The "Private Junkyard"
50 miles south and descending from the foothills brought me to the house of an old member of Club Protege, and
what a collection he has!
When I arrived, I saw quite a few uncommon vehicles parked around. I first mistook the Geo Storm GSi for a Ford Probe. The thing used to be an old friend's car before he passed, and it was a hot little thing. Parts are rare, so it sits until some rod bearings come up.
A few steps away from it sat a BF(?) chassis 323 hatch. It wasn't a GTX, but it came with fully-functioning cruise control and an adjustable steering wheel column. It's got an original engine in it, and is ticking along with it's 75-ish horsepower. It's got a sweet cage in it, and some factory recaros out of a GTX!
A parts-car 323 bubble hatch with some wing on top of it:
Now this is some little Mazda wagon I've never seen before. I guess I never put two and two together, but the old Ford Tracer wagon was more or less this Mazda wagon but with some minor differences. Four doors just like our Protege5s, and the owner put all sorts of neat and rare goodies on it. Here, you can see the JDM GTX bumper on it, the JDM foglight grille, an unknown wing, and a cool set of Enkei wheels. Tell you what...I wouldn't mind driving this. It's like the great-granddad of our P5s!
And finally, some car I've never even heard of or seen before. The hell's an Isuzu Impulse? Well, from what I gathered, it was Isuzu's Geo Storm, but with the added flavor of a turbo option. They're incredibly rare, largely forgotten, and quite a looker. Can't lie, though. The thing looks like it's done with everyone's s*** lol.
One more actually; the fellow is also building a little Mazda sedan for his lady. I think it's an early Protege model, but I didn't ask. Whatever it is, it's getting a nice little turbo setup, and is going to kick ass someday.
Well, I've gushed enough over this collection, haha :^) On to the business.
This is the P5 I pulled some parts off of:
Hmm, what's that in the rear hatch?
It's a 2.0L JDM KF-ZE! It's the small cousin to the KL family, and is capable of pushing huge power numbers.
Many hours pass as we're making conversation and pulling some parts, and here's what I came up with:
A
very heavy duty MX-3(?) rear strut tower bar, with brackets and seatbelt mounts already fashioned and ready to go (not pictured). I'm definitely going to replace that Megan with this one. Doesn't even bend.
A spare Racing Beat rear sway bar! It's quite dirty, seen some use, and has a hilariously bend endlink still stuck on it.
Some weird two-piece Protege lip I have never seen before. They go around the front bumper's corners, underneath the foglights. I don't know if they're OEM or not, but they're gonna look sweet on the P5 once I clean them up!
VIS Racing Carbon Fiber Hood
As you can tell, it was in the beginning stages of being painted. The epoxy or base clearcoat was forming cracks, to the PO was prepping it for paint, and just lost interest shortly after he lost interest in his BJ Protege (said the engine was just too bad lol!)
It's legit; here are some other pictures:
I also got a fiberglass mesh grille:
It's a little rough, with paint chipping off and other color flecks on it. Might even replace that mesh on it, too. Doesn't seem hard to replace, but we'll see.
Then, I got some gauges...
They were bedazzled with those stick-on rhinestones for extra glam :^)
I ended up taking them off, and then taking off their covers entirely. Oh, they also came with an A-pillar gauge pod!
I think they look a lot better without the cover, but who knows how brightly they glow. Plus, they're a little cheapy, so I may get different ones. But hey, I can at least experiment with these!
Out of the bottom right corner of the above image, you can make out a spring. That's because I got a full set of Eibach springs!
All of Eibach Springs are progressive for the Protege application, but I was assured that these are fine for stock struts. I'm skeptical, especially since cornering with progressive springs can be funny (funny as in send-your-rear-out-mid-apex funny), but I'm curious. Think I might put these on in the near future.
Well, that's it for the exciting parts. I grabbed a two-way check valve and a CDVC in case mine are shot.
Holy moly, what an information dump, and what a treasure trove! Now this was a guy that loves his Mazdas, and remained intent on spreading that joy.
Going to do some research and make some calls to body shops around town to see if they can restore that hood and possibly grille for me. Going to take that volt meter and CDCV to school with me so I can test them for functionality. Hope it's all good!