A Protege Story

Sketch Balls

I work in my garage pretty late at night and until now I haven't had a problem with the area.

I live in atlanta and the way it works is that they will slap a high income subdivision in a low income area. Flood money into it in hopes of attracting other develpers and eventually they push out the "bad element" as they say in capitalism class. Its a process called gentrification if you are interested but not the point of this post. While all of this is happening you put expensive houses next to high crime areas and the two are going to mingle eventually. You have to accept it or you'll never feel comfortable here. I've been mugged, had stereo jacked and my window smashed for some change.

It happens but not enough to make me want to leave. The upside of this town far outweighs the down.

So anyway back to my garage. It's about midnight and I have both doors open and every now and then I hear some dude go blazin down the street in some suped up something. I am usually inside when he does this. I just figured he lived down the road. Well tonight he went by twice while I was inside and I went out to see wtf he was doing. When I come out he is stopped at the opposite corner with a clear view into the garage and just looking in.

I go out there and give him a good stare and he does the same and then blazes off again. I take inventory and I've got my new bumper in plain view, my mam midpipe i just got and various other things strewn about. My doors are all open and it is pretty much obvious that I am working on my car.

So I hear him going around the block and coming back again so I shut the door as he is coming down the road and then he blazes off again. This pisses me off. There is no other reason to be in my neighborhood it has no outlet. It is basically a big circle. (This is a white dude by the way the homeboys have a little more tact)

I have a gay cop neighbor across the street who is pretty cool so its of some comfort. He came over the other day to see what the hell I am doing at all hours of the night and I showed him my work in progress. He said I see you up late at night and I look over every now and then to make sure you aren't getting robbed. Nice, thanks cop guy.

Maybe this guy is just being a sketch ball thinking I'm suping up my car so he and I can go out on the strip and duke it out. Either way **** off sketch ball. I got my led pipe from the grounding kit how to so meet me in the conservatory.

If I see him again I am saying something. I would have gotten his plate but I am blind as a bat. It's two hours later and I can hear him blazing around the main road out there. Who the **** does that s***. It didn't help that some 40 something plastic surgery case brought a stray BLACK cat over and asked if it was mine today. Should have siked O-Town on both of them.

anyway don't be a sketch ball.
 
Ya, I agree. I hope that shady guy isn't trying to take invetory of your stuff and rob you or something........that was the feeling I got when reading that.

neoturner: You have PM.
 
Paint update

Well I'm sure this will come as a suprise to my 2 loyal readers but I ****** up again. I painted my dash for the third time and I had done so much damn sanding the other two times that parts of my dash had completely been textured out. the paint at those points was flat and glass black and the rest was a mild texture.

I figured I might as well go the whole 9 yards since I was pretty much committed at that point so I sanded the texture out of the whole damn thing. I must say it helps with the contrast between the black and the grey. Looks more intentional and less like I couldn't match colors for s***.

That means I have to do the doors for the third damn time. I know exactly what the hell to do this time so it should go a whole lot quicker. It's all about the primer and getting IT smooth before you even lay on the paint. I was priming and painting at 320 grit whereas I need to start paint or primer at that point but always move up from there till you get to 800 or so. by then you should be done with primer and color and ready for clear. I'll have some pics after this weekend.

Total I think I have wasted about 20 out of 30 cans of paint at 5 bucks a pop. however in the last week I have successfully used 7 out of 10. If I can get a B in next weeks class I'm pretty pumped. and still well shy of any custom work that would equate to. (even a crappy one)
 
Paint evolution

Today I knocked out some pieces that I have redone about 3 times in the course of learning how to paint. I had primed them last night and I went at it today and layed down the law. I am starting to get it. I won't know how these pieces will stand the test of time but oh well.

I do know that each time i've re-done these the paint has been harder and harder to take off so I must be doing something right.

I'd like to share with you the very first piece I painted 5 months ago when I started this project.

Mistake

1: Using a dremmel on plastic. 2: using bondo glass to try and repair the problem (puddy or filler would have been sufficient) 3: thinking more paint would deminish the HUGE gashes in my piece.

I'm no photographer so I am playing around with lights to see what the hell they do.

Pic 1 (w/flash) & 2 (no flash):
It is my cupholder cover. I've held on to it for inspiriation and I will make it the last thing I paint because I will need to master all the arts of small part repair to undo the mangling job I did on it.


Pic 3 & 4:
One of the pieces I was working on today (the vent cover if you hadn't already guessed)
 

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looking great man! if you were closer id get the lid fixed for ya...i did some major work on some parts today with filler...oh well..id have it look nice. anywho what color you using for the vent? if i do keep my protege im going to go through almost this exact process...so your just my tester! hehe...

looking really good though man! seriously.
 
bump + subs for a kickass thread.

