Mazda 6 Forums banner

Some 1st gen love!!

9K views 55 replies 11 participants last post by  DJ Raydiate 
#1 ·
Hey gang!! It's been a while since I've posted and I want to get back into it. I was looking on how to do a build thread built I guess I'll just do it here:grin2:. I just post all of my progress past and present for my 03 6S. My baby girl is of age where I can start working on things and check in on her or she won't get into things while I'm working so I'm excited to get started. A little background of what I like to do is I make custom LED lighting for my vehicles when time and efforts permit. I will be doing a complete HID Retrofit along with building my own LED arrays to do LED retrofits as well. But not everything posted here will be all about lighting so..

I have a huge build in store for the front end and I'm still in the planing stages for the rear. I know exactly what I want the front to look and act(more on this later :wink2:). Maybe once I get the front done I'll have a better idea for the rear. I may do some things outside the box so please bare with me.

Here is a little something that I already have in hand and ready to start on
Automotive lighting Bumper Automotive tail & brake light Motor vehicle Light

Motor vehicle Headlamp Bumper Vehicle Car


Also had to give a slight preview of the new mesh going in:grin2:. I will be installing the fog lights this weekend along with new mesh. While I have the front bumper off, I will be installing my HID harness, ballasts, and replacing the bulbs in both fog and low beams. This show improve my visibility drastically until I get all of the projectors ordered and in. When I do finally get to retrofit the headlights, all the ballasts will have already been ran and so I can just plug them in and be done.

The clear lenses in the pic I won't be able to use. I bought them but the reflector is in the lens vs the housing so one couldn't see any custom work inside of it. I'll order a new pair here shortly to cut open and build an array. I did get to do some testing on a new product (to me) that I will be using.

Here you can see that the reflective prism is in the lens.
Bumper Automotive exterior Grille Automotive lighting Auto part


Side by side comparison of that light and some of my past work.
Automotive lighting Bumper Automotive exterior Auto part


With the new side markers that I will order having the reflector in the base of the housing, I needed to come up with a way to still have a reflector on the side. Started to look around on the net and found this Black Reflective tape. It's black during the day but shows up silver when light hits it.

No flash.
Wire Electrical tape Heat-shrink tubing Cable Plastic


With flash.
Auto part Metal


I ran continuity test on the tape and it's non conducive so it was on to the next test.
 
See less See more
6
#2 ·
With it passing the continuity test, it was time to go ahead and do a mounting test. For this test I just used a spare piece of lexan that I had laying around to mount the tape and LEDs to. I needed to see how well this would stick and look AFTER the heat of the LEDs being soldered.
I wanted to make sure that the tape would still stick as well as make sure that it would not deform while the heat was put to it during soldering.

These are the amber LEDs that I will be using. Cree amber P4s.
Coin Currency Money Metal Silver


All soldered up.
Wire Electrical wiring Electronics Technology Electronic device


I was happy with the outcome. The tape held up very well. It didn't lose any stickiness and it did not deform under the heat. 2 more test down!!

No flash with LEDs
Technology Triangle Rectangle


With flash with LEDs
Triangle Metal


At this point I'm digging the tape but I still needed to see what it would do behind the lens and what it would look like once the LEDs were powered. I popped my little test board into an old clear housing from my old Eclipse for this next test. It was all "cross my fingers" at this point because if it didn't reflect right, I'd have to find something different to use.

Behind lens with no flash.
Technology Auto part Electronic device


Behind lens with flash.
Automotive lighting Headlamp Bumper Light Automotive exterior


LET THERE BE POWER!!!
Red Label Honda Bottle


This tape rocks for what I'm wanting to use it for. I will be using it just like in the test but on a board made for our cars :wink2:. I had thought of other ways to use it just like the bikers have been on their bikes and helmets. It made me think of another test.<_<. In this one I wanted to see what it would look like under a clear coat of paint directly on it. I took a small piece of it and stuck it to a piece of cardboard. I hit it with 3 coats of clear and let is dry.

No flash.
Automotive exterior Bumper


Flash!!
Material property Electric blue Plastic


It looks great under the clear coat. Best of all it's sealed down to the cardboard now. This is nice to know for the future?!
 
  • Like
Reactions: CUNMY6
#4 ·
Why yes I do lol. It's nice to be able to get back into making a car "mine". Slowly but surely it's getting there but have so much more planned. I will definitely keep this up to date.
 
#5 · (Edited)
So on the past Saturday and Sunday I spent getting the car ready for the retrofit. I still need to order projectors but I had a light out anyway so why not get the wiring all done and out of the way. With the increase in the lighting, I still needed to do something the the lenses.

Here is the car at the beginning waiting for surgery lol. As you can see, my lights needed help.:grin2:
Land vehicle Vehicle Car Mazda Bumper


I took 3 HID harnesses and made them into 1 "main" harness. This harness will be just for the headlights. Slowly but surely I will be cutting the drivers side headlight plug out and will have the passengers side unplugged and capped off. All of my connections will be soldered and heatshrunk. I like knowing that it won't cause an issue later on :wink2: while I was at it, I went ahead and ran the harness for the lower fogs that I had ordered just for the "sports" bumper.

Auto part Engine Vehicle Automotive exterior Car


With the bulk of the harness ran, it's easy for me to fine tune the length of the wires. Then it was on to the lights:|. I spent about 1 hour on each light getting it ready for a clear coat. I wet sanded them starting with 400 and work all the way to 2000 grit. (No boring pics of it lol) Once done I hit them with a clear coat but it ended up wrinkled on me. I then spent another 2 hour wet sanding the lights down because of it smh. At this point I needed to stop on the lights and get the ballast mounted. I found the spot that the factory D2S ballast mount to on the bottom.

