Hello everyone. My Name is Jaime. I'm in Orlando FL. I'm a BIG Volvo head, and suffered the heartbreaking news that my wife wanted to buy her brothers Protege... 
But it was a clean car, much newer than what she was driving and a hell of a deal... $1500 for this....
when I looked under the hood I noticed an OLD Friend. In my high school days I had a Purple Ford Probe with the Mazda 2.0 so I was very happy to see a motor that I knew was going to put up with whatever she did to it...
The car on the other hand didn't last long. 2 weeks after she got it someone hit her car on the side, they had no insurance and because we only had basic coverage... they refused to cover it also...
Dosen't look to bad but it is, It hit right at the wheel, so it bent the strut, snapped the spindle arm, bent the strut tow, hood, radiator support, broke the motor mounts... etc.
Insurance came to check it out and quoted the car as being totaled, but wouldn't pay for it because i didn't have uninsured coverage. I had a few body shops come check it out and everyone wanted $1000+ to fix it.... That wasn't going to happen.
(now is probably a good time to add that I worked at a body shop for a few years....)
step 1 was to replace the broken spindle
step 2 replace the broken front end parts... got a bumper at the Junk yard for $30 and mazdaspeed fenders for $40 each (changed both sides because these had the lights)
The headlight is bolted into the frame... so you can see how bad everything shifted...
then the fun started...
yes thats half an engin hoist, LOTS of wood, and a 3 ton chain hoist. I strapped the Mazda to an old Volvo shell in my back yard and used that to pull against.
Finished result...
Total investment.... $110 for fenders and Bumper, and $150 for my buddys help, plus a few bottles of Dewar's Whiskey...
Take
that insurance company.
unfortunatly it still wasn't ready for the road. All the motor mounts were broke and with 1 bent strut the car was pulling to the driver side very badly...
New motor mounts...
old one...
Old lower front mount vs new...
THEN I added
all around.... Figured if I'm gonna buy new suspension might as well lower it...
showed the brakes some love
(color is called burn copper and its more metalic looking than the pic shows)
now it looks like this
wife being photo shy
so only thing left is going to be paint.
If the work done to this mazda dosen't give you an idea of my personality here is what I drive...
1995 Volvo 850 T5 Wagon.
its a turbo 2.3
Tuned for 300 Crank Hp.
I look forward to meeting all the new people on here.
But it was a clean car, much newer than what she was driving and a hell of a deal... $1500 for this....
when I looked under the hood I noticed an OLD Friend. In my high school days I had a Purple Ford Probe with the Mazda 2.0 so I was very happy to see a motor that I knew was going to put up with whatever she did to it...
The car on the other hand didn't last long. 2 weeks after she got it someone hit her car on the side, they had no insurance and because we only had basic coverage... they refused to cover it also...
Dosen't look to bad but it is, It hit right at the wheel, so it bent the strut, snapped the spindle arm, bent the strut tow, hood, radiator support, broke the motor mounts... etc.
Insurance came to check it out and quoted the car as being totaled, but wouldn't pay for it because i didn't have uninsured coverage. I had a few body shops come check it out and everyone wanted $1000+ to fix it.... That wasn't going to happen.
(now is probably a good time to add that I worked at a body shop for a few years....)
step 1 was to replace the broken spindle
step 2 replace the broken front end parts... got a bumper at the Junk yard for $30 and mazdaspeed fenders for $40 each (changed both sides because these had the lights)
The headlight is bolted into the frame... so you can see how bad everything shifted...
then the fun started...
yes thats half an engin hoist, LOTS of wood, and a 3 ton chain hoist. I strapped the Mazda to an old Volvo shell in my back yard and used that to pull against.
Finished result...
Total investment.... $110 for fenders and Bumper, and $150 for my buddys help, plus a few bottles of Dewar's Whiskey...
Take
that insurance company.unfortunatly it still wasn't ready for the road. All the motor mounts were broke and with 1 bent strut the car was pulling to the driver side very badly...
New motor mounts...
old one...
Old lower front mount vs new...
THEN I added
all around.... Figured if I'm gonna buy new suspension might as well lower it...
showed the brakes some love
(color is called burn copper and its more metalic looking than the pic shows)
now it looks like this
wife being photo shy
so only thing left is going to be paint.
If the work done to this mazda dosen't give you an idea of my personality here is what I drive...
1995 Volvo 850 T5 Wagon.
its a turbo 2.3
Tuned for 300 Crank Hp.
I look forward to meeting all the new people on here.
pm if interested
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