why start with one rough chassis when you can start with 2. Because $350 for the pair.
The be fair neither chassis is rough, the 323 has a tweaked rad support, ding in the fender and the hood had been pulled out. The protégé is a straight and true LX with the DOHC 1.8L, but has a bad steering pump. Both are manual transmissions. Underneath is far far cleaner and is actually rust free as both of the exteriors suffered the fate of being early 90s flaking Mazda white.
The 323 is to get the heart transplant from the LX, with an A/C delete during the process (already ordered the pulley kit to replace the compressor. I'll also swap over the rear subframe for the rear disc conversion and I have a set of ground controls on ford performance struts from a ZX2 for it already. Interior will be stripped. rear 1/4 glass will get replaced with lexan and covered in protective lamin-x film to protect from scratching. exterior will get sanded, treated with rust bullet, then sprayed in agriculture grade paint.
Once those steps are taken I'll access where the project is and go from there. The interior of the protégé is far too clean to scrap it, so it will likely get the 1.6 bits from the 323 swapped onto it.
Ooooh, I like this! Sounds like a fun project, I'll be watching for sure! Those things look like they caught on fire! That's some serious flaking! 
Weren't VW peeps paying good money for that look a year or 2 ago?
no fire and I can assure you that the look is oh natural, not intentional and won't stay that way 
petegossett wrote:
Weren't VW peeps paying good money for that look a year or 2 ago?
Seriously, he could get maad street cred!
Love old BG's. Some great 90's Japanese goodness.
some small items from the weekend, perfect weather this weekend and the shoulder was only a 4 out of 10 in terms of pain, so I took some very very small steps
like getting them up on jack stands
noticing proper tires in the back of the protégé for the future of the 323. What else could be in the protégé if I look around?
A complete spare BP in need of some machining, but is salvageable. Why would a BP be worth machining and salvaging?
forged pauter roads and arias pistons...
did a few (4) coats of vinegar on half of the roof to see how it looked after a 3 hour soak
a bit more soak time helped out
You interested in some ridiculously beefy strut tower braces?
Jim Pierce double tube/plate/dimpled units. They won't be super cheap, but they weren't cheap to begin with. I'll get pics tomorrow and upload Wednesday morning.
when you said ridiculously beefy I was hoping they might be Pierce units. spoiler alert I'm going to be ordering some arms and a rear crossmember from him.
Hold off on the arms. We should talk.
In reply to Swank Force One:
well that's been known. Don't make me take photos of the underside of the protégé for you. The paint is rough and there's a dent in the left rear door, that may be pop-able, I haven't tried, but everything else is nice and clean as it lived it's life in southwestern, Va.
I don't want it, but would like to see my parts live on in a cool build. 
now you're putting the pressure of the end result being cool
