To update you on the events occuring from 4/4/04 til today, 3 years:
*9/30/04 - On the way to a Miata meet about 2 miles from my house, I was turning into a parking lot and, due to the position of the Sun in relation to a bridge and my car, couldn't see a bright yellow Dodge Dakota headed in my path. I pulled out infront of it...the woman didn't honk or simply turn into the other lane, just hit the brakes a little and plowed into my prestine 323 at 5 MPH as I was doing about the same speed. The impact started on the passenger fender right infront of the door, the door was destroyed, and the rear quarter panel between the rear wheel and door was destroyed. The B-pillar was pushed in a few inches. Car still drove fine, just a little extra wind noise...at first the door was jammed but I popped it open and it would function fine, surpisingly. I attemped to just put a new door on it but the B-pillar was pushed in too far, so the pushed in door went back on the car, and I drove it dented.
*10/18/04 - bought my 1st car, a 1994 Mazda Protege LX 5 speed. $1156 on eBay from a local dealership. Finally a car with some power, that I could mod and do whatever with because it was/is mine.
*Some time in November '04 - My dad talked to a guy at the body shop of the dealership we work at(oh yeah, shortly after the 4/4/04 entry I began working as a New Car Detailer for a local Mazda/Subaru dealership, the one my dad works at. Job = Money = Cars plus goodies) and he agreed to work on the car at his house. We knew it would take a long time, but I had no idea how long I'd go without seeing the car.
Days turn to months, turn to a year and 2 months. LOL
*11/21?/05 - Money is a good thing to have lying around. A customer at my dealership looking at Subarus drove in with a '94 Miata. As I always do, I took a look at the car just incase she were to trade it in. I saw the car, it was clean...nearly perfect...perfect for me. A '94 Miata A-package, which is a base Miata with power steering, A/C, alloy wheels, LSD rear diff, and all of the chassis bracing the Miata ever had from the factory. I wanted this thing bad. I talked to the lady's saleswoman about the car, she said that the lady was looking to sell the car but had a buyer, and she gave her my phone number. She woke me up at 10:30 on a lazy Thursday and I talked to her about the car...she said her buyer backed out. I asked the question, "How much are you looking to get for the car?" and was surprised with "$2,900". I knew it was mine, but she brought the car to my house on that Sunday for me to drive it. What a nice woman to do that. I agreed to buy the car the next day at work, $2,900. Finally, a RWD classic roadster sports car, and the beginning of my Mazda fleet.
*January '06 - My dad finally calls the guy working on the 323. He's done...been done...We got the car back and I paid for the repairs, $980 which is a bargain for the amount of work it took to fix it. The guy put freggin vinyl pinstripping on the fresh paint to hide some issues, and when I removed them it left perminant marks/swirls. Great...I also removed the wheel arch trim from the other side of the car, and gave it a much needed detail and cleaned up the interior/windows which had overspray everywhere. No wonder it was a cheap repair.
For the months after getting the car back, my dad drove the 323 off and on, replacing part of the exhaust(and spending too much money doing it) and a few other bits...then he just parked it in the shop at the dealership and it didn't move for a while. I drove it in January '07 when a snow storm hit and my Protege wouldn't go anywhere in it due to the tires, and I didn't feel like putting the winter wheels on it. So I drove the 323, all was fine except some time when my dad was driving the auto stopped going into overdrive(4th).
*Feb '07 - My dad decides to do something with the 323...at first he was going to sell it, but I talked him into selling it to me for $750. 77K miles and 4th not working, but I couldn't bear to see the poor 323 leave the family...so I bought it.
*Current - After the purchase I fully detailed the car, fixing little things here and there - got brand new Mazda headlights from a guy on the 323 forums for $48 shipped, and put Silverstars in them. Put an "Intimidator" cone filter on the AFM just for kicks/added intake noise/maybe power? I began looking around for 5 speed swap parts, but the cars at the junkyards all had a bunch of miles on them...then a '89 5 speed hatch with 86K miles and obvious ECU problems went into 1 yard. My brother and I pulled all of the parts necessary for the swap, which isn't a whole lot actually - Transmission, flywheel, pedal set, clutch cable, shift linkage, etc. Ordered the clutch and necessary parts from the dealership.
I also installed the 323 GT-X grill I had lying around(repainted with black trim paint, and a chrome Mazda emblem), put a '98+ Mazda CD/Radio in the 323 to replace the weak factory stereo, and found 2 near-mint '92-'93 MX-3 "Recaro" style seats, which are comfortable as hell.
I hope to do the 5 speed swap soon, but I've been busy with school, work, life, and my other 2 Mazdas.

