Keith's '02 Protege ES Worklog

[Mazda_Powered]

looks like a nice beefy replacement, also looks a bit shorter in the pic, is that true? It'll just have a bit of extra load on the sway bar is all, nothing really negative.

[89BG 323]

holy crap, those escape endlinks look way better! how much of a difference have you noticed?

[Sleezer1533]

They are between 1/4 to 1/2 inch shorter ... not a big difference. Took it for a short drive since the bumper and headlights still werent in. Not much of a difference in feel, maybe a bit stiffer. Good thing is these probably wont ever break

[Sleezer1533]

Finished up in the garage for today by putting in the new Foglights and getting everything back together.

The foglights were a huge bitch. Well the passengers side went fine, but on the drivers side ... both screws sheared off the cover that seals the bulb inside the light and when I went to drill out the holes for new screws I cracked the lens even though I used my "soft" vice covers. So now I have one fine light and one cracked one barley holding together with the new screws. And after all that, AJ was right ... the bulbs are barely yellow :/


Heres a couple better shots of the fender, tried to get rid of the two wrinkles up front with the heat gun but I didnt do much, Im disappointed cuz its really the only flaw in the whole fender.




I think Im going to spay a coat of clear over the wrap since it seems to scuff easy. Also as for the bumper I had a sample of black gloss vinyl sent to me which I was planning on wrapping the bad spot on the bumper with but it isnt nearly as mirror-like as the original paint. So I think Im leaning toward sanding, and painting just the bad spot but then Ill have a seam which will most likely try to peel eventually. I wouldnt be opposed to painting the whole bumper but since black is so hard to lay down correctly I feel like Ill just end up making a mess of the whole thing...

[TheDanny]

Tremclad!

[Sleezer1533]

Where do I get it and does it come in spray cans or just paint on?

[TheDanny]

Its rust paint. Im not sure the availability in the states. Its an oil enamel paint. I just rolled my car last weekend. http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/...0&fpart=1&vc=1

Paint job on a budget. If you want to do this in a day though, you might just want to spray. It took my car 24 hours a coat to dry because of the temperature and dampness out. Its all about the thinning of the paint! read that thread and see what you think. I love the way mine turned out. Post pictures if I get a chance.

[Sleezer1533]

Hmmm, it seems like that paint is really meant for painting metal and my front bumper is plastic....

[TheDanny]

you have to prep the bumper with bumper paint first

[Sleezer1533]

Yea im doing research and whatnot, I want to go the rattle can route since there are some curvy hard to reach areas on the bumper that I think would be tough for a roller. But I did see that Rustoleum makes an automotive grade rattle-can paint ... I think Ill head to the auto-parts store and see what I cant find out about this stuff.

[TheDanny]

Thats the thing though. If you tried to role the car without thinning the paint it wouldn't level. I did my car and although it could have used another two coats (I only did three because of time crunching) if I had of of done five it would have turned out perfect. If you thin the paint out it self levels to anything. I did my entire car without pulling a single panel. You cant wax it though. You have to do a 2000 grit wet sand and a high speed buff with some turtle wax polish and it will come out to a mirror finish, but you have to be patient!

[Sleezer1533]

So my brakes have had a bit of travel in the pedal that Ive been finding annoying, but I havnt gotten around to looking at the brakes in detail. However, when I went out to double check the size of my tires (Im researching new tires since my fronts are probably less that 25% life left) I noticed some thing with the rotors. It rained yesterday so the calipers were rusty like normal.

The drivers side looks fine like this:


But the passengers side looks like this:


I looked and both pads seem to be covering the same amount of rotor but there is that odd strip on the pass. rotor where it seems the pad hasnt made contact. The rotors and pads are about five months old so they should have been bedded in already. It is curious because the passengers side caliper gave me trouble when re-installing it on the rotor, it was extremely tight and I had to force it on where the drivers side simply slipped over the rotor with little to no contact. Ill have to take a closer look at some point.

[TheDanny]

You should never have to force the calliper should never have to be forced on. If those photo's were taken at the same time, I'm going to assume that the bottom of the passenger side pad is the only thing contacting the rotor. Make sure the pistons are working properly. If they aren't then the calliper won't contact properly.

[Sleezer1533]

Yea Ive been told on another forum to check the piston as well, Ill have to do that at some point

[Sleezer1533]

Hehe, cheap lowering kit for the rear = heavy junk in the trunk :p



Also another pic of the odd wear on my rotor after the trip back to school