Auto part Vehicle


This was just a quick and dirty adaptor that I made to fit the ballast. I will make another one later to hold the 3 ballast that are going to be going to the lights in the same location. I was getting rushed on time because I needed to be able to drive it. While I still had the bumper cover off, I figured I'd mount the fog lights and change out side markers. I then had to mount the new mesh. I tried to use the factory mounting tabs to hold it in place but this caused unwanted dents and cause it to look uneven. Good thing I bought 2 sheets :grin2:

Automotive exterior Bumper Vehicle Grille Car


I will let it ride like this until I get the projectors in for the retrofit. It still looks ok for the time being. It's still a work in progress so it's fine for now lol. It was time to just get her back together and on the ground. The next time I have the bumper off, it will be a much quicker ordeal. For the most part, I'm happy with what I got done on it over the weekend.

Here she is after the end of Sunday!

Land vehicle Vehicle Car Bumper Automotive exterior


Land vehicle Vehicle Car Bumper Mazda


Land vehicle Vehicle Car Bumper Automotive exterior


35w 5500k H1s in the lows and halogens in both fogs...... for now:wink2:

This is the beginning of the updated facelift.
 
  • Like
Reactions: CUNMY6
#6 ·
Today was a little different. Still giving it some love but more on the maintenance side of it. I need to do the valve cover gaskets but the engine bay was filthy. I needed to try and clean it up a bit before I do the gaskets due to 15 years of who knows what.

Land vehicle Vehicle Engine Auto part Car


Auto part Engine Fuel line Automotive fuel system Automotive engine part


I wasn't sure where I wanted to start on trying to clean this thing but one of the people I subscribe to on YouTube has a video of just that.
https://youtu.be/PRSoRkM8GcM
This guy is very informative about diy automotive. So with my supplies ready and knowing a plan of attack, it was time to get to it.
Yellow


After hours of cleaning, scrubbing, spraying, and using the air compressor, I was ok with a stopping point.
Engine Vehicle Auto part Car


Auto part Fuel line Engine Vehicle Car


With the engine in a better condition, I'll be ready to tackle the gaskets next weekend. I didn't want to get too involved with the car due to mothers day being tomorrow. Once I know the engine is better sealed I'll do a much deeper cleaning and detailing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: CUNMY6
#7 ·
Not much to update today other than the retrofit will be put on hold until fall. The reason for this is because I saw a short video preview of the new Morimoto mini D2s 5.0!!!:surprise: By the looks of the short clip, these are going to blow the 4.0s out of the water. I'd be pissed if I had gotten the 4.0s next month and 3 months later the 5.0 comes out. Thankfully I follow TRS on Facebook and the vid showed up on my feed.

With that said, it just gives me more time to prep. I just ordered 35w 4500k H3Cs for the head fogs that I can install sometime this weekend. It also gives me a chance to get to the junkyard and grab some internals from some other headlamps as spares and work on mounting the LEDs to the Demon Eye boards. Hell at this point I can even rip the lights apart here and there and paint the bezels. By the time the 5.0s come out, hopefully all I would have to do is order them up, pop my lights open for the last time, install and boom, done! Of course that's in a perfect world:grin2:
 
  • Like
Reactions: CUNMY6
#8 · (Edited)
LED fun!!

Well my plans for the weekend were a wash out. I had planned on doing the valve cover gaskets this weekend but it was a wet weekend here in Fl. Decided to work on the Demon eyes instead. This way the engine and I both stayed dry:grin2:. If I would have started them 1st thing on Saturday morning, I could have had them done before it rained. But with my luck, it would have started raining as soon as I got all set up. It wasn't all a washout for being productive for the weekend.

With the weather being iffy, it was time to go ahead and get the Demon Eye boards built and ready for the retrofit. My plan for the front is to have demon eyes in each spot inside the headlights and the now the lower fogs. With the 2 projectors already there and the turn and high beam spots, why not. The high beam locations will be getting a set mini h1projectors and I'm not sure about the turn at this point. I do have a thought though:wink2:

These boards were made out of electronic perfboard, Red 20ma superflux LEDs, 4 wire ribbon cable, and some resistors. With a prototype made up and working, time to mass produce lol.
Electrical wiring Networking cables Wire Electronics Cable


Electronics Electronic component Technology


Wire Cable


Each board consists of 2 sets of LEDs. One set ( 2 leds ) will be hooked up to a 3 position rocker switch hooked up in reverse. Basically I will have the center running to the led arrays ground. This will give me the ability to flip the switch up or down and pull inputs from 2 different sources and have the eyes act the way I want depending on the source it's on. The 2nd set will be hooked up at a later day. I don't want to give it all away right now :lol:

At this point all the boards were painted, soldered and reinforced to the solid core ribbon cable. I chose this cable for many reasons. It's compact and gave me the amount of connections that I needed. It also has a little bit of form memory to it which is perfect for fitting it in place and it staying. With all of this done, it was time to call it a day.
Electrical wiring Wire Electrical network Electrical supply Cable


Oh!!! Look what showed up in the mail. While working on the boards, my fog bulbs came in ( kind of ). I ordered 2 sets so I could have a spare set laying around but the seller only sent 1. Contacted him and he is sending the 2nd set this week. Morimoto XB 35w H3C 4.5k
Orange


Come Sunday morning, all I had left to do was to make the transition from solid core ribbon cable to mutistrain flexible wire. With the leds be such a low current, I used some 22ga speaker wire. The ribbon cable is great for inside the headlights due to the fact that it doesn't have to move. The connection at the headlights need to be able to flex some due to the nature of having to be able to move the harness around. All connections were soldered and heatshrunk and the transition was made!!
Electronics Wire Electrical wiring Technology Cable


The only thing left for the boards to be 100% done is the connectors. I need to find and order some bare 4 pin JST connectors and pins. This way I can cut the ribbon cable and put the connectors in. By doing this, when I go to change or upgrade a board, it would be as simple as unplugging the the connectors and switching boards at their location. All of the wiring can stay inside the housing and I would not have to do any soldering for a simple board change.

