Eric Hooper- 92 MX3

[jrors]

I agree. It look nice, but, is it complete yet?

[mitmaks]

Im sure he's working on it

[Eric Hooper]

It's not complete yet, I have to finish the bumpers, door handles, mirrors, and spoiler(I bought off Ebay).

Almost done though...

I'm expecting things to be painted next month and then it should at least look pretty much done.

[Eric Hooper]

Finally got around to posting new pic of it completed.

[Eric Hooper]

The modifications to this car are:
Black interior swap from a black auto MX-3. The black MX-3 should live on somewhere... I traded it for a truck so who knows. Look for a tan interior black MX-3 near Spokane and it might have been mine.

GS spoiler off ebay that required a lot of repair. Seller said good condition and not knowing exactly what things looked like I thought the de-tached plastic piece was the mounting bracket... didn't realize it was supposed to be attached. Oh well, some glue and plastic putty later it looks good.

GS mud flaps off eaby. They were NOS and in my color. I've seen them for cheaper since but even at $50 I thought they were a steal.

GS wing off ebay. It was a good spoiler, just needed rock chip repair and paint.

1.8 Protoge LX motor with Exedy clutch. My old motor was starting to smoke, so this went in. I don't have the space to do this myself so I paid a somewhat skeptical mechanic to do it. He's a great mechanic, but I guess he never knew of the swap. Anyway, I used the protoge harness and all the 1.6 air box pieces so the motor looks like it was born there.

That's pretty much it. This pretty much is a GS clone I guess...

[umcamara]

Wow man, I'm impressed. You can appreciate the things you have much more when you do the work yourself. What a restoration.

I'm gonna attempt to do some body work this summer and mint up my ride, but I've never actually worked with body filler before, so it should be interesting.

In my opinion, get yourself some '94+ GS 5-spoke rims, and you've got yourself a little gem.

[Eric Hooper]

Thanks... Though I'd like to say it's not a restoration, just a major freshening(no new rubbers, due to cost constraints not all jambs were painted, and sadly some shrinkage in the base was not fixed which basically means if you look hard the clear will be very smooth but you'll see lines underneath. It's not anything noticeable but I know). It's a head-turner though now, and I hope when money allows to get some 15 or 16in spoked wheels.

Remember when using body filler:
1. The straighter the metal, the better the end result
2. If you have to really build like I did on the door(The metals so warped it won't go back to shape without oil-canning). Then start with 36 to get the initial shape, the sharper the grit, the straighter the cut. Then go to 89 grit, and finish with 150 to 180. You'll want to make sure there's no deep cuts in the paint either because when primered it can shrink into the gnarly scratches.
3. As a beginner try and use automotive wax and grease remover to give body filler an artificial shine. This lets you see what it kinda looks like painted.
4. Take it slow, it's cheaper fixing it before it's painted then realizing you don't like it when it's done.

[mitmaks]

nice job, maybe we should do a local mx-3 cruise this summer

[Eric Hooper]

Sounds good, not sure how many peole are actually into their MX-3's in our area though. I've only seen one other nice example of one near me. It oddly looks a lot like mine but with nice rims, tint, and no rear mud-flaps(I like the look of the tint...). I also remember one coming into the body shop that wasn't babied but the person liked it enough to pay for a new front end to get welded in. Most of the MX-3's in Spokane seemed to have lived rather rough lives.

[mitmaks]

i see 2 SE's pretty much on regular basis. One is parked by F&M bank on division &lyons, I think one of the bank employees drives it. And the other one has huge CB antenna on the roof and I saw some chick driving it today.

[Mikal]

Looks awesome, swap looks real clean too.

[mitmaks]

this isn't your mx-3 is it?
http://spokane.craigslist.org/cto/900080151.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[fowljesse]

Nice work, man! You have the skill to change it entirely, but chose the original look. Hopefully we southern Washingtonian, and Oregonites can meet with you northerners sometime.

[thevirginian]

Nicccceee. I have the same basic car, color, year and all, but it is in a little better shape to start and mine is a 1.8. I just have a few dings here and there to pull and smooth, and a fender and hood to replace and I'm going to go with a body kit since you can some get some nice ones for around 500 bucks. Seeing the before and after pics of this has given me motivation to do it though. Cheers bro.

[IMACHU2]

That is too funny! I had the hatch off my MX-3 parts car and I was thinking the same thing. That would make a cool El camino /Suburu Brat style project. I hate to say it but the MX-3 looks kinda like a Delsol with its hatch off LOL. I also think a 323 looks like a EK Honda Civic, so it might just be in my head.

1985Subaru Brat:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:.1985SubaruBratJPG" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Honda Delsol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hond ... el-Sol.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

EK Honda Civic
http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/aut ... 990106.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mazda 323
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i201/ ... _SMALL.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;