Hey guys im 15, kinda well really young to be on a forum but i bough my first car the other day and its a red 2003 sunfire. hope to learn some things here and cant weight to hopefull get to know some of you. I have already removed the back wing and hope to do the front bumper soon. (also i don't plan on putting any other wing on)
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well you definatly got a good start, welcome.
Welcome to The JBO! It definitely sounds like you're off to a great start by removing the spoiler! Keep it clean and simple
.
Thanks guys, any suggestions for some easy more or less "mods" or changes i can do while im short on cash. i plan on making the front mesh black, making the front symbol black instead of read, and hopefully get either a carbon fiber trunk piece between the taillights and or painting it black as-well. and hopefully some lower mesh inside the bottom vents of the front bumper. most of that will be cheep and easy.
Well you could start with a intake and header.. then as far as ur mods id leave the symbol red or just remove it, the mesh sounds ok, and you could paint the trunk bezel black then get you a can of VHT nite shades and tint ur taillights to match....and a few things i would do (its your car you do what you like) but i would strip that molding off the sides(butyou got alot more than i had and your side skirts are kinda made into your molding) and tint ur marker/blinker lights amber or use the vht and shade them too...and heres a few pics if u wanna get a idea of what some of the mods would look like..
Old pic but IMO it looks cleaner ( this is how it would look if u striped urs and put regular skirts on)
I know our trunk bezels are diff. but this is kinda what it would look like if you blacked it all out (and as u can see mine is also spoiler-less but mine never had a spoiler..and i give you props for going ahead and taking urs off) i
I am ordering a eBay intake and hopefully make my own custom soon, doing the back trunk bezel black would be way cheaper. And my symbol is faded bad so I was gunna have it black and silver untill I get a new one.
Daniel Cooper wrote:and a few things i would do (its your car you do what you like) but i would strip that molding off the sides(butyou got alot more than i had and your side skirts are kinda made into your molding)
FYI that won't work on 1995-2002 Sunfire GTs and 2003-2005 Sunfires. There are about 16 holes under the side skirts and door panels. They're not held on with double sided tape like the side moldings on your Sunfire were
.
One idea that comes to my mind immediately is to color match the outer mirrors and door handles. This will make a big difference in the overall exterior appearance of the car and it can be done for pretty cheap either on your own or professionally.
Painting the front grilles black can be done for cheap using spray paint. I have also seen people use
PlastiDip with great results. PlastiDip would also work well for painting the trunk bezel.
If you're wanting to do mesh in the front bumper cover openings, I suggest using masonry mesh from Home Depot, Menard's, etc. I used this stuff in the front bumper cover openings of my former 2002 Sunfire GT years ago. It's cheap, very durable, easy to shape and best of all, it's galvanized so it won't rust even if you don't paint it. I painted mine black and it looked amazing, but it also looked amazing unpainted (see below). It can be easily held in place with zip ties, silicone, etc.
Check out
Grafx Werks for high quality vinyl overlays for your faded arrowhead badge.
Another cheap, easy mod you may want to consider is
clear side marker lights. Again, these will drastically change the exterior appearance for little money and install time. The ones I linked to will replace the front and/or rear side marker lights.
One last thing, I see you're missing your antenna. I would suggest replacing it with a shortened version. I had this 8" one on my 2002 Sunfire GT...
I simply cut down the stock antenna to 8" using a hacksaw and then put a black rubber cap on the end. This mod is practically free and looks so much better than the huge antenna sticking up or a missing one for that matter
.
Let me know if you have any more questions or anything.
Thanks man, the antenna was inside the car when ever i took my pictures and i painted the front grilles today with some flat black paint and turned out way nicer than i was hopping for. il post pictures up tomorrow. as for body color matching the door handles and what not i was actually going to go for a black and red mach up of colors i might touch them up with a better more black paint then the almost charcoal color they are. i will hopefully cut down my antenna tomorrow thanks for that idea. i also planed on getting some of the clear side markers and or doing them myself. i also cut a (insert real name here) " the black plastic piece above the front bumper and in front of the motor." from a cavalier and made it fit the sunfire. it looks better to me. hopefully doing custom exhaust and intake soon.
