Announcement

**jmacman12** · 10-08-2012, 09:23 AM

Day 1: (early)Sept 2011

This was a few days after I became a proud new owner of a Mazda. Coincidentally I decided it deserved a good wash. After washing, pictures ensued:

Naturally the first thing I did was put on my new MCM stickers

And yes they are on both sides...I like symmetry, yes I'm weird, mkay?

Hurray for crummy interior shots!!

Day 2: (late) September

So now that I had owned the car for a little bit, I decided it was time to start modding! At first, I was really unsure as to what I wanted to put on my car because these mighty machines have so many aftermarket options! However I decided to settle with the MPS rear skirt after some quick research. Now normally my stealership is a massive rip off (who would have thunk it) and so I was expecting to pay an arm and a leg for said item but when I went to order it, the clerk told me that my total had come to $55.06 with tax and delivery (itself it costs $43 but we have 15% tax and in this case a delivery charge) so I was shocked to say the least! Probably the best bang for buck mod one could do for a facelifted Mazda 3 hatch (as it won't fit a pre-facelifted gen1)

I rushed home and this was what ensued:

The process was as easy as unbolting a few clips, however they were quite brittle and so I had to go slow when unsnapping it. Although there were two reeeeeallly hard to reach screws which I had to use needlenose pliers to get to... let's just say that I wasn't able to get both back in

Day 3: (Mid)October

MUD FLAP TIME *****HHHESSSSS

Yes, Rally styled cars are my favorite

<3

Installing these were quite straight forward but being me, I decided to follow the instructions like a good boy...oh how wrong I was... Living in quebec I'm sure they had been translated to english but when it was put together, it was in the wrong order and missing steps and VERY badly worded. After half way through one mudflap I burned the paper I was so frustrated. I also decided to take my wheels off (which apparently wasn't needed) but sped up the process 10 fold. They are quite useful and a very good purchase IMO. The amount of spray I see being my car during a rainstorm or snowstorm is so small, people purposely draft me on the highway rather than passing me because I act as quite a good shield and they get no overspray from the debris. It's really funny at times!

Day 3: (late) October

Since I installed the mudflaps, I asked myself the timeless question: how can I make my car moar jdm? My answer was fellow fog lights, mostly because it corresponded with my love for rally themed styling though

Here is the result...and it only cost me $7 AND I had enough vinyl to do them over 5 or 6 more times (which I have since gave some to my friends)

The process itself was piss easy, however it required patience and a lot of it because I had to trace out my fog lights with paper first and then mold the vinyl in to place using soap and water with a stick (because I was too lazy to take off the bumper, which is understandable I think)

Day 4: (still late) October

A friend of mine told me he had recently got a shipment of plastidip in and they were selling fast! So I got in the car and my way over to his shop. No joke, I literally got THE LAST can of plastidip! I couldn't believe my luck and on top of everything, he gave me a discount, which made my total about 16$ for the can!

I got home and then did this:

To those of you who are curious what the MR sticker is, it represents Montreal Racing, it sort of a token we use to identify each other on the roads considering there are a lot of car clubs and different forums in my city!

**SPOILER ALERT** You guys will see this logo in the near future

Keep an eye peeled...

Then...

Then the inevitable happened:

Luckily, I have such a loyal pet polar bear who INSISTED on taking a pic of my car:

I love Bruce, he's an awesome friend

Ah, yes, where were we? Right, winter...which actually happens in reverse to what you guys have in Australia! About mid November, it just started *****ting snow everywhere one day and in bulk too...

