MX-3.com

Since it's almost ready for the road again, I thought I should finally start a worklog for my 93 Mazda Mx-3 GS. I bought it back in 2008 with the original 1.8L v6 and auto intact. Other than fixing a few minor issues, the only things done to it were find a better interior and upgrade the stereo.






That is how it stayed until early 2010 when the auto trans decided to die. After no luck finding a replacement trans, I sold the car, then 6 months later bought the car back along with a 5 speed donor car. I picked away at the cars doing little things while I had time until could find another engine to swap in as well, which I finally found last May in the form of a 2.5L KLZE, curveneck intake. I was able to get this along with a Fidanza flywheel,spare 5 speed trans and KL36 ecu. Now that I had the parts I wanted, the rebuild began. First we stripped most of the body and took out the old motor and trans.



As you can see, the rocker panels and quarters were pretty rough. After sitting for over 2 years, alot of parts were showing their age and putting up a fight. While we had the extra space, all new gas lines, brake lines flex hoses, rotors, calipers and radiator were tossed on and then the motor and trans found its new home. Next came mounting the clutch pedal and reconnecting all the wiring, hooking up the shifter linkage and started on the metal work. As of right now, all the metal work is done, lines are bled, fenders, doors and hood are back on and final body work has begun.

Wow that's a ton of work. Great job.

Nice to see one getting resurected instead of stripped and tossed.

It has been alot of work but it will be worth it in the end. On the east coast it's almost impossible to find any car this old without a decent amount of rust unless it has lived in a garage. I'm not sure if you can tell, but we used old fenders from my donor car to repair the quarters. It gave us the perfect arch for the wheel well and comes out an extra 1/2"-1" further than stock, almost giving it a widebody look.

With that extra fender space you should be able to run a +10 offset with no problem. If it's a full inch, you may even be able to squeeze an et 0 in there.

For now it's just going to have a set of 14s from a 93 protege gt since 6 out of 8 of my gs rims were stolen, but I am thinking 15" or 16" with +10 or +15 in back and closer to stock offset in front are in the future. They put in new inspection rules around here, apparently your vehicle needs oem springs and must be at stock ride height or you can be pulled over, fined, and even remove your sticker, so I found some springs from an escort wagon to jack the back end up a bit. With about 150lbs of stereo gear in the back, it should sit roughly where the stock ones were and give me a little extra space for a bit taller tire. I dont want to go any lower than a 45 or 50 series tire.

SgtLynch wrote:Nice to see one getting resurected instead of stripped and tossed.

yeah there is so many 3's just thrown away

Sweet ride man!!!

Another week down and it's starting to look like a car again. All the welding on the body is done, door bottoms are fixed and bolted back up, fenders are on, prep work has started to get ready for paint and test fit the new rims.

VERY great work this may be my new favorite worklog (i love resurrections of MX-3's)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More body work in progress and interior is back in, debating on color now. I'm thinking either Midnight black metallic or Daytona blue metallic.

i vote for black there is very few ones in nice condition in black

Just when I thought all the welding was done, I pulled off the bumper to clean up the body work on the quarters and found this:


On the bright side I picked up some tires for the new rims, unfortunately the tires are rubbing on the struts so it looks like I need spacers.

It's been a while so I guess it's time for an update. The patch panel for behind the bumper is welded in, bumper is back on and I decided to go with electric blue metallic for the paint color.



Most of the car is primed and underneath is rockguarded and undercoated. The only big spots left to do are the hatch and pulling off the drivers side door again to finish sanding it. Oh, figured I'd show you guys how she sleeps at night.

Jeez looks like a frankenstein operation great work!

Got the fog lights mounted, most of the car is ready for paint and started painting under the hood and the inside of the doors.