Red Pro5 Semi-Build

I had a previous thread on here but nothing came from it. This is my 2002 Mazda Protege5. Classic Red, 127,xxx, 5 Speed with some cosmetics done to her. I plan on adding more things as time goes on, but I am a college student and I haven't had a chance to inherit millions yet. So this may take some time to get her where i want her at. With what i have had done to my car, only makes me want to do so much more. I was originally on the VWVortex forum, since my prior "money pit" was a Mark3 VW Jetta. After a motor swap and tranny swap, i sold the bucket and moved to my Mazda. With this being said, I can navigate the forum pretty well but will still be asking questions. Im looking forward to giving opinions and advice(on what i know about) to you guys and i hope i can receive the same.

I have a few things already done to her:

• Tokico Hp's
• Eibach Pro-Kit
• Racing Beat Bump Stops
• Moog Front/Rear End Links
• Fog Light Mod
• M6 Wagon Rear Wiper Mod
• Plasti-Dip Rear Valance
• 20% Tint All Around
• Alpine Headunit
• 10" JL W3 Subwoofer
• Clarion 500W Amp
• Polk Audio door speakers
• Stubby Antenna
• Rage "Euro" 17x7 +45 in GrimmSpeed Gold
• Celica Side Markers
• Hardwired Radar Detector
• Roof Rack Delete
• Sylvania Silverstar Ultra High / Low Beams
• In-Dash DVD/Navigation
• SickSpeed Supertones
• SickSpeed Red Anodized Tuner Lugs

And a few on the To-Do list:

• 5% Tint
• Short Throw Shifter
• Leather Seats
• Retro HID
• Custom Subwoofer Enclosure / Amp Rack
• Roof Rack Base Delete
• eBay Exhaust

Her first day home. This was about 11 months ago.




Switched from the metal rake to the M6 wiper.


Saw HatchKitten plastidip her rear valance and had to do the same.


While I had the plastidip out, I sprayed the stubby..


Got a lil crazy with the plastidip and my mirrors weren't in the best shape anyways.


There was one night when we had some bad ice...and I caught some of it...
Turned her into Frankenstein until insurance could take a look at her.


One week later...


Bump Stops came in the mail!!


F the winter im ready for SPRING...Eibach Springs that is. (Pro-Kit)



To compliment the Pro-Kit...Tokico HP's



MOOOOOOOOG


Eibach Pro Kit with Tokico HP's


Front done, mid process of rear.






And now some after pics..







Short Throw on the to-do list...


Give her some character...


Hardwire Radar, Cleans up the dash and frees up the 12v outlet.


And for a comparison of stock vs this combo

STOCK


Eibach/HP's


Any Suggestions/Comments let me know!

Happy Motoring!!

Have you decided which short shifter you want? I highly recommend the tmw and weighted shift knob. Makes the car shift like a dream and its short what about an exhaust? Looks like a stocker on there!

Nice!

tmw is what i was thinking, or a msp.

exhaust will come along, hopefully soon. ive been eyin the ebay exhaust for awhile now..its tempting..(naughty)

There is a thread about Ebay exhaust. The people that have it seem to like it.

hat1018 said:

There is a thread about Ebay exhaust. The people that have it seem to like it.

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That's what I have noticed. And for under 130$ shipped its hard to pass up.

I am talking to a guy right now about some wheels that he has for sale, pretty cheap

17x7 +45, any suggestions on tires i should run?

ill be sandblasting these and having them powdercoated gloss black, bronze, or clear and keep the brushed looked.

205/40/17 and I deff recommend the ebay exhaust

i was on tire rack today and looked at some 205/40/17's i think those would be fine, as far as the exhaust goes...its going to have to wait a bit since i just bought tires for the stockers and now i have to buy more for the 17's.

but ebay exhaust is where its at!!

Another question i had is, when running the 17x7's i would like to be as flush as possible. offset is +45, so how big of a spacer should i look at, or better yet, can out teach me the ways of offset??

Offset, well lets see. The lower the number the farther out the wheel lip will be. It has to do with the relationship between the wheels centerline and the mounting surface of the wheel. For example +40 (40mm from centerline) will sit out 10mm more than a +50 (50mm from centerline). So your +45 wheel is 7mm farther out than your stock wheel. At least I am pretty sure P5 wheels are +52. I know most Mazda's are.
As far as a color for your replacment wheels I would go with anything but black. To me it makes the whole tire/wheel assembly blend together. Afterall we change wheels to make them stand out, not blend in. Gold or bronze look great with red.
A suggestion for tire to use, I would say a good quality all season or touring type tire. I had Dunlop Dirreza star specs on my 2006 3 hatch and they lasted about 1 year give or take. Don't get me wrong the gripped like a mother but wore too fast for me. If I am going to buy tires (and I need to) they will last at least 2 years.

thanks for the quick lesson, i've been leaning towards bronze lately, it definitely looks good with red. Saturday is the day i'm picking up the wheels, sand blasting or using some paint remover, then sending them to get powder coated, or i might do the paint job myself aka spray bomb the s*** out of them. ill have to see what the money is looking like after this weekend.

