Body Kit Question

[Protege01MP3]

sorry bout multiple posts in a row... but i just came up w/ a question.... can anyone give me a pretty sure answer as to whether or not that popular front lip will be able to fit on under a Wings West front bumper??
I know it would probably "fit" but im wondering if because of the small flare/wings on the sides of the WW bumber, the lip may be too short... however, im thinking a good body shop with some bondo can blend it together... anyway... I just wanted peoples thoughts on this... because i REALLY REALLY like that front lip... but i also LOVE the WW kit...

-confused

 

[I_Vtec]

No. The lip wraps around the side and the little wings on the WW kit would be in the way.

Now I may be wrong, but I think the only difference in the WW front bumper and the stock MP3 bumper is the little wings. So if you cover those up it would be kind of pointless to buy the WW bumper.

 

[Protege01MP3]

thanx for the input... i was unaware that the lip wrapped up on the sides... thought it just attatched to the bottom... i didnt want to cover up the WW wings... i thought it would look kinda like this

front view (lol... i know that it isn't exactly a Da Vinci painting but it will have to do.... even though probably no one can figure out wtf im talking about.. cuz im even kinda lost now )
\________/ <-- ww bumber with wings
..|______| <-- lip (i had to put the periods to move the lip text over lol)

like it would be too short across to be vertically flush on the edges where the wings are next to the wheels

 

[derrick1623]

i too, wanted the wings west/autoexe combo, however..
i decided to go with a foreign(european, or asian) front bumper, issued by mazda. and then ill be awesome,hahaha

 

[Protege01MP3]

yah.. ive seen a couple bumpers (like the original one from the "Protege Street" which was the concept that the MP3 was based on) that are similar to the mp3 bumber but not quite the same... i was thinkin the same thing.. but im big on the extreme... you know... like Blitz kits... Evo kits... stuff that REALLY stands out... my theory is.. if you cant tell what kind of car im driving without further examination then ive done my job

 

[BL_Protege]

i decided to go with a foreign(european, or asian) front bumper, issued by mazda. and then ill be awesome,hahaha

derrick, what exactly are you doing to the front bumper issued by mazda, i probably haven't heard of this? what are they issuing??

 

[mp3_559]

Im not a huge fan of wings west i dont think thats really a body kit.... its more of flares and ugly crap in my eye... however that autoexe lip is sick as ****!!

 

[Protege01MP3]

that is your opinion... now my opinion is that the wings west kit does a good job of keeping the stock bodylines, while adding accents, exagerations and flares in line w/ what the car was designed to look like in the first place... it just makes the body look more extreme... diff strokes for diff folks... no need to knock other ppl's tastes...

 

[derrick1623]

derrick, what exactly are you doing to the front bumper issued by mazda, i probably haven't heard of this? what are they issuing??

what i meant was, id get a front bumper off of one of the "e-spec", or something like that, mazda has a few different front bumpers that are offered around the world.

i meant to buy like a bumper from say, hong kong, or new zealand, or sweden, whichever i could get, and get it painted.

 

[Protege01MP3]

derrick... have you seen the protege street front bumper?? its kinda nice... alot like the ballistic one... actually.. it might be the same.. i remember reading that the guy that owns the ballistic protege got a bumper that was used for one of the original concepts for the mp3... it may be that one never thought of that before... anyway.. i kinda like that one.. unelss you were lookin for somethin a little less rounded off... anyway.. just a suggestion.. ultimately you gotta go w/ your own style... your ride should be an extension of yourself

 

[tradr11]

I personally think the wings west stuff looks better than it does on a car than shown on the wings west web page (which isn't very detailed..)

I got all my Wings West stuff installed today (I have a 2000 DX so I didn't get the front bumper since it's useless for me).. some pics below (sorry that they're big)

Did I beat everyone to it? Anybody else have the kit on yet?

However, since you guys have an MP3 to start with.. uh.. you can just do the lips it's alot easier I'd say.. I love the lower rear bumper skirt though.

 

[derrick1623]

i do believe you ARE THE FIRST!!! hey, i think ive seen that grill before...hmmmmm.


protege01mp3...i have seen that bumper, very sweet, especially the silver bottom grill thing(not quite a grill)

i dont know how to explain what i want, ill find a pic...

 

[derrick1623]

amn, cant attach in edit screen. sorry for double posting.

of course, i just noticed the headlight difference, i only looked at the bumper, but now you got an idea of what im talkin about

 

[VizaX]

Here are some Kits...

Maybe some of you guys saw them.

I think they are pretty hot.
I am prolly going to go with this instead of the WW kit.

 

[Protege01MP3]

VizaX... yah.. ive seen a couple pics of those... and they are definitely very attractive, sleek kits that look good... however, for me... i just cant bear w/ the thought of giving up my beautiful fog lights! that was a big part of the reason i loved the styling of the car was because of those bomb ass fog lights we got.. thats why the WW kit is great for me (or the autoexe lip) because the WW kit is pretty similar in general to the original front bumper

tradr11... YES YAH BASTARD!! YOU BEAT US TO IT!! GRRR (j/k)
how painless were the sideskirts to install?? much trouble?? ive never seen sideskirts being installed... ive worked on a back/front bumper and done some bondo work to fenders w/ a friend... but never done sideskirts... anyway... a little tip.. if you wanna spring the extra cash you could get our headlights and get a shop to do some fender work for ya to make em fit... you may have thought of that already though

late

 

[tradr11]

Protege01MP3, the side skirts are a perfect fit out of the box..

Installation just consists of cleaning the area where the side skirts are going very thoroughly, ideally getting some 3m double sided tape adhesive promoter to prep the area first (the skirts come with double sided tape already on them ready to be peeled as an additional securement method for perfect fit).. then test fitting the skirts (they fit perfectly), then drilling holes into the skirts (2 holes on each side), since you have factory side skirts you might be able to use the factory mounting holes (don't mess up the drilling though!), and lastly there's a little rectangular area beneath the skirt you can use if you'd like for additional support (to use a self tapping screw and somehow attach to your car's chassis - I didn't do this since it would require a very long screw)

Oh yeah, you need to take your wheels off for side skirt installation, but I guess that's a given

It doesn't sound very secure but I see it being held on for a LONG LONG time.. just dont skimp on the screwing to the fenderwell part, thats the most important part.

 

[Protege01MP3]

d00d... rock!! thanx alot man.. I appreciate the help... yah, the wheels were a given, hehe... and i understand exactly what your saying... and from your pics... they look awsome... i know a guy w/ a celica that got the blitz kit... and his sideskirts for some reason arent screwed into the inside fenderwell the screws are on the outside body... so basically its kinda like this


|..___body___..|
\_sideskirt___/

like the sideskirt is along the bottom of the body... but the screws are right where the .. are in my amazing artistic sketch above.. and i think it looks ugly... its just little screws/bolts right there... all obvious... but the WW kit looks NICE
congrats on your kit man

 

[BL_Protege]

amn, cant attach in edit screen. sorry for double posting.

of course, i just noticed the headlight difference, i only looked at the bumper, but now you got an idea of what im talkin about

yea derrick, that's a sweet bumper. would that fit on the 2002 pro, i dunno b/c of the diff. size headlights. are there any mazdaspeed fronts that fit the 02??