OTHELLO — Jessica Preciado’s car is pretty much like she wants it. More or less. Of course, it still needs some work. A cool car usually needs some work.

“I can’t say this car will ever be 100% done,” she said. “I’ll see where it goes.”

The 2003 Mazda Protege has had a lot of work done already - a new wheel setup, engine modifications, a modified suspension, among other things.

“I have started a list, but I lost track,” she said.

Preciado does all the work herself, and she wants other girls who like the idea of a cool car to know they can do it too.

The number of car shows in eastern Washington on any given spring, summer or fall weekend, and the entries they attract, are a testament to the popularity of cool cars with girls and guys alike. But most of the time guys are working on the cars, even if it’s girls driving them.

“I think it’s just such a male-dominated thing,” Preciado said.

And the details that make a cool car, the things that catch attention, won’t necessarily be the same for girls and guys.

“It’s just different,” she said. “You see the car and (say), ‘Okay, that’s cool,’ but you can’t really relate as much.”

Her boyfriend Genaro Silva owns a 1999 Mazda that’s been a work in progress for a decade, and she got interested in making her car cooler, she said. But she wanted to do it herself.

“I want to do something, I want my car to look cool, but I want to do it my way,” she said.

She learned a little about cars from her dad, she said, who taught her how to change the oil.

“He told us, ‘when you’re older, as a woman you need to know these things,’” she said.

But her knowledge of engines, suspension systems, exhaust systems, wheel packages - all the things that make a cool car - was limited. So she went out looking for what she needed to know.

“Definitely a lot of online research, talking to people,” she said.

And over time she discovered there was an almost infinite number of modifications she could make.

“You can add things,” she said of the process of working on her car. “That made it a lot more interesting, a lot more fun.

“I do love the car very much, though. I did get into it because of how fun it was to work on it,” she said.

“I think it’s just like how girls will do their hair,” she said of the appeal of working on the car. “You can see your work, you can see the progress you’re putting into it, and then you get to drive it around.”

Her interest in cars got her sister Amanda Preciado interested in fixing up her Honda CRX, as well as others among their family and friends.

“We work on (the cars) together,” Jessica said. “We meet up at the shop, between all of us.”

Preciado has been working on the Mazda for six or seven years, and it’s evolved into a car that’s pretty cool, at least as far as its owner is concerned. She’s also worked on a little scooter as part of the package. It rides along on a platform attached to the back bumper when the car is at a show or in a parade.

For the July 4 parade, the car got a red, white and blue bow on the front grill, and for the Othello Christmas Miracle on Main Street evening parade, it was decked out in lights.

The Mazda still has a ways to go, of course; for one thing, its paint job isn’t quite right. The Mazda is white with magnolia blossoms running down both sides. But the blossoms are a decal rather than painted on, and Preciado said she wants to change that.

“That is in the plan, to paint it,” she said.

The car gets a lot of attention from girls when it’s on display at a car show or in a parade, she said.

“They (say), ‘That car is so pretty,’” she said.

Which shows ladies what they can do to their own cars, and then drive them around, she said.

“That starts a conversation with someone,” Perciado said.

That chance to show girls and women what’s possible, she said, is one of the most enjoyable things about owning and displaying it.

“Especially when you see a little girl walk by, and they (say), ‘Oh my gosh, a girl owns that car.’ And I (say), “Yeah, and you can do it too,’” she said.

Cheryl Schweizer may be reached at [email protected].