any suggestions on paint? i'm thinking more of a satin or matte bronze..but the gold STi BBS wheel color is pretty sexxy





if anyone would like to post some pics of bronze wheels on a red car(doesnt have to be Pro5 or Mazda) that would be appreciated...or if anyone has a different suggestion(pics would be nice ) let me know, my options are still open!!

well i bought the wheels this morning, they where in good condition, only paint chips as the pictures showed. i cleaned one of them up, not too bad for a spray bomb job by the P.O.

some pics!

dog




had some plasti-dip left over, just to see what a matte black would look like.



next step is to sandblast, then paint. and the color is still undecided...

well instead of going to a sand blaster, i picked up some aircraft remover. it looks like its working pretty well, its been sitting on the wheels for about 15 minutes now..can says 5-15 is recommended. still need to scrape off the paint, wash,dry then prime to avoid flash rust. pics will posted shorty.

Nice score on those wheels. I'm considering doing a mesh style wheel like that too.

sub. Nice stuff

hey, much did the new suspension lower your car? and how does it ride and handle now? Is your suspension tighter or looser?

what kinda wheels are those? big fan of the mesh!

hitncry said:

Nice score on those wheels. I'm considering doing a mesh style wheel like that too.

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Thanks, ive always liked that style of wheel. its a clean look. and for $175 for all of them...cant beat it.

IshSonP5 said:

sub. Nice stuff

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Thanks bro

RADthompson07 said:

hey, much did the new suspension lower your car? and how does it ride and handle now? Is your suspension tighter or looser?

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It lowered it about 1.25-1.5 inches all around. its leveled out pretty even id say. i would tell you one thing and my dad would tell you another, i used to drive a dumped vw jetta that would bottom out pulling out of my garage. so im used to a not so leisurely ride, when it comes to the brass tacks, i feel that it rides just as smooth as stock suspension. it handles more responsive to cornering and turning than stock did, but i also upgraded my end links to the Escape ones. And having the escape endlinks makes it a tighter ride.

whiteMPRO5 said:

what kinda wheels are those? big fan of the mesh!

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They are called Euro by Rage. i haven't had any luck finding them on ebay or anywhere else for that matter. one of them has a barley noticeable bend in the rim, i was looking for a replacement for it but came up empty handed. i think im just going to deal with it. for $175 i cant complain.

itsjbeck said:

well instead of going to a sand blaster, i picked up some aircraft remover. it looks like its working pretty well, its been sitting on the wheels for about 15 minutes now..can says 5-15 is recommended. still need to scrape off the paint, wash,dry then prime to avoid flash rust. pics will posted shorty.

Click to expand...

I opened a serious can of worms with this one. it is much more time consuming than one would think. i usually do not have a problem working on something like this as a project. i wasnt aware of the price per can of aircraft remover is roughly $12. i went through two cans today and you can see what kind of progress i made. but under the black there was white and then the actual wheel color was under that, so im going to have to get more cans if im trying to get it to bare metal, which i am. so i think i might just take them to get sandblasted. my old man knows a few around the area, im thinking like $20-25 a wheel, and then they will be ready for primer all in the same day. i think itll end up being cheaper plus i dont have the time right now (midterms coming up). well enough jabbering..on to the pics!







ebay side markers came in the mail, and along came disappointment. they looked a bit different in the picture on ebay...

What the ebay picture looked like.


what they actually look like.



i cant even begin to image how cheap these leds are that they sent me.



i did not want them to be clear or i would have bought the ones that look exactly like the ones i received for 10 bucks less. i wanted to run the leds that came with it but im worried that with it being clear it is going to be way too bright (sorry for the rant). with this as my issue has anyone had experience with night shade spay tint? my local autozone has it in red. i was thinking about doing that to the sidemarkers and also to my tail lights(JDM tails would be ideal). i just dont want them to look pink when in use, i plan or running all my lights with leds (turns, brake, reverse). i guess i could use red leds for the brake and turns to keep it from looking pink. i saw one person on here had the turns red and left the reverse clear i think it looks pretty sharp.

YAY I HAVE INSPIRED! Car is coming along great!
Was it hard to install the escape endlinks? Thinking about picking some up.

HatchKitten said:

YAY I HAVE INSPIRED! Car is coming along great!
Was it hard to install the escape endlinks? Thinking about picking some up.

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haha yes you did. you also motivated me to get a rear bumper pad which i bought last night from Josue6WGN.

as for the end links question: yes and no. my guess is the my PO did not change or take them off ever, so i had to deal with ten year old bolt and hex that were fused together from corrosion etc. so i took a cutting wheel and just cut them in half and cut the nut off of it and used a punch and hammer and knocked it out. and i did the exact same with the back, and replaced them with moog as well. so to give a clear answer, if you have had them off before it should be cake, if not then itll be very hard not to strip the hex and you best bet would be a cutting wheel. it literally takes about an hour to get all four done. hope that helps!



Random question for anyone to answer....
im trying to do the side markers tonight, i bought some of the protective door trim like the DIY says to get, but it seems too firm to actually hold its shape when glued down. does anyone have any other suggestion on things to use as a grommet instead of the said trim piece? or maybe im using the wrong stuff..

pic in question

ouch on the ebay purchase, I think'd send those back...