Not a bad productive weekend towards the retrofit!! :dmetal:
 
  • Like
Reactions: CUNMY6
#9 · (Edited)
Hey everyone!! It's been almost 2 months since I've done anything to (or even drove) my car. It hit 180k even (I'll upload the pic later) and developed a misfire in #4 cylinder. I figured it had to have been the coils that I've had on the car for the 3 years that I've had it. I got them as a set of 6 on eBay for less than $40. 3 years and 30k miles didn't seem bad for eBay coils to me lol. Anyway got a new set of coils and plugs for her and did the front bank just to get rid of the misfire so I wasn't down a car. Sadly, this was not the case. After the quick change it still had a misfire on #4 .

Being discouraged and busy, I didn't look anymore into it. Finally had time this past weekend to take the plugs back out to have a better look. It seems as if the injector is not working in #4 . Not being able to hear it or test it without taking the car apart, I just ordered up a set of refurbished injectors that will be here Friday. While I'm at it, I'll be doing the rear plugs and coils, pcv valve, and upper and lower intake gaskets.

This should fix the issue and get it back on the road. I have so much in store for it and can't wait to drive it again. I've had to drive my wife's 2000 VW beetle :crying:<_<
 
  • Like
Reactions: CUNMY6
#10 · (Edited)
Wow, haven't updated in quite a while. The car still lives and I'm still around. Not much got done with the car last year. This year and the up coming years are going to get interesting.

Since my last post, I did get the injectors in and sorted out. The car ran like a champ with fresh clean rebuilt injectors, new plugs, new coils, and a good cleaning of the intake manifold both upper and lower. She did great for a few months after until about 3 weeks before Christmas. That's when some untimely stuff started to happen. The battery light started to come on and go off randomly. It had a mind of its own. I went and popped the hood to discover that my battery had started to swell up and was leaking everywhere!!! Stressed out that the battery has taking a dump at the worst time of the year, I looked into changing the battery setup. I had a spare battery laying around that I kept from my 97 eclipse. Hey a battery is a battery right lol. The post were on the wrong side compared to the stock 6 battery. Beings that it was the same brand that I just took out of the car, I kind of didn't want to put it in. I made a call to my brother that day and asked him to see if his father in law still had some Optima Red tops laying around the shop from when they changed all of the generator batteries. Luck so has it that he did and brought 1 home for me that day!!!. Still the battery would not go in without having to do some sort of modifications due to the way the posts were set up.

This wasn't a big deal because when I put the audio in the car, I made custom battery mounted busbars.
Metal

Auto part Engine Fuel line Vehicle Car



Beings that I had these and had 0ga wire ran to the trunk of the car, I decided to relocate the battery to the trunk. I took the busbars off of the battery terminals and screwed them to a piece of wood to hold them down. Found some nice places to zip tie the wood to the car so that it wasn't just flopping around in there. Definitely didn't want that to happen.
Engine Auto part Vehicle Car Fuel line


This is just a temporary solution until I make some new busbars and clean up the wiring. I have some 1/2 PVC sheet that I will be making cleaner looking wiring solutions. I'll basically be making my own SMD style fuse holders. Just need to get the copper plate at this point. No need to pay 90 bucks for something that I can make for a fraction of the price. They will look something like this
Product Electronics Technology Cooktop Metal


I'll do one big one with both ground and power to replace the busbars in the front and then the same for the rear near the battery.
Automotive battery Auto part Wire Engine


I like things looking nicer than what I have it now. The way I look at it now is function over looks. Things will get cleaned up and mounted properly in the next coming months.

After doing all of this, the car fired right up and ran like a champ. Took it out for a test drive and all was good.... until the battery light came on:surprise:. Flabbergasted that it came on and went off again, I got my volt meter back out and started running test. At the front busbars I was getting 14.6 with the car running. I went to the trunk and tested the battery. 14.5. Shaking my head at trying to figure out what was going on while having the meter still hooked up to the battery, that's when it showed it's true colors. The meter pegged out at the 20 volt setting!!! This was a sign that the alt was on its way out. It was keeping the battery charged so I was still able to drive it around if I had to. I didn't really like having to drive the car that way but beings that it was Christmas, I kinda had to. Changing the alt out was not on my list of things I wanted to do during the holidays lol.

I drove it on and off when I needed to like that until last weekend (Feb 2019). I would only drive the car when I had to go pick my son up from school. Any other time I needed to drive, I would wait until my wife got home from work so I could take her little bug to do whatever I needed to do. If I was anything other than a stay at home dad and had to drive the car daily, I would have changed it sooner but it was fine.

Now that the battery and alt are all good now, I can get some other maintenance done as well as some fun stuff. Still wanting to do the retrofit but it's not a pressing matter. I have a complete front suspension kit ready to go on the car as of now from Detroit Axle. Now I know these are not the best but it was an entire front end kit for less that 300 bucks.( I don't remember what I paid for them) I got it off of either eBay or Amazon. What this kit will allow me to do is have the front end nice and tight for a little while. As parts start to fade, I'll replace them in pairs with better brand or oem components. The drivers side CV axle is shot so that will be done at the same time. The only things I don't have yet to do the job right is trans fluid, filter and gasket set, and I'm wanting to replace the 16yo front and rear springs. The rear sags bad and will bottom out if I have passengers in the rear. With the added weight of the subs and enclosure and the amps on a suspended amp rack, these rear springs have no fighting chance. Can someone say coilover time lol.:wink2:
 
#11 ·
Wow, haven't updated in quite a while. The car still lives and I'm still around. Not much got done with the car last year. This year and the up coming years are going to get interesting.

Since my last post, I did get the injectors in and sorted out. The car ran like a champ with fresh clean rebuilt injectors, new plugs, new coils, and a good cleaning of the intake manifold both upper and lower. She did great for a few months after until about 3 weeks before Christmas. That's when some untimely stuff started to happen. The battery light started to come on and go off randomly. It had a mind of its own. I went and popped the hood to discover that my battery had started to swell up and was leaking everywhere!!! Stressed out that the battery has taking a dump at the worst time of the year, I looked into changing the battery setup. I had a spare battery laying around that I kept from my 97 eclipse. Hey a battery is a battery right lol. The post were on the wrong side compared to the stock 6 battery. Beings that it was the same brand that I just took out of the car, I kind of didn't want to put it in. I made a call to my brother that day and asked him to see if his father in law still had some Optima Red tops laying around the shop from when they changed all of the generator batteries. Luck so has it that he did and brought 1 home for me that day!!!. Still the battery would not go in without having to do some sort of modifications due to the way the posts were set up.

