Mazda Protege 5 Track car project : Small projects..

I usually use my cellphone to record lap times and data.  But I always wanted to install a tablet to do it instead.  I had an old Android tablet for a few years around, that I used for our events to check people in and make sales at the booth.  

I test fit the tablet behind the center console, and the screen opening fit directly in the double din area.

I coincidentally had a piece of punched metal to use a brace to keep it secured.  I did have to make a new hole on the left side and I ran a bolt a nut through it.  

Now the other part was to be able to keep the tablet charged up.  So I got a usb harness and tapped it into the radio fuse so it charges when the car was on. 

The guys at Koruworks released a limited wheel along with Grip Royal.  The colors were not my favorite, but I had to support the home team.  I also coated the steering wheel with Gtechniq’s Smart Fabric so the sued stayed nice and soft.  

OMP Hub adapter.

 

Installed…. Not sure how I feel about the steering wheel color…feels good tho.

I was on Instagram and I ran across a guy that installed these STI bumper vents on his P5.  And I wanted to give it a try…

This spot is normally where the turn signal goes.  Previously I had removed it and riveted a piece over it to cover the hole it left.  So I removed it, and cut a spot for the STi bumper vents.  

On the STi the vents are facing the other way.  But I opted to mount it facing the other way.  I am no professional aero engineer… but it looked cool and made sense to me..

I messed up the cut on the bumper, so I had to hide it with the vinyl.  Its an experiment, so I will stare at it for awhile and see how I like it.  

Every since I removed the battery and cleaned up the engine bay, I had always wanted to get rid of the L bend in the Injen cold air intake.  And the red silicone always annoyed me. 

I transformed the injen intake to this with a few pieces from amazon.  Much more pleasing to the eye, and my simple logic says that a straight flow into the engine is much better then the L..

Next project was to finally fill up the hole in my roof from removing the sunroof.  I could have bought a standard oversized piece and riveted it to the roof. But I really did not want to put holes in the roof.

I got a piece of aluminum and traced the sunroof glass ..

I found some small 2 inch L brackets and self tapped them to the flaps on the sunroof hole in the roof.  

After a few minutes of trimming it sat flush….

Once it was sitting in the hole properly, the edges were a little rough.  While driving like this the roof insert was loud, and vibrated pretty bad at idle.  

I got some rubber form trim to go around it, and it acted like a seal and also absorbed alot of the vibration and movement.  

Done for now, its not water tight, but it is much much better than what I had before.  In the future I will probably re do it and make it a little smaller so it sits flat, its hard to tell it photos but its a little warped.  

I also installed the Mazdaspeed front lip back on.  I thought I liked the car without it but it looks much better with it..