Bastian's P5 on a college budget

Bastian

Member
:
2003 Mazda Protege5
Had some time to kill, so I thought I might as well make a thread for my P5. I'm mainly doing this to record progress for my own purposes, ask questions, and get opinions.

A little info about me: I'm 17 years old, and the P5 is my first car. I've always been a driving enthusiast, but not one of those stupid kids that drive crappy civics and race in the industrial park. I got my license at 16 and a half, and immediately began searching for a car. I had been doing research for a few months, especially concerning reliability and quality.

This has always been about my limited budget, and I set a limit of $4000 for the car. I searched Craigslist for deals nearby, and nearly bought a cruddy Hyundai.

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It was nice if you look at it as an appliance, but was the most boring car I have ever driven.

After a few more cars, I stumbled upon a 2003 5-speed Protege5. I did my homework on it, and it was everything I wanted. Good gas mileage, small size, versatility, and driveability. After having a mechanic look it over, I purchased it for $3300 in April of 2011. It was a laser blue Protege5 with 141k miles.

Pic of the first night I saw it:

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The car needed a new clutch, new timing belt, new tires all around, and a ton of suspension work. Ended up putting about $2500 of repairs in to it so it was in 100% working order. Only problem now was minor surface rust on the hood and above rear wheel wells.

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The car came with an Injen CAI, Dave B aluminum gauge rings, an old Kenwood headunit (with wire-tapped factory harness instead of the $5 harness (boom06) ), and steel shoes that the previous owner was so kind as to bestow upon me, complete with zip-tied hub caps.

The first thing I did after all the mechanical problems were taken care of was to freshen up the headlights with the Turtle Wax headlight restoration kit. Cost about $10, worked wonders. Do note that they need to be retreated about every 4 months, no big deal though.

Before:
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After:
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I found some cross bars for my roof racks off of Ebay cheap, and some bike racks of Craigslist. I'm a mountain biker, and my bike didn't fit in the hatch by about 2 inches unless I took my front wheel off.

I was then inspired by some members on here, and Plasti-Dipped the rear valence.

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Loved the look, very easy and cheap way to finish up the rear end.

I threw some cheap Pioneer speakers and some Dynomat in the front doors, they're probably soon going to be replaced by some Boston Acoustics.

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Decent upgrade in sound.

I parked next to what my car desperately wants to be.

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I got some JL 12" subs off a friend for a good deal with a matching JL amp, rescued them from his Subaru Outback (2thumbs)

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Don't have any pictures of them in the car, I'll try to find some. Very impressed, they've been fun (stash)

Replaced my ridiculous $10 Autozone antenna with an MPV antenna I bought off a member on here.

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Oh, I and did the fog lights with parking lights mod a while ago.

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And here's a current picture.

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Basically, my goal is to maintain and enhance my P5. I want it to be an engaging car to drive, but I also don't have a lot of money to pour in to it. I deliver pizza with it a few days a week during the winter months and I teach sailing during the summer, so my income varies and I tend to not make much money during the winter. So the steelies are probably there for the long haul, along with the failing paint job. This car will drive until it rusts away. It's about to roll over 150k, so I've put about 9k miles on it in 9 months.

Feel free to post with opinions or thoughts. I'm always looking for inexpensive tips and upgrades for the car.

Thanks for reading!
 
Looks good man, I'm 17 also. I'd either paint those wheel covers or ditch them altogether. Regular steelies dont look that bad. Overall though, its lookin pretty good. You should do the "eBay" exhaust, mine was 119 shipped, its still really quiet and has a nice deep growly tone, it aint ricey at all.
 
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looking good so far, do have to agree with jackie chan though.... those wheels gotta go haha. Keep your eyes open on craigslist for a set of 17" wheels, they will pop up soon.

but another mod you will loves is this one.

http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?36875-How-To-Electric-Window-Always-On

pretty simple to do and this is one of the best mods i have done to the car that was free.

Also not sure if you have seen this thread, but its a collection of "how to's"

http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123715657-How-To-Quick-Links-(sticky-version)
 
There are tons of good how-to's in there, I've used a couple of 'em myself. You should do black headlight housings, and if you've got any left over plastidip from the valence you should do your emblems. :)
 
Yeah, come spring I'm making a weekend project out of painting the steel wheels. Right now there's some surface rust on them, so I decided it's better to keep the covers until I can get them painted. I'm probably going to go with a gunmetal or similar color.

fatti03msp, nice mod! I'll probably do that this spring as well, seeing as the windows aren't open often this time of year (stash)

Ski racks came in the mail today (cabpatch) my version of "winter mode" (lol2)

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also expecting a package to come tomorrow ;)
 
Car got some new presents the past few days (dance)

Got a new stereo, Pioneer FH-P8000BT. iPod control, Bluetooth hands free, the whole shebang. Also got some new 6.5" speakers for the rear doors. Entire stereo system is now built!! (cheers2)

First off, here are a few pictures of my subwoofer system for anyone who's wondering.