This wasn't a big deal because when I put the audio in the car, I made custom battery mounted busbars.
View attachment 226366
View attachment 226368


Beings that I had these and had 0ga wire ran to the trunk of the car, I decided to relocate the battery to the trunk. I took the busbars off of the battery terminals and screwed them to a piece of wood to hold them down. Found some nice places to zip tie the wood to the car so that it wasn't just flopping around in there. Definitely didn't want that to happen.
View attachment 226370

This is just a temporary solution until I make some new busbars and clean up the wiring. I have some 1/2 PVC sheet that I will be making cleaner looking wiring solutions. I'll basically be making my own SMD style fuse holders. Just need to get the copper plate at this point. No need to pay 90 bucks for something that I can make for a fraction of the price. They will look something like this
View attachment 226372

I'll do one big one with both ground and power to replace the busbars in the front and then the same for the rear near the battery.
View attachment 226374

I like things looking nicer than what I have it now. The way I look at it now is function over looks. Things will get cleaned up and mounted properly in the next coming months.

After doing all of this, the car fired right up and ran like a champ. Took it out for a test drive and all was good.... until the battery light came on:surprise:. Flabbergasted that it came on and went off again, I got my volt meter back out and started running test. At the front busbars I was getting 14.6 with the car running. I went to the trunk and tested the battery. 14.5. Shaking my head at trying to figure out what was going on while having the meter still hooked up to the battery, that's when it showed it's true colors. The meter pegged out at the 20 volt setting!!! This was a sign that the alt was on its way out. It was keeping the battery charged so I was still able to drive it around if I had to. I didn't really like having to drive the car that way but beings that it was Christmas, I kinda had to. Changing the alt out was not on my list of things I wanted to do during the holidays lol.

I drove it on and off when I needed to like that until last weekend (Feb 2019). I would only drive the car when I had to go pick my son up from school. Any other time I needed to drive, I would wait until my wife got home from work so I could take her little bug to do whatever I needed to do. If I was anything other than a stay at home dad and had to drive the car daily, I would have changed it sooner but it was fine.

Now that the battery and alt are all good now, I can get some other maintenance done as well as some fun stuff. Still wanting to do the retrofit but it's not a pressing matter. I have a complete front suspension kit ready to go on the car as of now from Detroit Axle. Now I know these are not the best but it was an entire front end kit for less that 300 bucks.( I don't remember what I paid for them) I got it off of either eBay or Amazon. What this kit will allow me to do is have the front end nice and tight for a little while. As parts start to fade, I'll replace them in pairs with better brand or oem components. The drivers side CV axle is shot so that will be done at the same time. The only things I don't have yet to do the job right is trans fluid, filter and gasket set, and I'm wanting to replace the 16yo front and rear springs. The rear sags bad and will bottom out if I have passengers in the rear. With the added weight of the subs and enclosure and the amps on a suspended amp rack, these rear springs have no fighting chance. Can someone say coilover time lol.:wink2:


Great update! The Detroit axle stuff is pretty good I used a complete set (odds are the same one you have) and I’ve put 13,000 trouble free miles on mine.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#12 · (Edited)
I have some DA on my car as of now but I only got about 20k out of them. Went with them again but for the entire front now. If I can get another 20k out of them for now, I'll be happy. I will be looking to replace them with something more sturdier later on as stated. The boots for the joints just didn't hold up over time. I think it's the rubber compound that they use. Either that or they don't like FL weather lol.
 
#13 ·
So, today I tried to paint my engine cover. I'll have to redo it because so much was just wrong with it. The tape left a residue behind, I missed some of the lines that I was going for, and the colors are not what I'm after. I went ahead and finished it up anyway just to get an idea of what it could be. Sometime next week I'll strip it down and wet sand it again and start over. For the most part, it turned out ok but just not happy with the turn out.

Engine Auto part Vehicle Car Automotive engine part


As you can see, the tape did not come clean like it had said. I'll try the green frog tape next to see how that is plus may let the black coat sit overnight before I tape it off for the red. The black will be changed to a flat or semi-gloss and I'm looking for a darker red. Either a blood or some sort of burgundy.

Label Textile Thread Gaffer tape Electrical tape


This tape turned out to be a hard nope lol.
 
#14 ·
Like what you are doing, keep it up! I also plan on doing the morimoto swap too so I'm keeping an eye on your progress!
 
  • Like
Reactions: DJ Raydiate
#16 ·
Thanks! While I like Morimoto, I'll end up only using projectors and bulbs from them. The ballasts I have I got dirt cheap and they have been holding up very well and I've had no issues at all from them. If I can save here and there then it's just extra that I could spend elsewhere lol.
 
#15 ·
Headlight fun!

Today I decided that it would be a good day to take the headlights off of the car. I've had hid bulbs and ballast ready to go into the fogs but just haven't had the time. My son has a 4 day weekend home from school so I didn't need to drive the car. I also wanted to take the bezels out of the lights to get them ready for paint.

Automotive lighting Headlamp Light Vehicle Auto part


The passenger side low beam light wasn't able to be aligned correctly due to the adjuster being broken at some point. The ball holder was broken and the projector would just wobble. Last year I used some wire to hold it in place until I could get out to a yard and get a new adjuster socket. While it held it in place, I still wanted to get it fixed and didn't want to pay for a whole headlight when I just needed 1 part.

