A Protege Story

[neoturner]

Well damn. I figured the ol third gen section needed some life so I thought I would document the transformation of my 2001 LX into something that I like to drive.

I recently paid off my car but I take a train to work so I hardly drive it. It has about 40,000 miles on it. So rather than sell it for beans and picking up a car payment with interest I decided to mess around with my car till it is fun or I kill it. I can write off any loss on the car with the benefit of garage therapy.

I have messed around with stereo systems for years and know my way around in that department but I have never actually done anything else to the cars that I have owned. Not even an oil change. So while searching around for a way to take apart my door I stumbled upon this site and decided to give my car an upgrade using the how to's that I like and the stereo will be my own contribution.

I've take a week off of work and dedicated that to closing out on some of the projects I've started. I am moving in 3 months and after that I won't have a garage so I gotta get everything in now.

I'll ad more detail later but for now I am going to post as many pics as I can and go to bed.

 

[neoturner]

The project vehicle

First picture is my LX after I got some new shoes and painted the calipers. I painted them cause I wanted to get a good look at the suspension before I even atempted to change that out.


The second picture is my crew, 'Oliver', but he likes to be called O-Town. He starts knocking crap over if you don't acknowledge him every now and then.

 

[neoturner]

The project

In a nutshell I wanted to do the following

Upgrade Audio
Change/Paint Interior
Fix exterior look, some new skin but not a whole body kit
Wheels/Tires
Clean/Paint enginge
Upgrade Suspension
Upgrade Engine - Got it will install that last
Upgrade Exhaust

So I went out and got an assload of supplies. Estimate what materials you need and then multiply it times 12 if you are new at this like I am. Buy tools if you have to but I found out later on that AutoZone lends em out for free. Not everything but some good stuff. The other thing to do is to rent tools from home depot or Advance Hardware. Sometimes though if you have a project that will span a few days it's better just to buy the thing and not deal with the hassle.

I found a table saw for 100 bucks when I was building my sub boxes. I ended up using it four days in a row which would have been about the same. I didn't realize that people don't like it when you use it at one in the morning so I had to spread out the project. Sleeping bastards.

Here is just a few of the items I have aquired. I'll add more to this post about everying on there. I've probably spent close to $1,000 on tools and raw materials since I've started a few months ago. I have a box of reciepts I am collecting to add up when I am prepared to see the tally.

 

[neoturner]

Audio

Don't have a lot of pictures on this yet. I'm still fiberglassing some stuff for my rear deck and amp rack. I'll go into detail later with proper pics and add them here.

I do have a picture of my door after putting deadener in. Rick at Raammat audio has a good thing going on there. He was very helpful and his sight and presentation are very straight forward. This is what I got, this is what people think, let me know if you want some. His product is priced reasonable for the quality compared to others in the sound deadener showdown. Anyway putting this stuff in is a b**** cause you got to get to the bare metal of your car which means taking every last interior snapping clipping screwing tugging pice out of the car.

It's a b**** and I kept telling myself, "This s*** wouldn't sell if people did all the crap to put it in and then didn't notice anything." I have to say it's made a pretty big difference so far and I imagine when I get all my panneling back in the car is going to be pretty audio friendly.

pics are my door before. I flipped all my electrical connections to the inside of the door by just reversing the clips. this gives the mat more to grab onto, and if you ever need to get to those wires you can reach into your speaker hole and get them witout taking all the mat off. It's basically like Tar, lots and lots of tar.

Some fiberglassing pics (first run at that too) I am raising my 6x9's up about 4 inches so I can mount my amplifiers in the roof of the trunk. that way I don't have to drill holes in my seats and I think it will look good (I mean let's be honest) And yes audio gods I have thought about the airflow up there and I think you will like my solution for that.

 

[neoturner]

Paint

I gotta hit the hay but here are some random pics of the paint. Anything in faded grey is my old stuff. Anything with black and yellow and silver is the new scheme. Picked those colors cause the replacement seats I got had all three.

 

[justanotheradikt]

congrats man! did you pait your doors and whatnot or recoat them in fabric and whatnot? reminds me of my car 03 black dx....i miss her.

 

[JCell]

i'm doing the exact same thing with my rear deck, good luck!

