The $500 MSP Revival Build Thread

Joost27

More Power Made Me Slower
Contributor
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2000 Mazda Protege ES V6
So, as my 00 KLZE swapped protege finished rotting away to the point of being unsafe I began to look for a new project car. I wasn't really looking for another protege and was looking for something to do an engine swap on down the road usually browsing for E30/E28 BMWs. On Facebook I saw a post for a cheap MSP only and hour from me. At $750 it was a steal, but wasn't quite motivated enough to pull the trigger. Waiting a couple weeks I see in the comments that he would take $600 that day. No one bit, then he made a OBO comment. I offered up $500 and I would come take it away that weekend. After some hesitation he accepted. The car was at his parents and on jack stands with the trans torn out of it and not assembled. The engine was in the bay with PS, A/C, and wiring attached, but no mounts and was supported by jack stands and a 2x4 under the oil pan. So, i knew heading there it was going to be some work to get this thing on the ground, rolled out to the road and loaded to a trailer. My friend and I showed up to the house mid-morning and found that the car, which had been there for roughly 3 years, was barricaded by mattresses and other crap all around the car. A quick cleanup gave us some room to work. My friend focused on collecting parts of the car from all around the garage. I focused on putting the cross-member on, passenger mount, which I stole from my ze protege, and then placing a 2x4 on the cross-member for the clutch and flywheel to rest on and a ratchet strap around the strut bar and radiator support to keep the engine from rocking.We dropped the car onto the ground and inflated the 4 flat tires and tried to roll the car. It was a no-go as the rear brakes were seized, go figure. So, we detached the trailer from my friends truck and pulled the MSP out of the garage by the rear tow hook and this broke the rear brakes free enough for the rear tires to rotate. We then pushed the car to the road and then used a come-along to winch the car up onto the trailer. This was the start of a 5 month adventure with this car.

Once we got the car home and unloaded I spent the next few days unloading the car of all of its bits and pieces and making an inventory and to do list. The car was missing a few odds and ends like fog lights, lower grille, good radiator, exhaust, and other smaller bits. The car also had some maintenance issues to be addressed, like the frozen rear brakes, bad front ball joints, bad front wheel bearings, broken passenger axle, broken clutch slave, worn tires, worn RSB bushings, etc..

The car was originally taken off the road to fix a broken lsd, but i think the lsd didn't break since i found that the passenger axle had sheared off inside the outer cv boot. This was fine either way as my MFactory LSD and MSP axles on the ZE protege were going to be used anyways. The transmission was reassembled with the MFactory LSD, cleaned, painted and we got it back into car. It was determined that the plastic shifter bushings had seen better days. Another of my friends is a machinist and we used his work to turn down some bronze on a manual lathe to create my own bronze shifter bushings. This plus the torque solutions bushings on the stabilizer rod solved all of the slop in the shifter.

The next big issue to address were the brakes. The rear were frozen on both sides and the MZ6 brakes off the ZE Protege were planned to be put on the car. With some investigation into the rear brakes it was discovered that the pistons were free, ebrake cables were free, and ebrake mechanism was free. However, the slide pin that is screwed into the bracket was the culprit on both calipers. The passenger side came off with a little heat and some light hitting with a rubber mallet. The driver side was a different story. I had to use a large c-clamp, 2.5lbs mini sledge, lots of heat and some prying to finally get the caliper off the pin. Since nothing was damaged except the pin sheared when trying to unbolt it from the bracket I cleaned the calipers up really good, bought new slide pins drilled and tapped the pin hole and liberally greased everything and reassembled. Everything tested great and I had working brakes in the rear for the cost of the pins and some new pads. Next the front rotors from the ZE protege were resurfaced and the front brake swap was performed. All fluid in the braking system was replaced with DOT 4 and was now healthy and working.

More to come.... Including Pics and more of the story.
 
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Photos

Then:

The Facebook post that started it all:
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So Clean.....
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Now:

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Transmission Rebuild, MFactory LSD Install, Engine Bay Kind of Before and After:

Disassembled and MFactory LSD Ready to Go:
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Assembled and Painted:
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Engine Bay Before (I had already painted valve cover, and got the radiator and smic in which the car didnt not come with):
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Transmission is in!:
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How it is currently sitting:
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Other Odds and Ends!

Found New Old Stock Sparco Pedals On Ebay and bought a few sets for the future. Unfortunately it was only the clutch and brake and not the gas too, but luckily my gas pedal was OK.
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Painted the 03.5 lip off the ZE Protege to go onto this car. The 03 lip on the car was cracked and bent badly. Also, I was going to be using my 03.5 axle back and the car had a 03.5 spoil already so perfect match!
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Retro-fit Time! P5 Headlights were disassembled and the bezel was painted Black Mica. Morimoto H1 Projectors and Apollo 2.0 Shrouds used
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Painted Valve Cover and used my MS3/MS6 Mazdaspeed Oil Cap that was on the KLZE:
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Fuel Pump was tested and new Fuel Filter sock was installed, also cleaned up and painted the sending unit top and replaced crappy screws with Stainless Allen Cap Screws and anti-seize:
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Got some more pictures added. Will be adding more throughout the day as I organize them and toss them on here.

Yesterday I got the resonator/mid-pipe section of the exhaust delivered and installed. I know its not the best exhaust, but there are no cats and for the power the car will be making (stock) it is more than enough.

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Is that how the steering wheel came or did you re touch it. THE SILVER LOOKS FRESH.

Thats the wheel from my old ze swapped protege. The one that came with this car was really worn and had pieces missing from the silver area.
 
I'm really liking the stock rim color what color is that and is it plastidipped or PC'ed?


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More pics of all the work that was done and work in the future to come, but here is an update:

Well I got the MSP finally on the road last Thursday..it has seen a bit over 200miles now and is doing well. Have a couple little odds and ends to address, but for how cheap the car was and how it sat for 3 years and I had no idea the condition of the engine it is doing very well. Still need to get tires for the RH wheels, but for now im running the 03 ES wheels I had on my old protege. I also took a 125mile trip with the MSP last friday to go pick up a 03.5 front lip and got that mounted over the weekend.

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I like titanium, I'm used to it from having it for so long but I like it. Orange and blue are my favorite though.

The car is coming along very well, it looks awesome!
 
Having a yellow p5 has always made me hate the color of the yellow msps. Mostly because the yellow 03.5 lips don't match my yellow, but also because the yellow on the p5 looks a lot better.

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Well, I am partial to red...but unfortunately, mazda never made a red MSP :(... but I am pretty happy with the black, except I forgot how high maintenance black is for cleaning...
 
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