Bumper

Tire Automotive wheel system Automotive tire Auto part Rim

Bumper Auto part


With that taken care of, it was on to installing the hid bulbs and ballasts into the fog lights (No pics of this) . I sealed back up the lights after I removed both bezels. I'll run naked for a little bit lol. I needed to make new ballast plates to accommodate the new ballast on each light. I wanted to use some aluminum that I have laying around but I didn't have any cutoff wheels for the grinder and my pneumatic cutoff just recently died on me. So using a sheet pan that I got out of the kitchen, I made up new plates. This will be a temp fix because when it's all said and done, I'll have 4 ballasts on each side. I'm going to have to order up some amp extensions and find new spots on each side to hold all of the ballasts.

Auto part Vehicle Fender


Test fitting the lights back into the car was a pain dealing with 2 igniters flopping around lol. I got them in place to see how everything would sit. The new plate on the drivers side hits the CAI just slightly. I'm sure it's going to rub while driving but I'll trim a little off to make a small recess so it doesn't interfere with the CAI. The passenger side had plenty of room.

Auto part Fuel line Automotive fuel system Engine Suspension

Auto part Engine Automotive exterior Vehicle


Not bad for a half a days work. I need to clean the bezels up a little and try to repair them. The passenger bezel has a nice little wart on it where the fog light is. At some point in it's life it was way out of adjustment and just burned the shit out of it. The drivers has just a small blemish that I can clean up with some sand paper.

Motor vehicle Automotive lighting Automotive design Headlamp Wheel

Automotive lighting Motor vehicle Auto part Headlamp Light


I need to go out and get some bleach so I can dechrome the bezels, try and remove and body work the wart on the passenger side, and then paint them up. I'm hoping that when I'm ready for the actual retrofit, all wiring, painting, and whatever else that deals with the HIDs will be done and all I would have to do is swap projectors out, put new sealant in, and new lenses. Tomorrow I'll get out there and finish soldering the wiring harness up and get the car back to where it's drivable again. I'm thinking of going ahead and wire the 3rd set of ballasts in and running some H1 hids pnp style lol. It would be the final set for the headlights so idk.
 
#17 · (Edited)
Well, a lot has happened since the last update. As of Saturday, I officially own the Mazda. We bought it used for 4k 4 years ago on a 5 year loan from the bank and now it's mine:grin2:.!!!! Here is how she stands as of today!!

Land vehicle Vehicle Car Bumper Automotive exterior


Land vehicle Vehicle Car Alloy wheel Mazda


Land vehicle Vehicle Car Trunk Bumper


Land vehicle Vehicle Car Alloy wheel Sedan


The lights didn't turn out anywhere near how I wanted and had to strip the paint back off. Pressed for time I tossed them back together and put them back on the car. I still have to wet sand the hell out of the lenses to get them clear again but it's been fairly wet off and on here in FL so little work has been done as far as lighting goes.

Saturday, I woke up like any normal Saturday and went to the store 2 blocks away to get the wife and I some energy drinks to start the day. The car drove fine on the way there but came back in limp mode. :surprise: Thinking WTF, I got the scanner out and ran the codes. P2110 throttle actuator forced limited rpm and p2112 throttle body actuator stuck closed. I disconnected the intake from the body and tried to see what was going on. It was hard to move the butterfly so I knew what was going on. Instead of getting home with the energy drinks and changing the oil in the cars, I was off to hunt down a throttle body smh. While I was out at the yard I'd figure I'd pick up some things that were bothering me about my car. The steering wheel has a lot of peeling on the 12 o clock spot. It's been like that since we picked it up as well as a nasty tear in the driver's seat. I'm also missing both kick panels. I have them somewhere but I believe the driver's wasn't fitting right and kept falling off down by my feet so I set it somewhere. To many projects going on lol.

Land vehicle Vehicle Car Wheel Auto part


Water Metal Silver Material property Architecture


I had to drive my wife's 2000 VW Bug out to the yard, getting seats was not going to happen. Right before I was leaving the yard however, I found a set of seats that looked great and had to have them but there was no way that I could get them home on Saturday. It was a good trip regardless. I ended up scoring the throttle body, steering wheel, the cable that runs down the driver's door for the inside door lever, and both kick panels!!! By the time I was leaving the yard, there was only about an hour left before they closed so my chances for getting the seats on Sunday were good. I got home and cleaned the junk yard TB with an entire can of cleaner inside and out and allowed it to dry overnight. Tossed it on the car which took a whole 5 mins. and took it out for a drive. The thing works great. The idle vibrations have simmered due to the TB change. I thought the vibrations were due to the AWR Racing mounts on the car. It still vibrates but no where near as bad. Go fig:smile2: .

Since the Mazda was back up and running and it was only 8 am, I headed out to the yard to be one of the 1st in to grab the seats before someone else did. No sooner did I get both out and start walking to the front, someone was there digging in the 6s and saw the seats lol. Getting them in the car to get home wasn't bad at all. I laid the 1st one on its back carefully in the back seat. I then laid the passenger side face down on top of the 1st one. They fit in the back seat with no issues and it was back to the house. I got them home and was taking the newly acquired seats out of the car and that's when all hell broke loose. I ripped the headrest of my current drivers seat getting the passenger seat out:surprise:. No biggie because I was about to pull it's replacement from the car. When I went to pull it out, that's when I noticed that on the ride home, the mounting bracket punctured the rear bench :crying:. That thing had no issues other than 2 kids sit back there lol. Now I'm going to have to find a new back seat somewhere smh.

Leather Auto part


Leather Textile Metal


For now I just need to find out how to repair the back seat just so my son doesn't tear it up more than it already is until I can find a replacement. Now that the car is paid for, the real modifications can start and the interior is eventually all coming out for sound deadening and painting. I've got a corner of parts in the laundry room ready to go in now but just need to find the time. I will be helping my wife do her bug up as well so the plan is 1 weekend we work on her bug and the next I work on the Mazda. It's only fair that her car gets some love too lol.

Bin bag Baggage Plastic bag Plastic Bag


Some major plans are already in the works for the car. I still need a lot of parts and components for everything to be done right as well as the time for me to fab some things for it. A lot of wiring will be happening very soon so I'm looking forward to that. I think I have plenty to get me started and beings that they are sitting in front of the deep freezer, I kinda need to take care of those 1st lol.
 