Here's a funny story though: My current summer tires (at the time) were bald as shit and are specifically summer, not all season bs. Anyways I woke up one morning and it had snowed about a 3-4" overnight and I had class at 8am... At 7am I was scrambling to get all my winter gear up from storage and then set out in the snow. I managed to scrape off all the snow and ice on the car in about 10 minutes and I was in my car at 7:15 leaving the driveway. I BARELY got out of the driveway because the snowplow had came and boxed me in attempt to clear the road. Once I got to the main street that led to the highway, there was not a soul... just super windy and snow scary. Traction was non-existent in my car, I mean it weighs about 1280kg with me in it and having BALD tires was scary as hell. I managed to make my way to the on ramp to the highway which was all uphill and about 150m to the highway. The light went green and I spun like crazy despite my attemps to baby it and started my way up the ramp. About a third of the way I was getting progressively slower and slower and then came to a stop and started to slide backwards...but I was accelerating

So I looked behind me and slowly made my way back down to the bottom and actually went through the intersection backwards even further so I could get a running start at it. Don't worry there was no traffic on the road or else I wouldn't have done it! After getting about a 100ft head start on wet concrete I went up the onramp and made it up...barely. I then cruised all the way to school at about 60, although it was scary as hell considering the amount of torque steer and the amount my tail was sliding! Once I made it to the backstreets close to my school, I e-brake slided it all the way there (as per instructions VIA flyingdutchy) and made it to school. The parking lot was EMPTY, I felt sort of stupid going to school now that nobody was there. As I was about to park I got stuck in the unplowed snow.. An STi (who regularly parked next to me) drove up and asked if I needed help, I told him I didn't but he waited anyways. I rocked back and forth in first and reverse and used a binder for traction and managed to free myself. The guy laughed and then started to drive away, but HE got stuck!! I offered him help but obviously he declined. After many failed attempts, he was unsuccessful so I lent him my binder and gave him a push! Once he parked we made a couple jokes and went to class. I was in class for my lecture at 8:05am and was only one of 4 other students who profited that fluid dynamics lecture, score! At the end of the day most of the snow had melted but it was still scary going home! The end

Day 5: (early) December

So I found an awesome deal on some Mazdaspeed 3 rims on my local Mazda 3 forum (denoted: Mazda3Quebec) and contacted the guy, met up with him and bought em within a day of seeing them! He was a really nice guy and the transaction went great!

Here's a pic of them, which he posted to my local forum, since I didn't take a picture of them when I bought them.

**END OF MODDING FOR 2011 BECAUSE WINTER**

Alrighty so it is important to clean your car in the winter, considering we have TONES of salt on our roads and other crummy things that are not good for your car...

However there is a way to do it properly and a way to ruin your paint.

The proper way to do it is to winter prep your car with tones of sealants and wax. After that, the only way to protect your paint is to, ironically wash your car as little as possible! Yes you heard me right! The only times one should wash their car is when it near zero temperatures. What happens when you wash your car when its cold is the warmer temperatured water shocks your clear coat because its warmer than the metal and actually ends up opening up its pores and then freezes inside and widens the gap in the clear to your paint. I've confirmed this with many detailers. It's the same for storing it in the garage, bad idea if it's heated!!

However one fine winter day it got to near zero and Bruce woke me up to tell me, washing ensued.

Wash Day: (mid february)

Now I must sadly admit that not much went on between November to about May the following year because it's too damn cold to work in the winter and also because I only work part time during school because I prefer to concentrate on my studies!

So we jump ahead a few months...

**jmacman12** · 10-08-2012, 09:23 AM

Day 6: (mid) April

After a nice winter of hard snow and salt roads, I decided to give the car a THOROUGH clean. Please note that the pic is unedited(to prove that I am a clean freak)

I also ended up taking this pic, which I edited to an extent to make it look all artsy fartsy. Perhaps I'll use it at on point as an avatar

Day 7: (early) May

NEW SHOESSSSSSSSSS: dat symmetry....

After a long and serious debate with myself, I reached the conclusion that I would go with Bridgestone RE760s. Why? Simple: they are a an ultra high performance summer tire with an almost perfect speed rating and a surprisingly long tread-wear life, which was ultimately what was the deciding factor. Usually sacrificing crappy tread-wear means you get an increase in performance and this is true for the contrapositive as well. However, not in this case as they had a very high performance rating with a long tread wear life too which means I won't hopefully have to buy a new set as soon! And to my luck, the place where I bought them at offered free unlimited road side hazard, and lifetime free balancing. Hurray for Costco!! Then I found a mail in rebate from Bridgestone themselves which offered 100$ on any purchase made of 4 summer tires. So what should have costed me around $1200 only cost me $750, now that's what I call a deal!!!

