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So I've been meaning to make a progression page for a long time. Been rather busy, but I seem to have found enough time and enough gumption to upload the pictures off my phone onto cardomain. I don't actually have a cardomain page setup, but I use its servers to host my car pics.
I've got plenty of plans for the car, but with school loans costing me a mortgage payment's worth each month It is going to happen a lot slower than I would like.
But enough of talk, time for some pictures!
DAY 1:
Just brought her home from the dealer, finally retiring the Rampage.
First Mod: So i didn't take pictures of this for some reason, and i guess it isn't technically a mod, but after one week of owning the car I realized I never heard bass from the stereo. Occasionally I heard what sounded like blown distorted bass, but it cut out just as quick as it had cut in. So I took the door panels off and noticed the speakers were not blown. So I took them out and noticed the braided wire going from the cone to the connector was burnt in the spot that appeared to be touching the speaker frame. I fired up my soldering gun and pulled more wire through so it wasn't so loose. After a brief test, ouila! I proceeded to do the same to the other speaker. The subs work strong. Much better. No problems since
First REAL mod:
Grounding Kit from Racingline
Next Mod:
Black EE projectors with CCFL halos.
Installed and beautiful
Eyelids the following morning...
They look absolutely stunning at night! However I had the driver's side inverter for the CCFLs die after one week. I promptly emailed Sabersport where I bought them and they sent me two new, better quality inverters.
I wanted to get my interior lights to match the exterior color.... But I also wanted it to look good. So I used cool white LEDs on the numbers, and stripped and painted the needles white with UV LEDs. (even though they look blue on camera.. trust me they look amazing! and definitely purple, not blue)
Naturally I wanted the rest of the interior lights to match, but I had used up my weekend already and would have to put off tearing apart the rest of the interior for another weekend. (with some more twists and unfortunate revelations..)
I felt it was time to polish the car and get rid of those hideous swirl marks and that disgusting feeling i get when i gently run my hand on the surface after washing. So step one: Wash the car. Step 2: m... wait a minute. Whats this?! The passenger side headlight is SUPER foggy??
Oh no! There's water in that thar housing!!
I had absolutely no desire to send it back, so I took it off and shook it all around and found the leak on the top of the housing. after shaking as much water as I could out of it, I emptied the air compressors tank twice, blowing air into the vents and light housings until it was completely dry. I also had no desire to take the cover off. After it was dry enough to me, I used some clear silicone and sealed up the area where I got the water to come out of. I let it dry over the weekend while I clayed, buffed, polished, and waxed the car.
Masked off.. (don't tell anyone but I kinda like the frog tape green on the black..)
14 hours later:
It was so beautiful! The next day came.. and brought rain for a week........ WTF?! Can't I drive my freshly polished up car in the sun ONCE before you cover it with dirty rain??
Don't worry, after I washed it the following weekend it was still shiney and smoothe 
I also found time to do part 2 of my interior light swap. The steering wheel controls!
Well that was easy! and I still have time.. lets do the fog light and dimmer switches!
Whaaat?? Light bulbs?!?! great, now I need to buy non-surface mount LEDs and fit a resistor in there as well..
Of course, they would put a yellow LED for the 'lights are on' indicator, but not the backlight for the switch. nooo that would be unthinkable!
While I waited for my LEDs to arrive in the mail, I removed this piece of junk:
Now you see it..
Now you dont!
The following weekend is memorial day.. and wouldn't you know it my new LEDs arrived!
So I decided to tear out the center console too to see what I had to work with..
Oh look! The HVAC uses twist lock bulbs!
And of course they would solder the LCD to the board.. with a tight enough fit that you can't remove the plastic housing to switch out LEDs..
Well maybe I'll have better luck with the Head unit..
I hope you brought your 3mm or 1/8" socket with you..
You have bravely fought your way through the dungeon to reveal...