#18 ·
I love junkyard days! Nice update, I like reading the reasons why and how things happened in a update too. Bummer about the rear seats though. I'm sure you'll get her back in shape in no time!
 
#19 ·
Bummer on the rear seat. I had someone repair a tear on a leather seat by gluing a small patch behind the tear to avoid it spreading. Perhaps your old seats could be the donor for the tear patch? Congrats on paying it off. It is such a great feeling to clear a car payment from the budget.
 
#20 ·
I'll look into the leather patch idea. Just kinda freaked out after it had happened. I didn't lay the back seat down due to exposed speaker terminals on the back of the sub box plus their wiring. Never did I think that I could rip something getting the seats home.

I'll probably use the driver's headrest as the patch material lol. I'll be using the seats that come out of the car as shop chairs. No headrest needed lol.
 
  • Like
Reactions: waughoo
#21 ·
Howdy Ray, looking great. I love your posts. I saw you enter the 6OTM contest and you commented on rear sag.
How about trying a set of Energy Suspension spring isolators. part# 9.6104G
They give about 5/8" for <$20.
Two bolts to install per side. You put them right on top of your upper factory isolators.


 

Attachments

#22 ·
Thanks Doc!! That's great info and I would have never known!

I'm not sure how much longer the stock set up is going to be on the car atm. I have to switch to coilovers some time this year in prep of the mods to come. I even have plans of upgrading the breaks (again) to speed 6 all around before next summer for better holding power. Beings that it's an 03 it has the smallest brakes of the bunch lol.

Regardless you should do a writeup on a cheap fix for the sagging springs for all to see.
 
#23 ·
LED Fun!!

It's been a busy couple of weeks here at the house for me. Between family fun, fishing for a day, and working many projects at once, I'm making some progress on the 6. I rushed getting the seats into the car (see walkthrough:wink2:) because of where they were sitting and I hadn't planned on doing the seats (or steering wheel for that matter) anytime soon. They were in the grand scheme of things but further down the road lol. I still need to finalize the seats but they function and they are out of the way of the deep freezer and they look good.

The steering wheel can wait. It's no where near as big as the seats are and no real rush on replacing it. Same as the retrofit. I'm not in a real rush to get it done because lights are working fine and I still need to gather and order parts for the build anyway lol. The way I see it, I have 3 1/2 - 4 years to get everything or most of everything done. Some things will trump others as the projects get done. I'm currently working on things that I know I won't have to change in the future or what's taking up the most space :grin2: Getting seats on a spur of the moment and having them in the house with my cat kinda trumped all lol.

While working on seats by day, I started working on things that I could do that were less noisy at night. That's when these glorious pieces were developed. I should have done them a while ago because this is my kind of therapy. I can get lost for hours dealing with LEDs and custom lighting. They started out chrome last week. I mainly got them because of the clear lenses and the reflectors built into the housings. The ones I have on the car now have the reflectors built into the lenses and any custom work would have been lost behind them.

First order of things were to get the bad boys open. I used my wood burning kit with the hot knife tip on it to get them most of the way open. Between the hot knife and a regular snap blade, they came apart without a hassle.

Bumper Vehicle


Once both of them were open, it was time to get the board shape and size. I needed to see what kind of room I had to work with plus I needed a templet that I could use to lay down for the shape on the plexiglass.

Knife Cold weapon Blade Utility knife Tool


After drawing many designs and testing them on a piece of floor mat that was cut to shape, I finally decided that with what little room there was, simple was best.

Bumper Metal Vehicle


Using my LED spacing tool, I was able to lay out the holes of the legs of the LEDs.

Metal


With the design aspect of things squared away, it was time to get the housings ready and to get the plexiglass cut to shape. To remove the chrome from the housings, it was off to a bleach bath. As you can see in the pic, that bleach just eats the chrome off of the plastic.

Airplane Aircraft Vehicle Plastic


After about an hour the housings were chrome free ans the plexiglass was made to shape using my homemade multi tool station. I used the scroll saw to get close to shape and then finished it up with the mini router table and disk sander. This made everything so easy compared to just using a cut off wheel like how I did them in the past lol.

Wood Plywood


Next up was drilling the holes for the LEDs. I took my paper templates and used double sided scotch tape to lay them down on top of the plexiglass. Using my dremel tool with a 1/16 bit, I hand drilled all 152 holes in the board. Once that was done, the housings were painted as well as the backs of the boards. For the front of the boards, I used black reflective tape. They covered most of the board with just leaving slivers of exposed plastic. One would have to really get close to them to see but once on the car, I don't think it will matter. With the boards prepped it was time to populate the boards with LEDs. The LEDs sit right on top of the board with as much leg as possible going through the plexi. I folded the legs over there I needed to make connections between the LEDs. Each led is folded over to the next unless it was where power and resistors needed to be.



Starting with the folded legs, I soldered those connections up to keep the LEDs in place. Turning to the power side of things, I used some 22ga solid core wire and connected all the + where they needed to be. Finally it was the resistor placement and ground side. Using the legs of the resistors I soldered in the ground. With some small drops of superglue, everything was now complete!!

Bumper Automotive exterior Auto part


These turned out much cleaner then what I had done in the past. Granted the ones bellow had many more LEDs as well as 2 different colors.

Silver Metal Silver Fashion accessory Diamond


Footwear Headgear Textile Fashion accessory Art
 
#24 ·
With everything soldered and looking good. It was time to seal the lights back up and get them to their final painting.

Fish Bait Spoon lure Fishing bait Fishing lure


Once dry, the lenses were cleaned up and they were done!!

Auto part Bumper Automotive exterior Automotive mirror Rear-view mirror


Here you can see that reflective tape really pop and set the lights off.

Bumper Auto part Fashion accessory Automotive mirror Metal


Here are just the rest of the pics of everything running.

