Come on in and watch the transformation of my "new" car!

[Corey Bit Spank]

I'm so happy you bought that instead of a Pisscort.

 

[Thomas Dekany]

woolite has done wonders for me on headliners. I spray it on a MF towel, and go to work.



Nice car BTW. Can't wait to see it polished! :bigups

 

[Scottwax]

Anxiously awaiting the after pics.....

 

[imported_memnuts]

Sonus All-In-One work great for some stains in my headliner. No discoloration or fading resulted from usage. :xyxthumbs

 

[White95Max]

Setec - that's our "shed". It's basically just a shelter to house a bunch of stuff that was taking up too much space in the garage.



I'll try Woolite and warm water on the headliner today, and I'll let you guys know how it goes.



Is there any way to tell if the emblems are pinned on before removing them?

 

[jchetty]

Setec - that's our "shed". It's basically just a shelter to house a bunch of stuff that was taking up too much space in the garage.



I'll try Woolite and warm water on the headliner today, and I'll let you guys know how it goes.



Is there any way to tell if the emblems are pinned on before removing them?

dont bother debadging them because unforunately they are held by adhesive and its pinned :sadpace: ...at least that how it is for by boys red mica protege 03 ...overkill to say the least, each one the mazda and the protege sign have to 2 pins :bawling: , you might be able to see from inside the trunk or feel it with your hand

 

[trekvdm]

You really have a fun car there to play with. Mazda Protege's are some nice cars. What do you have planned for her?

 

[imported_becks]

Yep the badges are pinned.

 

[White95Max]

You really have a fun car there to play with. Mazda Protege's are some nice cars. What do you have planned for her?

Plans?

Well, aside from many more hours of detailing, I'm thinking about getting a cold air intake for it, although the Injen intake seems to cause problems on the 1.6L engine. Other intakes on Ebay are only like $35.00 (compared to $150 for the Injen), but I think if the Injen has problems, so will the Ebay intakes. So that's why I took the largest resonator box off already, and I'm trying to get the second one off too. Then the air will pretty much have a straight path to the MAF sensor, rather than a slow, turbulent flow. It also sounds pretty nice now hehe I might try to rig a cone filter in place of the stock airbox too. It sure clears up a lot of space in the engine bay when you remove the stock intake pieces. You can see the difference between the engine shots in this thread. One has the stock intake complete, and the other has the primary resonator box in the front removed.



I just won a front strut tower brace on Ebay, which should be getting here sometime this coming week.



Other than that:



Summer wheels/tires (16x7 ASA JS1 or 16x7 Kazera KZ-U)

20% tint (My B-day is on the 25th, so that's my gift to myself)

I also might paint the calipers silver to match the car and new wheels. I'm in no hurry to do that though, since I have steel wheels on there now. Which reminds me, I want to try to scrape the rust off the steel wheels.

The only other thing that MIGHT happen, is getting new headers for it. Probably not though, since they cost a lot. Apparently the first O2 sensor doesn't fit into the aftermarket headers so the only thing you can do is trick the computer into thinking that there is a sensor there sending the "everything's fine" signal all the time. IMO that's dumb, since you need that sensor to optimize the air/fuel mixture and stuff. So that probably won't happen.

 

[White95Max]

Well I've confirmed that the badges are indeed pinned with two pins each.



Today I detailed a silver Jetta in the morning, but after that I made my way over to the Protege and I did:



Vacuum interior

Vacuum all floor mats and trunk mats

Scrub floor mats with an Autopia Upholstery Brush and Detailer's Pride Carpet/Upholstery Cleaner

Polish headlights and taillights with PlastX and a MF applicator

Polish chrome exhaust tip with 1Z Chromepflege and a MF applicator

Cleaned out the ashtray

Acquired $1.12 while vacuuming

Clayed for 20 minutes (all I got done was half the trunk! The clay sounded like I was tearing it up with sandpaper. :sosad: )

Inspected the spare tire and emergency jack

Polish chrome bar on grille with 1Z Chromepflege and a MF applicator



Tomorrow I go to the DMV to register it, and apply for plates.

But before that (I'm getting up at 5:00 to start working on it. I have shade until about 11:00 behind the house) I'll be working on the car some more.



Clay (I'm planning on allowing at least 2hrs for this step...much longer than it takes me to clay the Maxima. But it will be real easy next time I clay it.)

SSR2 via rotary/green

AIO

UPP

Clean door jambs (this is going to take a while)

1Z Gummipflege on weatherstripping

Clean throttle body

303 Aerospace Cleaner on plastic/vinyl (interior) and Sonus Total Eclipse after.

1Z Lederpflege on leather shift boot and E-brake boot.



I'll snap some pics of the interior tomorrow.

 

[Setec Astronomy]

[quote name='White95Max']Tomorrow I go to the DMV to register it, and apply for plates.

QUOTE]



Ummm...what were those plates that were on it??

 

[imported_truzoom]

Looks like the perfect "gas saving, money saving" car. Are you planning on replacing all the fluids too?

 

[imported_themightytimmah]

If you're destroying clay like that, you definetly want to go decon. I can do a trashed car in like 45 minutes, with no effort. Finish Kare's kit is like 45 bucks and I'd highly reccomend it if you detail. If you want, PM me your info and I could deal you for the A and B steps (C step is just regular soap).

 

[Bluesbrekr]

Nice find, Paul. I'm sure you'll have it looking great soon.

 

[White95Max]

Setec - Those plates were the Texas plates that came with the car. The owner said she didn't want the plates, so I just drove home with them on.



Truzoom - Yes I plan on replacing all the fluids soon, and probably the spark plugs and fuel filter as well.



Timmah - But then I'd have to wait a few MORE days to detail the exterior. Hmm...

 

[White95Max]

I've got a few more things done now:



I washed and S&G'd the Max this morning before I watched it drive away with its new owner. I couldn't stand to let it go without making it slick one more time.

After watching it leave, and getting the new title for the Protege, I cleaned up the headliner with Woolite and warm water, and a couple WalMart MFs.

And the windshield washer fluid has been drained and replaced with a 303 windshield washer tablet and distilled water.

For the last couple hours I was polishing the valve cover and exhaust manifold. No pics yet, but I'll get them tomorrow.

 

[imported_hadboosttroy]

the headliner transformation is pretty insane!

 

[ScubaStevo]

Looks much better. You do great work.

 

[White95Max]

Today I cleaned up the engine some more, treated the weatherstripping, conditioned the shift boot, and cleaned/conditioned all the plastic and vinyl with Total Eclipse.



Here's what the engine looks like now. I'm making progress, but I'm still not quite done. You can see that there's still a bunch of oxidation to polish off of the valve cover and exhaust manifold.

I love 1Z Gummipflege! It's so easy to use, and doesn't cost much, considering one bottle will last you a lifetime. I apologize for the out-of-focus pics, but you can see the difference Gummipflege makes on weatherstripping. All I did was wipe it down with a wet WalMart MF towel, let it dry, and applied the Gummipflege. It makes the rubber so soft and black...

I wish I could get the exterior done, but I'm waiting on some decontamination samples rather than proceeding with the clay. Thanks to TheMightyTimmah for the samples! :up

 

[Siggyboy]

Interesting to follow your transformation work! The Protoge is a pretty good car, they can run a loong time. Good choice.