In the news biz this would be called a human interest story about how an otherwise normal human being would end up running an "RX-7 only" junk yard. I submit this to the list in hopes that others will do a similar profile on the good folks who make their living supporting those of us who own RX-7s by providing engineering, parts, and service. I enjoyed reading past essays on visits to PFS and Racing Beat. Here is my contribution.

   About fifteen miles west of York, Pennsylvania on route 30, and a half mile past the "81 Diner," you will find a well flowered house with a wider than average driveway and a sign that says "Mazda RX-7 Parts" on it. Behind the house you will find a few buildings and garages. Hidden in the back, there are several neat rows of wrecked first and second generation RX-7s. Most are just shells, sadly showing the results of unintended dances with telephone poles, guard rails, and other vehicles. It's like a morgue where everyone looks like your best friend. I try not to think about it. Donnie Peters says he is used to it by now.

   The place is called Sun Auto. Donnie is the owner of both the business and the house. If he works on your car, or sells you some parts, you get a neat computerized invoice that boasts of 20 years in the business. Twenty years ago was 1976, so it couldn't have been a "RX-7 only" place for that long. In my work as admissions director for a classical music school I do a lot of talking to parents about how people find their path in life, so I asked Donnie to tell me how it came about.

   Donnie seems to enjoy talking with people, either in person or on the phone. He is a tall slim fellow -- soft spoken -- who looks you directly in the eye. He carries a telephone on his belt which, he says, makes it easier to go out to a car and work with a distant customer to identify the parts he needs.

   Sun Auto started as a collision repair facility. Donnie talks with considerable pride about the work they did. Paint matching is the key, he says. That's the first thing a customer sees. He had a considerable amount of money invested in the best color matching technology of the time. The business was growing. He started talking about working with insurance companies, and I swear it was an identical conversation to the one I had with my dentist last Friday. Both were saying that it was hard to get paid for doing really good work. The dentist said he only gets about 40% of the going rate if he works for a "dental plan." Donnie said the insurance company would not pay for color matching as a discrete step in collision repair. They just wanted him to go with the original factory color, even if the rest of the car was faded. Donnie also insisted on giving the car a good cleaning, inside and out, before delivery. The insurance companies would not pay for that either, saying that other shops in the area did not charge for it.

   Like the dentist, Donnie said that in order to "play the game," other shops were making up the difference by finding ways to build up the repair quote they sent to the insurance companies. The insurance companies would then do their usual cost cutting, and hopefully everything would come out somewhere near the actual cost of doing a decent job for the client. Anyone who enjoys the Dilbert comic strip will recognize this gambit as the same one that is par for the course in governmental and institutional budget battles. Donnie didn't want to play that game. He is a straight ahead sort of person.

   When the collision business was slow, Donnie would buy damaged RX-7s, fix them up, and put them on Rt. 30 out front for sale. Before long he had a fair supply of extra parts. The collision repair business was growing to a point where it was time to do some major investing in more buildings and equipment -- maybe hire more people. It is a difficult time for any business owner, with lots of thought about what it means personally and financially to make a move like that. As it happened, two of his employees quit within a few weeks of each other. Between that and the constant irritation with insurance companies, it was enough to push him to look for something else to do. That was about six years ago.

   It started as a parts and service place for RX-7s and Nissan Pulsars. Before long it was obvious where the action was. He said he came to appreciate the quality of the RX-7s, and even though he (and I for that matter) wasn't overly impressed with their appearance when they first came out, he has grown to love them. He only handles first and second generation cars, but is looking to add more storage space and start dealing with third generation parts as soon as the demand is there.

   Today, Donnie gets most of his cars at auctions. I didn't realize it, but there are indeed auctions for wrecked cars. He sounds like an organ transplant specialist when he says that the parts are never in better shape than they are when they first arrive at the yard. It is important to get them out of the cars before they weather.

   I counted somewhere around 28 transmissions standing at attention in his storage area. The numbers didn't add up because he only had about 20 cars sitting there. He said that last winter they had brought a crusher in and disposed of about a hundred gutted cars. The storage area is amazing. Besides the transmissions, there are piles of fans, rows of carbs, rear ends, seats, and engines. Wiring harnesses and rubber door seals cascade off of large hooks. Many of the parts have notes on them about their condition. In addition to the larger stuff, he has bins full of those pesky little parts like the plastic thing that makes the turn signal cancel, the little clips that hold the cruise control cable in place, and those nylon gizmos that receive the screws that hold the headlight bezel in place. Also, wrapped in plastic and ready to go, are rebuilt logicons and those pesky dashboard switches for 2nd gens.

   Donnie guarantees many of his used parts for a year, so the last thing he wants is to send something out that doesn't work. He found, for instance, that the only way to be sure a fan clutch was going to work was to actually mount it to an car. I asked him how he knew the engine out of a wreck was okay. He pointed out a large frame which was used as a test bed, complete with a gas tank, radiator and ignition set-up. He says that he can get the engine going in a surprising number of wrecks, which is the easiest way to do a quick check of the major components. However, sometimes he has to dig into a transmission to be sure it is okay before sending it out. He has a standard operation for front mounted oil coolers in which he beefs up the hose connection points and rigs them so you don't end up cracking the necks when you install it.

   Because of the testing and fixing that goes into it before he ships the part, you will find Donnie's prices to be very good deals. Much depends on how close to the front of the car the part is located. Parts close to the front of the car are harder to find in good condition. So Donnie will sell you a whole window washer bottle assembly, complete with the pump motor for $10.00. But headlight bezels (those three-sided plastic pieces that fair out the headlights) are $14.00 each. Other hard to find items include some interior pieces prone to fading. On the other hand, he will probably make you a wonderful deal if you happen to need a couple dozen blue air cleaner shells for 12A engines.

   Sun Auto does most of its business in the middle Atlantic region, but has shipped parts as far as Hawaii and Sweden. Donnie's biggest problem these days is that the service business is doing so well, he is somewhat short handed. He only charges $40.00/hour for labor, which when combined with the easy access to used and reconditioned parts makes it very attractive. For instance, one of his oil coolers, installed and guaranteed for a year is $255.00. A good price on a new part alone is about $400.00.

   The RX-7 has been around for over a decade and a half, and has morphed from a high value, low dollar sports car to a high tech, high dollar engineering showcase. Logically the market for parts and service has broken into segments. RX-7 owners are fortunate to have all kinds of resources available, including engineering businesses with links to the factory, broad based catalog houses, and smaller regional businesses that specialize in our favorite marque.

   With so many of our first and second generation cars having over 150,000 miles on the clock, most of us recognize the durability of the majority of the pieces. Decent used parts make a lot of sense for those of us on tight budgets -- especially if somebody like Donnie is there to check them out before sending them. Besides, he's much more fun to talk to than most of the parts guys at the Mazda dealers. The last time I was at the local dealer, they told me (totally sincere) that a set of front brake pads would cost something like $435.00. I pointed out that the number he was referring to on the microfische was for a caliper.

Donnie's business phone is (717) 259-0174
His email address is: rotaryparts@usa.pipeline.com