Easy and Rewarding

[Desroches]

My Girlfriends leaving for three months coming up (To Germany on an exchancge ) which leaves me with A LOT of time! I'm planning on doing some little mods to my car. As I read the posts I make mental notes on what I'd like to do, although some are going to be too difficult. So I was just wondering If you guys could direct me in some easy and rewarding modifications.

Here's some ideas I have already:
1 make new door panel, upholster with black vinyl
2 Rear Wiper
3 Sun roof
4 Paint parts of dash (probably green)
5 remove crappy stock decals seen in picture below
6 swap b6 in for my b3 ( my buddies dad is a mechanic for post office so he could pitch in, and he's got lots of connections to help)
7 tint back windows (Should I do it myself?)
8 Paint bumpers to match
edit: 9 Mod a Grill!


and thats all that comes to mind.

So if anyone can give me some more ideas, or tipes on how to do them that would be greatly appreciated!

[packrat427]

Get a 88 or 89 grill and cut it up !! real cheap mod.

[Desroches]

oh yes! I forgot about that one! Add that to my list
thanks

[packrat427]

Might as well stick a wing on it while you are at it :lol:

[ericsmith32]

Why not just cut up the grill you have? I cut the grills out on my 91 and I think it looks pretty good.. someone said it looked like a fiat though.

[Desroches]

IMO I can't see how you could make the grill I have look good... not with that big chunk in the middle.

[Guest]

#1. Suspension, bushing and control arm check.. if anything's worn, replace.
passenger side mirror or power mirrors.
short throw shifter..
leather boot
tach cluster
CAI
dome light conversion to map lights.
lights.. clear corner/signals, sidemarker lamps, fogs and euro tails.
steering wheel
custom dash
intermittant wipers
sound dampening
black carpet

[FestYboy]

swap out the stock seat backs for those out of an EGT (BP series) as explained in another thread:

just went to the J/Y Monday and came across a 92ish EGT (BP engine) and i liked the way the seats held me so i picked them both up for $50. well all i wanted was the backs so on they went. All you need to do is remove the lower plastic cover and unbolt the WHOLE back adjustment bracket from the lower half. DO NOT try to reuse the stock unit as the EGT seat will not line up with the festy hardware, use the EGT unit as it is still attached to the seatback. when reinstalling the new seatbacks, take note that you can't use either the festy or EGT bolt that secures the inside (toward the center console) half of the back. for that i used left over engine bolts that matched the festy lower half thread size and the EGT plastic sliding washer (it's a crush fit). then once the EGT back is secured to the festy lower half, take the plastic cover and remove the black rubber pad on the inside along with the plastic tabs that hold it in place. this is for fitment purposes as the EGT spring are is slightly wider than the Festy's. you DO NOT have to remove the seat from the car to do this swap (I learned the hard way).

Total time to swap both seatbacks is about ONE hour taking your time. Total number of bolts/screws to remove/replace is 11 per seat (this includes the EGT seat as well). I can post pictures later.

next on the list of things to do is swap out the stock lower padding and cover material, when the weather turns warm again

swap out the stock rockers for aspire roller tiped ones (i just picked up a full set for $25)

install lower air dam (i have pix later) i found that this reduced road noise...weird, but cool.

paint those rims!!!!!!!!!! eeewwww....

actually i LIKE those decals on your car, but that's just me

oh and replace the muffler, it's so easy and it gives you some much needed power

DJ, how do you get intermittent wipers? i must have missed that thread.

[Guest]

90 LX and L-Plus models came with the intermittant wiper module..

[FestYboy]

here's the seat backs i was talking about ($25 per full seat):


the plastic shroud needs to be removed and the whole adjuster unit from the EGT seats bolts in it's place.

the front air dam:


took like 20 min cuz i had to fight it a little. got all the material for $20 and have enough left over to do 2 more with stuff to spare. it's plastic garden/mulch divider. I'd suggest letting it relax for a while before installing due to it being rolled up and not very workable. I'm letting my second attempt set in the sun for 2 days to let it straighten out.

the roller tiped rockers i just got ($25):

just have to clean them up and install.

[Silv3rBull3t]

I would imagine using a heat gun or hair dryer would be alot of help plus doing the project on a warm day... Looks good though! -Kyle

[FestYboy]

i tried the hair dryer thing but used pencil torch instead and that's how it turned out. the plastic doesn't want to shrink or grow with heat applied so that's y i suggested letting it relax for a while before the second attempt.

[FB71]

DO NOT use the Aspire rockers with the Festy cam shaft!

you NEED the Aspire cam.

the festy cam lobes are ground on a slight bevel to reduce rocker pad wear. this will cause the Aspire rockers to 'side load', meaning, they will be pushed off to one side, grinding the rocker body into the rocker shaft towers. Also, the lobes are made of a different material. The iron cam in the festy is too soft, and the rollers will eventually wear a trough in the lobe, destroying both the cam and rockers. The aspire cam is made of steel, specifically to prevent this.

[mechanicaldj]

90 LX and L-Plus models came with the intermittent wiper module..

that should be 1988 LX's

both of the 1990 L-Pluses I've owned never came with intermittent wipers

[FestYboy]

before i tried this mod i took measurements of the festy cam, there is no taper. there is also no taper to the FMS cam either. having a taper to the cam like you suggest would put a side load on the rocker bars and subsequent tapered wear marks as well. there were none when i disassembled my old block. and there is no reason to put any bevel on the festy cam anyway due to the fact that there's no need to rotate the HLA or lifter pad.... they're flat pads that ride on flat lobes.

also, why would you use an iron cam anyway??? they're far too brittle to last the 250K+ miles that these blocks routinely see or withstand the higher spring loads of aftermarket springs. both cams would be heat treated anyway to surface harden the lobes to prevent wear.

I've been running this mod for the last 10000 miles and the only thing to report is a failed HLA which was bad when i installed the rockers. I'll reinspect the cam and rockers this week when i replace the bad HLA and report back here. the plan is to do it Thursday due to the nice weather. picks will be provided with the report.