Another Slow MSP College Budget Build

mica.msp

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Mazdaspeed Protege
I will start this off by a little background of myself. I'm currently a freshman at UW-Platteville. I am a Mechanical Engineer major as of right now. I purchased my Mazdaspeed Protege in August of 2013 Before that, I had a 1995 Jeep Wrangler. And before that, a 1996 Dodge Intrepid. All of my vehicles and parts have been purchased entirely by me, and me alone which I take pride in. I'm fairly new to this forum and turbos so feel free to add your insight. I plan to slowly mod my MSP visually as well as performance wise. I would like to be around 200 whp in the end. Feel free to ask questions, and get off topic.
Now some pictures:
Dodge Intrepid


The Jeep right before I sold it to buy the MSP.


The Day I got the MSP...wow did he have an obsession with blue.



Current "Mod" List:
-Injen CAI
-2003.5 Mazdaspeed Protege Rear Spoiler
-Dual Gauge Pillar Pod
-Equuis Boost Gauge
-Mishimoto FMIC - Custom Ebay Piping
-TurboXS BOV
-Protege5 Leather Wrapped Steering Wheel
-CR3 Swaybar Relocation Brackets - Energy Poly Bushings

Purchased/Future Mods:
-2003.5 Mazdaspeed Protege Front Lip (awaiting paint and install)
-Subie S204 Lip
-SSAFC V1 (purchased, awaiting install)
-Wideband
-Custom Turboback exhaust
-Pope Downpipe - awaiting install
-Oil Pressure Gauge (awaiting install)
-Coilovers or Lowering Springs
-New wheels or paint the stockers (bronze)
-JDM Badgeless Grill
 

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Goodness I really hope you are going to save that car!

Yeah, it was way over the top. First day I had it I removed the hood scoop, stickers, and painted the windshield wipers black. I also removed about 9 feet of wire that was hooked up to nothing. He also had all these blue lights inside that I removed. Why did everything need to be blue?
 
This is the most recent one that I have. It looks the same, minus the fake air louvers on the sides.

 
^ what he said... GL with your project...
Thanks, I will be starting work full time next week so hopefully I will be able to mod a bit this summer before school.

Prepped the spoiler for paint yesterday. Hopefully I will get that painted soon. My cousin's boyfriend paints for a living so it should be pretty cheap...now I just need to sell the 03 spoiler that's on the car to pay for paint.
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i got the set of goldline lowering spring (rare discontinued) and shocks ill be putting up for sale soon
 
So this happened this past Saturday..


I also managed to get the parts of the CAI painted black. They were the polished aluminum, and I'm not much for fancy bling in the engine bay. I want a more "stock" look.
 
Thank God you saved that poor MSP from that other owner. Talk about riceee. besides the wing and the CAI. what else you plan to do to it?
 
Yeah we won't racial profile here...but you can probably figure it out. I want to lower it, but haven't decided if I want coils or just lowering springs yet. New rims eventually. I REALLY like the Evo 8 rims. I had a lead on some from the forum but never heard back from him. It was the same guy I bought the wing from actually, I just didn't have the money at the time for them. A FMIC sometime also. It needs new tint, and exhaust as well. There is a mild fart can on it now, not too fond of that. I want a 3" turbo back eventually. But that all depends on how much money I have left over after college bills start coming in.
 
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After looking like this for about a month and a half, I finally got everything put back together. I had a cracked body seam on one side that was letting water in, and the driver's side had a missing rubber grommet. Man was that cracked body seam a PITA to seal up. Nothing I tried would seal, but I finally got it all fixed up.


After dealing with a pretty large clunk for about a year, I finally looked underneath to see that the rear sway bar bushings were shot. I could move the sway bar by hand between the bracket! Lol. So I ordered these. Now just waiting on my CR3 relocation bracket.
 
Sold the 03 spoiler yesterday, and shipped it today. I will be getting the 03.5 spoiler painted this Saturday. Also got my CR3 swaybar bushing relocation brackets in the mail today. Quite pleased with the packaging and the shipping time; pretty high quality stuff.


Now if I could just sell some of my other stuff...
 
cool. i'm sure you'll enjoy the quiet rear end over bumps and what not lol. was the first mod i ever purchased -the axr clunk fix
 
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