high school car show Options

[jt_3212]

alright well I'm new to the site and have had my 97 Gt hatch for about a year now. i've done very few things to it besides a small sound system and some lights hooked up throughout the car. all of you seem very helpful and i have my high school car show coming up soon. i'm poor haha. so i'm trying to keep things cheap but if you have any mods you would recommend for me to at least start a little buzz about the car that would be nice. i'm more looking for styling as i drive just for economy but if you have some performance ideas that are fairly reasonable that would be cool too. i'm also kind of inexperienced so obviously i'm not going to throw a 3s gte engine in there anytime soon. so just looking for ideas! i'll put up pics soon! Thanks!

[joehernandez]

welcome to the site,,,
when is your high school car show?

[jt_3212]

thanks! its in about a month and a half.

[j0e_p3t]

get some rims and lowering springs. they're both styling and performance upgrades.

[Supersprynt]

Claybar, wax & polish.

[Tigawoods]

throw a test pipe on there an make it speak up a lil...haha

[D-Man]

after reading your prof. It seems that your doing a blue theme as well... I'd go buy some nice paint and paint all of your inserts and buy matching seat/floor mats. Stering wheel cover too if you can afford. That'll set you back like 50-70 bucks but be a big "Eye Catcher" Also, change all of your lighting to blue as well.

Get busy with how to mod your car here:

http://www.6gc.net/howto

And search threads for other mods. Search memembers rides for what you's will look like after you do whatever you plan to do.

Good Luck!!

[DEATH]

You could spend about $100 and really make the car look different like D-Man said. If you can afford it a drop and some nice rims would be a big change with benifits.

[Supersprynt]

Honestly, I cringe thinking about what it would look like with blue seat covers, blue steering wheel cover, blue paint everywhere and blue floor mats. It just ricetastic.

[6gsillyca]

Honestly, I cringe thinking about what it would look like with blue seat covers, blue steering wheel cover, blue paint everywhere and blue floor mats. It just ricetastic.

I would have to agree with this. Don't go overboard trying to match interior/exterior colors. Have you guys ever seen in some of the older toyotas (90s supra, corolla). Some had "matching" red interiors, and if you've ever seen them then you would know that there is such a thing as too much matching...

Do as Super already said, give it a good wash (claybar if you want) and a nice wax with maybe a coat of ntx and a coat of something harder (like yellow 26). That should really bring out the shine.

This post has been edited by 6gsillyca: Mar 25, 2008 - 11:40 AM

[lagos]

Honestly, I cringe thinking about what it would look like with blue seat covers, blue steering wheel cover, blue paint everywhere and blue floor mats. It just ricetastic.

Agreed. Some people just go overboard. They pick one color and then paint every single thing in sight. It looks terrible.

[D-Man]

lol, i wasn't talking about opening the door and spraying the can

Just the inserts, you gotta have at least 2 colors for a theme. lol. (i could imagine opening the door and everything is blue, the carpet, the headliner, even blue tint on the mirrors )

Yeah, DONT do that!! I was just talking about some trim. IMO if you do some inserts, you need to move the color around a bit. Otherwise it just looks tacky. You don't need to coat your interior, but at least accent it well.

This post has been edited by D-Man: Mar 25, 2008 - 11:59 AM

[_mikeE]

Lower it w/ some springs, axleback exhaust (weld on muffler), and some rims should do the job.

[D-Man]

common guys, this kid just said he aint got much money. Ya'll are talking about rims (Several hundred or more dollars) and body drops (not too expensive; but alot of work trying to just prepare for a show) i say you paint.

That's also IMO. What i'd do trying to prepare a quick trick. fast easy and affordable

But then again, some of theese guys would have it on boost; bagged, and juiced in a month

[96bluevert]

Honestly, I cringe thinking about what it would look like with blue seat covers, blue steering wheel cover, blue paint everywhere and blue floor mats. It just ricetastic.

Hey! I have blue floor mats/steering wheel cover and seat covers and it's not ricy at all IMO. Of course they are also a mixture of blue and black, plus nothing's painted inside

But I do agree, just a little blue here and there to add a nice touch to the interior would look really good.

[D-Man]

wait; first an edit to my last post. Unless your wasting your money on lowering coils, than to upgrade your suspension to handle a decent sized drop is going to be several hundred dollars as well.

BlueVert, i think i've seen your interior somewhere... Didnt you post it in a thread? I believe it looked pretty good... Or maybe that was someone elses....

