So I've decided I'm going to start spending money on this car and taking it to shows kind of as a joke. I'm going to put quality work into what gets done to it but I still want it to look a little ridiculous. To keep things updated I've decided to start a project thread. I've still got bills and not a crazy amount of spending money very often so I expect it to be a long term project. I haven't really started anything yet and I'm having trouble on which direction to go with things or what order to do them in, so hopefully I can get some helpful input here.

All of the shows I go to are mainly focused around airbag setups (and mostly trucks). First thing I did at the last show was cut the springs just for fun. But now I love the way it looks slightly tucking the tires and I plan to bag it. That will probably be the first big job I do with it just because it will be nice at the shows and I only see a few cars bagged there.

I think I'm decided on having some of those Diamond Racing custom steel wheels made. But I'm torn between those in a normal 15" front and wide 15" rear, or the IPD Pegasus matte black wheels in 17"s. I'll probably go with the steelies just because I like the smaller look and they can be made at whatever width and backspacing I want, so I'd need to get some measurements to figure out how I can have them set in the wells.

For the engine, I'm not sure if I should continue to spend money on maintenance items, or just hold off for a V8 swap. I really like the idea of going with a turbo but I'm affraid this engine is about ready to pop at 253k miles and most likely poor maintenance from previous owners. The transmission is rough as well, hard shifts, very late shifts, etc. I plan to drive this car a lot, so I agree with a lot of people that say 300hp from a V8 is more reliable than on a boosted 4 cylinder with that many miles, even though I've always loved turbos over big engines.

Lastly, the paint. I manage a custom car shop so I just need to decide what theme I want to go with, getting it painted won't be a problem. Just for fun, I'm scuffing the current paint and shooting it with a matte clear, maybe a driver side racing stripe. I've thought about having the side graffitied, but didn't have any theme for what to have sprayed on it. Paint will be the last step though so not really thinking about it yet.

If anyone has any thoughts on these steps or suggestions, I'm open to ideas. This won't be done any time soon though so don't expect updates daily. But I will post progress when I get into any of the bigger projects. I was hoping to have it bagged by Turkey Drag, a show here in Houston in December, but I'm travelling a lot over the next month so we will see how that goes.

Here's some current pictures, ignore the temporary wheels lol.

How I received the car:



After the exhaust dumped on the side.