MX-3.com

Hey everyone.

Well I had a worklog for the old 94' Black GS, but it's in many pieces now. Since I expect a fair bit to happen to the 93' SE I figured a new worklog was in order.

A little background on the car. I bought it from another forum member back in December of 2007. We haggled and he hummed and hawed...then I hummed and hawed...and finally the stars aligned and I flew to Vancouver and drove it home. A whirlwind adventure which I chronicled here. I plan to drive this car for many years. I could have bought a new car last year if I had wanted to, but nothing I looked at gave me the feeling that the MX-3 does.

Here are some pictures...

A fair winter's day the week I got her home...


The very nearly perfect interior...




The car's interior is in phenomenal condition and I will most likely not change it from stock. Mechanically the car is in pretty good condition, but it is 100% original so there are a few things that need attention. The engine has 285,000km on the clock. It still runs well and burns surprisingly little oil for it's age, but it's getting tired and noisy so I would like very much to stick a ZE in it sometime in the next couple of years. The suspension is basically worn out. Springs are soft, bushings are loose, it's a 15 year old car. This is what has driven me to attack the issue of polyurethane bushings for the MX-3.

So far I have installed a cold air intake which I patched together from an Integra kit...



...and I have converted the ignition to the ZE distributor with HEI mod and Blaster 2 coil... The How-To is here



This past week I have started amassing parts to basically completely rebuild the suspension of the entire car. I have purchased new rear spindles and all the factory hardware and as you know I am manufacturing sway bar end links and a full kit of poly suspension bushings. I will be installing all of this new stuff with the Eibach/ZX2 setup I put together last year for the Black 94', which only have about 1000km on them. The Black car also has basically new ball joints and outer tie rod ends which I will reuse on the front end.

The tentative plan is to have the body completely redone next spring. There are a few rust spots which if not attended to will become problematic, so I'm working on getting me a JDM bumper and lip for spring in time to get the body work done. I'm hoping that the wild success of my poly bushings will pay for that.

That's the progress and part of the plan. I'll let you know how it's going as time marches on.

You have to put a wire on the end of the coil for it to work
Nice car! Well, beside the stuff you're fixing It's going to be great! Nice leather. IDK if you have enough floor mats on the passenger's ide, though.
We and you are going to love suspension setup you're making! It's a night and day difference. It's a little weird getting used to, though, because the car turns so much tighter, that you think you've lost traction. I'm looking forward to seeing how the endlinks feel.

Ah you bought that car..

I was the other guy interested in it from the english speaking east indian guy

yeah...that's me. He was a pretty decent guy, but he did manage to hide a few small things from me. Nothing major though, the car is very nice.

fowljesse wrote:You have to put a wire on the end of the coil for it to work
Nice car! Well, beside the stuff you're fixing It's going to be great! Nice leather. IDK if you have enough floor mats on the passenger's ide, though.
We and you are going to love suspension setup you're making! It's a night and day difference. It's a little weird getting used to, though, because the car turns so much tighter, that you think you've lost traction. I'm looking forward to seeing how the endlinks feel.

Man!!! I could never figure out why it didn't work. Boy do I feel dumb. Actually I think it was you who predicted that the HEI module would overheat in that box...and it did. so I'm back on the stock dizzy for the moment.

I can't wait till next summer. This thing is going to be on rails next year.

So I'm basically working towards having a completely new (and in some cases improved) suspension on the Purple Beast. My wife has misplaced our camera, so no fun pictures, but I have so far acquired new rear spindles, all new factory hardware, and of course Sway bar end links and soon, full poly bushings. (I also bought some of those cheapie EBAY front and rear strut tower bars...but they are more experimental than anything. We'll talk more about that when I have some time after I wrap up the end links and bushing projects.)

I have a tentative hopeful plan to purchase some lightly used but basically brand new rear Lateral Links and Trailing Arms (I hope i didn't just hex it) at a steal of a deal and this weekend I am totally dismantling my parts car. I'm planning to take the entire front sub-frame with control arms, steering rack, and engine and transmission out as a unit, completely recondition the whole deal (except the engine) and then swap it all into the Purple Beast with new bushings and rebuilt tranny when the time comes. I am going to do the same thing with the rear sub-frame (hopefully with next to new control arms).

I have started conditioning my wife to the fact that I spend a bit of money on the car every few weeks now. She no longer notices. A few months from now the Purple Beast will be basically new from the frame down. I hope to be able to afford to do the body work and get a nice fresh coat of Raspberry Metallic paint in the spring. After that there's nothing to do but the engine.

At some point in the future the car will be as close to new as I can make it.

But first the suspension.

You're going to love it. It'll be not only like a new car, but even better! Every time I push the car's limits, I giggle.
Only once did I break the tires loose. It was on a 15 mph decreasing radius turn that was damp, and I was going about 40. It quickly recovered though.

I am sooper stoked about the upgrades to the suspension.

I have made a decision regarding the future of my car.

I'm going to sell my bike in the spring. I can always get a new bike, but I want to make sure this car lasts 15 more years. I should make about $8k on the sale of the bike and I think that will get me where I need to be. I just love my car so much and I want it to achieve it's full glory.

I'm also willing to sell a bodypart for a Kouki bumper with lip and fogs. I'm just putting it out there.

I am very excited to have gotten a smokin deal on a set of almost new TTL's, rear hubs, flex lines and e-brake cables from another member. My total suspension rebuild is almost complete! MWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

I put dibs on a brand new OEM JDM front bumper and lip from Corksport today. Now I know what you're thinking..."What kind of a retard spends that kind of money on a bumper and lip???!!!

The obsessive kind. I loooove new stuff. I don't want a used, chipped up, folded in half piece of someone else's old junk. I want a new, perfect, gel coated, gleaming, pristine bumper. The catch may be the fog lights. I can get new fogs and switch as well but they are a lot of money on their own.

Mooneggs!!!! Help me!!! Find me a set of used foglights and a factory switch!!!

U ever think of getting the bumper and using the gs lip? The jdm lip is so much cash

I have been in love with the JDM aggressive lip since the first time I saw it on Mark's car. It is, in my opinion, the best look there is for the MX-3. I'm not even bothered by the money. I'm going to own this car forever.

Wytbishop, i've been looking on corksport and can't find that bumper and lip. Maybe i'm blind today or something but where is it on the site? I was thinking of getting the "mazdaspeed" design from them.

The last 2 items on this page.

This is somewhat irrelevant, but I feel the need to say it.

HOLY CRAP!

$500 for a freaking lip? My gosh. Thats more than the entire bumper! You can buy an ENTIRE CAR for that... I hope you get your hands on a cheaper one...