Who here always has the compulsion to modify his/her car?

Ive thought of doing a VQ35 swap, supercharging my car, gutting it for track use, tranny swap... you name it. Have I done any of those? Nope! 1) tight budget and 2) realized that its still a boat so mods would be pointless. My next car however... muhahaha
 
Guilty as charged. Every time I go to test-drive a car, I start a list of what to mod when I get my hands on it, usually suspension and exhaust. It's almost never anything cosmetic, though...most cars I look at look good enough as they are.
 
Well, I've come from an older, sort-of-alright car, now that I have a very clean, very good car, I want to leave it the hell alone!
 
I have always wanted to but it's always been a little pointless on a 8-year old lameboat with 250,000 miles like my Avalon.
Oh and now I'm driving my Dad's '97 Explorer because he stole my Avalon (Better gas mileage for a salesman with a 3-state region).
Always wanted to do coilovers/anti-roll bars, rims/tires, but really, it wouldn't do much to the pretty mediocre Avalon.
Wish I could have my mom's Benz, though.
That would be fun to mod a little.
 
I have the compulsion, but not the funds.

Also everything I want to do is performance based, I still want the car to look as stock as it did out of the factory.
 
Oh I have the compulsion alright. I have gotten better rotors (cross drilled) and pads already. This week is likely to be APR upgrade Stage 1 (170/166 to 215/245 is no joke yo).
To Do (very slowly):
Tinted Windows
17/18 inch wider wheels (BLACK damnit!!)
Sports shocks and springs
Probably a thicker swaybar for the rear.
Exhaust and a split intercooler (EU spec)

Other than that I would like better seats and a manual but either a swap or trading it in is too much $$ :(
 
My bug could defiantly use a suspension change and being lightened at least a little. :<
 
The Tercel is just one of those cars that don't look good modified. Having that said, if it does become by "second car", I wouldn't mind ripping up the wheel covers and putting some search lights and a small pit bar in the front. (Yah, stupid, I know, but it's always been one of my desires to see how it would look)
 
Not a tiny bit, don't know why, but it just feels like such a waste of money. Of course, maybe I have wrong car for doing mods, I know I can't get it significantly faster, and none of the invested money would come back when selling it. The only mods I have are stiffer anti-roll bars (from turbo version) and smaller steering wheel (again from turbo). The latter I got by accident when leather on mine worn off, so I bought a new wheel, which was cheaper than fixing current. Ok, I have turbo transmission as well, but that's out of necessity, and it actually makes the car slower :)

I would consider upgrade part if original failed though. Like with brakes, when it was the time to change them, I got better ones, I wouldn't have changed still good brakes for the sake of upgrade though.

And doing mods for style is completely out of the question. Yes, I'm one of those. I'd rather have it ugly, but original.
 
For the case of my dad. Never before.
The most significant mods were:
1) Add an amp under the front passenger's seat
2) Tint the windows.

That's all ever happened to a man who loves his cars passionately. Well, with the brake dust problems we're getting on our BMW E90, we're going to change the rims to some AC Schnitzer 5 spokes in the near future, which we hope will allow the brake dust to be cleaned of much easier! :D
 
What i gather from this thread?

Alot of people seem to think modding their cars is cosmetic, sorry but i don't consider tinting the windows, custom paint, body kits to be mods at all
 
No, I don't mod my cars, I just try to restore them to prime condition and spend lotsomoney on parts.
My bike however is an entirely different matter. That has everything tuned, and I mean it. Everything I could find and do is on it.
 
The only two performance oriented mod I ever thought of doing was a S6 motor swap (the 2.2 turbo from 1995) and an adjustable suspension ... but just like so many other people in this thread, I didn't go through with it because of $$$.

Other smaller stuff I've thought about doing (all cosmetic):
*Black rims
*Dark window tint
*Homemade angel-eyes on the headlights

Never actually went through with anything though.
 
I haven't really found the need to change anything on my Cressida. The shocks are the only item that isn't stock since the original Toyota ones were really soft. It was just too slow to react to bumps, having such soft shocks on this car is unnecessary particularly since the car is very comfortable.
 
This thread is disappointing. Where are the serious modders at?

I can't help but modify everything I touch. Maybe its because I'm an engineer, but maybe I'm an engineer because it is my nature to modify things.:p

Stock is boring, there is always something that can be improved or personalized. Almost no car is "perfect" from the factory. The people that designed it had a huge market to consider and countless different tastes to satisfy, so the compromises they made were made with that in mind, not you in particular. For me, there is a lot on the comfort, noise, economy side of things that can be sacrificed for performance.

