jadycr
02 MP5
- :
- SLC
Thought i’d document progress on my p5 and start some activity on my account so i have somewhere to ask questions and get help from people that know their stuff better than i do
I got my protege a couple months ago from my neighbor who had passed about a year ago. She didn’t have any kids of her own and she spoiled me and my sister and treated us as if we were her grandkids. Since i got my license i wanted my own car that i could screw around with and my parents brought the protege up as a potential option and i had always drove past it sitting in her driveway and it always caught my eye. It has about 90,000 miles and I finally bought it for $2800 and my parents paid for half. since then i’ve fixed issues like ac not working and i’ve put a new sound system in and fixed some cosmetic damage since my neighbor had put quite the damage on the exterior before she passed. her neice told me she has horrible vision and that they should’ve taken her keys but never did.
It’s starting to come together since ive put a new bumper on and attempted to paint some stuff. I haven’t touched the engine yet and i don’t even know where to start but i would love to make this car a little faster and i’ve been trying to find a turbo to throw onto it for a while but i can’t figure anything out and it would be especially difficult since it’s an automatic. I’ll throw some pictures in of the bumper and trunk that i recently pulled from a nearby junk car and some wheels i bought since the old ones were so bent from my neighbors driving that the shop wouldn’t align my car until i got new ones.
I was working on pulling a dent and removing the rear wiper when the back glass shattered and left a huge mess on my driveway. i felt pretty stupid and i’m still finding glass everywhere. i bought a trunk with an intact window and thought it would be easy to repaint. it was not. i did some bondo work on the new one and primed it and realized i didn’t have enough paint for a full coat. i waited for the paint to cure and got two more spray cans. it was still not enough. it looks good from 20 feet but the primer is showing green from under the paint. body shops have told me to get more paint.
I like the bumper and i think i’ll keep it silver, my friends said it looks like a blue/silver impreza with the two tone.
The wheels rub when i have a full car since they stick out more than the stock ones. I’m going to roll the fenders and see if that can fix it.
Painted valve cover purple, turned out great. Also tinted the taillights, thinking about taking the red lens off and making them clear
If anyone wants anything to do with this post i’ll post some more pics, so far it’s turning out but i just wish it was faster, especially after being used to driving big SUVs with lots of power.
If anyone has any advice on little improvements i could do that slipped under my radar then let me know i love working on it and it has kept me so happy since i bought it. I have a job and want to make this little car perfect.
Thanks for reading and expect a couple updates.
I got my protege a couple months ago from my neighbor who had passed about a year ago. She didn’t have any kids of her own and she spoiled me and my sister and treated us as if we were her grandkids. Since i got my license i wanted my own car that i could screw around with and my parents brought the protege up as a potential option and i had always drove past it sitting in her driveway and it always caught my eye. It has about 90,000 miles and I finally bought it for $2800 and my parents paid for half. since then i’ve fixed issues like ac not working and i’ve put a new sound system in and fixed some cosmetic damage since my neighbor had put quite the damage on the exterior before she passed. her neice told me she has horrible vision and that they should’ve taken her keys but never did.
It’s starting to come together since ive put a new bumper on and attempted to paint some stuff. I haven’t touched the engine yet and i don’t even know where to start but i would love to make this car a little faster and i’ve been trying to find a turbo to throw onto it for a while but i can’t figure anything out and it would be especially difficult since it’s an automatic. I’ll throw some pictures in of the bumper and trunk that i recently pulled from a nearby junk car and some wheels i bought since the old ones were so bent from my neighbors driving that the shop wouldn’t align my car until i got new ones.
I was working on pulling a dent and removing the rear wiper when the back glass shattered and left a huge mess on my driveway. i felt pretty stupid and i’m still finding glass everywhere. i bought a trunk with an intact window and thought it would be easy to repaint. it was not. i did some bondo work on the new one and primed it and realized i didn’t have enough paint for a full coat. i waited for the paint to cure and got two more spray cans. it was still not enough. it looks good from 20 feet but the primer is showing green from under the paint. body shops have told me to get more paint.
I like the bumper and i think i’ll keep it silver, my friends said it looks like a blue/silver impreza with the two tone.
The wheels rub when i have a full car since they stick out more than the stock ones. I’m going to roll the fenders and see if that can fix it.
Painted valve cover purple, turned out great. Also tinted the taillights, thinking about taking the red lens off and making them clear
If anyone wants anything to do with this post i’ll post some more pics, so far it’s turning out but i just wish it was faster, especially after being used to driving big SUVs with lots of power.
If anyone has any advice on little improvements i could do that slipped under my radar then let me know i love working on it and it has kept me so happy since i bought it. I have a job and want to make this little car perfect.
Thanks for reading and expect a couple updates.
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