Duffman's 79 Spark Yellow Restoration Project

[Duffman692002]

Had a thread over on the Evil Forum but I wanna bring it here for those who don't frequent that froum to enjoy as well. Plus I figure it'll be easir to find the 79 specific parts i need if there are more eyes watching/reading, enjoy.

For around 5 years now I've been looking for a 1979 Spark Yellow to restore and over these years I've come across only a handful. They were either too far gone, overpriced, or beat within an inch of their lives.

The first one I found I happened to spot in a field as I was driving by, I didn't know it was a Spark Yellow at the time cause the elements had definitely taken their toll on the poor thing. Well it turns out that particular one was a 3/78 car, there's a thread floating around here somewhere with the pics of that one. The second was an original owner/daily driven car, the owner was a nice enough fella but the car had seen better days and he wouldn't budge on the price so I had to pass. The third was almost the same story but it had be molested over the years and I felt that it was a lil more than I could handle.

Fast forward to Tuesday of last week. A buddy of mine posted up a link to one of those scam FDs, you know the ones with the $2,500 price tag and already in a container ready to ship to you in Albuquerque, NM. Yea, those are great deals. Anyway, he had been looking for an FB so I though I'd have a look at his choices. About halfway down the page one post caught my eye, it said '1979 MAZDA RX7 - $250' so I clicked to see what it was...and when it opened I involuntarily let out an 'Oh SH*T!'.

The posting was from early September and I prayed that the car was still available so I sent the poster an email. There was a phone number too but no area code and I didn't realize till a couple hours later that 1) I have the internet, 2) the internet has numerous internet phone books, and 3) that those have area codes. Dialed up the number...1 ring...4 rings...7 rings...robot voice... Crap.. I got an answering machine and to tell the truth, I was a lil discouraged but I left my name and number hoping for the best. A few hours later I had a call from a 505 area code, YES!! The owner and I spoke for awhile, I asked him a few questions about the car, condition, if the price was right, etc and 20 minuets later it was mine. I told him I'd be coming from Dallas and that I'd be on his doorstep come Saturday afternoon, he just laughed and said 'alright'.

Here's what I was greeted with:




Loaded up and ready to go: (pardon the blur, I think my camera is on its way out)


PIT STOP!



Some 1400 miles later and she was home: