My Introduction

[mazdat02]

Hello Everyone!

I've been on these forums for a while now but never bothered with an introductory page because I always wanted my car to be as complete as possible to prevent any disinterest from, well, mostly me. But also, my fellow forum members.

A little back story:

I was originally driving a 1984 AE86 Corolla a year out of High School, My roommate had a 1985 GTS a year or so beforehand, I was hooked, so I went out an found one in 2009. It was a blast to drive, had absolutely no balls, but awesome to drive in the rain and snow!



I had huge plans for it, but I ended up blowing the rear main seal early 2010. I bought it for $1100 and after a lack of interest I sold her for $1000 as a parts car.

In April 2010, It was time to start looking for a replacement car, I don’t know what originally drew me to this protege or why I was looking for a Protege in the first place; but we found each other regardless.
Flipping through the craigslist pages I stumbled over this car from a dealership in White Rock, British Columbia. I went out that weekend to give it a test drive. She drove smoothly, everything worked, and I felt like I wasn’t getting shafted or scammed. So I jumped on it, the dealership wanted $4500 plus all their taxes and fees. I handed over $4000 Cash; Funny how much quicker things went without any credit/background/finance checks to bother with. And I drove her home an hour later.

Her name is Kesha; pass judgment all you want, I had no choice! I chose to name her after the first (female) artist that came on the radio after I bought her. Unfortunately for me, Tik Toc, the song fate decided to play happened at that moment. So the name stood. Though you'll rarely hear that name get dropped

Shes My Daily Driver/Project and I feel I'm pretty much at where I want to be with modding her. I was split on which way to go on whether N/A or Turbo. I went as far as scrounging up a full turbo kit on these forums and it was complete in my hands this past summer less the water routing, but due to my decision to go back to school and a purchase of a downhill full suspension mountain bike; I sold the kit off and finished my N/A build this winter with spicyorangeMSP's MP3 ECU Flash.

When I first got her:





Anyways, enough talk; lets get onto the mod list and some pictures.

Appearance:

Midnight Blue Mica
4300k HID Kit Low Beams
3000k HID Fogs
Mazdaspeed Engine Cover
Mazdaspeed Heat Shield
Rear Mazda logo Delete
JDM Taillights
Blacked out headlight bezels
Tinted bumper signal lights
Plastidip'd Front grill/lower rear valance/hatch lock trim/hatch spoiler
20% Tint on rear windows
Hi-Temp Brake Caliper paint - Red
Foose Speed 17x7 Plastidipped Black W/ Red Lip Stripe
Hankook Ventus V12's 205/50/ZR17

Suspension/Braking:

Stock P5 Front Strut Brace
Rear MX6 Strut Brace
Stock Front Sway Bar
Progress 22mm Rear Sway Bar
YellowSpeed Coilovers (Thanks CR3)
Ford Escape Endlinks
Mazda6 Front Brakes
Mazda 626 Rear Brakes

Engine:

All 4 Corksport engine mount inserts
Corksport Stainless Steel Clutch Line
Exedy Stage1 Clutch Kit
Short Shift
Medieval Crank Pulley
OBX 4-1 Header
Mazda 626 Oil Filter
Glasspack Midpipe
Ebay Header W/ K&N Filter
Mazdaspeed Axle Back
Corksport Exhaust Camshaft
JDM Intake Camshaft
MP3 ECU Upgrade (thanks Spicy)

Interior/Sound

DaveB Brushed Aluminum Gauge Rings
Mazda3 Front Seats
Fully Dynomatted Hatch
Kenwood X996 Receiver
Kenwood X700-5 5 Way Amplifier
Custom 10" Subwoofer Enclosure
Orion XTR104 10" Subwoofer
Pioneer Premiere 6.5" Front Components
Alpine Type S 6.5" Rears
1.5 Fared Capacitor

Pictures:

The rims were the first thing needed:








Then everything progressed from there:

















This is how she sits as of this past summer:









255000kms and counting!



Feel free to comment below;
My name is Chris, Nice to meet you all!

 

[02protege5wagon]

looks great! How much work did it take to get those Mazda3 seats to fit?

 

[mazdat02]

Thanks! Well if I had to do it a second time around and a sharp set of drill bits I would be able to rip through it rather quick; but it was a b**** to be honest. The MZ3 seat brackets for both the passenger and drivers seats are relatively in the same area as the protege seats do that was the easy part. I had the most trouble with the MZ3 drivers seats because they are riveted and welded as opposed to the passengers seat where the bracket is just bolted on.

basically you have to cut off your protege seat brackets. Fit em up to the MZ3 seats and temporarily bolt the seats to the brackets to test fit them to the car and then weld them both together

 

[915_P5]

Nice car man, loving those seats.

 

[02protege5wagon]

Thanks! Well if I had to do it a second time around and a sharp set of drill bits I would be able to rip through it rather quick; but it was a b**** to be honest. The MZ3 seat brackets for both the passenger and drivers seats are relatively in the same area as the protege seats do that was the easy part. I had the most trouble with the MZ3 drivers seats because they are riveted and welded as opposed to the passengers seat where the bracket is just bolted on.

basically you have to cut off your protege seat brackets. Fit em up to the MZ3 seats and temporarily bolt the seats to the brackets to test fit them to the car and then weld them both together

ok cool thanks for the info. I'm still going to eventually put some in my car. Turbo first though! lol

 

[stivine6]

nicely done, love the seats!! How much did it cost you to dynomat your trunk like that? Does it really make a big difference? Been thinking about doing that for a while now