J TO ENVY wrote: Daniel Cooper wrote:and a few things i would do (its your car you do what you like) but i would strip that molding off the sides(butyou got alot more than i had and your side skirts are kinda made into your molding)
FYI that won't work on 1995-2002 Sunfire GTs and 2003-2005 Sunfires. There are about 16 holes under the side skirts and door panels. They're not held on with double sided tape like yours were.
Hmm well i didnt know that..lol thanks for correcting me..lol
J TO ENVY wrote: I simply cut down the stock antenna to 8" using a hacksaw and then put a black rubber cap on the end. This mod is practically free and looks so much better than the huge antenna sticking up or a missing one for that matter
I did the same thing except i used a bench grinder and put a point on mine..haha
Just a shameless reason to post a pic...
Black filler pannel and some VHT Nightshades on the tails.
thanks, when that front bumper gets painted the whole car will look nicer.
i still think those blinkers would look awsome amber or blacked out
il do some picture color editing on that to see what it looks like
also i sorta want to get some paint and to the front bumper first cause that will make it look better than anything right now.
Alex Meyers wrote:Thanks man
You'ver welcome, but FYI... I'm a girl
!
Alex Meyers wrote:also i sorta want to get some paint and to the front bumper first cause that will make it look better than anything right now.
That's an excellent idea! It's better to fix what's wrong with it first, then start on mods
.
Alex Meyers wrote:
also i sorta want to get some paint and to the front bumper first cause that will make it look better than anything right now.
is the paint just flaking off the whole front bumper or just a few spots?
Well, Nice J and welcome. Need any help here, don't mind asking. Glad you are going to get the front bumper fixed first.
Welcome to the forums and congrads on your first car, im assuming? You said you were buying an ebay intake? I would suggest buying a universal K&N or AEM or other brand name filter of your choice, the ones include are usually garbage... Theres not really a whole lot of performance/handling stuff that can be done super cheap or anything, some stuff, you will have to save up and do it right, Theres some appearance stuff that can be done cheap or free. de badging, painting lights, etc...
2000 Cavalier Z24 5spd - Intake, Dynomax muffler, Hawk Pads, Powerslot rotors, Sportlines/Koni reds, Neon Coil, MSD 8.5 Wires - **SOLD**
2014 Kia Forte Koup SX 6spd - 1.6L Turbo - My new car
2015 Kia Sorento EX V6 AWD - Wifes Car
i back out on the intake from ebay, just going to get a good one. i cut down my antenna today and haft to say it came out pretty good. instead of capping the top i grounded it down to make it round on the end. i am planning to make my own strut support bar over the course of the week since i don't have allot of home time. also got new turn signal bulbs today since mine were white
-_-
I would cover the holes in the trunk somehow for now, until you can have a body shop fill them in properly.
2010 Honda Fit LX
i have plastic plugs in them from ace atm. and i have all the materials to do it myself. i helped in de-winging a 1996 saturn sc2 so i have an idea for what im going to haft to do.
I got an ebay intake pipe I bought off a guy local with no filter, then bought a new k&n filter, nothing wrong with the intake pipe, just a piece of painted metal, just get a good filter, k&n was $40 at a local parts store, probably cheaper online or in the US... You can buy a brand name intake but will yeild the same results this route, it will save you some money to invest elsewhere too.....
2000 Cavalier Z24 5spd - Intake, Dynomax muffler, Hawk Pads, Powerslot rotors, Sportlines/Koni reds, Neon Coil, MSD 8.5 Wires - **SOLD**
2014 Kia Forte Koup SX 6spd - 1.6L Turbo - My new car
2015 Kia Sorento EX V6 AWD - Wifes Car