DUN DUN DUN! More Light Bulbs with red rubber caps!! Only this time, they are 3mm in size! And forget about removing the LCD from this bad boy.. unless you feel confident enough to solder all 24 pins quick enough to not damage the LCD, or the board. And with the driver info center and all its glory, I'd rather not even risk an attempt at it.
So now I sit wondering what to do about this situation. I didn't try to figure out the direction of the current either, for fear of my finger slipping and shorting something on this complex piece of equipment. although I did try to remove one bulb.. the heat from the soldering gun killed the bulb. Oh yeah I forgot to mention, the way these lights work, the light shining from the sides of them, illuminates clear plastic, which illuminates the buttons. I would have taken a picture, but I was feeling rather defeated and hopeless. So basically, its designed in a way that would make LEDs fail, on top of the fact that you cant solder the bulbs in or out without destroying them.
I had thought of several options: find purple caps (i know i know, bye bye UV) but unfortunately, the only ones I found were 5mm at their smallest... *sigh* and so then I thought Id get blue bulbs, and put the red caps on them to emit purple! But the only blue bulbs I found said a soldering iron would cause them to break. So I thought, "Hmm.. if only I knew what chemicals I needed to make a black light coating, then i can dip the bulbs in this coating" but my internet searches all failed me.
So for now it remains red, with one burned out light bulb, because A: I don't want to lose the driver info center. And B: I like the 6 disk changer, it works well. How obnoxious. At least red goes with purple? (oh.. I also swapped the bulbs in my window switches.. which are now super overpowering..)
Aside from these wonderful things, I have many dreams of one day having the GXP body for the ultimate sexiness, UV LED accents scattered about the interior and exterior in a tasteful fashion, CRABS, a throaty exhaust, and WAMS. I also have far fetched dreams of someone willing to trade me seats (i'm not a fan of the brown on black) for either black on black, or silver on black. and the same with the ugly wood textured plastic trim for brushed aluminum or black. (maybe I'll take em off to paint them some fluorescent purple or something that looks amazing in the black light glow)
My only other complaint is that it's an automatic transmission, but that's what you get when you can't buy it new.
More to come when I get the funds.
I've got plenty of plans for the car, but with school loans costing me a mortgage payment's worth each month It is going to happen a lot slower than I would like.
But enough of talk, time for some pictures!
DAY 1:
Just brought her home from the dealer, finally retiring the Rampage.
First Mod: So i didn't take pictures of this for some reason, and i guess it isn't technically a mod, but after one week of owning the car I realized I never heard bass from the stereo. Occasionally I heard what sounded like blown distorted bass, but it cut out just as quick as it had cut in. So I took the door panels off and noticed the speakers were not blown. So I took them out and noticed the braided wire going from the cone to the connector was burnt in the spot that appeared to be touching the speaker frame. I fired up my soldering gun and pulled more wire through so it wasn't so loose. After a brief test, ouila! I proceeded to do the same to the other speaker. The subs work strong. Much better. No problems since
First REAL mod:
Grounding Kit from Racingline
Next Mod:
Black EE projectors with CCFL halos.
Installed and beautiful
Eyelids the following morning...
They look absolutely stunning at night! However I had the driver's side inverter for the CCFLs die after one week. I promptly emailed Sabersport where I bought them and they sent me two new, better quality inverters.
I wanted to get my interior lights to match the exterior color.... But I also wanted it to look good. So I used cool white LEDs on the numbers, and stripped and painted the needles white with UV LEDs. (even though they look blue on camera.. trust me they look amazing! and definitely purple, not blue)
Naturally I wanted the rest of the interior lights to match, but I had used up my weekend already and would have to put off tearing apart the rest of the interior for another weekend. (with some more twists and unfortunate revelations..)
I felt it was time to polish the car and get rid of those hideous swirl marks and that disgusting feeling i get when i gently run my hand on the surface after washing. So step one: Wash the car. Step 2: m... wait a minute. Whats this?! The passenger side headlight is SUPER foggy??
