Acexl's 1993 MX-3 Worklog (updated 07/03/08)

[acexl]

first of all heelllo to every one, i recently signed up in this forum. but i have been visiting it for a couple months after i got my mx3 last february.

my mx-3 is a 1.6 i-4 automatic (yes i know ppl. here hate them but i dont care , i cant drive manual yet and i'm not into participating in races, i just like watching them plus im broke i want as much mpg as i can get even if it means not too many hp sorry ppl ). the car has just above 115,000mi but idk if they are org. though and finally here's some pics









the image bellow i photoshoped to get an idea of how the car would look once fixed(only the front bumper is photoshopped)



i never knew what a mx3 was untill i saw the add for my car and i was very impressed, i got my car with for 1400 usd. when i got it the front was messed up like in the pics but i placed a couple scratches and rips with my careless driving already. but now i am used to driving in it and i go slow so now im starting this work log as ill be doing some mods in the couple months to come. first of all i am painting it b4 june and i'll be replacing the front bumper as well, same style , but im not sure about the color if i'll keep it or change it to clack, gun metal or subaru-blue.

because the bumper i'm buying doesnt have the holes for the turn signals i'll get custom led ones, i been loking around and these are the one i want, i am thinking of buying the amber with chrome housing and swapping the amber led's with one of the clear ones. my main concern about this change is whether i should get a 3pin led or 2 pins? what do u guys think? also if i dont know if the way i plan on doing the change will work. what i plan to do is just cuz off the bulb housing and attanch the wires directly? does any one know if that's the way to do it?







since i got it i had to change the alternator belt cuz it was squeaking like hell, and soon i have to change the ac belt cuz its starting to squeak as well.

another thing i wanna do to car is adding some bars in the front bumper like in this car but i cant manage to find them anywhere nor do i know the correct name for them if any one knows how i'll really appreciate any leads.

well that all for now i'll post more pics and stuff later

[MX3-Life]

Hey Welcome to the Forums...

Nice Car, I love the MX-3's in blue i wanna re-paint mine blue so much
Heh, I have the same body kit and dont worry i ruined my front bumper way worse... The whole middle gap bridge is missing and it has scratches *Tranny Exploded*

But still nice car if you need help dont be afraid to ask

-Life.

[fowljesse]

Welcome! I would like to have an RS, and even thought of trading my GS for one, so I can save $$ on gas.
That's cool that your car came with moulded skirts, and bumper, especially for that price.
Enjoy the boards!

[acexl]

well today i bought a new radio and i'll be installing it tomorrow morning but here are some pics of how it looks , i'll update tomorrow with some shots after its installed

[acexl]

hello again after some i got the bad news that the front end i wanted for my car was sold, i decided to take the next cheaper solution, DIY, so now i'll try to fix my front bumper using Fiberglass, i have no experience working with FG, so i hope god looks down with mercy on me

here is wat it looks like now


here's my ultimate goal (used photo shop)


here are the supplies i have now


in the picture is
brushes and roller for applying the FG
Bondo FG resin
Extra liquid hardener
some filler primer
self adhering body parch for the big holes where the turn signals used to be

also not in the pic is 80 girt sandpaper to start taking the paint off b4 i start with the FG
and FG cloth and mat of course

if any one has any comments or suggestions on materials i need or proccess i should use it would be very much appreciated well thats about it for now

Ps. Damn pepboys are thieves i got everyting so much cheaper at walmart, most outstanding diff was PB. charged 15.99 for the FG resin, i found the same one at walmart for 10.97...tsk, tsk, tsk...

[acexl]

so i started sanding the front bumper. here's some pics of hows stuff coming along ( i just started cuz it's been raining all damn day

[acexl]

so yesterday on my way back to work it seems that my lower control arm snapped out of the wheel somehow, (god i hate this year) lucky thing it was infront of a burger king when it happened as i was heading to the highway ,

i had the car towed home and i wanted to see if anyone here had any good tutorial or step instructions as on how to fix this before i called the pro's to take care of it

[Mooneggs]

so yesterday on my way back to work it seems that my lower control arm snapped out of the wheel somehow, (god i hate this year) lucky thing it was infront of a burger king when it happened as i was heading to the highway ,

i had the car towed home and i wanted to see if anyone here had any good tutorial or step instructions as on how to fix this before i called the pro's to take care of it

well the lower control arm is held on by the balljoint to the spindle... so you could have damage to the tie rod end, control arm, balljoint, endlink....

[acexl]

oka after a close look todayi guess i got to the heart of the matter, well it isnt the lower arm that is damaged (at least it doesnt look that way) its the ball joing AND the cv joint, i tried my best to take them out but i just wasted energy and time, damn i remember my old subby was so much easier to take the cv joint out but i cant figure this one , my neighbor is gonna help me hopefully we get this running in a couple hours.

EDIT

so i tried doing the ball joint change on my own with regular cheap tools, BIG MISTAKE XD, shoot i read that those bolts were hard to get but gosh darnnit!! LAL i almost get a hernia trying to get those suckers, so i finally gave in an caled a pro, he's gonna hook me up, hw will do both ball joints and the passenger cv joint for $50 usd, which i think aint bad, + cost of pieces , thank god its just that thats wrong

QUESTION

what voltage is good to get for a dremmel?. i saw many kinds with diff voltage, i want one that i can do the civics mod with

[acexl]

hello everyone, so in the end what was damaged was the ball joints and the cv joint of the passenger sidelike 200usd in parts +50 in labor as i wasnt too sure about doing this.

on another note a couple weeks ago one of my strut mounts died of rust eaving me with a squeak orchestra finally 2 days ago i searched around the forum and got the courage to do it myself, took me about 5 hours (lal i know im bad) mostly cuz i was dumb enough to not place the springs holder b4 i took off the top strut nut, so i had a hard time compresing the springs evenly being my first time and all.

it all went smoothly thanks to god and i gotta admit i am not 100% sure i got the top nut to the correct torque but i tighten it with a impact wrench untill the whole thing spun out my control i did have a torque wrench but i couldnt keep it the strut from moving as i tried to tighten it with the torque wrench.

its been 2 days and no problems so far i been cheking the nut and it seems to be holding very well and tight in the same place i left it.

here are some pics

the old strut mount


new strut mount


my rusty rear passenger side strut


spring


after Installation



next im planning to changer the whole rear strut setup but for now im just gonna concentrate back to stetics for lil bit

one question , any strategies on how keeping the strut from moving when tightening it?

[npspears]

I'm glad you did the strut yourself and congrats on getting it done. Working on axles isn't too bad. Taking the axle nut off can be a pain, esp. when the brakes won't hold the axle from turning while taking off the axle nut (happened to me ).