Some good pics of my Protege

[MazKid]

You couldn't have said it better.

[ne3ek]

are you afraid of aftermarket parts? Mazda isn't god lol... wtf. There are better.. CHEAPER parts out there.

I'm not trying to bash you for NOT hooking up your car.. but it just doesn't make sense why you would so crazy over a stock early 90s protege?

[1ofdfew323]

looks clean...
so when are u lowering it? I think it doesn't matter if its silver or black rims as long as u lower that thing.

[MazKid]

Well, you see, when we(my family) get a new car, we try to "restore" it, if you will, to it's original showroom condition to the best of our abilities. Ofcourse, there's always going to be parts that are obsolete, and money is a concern, but I try to do it right. My Protege didn't have floor mats when I got it. Sure, I could have just gone to K-Mart and bought some generic POS mats, instead I just searched junkyards, and one of my friends happened to be at one when a Protege came in, and he got the set of OEM mats for me. Sure, they were dirty, driver's one has 2 cig burn marks, but I cleaned them up and they fit correctly and are the right color. Attention to detail is a good thing. I'm a sort of perfectionist, and I want my cars to be as factory Mazda as possible. Sure, I could have saved some money and gone with aftermarket stuff, but I wanted to fix it right the first time and keep everything OEM. Just look on the forums here, you'll see guys with aftermarket parts asking why thier car breaks down or why this does this wrong, but you'll rarely see anyone with a nearly complete OEM Protege with problems. The same thing happens at my dealership. My dad works on many Mazdas every day, and a lot of the problems are caused by aftermarket parts.

Ofcourse, you get to a point where a $500 Mazda converter is just insane, and in that case yeah, I'll go with an aftermarket one that's $140 instead.
Which reminds me, my exhaust manifold is cracked. Are there any good aftermarket ones that might provide better performance? I figure all of the OEM ones in junkyards will be cracked, and a new one will be extremely expensive.

I repeat - I AM NOT LOWERING MY PROTEGE. Even if it agravated everyone seeing my Protege at stock ride hieght, it's too bad. I'm not painting the wheels either. It remains as is and I'm content with it as so.

[1ofdfew323]

good for u. couple of more decades it'll be worth something just like the classic fords and such...

[MazKid]

I'm not concerned much with monetary value, I'm not going to sell it any time soon.
We still have our 323, wrecked and all, and we haven't even thought about selling it. It's still a mechanically mint '88 with 75,000 miles.

[jitb37]

aftermarket parts dont break cars...people break cars. And plus there is no big atermarket for 1st gens anyway. Most are just swapped mazda parts from other mazda vehicles. I say u get a pacesetter header for that manifold problem. It will run u almost as much as a new exhaust manifold (maybe)..

[MazKid]

How's this pic?

[THEGOLDPRO]

pretty cool pic.

[Proteus]

As it is, I'm the only one on here with the wheels on a first gen Protege

Well.....Not actually, I am not very active because of my work scheduel but I have had those rims on my gold '92 for 2 years now. Funny thing too, 2 days after I got them on I hit a curb going arround a corner and popped one of those cheap A stock tires, I had to buy a whole new set because those pieces of crap are so expensive. Anyway, I like the rims on the Pro...and the look good on yours...You just aren't the only one and not the first. You were the first to post the pics though.

[MazKid]

I stand corrected, and actually I realized my error earlier when I saw some old posts with a black 1st gen with the chrome version of the wheels on it.

[protegehank]

dam ur car is fly i love the rime the most im got a black 1990 lx and im working on the body with bondo any way ur car is nice i hope mine can look this good in time bro!!!!!!

[the_slow_pro]

so how long till your springs and struts come in? its gonna look fat lowered....

bahaahahha, i couldnt resist.
never in my life have i looked for mazda OEM parts UNLESS there was no aftermarket part....unless the mazda dealer can get me a stock "oem" GTX....other wise i got sum nutz for them to suck....haha

[MazKid]

Well, currently everything on my car is a Mazda part, though that will change - I've got a Pacesetter header coming, should be here Thursday. That's only because a new one from Mazda is $300, and the 1 '94 manifold I found in the 3 junkyards I go to is cracked prolly worse than mine.

That'll prolly be the only aftermarket part on the car for a long time. Hopefully it'll be on the car Thursday night. I've gotta get my RX-7 meter back on the car by Friday night, Saturday there's a Missouri Probe Owner's Club meet in Columbia, MO, my brother invited me to go. There's some guy with a 2nd gen Protege going, and another guy with 2 323 GT-Xs. Donno how the meet will be, but I love long drives. Plus travelling in a group I'd expect some higher-speed driving. I've only had mine up to 105 and that was months ago.

[lscrx]

Why not use the ZX2 S/R strut/spring combo? That's pretty much OEM and it only lowers you a half inch or so. Car looks clean, watch yourself when doing "high speed driving"... at your age a speeding ticket would result in a big jump when it comes to your insurance