throwing them away, and, who knows, one day they may be able to re-crome them. The 12a in the car currently will be in there for a while because my Dad's shop is over an hour away from my home and it's the only place I have to work on it, so any project takes three to four times longer than it should. I will update when the engine comes out though.

therotaryisdeadlonglivetherotary > roflcopter 10/03/2013 at 15:31

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Also, I would be remiss not to ask you what plans you have that include a molested 12A?

therotaryisdeadlonglivetherotary > CobraJoe 10/03/2013 at 15:33

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One day I hope to look at the car with unmitigated pride, but for now there is still a pinch of shame stuck in there somewhere.

therotaryisdeadlonglivetherotary > MonkeePuzzle 10/03/2013 at 15:33

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The only way I can lose is if I stop trying (or die or just straight up run out of money to put gas in the thirsty beast.) I shall prevail.

MonkeePuzzle > therotaryisdeadlonglivetherotary 10/03/2013 at 15:55

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you can lose money, but you'll still learn soemthing, and education costs money. You'll win in the end :D

roflcopter > therotaryisdeadlonglivetherotary 10/03/2013 at 15:57

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Well... the housings in the one currently in the car might be salvageable. And I'm sure there are enough parts between the two to make a running engine.

There are actually two projects, it will depend which comes first, but the idea is basically the same. We have a LeMons car that we race, and are currently doing a few mods that will probably severely limit the lifespan of the current motor, but we don't really care because we'd rather have a rotary in it, and we'd need a cheap one. The other project is a personal vendetta that I've had to build a rotary Miata. In either application it would most likely get fuel injected, peripheral ported, and possibly a bit more.