In the new members bit I posted an intro, but here's a thread to follow what's happening with this unusual car. I really should have a YouTube channel and be gurning at the camera about this BARN FIND and so forth, but honestly, it's not a barn find in the sense that I've known this car was locked away since the day it was locked away. I just never had the time or organisational skills to go and try fixing it, and my friend loved the car but isn't a mechanic, so I think didn't want to let it go anywhere, but likewise wasn't sure about how to fix it. Pretty sure the problems happened right after it had been worked on so trusting a specialist with it was out of the window.
Which means this UK-spec RX-7, bought as a nice sporty used car when it was just a nice sporty used car, has spent from 2008 to 2024 hiding from the light in a Hackney lockup. I wonder if the people who stole the bikes and things from the lockup were perhaps hoping to do something with it, but them stealing the bikes meant that finally, my friend and i took action!
In the intro post @jack.am says "good to see another one saved" or similar words. I don't think that's quite fair – I'm putting it back on the road, sure...
But saved... you know, this car was a real shock. It was parked in a council lockup in 2008 and did not turn a wheel until I pulled it out of there. The replacement MX-5 had been parked outside and after his injury sat for two years before the sad decision to never drive again, and by that time when I offered to advertise it, we discovered that it had deteriorated (as MX-5s do when left outdoors) and someone had stolen the cat.
So with the lockup, the doors were old and falling apart at the bottom, but really secure. When the council came and upgraded the doors the contractors wouldn't talk to his partner (they live within sight of the lockups, all off a main road in the same estate, so it's not like they're remote), we've no idea where the key went, but when he got to go outside he found the door open sometimes, sometimes closed. All his other stuff was nicked, but the car was still there, we thought whoever had the key had been treating the lockup as their own and maybe felt anything in it was 'theirs', or maybe they knew exactly what they were doing.
I got made redundant in May last year, so when I was in London anyway I popped in, I found that the contractors had fitted the door in such a way that it could never lock. The staples and bolts weren't aligned, the door could be pushed open with ease. I also found that someone had nicked the Alpine CD changer, amp and subwoofer from the car (Denny worked for Alpine at the time and the car had some demo kit fitted), using the screwdriver from the toolkit judging by it being open and the insert loose in the back. They also nicked the screwdriver, Gits.
Expecting the worst, I checked under the car with a torch as much as I could, had a feel for crusty sills and stuff, looked for signs of rodent damage - it's like the car has been in stasis. If you want to preserve a car for the future, shove it in a London council garage with leaky doors and a non-lkeaking flat roof for a decade or so apparently. The interior still smelled freshly valeted and had no mould or damp, the tyres (fitted not long before it dumped the coolant) are so old in date terms I'd be afraid to rely on them but they still had pressure, and having inflated them to move it, still had 25psi in what, 8 months later. They don't even look perished.
Seeing the condition of it, and thinking that if whoever thought they'd got the garage (maybe with the garage having 8 on it, the contractors gave the key to number 8 in one of the blocks - though no-one had owned up if that was the case) would have seen us going and looking and taking pics, I rented a truck the next morning and got the car out of there. I was expecting it to be stinking, rusty, rotten etc.
The tank was completely full of V-power, I made a rookie mistake and forgot about physics so when I got it home I'd drained half the tank with a pump - the fuel retained worked fine in our old bangers as a way of disposing of it, but I had left an expansion chamber when before it had done, so over summer/winter temperature changes with the filler cap on it pressurised or vacuum or something and leaked fuel all over the garage floor. Yeay! I need to check if it is a pipe that has failed, a split in the fuel tank, or was just a vent pipe purging, but have since left the fuel cap loose.
Having saved it, we discussed what to do with it - I figured that even without me touching a thing on it, it could be sold for enough to pay for my time recovering it and a useful chunk of money for the owner - but he's keen to see it work again, no rush (it's been sat 16 years) and who knows what we'll do after that. We assumed it would need a full rebuild, engine, the lot - I said I'd just take things apart slowly and see what I find. After a gentle bit of washing, and finding the goop in the radiator cap, I felt like there was progress - but discovering the small hole on the front inner wing paused work (as did it being sodding cold and bitter).