Here's is an instagram pic I have, since I think the original photo was deleted!

Hurray for MCM members

Day 7: (late) May

Now I didn't exactly have time to fully detail my car in the spring and I had since started working full time (since school was over) I had no time to detail it. I contacted one of the members off of my local forum Montreal Racing and got a detailer to do my car! He was a super cool dude as well, very friendly and extremely honest! He taught me a lot about detailing and even encourages me to do it myself to save money, now that's what I call GGG. He's got a customer for life/many incoming referrals

Here is the thread on my local forum, I highly suggest you check it out...the difference is crazy!

JMACMAN12 - Detailed

http://montrealracing.com/forums/showthread.php?813257-JMACMAN12-Detailed

This is an automotive discussion forum for the city of Montreal powered by vBulletin. To find out about vBulletin, go to http://www.vbulletin.com/ .

Here are some quick pics:

BEFORE:

DURING:

AFTER:

Day 8: (early) June

Look who was on their way here :O

For those who don't get it, you can't fly from Australia straight to Canada...

Then this happened....

As timings go, there couldn't have been any better. Two days before Marty came to Canada, I had purchased a sway bar off my local Mazda forum. Little did I know that we were going to makean EP on installing it. Apparently Marty always planned on making an EP, he was just too busy to tell me/he forgot. He did however, insist on spending money for me by purchasing additional mods for my car but I couldn't accept that, after all I look up to the guy.

Day 9: (mid June)

All of this happened:

MCM International Meet Media (pics+videos inside) - Mighty Car Mods Official Forum

http://forums.mightycarmods.com/showthread.php?12958-MCM-International-Meet-Media-(pics-videos-inside)/

A place for photos and photography talk

http://s67.photobucket.com/albums/h295/yingrox/MCM%20North%20American%20meet/

YES, that is me bobbing my head at the end haha^

WOW that was an awesome time

I had a real great time with everyone and it was one (if not THE) most fun I've ever had in my life <3

Alright back to my car:

Day 10: (mid) June

Just after all the mighty modders had gone home, I coincidentally gotten a package in the mail. I guess the guy upstairs didn't want me to stop with my car related activities

So the next day I put on my new lugs and test fitted it RIGHT away:

Day 11: (mid) July

After being bombarded by work and other things, I finally had some free time to paint my lip! I checked out some awesome videos by DaveVG on youtube (he's a life saver) and painted my lip! Oh and I almost forgot to mention, SOMEWHERE in this miss of a car thread, I purchased a grill off of a local Mazda forum for dirt cheap. It's an OEM grill but made for the pre facelifted 3's, which happens to still fit mine. Anyways, here's the progress on both:

Originally it was ALL black, yet I repainted the black:

Here is the lip, after paint and clear. I hadn't compounded it yet because I was waiting for the paint to cure (as per instructions from Dave)

After that, it looked like this:

Notice how I didn't put the grill on... I messed up the painting real bad on it

So I'm currently redoing that right now.

Sadly I am also currently in the process of re-attaching my lip. I didn't like the way it was on and now I'm on the hunt for some self taping screws that are long enough.

I just want to say a quick thank you to everyone who took an interest in my car at the MCM meet, you know who you guys are (borris, wokstar, Monzter, harris, flyingdutchy+alex, Lucas) I also want to say thank you to Marty for wanting to make an episode on my car, as much as I didn't want it to begin with, it certainly is really cool to see

Shout out to Sm1l3y for thinking my car was cool and that it was ride thread worthy. Also I want to thank Milkchicken for her help and support and to Rake for helping me come to decisions when I was undecided with what to do to it.

So now we are upto date

**F@BOY** · 10-08-2012, 09:24 AM

-reserved because everyone was doing it, wanted to fit in-

Seriously tho, i love the mazda. Looking forward to the next updates. ^__^.

