Ok guys, as promised - photos of my Mazda...looking very stock.

As mentioned in 'Introduce yourself', mod's are:

Front strut brace (on lookout for rear one)
Pod filter
Separate valve cover breather (cut and blocked hose where it used to feed into intake)
17" Advanti alloys w/ low profile tyres

JVC headunit with 6" JVC speakers in doors and 4" Panasonic's in the rear panels.

+ the ususal new seat covers and mats (both in plain black)

On the to do list:
-Lowering springs
-Rear strut brace
-Change gearbox oil
- Replace plastic vents in bottom of front bumper with mesh
- New exhaust/decat (potentially?)
- Would love a leather gearboot instead of the rubber one but having trouble finding one that would fit in NZ - do the gearboots off any other models of Mazda fit?
- Black rear boot centre garnish

Open to feedback and suggestions.

Josh

Nice looking car mate

looks nice dude! like those wheels

Nice, I like the 3 door

I would say the gear stick boots from an MX3 would be the same, as it looks the same as the 5 door BG...

I would tint the rear lights, and do the centre piece a bit darker

Thanks Marc S re gear boot info - will def. look into that. Good suggestion re tail light tints too - but I'd have a hard time passing my next WOF if I did. (WOF is our six monthly version of your MOT)..

lovely BG, always nice to see that there are still some cared for out there

What's the best way to paint the rear centre garnish thing? Never painted on plastic before...ideally would just like it a plain gloss black?

Lovely car . Brings back memories of my first mazda .

The panel just needs a light sand and clean to remove any grease etc. Then get some plastic primer ( available in Halfords ). Dont be tempted to use normal primer as the topcoat won't adhere well to it . Then a sand again and off you go with the topcoat and lacquer etc

Awesome. Thanks Debz!

P.s. - lowering springs are now on order.... :O

Springs arriving tomorrow with a little luck. Went for Dobi superlows.
Took off rear drums, de-rusted and painted Hammerite black today as they were looking a bit shabby through the alloy wheels. Think a new wheel cyclinder might be required as one side kept rubbing...after lots of adjusting....grrr. No leaks from either though.
Also stripped interior boot panels in anticipation of struts coming out for new springs...

Ok guys, just trying to tidy the boot area up while it's all exposed. I've got a couple of questions -

1. I've got a wee water leak in the bottom left corner of the boot. Looks to be coming from a grey plastic vent thing set into the bottom left side panel....does anyone know what this thing is? There's one on the other side of the boot too...

2. Thinking of putting a couple of coats of sound deadening paint in the boot area...has anyone done this. Was it worth it?

Thanks in advance.

Flaps are there to allow the boot to close - they open outwards to let the air pressure out. Shouldn't leak though, are you sure the water is not coming through some of the panel seals in that area, behind the rear wheels is most common

I selling pi lowering springs for 100 free delivery. Bran new.

[quote="Marc S"]Flaps are there to allow the boot to close - they open outwards to let the air pressure out. Shouldn't leak though, are you sure the water is not coming through some of the panel seals in that area, behind the rear wheels is most common [/quote]

Thanks Marc! (again ) Yeah pretty sure it might be a case of the seam sealer being old and ineffective. Will clean it up and try get some new sealant on them before I re-assemble plastics.

[quote="kieranv6"]I selling pi lowering springs for 100 free delivery. Bran new.[/quote]

Cheers mate, but collected my Dobi ones yesterday. (Loving the Dobi blue/green colour!) Going round to a friends place to use spring compressors etc on Fri night

Big down poor this afternoon...shit there's a fair bit of water getting in that side! Definitely a wee dribble from bottom corner of light bracket, but the majority is from around where the vent is sealed to the body of the car. Gonna be a bloody pain in the a**e to deal w/ - there's a metal part of the body covering most of the inside access to the vent... Will try get a pic up soon.

Add a newly discovered dribble from the top of the wheel arch :/

Right -wee update. Leaks sorted with Sikaflex? (Black car body sealant stuff...) Attempted fitting superlows after work today. Springs weren't captive w/n rear struts...don't really want to have to get more thread machined onto the struts, so have ordered in some 'lows' to swap for superlows...

Joys of living in Dunedin - they, too, will be ex-Auckland and arrive on Wednesday.

Not to worried going to lows - realistically they'll probably be better for round town driving...

