I'd read various accounts of people having sticking issues with them, not getting them to fit quite right. Some people found the door would require substantially more force to close, a loud pop on opening the doors, or difficulty latching. But those who had no troubles report that they do a lot to stiffen the chassis and reduce NVH, rattles and shake. I went in with my eyes open for issues and a few ideas on how to fit them.
I marked the top and bottom of the existing bushings with some painter's tape before removal, then fit the GS bushings to match. I only tightened the bolts enough to lightly hold the bushing in place - I could easily move them by hand. I opened and closed the door a couple of times to test the fit, reposition as necessery, tightened the bolts some (still able to adjust by hand) and repeated. I had to move the bushing around a little bit, but soon found the ideal spot and snugged them down.
Same process for the passenger side, but it didn't want to latch well, and gave a pop on opening. Some people suggested giving the door a few almighty slams to fix this. Presumably this bashes the door cup into shape, and probably moves the bushing into the ideal location too. I didn't quite go to "almighty" levels of slam, but I did give a few good hard closes, each close got easier than the previous ones, and by the third slam the door was as stock effort. DON'T do this until you've got the bushing as close to perfect positioning as you can!
I gave the drivers side a couple of hard slams too, to match, and now both doors close with stock effort, and the results are quite good. The SE is the most braced out of the factory, and I do have a roll bar already so the improvements in my car may not be as noticable as earlier/less braced cars, but there are definite improvements in NVH, especially noticable when going over onesided/lopsided bumps in the road.
I need to clean inside my doors!
Next up, guss_bruss organised a group buy of some washer nozzles from the Mazda Tribute. Emily already has these on her SE and by all acounts they provide a much better spray than the stock ones. My stock nozzles were kinda clogged and not doing a great job as it was, so for $30 I figured this was a no-brainer.
The replacement nozzles are about the same size as stock, so they won't stand out as an obvious or ugly mod. The old ones come out quite easily and the new ones go in even easier. 5 minute job and done.
Anyone know what do about the wiper arms to clean them up? Spray them?
Finally, I gave the engine bay a bit of a wipe down. The rocker cover was looking quite dark in particular. No pictures for this, but it definitely looks a lot better.
Now just patiently awaiting the return of my rear shocks from Otomoto. They've told me the springs look like they've been fully compressed and bindded a few times, also missing dust boots - which I'm sure I never had, even looked at some photos from the installation at the dodgy day. I think Ben at Otomoto will service the shocks and supply some new springs. The theroy is either the springs weren't the right lenght or they weren't the spec'd weight, so the replacements should address all that.
. Not a major one, but a steady seep of oil is coming from somewhere. I think I'll ask the guys at Auto Plus to look it over in the new year and see if they can locate it, should be a bit easier on a lift.
It seems when the shocks are cold, like first thing in the morning, or in wet weather, they knock about like clonkers. Keep in mind, it's summer, so when I say "cold" I don't actually mean COLD. They make me angry on the way to the gym at 4:45am. 
I got some new lug nuts, a new pair of endlinks for the front shocks, some Magnacor 8.5 plug leads and a set of braided brake lines.
Endlinks will go in before too long. But I'm not sure about the brake lines, I never done a set before and I'm not sure if this is something I can do. I wouldn't want to mess it up as I'm parked at the top of a steep driveway. How hard is this? *cough* 
But it's sound advice for everyone. The longer lugs sit better in the socket too, the short stock ones wobbled a bit and it was hard to get a good fit.
