View Full Version : Minor Mods
I am looking into installing minor mods in my car. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Also does anyone have any clue on how to install an IAT Mod? I'd rather have someone who knows how to install it do so than hand my car over to my dad.
Do you think I should keep with the yokhama's ?
Cat88Extreme
02-03-2003, 07:28 PM
Sarah, what are going for, performance, suspension, or cosmetic mods. If performance of course you have the first three always suggested: inake\exhaust\headers (or poor man's headers/gutting precats), and then SVT UIM and TB. If suspension route then get springs, front strut bar, rear strut bar, rear sway bar, and struts. Unless you plan to run high octane fuel don't do the IAT mod since your engine will ping if you don't use higher octane fuel (which is very expensive right now). As far as tires go, I do know you can get Kumho Ecsta Supra or Kumho Ecsta MX for a pretty reasonable price and will have a very good tire (summer only). If cosmetic and you want to keep it simple yet cheap you can always buy a full Visteon kit from PuckPuck (can be installed in your driveway easily and taken off for winter), graphics, painting parts in the engine bay/interior (dash/etc), pedal covers, indiglo or white face gauges, redoing your interior panels in a different color fabric along with the headliner, etc, etc.
You really need to be a little more specific in what you want to do and how much money you plan to spend.
Well I want to modify my car some way. I really dont want to invest in a body kit since I use my car for work a lot. (If I got a second car then I would think about it.) I am currently working on a custom paint job, done by me (i purchased a hood that I am currently practicing on). When its finished I will let you know what it will be or maybe have you all have a look for yourself. :)
Right now I dont have mego bucks to blow on my car but I want to do some minor stuff. My dad just gave me an Idea of putting a dragon on the underside of my hood. Doesnt sound bad uh? Then you mentioned strut bar and I could paint that and put a dragon crawling up the side of it.
I know it sounds like I am talking out my @ss but hey I want to make my car pretty is some way... well not just pretty but unique
Heres what I currently have:
Hood neons,
sound system,
head and tail light covers,
clear side markers,
subs
cd player/ changer
dragon seat covers,
window decal...
Yeah its not much but its a start huh.. dad was trying to talk me into turbo charger but my car is up there in miles and would probably just blow and I couldnt afford that either.
So if anyone has any suggestions I would take them into consideration..
Thanks for listen/reading..
Latta
Cat88Extreme
02-04-2003, 01:50 AM
Well if I were you I would do an intake and a custom exhaust (I'm partial to the custom exhaust since I did it and love it, especialy for the money savings (PM me if you want the how to)). You should be able to do those two for around $300. Then I would start changing things like the interior colors and engine bay colors to go with your dragon theme. Maybe a dragon graphic on your car like this. (http://www.vinzdecals.com/cgi-bin/advanced/sidestripe.pl?id=G0595)
FastAzzCougar
02-04-2003, 05:50 AM
A really easy- cheap mod is custom mesh grill insert. takes ten minutes and is ultra cheap. just purchase an aluminum mesh gutter drain cover from home depot ((1.29)) and whatever colored spray paint you want it to be. Cu the mesh into the shape of the front grill and paint it.. then attach it to the front of your grill using zip cords (black so it's harder to see) you can *CAREFULLY* remove the cougar logo with a screwdriver and reinstall it over top the mesh with double sided 3m tape. It looks nice and it's easy to do. i left my cougar emblem off because i'm going to remove all the badging eventually.
FastAzzCougar
02-04-2003, 05:52 AM
Also, you can change your dome light color by buying colored lights at pepboy's or gel covers at AutoZone ((cheaper)) and you can chane your trunk light, glove box light and if legal in your area- your reverse lights!
OSUStallion
02-04-2003, 01:03 PM
I wouldnt recommend doing the IAT mod. From what I hear it tricks the engine to thinking that the air is colder than it is and the engine coolent temp is cooler than it really is. Constantly driving around like this cant be a good thing.
Cheep easy mods. Cover your door panels. Tail light covers if you dont have them. Fixing your front head light :wink; Interior neons, diamond plate mats.
Front head light isnt broken.. oh wait are you talking about the headlight cover? That got fixed when the door got replaced.
And how do I cover my door panels?
Whats some mods you have done?
Oh yeah I have another question, has anyone had their cougar echecked with the check engine light on? Does it effect anything? (I have like a month before I have to get it echecked.) I dont want them failing me last moment cause of a stupid sensor.
Madcat
02-04-2003, 01:41 PM
Also on the grill mesh, you can just trim around the cougar emblem which is what I did and it looks food too. I just didnt want to pry the emblem off and cut around it, pretty simple with a small pair of scissors. Also I think for the money this might be the best looking cosmetic mod out there!
LinkMan
02-04-2003, 04:34 PM
Cosmetic mods are the way to go for inexpensive.
The gutter guard grill is a great cheap mod. Recovering the door panels in different cloth is cheap too. Interior neons if you like that type of thing aren't too expensive. Paint your accent color under the hood, like the Duratech black plastic cover, the fuse box cover, if you keep the stock air box, you can paint that. Little touches like that go a long way to making the car unique. If you are up to disassembling your dash or console, you can paint that.
Performance mods are hard to do cheap. Engine mods cheapest is probably open element air intake. Custom exhaust sounds great and enhances the intake, but it's not inexpensive.
$100 for a front strut tower brace. Rear strut tower brace too, but I don't know the price off the top of my head. You can install those yourself w/ just a drill. $120 + install (or mod meet) for Roush springs and lower that bad Kitty.
If the tire wear is good on the Yoko's, I'd keep them. You are not going to find year round tires for less than a $100 a tire I'd bet. The Kumho's are nice, but definitely summer only, so you end up having to have two sets.
HTH