Springs in yesterday they look good. Discovered front struts aren't doing much so put springs in them, but will be out again in the near future for new struts. Rear ones are in very good condition, luckily. Once new front struts are in, and the springs have settled, it will be wheel alignment time I think :P

Ok, haven't updated for a wee while - not much to report.

Fitted new monroe front struts last week - forgot to put top bearing cup back in (Doh!) so I'm now getting pretty quick at getting these struts on and off the car

Loving the lowering springs. Glad I went low not superlow, as the driveway at work is still has to be taken on an angle haha.

Rang up today to book car in for decat - getting done next Tue. Guy mentioned on the phone that some Familia's have their cat in the mainfold?? Mine's '91 so assuming nothing like that?? Anyone confirm that mine doesn't have this?

Boring stuff - new oil and filter (10W-40 'cos it can get bloody cold in NZ), and spark plugs. Old ones had quite a bit of carbon, but I think that had to do with a stuck open thermostat that I replaced 6mths ago

That's all for now guys. Prob won't be much happening for a while now as uni starts back in a couple of weeks.

If it gets cold...try 5W40 oil

Yeah have toyed with that idea Marc. Any issues with running oil that thin in a motor with 220,000kms on it?

It will be no thinner at high temperatures, and it will get around the engine better when cold, I don't see any reason not to use it

Decat done! Very happy. Guy at garage said old one was pretty clogged up so I might see a slight decrese in petrol consumption. Luckily for me, a 1991 car in NZ doesn't need a cat providing its emissions aren't excessive - so I got the cheap, cut, remove, weld in pipe version done, rather than custom flanges etc.. Definitely a difference in noise - far from quiet between 2.5 and 3K rpm, but apart from that it's all good

We need pics of it lowered! I do love that style 323. Wish I had one, with 4 wheel drive, and a turbo! lol

Haha yeah everyone over here tells me I need to fit the 1800cc turbo engine to this baby. But - petrol consumption and finding a non-thrashed low km turbo engine is putting me off. Plus cert. work that's required...

Lowering pics to come

Another wee update. It's been a few weeks of attending to those jobs I just keep putting off.

- RF CV joint replaced last week. Thank god no more click on corners
- Had the factory fitted (I think?) Uniden alarm wired up to the central locking today (no more dis-arm alarm and then having to to turn key in the door to unlock). It's the little things that make you happy eh
-Managed to buy half a dozen spare valve cover bolts, so I can finally replace the missing one in the top left corner of the valve cover which has been missing since before I bought the car. It doesn't leak, but I'm anal-retentive with things like that. Haha.

On a marginally less mundane note - managed to get some new alloys to replace my slightly buckled but very cool looking lightweight Advanti's :P Another set of 17's but unfortunately the tyres they coming with won't fit my toooight (like a tiger ) wheel clearances. So will have to get my old tyres swapped onto them and balanced etc.

I'll do photos once new wheels are on, cleaned up etc.
Think I'm getting quite attached to this car....

Just given the ole' girl a quick wash and dry after work. Photos show her now lowered ~40mm and on different rims to first photos.

Also faffed about making a synthetic leather gear boot to replace the original rubber one. Quite pleased with first attempt. Will try rem. to get a photo.

Poor clutch is starting to go...becoming quite difficult to get into gear at times :/ Have priced up a standard exedy replacement kit at NZD$220, but will get garage to do the work so hopefully its not too much of a big job.

Haven't had any pics for a while so here's one of the engine bay with its shiny new intake piping.
The bit of foam is because I need to shuffle the battery bracket a bit to stop it rubbing....
Was determined to make it fit with only 45 degree elbows as I heard 90 degree ones can restrict airflow (probably BS but sounds good ).
Also started with the autosol on the exhaust manifold heat shield... Thinking about stripping and polishing up the valve cover too.

Will post photo of homemade gear boot soon if it stops raining :P

Managed to find pic on 'puta of my homemade gear boot. I know it looks simple and a bit baggy but f#$k did it take forever to get cutout size right etc. Made it so there is just one join sewn (on the inside) at the back of the boot. Top part is folded under some fencing wire wrapped round the bottom grove of the gear knob. I think it looks a little less like a truck than the original rubber boot. Def not worth the time/effort though haha

Another wee job ticked off my list today..Quite happy with the look

(Yes - aware of underneath scuff plate coming off...its been dealt with)