Come on in and watch the transformation of my "new" car!

I'll try not to. :) It'll be hard, but I'm going to drive it slowly. Those curvy roads on the way out of town are going to be torture! :sadpace:



I decided today that I couldn't drive a filthy loaner anymore. This is my mom's car, and she probably realized the benefit of letting me borrow her car for a couple days...it'd come back a lot cleaner.



Concorde1.jpg




Concorde2.jpg






Like my custom sprayer rack and clothesline? :)



Sprayers.jpg
 
The loaner is looking good, can't wait to see the Protege. On another note - remember, 4th gen. Maxima's didn't come with a rear sway bar from the factory, if that makes you feel any better about driving without one on your new car...
 
They didn't? I didn't realize that. With the endlinks broken, I'm almost tempted to get a thicker rear sway bar and stronger endlinks. Almost...
 
Nice job on your mom's car. Heh heh, you and I are sure cleaning up loaners these days!



On the anti-swaybar, sorta depends on the car (how the rest of its suspension behaves)and what you're after. I have a *BIG* rear bar (as in, huge) on the Caprice because it wants to plow/understeer and I prefer them much more "neutral". I had the Mallett 'vette set up the same way and you had to know what you were doing when you pushed it hard. One of the reasons car companies put on small rear bars (or no bar at all) is for liability purposes; people are less likely to crash spectacularly with cars that plow straight ahead than they are with cars that swap ends.



Putting a bigger rear bar on your car might help make it more neutral (almost all fwd cars understeer something awful) but I dunno if you'd really like that (in the winter for instance). And a properly matched front/rear pair will generally make things more predictable anyhow.
 
Thanks for the input. I don't plan to have the Protege for more than a couple years, so I'm not planning any other modifications to it. The only reason I'm upgrading the suspension at all is because of the strut that was bad.

I can't wait to drive it though (with the sway bar attached).
 
The car is back in my hands now with the MSP springs and Tokico HP struts. The ride quality doesn't seem to have changed at all. The strange thing is the ride height adjustment. The back seems to have dropped very slightly (about one finger's width), while the front seems to have *raised* about one finger's width. :rolleyes: I think this may be due to the MSP having a 2.0L turbo, which would apply more weight to the front springs than my 1.6 does. Less weight, more spring expansion, unfortunately. The other reason could be that the old springs were a bit saggy because they were 73000 miles old and at least one of the struts was also bad.

I've also got a metal-on-metal noise that occurs when I hit a large bump or incline, such as my parents' driveway approach. I took it back to the shop today but they could not locate the source of the noise, even after hearing it first-hand when I pulled into the parking lot. I get the rear sway bar and endlinks installed next Friday, so maybe by then I can figure out what is making the noise.



I'll get pictures of the car later when the drizzle stops.



On a brighter note, I got some new camera goodies today. :)

UV filter

Polarizer filter

52mm lens adapter

Lens adapter cap.



:D
 
186.08whp

225.94wtq



I can't imagine how that would feel in a Protege. :eek:



!!! I forgot to take pics for this thread with the new suspension on! Well I'm going to do AIO/UPP this weekend, so sometime this weekend or early next week I'll find a good photoshoot location.
 
White95Max said:
I can't imagine how that would feel in a Protege. :eek:
Click to expand...
it's awesome, except for the torque steer maybe :) and, of course, the snappy quick steering and suspension make it a joy to drive.



White95Max said:
!!! I forgot to take pics for this thread with the new suspension on! Well I'm going to do AIO/UPP this weekend, so sometime this weekend or early next week I'll find a good photoshoot location.
Click to expand...
has it settled any since you've installed it?
 
Remembering that I know nothing about Protege suspensions :o Could you trim a half-coil or so off the front springs to drop it (and help stiffen it up a bit too)?
 
Depends on the springs. On the GM B-bodies (Caprice, etc.) you *cannot* cut the rear ones, period, without causing big problems. But tweaking things by cutting the *fronts* is commonplace and works great, no problems at all. But you gotta do it right and not mess with the heat-treating; you don't just fire up a torch and cook 'em.
 
White95Max said:
I've always thought the consensus was that cutting springs was a bad idea. Am I wrong about this?
Click to expand...
don't cut the springs... you are reducing travel w/o compensating with extra stiffness.



maybe check with a vendor like autornd for some cheap springs?
 
186.08whp

225.94wtq



I can't imagine how that would feel in a Protege. :eek:
Click to expand...



Well, I guess I can imagine that now, because a few weekends ago, I was privileged to ride in a heavily modded Protege MP3 that is running 290WHP. Coilovers, drag radials, turbo...what more do you need? :D
 
White95Max said:
I've always thought the consensus was that cutting springs was a bad idea. Am I wrong about this?
Click to expand...



this is and will always be a long going debate, but I have cut springs and my car rides fine...don't listen to ppl who tell you its unsafe, etc.
 
Cutting springs is one of those "it just depends" things. On my Caprices, you can safely cut the front springs (lots of miles on cut ones, it works fine) but you absolutely *cannot* cut the back ones. There are all sorts of factors including how the springs seat in their perches.



Find out from somebody who *knows* the car in question what's safe/not, and make sure that somebody has real first-hand experience.
 
Love how you cleaned up the "pro" I have a gold one just like it..same year and such. Im gonna try the woolite on the headliner..mines got it bad too
 
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