Oh no! There's water in that thar housing!!
I had absolutely no desire to send it back, so I took it off and shook it all around and found the leak on the top of the housing. after shaking as much water as I could out of it, I emptied the air compressors tank twice, blowing air into the vents and light housings until it was completely dry. I also had no desire to take the cover off. After it was dry enough to me, I used some clear silicone and sealed up the area where I got the water to come out of. I let it dry over the weekend while I clayed, buffed, polished, and waxed the car.
Masked off.. (don't tell anyone but I kinda like the frog tape green on the black..)
14 hours later:
It was so beautiful! The next day came.. and brought rain for a week........ WTF?! Can't I drive my freshly polished up car in the sun ONCE before you cover it with dirty rain??
Don't worry, after I washed it the following weekend it was still shiney and smoothe I also found time to do part 2 of my interior light swap. The steering wheel controls!
Well that was easy! and I still have time.. lets do the fog light and dimmer switches!
Whaaat?? Light bulbs?!?! great, now I need to buy non-surface mount LEDs and fit a resistor in there as well..
Of course, they would put a yellow LED for the 'lights are on' indicator, but not the backlight for the switch. nooo that would be unthinkable!
While I waited for my LEDs to arrive in the mail, I removed this piece of junk:
Now you see it..
Now you dont!
The following weekend is memorial day.. and wouldn't you know it my new LEDs arrived!
So I decided to tear out the center console too to see what I had to work with..
Oh look! The HVAC uses twist lock bulbs!
And of course they would solder the LCD to the board.. with a tight enough fit that you can't remove the plastic housing to switch out LEDs..
Well maybe I'll have better luck with the Head unit..
I hope you brought your 3mm or 1/8" socket with you..
You have bravely fought your way through the dungeon to reveal...
DUN DUN DUN! More Light Bulbs with red rubber caps!! Only this time, they are 3mm in size! And forget about removing the LCD from this bad boy.. unless you feel confident enough to solder all 24 pins quick enough to not damage the LCD, or the board. And with the driver info center and all its glory, I'd rather not even risk an attempt at it.
So now I sit wondering what to do about this situation. I didn't try to figure out the direction of the current either, for fear of my finger slipping and shorting something on this complex piece of equipment. although I did try to remove one bulb.. the heat from the soldering gun killed the bulb. Oh yeah I forgot to mention, the way these lights work, the light shining from the sides of them, illuminates clear plastic, which illuminates the buttons. I would have taken a picture, but I was feeling rather defeated and hopeless. So basically, its designed in a way that would make LEDs fail, on top of the fact that you cant solder the bulbs in or out without destroying them.
I had thought of several options: find purple caps (i know i know, bye bye UV) but unfortunately, the only ones I found were 5mm at their smallest... *sigh* and so then I thought Id get blue bulbs, and put the red caps on them to emit purple! But the only blue bulbs I found said a soldering iron would cause them to break. So I thought, "Hmm.. if only I knew what chemicals I needed to make a black light coating, then i can dip the bulbs in this coating" but my internet searches all failed me.
So for now it remains red, with one burned out light bulb, because A: I don't want to lose the driver info center. And B: I like the 6 disk changer, it works well. How obnoxious. At least red goes with purple? (oh.. I also swapped the bulbs in my window switches.. which are now super overpowering..)
Aside from these wonderful things, I have many dreams of one day having the GXP body for the ultimate sexiness, UV LED accents scattered about the interior and exterior in a tasteful fashion, CRABS, a throaty exhaust, and WAMS. I also have far fetched dreams of someone willing to trade me seats (i'm not a fan of the brown on black) for either black on black, or silver on black. and the same with the ugly wood textured plastic trim for brushed aluminum or black. (maybe I'll take em off to paint them some fluorescent purple or something that looks amazing in the black light glow)
My only other complaint is that it's an automatic transmission, but that's what you get when you can't buy it new.
More to come when I get the funds.
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