my newest mazda mod...



another mazda. here he/she is (can't figure out whether it's my second girlfriend or my new buddy).


[IMG]local://upfiles/8860/BDA0734495F2437CB4C182A63221A4A2.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/8860/01E181E3446547EB9B872313AEB83190.jpg[/IMG]

 

haven't updated here in a while. i have a couple of things to post up here.

 

here are a couple of updates.
i blacked out the badges by stripping the chrome off of them down to the plastic and painting them with a plastic-bonding black paint and a high-temp clear coat. they have been painted for a couple of months and are holding strong. ignore the fact that the car needs to be washed.
i bought a set of 17x7 racinghart rims off of a 2001 mazda mp3. i stripped them down to aluminum and painted them carbon grey. the outcome was really nice and the paint is holding really strong, even a couple of months later.
pulled the heat wrap off of the header to re-wrap it but just haven't done it yet.
i also have a set of tail light tints that i need to install. i keep putting it off until i will finally pay someone to do them.


[IMG]local://upfiles/8860/6255A460F5EC4995A9E04C9D08C38B92.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/8860/C2D2116D13F944DEA014FBD9EC3D4F40.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/8860/505E783C43FF48C3BBB83BF88CD9992D.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/8860/811445D979074F6F8017E0037B7C9364.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/8860/8D690233733F41EEB588B5B896BB7DD5.jpg[/IMG]

 

i also got a shorty antenna some time in there. just realized that i hadn't posted that up. it is visible in the top pic.

 

WOW!!! That looks COOL, Wes!!! Gotta LOOVVVEEEE the white ones. 'Course I'm not prejudged or anything.

Now, get them calpers painted!!! May I suggest... blue? Blue is a nice color.
Red is over cooked... over-done.

 

i have been considering caliper paint, but i am not sure what color i want. like you said, a couple of colors are played out. i like the blue on 3's, but i don't know if it will look right on my p5. i will photochop a little and see what i come up with. think i might go black with the mazda logo on them. have decided not to go very much further with the car (no turbo, just another turbo car that i will debut later), but little touches here and there will be done.

 

Love your P5, Wes. I've got one in the back of my mind for a few years down the road. Shame there wasn't a Mazdaspeed P5.

 

thanks and yes i would have loved to have seen an msp5. since i got the rx7, i have come to love RWD a lot. i also like AWD, but you can have a lot more fun in a RWD car. i have just come to realize that i can only make the p5 fun and not ridiculously fast. the p5 had traction issues that can be resolved, but make the car a lot less streetable.

 

Well, considering Mazda and Ford's ties at the time...perhaps the Focus and Protege shared some bits? I know the Focus was pretty unbalanced, which caused some entertaining lift-off oversteer.

 

the main thing is that the p5 came dripping with understeer and wheel hop. solution is solid motor mounts, beefy sway bars, and urethane bushings. at that point, the whole car shakes at a stop light due to the solid motor mounts, the rear end breaks loose in bad weather, and the bushings creak on cornering. the motor is a nice start, though. it is under powered stock, but that just means that you can squeeze that much more power out of it with tuning.

the focus ended up with just a few of the p5's parts. because of it's shape, the suspension sits higher (hence the oversteer and body roll) and it is just all around ugly. the 2.0 is the same though. it only changes the intake manifold from ford to mazda. (ford's is plastic)