Automotive lighting Light Orange Headlamp Glasses


Lighting Light Automotive lighting Light fixture Night


Room


While I had the sealer out, I fixed up these rear lights. They were delivered to me with the lenses coming off already due to the cheap sealant they had used. I had planed on doing my own arrays in these but I wasn't ready to run pwms in the car to give me dual brightness. When I go to do the tail lights I will have to run pwms in the back of the car anyway so I'll just address them then.

Tartan


I still have some electronics to make before I can put the side markers in. I need to order some project board and some housings. I'll probably look into the Rubbermaid snap tight things that have the rubber seal on the top. I can get those off of a shelf and they should withstand the heat of the voltage regulators and pwms.
 
#27 ·
It's been a slow progress on the 6 as far as working on it. I've been collecting parts over the last week's as well as finishing up the electronics side of the side markers. I don't have them installed as of yet due to not having a left side fender liner. It had never bothered me until I looked at where I could mount the control box on that side and had seen mud lol. None the less I grabbed one last weekend at the yard as well as some other cool mods for her. I'm going back out there this Sat to grab a few more mods.

Once I grab the last few things I want/need, I'll start actually working on her again. I think I have some cool little treats for the community coming up. The best part of these little things is the fact that they can be done for very cheap and are OEM parts from different vehicles.

So far what I have on hand is:
RX 8 steering wheel with clockspring
Ford fusion fog projectors
Washer squirters from a Monte Carlo.

Things yet to get:
OEM LED tail light bulbs from an Impala
Electro/hydrolic power steering pump from Valvo S40
Fog light switch from some Mazda lol (want to find a dash mount one for my open spot)

Things that I may need/still looking into:
Power steering lines from the Volvo S40. This is mainly due to how they run. They are both ran like how our high pressure side runs underneath the oil pan behind the crank pulley. If the high pressure side fits our rack, it's simple. If not then custom lines will have to be made.

Washer reservoir from the same Volvo. This would be needed due to how big ours is and where the Volvo pump sits factory. It sits right behind the front bumper on the passenger side and if IIRC, it's washer is mounted right above it. With an electric pump it doesn't really matter where it's mounted as long as you get lines to it but I kind of like the location that it sits factory.

Power steering rack, power steering rack, power steering rack. I hate how big the factory 6 turn radius is. I would like to try and get the rack out of the v6 6 that's currently in my local yard and try different racks. Parking lots are always jam packed here in Jacksonville and I feel like I'm almost going to back into a car behind me by the time I'm able to start swinging the car out lol. It's about the only thing that I hate about the car. I'm going to start crawling under many vehicles and trying their lock to lock out (where I can lol) to see if we can't get something a little better under ours. I'd be happy with another 5° or something smh:grin2: IF I can find something that will bolt up to our car and column, I'll definitely be grabbing it and sharing here.

As you can see, I have some work ahead of me but all in all for the end goal, some of its needed and some is for cool factor. Such as this teaser pic

Land vehicle Vehicle Car Mazda Headlamp
 
  • Like
Reactions: Kalalicious
#29 · (Edited)
So, some of the things on my list didn't pan out as planned. I don't think I'll need some of the things on my last list after doing some looking and testing around.

The Led modules that I was after were not in any of the impalas that I had seen. I think that information was wrong but I did find them in a 2011 mustang. However, after fighting the car to get them out, it comes to find out that we can't use them without major modifications.
Tool accessory Auto part Hardware accessory Gas


To me they didn't look too bad but one would have to remove some of the metal around the tail light housings on the body, remove or try to relocate 1 of the studs that hold the corner lights on, and remove the overhang around the bulb socket mounts on all 4 of the lights. If one really wanted to give it a go it would have been doable but not worth my effort because eventually I'll be making my own LED tail lights.

The power steering lines were way off. The lines on the S40 will not work at all. They connect to the rack like how some A.C. lines attach to the compressor with 1 bolt in the center of a flange that has both the pressure and return lines. This isn't a big deal because it's not hard to have custom lines made or even to make my own. While on the subject of the pump, I held off on picking 1 up. That will be a little later this year where I can focus on the power steering mods. Eventually I will be replacing the factory 6 pump with the electrohydrolic pump. This will free up the power steering pump location for other fun things for those that want/need it. At 1st it will just be an idler pulley but I'm sure I could run a 2nd alternator or even something like an AMR500 supercharger it it's place. Even with an idler pulley, it should free up a little bit of hp from the engine not having to drive the power steering. There is a slight trade off because the alt will have to work a little harder due to the electric pump. It pulls 80 amps when it kicks on.

AMR500 supercharger
Auto part Carburetor Engine Automotive engine part Metal


The fog light switch is tricky. I think I'll just find one that looks close to our traction control switch from a different make and hope it lights up the same color lol. So far I've only seen turn signal stock switches on the mazdas currently in the junk yard. None the less I'll find something to use that looks factory.

I won't need the washer reservoir from the S40 because it's on the drivers side where our intake is.

The Rack. I haven't even tried anything for this yet. The Fusion has about the same "turns" from lock to lock on the steering wheel as ours. This was my 1st and only car that I tried so far so idk. It's a pain in the ass but I think I'm going to just drop this dream lol. While it would be nice to get a little extra, it's not anything drastic at this time for me to worry about it. I need to stay on task and keep things moving forward.

With that said, I was able to install the side markers and their control modules. I lost a week fighting the electronic side of things. The cheap pwms that I had on hand were not working correctly. I forgot that I had fought with them before and I never updated my notes. I had the correct schematics but I also had 3 others smh. Luckily I went to HIDplanet and saw where we had figured it out and found the correct schematic. I will be ordering different pwms for the future so I don't go through this again lol.