[GriffGirl]

I haven't looked at your profile yet but I agree with Supersprynt on this... pay close attention to the details. Make everything under the hood shine really nicely too. If you're going for a theme and haven't painted the valve cover yet, that's a great and inexpensive way to carry over the theme. Painted calipers, I'd go for painted trim in the interior but I wouldn't go super crazy with making everything blue inside either. All in all though I think making the car super clean will be the most impressive factor. Remember that people like shiny stuff!

[D-Man]

lol, yes people are attracted to shine.

Armorall. Clean that car man, clean it!!

[jt_3212]

alright cool thanks guys. i do have a blue theme and i have blue and black seat covers with a matching steering wheel cover but i haven't thought about mats yet, and i need some.haha i agree alot of blue would look tacky but you think if i just painted like the removable trim it would look nice? if i did is there a certain paint and technipue i should use? if there is a thread to this let me know. as much as i'd like to throw some rims on there its just too much money. i can spend about a hundred if not a little more. but thanks guys i appreciate all of your help.

[DEATH]

There is a very detailed thread here somewhere as well as several discussions on how to do it cheaply, easily and quickly [which is the opposite of correctly but honestly if you clean them well the result will be the same].
$100 can go a little or a long way towards making that car stand out. I'd say research alot before you spend a dime.

[monkey]

^^^ well put ^^^

[96bluevert]

BlueVert, i think i've seen your interior somewhere... Didnt you post it in a thread? I believe it looked pretty good... Or maybe that was someone elses....

lol..don't think it was mine, I might have posted a picture like a year ago, but most are exterior for my pics. I should do that next photoshoot You can see my seat covers (sort of) in my sig, not too much blue.

I agree w/ griffgirl, you should think about some cheap dress up for under the hood too (paint valve cover,relay box cover, and stock front strut bar if you have one). And of course clean it all up while you're in there..

edit: this is what I'm kind of talking about, nice and clean and simple...


This post has been edited by 96bluevert: Mar 25, 2008 - 2:51 PM

[CelicaBuddy]

Looks like you gotta buncha ideas covered buuuuuut... haha reminds me when i put my car in my HS car show a couple years back...

Kids brought in theyre rich parent's souped up cars and obviously won whatever contest there was to be won. There were quite a few people upset about that because here's me who actually bought the car myself, and put in all this work, but then some rich lil prick comes along and brings daddy's Ford GT

Only in high school I tell ya... lol Well anyways GOOD LUCK and have fun!

This post has been edited by CelicaBuddy: Mar 25, 2008 - 4:13 PM

[DippedInSauce]

im in high school.. i only have 1 mod (gt-four riser blocks)... they seem to do the job IMO.

i get alot of attention from the blocks

[D-Man]

we all remember my story from when i was in high school and i didn't like a rich kid

i still see that referenced in forums from time to time...

[6strngs]

I'd paint the stock wheels black and paint the calipers. then some interior paint if you're into that sort of thing. very little money spent, but a huge improvement. see my profile for pics of black alloy wheels.

[Zelstin]

Step 1. Color themed interior (Check out my profile)

Step 2. Paint Calipers and rims

Step 3. Wash and Wax

Step 4. Go through your school parking lot the day before the show and spray paint all the cars that still look better than your celica

[jt_3212]

^^^i like that idea haha.
and cool. sounds like you guys got me going in the right direction and i'll put up some pics of the progress. so thanks!

[goferris]

we need to see some pics of the car b4 you do anything too drastic. LOL
this is what i'm planning on doing on my car which would end up looking very similar.
buy some high heat paint and Paint the valve cover red or blue and paint the calipers red or blue.
paint you interior panels a light silver similar to the SSIII

if you paint your rims i would suggest a gunmetal over black. or you could do it like pittfirefighter has his rims (looks really good IMO)

some few cheap mods i've already done
this shift boot
a 7th gen short shifter kit like this
a TRD shift ball fromt first toyota parts for like $20

then toothbrush clean everything. maybe get some of those EL Glow gauges or something if you are into that. otherwise get some nice LEDs in your gauges from culpable.

[jt_3212]

alright cool, as soon as i get my camera back i'll put them up.

[D-Man]

PADDLE SHIFTERS!!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/M3-SMG-SHIF...sspagenameZWDVW

[jt_3212]

haha if only they worked. not that i could do that either though.

[D-Man]

They dont, it's all for show. But your trying to show right? i want one, just for color accent.

[jt_3212]

yeah i figured they wouldn't work but that does look cool. adds a little custom flare to it. haha is it hard to put an aftermarket steering wheel on?