Couldn't decide how to progress because I can't weld - in the end, this month I've decided to just see if it works at all. Cleaning out the coolant showed more signs that it wasn't a 'head gasket' failure (my suspicion was maybe the recently-before-failure work on the turbos might have introduced an issue - I've yet to see the history file to piece together more of that though) but potentially, an OAT/Ethylene Glycol coolant mixup issue causing the system to pressurise and dump coolant out.
My main concern is that the rotor seals and springs may have failed with being stuck in the same position all this time. I dropped a bit of oil the plug holes and left it a little while then gently turned the engine, it feels fine - no resistance and I can hear the pulse of 'breathing' compression even turning it slowly. So I've drained the oil (no signs of coolant in it), filling with cheap Mannol stuff from Amazon because for £50 I get 15 litres of it - fill, test car, drain, fill... I'll put some fancy Millers mineral oil or other nice recommended stuff in when I know the car works. I'll flush the cooling system more with some rad flush, I know there are some pipes that I can't easily reach without taking the inlet off and they're likely to still be blocked, then if no issues show I'll change all the coolant hoses and fill with proper mix, I'm fairly sure this car would have been OAT when new but I am wondering if the new formulas are better. Current plan is to use nice straightforward G12 but never with the idea that it'll stay in there for 10 years.
If it starts and runs, and runs well, I might just try taking it for an MOT before doing anything else. See what else crops up. Meanwhile I'm cleaning, checking, waxoyling, rust treating and so forth just little bits at a time. In the long term it needs a repair on the rear quarter and a lot of London-style small parking dents and marks sorting out to be perfect. But if the UK cars are desired, I think perfect is worth aiming for.
While I'm still looking for regular/sensible work to not be under financial stress I can't throw money at it – but I know it is worth investing in. Until then I'm mostly just enjoying a really beautiful car occupying my garage.
Though my 2003 Boxster S is less impressed at being evicted.
I'll upload some pics of progress when I'm at the right machine!
Which means this UK-spec RX-7, bought as a nice sporty used car when it was just a nice sporty used car, has spent from 2008 to 2024 hiding from the light in a Hackney lockup. I wonder if the people who stole the bikes and things from the lockup were perhaps hoping to do something with it, but them stealing the bikes meant that finally, my friend and i took action!
In the intro post @jack.am says "good to see another one saved" or similar words. I don't think that's quite fair – I'm putting it back on the road, sure...
But saved... you know, this car was a real shock. It was parked in a council lockup in 2008 and did not turn a wheel until I pulled it out of there. The replacement MX-5 had been parked outside and after his injury sat for two years before the sad decision to never drive again, and by that time when I offered to advertise it, we discovered that it had deteriorated (as MX-5s do when left outdoors) and someone had stolen the cat.
So with the lockup, the doors were old and falling apart at the bottom, but really secure. When the council came and upgraded the doors the contractors wouldn't talk to his partner (they live within sight of the lockups, all off a main road in the same estate, so it's not like they're remote), we've no idea where the key went, but when he got to go outside he found the door open sometimes, sometimes closed. All his other stuff was nicked, but the car was still there, we thought whoever had the key had been treating the lockup as their own and maybe felt anything in it was 'theirs', or maybe they knew exactly what they were doing.
I got made redundant in May last year, so when I was in London anyway I popped in, I found that the contractors had fitted the door in such a way that it could never lock. The staples and bolts weren't aligned, the door could be pushed open with ease. I also found that someone had nicked the Alpine CD changer, amp and subwoofer from the car (Denny worked for Alpine at the time and the car had some demo kit fitted), using the screwdriver from the toolkit judging by it being open and the insert loose in the back. They also nicked the screwdriver, Gits.