 

[Donny]

Looks like quite the project, best of luck!

 

[neoturner]

congrats man! did you pait your doors and whatnot or recoat them in fabric and whatnot? reminds me of my car 03 black dx....i miss her.

doors all all rattle can. I found that dupli fabric worked on the 'fabric' but you gotta get down in there good. Almost soak the fabric but not till things get out of hand. Then after each coat you need to rub the material till the fibers losen up then do it all again.

 

[justanotheradikt]

nice...if i get my car back i might be PMing you on how to do it (more detailed instructions) because ive been wanting to do that but never trusted that stuff. looks very good though! try to get some closer pics of it...also does it make the fabric hard or anything?

 

[Protephile]

Nice job. That's a lot of work. It's amazing how many tools I accumulate with each new project. Hit me with a PM when you're ready for an exhaust upgrade or go here:

http://www.msprotege.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123631351

 

[neoturner]

nice...if i get my car back i might be PMing you on how to do it (more detailed instructions) because ive been wanting to do that but never trusted that stuff. looks very good though! try to get some closer pics of it...also does it make the fabric hard or anything?

Will take some more pics when I get some of the interrior back in. Anything in particular that you are worried about? or want to see? That camera was a disposable so the pics suck. Got a digital now so quality should be better.

The key to the fabric is to think about what it is you are trying to do. You aren't painting a piece of plywood, you are tring to color an assload of little fibers. So one coat will get whatever threads are showing, the thicker your coat the deeper it will dye. Then after you let it dry completely (overnight at least) rough up all the fabric good. I basically did it till I could rub my hand down it and no color came off. This also changes the directions of the fibers and exposes areas that may have been missed. I'm pretty happy with the results, we'll see what happens after I put some abuse on them.

 

[justanotheradikt]

yea thats true...so did you soad it? or just a bunch of light coats?

 

[neoturner]

yea thats true...so did you soad it? or just a bunch of light coats?

I did light coats the when I started. Basically put it on like they tell you to paint a pice of plastic. Took about 5 coats to start looking dark and every time I rubbed the fabric down about half of the paint would come off. So I got pissed and painted the s*** out of one piece, it worked.

After trial and error this is the rule of thumb I found that works best.

1. Get close, 2 or three inches away. Think about what it would take to spray paint a letter L on a white T shirt. Mist would take 10 coats, but a solid line would show up. So, use a sweeping motion like painting other parts but you should be able to see the line that you are painting.

2. right at the point where you can see the color going on is the right amount. Back and forth, overlap each line till they blend.

3. Wait a good 30 min and then do the rub down (as if you were trying to mess up somebody's hair). Do about 3 solid coats and then wait overnight.

4. Do one good rub down, try to take the color off (not with your nails or anything) and then give it another coat, 30 min, rubdown and it should be good to go. The color will fade a bit after it dries so you want to put it on a little darker then what you expect to see.

 

[justanotheradikt]

oh nice...thanks man!

i look forward to doing this if i get the car back...keep us updated with the rest of the mods!

 

[neoturner]

Me and O-Town got back at it tonight. We managed to get a little further on the fiberglass enclosures and dabbled a bit in some Borsch relays. Took a bit to figure out a ground relay start vs a positive remote. I had one of each. My dome light ground and my deck remote. Got both going and neons are now installed.

I have 1 door pannel in. exactly 1 tweeter working and that is my entire stereo system right now. Hopefully can get the rest in before the meet tomorrow.

here are some pics of the current state of things.

1st Pic

O-Town making sure I don't mispell anything

2nd Pic

speaker position before creating a fiberglass home

3rd Pic

Fiberglass 1st layer and supports

4th picture

My interior right now

5th Pic

Fun with relays. I love those alligator clip connectors. Those and the cheap pin light device you use to check connections are huge when you are wiring stuff up. No more twisting, taping re-taping. Get it all straight and solder or clamp and you're done.

 

[Antoine]

(bump) for a (cool) thread...Suboosted to see how things turn out!

 

[DiS]

definetly gotta give alot of props! Just to go by directions on paper. Good stuff man!

 

[D-rock240]

Subbing, very good job on the door panel!

 

[TStar]

3rd gens rule anyway