My car is completely superior to how it was when I got it. It rolled too much, pushed too much, looked far too plain, was far too quiet, and so on. I've built it up to be a very fun daily driver and to be a fast auto-x car.

Short list of the mods done:
Fiberglass WRC Replica Hood
17" Black Mesh Wheels
Kumho MX Tires
Cobb Intake
Group-A Throttle Body Spacer
Perrin Lightweight Crank Pulley
Exedy Stage 1 Clutch
Optima Red Top Battery
Tein Hood Dampers
IPD 22mm front and rear swaybars
KYB AGX Adjustable Shocks
Prodrive Springs
Borla Replica Headers
OBX Catback Exhaust
WRX Front Brakes, Slotted, with Hawk HPS Pads
H6 Rear Brakes, Slotted with Hawk HPS Pads
JDM STi Rear LSD
Kartboy Short Shifter with bushings
Prodrive Shift Knob
Pioneer Headunit and Polk Momo Speakers
Pioneer XM Tuner
And Many Small Things

And I still want to do these mods soon:
WRX Momo Steering Wheel
WRX Pedals
Center Gage Pack
24mm or bigger Front Swaybar and Endlinks
R-Comp Tires and Wheels to mount them on

And I'm not even going into my '89 Supra Turbo project I did.
 
This thread is disappointing. Where are the serious modders at?

I can't help but modify everything I touch. Maybe its because I'm an engineer, but maybe I'm an engineer because it is my nature to modify things.:p

Stock is boring, there is always something that can be improved or personalized. Almost no car is "perfect" from the factory. The people that designed it had a huge market to consider and countless different tastes to satisfy, so the compromises they made were made with that in mind, not you in particular. For me, there is a lot on the comfort, noise, economy side of things that can be sacrificed for performance.

The responses in this thread are surprisingly refreshing and interesting, esp coming from other car owner boards where car modification is almost expected (otherwise why the hell are you registered on those disucssion forums if you intend to do nothing to change your car).

But i've noticed a few patterns.

Those who have no interest in modding are:

1. overseas (european mostly) and that maybe just a cultural, cost issue, lack of garages/workspace to perform mods, lack of good accessible driving roads to take advantage of performance mods.

2. those who love watching and reading about high performance cars but own/drive cars that aren't really performance oriented or where spending money on mods will be very low yield and end up more with carbage that hurts resale/residual/tradein value, so again no motivation

Those who are interested in modding but don't:

1. mainly don't seem to have the money (too young, without own job or not big enough budget, still drive parent owned car and thus not really allowed to alter it, have other priorities)

2. again want to modify but does not own a car that has a good aftermarket selection of parts (or modding culture associated) and is not worth the time/money/effort modding and is waiting until he gets something that is worht putting that time and energy into.
 
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Having said all that, my list is getting embarassingly long, but ive ended up w the car being almost exactly the way i want it. It's sort of an ongoing project:
all this stuff costs serious $$$ money and what i've spent in parts most ppl here probably buy 1 or 2 cheap used cars with the same cash.

I respect those who would rather not spend the money at all than those who can't play the game properly and do modifications to their cars half-assed and use the cheapest parts/shortcuts/cheats possible and turn their cars into ugly ticking timebombs.

Suspension modifications:
Swift sport springs
Cusco front & rear sway bars
Cobb rear sway bar endlinks
Kartboy STS with front and rear bushing upgrades

Wheels/Tires/Brakes:
hyperblack rota tarmac 3 18 x 8
Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 tires 235/40/18
Rotora front 4 pot caliper BBK with steel braided lines
Rotora cross drilled/vented front rotors

Cosmetic:
RBS ver 2 eyelines
RBS ver 2 trunk lip
JDM Spec B front bumper
JDM front bumper beam and undertray
Zero Sports CF Spec B front grille

Engine/intake/exhaust:
Cobb SF air intake and air box
Boost solenoid
VF40/18G turbo
Perrin TMIC
Zero Sports intercooler splitter
K2 gear Spec Neo catback exhaust
Cobb catted downpipe
Cobb turbo heatshield
Perrin EL headers ceramic coated
DW 740 cc fuel injectors
AVO 245 LPH fuel pump
Cobb ver 2.0 AP stage II protune

Lighting/electronics:
cleared headlamps
silverstar amber turn signals
4600K McCullough HID
Defi White Racer 52mm boost guage
window tint 35% front, 20% rear
navi screen video playback hack
 
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