It's my daily, gas is too expensive... first car Ive "customized"

I'm not really working towards anything

Just livening up my daily drive

Always owned an old caddy and wanted to see how a small car felt...



^First time I waxed the car about 1.5 years ago, with the old 205/40/17s on it.

Funny story, went to get new rubber at Crappy tire, they told me 225/45/17s would not fit...

Thanks to the good people at this site...

I had never been more sure of anything in my life...

I said put em on, roll it into a spot outside, and I'll take it from there



This pic has the new General Exclaims on it, that ahem, have no rubbing issues...what so ever...

What you can see of the exhaust is just a Magnaflow tip

No muffler, just a "turbopack" off the cat and then 2.5 out the back, sounds good




I know I will lose some people right here for 2 reasons...

My original plan was to go all black, but then I broke down and went 2-tone

And yes...its a suckomatic...the deal I got on this car was unpassuppable, you have to understand...

Its not set in stone so no worries, as long as the world doesn't run out of manuals trans and paint I'm good




Parking brake handle and lower dash have yet to be painted




I know I'm missing the seat belt mount covers in this pic, they were lost during the chaos and later found.




And yes...she has the shiny pipe upgrade

e-bay intake with a K&N 3 inch clamp-on



Still have not decided on what colour to do the valve cover, gloss/flat black? suggestions?

If the pics werent so small you could see that I have black wire loomed the heck out of everything




I would like to focus more on maintenance, and building up the engine, when time and money permit



I think the exterior is done for my tastes, as far as mods go, maybe in the future evil eyes, shave the antenna and a drop

If I ever get a manual dropped in ...to make dropping the cash worth while...

Comments welcome, criticism somewhat expected haha

I like, I think ur off to a great start. I actually like the 2 tone interior. I have been a fan of painted interiors. If done right I should say. Im not fond of the texture look on the interior, I like the smooth look, but if thats what you like then hey go for it! So nothing but good job from me! Ive actually got a white vert with the white interior, and Im going to be doing something similar to your interior, but swap the tones on the doors/rear panels. I would say tho grab some 02 LSS front and rear lips and side skirts and that will set the car off exterior wise. Also, what rims are those, Im really liking the white on them, SOOOO I may start looking for some like that Keep up the good work, and get some bigger pics up!!!!!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Tuesday, August 10, 2010 1:42 AM

I love that white wheels are making a comeback, but damnit, they must be a pain to keep clean! You're off to a good start. I hate the interior, but I'm not a fan of painted interiors at all, unless you do something with the red speckle seats and door panels to tie the black/white scheme (seat covers, etc.). Get your hand on an LS Sport or Wings West lip kit and some lowering springs and it'll look 100 times better



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Very nice, loves me some stockish looks.

get window tint and a drop asap and maybe a couple black window banners then it will look much cleaner....... crappy tire says the tires wont fit cause it voids the warranty on the tires if the tires are not what is listed in the book for that particular car. i can't say i like the intirior but meh it's your car.. just looks to tacky and if you paint the ebreak handle it'll be even worse.... what i would say to help ya out is don't paint the center vents white get stock vents and put in there, on the passenger side paint the trim around the vent and loose the white glove box that would clean it up some. but thats just my $0.02

Mike Z A.K.A SNEEZY wrote:I like, I think ur off to a great start. I actually like the 2 tone interior. I have been a fan of painted interiors. If done right I should say. Im not fond of the texture look on the interior, I like the smooth look, but if thats what you like then hey go for it! So nothing but good job from me!

Thanks! I left the texture because I could not imagine sanding all those pieces, If I did one, I would have to do them all

If/when I do it again I definitely would sand them smooth

Mike Z A.K.A SNEEZY wrote:Ive actually got a white vert with the white interior, and Im going to be doing something similar to your interior, but swap the tones on the doors/rear panels.

..MmMmMm white vert...

That will definitely look really good, the contrast of black and white really catches the eye

I enjoy resting my arm on the door sill, so I assigned that black and went from there, but I think it looks good both ways

Mike Z A.K.A SNEEZY wrote:I would say tho grab some 02 LSS front and rear lips and side skirts and that will set the car off exterior wise.

Yeah can't say I'm a huge fan of the front.. When it starts bothering me enough I will do something about it

Mike Z A.K.A SNEEZY wrote:Also, what rims are those, Im really liking the white on them, SOOOO I may start looking for some like that

Bought these rims with tires, used off kijiji

The center caps have Ikon printed on them, but that means nothing

I will recheck when its light, but on the actual rims, it just says made in japan, and the bolt patterns

Mike Z A.K.A SNEEZY wrote: Keep up the good work, and get some bigger pics up!!!!!!

Yeah sorry about the tiny pics, I had to snag the thumbs off my cardomain

Will try to get bigger pics, as well as some better shots of the rims, exhaust, and side views

98z24ragtop wrote:I love that white wheels are making a comeback, but damnit, they must be a pain to keep clean!

I love them, and I would say they are decently hard to keep clean, but not as hard as I thought they would be

The key is to clean them really good, wax them like you would the body, and then keep giving them a wipe every now and then

Dirt comes right off, and you have to get some high quality ceramic pads, or your fronts will be black soon.

