MrMazda92's '92 GS - New daily

[WhiteFinish]

Nice project... I'll keep tracking it...

[MrMazda92]

I have no camera at the moment, save my iPhone, and that's just a joke to deal with. Who likes having to email pictures to themself, download them on a computer, re-upload them, and post them? Bleh.

[MrMazda92]

I'll try to give some updates that actually show what I've been doing soon.

I'm a little scattered, and tend to do 10% of 25 things at the same time, then finish them all up 3 months later on the same day...

[MrMazda92]

Finally updated some things in the original post, still a lot I have yet to add...

[MrMazda92]

Starting to look like a real worklog! Now I just need a few thousand dollars, a competent machine shop, and some custom/hard to find parts to call it good! Pictures will come when I clean the car again... She's due for a wax job.

[MrMazda92]

Yeah, that cleaning never came about.

I did get my manual belts swapped in finally, glad it's done and over with... Definitely more to it than I expected. I had to swap in my 94 seats to use them, since modifying the bracket for the belt didn't appeal to me.

Someone needs to sell me pillar trim!

[davmac]

Congrats on installing the manual belts. I did the same for my 92. I did not replace the A or B pillar trim - just removed the motor, cable and shuttle from the passive seat belt system. Also swapped the seat belt buckle / latch from the donor car seats. I suspect that part is sometimes easy to forget. I had 94 front and rear seats to potentially swap, but in the end decided I liked the 92 fronts better so just swapped the buckles and rear seats. I really hate the passive seat belt system and consider the manual seat belt swap to be one of the nicest improvements I've made.

[ethand]

Sweet, looks like there is some good progress... I just noticed that I've never read every comment on here before (I've previously just read the first post to figure out where it'd going, etc.). Nice work, though
Also, I think I know where Aaron's "parts car" comment came from, though - I also misread your post here:

I guess I could throw up a picture, even though it's only part of the car.

I thought you were saying there that it was a parts car, and I thought "that doesn't sound right!" haha...
Anyway, looking forward to seeing some more updates, and once you get a camera that works for you (Picasa by Google works to download pics to your computer from iPhone, btw, and its free )
Congrats on the manual seatbelt install - out of interest (I have a few people asking me about getting them, as we only have the manual ones in Australia), where did you both get them from?

[MrMazda92]

davmac,
Thank you, my power belts were great to me, my main complaint was that one was rattling constantly while driving, and I hit my head on the driver's side often when I bought the car.
I'll be bolting the track back in as a temporary solution, until I can get a 94+ headliner with sunroof for a good price.

I actually have the entire setup from a 94, short the headliner and trim. The 94 style latch didn't mount at a usable angle for the 92 seats, and I'm not willing to cut into mint seat brackets/mounts(they'll be mated with leathers soon hopefully). The notch wouldn't need to be very big, drilling it would probably even work, I just don't see any reason when the 94 seats aren't currently being used.

I definitely do like the manual belts better, but even the carpet is an inconvenience at the moment. I'll need to cut and patch the sections below the doors, until or unless I can find a 94 carpet for cheap. It's not a super high priority, but it's on the list!

The belts are definitely an improvement, although I did like the angle of the power belts over my shoulder better, I now need my belt pads to keep it off the necks of my shorter passengers.

[MrMazda92]

Thanks Ethan.
I've actually gotten a fair bit more done than I've mentioned, I just haven't kept everything as clean as I would like to. I need to redo a few things that I did hastily, and am a little embarrassed about. I took shortcuts that I knew not to, and it will take me longer to fix things than it should have. I'll be doing a major update soon, if my suspension buy pans out next week.

The belts came from another forum member, he pulled them from a 94+ MX-3 in the states, that's all I know.

Also, I got another new phone. That issue is gone, and the camera shames the iPhone one. Pictures are easier now too, thankfully.

[WhiteFinish]

This thread is worthless without pics

[MrMazda92]

They'll come, I promise! No promises on when though... No engine pics until it's done, meaning I need to call the machine shop I was recommended(been looking for the "right" one for a while, half of them farm work out to "better equipped" machine shops, and I want to speak face to face to the guy doing the work)

Paint will be this year, one way or another, it WILL happen. There will be plenty of pictures when that time comes.

I need to redo my trunk floor, and honestly at this point I may just lay down a rubber mat to help dampen sound transfer. My hatch squeaks to the point that I want to yank it off, so I need to acquire the mazda replacement hinges. After that, I need to learn to do quality body filler work. I've got TINY dents all over the place.

Pics will come when I get the car cleaned up and fix these and a few other issues.

[MrMazda92]

Pictureless update, these get old fast huh?

Finally did my drivers side manual belt swap. The passenger has been done for a few weeks, I was hesitant to remove the headliner without having a replacement already. That hesitation is gone, it will help inspire me to locate a replacement.

Oil change day, for both MX-3s will come tomorrow. I played hooky today and missed school, actually I went but forgot my bag -.- Ended up sleeping in the car while my girlfriend attended classes as normal. Afterwards, I felt productive; This led to the belt swap, purchase of enough oil & filters for both oil changes(hard to beat 10 quarts of Mobil 1 for $50), purchase of a reman. right rear caliper for the '93 w/ bracket, and final prep work for the rear rotor/pad swap on the '92. To top it off I took the measurements for my headlight wiring upgrade, I would be finished by now if I could find new pigtails that didn't already have spades installed. It's impossible to get these spades out, and the current wiring is only 16 AWG. I'm using 12 AWG for the setup, so I may have to use regular 1/4" spades in place of a true pigtail for the time being. It's not as clean, but it will work in the meantime.

My girlfriend and I also detailed the car that my family will be using, she did most of the work on this one. I just stood around looking good.

[ethand]

Haha nice work! I love productive days! Especially when its productive on the car/s
All the best with finding a headliner - you gonna try Canadian members, or need to go further abroad?
P.S. a well detailed car is the perfect excuse for a picture update We have pretty much no pics of either of your cars!! I've seen more of it in Moonegg's posts than yours hahaha

[MrMazda92]

Unfortunately only the Camry was detailed yesterday

Today though, I did modify my driver's seat to accept the '94+ belt buckle. Big*ss drillbit and a vacuum cleaner for the metal shavings, ended up taking no time at all. After which, I completely gutted the interior from the passenger seat back, removed my rear wiper fluid reservoir, and cleaned that location thoroughly. No rust, yay for Oregon cars.

Now, unfortunately... I did find a rust hole! The horror... Thankfully, it's smaller than a pencil eraser, and will be removed as any other cancer would be. It's about 6" below the hatch latch in the rear, I was surprised to see it at all.

I really need to find a 94+ headliner with sunroof, as well as a 94+ carpet.

I'm honestly embarrassed about the current state of my '92, and that's the reason for no pictures... I've been lax in my cleaning and detailing these past 6 months.
I will get some up when I clean the car well.

As for the '93, it will be drivable again VERY soon, and will be deep cleaned and thoroughly photographed for you all to enjoy.