I have to say that we were a little more concerned with finding a candidate that would make a better race car than a LeMon. In hind-sight, after spending countless hours prowling the LeMons forums, we came to the realization that while we are adhering to the rules of LeMons, we haven't exactly nailed the spirit of LeMons on our first try. I think we'll get better with experience.
The days turned into weeks, the weeks into months, while we fired email after email back and forth with links to cars for sale/auction/come-and-get-this-piece-of-crap-out-of-my-yard/ etc. Nearly all the cars we found that were under the $500 limit were going to need a lot of work. I mean a LOT of work...
There were the occassional cars that looked great, but had no engine and/or tranny; a good find now that I think about it. But we seemed to be on a senseless mission to find a car that looked good AND still ran. I guess good things do come to those who wait...
One morning Van sends me a link to a Craigslist post. It's local (meaning literally on the way home from work). It's light. AND it runs! So we stop by on the way home to check it out. It didn't take long to decided...
Behold the glory which is the 1980 Mazda RX7, resplendent in all it's Aura White pallor!
Sadly, the beer did not come with it, but lots of other things did. For the paltry sum of $400, our efforts and patience were rewarded. It was originally sold in California, so the emissions stuff on the engine is an absolute rat's nest (in fact that's what they call it). It had an after-market oil cooler installed that appears to have borne the brunt of some underbody impact, leaving a nice oil/road dirt sludge all over the lower half of the engine. But we were buying it from the second owner, and he got it from his uncle who bought it brand new in 1980. We knew the entire history of the car; at least we knew what they told us.
We borrowed a trailer and transported our baby LeMon to it's new home (aka my driveway). Surprisingly, between my driveway and the warehouse parking lot two doors down where we unloaded it, it still had enough grunt to spin one of the tires! That was a good sign (I think).
Upon closer inspection (some would argue that this should have occurred before bringing it home), we found even more good news. It seems the previous owner's ambition for restoring this beauty to it's former glory was short-lived. In short, nearly everything except the pedals, wheel and driver seat had been previously removed then hastily tossed back in. And the seat was held in only loosely with two fasteners. The headliner and some of the trim were still attached, but not much.
There was a mountain of change scattered about, both foreign and domestic. We haven't counted it yet, but it's in a bag and rest assured, it will be tallied and subtracted from the cost of the car. Fun park tokens, tokens for buckets of balls at the driving range, miscellaneous parts and tools, TWO instrument clusters; neither of which are OE for this particular car. A box of styrofoam peanuts, a bra that was never installed, some antifreeze and brake fluid, a Pioneer CD player that had been installed at one point. But it did have the original spare tire, and the tools and jack; all of which I would have thought would be gone by now.
We knew we had a long way to go, but at least now we had a car and some idea of what needed to be done...
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