**Monzter** · 10-08-2012, 09:27 AM

Fiiiiiinally a thread for your beautiful car!

**jmacman12** · 10-08-2012, 09:28 AM

Originally posted by F@BOY View Post

-reserved because everyone was doing it, wanted to fit in-

Seriously tho, i love the mazda. Looking forward to the next updates. ^__^.

At least I have the luxury to delete the post if I don't need it! I documented everything I did so I plan to show the progress here on page 1 but from today onwards, any new update to the car will be done by replying to the thread! Obviously I'll keep the OP accurate though

Thanks for the nice words dude!

Originally posted by Monzter View Post

Fiiiiiinally a thread for your beautiful car!

Haha thanks Monzter, you're one of the few who can vouch for it considering you drove in it <3

**FortKid** · 10-08-2012, 09:29 AM

Wait why are you reserving things? Cant you just rearrange stuff?

**F@BOY** · 10-08-2012, 09:31 AM

Originally posted by FortKid View Post

Wait why are you reserving things? Cant you just rearrange stuff?

Character limitations i believe. Less work.

**jmacman12** · 10-08-2012, 09:31 AM

Originally posted by FortKid View Post

Wait why are you reserving things? Cant you just rearrange stuff?

Rearrange no, delete yes. I tend to talk a lot so I find myself going over the character limit in posts at times, so instead of hi jacking another persons response to the thread, I'll use the ones I reserved. If it turns out I don't need all of them, I'll simply delete them!

**FortKid** · 10-08-2012, 09:36 AM

Just edit all this useless banter in the past posts in to your build thread. lol

**jmacman12** · 10-08-2012, 10:50 AM

Originally posted by FortKid View Post

Just edit all this useless banter in the past posts in to your build thread. lol

Yep, I've made changed to the OP to state as to why I'm doing this.

Also, I've used a reserved space

I'll keep updating them as we go

**Slipshot139** · 10-08-2012, 11:10 AM

I really love your Mazda Jmac. All the mods work together, and you can see how the rally style comes out with those mudflaps. Thats an idea for me haha. I have had a soft spot for them ever since my dad bought one a while back. He had the GT in gunmetal, but it was the sedan. Really quick and comfy too. But then as all Canadian cars do and especially Mazda3's the trunk rusted out. I will have to drive over to Montreal and check out the car scene there. It looks worlds better than the one here in Ottawa... Oh wait, there isn't one

**jmacman12** · 10-08-2012, 11:55 AM

Originally posted by Slipshot139 View Post

I really love your Mazda Jmac. All the mods work together, and you can see how the rally style comes out with those mudflaps. Thats an idea for me haha. I have had a soft spot for them ever since my dad bought one a while back. He had the GT in gunmetal, but it was the sedan. Really quick and comfy too. But then as all Canadian cars do and especially Mazda3's the trunk rusted out. I will have to drive over to Montreal and check out the car scene there. It looks worlds better than the one here in Ottawa... Oh wait, there isn't one

Thanks a lot Slipshot139

It's a slow process but it's coming along I reckon!

They're unbelievable cars for what you get for the the money. So if your Dad gives you his or should you buy one yourself, feel free to bug me about it, although there are tones of companies and support for these cars!

Also, checking out the montreal car scene is a must if you live in Ottawa, although be sure to come up during an event to fully appreciate it here haha

For the trunk, because it's a sedan there are tones of scrap ones lying around everywhere so even grabbing a used trunk in the same color would be cheap to do! Who knows you could even sand and repaint it for practice if you're allowed!

**Guywithacar** · 10-08-2012, 12:20 PM

Why is plasti dip so hard to get and so expensive???. here in new York it's five bucks a can and u can buy it at any hardware store or autoparts store

**F@BOY** · 10-08-2012, 12:22 PM

Originally posted by Guywithacar View Post

Why is plasti dip so hard to get and so expensive???. here in new York it's five bucks a can and u can buy it at any hardware store or autoparts store

Confirming this for Missouri as well.

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