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The trunk is still sort of useful... (boom06)
The subs are awesome, very tight sound considering that they're 2x12", but nice and boomy when you want it ;)

Moving on, here are some pictures of the new stereo installed. It replaced a cheap, dying Kenwood, and god knows how old that thing was.

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It looks really nice in the dash and sounds really great too, call clarity with Bluetooth is excellent. iPod control is great. It's a little hard to learn your way around, but once you do it's awesome. I'm giving it (2thumbs) so far, we'll see how it holds up.

In the process of running the wire for the mic, one of the clips on the A pillar trim piece broke so here's how it looks right now... (pissed) Going to try to repair that tomorrow...

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Anyways, here are some pictures of the new speakers for the rears. I had to drill new holes since the car takes 6" in rears and these were 6.5", easy work though. Took about 30-40 minutes.

Old and ugly vs. new hotness:

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Before:

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After:

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Hope this helps someone looking in to sound upgrades.
 
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looking good so far, do have to agree with jackie chan though.... those wheels gotta go haha. Keep your eyes open on craigslist for a set of 17" wheels, they will pop up soon.

but another mod you will loves is this one.

http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?36875-How-To-Electric-Window-Always-On

pretty simple to do and this is one of the best mods i have done to the car that was free.

Also not sure if you have seen this thread, but its a collection of "how to's"

http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123715657-How-To-Quick-Links-(sticky-version)

I've got the 18" rims from the RX8 off craigslist. Hit up Tirerack.com for tires and BAM! car looks and feels whole lot better than the 17" i had.
 
I hit 150k over the week...

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Also fixed the interior A-Pillar trim... next thing on the list is mudflaps. Not for goofy looks, but because this car goes on ski trips and I'd rather not have ALL of the road salt from the interstate up the side of my car...
 
Rally Armor has two types of good cheap universal flaps. One of which is only $15. They are probably your best bet. Lovin' those gauge rings!
 
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thanks for the tip, I'll be looking in to those flaps! My attempts to make some out of trash cans were useless because nobody in my area sells black trash cans :eek:

the gauge rings are cool, I didn't even know they weren't stock until recently, they came with the car. Now when I see pictures of protege gauge clusters without them they just look like they're missing something

Anyways, took her up to NH for a 300 mile ski trip. Ski racks kept the skis on the roof and the car handled snow surprisingly well.
 
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Dude for being 17 you've gotten alot done in a short time, Start searching craigslist for some wheels next!
 
^thanks EGTT91 (2thumbs) unfortunately wheels are a bit out of my price range, especially since I just bought new tires for the steelies I've got, but I think I'll be painting my steelies come spring

Played around in photoshop, been toying with this idea for a while. What do you guys think?

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also thinking of going white with the steel wheels and losing the covers
 
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Arrg, lose the hubcaps lol.
you ought to be able to find a set of stock wheels on CL for next to nothing. maybe some peeling ones you can repaint...
and no on the photoshop idea lol

if you want I have a set of lowering springs in my closet I'll send you if you cover shipping... PM me
 
I had mine painted black down the middle of the hood when i had some rust fixed the first time on the car, but we also matched the roof in black... so i might be biased but IMO the black part with the Mazda looks out of place and busy

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If you wanted to add the Mazda you could do it with a simple vinyl on the edge of the hood without the black box around it.
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Good start so far with your car and subbing to see what else you do.
 
Nice build so far. Can't wait to see what you come up with. Choose your mods wisely because money doesn't come your way often when you're a student. Good luck and nice P5!
 
I had mine painted black down the middle of the hood when i had some rust fixed the first time on the car, but we also matched the roof in black... so i might be biased but IMO the black part with the Mazda looks out of place and busy

If you wanted to add the Mazda you could do it with a simple vinyl on the edge of the hood without the black box around it.

Good start so far with your car and subbing to see what else you do.

Yeah, your car looks really good like that. I would most likely mock this up with Plasti-dip before I actually painted the hood. Also, what kind of paint did you use to black out your headlights? Because I've read about people using high-temp paint and others using regular semi-gloss, not sure what's the best thing to use.
 

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