ROTA D2 // Striped, sanded, polished, painted and mounted. ROTA haters move along ;P

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Original craigslist ad. Not a bad price but the purple. Gah!

That LA Lakers purple is cool but not for me.

ROTAwheels label

The aircraft stripper gel is a powerful chemical. Wear the proper safety gear.

There was a total of 5 layers to strip.

It took 6 rounds of applying the stripper and scraping off paint to get down to bare metal.

There were quite a lot of areas where the previous owner had sanded through the factory clear coat on the lips to apply their paint. The scratches weren't too deep so I just went from 220 to 1000 grit sandpaper and finished up with Mothers polish.

Masked off the lip and coated the spokes with anthracite grey plasti dip. Added chrome sleeved tire valve stems to match the polished lip and I used 2" knockout seals from Home Depot for center caps.

A closeup of the rear driver's side. With a mild drop of 1.4" on Espelir springs there's not much clearance and the tires WILL RUB when cornering hard, going over speed bumps etc.

I added the mazda emblem which I pulled from a set of oem black center caps I purchased from ebay.

This setup looks great but unfortunately will rub the rear fenders of the P5. I have some black spaghetti where the sheet metal cut the sidewall of the tires. I'm going to try some Tein H Tech lowering springs in hopes of reducing the chance of further rubbing with just a 1 inch drop. If it's still rubbing regularly I'll need to roll the fenders. Gah!

 

[NaturalFlavored]

Dope. Is your car lowered?
I'm thinking of getting 15" rims on my car.

 

[The_big_dill]

Nice finish on those center caps

 

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Dope. Is your car lowered?
I'm thinking of getting 15" rims on my car.

yes, mild drop = lowered 1.4" with Espelir springs, yo.

if you get 15" rims be sure the hub bore is at least 67.1mm in diameter.

 

[Valk]

Those look fantastic! Veey nice work man. Display them proudly.

 

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Thanks for the compliment. Yeah, it's a small detail that was worth doing to finish the project. I mixed a bit of bondo to fill in the manufacturer's stamp on the knockout seals and then sanded smooth. Then, I drilled two holes to allow the pegs on the back of the emblem to drop in. I applied a bit of glue on the back and pegs to secure them in place. I ran into a problem with the pegs hitting the dust cap on the rear wheels so I resolved to cut the pegs down enough to push it in flush.

Nice finish on those center caps

 

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Thanks, yo. We rolled down to Huntington Beach this weekend and gladly let the wheels spread that sun*shine via locally made MOTHERS polish

Those look fantastic! Veey nice work man. Display them proudly.

 

[Ready To Ride]

Nice job! They look fresh!

 

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FYI this wheel/tire (+40 offset rims/195-50-16 tires) combo on a Proteg5 will rub the rear fenders when lowered 1.4" on Espelir springs. See attached pic

 

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A few more pics after the suspension overhaul and rear fender rolling. It's now sitting on tien h.tech springs.

 

[Brian_K]

looks like you did a good job refinishing/repainting them. the first few pics made me cringe lol.

 

[moparmansfield]

those rims look great man. Good job on the refinish. Perfect stance too.

 

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updated center caps

 

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looks like you did a good job refinishing/repainting them. the first few pics made me cringe lol.

Thanks, yo. It was probably more work than they're worth but I just chipped away at it a little at a time. I was checking out your build and saw that small battery. I vaguely remember my 2002 P5 came with a small battery like yours but then I replaced it with an Optima along with a sound system. I've since removed the amplified sound system and thinking my next battery could be smaller to shave a little weight. What battery is that in your car?

 

[booom]

those rims look great man. Good job on the refinish. Perfect stance too.

At first I wasn't sure if I liked them. They've grown on me since. They look better in person than they do in photos. I'm not sure if my suspension is what you call stance but it's functionally slammed. It's fun to drive around town mostly carefree and definitely not of a hard parked status. I'm more old school leaning to more towards nostalgia and that moon eyes cruiser style. I do use my car as family transpo. I'd rather keep the hatchback going rather than giving in to full on dad status driving a minivan. I'll pass on that mazda5 lol! I saw you installed a hitch. Do you have any pics of that? I'm looking to install one to then carry bicycles.