I'll probally rely on this thread whenever I get around to doing my interior... i may copy your plans if I dont go ahead and do the mazdaspeed swap.
 
Well I'm still under in the cost but the time spent on this is ...well.. a shitload. I enjoy it so it's all good. I just hate it when I get ripped off by vendors or I **** something up more than twice. pissed away money.

I got ripped off pretty bad this weekend because I was too damn impatient to wait till moday to get a part. Mad at myself.

I'll have some pictures of the dash with the radio bezel and vents here in a day or two. The trim piece I did like 5 times really came out nice and I think I have enough clear coat on it so that it will last on the outside. we'll see. I am going to go forward with silver trim and paint the front door and at least see a whole side.

I think you are going to really like what I got planned for the interior door panels.
 
justanotheradikt said:
looking great man! if you were closer id get the lid fixed for ya...i did some major work on some parts today with filler...oh well..id have it look nice. anywho what color you using for the vent? if i do keep my protege im going to go through almost this exact process...so your just my tester! hehe...

looking really good though man! seriously.

It's a dupli color called silver charcoal (met) I think the metallic part is what has been ******* with me for so long. it flecks so when you sand it it kinda looks flat and dull (as with any paint) but I didn't know that so I was thinking I was screwing up.

When I finally got to the point where I was like "OK GOD DAMMIT, I have done each process flawlessly." I'm talking starting with a brand new can, shaking exactly to specs, checking the nozel, the spray, the angle the distance. I was on point and that is when I figured out that as soon as you add another coat to the dulled surface it perks right back up and even faster than before.

I probably scrapped some pieces that were right on target, though the priming and adhesion layer wasn't done properly so I'm glad I did. It sucks to sand when you get a good coat down but if you don't test that s*** it's going to fall off.
 
The written world

Well I managed to ruffle a few feathers today in the for sale forum. I'd like to present the story as part of my ongoing documentation of the modification process web battles and all.

here is the thread (don't post to it that is not the point of this story, it's the story that is the point)
http://www.msprotege.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123633748

Revs (plaintiff) if you feel anything I have written is inaccurate you can certainly state your case. I've said before comments good and bad are welcome.

Here is how I remember it:

Round midnight I was doing my sweep of the for sale threads and I run across a 3rd brake Light for sale. I sold mine a while back so I hopped in there to see what this dude was selling it for.

30 bucks + shipping

now i don't know if any of you have actually seen one of these things but it is no marvel of engineering. I have received many a happy meal toy that contain more structure than this thing. it's basically a plastic cup with a jolly rancher for a lens and a lighbulb.

So I saw the price and was already skeptical (probably the reason for the reaction I got) but I wanted to see what reason this guy gave for selling so high.

I'll quote to limit misinterpretations.
Seller: "Since Mik has one for sale right now I'll ask the same price he is to be
fair."

Hummm. Not the reason I was looking for, no mention of gold plated anything. So lets break down this statement.

He is saying since some dude has one for sale at said price he won't go lower so that he can be fair.

My first question:
Fair to who?
I could only assume he meant the other seller cause he certainly wasn't cutting any potential buyers a break.

If that is the case why does he feel the need to tell you the buyer that he is being fair to some other seller? What is he qualifying?

My conclusion:
The damn price that's what.

So to be fair he has to overcharge you? Am I the buyer supposed to read that and go, "well the price is a bit much but he is trying to be fair to that other guy." I dunno, if he'd a just put 30 bucks plus shipping I wouldn't have batted an eye. I mean I didn't post in the other dudes thread.

So to help clear his conscience I posted the following reply.

Me: "one overly priced brake light doesn't deserve another."

I don't feel like this was out of line. Had I said "That price seems a little high." do you think I would have gotten the warning from the powers that be about commenting on price? I don't think so. I think I got the warning because I persisted after homebody dropped his little emoticon with the bird on it.

come on now. can we be a little more creative.

the rest is in the thread. the dude pm'ed me a few times with some more emoticons and words like hate and "people like you". I love it. he was pretty pissed but I think more so that I called it like it was.

He cracked the door with that opening line and he knew it was too much and I happened upon his thread. I'd be pissed to.

In the end he sold the piece for a lot less so he wasn't a bad guy he was just pretending to be one. It was shipping out of canada so the buyer ended up paying a good bit for it anyways so I'm not sure I did anybody any good.

I was just trying to be fair.
 
