Kev's '98 Protege Thread

[irishkev90]

I knew they had a problem with some of them, but didn't know which ones. They fixed that with the new ones, right?

Depending on how these next few paychecks spend themselves, hopefully not, I'll be getting a set of black Ksports

Also been thinking about getting the Megan front/rear bars and lateral links.

[3ni_tricksta]

i've had those megan links for about a year now, i really need to get around to installing em.
only pain in the ass is removing the old ones.

[irishkev90]

So I've heard :/

I'll start drenching everything with penetrant/PB Blaster tomorrow til whenever I get around to working on the car, haha.

[TxCoder]

@irishkev90
Greetings..
I want to thank you for posting your build project with all these photos!
and, I need a little help...

From your photo (page 26, post#390)

Shifter arrived! My bed is officially home to my car parts, haha.



...

What is that part called where the shifter is mounted in (part #?) > The metal plate (that has the 4 bolts) with the plastic/vulcanized-rubber??

I'm trying to find that plate because the rubber has completely separated and my shifter litterally falls through the floor.

Any ideas/suggestions on where I can find a new one or comparable replacement would be Greatly appreciated.


I have a 1994 Mazda Protege LX 1.8 DOHC

[monoxidechild]

^
the entire thing is the shifter assembly. its all considered one part. and what happened to yours is actually extremely common. and has probably happened to a good 1/4 of this forum at some point. most just weld it back together, or weld a tab on the lower section to not allow the shifter to drop. just read around, there's threads on different ways people have fixed it.

[TxCoder]

@monxidechild
uuhg! THAT really bites..
I'm having a difficult time swallowing this bitter reality pill...
What do you even call this kind of failure: Shifter drop?

Guess it's time to jimmy-rig a repair to this horrid Fail.
(Remind me again... How do you re-vulcanize rubber? chemistry 101 )


Thank you for such a fast reply, though.

[monoxidechild]

yea, if you search "dropped shifter" on here, it should come up with loads and loads of threads.

[TxCoder]

yea, if you search "dropped shifter" on here, it should come up with loads and loads of threads.

roger, will do..

& Thanks again!

[irishkev90]

Well, the front passenger door is showing some serious signs or rust and rot. Thankfully I got three spare doors a few months ago to replace them. The only one the junkyard car didn't have is the only one I don't need, so it all worked out pretty well.

Anyways, I've taken apart the spare door to get it cleaned up. The Haynes manual says to lower the window to about two inches above fully open. Kind of hard to do with no power to the window motor. So I stripped off all the trim pieces and was able to get to the window bolts from between the window and the top edge of the door. Took quite a while to get it out, but I succeeded

The door was pretty nasty, covered with dirt and mold. Almost no rust, though, so I'm happy. Here are some pics:

Before all the work


Window out, trim and weather stripping off. Started cleaning it under where the mirror mounts before I realized I should take before and after pics


Side "mold"ing


Dirty handle area


Clean molding


Clean door handle area


All clean. That black line is just the pin stripe, nothing to worry about


Dirty inside


Clean inside


Not sure if you can tell a difference on the inside pics, it was just dust and dirt, no mold. I haven't taken off the side molding yet because I want it to somewhat match the car for now. I'll take them off at a later point. There's a few small rust spots that I'll sand down and take care of in the next few days, then I'll mount everything back up and put it on the car. Oh, and the window motor/regulator works just fine. The sticker on the window says "Protected by Mazda electronic security system" haha.

Anyone need window glass, motor/regulator, handles, harness, etc.?

[irishkev90]

Began sanding and painting the top half of the door. A few small rust spots on the front of the door were taken care of. The couple small dents will be taken care of when the entire car gets repainted. I'll clean up the back and inside tomorrow to take care of the rest of the rust (not much left).

[irishkev90]

The door is being put on hold. Got in an accident last Tuesday (May 1) so I've been focusing more on repairing that. So far I've ordered the bumper cover and foam absorber. I'll get a new hood from the junkyard tomorrow hopefully and I'll order a new fender next week. I'm also talking to someone about getting a new JDM corner light since the outer lens got shattered in the accident.

After the accident:


Patched up:


The bumper foam arrived yesterday. I think the box was overkill:

[FE3-323]

sorry to see man! we've all been there @ some point in time tho. glad to see you taking steps in the right direction

[irishkev90]

It's going to be slow going for now. My bank account went from ~$1,000 to less than $100 in a little over a week. This, combined with other bills, pet supplies and a big dance my girlfriend and I are going to Saturday has really put a hole in my funds. There's overtime at work, though, so hopefully I'll be back to were I was in a few weeks.

[irishkev90]

Began repairing the front end. Got the old bumper and foam off and got the new stuff on. Two of the screws that hold the bumper up top (one under the passenger headlight and the one under the grille) were not coming out. Since the old bumper is trash anyway, I just cut the plastic to get it off then used vise grips on those damn screws. The new bumper didn't seem to fit right, it was fighting me the whole time, but I got it eventually. I had to go to the store for some more clips to hold the wheel well liner to the bumper, but other than that it went fairly smooth.

Old bumper off:


New bumper on:


Also, I started messing with the old bumper and I'll be using it as a test unit. If anyone has seen the photos I posted a while ago, I'll be doing custom front and rear bumpers. I masked off what the basic design will be to get a rough idea of how it'll look. Here's a few pics to get some constructive criticism:

Front view:


3/4 view:


Side view:


And here's a link to the pic of the drawing I've based it on:

http://www.wihandyman.com/forum/showthread.php?46827-Wheres-Waldo&p=614109&viewfull=1#post614109

But there's also this, and I'll re-tape the design and take more pics:

http://www.wihandyman.com/forum/showthread.php?46827-Wheres-Waldo&p=729672&viewfull=1#post729672

In the taped pictures, the green across the center air intake and to the left, will be cut away and the remaining // bar between them rounded off. The green on the bottom will be added on. I'll shape it out of foam then go over it with fiberglass. The bottom of the bumper under the center intake will be thinned a bit and moved back to create a step between it and the // bar. Also, the wheel opening will be continued down, not forward in the pic, that's just due to the bumper being on the ground and screwing with the tape.


Please let me know what you think and if anything should be changed. I'll take all suggestions into consideration. I'm going to go tape the second design now.

[irishkev90]

Well, the front-left corner has been making some odd noises. First, there was a slight clicking noise coming from the the wheel area, outer CV joint died. The suspension has also been creaking and groaning lately at low speeds. Steering at low speeds (<10mph) also creaks and groans. anyway, jacked it up a few minutes ago and found this:



Now, I was hoping I could just replace this with the Kia axle I got with the transmission a while back. Unfortunately, the inner spline count is different (28 Kia, 24 Mazda). So I was then looking for a new axle. Too expensive at this time, sadly. Then I turned to a CV boot kit. None in stock at the local stores except for the kind that are split down the center and have to be solvent-welded together. Plus, they're all too big for these tiny Mazda axles

edit: I just found some OEM style/size boot kits on rockauto for $17 shipped. I'm also ordering a new A/C clutch bearing since the one on the car is causing the pulley to snap belts and it's getting too warm to not have A/C anymore