Expecting the worst, I checked under the car with a torch as much as I could, had a feel for crusty sills and stuff, looked for signs of rodent damage - it's like the car has been in stasis. If you want to preserve a car for the future, shove it in a London council garage with leaky doors and a non-lkeaking flat roof for a decade or so apparently. The interior still smelled freshly valeted and had no mould or damp, the tyres (fitted not long before it dumped the coolant) are so old in date terms I'd be afraid to rely on them but they still had pressure, and having inflated them to move it, still had 25psi in what, 8 months later. They don't even look perished.
Seeing the condition of it, and thinking that if whoever thought they'd got the garage (maybe with the garage having 8 on it, the contractors gave the key to number 8 in one of the blocks - though no-one had owned up if that was the case) would have seen us going and looking and taking pics, I rented a truck the next morning and got the car out of there. I was expecting it to be stinking, rusty, rotten etc.
The tank was completely full of V-power, I made a rookie mistake and forgot about physics so when I got it home I'd drained half the tank with a pump - the fuel retained worked fine in our old bangers as a way of disposing of it, but I had left an expansion chamber when before it had done, so over summer/winter temperature changes with the filler cap on it pressurised or vacuum or something and leaked fuel all over the garage floor. Yeay! I need to check if it is a pipe that has failed, a split in the fuel tank, or was just a vent pipe purging, but have since left the fuel cap loose.
Having saved it, we discussed what to do with it - I figured that even without me touching a thing on it, it could be sold for enough to pay for my time recovering it and a useful chunk of money for the owner - but he's keen to see it work again, no rush (it's been sat 16 years) and who knows what we'll do after that. We assumed it would need a full rebuild, engine, the lot - I said I'd just take things apart slowly and see what I find. After a gentle bit of washing, and finding the goop in the radiator cap, I felt like there was progress - but discovering the small hole on the front inner wing paused work (as did it being sodding cold and bitter).
Couldn't decide how to progress because I can't weld - in the end, this month I've decided to just see if it works at all. Cleaning out the coolant showed more signs that it wasn't a 'head gasket' failure (my suspicion was maybe the recently-before-failure work on the turbos might have introduced an issue - I've yet to see the history file to piece together more of that though) but potentially, an OAT/Ethylene Glycol coolant mixup issue causing the system to pressurise and dump coolant out.
My main concern is that the rotor seals and springs may have failed with being stuck in the same position all this time. I dropped a bit of oil the plug holes and left it a little while then gently turned the engine, it feels fine - no resistance and I can hear the pulse of 'breathing' compression even turning it slowly. So I've drained the oil (no signs of coolant in it), filling with cheap Mannol stuff from Amazon because for £50 I get 15 litres of it - fill, test car, drain, fill... I'll put some fancy Millers mineral oil or other nice recommended stuff in when I know the car works. I'll flush the cooling system more with some rad flush, I know there are some pipes that I can't easily reach without taking the inlet off and they're likely to still be blocked, then if no issues show I'll change all the coolant hoses and fill with proper mix, I'm fairly sure this car would have been OAT when new but I am wondering if the new formulas are better. Current plan is to use nice straightforward G12 but never with the idea that it'll stay in there for 10 years.
If it starts and runs, and runs well, I might just try taking it for an MOT before doing anything else. See what else crops up. Meanwhile I'm cleaning, checking, waxoyling, rust treating and so forth just little bits at a time. In the long term it needs a repair on the rear quarter and a lot of London-style small parking dents and marks sorting out to be perfect. But if the UK cars are desired, I think perfect is worth aiming for.
While I'm still looking for regular/sensible work to not be under financial stress I can't throw money at it – but I know it is worth investing in. Until then I'm mostly just enjoying a really beautiful car occupying my garage.
Though my 2003 Boxster S is less impressed at being evicted.
I'll upload some pics of progress when I'm at the right machine!