98z24ragtop wrote:You're off to a good start. I hate the interior, but I'm not a fan of painted interiors at all, unless you do something with the red speckle seats and door panels to tie the black/white scheme (seat covers, etc.).

Yeah the interior is by no means finished, I loathe the red speckle

I'm waiting for someone in my area to wreck their camaro so I can have the seats haha

And I need to find someone, or teach myself how to recover the door inserts...

98z24ragtop wrote: Get your hand on an LS Sport or Wings West lip kit and some lowering springs and it'll look 100 times better

Hmm I would love a lip, but I think with the drop alone I will be in trouble in the winter...

So if I have to choose lip or drop, I will opt for the suspension upgrade.

core (strmtrooper) wrote:Very nice, loves me some stockish looks.

Thanks, to quote someone on this site, The slightly modified stock look is definitely in.

clean fire, workin the contrast too I see, looks good

Kyle Phillips wrote:get window tint and a drop asap and maybe a couple black window banners then it will look much cleaner.......

Already decided against the window tint, the cops here love to use that as a reason to pull you over, for "seat belt checks"

I got enough random heat in the deville growing up, they leave me alone in the cavy for the most part.

So I would like to keep it that way, I enjoy getting to work on time haha

I'm to cheap to drop it, maybe if I win a small lottery or get a good tax return next year.

Kyle Phillips wrote:crappy tire says the tires wont fit cause it voids the warranty on the tires if the tires are not what is listed in the book for that particular car.

*warning* long tire buying story ahead



See that's what I assumed, I sadly came to the conclusion that for what I wanted, Canadian tire was the cheapest place for tires...

So I go in, not expecting much, go over to the tire center, walk up to the counter, turns out the sales rep is the the older brother of a girl I went to high school with, so I'm thinking thank god, I'm dealing with a real person now.

After shootin the sh!t I asked em, about doing aftermarket rims with stick on weights and what not, and he assures me they deal with them all the time, which I believe to be true, so then I break the news, I say, now the tires I want aren't the size that are on the car now, nor are they what its says in the door jam, can I still get them installed here?...and his face goes kinda blank, he says, you dont have 22s or somthing do you?(had not mentioned the car yet) I say no no, just 17s and he says yeah, that's no problem, so he rain checks me up some 225/45/17s

I get a call some time later that they are in, so I take off my wheel locks, my aluminum valve caps and my center caps(no trust) and head on down to crappy tire... so I, with a pit in my stomach, hand my keys over to these "professionals". I had always done my tires myself in the schools shop, even after graduating haha, helps when you get in tight with the auto teacher.

So I'm hanging out in the parking lot, and I get a call from C-tire, its not my buddy, but the monkey that is installing my tires, after conversing a bit he asks to meet me at the corner of the shop. I go over and he comes around the corner, after introductions he says can I smoke while I talk to you? I reply positively, and he lights one up and says alright here's the situation, the tires you got...are to big, you got oodles of room in the back, but these are going to touch in the front...

Now I don't have stupid written on my forehead and knew damn well they would fit, I had seen the tires on the same car as mine with my own eyes time and time again, not to mention the research I obviously did before having tires ordered.

So I said put em on, roll it into a spot outside, and I'll take it from there.

He says well actually the reason why I wanted to talk to you is, well how attached are you to these rims? I'm thinking, where the f@#k is he going with this? I say I guess you could say I'm fairly "attached". He says well, and now I'm not aloud to do this, that's why I asked to talk to you out here...but you see that truck over there? I just sold my cavalier and bought that thing. He then proceeds to list a bunch of mods that didn't impress me, and says I still have a set of 17 inch rims with BASICALLY new Generals on them, that are actually the correct size you need, which is 215/45/17...

I immediately turn his soliciting down, he then goes through different scenarios of my switching the tires to my rims and selling his yada yada yada, I didn't like the situation, and wanted my crispy new 225/45 Generals like I had been planning, so I restated my thesis...he says ok but they wont warranty the tire if a flat is caused by sub-frame/fender rub and I says that's fine, they wont rub anyways.

We walk back out front of the shop and I keep walking and I hear one of the other stooges yell, still putting on the 225s? and he says yup, the other guy says really??..

So yeah, to summarize Canadian tire is not a performance shop, they hire grease balls, and 225/45/17 will not rub on your stock cav.

and as far as I know my tire/flat warranty is still intact but we will see what happens if I ever try to exercise it.

Kyle Phillips wrote:i can't say i like the intirior but meh it's your car.. just looks to tacky and if you paint the ebreak handle it'll be even worse....

The e-brake handle is dark gray, and everything else is black and white, it sticks out like a sore thumb.

The only reason its not painted, is because it doesn't come off easily, and spraying items in place in the car is tedious and lame

Kyle Phillips wrote:what i would say to help ya out is don't paint the center vents white get stock vents and put in there, on the passenger side paint the trim around the vent and loose the white glove box that would clean it up some. but thats just my $0.02

The dark gray vents would stick out because my dash pad is gloss black and my bezel is gloss white

No returning any interior to stock, unless I do the whole thing, and sell it.

I could paint the vents black, but I have already envisioned that, and I prefer white.

Agree with you on the glove box, It will probably go black with the lower dash.

Worst Color combination i have ever seen...period.