Hi guys, my name is Ernesto. I have a 1989 Mercury Tracer 4 door hatchback and I live in Oregon. Unfortunately I can't find any pictures of when I first had it and it was all original. I got the car in around 2009 before smartphones became huge and I wasn't into taking pictures of everything. The car started off as a metallic blue. It looked exactly like this one, without the red stripe bits:
4011b56a18.jpg
Now, one thing that's kind of neat about this car is that it's been in my family since its very beginning! It was bought by my grandparents off a lot, who then kept it and drove very little until something like 1998 or so, when they swapped to a Ford Taurus. My mom wanted an extra car, but we were in Washington and they were in Michigan. So we took a Greyhound bus ride to Michigan and drove the little Tracer (well, I rode, I was 7-8 at the time) all the way back to Washington. I wouldn't say it was love at first sight, I wasn't into cars at the time, but it seemed a fine enough car. Anyway, after my mom was done with it, my older brother got it for a short time, and then it was given to my Uncle. Unfortunately that was a bad time for the poor Tracer as my Uncle believes cars are a way to get from point A to point B and nothing more. So he smoked in the car, burned little holes in the headliner, trashed the interior, and pretty much ran the thing to the ground. He only stopped driving it because there was too much wrong with it.
Then, in 2009, I became 18, and needed a car to drive to college. They offered the Tracer to me if I could fix it! With a little help from my dad, we fixed a couple of things that made it at least run, and off I went! I still wasn't really into cars at the time, but I could do an oil change. While driving the Tracer, I ended up meeting some friends that actually did get me into cars! I didn't really see the Tracer as an interesting candidate for driving in a sporty manner, but the Mazda underpinnings must have gotten to me, as I ended up getting an FC RX-7. I drove them interchangeably for a while, but one night it was icy and I went off the road! The only real damage was the door, so the Tracer got a white door. There were also some dents I did a bit of bondo repair on.
IMG_35601024x768.jpg
I didn't particularly like having a different coloured door, so I got it into my head that I was going to try and paint it. Doing test swatches on the hood to see what works well and what doesn't:
IMG_35581024x768.jpg
Half primered:
IMG_35711024x768.jpg
And that leads us to today!
903300_10154078004665137_4226771811226199952_o.jpg
(That glamour shot)
Yeah, it doesn't look great. But I love the family history behind it, and since the RX7 (it's gone), I've had also had a Miata (gone) and my girlfriend drives a 1991 Ford Probe (Mazda MX6 underneath, what is it with us getting Ford's versions of Mazda cars?), and I appreciate the Mazdaness of all of them. Plus, I hope someday to do some wacky and wild things to this car because having gotten a tad bit older now I very much like the idea of a car that doesn't look like much, nor does anyone know what it is, but can still hang with some faster cars. And there's some nice options for this car!
Unfortunately, what brought me here is that after being the reliable car for 5 years, it's been giving me trouble lately, so hopefully you nice people can help me fix it!
I hope this wasn't too long!
-Ernesto
4011b56a18.jpg
Now, one thing that's kind of neat about this car is that it's been in my family since its very beginning! It was bought by my grandparents off a lot, who then kept it and drove very little until something like 1998 or so, when they swapped to a Ford Taurus. My mom wanted an extra car, but we were in Washington and they were in Michigan. So we took a Greyhound bus ride to Michigan and drove the little Tracer (well, I rode, I was 7-8 at the time) all the way back to Washington. I wouldn't say it was love at first sight, I wasn't into cars at the time, but it seemed a fine enough car. Anyway, after my mom was done with it, my older brother got it for a short time, and then it was given to my Uncle. Unfortunately that was a bad time for the poor Tracer as my Uncle believes cars are a way to get from point A to point B and nothing more. So he smoked in the car, burned little holes in the headliner, trashed the interior, and pretty much ran the thing to the ground. He only stopped driving it because there was too much wrong with it.
Then, in 2009, I became 18, and needed a car to drive to college. They offered the Tracer to me if I could fix it! With a little help from my dad, we fixed a couple of things that made it at least run, and off I went! I still wasn't really into cars at the time, but I could do an oil change. While driving the Tracer, I ended up meeting some friends that actually did get me into cars! I didn't really see the Tracer as an interesting candidate for driving in a sporty manner, but the Mazda underpinnings must have gotten to me, as I ended up getting an FC RX-7. I drove them interchangeably for a while, but one night it was icy and I went off the road! The only real damage was the door, so the Tracer got a white door. There were also some dents I did a bit of bondo repair on.
IMG_35601024x768.jpg
I didn't particularly like having a different coloured door, so I got it into my head that I was going to try and paint it. Doing test swatches on the hood to see what works well and what doesn't:
IMG_35581024x768.jpg
Half primered:
IMG_35711024x768.jpg
And that leads us to today!
903300_10154078004665137_4226771811226199952_o.jpg
(That glamour shot)
Yeah, it doesn't look great. But I love the family history behind it, and since the RX7 (it's gone), I've had also had a Miata (gone) and my girlfriend drives a 1991 Ford Probe (Mazda MX6 underneath, what is it with us getting Ford's versions of Mazda cars?), and I appreciate the Mazdaness of all of them. Plus, I hope someday to do some wacky and wild things to this car because having gotten a tad bit older now I very much like the idea of a car that doesn't look like much, nor does anyone know what it is, but can still hang with some faster cars. And there's some nice options for this car!
Unfortunately, what brought me here is that after being the reliable car for 5 years, it's been giving me trouble lately, so hopefully you nice people can help me fix it!
I hope this wasn't too long!
-Ernesto
Comment