Mazdaspeed Protege

Unfotunately, I found this car in pretty rough shape. The person who had it before me really let the car go. I picked it up in October and after 9 E-Tests, I finally got it pass in February. I don't have any pics from when I first got the car but I do have a few from right before it went into the body shop. Looking forward to keeping track of her progress from here on out.








The car is now in the shop for body and paint through a friend of family. Cannot wait to get it back!

nice!!

zoom zoom, nice car bud. Welcome to the club

TY TY

I went down to the body shop today and got some good news....the body wasn't as bad as originally thought! All epoxy primer has already been completed. One door needed a small adjustment because the gap was slightly off. Tomorrow we tackle the front clip as something is just not right with it but we are not sure what yet. After we get that figured out, and do some sanding, it's off the to the paint booth. Should be completely done no later than Wed/Thurs.....so stoked!

awesome man, nice car too!
you keeping it the same colour? i hope so, cause that colour when fresh looks so good.

ya..same colour, but with more flake in it. also doing center of hood black, roof black, and spoiler black. Zacko did it up in Forza to see what it would look like. Here is some pics of that.

Welcome to the fam, I like the MSP bodystyle.

ty ty...always wanted one...just never found the right one...till now...cant wait to start comin out to some meets.

Super nice

lookin forward to seeing this in person!

Thx.....so am I...still in the shop and once i get it back, it will be a work in progress for a long time...but I'll get it there....one way or another :-P

So, the body work has taken a little longer than expected. We pulled the plastic off the rockers to find out they were basically completely rotten. So, we made new ones since it was going to cost over $200/ea. Now that we got that done...she is almost done. Here is a few pix from this evening.

Damn salt... I wish they used gravel/dirt instead

progress is lookin good

thanks a lot.... it's been a ton of work to get the car to where it is now and ya, no doubt on the salt...hopefully the car will never see another winter now that I have the car in my possession :-)

if the rockers were that bad, make sure you check the frame as well..
also, future suggestion, even if you dont drive it through the winter, still get it rustproofed every year or so.

maxima_tyler wrote:if the rockers were that bad, make sure you check the frame as well..
also, future suggestion, even if you dont drive it through the winter, still get it rustproofed every year or so.

ya for sure...frame is actually in fantastic shape. the passenger side rocker was really bad...my guess is because its the side of the road all the slush gets pushed to. driver side was pretty decent but figured what the hell, might as well take care of it anyways. should be able to pick it up tues and hopefully get out to a meet so I can put some faces to the ppl I've met on here :-P. next up will be getting to work under the hood now that all the body is mint. would like to throw a couple racing seats up front too since the seats in there now are starting to show some wear. wish I could have made it out to CSCS....looks like it would have been a pretty good day.

Well...got my car back today. It has to go back in 2 weeks for a wet sand and nice buffing, but I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. I snapped a few pics with my phone in my yard.

oops, i forgot to resize those...still, u get the idea. I also wanna thank you all for being so welcoming and for helping to motivate me to get to work on my car. Just seeing what some of you have done to your rides has been such a big motivator.

Good to see she's out of the shop, you should come out to Kennedy Commons sometime and say whats up

Car looks great.

thanks... it turned out pretty good considering the car was a write off :-P....I still have a long way to go before its remotely close to show worthy. the engine bay is a total mess... but it will come in time.

Looking good, and we meet every week (unless it rains) at Kennedy Commons.

I'll try to make it out next week... it's a long drive for me but it would be nice to take for a nice cruise.

Oh dizzam, you live up in Cayuga. You should've hitched a ride with one of us to CSCS, all you gotta do is mention/ask and someone is always willing to help.