Sorry Mom

Dammit I forgot my mom's birthday today. I ALWAYS forget her birthday but this year I had it written on my hand all retard like and even called my sisters to give them the heads up.

So I instantly forget. I spend 33% of my time in the garage looking for something I just had in my hand. It's insane.

Anyway, bout time I posted some pics.

bunch of interior as of now. I've added a kartboy shifter knob, p5 dark grey inner door trim (part that stays on the car), amber hvac controls, amber dimmer, painted the radio console cover, dash pad and ebrake (not sure what color it is but it'll do). installed the kenwood eq (down by the cupholders), mb quart reference components, kicker 6.5" midbass drivers and a rockford fosgate punch 200x2 for my subs, mb quart Q-164 bandpass crossover. Upgraded all the interior speaker wiring. So many wires!!!

First pic is a before shot. haven't looked at it in a while. glad I took it, damn.
 

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Time to Start Boosting

Well kids I've put it off long enough. I need to turn my attention to this turbo. The interior is coming around and the rest is annoying but I can do that after I move. The turbo needs to get in there by July 1st.

I'll start with the intercooler. For some reason the dude before me routed the ic piping through the left side hole that the wiper fluid sits under. I have to move the bottle. He had a msp so I'm not sure where to put it. I might ask him for some pics.
 
Wow, looks awesome Neoturner! You put in alot of hours and work into that car, but it is looking great. When did you get the MSP seats?
 
I picked up the seats a while ago. I sit in so much crap that i've been using my old ones till i was done with all the sound deadening which is just plain messy.

I got them for 500 bucks from mazmart.com. They are right down the street so I didn't have to pay for shipping. no other option for seats was any cheaper and I am impatient so i just snagged them. They are a lot stiffer than my sedan ones. I like em.

Did you get that mat finally?
 
winty87 said:
I just found this thread, Good read and info

Thanks man. Always love to pick up a reader. If anybody is reading this let me know if the big pics suck for your or something. My browser auto shrinks s*** so I never think about it.

I plan on adding an index at the begining of the thread so that as people come along they can find all the helpful crap and skip all my rambling.

I snagged some fogs from my roomate tonight. She has an ES. I don't think she has used them in the 4 years she has had her car. I said "Amy have you ever used your fogs?" She goes, "How do you turn them on?"

I told her I'd take em off her hands and she can have my grill cover since I am replacing my bumper anyway. SNAG!!
 
neoturner said:
Thanks man. Always love to pick up a reader. If anybody is reading this let me know if the big pics suck for your or something. My browser auto shrinks s*** so I never think about it.

I plan on adding an index at the begining of the thread so that as people come along they can find all the helpful crap and skip all my rambling.

I snagged some fogs from my roomate tonight. She has an ES. I don't think she has used them in the 4 years she has had her car. I said "Amy have you ever used your fogs?" She goes, "How do you turn them on?"

I told her I'd take em off her hands and she can have my grill cover since I am replacing my bumper anyway. SNAG!!


very cool man. this is a great read. I love reading builds of a car. I can't wait to put mine up here. of course it'll take forever, but it'll be worth it I believe.
Anyways, keep up the good work.
 
Well progress has been slow. My stepsister came to Atl for a few days and it's been raining like a mofo. I also had to make an apperance out in the world so people don't start sending the search parties. Had to see various doctors and pay some bills.

Just when the garage was starting to clear up I started into the turbo project. It's a freaking mess again. bumpers and bolts and s*** everywhere. I have a new bumper to put in so I have to find out where the intercooler is going to be and in order to do that i have to know where to run the piping and in order to do that i had to lose my ac fan. hopefully i don't have to lose the other one cause replacements aren't cheap.

Going with a spal 10" low profile push fan mounted on the front side of the radiator similar to the mam setups. then i will run the ic piping up through the large gap created. with the sedans you can't run the ic the same without replacing the radiator and condensor and all that s*** so i figured this was the quickest and more importantly the easiest solution. i can live without ac till i figure this s*** out.

Updated the project list:
http://www.msprotege.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2427247&postcount=33

have a couple pics of project silvertrim. I like the look so i am going to move on to the other side. PRODIGY if you are reading this i need your master PS skills to test out a look for the mirrors. Shoot me a PM if you read this, should be cake.

If anybody missed his handy work lately check out this thread.

http://www.msprotege.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123634383

Pics:

1 & 2 - Silvertrim, 3 no trim. lemme know what you guys think about the look. I know i need to figure out something with the mirrors but the idea is that the rear valance and chrome bar in front will also have the charcoal trim.
 

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