Land vehicle Vehicle Car Mazda Mid-size car

Land vehicle Vehicle Car Headlamp Automotive lighting

Black Mode of transport Night Asphalt Light


I was also able to install the lower rear bumper lights. These were easy enough to install but I had to drill 2 holes on each side for them to even slid into place. It wasn't bad and can't be seen at all. I also had to use a self tapping screw and some washers to make everything stay in place. For my 03 the factory rear reflectors snapped into place like the front side markers. The led bumper lights have 2 plastic studs on them for screws I guess. Anyway that's how I got it to work lol. It was just 3 wires on the lights that I ran through one of the new holes in the bumper and up into the tail light hole. I just spliced right into the factory wiring. I soldered the wrong positives at first (and in the pic lol) but later corrected it.

Wire Electrical wiring Cable Technology Electrical supply

Bumper Automotive exterior

Electrical wiring Wire Electrical supply Electrical network Electronics

Land vehicle Vehicle Car Automotive exterior Trunk

Automotive lighting Vehicle Light Car Automotive design

To me the car is starting to come together. I still have a lot of work to do but she's getting there. I will be starting a calender within the next week or so to help me stay on track as well as set times for each mod and/or maintenance. This way I'm not overwhelmed with parts laying around while more are still coming in for both my wife's Beetle and my 6. It's my son's birthday this weekend as well as Easter so the next couple of weekends will be busy with family. I can say that the next 2 months (May and June) are planned for the 6.

May:
Maintenance on the 6 for family trip to NC. 500 miles there and 500 miles back. Need to replace a CV axle (busted inner boot), the front suspension, front brakes (just started hearing the wear indicators) change the trans fluid and install a trans cooler. Then get it aligned. It shouldn't take me all month but maintenance will be my main focus. Oh and a final oil change before the trip lol.

June:
Days= New amp rack build and possible new box build. I will build a new enclosure eventually but just not sure when. My main concern at the time is the amp rack. I have everything for it taking up room except 1 switch, 2 actuators, and the slides. I'll drive around systemless for a little bit but it will be fine. The longer I take on it to make it rattle proof the better.

Nights= Retrofit. I have ordered new lenses, brackets, demon eyes, all from overseas so it will take some time to get here. I'm waiting for a sale from lightwerks to order the rest. I have mini h1 7.0s for the wife to go in her car but need some odds and ends so I'll order it all when the sale hits. I still need extensions, DS2 bulbs, mini h1 projectors and the G5r projectors. By June I will have all of the odds and ends needed to do both.
 
#30 · (Edited)
Hey gang!! I figured I'd keep this thread alive with some updates. As usual it's been busy but things are starting to settle down a little bit. The schedule I have for the car is being shifted around a little bit. Our family vacation isn't until the end of July now so it bought me some time for the maintenance. The 31st is the last day of school for my son so the car will not be needed as a daily driver. I can finally give her some downtime and get things done without worrying if I'm going to have it ready by Monday lol.

The transmission has been giving me some issues lately where it wants to take it's time to shift into drive. I have reverse instantly but drive not so much. It use to only do it when it was really cold outside but now that it's already warm in FL and it's doing it more and more, I'm a little worried about it. I'm going this weekend to get a trans cooler and I'm going to see how many V6s are in the yard and what years. I'll start by changing the fluid, installing the trans cooler with an inline filter. If that doesn't make the trans happy then I'll have no choice but to get a used tranny from the yard. If I go that route I'll split the trans open to see where and how hard it would be for a diyer to replace the screen inside the transmission.

With that said, I'm not going to worry about keeping to a schedule as of now. I'll work on the things that I can without having to have downtime. The amp rack will just wait until August when we get back from vacation.

I have been working on a little something and had some progress on the grand goal however. Awhile ago I picked a pair Ford Fusion fog projectors for $10. These work great with HIDs and are still being recommend by people on HIDPlanet for retrofitting and will work a hell of a lot better than the lower fogs that I currently have. The ones that came with the aftermarket bezels are kind of a joke and had started to rust 3 months after I installed them.
Personal protective equipment Lens Auto part Camera lens


The fusion fog lights on there own would have been great upgrade but I wanted more:wink2:. The 1st thing I had to do is get them fully broken down. This would give me the access I needed to do all of the modifications I wanted to get done. Plus with them being on a car for x amount of years they could use the deep cleaning.
Personal protective equipment Diving equipment Automotive piston Goggles Auto part


Once I had everything apart, it was time to get the modifications done. Here you can see that the projector has a foreground limiter stamped into the front half of the projector. I wanted just a little bit more foreground so I needed to cut it about where the line is. The little tab on the bottom also needed to be removed. Once the tab was gone, I was able to drill a hole in the bottom of the cutoff shield as close to the projector lens as I could. I also needed to drill a hole out of the bottom of the projector to pass a connector through.
Helmet Personal protective equipment Headgear Metal


Rim Wheel Auto part Hubcap Automotive wheel system


Sink Bathroom sink Plumbing fixture Rim Metal


Next up was some cleaning and paint. I wanted to have passive demon eyes during the day and brilliant red demon eyes for at night. To accomplish both, the shields needed to be painted. The painted shields during the day will catch sunlight and certain angles and produce a slight red tint. They also help reflect the color of the LED and will help it stand out more. Once the paint was dry, it was a matter of attaching the LED in place. For this I wanted to be able to replace the LED if it ever went out. I was going to use JB weld but I just ended up using some aluminum hvac duct tape and black rtv. These are some of the few things that will stick to almost anything lol. I also used the rtv to seal the hole in the bottom of the projector while at it.
Red Automotive lighting


Auto part Brake Wheel Automotive wheel system Rim


Finally, with the rtv cured and everything looking good, it was time to put the projector back together. I used more black rtv to seal the 2 halfs as well as for the lens. I will let them sit for the next couple of days befoe I mess with them again at this point.
Automotive lighting Light Headlamp Personal protective equipment Auto part


Red Automotive lighting Light Automotive tail & brake light Auto part


I still need to pull the bezels off of the car and look at how I'm going to mount them. The fiberglass on the bezels are kind of weak at some points so I know I'll have to be careful. All and all, I'm happy with how they turned out. I'll start doing all of that this sometime week. And hey, thanks to @DrFeelGood , I know where to get the switch I need and how to wire it up:smile2:
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top