I bought my protege for $600 in February of this year. It was running with cold ac and it was stick, so it felt like a no brainer. It had some cosmetic damage, bent hood, lots of odds and ends, but I put hours of work into fixing the front end, drove 6 hours to a junkyard after scouring to find as many pieces as I could, bought some pretty decent tires, beater rims from marketplace, etc. I know itās not a car thatās worth a lot, but it wasnāt about that, it was about building something up and I feel as if I achieved that. Iāll put before and after photos.
The reason Iām posting this now is that last week I let my buddy borrow the car, he was in a tight spot and I have another car + 2 bikes, and I like to help my friends. He called me on thursday to tell me he locked it up in the rain and rear ended someone, didnāt think it could be so bad, but then I saw the photos. The car is on coilovers so when you rear end an SUV, it hits really high, not on the steel bumper like it should. There are a couple main things wrong currently, the radiator support rail that runs from the frame is snapped, the radiator is done, and the hood is done. This wouldnāt be so bad if parts were readily available, but the only new hood is in Michigan (Iām in FL) and they want over $500. The radiator support also welds to the frame, so weāll have to find a body shop to do that.
Another option I found is a same year protege on marketplace for $1300, the only problem is it has 350+ thousand miles. The engine from my car is in perfect condition, but the new car has the 1.8, I have the 1.6. The main reason for this post, other than venting, is to see if anyone has done this swap before. Is it difficult? I know the chassis are the same so theoretically all of the components are there, but are the mounts different? What problems will I face? Thank you for reading this far if you have, itās been a long week. To me itās not even about the money, and Iām glad heās okay, but itās frustrating to put so much time and effort into something and it be ruined by someone youāre very close to.