I just wanted to update this CarDomain site to assure all that my 323 is still alive and well, and back to a very clean example of an almost 20 year old Mazda.

-Ryan

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4/4/04 - Gauge cluster with tach!

Finally I can see what RPM I'm at!
Today was a great day to go to the junkyard. Me and a friend went to the biggest yard in the area(it's in Illinois across from Gateway Raceway) in search of 323 goodies(for me) and Civic bits(for him). They had added a bunch of BF 323s so I went looking through all of them. After finding 1 of 3 323s that had the gauge cluster with tach had already been partly dismantled, it was my turn. With my friend's assistence(since he's removed gauge clusters before) we got it out in 1 piece and it looked good. There was also a 323 with the red grill, but it had been repainted and looked junky so I didn't get the grill. So the gauge cluster cost me all of $15. Got it home and my brother(who has done numerous gauge swaps) agreed to help me put it in. Now is a good time to mention that my parents weren't home and wouldn't be for several hours, and they didn't know of my intentions to buy or install the cluster in my dad's(ownership) car. But ohh well.
323 BFs are ALL wired for a tach, all of them. The cluster merely goes right in and hooks up and everything works. Ofcourse, my bro worked on the odometer to get it to read the same miles as the old one. After that, just plug and play and it's in. Now I can watch my RPM go up and down and into the redline. :) Shifts from 1st to 2nd at 6,100RPM, in the red. Hehe.
And as of writing this(4/5 night) my dad still doesn't know, even though he moved the car this morning. Hopefully he won't be pissed!

Backround Info
An uncle bought it new in '88, and my dad is the only mechanic to ever work on it. We bought it from my uncle in '91(he bought an at the time new Protege). It was our first Mazda(we now have 7 and have had a total of 9), and is our longest owned car right now.
When my dad got it from my uncle, he added the 323 LX wheels, seats, as well as sound dampening.
The car is currently COMPLETELY stock Mazda, factory Mazda, or direct aftermarket OEM replacement. I believe it's the cleanest 1st generation 323(1985-1989) in St. Louis, and I intend to keep it that way. It's been through a lot in it's 16 years(made 9/87), from a vacation to Tenn. with a roof top carrier(really hurt the trans), to the roughest STL winters. Through it all, it keeps on ticking. Never been wrecked either. I drive it every day to school, proudly, and really everytime I'm in the car, I go flat out at some point, and it just takes it without any problems. I don't abuse the car, I just drive it to its limits, from flat out runs up to 98mph(so far, on Page Ave for the STLers reading this), to tire screeching cornering up clover leaf exits.

Some things that people might find interesting about the car...it shifts extremely hard into 2nd, but they all did, just usually people don't go flat out from 1st to 2nd. On it's first trans(that went out from the trip to Tenn in '94, though it wasn't replaced till 2 years ago), you could go half throttle and it would skid into 2nd. The current trans also shifts hard, but it's not the damaging shift the other one did, but it's fun. On wet pavement, if you are in 1st and floor it while rolling it usually won't start spinning, but the shift to 2nd will break the wheels loose which is just fun. Also, on my 98mph run, it was still in 3rd, it didn't shift to 4th till I let off, though I know it was near the red line. The car, as many 323s(even some manuels) doesn't have a tach, so I listen for the RPM. Little buzzes in the car come on at different RPM, and while it might sound silly, I can guess the RPM when going flat out. Also helps to know the MPH when it shifts while flat out. 1st to 2nd shift happens at around 32mph, 2nd to 3rd happens at around 62mph, and 3rd to 4th is still unknown(above 98mph). Also, the speedometer is a 3/4th circle, unusual compared to many cars.
Some things I would like to some day get for the car are a rear hatch with a wiper...in '87 323 LXs had them, but model changes in '88 deleted the rear wiper, and many many times I really have needed one. Also a gauge cluster with the tach, but I'm not sure if it'll even work, my dad says that the transmission might not have a tach inlet, and that the sending units are different. And ofcourse I'd like to get a manuel trans for it, but it's not my car, and it's a family winter car, our best one.

Pictures are on Page 2!
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