Hello,

sisbliss here...long time reader, first time poster....

Bought a 2001 ES 2.0 Protege from my husband's friend about 4 months ago and I am itching to mod it. All the pics that I've seen on this forum has greatly inspired me

The only thing I've done so far is putting Levoc pedals on. I'm planning on changing my factory spoiler with the Mazda "performance" (i.e. MP3) spoiler, and adding the Mazda front air dam, side sills, and rear bumper skirt.

Since I'm such a newbie at this, I have a few questions:

1. Since the Mazda rear bumper skirt has been on backorder for awhile now, can I get the Wings West rear bumper skirt instead? And where can I get it for the best price?

2. Does anybody have a good estimate of how much all these mods would cost since I need somebody to paint these parts and install them for me?

3. Is mazdastuff.com reputable? They seem to have the best prices. Did anybody have any problems with them?

4. Can anybody in the Washington D.C. metro area recommend a good body shop around Rockville, MD?

Sorry for so many questions :/ I have used the "Search" and didn't come across any answers to these questions.

Anyways, nice meeting everybody and thanks in advance!

 

Ouch! Ignored on your first post.

Sorry I don't have many answers for you, but #3. . . Yes, mazdastuff is a reputable company.

 

Hey! At least somebody took the time

Thanks GNO, that's one down, three to go

 

as far as paint and install goes it really depends what u want.. it will be cheaper if u just paint the parts and have them bolted on. if u want to have them molded you are looking at your cost goin way up. id contact a reputable shop in your area i wish i could help more but im in cali.. if u do mold your kit. just mold the sideskirts.. but i would really drive aroudn with it on for a while to get used to it before its painted especially if u lower the car.. if u paint it.. then learn to drive with it.. you will prolly have to paint it again..

 

hello Sis and
Welcome to our happy little corner of the net, and to our Club. There are TWO BIG fridge'S in the corner with anything you can think of in them...help yourself...of course only take what you can LEGALLY have.

make yourself at home on one of the big fluffy couches, kick your shoes off, put your feet up on one of the tables, yes we are allowed to do that, mom don't care....and take it easy.

oh...btw....every once in a while a food fight breaks out...so you may not want to wear nice clothes here.

Welcome!!

I will especially cover #3....not only is mazdastuff reputable...the guy that runs the internet order business is great...his name is Richard....

on top of that....mazdastuff.com is actually the internet order side of an actual mazda dealership in Austin Texas...its Beasley Mazda. so no fear of that.

 

sisbliss, you can ask the local body shop question in the DC area section of the forum, you'll get much better replies there

while you're in the DC section, keep an eye on the huge ALL MAZDA meet that's in the plan for April 12.

and welcome!

 

Thanks for the warm welcome and the good info!

I think I will go with mazdastuff.com. I just hope I could find the rear bumper skirt in stock in the near future....

BTW, got my windows tinted 35% today. The folks down at Auto Trim Design in Frederick, MD seem to have done a good job for $200. It was originally $150, but I elected to go with the better film (they use Johnson). Once again, thanks to this forum that I was able to make the right choice for the tint

 

dont mold the front bumper or the rear bumper to the car.. trust me.. even in a parking lot bump type accident there is no space for it to flex so there goes your paint..

 

Not to steal any thunder from Mazdastuff.com, but I just got back from my dealer. I wanted the ms sport axel back for my mp5. I went to the web page and printed out their price and took it to my dealers parts dept. Not only did he match the price, but he took 10 dollars of and gave me next day shipping for the cost of ground service. If I was in your shoes make a print out of what you want and try your local dealer. Just my .02

 

For the wingwest rear kirt. Try Mitch at protege5online, I think he had some left at a great price.

 

Irish, this is in fact a good idea....personally if I had a LOCAL dealer that I could walk up to the window and pick up my stuff from without having to drive an hour to get to....I would do the same thing....So its worth a shot to see if you can get your local dealer to give you the parts at the same price...if not...you didn't lose anything and you can always order them from mazdastuff.com

 

This is true. You see it just takes to long to get anything shipped up here to Maine. When I talked to the parts dept I was just blown away when he said they can beat "this deal" and make better the shipping offer.

 

Thanks for the great idea, guys!

I will try it with the Mazda dealers around here. Every dollar I save I could put it towards paint and installation.

 

I would not recomend just walking into a part dept untill you have researched a lower price from somewhere then take a printout of the lower price to them and ask them to beat the price. Most of the time they will