Back again

[midnitevil]

Hello clubprotege members. Heh, never though i'd come back to this site (even though i've missed it terribly so). I was a lurker member from a couple years ago when I still drove my first car, a '93 323 with dreams and hopes of someday having a vehicle as powerful and legendary as those found in these pages. Sadly, it was all cut short when the time came to upgrade to something bigger the whole family could use.
That car's fate, would go form my babying it on a daily basis, to nothing but mistreating from one family member to another. Now, five years ago this little car has found its way back into my hands, and over the course of the next month or so I will fix it back to a driveable condition to become my daily driver once again.
In here, http://s1214.photobucket.com/albums/...vil/?start=all are pictures that were taken of the car as it sits this morning. After looking at them, you might think "gee... its in such bad shape, I don't think it's worth fixing it". It's not a matter of monetary value... but sentimental value. I've missed having this car ever since its key was taken from me. Anyway, my name is Alex and I finally feel confident enough to come out and say how proud i am to have obtained this vehicle as my first car, instead of the EG civic hatch i though I would have preffered.

[cablemirc]

Hi Alex, my name is Dave and I'm a 323-aholic too. welcome (back) to the boards. we don't have a 12 step program here, unfortunately, we all just wait until we have enough money for a newer Mazda 3S sport. then we start the cycle all over again. pull up a chair. you're welcome here. and if you ever feel the urge to stray from the one true path of Mazda again, give some of us a call and we'll set ya straight. in the meantime, a few trips to the junkyard will get ya good as new again.

[midnitevil]

Haha thanks, yeah apparently i hadn't noticed it but I was making a few trips to the junkyard every month, and had gathered everything i needed to switch to the LX's front brake system and a rotor setup on the rear. I was spending too much money and time on the car (or so i've been told). Anyway, now that I've a reliable daily driver, i don't have to worry about keeping this car up and running by the next morning to go to work.
The only thing I was hoping, was from some other Colorado member in here to possibly direct me to where the junkyards might be. I moved here from California a couple years ago, and though I've been told of a couple, i'm a little skeptic as to weather they'll have the parts I need.

[cablemirc]

too much money? fixing up a Mazda? psssht. you can never spend too much. it just gets purtyier and purtyer, and faster and faster. keep up the good work.

[midnitevil]

Will most definetly and absolutely do sir. Tomorrow morning i'll get started with it and take plenty of pictures for the sake of having a record along the way. I was looking at some old pix i took form back in the day... and wow. Dear god, how did I allow this much damage to be done?!

[cablemirc]

Nothing's more important than showing the damage she's gotten. that way we give you 10x the props when you actually sort it all out and she looks all awesome again. it's embarrassing now, but worth it in the long run. i wish I'd taken pictures of my old car as bad as she was, but it seems most of my pictures i went out of the way to hide it, and so 90% of the work i did making her awesome, nobody ever knew!. let's see what you've got! (wait'll you get a load of my f'd up 323.. worklog thread coming soon)

[Mazda_Powered]

welcome back to clubprotege. You said you use to lurk, did you ever register and participate in the past? If not, I'm glad you've decided to come socialize, this place is well worth the time to look around.

[midnitevil]

Yeah i was a member a while ago, but... eh never really bothered to post as i didn't really have anything to add. And thankfully all the things i needed help with, someone else had run into before me, so all i had to look was search, and read.I don't even know how i stumbled on this site in the first place, but i'm glad i did.
Well, this weekend was spent just getting my shopping list ready and checking to see how bad things really were on the car. Though i'm glad that the tires are in much better shape than i though they were, the brake lines in the front seem... well, almost toast. Off to do research i go!

[CODY004WD]

Welcome Midnitevil. I am one of very few Colorado bg junkies, and really the only one who frequents this site daily, that I know of. There are a few others around, but I never catch them on here. If you ever want to hit up the junkyards, PM me, and I'll give you my number. I am heading out to colorado auto wreckers off Santa Fe and Hampden tomorrow to grab a Probe KLDE, and a rear diff for an aerostar. If you're available, maybe you'd wanna swing by? They have a decent selection of stuff for our cars.

Other than that, the UPAP on 61st and broadway is always a good bet. I snagged a corksport exhaust from them a few days ago for $25! The Pull'n'save at 33rd and Peoria is okay from time to time, and the UPAP off Airport and Colfax has good stuff as well. there are a few other dinky yards around that almost never have anything, and the best yard (sidewinder) went OOB a few years ago. If you head up north towards Loveland, Ft. Collins, and Erie, there are tons of cool yards, but it's quite the drive unless you know they have something good.

Anyway... I'll be around here, pretty much daily, if you need anything!

-Cody

[CODY004WD]

Oh btw, your dash is trash. I have a spare you can have free of charge! Make sure you PM me a list of stuff you need, I have tons of parts I need to get rid of. I'll make you a deal on a big pile of stuff!

[midnitevil]

Thanks for the rpelies guys. This won't be a super quick process, as I don't really have a dedicated garage or nearly enough time/income as I did when I first got the car. However, I do know more than I did back then and patience really is a virtue. I don't really wanna burn another computer or blow up this motor...

[midnitevil]

Ahh, well i met with Cody a few hours ago (coolest guy i know as of right now btw) and scored some parts. I still need to get new gaskets at the auto parts tomorrow, and calipers (i had placed an order on tuesday, but i never got called to pick them up, and they ended up getting sent back on thursday because i didn't pick em up!). Then i'll go with my little brother jy scavenging for the fenders i still need and anything else that may catch my eye. Wish me luck!

[midnitevil]

Ahh, well i had no luck at the jy yesterday, just got some bolts to use the timing belt cover i got from Cody. There were plenty of DXs and even a couple of EGTs, but no 323s or MX3s. Then went to the autoparts to pick up the calipers i had ordered, and upon inspecting them when i got home one was missing parts, and the other was for a protege LX. Ordered some other gaskets which should have arrived today, we'll see if those turn out to be right.

[Mazda_Powered]

BG calipers are all the same fyi, it's the caliper bracket with the cast marking 22-13 or 22-14 that are the difference between holding larger or smaller pads for the specific car/model.

[midnitevil]

yeah the incomplete one is a 13, and the other a 14. Still, for what they cost I would rather get what I paid for, wouldn't you agree?