Project - Rum Runner

[AzteCypher]

Yup, still kicking. Just enjoying my time with my son. Like a wise man once told me. Enjoy your time with your kids now. You'll have more than enough time to work on your car after they move out.

 

[AzteCypher]

Well just found out I tore all four of my exhaust urethane hangers. I'm thinking the mid pipe ones were already torn and I hit some bumps pretty hard today which caused the muffler hangers to tear off entirely. I have 3 spare hangers but I need one more for the mid pipe. Need to order a new set and get them installed.

 

[speedracr79]

Well if you need to you can use mine in the meantime till you get gour new set lmk

 

[AzteCypher]

I appreciate it bro. It's a little worse than I thought. It seems that the midpipe hangers got torn before which cause the midpipe to hang. Yesterday I felt I hit something pretty hard and I think that's when the mid pipe caught a bump which pulled the resonator about 1.5" out of the pipe which caused the back end to extend from my bumper an extra 1.5" which tore the back hangers. I swapped out the rear ones last night but now I need to see if I can slide that midpipe back into the pipe. Not sure that's even possible.

 

[RicoP5]

Still have the old lip?

 

[AzteCypher]

Still holding on for dear life to the rest of the car. I need to get my other front lip painted so I can install that one. I wanted to wait till I could paint the whole car but I might just have a buddy of mine paint it so I can install it.

 

[RicoP5]

Oh I see the old one has no hope of being saved?

 

[AzteCypher]

I think it might. I has a 2" crack on one end that I needs to be fixed and the attachment points in the back need to be to recreated. I think it's possible to plastic weld it together.

Going to talk to a buddy of mine about painting my new front lip and my rear lip this weekend so hopefully that old lip can come off soon.

 

[RicoP5]

Lmk i need it lol

 

[AzteCypher]

Will do. Waiting to hear from a friend of a friend to see if they can paint my parts. As soon as I hear back I'll let you know.

 

[AzteCypher]

Well I got my exhaust hangers and installed them today and took a closer look at the damaged pipe. Turns out I really ripped apart the resonator. No sense in welding it back together. Going to install a temporary fix until I buy a Magnaflow resonator and catalytic converter for my aftermarket mid pipe.

Took a crappy vid of what a 1.6L sounds like with only an OBX header and a stock midpipe. No muffler or any other piping.

 

[SimplyUnlucky]

Installed a CF shift boot today

How did you bolt down that harness? looks good!

 

[AzteCypher]

Thanks! The harness attaches to all the stock seatbelt mounting points. The lap belt bolts down to the lower mounting point of where the stock seat belt mounts and to where you click it to lock it in. Those 2 bolts will hold down lap belt. The shoulder belts go all the way to the back seat seat belts and mount to the bolts that are under the rear seat. If you remove your rear seat you'll see the bolts.

 

[SimplyUnlucky]

Sweet! Thanks for the reply. Might try this out for myself haha. Didn't know that the belts would reach all the way back where the rear belts bolt in. I hear allot of people talking about getting hurt in a crash because of them not being bolted down right. What are your thoughts?

 

[HLSilver Es]

Bolting a harness to the floor is not at all safe from what I've heard. If you get in an accident you risk serious spinal injury. Doesnt mean people won't and don't still do it...

 

[AzteCypher]

Well, I have read on this forum and a couple of others that it is not the most ideal because, depending on the severity of the accident, you can suffer spinal compression injuries due to the angle of the shoulder belts. That being said, Schroth has a document that illustrates how to correctly mount them in a car. That's the procedure I followed when installing mine.

Scroth Rallye 4 - Instructions

The instructions indicate that they should be mounted in the OEM seat belt mounting locations.

I will say however that I am contemplating buying a harness bar and harness to work with the bar so that I can have use of my rear seat again.

 

[speedracr79]

Yeah im right there with ya but if i dont use my back seat again then ill just get some harnesses like yours. I would like to save some cash but harnesses are a safety issue so ill spend a few extra bucks on them. Just gotta figure which brand i want to get i want a 4pt harness

 

[SimplyUnlucky]

I will say however that I am contemplating buying a harness bar and harness to work with the bar so that I can have use of my rear seat again.

Don't the Scroth Rallye harnesses have the quick release in the middle of the harness itself and the rear seat?

 

[AzteCypher]

They have the quick release in the front so you can remove the belts to exit the car. They have another release that detaches the shoulder harnesses from the rear mounting point but it's not a quick release.

 

[AzteCypher]

1 yr of abuse and 2 yrs of sitting outside in the elements = 3 yrs of neglect....

Rats chewed up the wires....

So... I read an article about how the forum communities are either dead or dying because people now-a-days want the instant gratification that Facebook can provide. What Facebook cannot provide however is the depth and breadth of knowledge and information that is housed in these forums in particular, Mazdas247 from whom I have learned so much from. That being said, it occurred to me that I was contributing to that slow death by not posting on forums like I used to. I was also contributing to the death of my poor Protege in the process. After missing countless Mazda/car meets, I have decided that I have been complacent long enough and I should re-visit the forums and bring my Protege back to life. I was greeted by the pictures you see above but I have no room to complain as it was my own doing.

I have already fixed 1 set of wires and I believe I have 2 more to go as I haven't found any other ones. After I fix up the wires, I need to buy a battery, replace the oil pan gasket, do an oil change and get it inspected. It'll then be roadworthy but I have a stack of parts that have been waiting patiently to be installed as well. I don't have as much time (or money for that matter) as I used to, but my boy keeps asking me, "when are we going to work on your race car daddy?". I can now answer him that the time is now... I'm hoping to use this forum to keep true to my goal and bring my Protege back to its former glory if not beyond.