Lewis7789's 2003 Protege5 build thread

[Lewis7789]

That's a Probe GT.

ihone, I posted the same pic on your build yesterday but it didn't show up. I think that's the route we should take and an intercooler from eBay with the same side inlet/outlet is $114 shipped. But that's much later down the road for me.

 

[Josue6WGN]

Who builds a Probe up??

Not that I'm knocking it, as long as it's done right and neat, I've just never seen a Probe built up to that level before. lol

 

[PrinceValorum]

Who builds a Probe up??

Not that I'm knocking it, as long as it's done right and neat, I've just never seen a Probe built up to that level before. lol

Haha, there's a first gen that actually started as a production car and now has a 2JZ in it, and is rwd. It's pretty darn quick, as well. Probes are more of an underground scene than I guess most things.

 

[Lewis7789]

I think most Probe owners are more like domestic minded guys, even though it's basically a Mazda. Ready ProbeTalk a lot they hate fart cans and prefer dual tip Magnaflow's.

I never see nice PGT's or MX-6's around here. They're all beat up, then again, they are 20 years old now. There is a really clean MX-6 near Ivan's house with wheels I would love to snatch up. But I don't need another jack stand queen (or have money for another project) right now. But I would love an MX-6 someday. Weaksauce's MX-6 is damn near perfect.

Drooooool...

 

[Protege03ak46]

I love Mike's car. Soooooooo much fun to hard park it and listen to people try and figure out wha it is. "looks at that s14!" Hahaha. And I'm sure most of you can imagine how fun it is to drive. Which it is!

I think most Probe owners are more like domestic minded guys, even though it's basically a Mazda. Ready ProbeTalk a lot they hate fart cans and prefer dual tip Magnaflow's.

I never see nice PGT's or MX-6's around here. They're all beat up, then again, they are 20 years old now. There is a really clean MX-6 near Ivan's house with wheels I would love to snatch up. But I don't need another jack stand queen (or have money for another project) right now. But I would love an MX-6 someday. Weaksauce's MX-6 is damn near perfect.

Drooooool...

 

[Lewis7789]

Dude, you have no idea how awesome I think that car is and it's so awesome he tracks it. When Wes was first getting me hip to KL's he showed me one of his track videos and I was hooked. I'm so jelly he get to ride/drive it. Tell that cat he's my hero, for serious.

In other news, finally got the subframe bolted back up (thanks again for the help, Phen!). This weekend will be the inner and outer tie rods, plumbing and routing the PS cooler and lines and tackling the wiring harness. Yay progress!

 

[CheeseHelmet]

^Hurry up.

 

[THE Phen]

Phen was actually allowed to touch the car!

Hahahaha.

 

[Lewis7789]

Well, but barely. It was more just moving the jacks around. But then again, you did thread the two nuts on to hold it up. s***. haha

 

[THE Phen]

Uh huh... Just working my way in there, little at a time.

 

[Lewis7789]

When was the last time you did that, buddy? Bazinga.

 

[THE Phen]

When was the last time you did that, buddy? Bazinga.

You want it down to the hour? I could figure it out... hahaha.

 

[Lewis7789]

Do want!

http://store.awrracing.com/products...ont-Triangulated-%2d-1999%2d2003-Protege.html

 

[Lewis7789]

Got the inner and outer tie rods in. Mazda inners and Raybestos outers. Pretty simple job, would have been quicker if I didn't have to drive around looking for an inner tie rod tool.

Old/new. The old ones weren't even bad. I figured with 223k miles on them they would be shot.

Ooooh shiny...

Also removed the Protege5 badge from teh grill and repainted the mesh.

Then I cleaned up the bay and will get it ready for masking and paint (semi-gloss black) tomorrow.

 

[CheeseHelmet]

^I really hope both of you bought new lock washers...

And I have to agree that >200K miles is pretty impressive for a set of tie rod ends. When I did mine one of the inners (left iirc) was pretty loose and the boots on the outers were finished.

 

[CheeseHelmet]

Nick, were you talking about those locking square clips? What is the purpose of those?

Those locking square clips are supposed to get staked on the collar as a safety measure (just like axle nuts).

I tightened my inners and outers with my impact so they aren't going anywhere.

To quote my late grandfather: "Why are you working like a frenchman?".

There are torque specs for the inner tie rods in the service manual, why didn't you use those? You can easily connect a torque wrench to your fancy inner tie rod tool (that's what I did).

 

[Lewis7789]

Honestly, sometimes it slips my mind to check torque specs. I'm so used to using my impact wrench on the second setting for suspension bits I just forget. I'll double check the workshop manual tomorrow. But I've got no worries about them.

I got some work done on the PS cooler setup today. Didn't get as much as I would've liked to since it was so bloody muggy outside. I think the cooler setup will work well though. And Home Depot Racing had all the fittings I needed so I can mount it all up tomorrow. Then will work on the wiring harnesseseses and paint the bay. Progress is slow, but so is my work habit. heh-heh

 

[Lewis7789]

T'was a lazy day today and didn't get much done yesterday either. But le girlfriend and I painted the bay yesterday. 2 coats of semi-gloss black engine enamel.

Before:

After;

 

[magnumP5]

Looks good! The thought of a black engine bay still makes me shudder though. Between the old P5 and now the RX-7 I guess I'm too conditioned to look for leaks now.

How does the paint look up close? Maybe it's just because I suck at painting or I mostly use matte/flat colors because everything I paint ends up with a texture. I'm sort of tempted to respray my engine bay now (red or white) because it's gotten so scratched up.

 

[Lewis7789]

I can try to get some close ups for you, Jon. But all I have is my cell phone so I'm not sure how well it will turn up. There is a little bit off texture, but just a little bit. I use that Rustoleum engine enamel spray paint for everything since it seems to hold up really well and goes on pretty smoothly. I love that stuff.

As far as I know, the paint is still holding up pretty well in my silver P5 when we put the FS back into it and it's now my friends DD. I'll have to ask and see. But this time around it was prepped better and sprayed on better. All I did was scrub the bay with Purple Power, then blast everything with 3 cans of brake cleaner and wipe it down again. I didn't prime or sand anything.

White in your red RX-7 would look awesome, IMHO. Especially with how clean and badass your motor looks. Even if you just paint it red again to cover the scratches and make the paint match in the bay. The paint in my bay was gray in some spots and black in some other and I needed to paint over the rust/Bondo/Por15 spot on my pass side strut tower anyway.