I wasn't aware of that, very nice! Love them even more now.Fun tidbit, which I cannot find the reference anymore... Those AXR brackets were designed off the original Racing Beat sway bar brackets for the prototype MP3. During development, Racing Beat came to the conclusion that the sway bar mounting on the subframe wasn't suitable for the upgrade they proposed, so they designed that bracket to hold the bar in place. Mazda decided the brackets wouldn't make production, for whatever reason, so the design was scrapped.
Welp, these are the only spots I found rust. I guess it could be worse. I'm going to need to take care of this nasty rust.
The car began it's life in California unfortunately.
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the rot is going to be all the way on the inside of the window frame... welding will just be a bandaid fix unless you go really deep/cut pieces out... not worth the effort... you want it done right, go get yourself a set of junk yard doors off a 2001, before they went to the cheap water based paint, then strip them down bare and repaint... the 2001/2002 doors also don't have the stupid black tape around the window frames but are properly painted black inside and out instead... repaint it with semi-gloss "trim black" paint to restore it
I will warn you that carefully stripping a door down bare so that you can paint the inside and outside of it will take about a day's work for ONE DOOR... some parts such as the vapor barriers are no longer available, so if you find nice clean ones, get them and be careful with them... only goo gone seems to work good cleaning off the nasty butyl rubber before you put new ones in to restore it... the back door belt mouldings you must be careful because there's a clip you must push from the inside of the door, close to the outside door handle, otherwise you'll break the belt moulding if you try to take it off.... all 4 belt mouldings are screwed in at the B pillar, which is pretty unique to mazdas from back then
dude, just buy all 4 doors... that 4th "OK" door is also going to be ******... it's not a matter of if, but when you'll see the rot... and when you do want to fix it then, you'll have to go through the mess of blending paint... you might as well just paint it all at once so it matchesThank you for your insight, greatly appreciate it. You definitely know your stuff. I didn't know that about the paint.
I was planning on cutting it all out but I have thought I'm being a little too positive. I'm considered buying 2 rear doors. Passenger looks easy to clean up, driver door has no rust thankfully.
Edit: Nah, I just went and looked at the passenger door. I should buy 3 doors...Dang
for the head studs, unless you plan on running a very low temp thermostat, overtorque the nuts past what the instructions say or you'll run into problems... JDM Sam told me to over torque them years ago, after I've built Yashooa's engine but he was running the JDM Mazdaspeed B-Spec thermostat, so there weren't any problems... but anyway, I bet that info is floating around here too
Might as well huh, I'm already getting 3 lol. If I can find a decent protege at the junkyard price looks like $78+tax. Not baddude, just buy all 4 doors... that 4th "OK" door is also going to be ******... it's not a matter of if, but when you'll see the rot... and when you do want to fix it then, you'll have to go through the mess of blending paint... you might as well just paint it all at once so it matches
JDM Sam is the owner of Crossover auto, right?for the head studs, unless you plan on running a very low temp thermostat, overtorque the nuts past what the instructions say or you'll run into problems... JDM Sam told me to over torque them years ago, after I've built Yashooa's engine but he was running the JDM Mazdaspeed B-Spec thermostat, so there weren't any problems... but anyway, I bet that info is floating around here too
Yes, but I don't remember how much. I haven't built another motor since then.Might as well huh, I'm already getting 3 lol. If I can find a decent protege at the junkyard price looks like $78+tax. Not bad
JDM Sam is the owner of Crossover auto, right?
That's where I ordered a lot of my parts.
When you say over torque pass the instructions. How much passed?
Yes I've been reading about the B-Spec thermostat. Opens earlier. I'm thinking of going that route as well. I saw your post about it back in 2006.
Shoot, I'll just send him an email and ask.Yes, but I don't remember how much. I haven't built another motor since then.
The Mazdaspeed thermostat is discountinued, good luck finding one. I haven't seen one in years. Your next best one is the EDM 1st gen MPV one, which is 170 degrees... rockauto sells the stant aftermarket one under the protege, but OEM one still exists but hard to get
Definitely a solid upgrade.Following, glad to see active MSP builds and finding all the old info still floating around!
Would love a run of AXR brackets, but I know it's a lot of work. Im slowly converting my P5 to all the MSP goodies.
Let me know if you want me to check the Mazda Motorsports catalog for any parts. I have access and team support since I track my P5.
Oh man, glad you said something. Had no idea about the glass and special tool.BTW, you'll want to reuse the MSP window glass when you swap the doors (I bet it's cheaper to get bare doors than with it loaded)... the regular glass don't have UV filtering, but the MSP ones do, just like JDM... it helps a bit to keep the car cooler so the A/C won't work as hard
so, when trying to take out the quarter glass, you'll need a nice japanese screwdriver to take out the "phillips" screw... it's NOT a phillips screw but a JIS one, so even a snap on screw driver is going to strip that head out... did just that back in my dealer days before I learned this lol
rip off from a culturally appropriated brand name, but the latter is a conversation for another dayDefinitely a solid upgrade.
Appreciate that, I'll keep that in mind.
Oh man, glad you said something. Had no idea about the glass and special tool.
Also glad I was going to go the right direction. I was just gonna buy the doors bare cause it's cheaper. Plus I got all the bits.
I was able to find a thermostat that opens early. Mishimoto makes them! On sale too. Which tells me just to go ahead an order one before they sell out.
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