Stacey's Mazda RX-7, Restoration Costs and Considerations
This document last modified May 21, 2003.
I've heard it said by many
enthusiasts that it often takes a year or more to sort out the previous
owner's problems in any used car purchase. Well, in a sense, when Stacey
bought back her salvaged car from the insurance company, she bought somebody
else's car, with all of the previous "owner's" problems, if we dare to
consider that the miscreants who stole the car can be considered once-and-temporary "owners."
While it's true that she has been the sole legal owner of this car since it was
new, and it was always meticulously cared for by one highly regarded mechanic,
the fact is that the insurance company could not be sure of the mechanical
condition of the car, considering the treatment that it was apparently given by
the misfits who stole it, and that was probably one of the primary reasons that
it was written off.
As such, when word reached the
internet community that the car had been recovered, and the condition in which
it had been recovered, suggestions quickly resounded that Stacey should have a
compression test done on the car, as this is one of the best methods available
to determine the internal health of a rotary engine. The concern was that if
the engine had been abused during its stay with "the miscreants,"
then the expense of restoring the car might not be worth Stacey's
while. Even if the aesthetic restoration of the car only added up to five or
six thousand dollars, an engine rebuild or
replacement could easily double that amount. Remember that Stacey had only
received $9000 (Can) from her insurance company. So two
questions quickly presented themselves to Stacey: "What is this car worth
to you?" and "How much is it going to cost?"
In an effort to answer the costs question, Stacey had the car hauled over
to Wolfe's Langley Mazda, in Surrey, BC, with the help of her friend, Jim, who
drives a tow truck. Typical of far too many Mazda dealers, the mechanics at Wolfe's
demonstrated their enthusiasm for customer service:
"Those guys took one look at the car and REFUSED to even do the test!
Oh God, was I mad! I argued with a mechanic four times the size of
me -- I referred to him as 'the big burly mechanic.' I refused to leave
until he tested the car. Jim, the tow truck driver/customer of mine, stood
on the sidelines and just giggled. He's known me long enough to know: don't make her angry!"
Wanna guess who won? :)
Fifty dollars later, Stacey had these compression test results in hand:
(Did you notice the words at the bottom of the invoice: "At Your Service?" Yeah,
right!) Anyway, the consensus was that the engine was fine, and the engine seems
to agree, even several thousand miles later.
With that assurance out of the way, Stacey was next faced with questions of how to go about the
restoration. She once asked me if she should change the color. I replied as
follows:
"If I were at a stop light, and a hot blonde in a
little red sports car pulled up along side of me, and another hot blonde in a
little, say... black sports car pulled up on my other side, I'd probably flirt
with the blonde one.
And then the other one.
Maybe we're all going to the same
bar! Maybe not. Maybe they'll
both let me buy them drinks. Maybe I've only got a
50/50 chance -- that'd be fine, as there's two of 'em....
Oh, yeah... paint. :)
If I had kept my old, white '84, I'd
have thought about repainting it either high-gloss black or red, but would
probably have stuck with the original white. I've never seen a color conversion
that really came off perfectly; I've seen quite a few that looked good when
new, as long as you didn't start looking for the old paint color in the fender
seams, or behind the bumpers or in the door jams, etc.
So stick with the original red."
Stacey agreed, adding
"Well, care to speculate on what my total bill is going to be? I've
had the tie rod ends fixed, the car's been walnut blasted, all the glass
replaced, and the new ignition, door locks and column covers installed. Add in
the cosmetic interior pieces, and the paint. The rims will be
fixed too -- cleaned and a clear coat applied. I wonder if they are
charging me storage fees? Hummmmmmm."
"$8995," I answered. "I'm not kidding."
"In my area, the stripping and paint would cost around $3500 (US). The tie
rods are cheap, at $25 each plus maybe $50 for installation. I don't
recall what kind of prices the locks and interior parts would cost,
but I'm going to throw out a number of about $500, installed. You
already told me about the glass for $1000 (Can); just for the sake of
my 'merican math, I'll translate that to $600 (US). Add another $300
for wheel refinishing, and I'm getting $5000 US. That's butting up
mighty close to the $5600 US / $9000 Canadian that you got for the car.
But then again, everybody loves Stacey, so you'll probably get away
with about half that. :)"
I came pretty close with that nine
grand estimate, as you'll see later.
