Modding car

[bahasad]

I want to do some simple mods to the cars in our driveway, but I personally don't have much experience with car repair (besides changing battery, tires, and small things).

1) I want to black out my headlights and install the white light headbulbs. How would I go about doing this and what parts would I need?

2) I want to get my calipers painted...black on the TL, and red on my civic. Where/how can I do this?

3) What is a good place to buy rims and some low profile tires. I prefer something that I don't have to order online (so that sort of takes out tire rack and discount tire).

4) I also want to debadge and blacken out the grille...how would I go about doing this?

[Ben Jr]

If it were me and I wanted to mod a vehicle in my driveway I would go with the obvious choice and go to dedicated car forum.

The Civic probably has the most intensive forums out there simply be sheer numbers and ricers that own them. How to guides a plenty.

[bahasad]

These are general questions. Not just for my civic. I would like to install new headlights on all our cars (TL, Pilot, Civic). I know that some people here like to mod their cars and I was wondering where/how they did it.

I don't need to join another forum just to get these answered, I am sure there are plenty of knowledgeable people on RFD :lol:

[ES_Revenge]

1) I want to black out my headlights and install the white light headbulbs. How would I go about doing this and what parts would I need?
Careful here this could be ghetto. Well it doesn't have to be but yeah, don't do it badly. Are these halogen headlights we're talking about? If so and if you have reflectors in this car what you could do is buy aftermarket housings with black-chrome reflectors and then put in something like SilverStar or Nightbreaker bulbs, but don't do something ghetto fabulous like spray paint the reflectors black and then slam some HIDs in there :rolleyes: The latter will only make your car look like crap, and annoy people from the blinding.

2) I want to get my calipers painted...black on the TL, and red on my civic. Where/how can I do this?
You could paint them with any high temp paint, spray or brush-on, but I highly recommend you get a couple G2 caliper kits off eBay (or TireRack). They are a two-part epoxy type paint that lasts much longer than conventional paints and don't require re-doing every year like you would find with a winter driven car and spray paints like VHT. They are about $37 US per kit (plus whatever in shipping) and well worth it.

3) What is a good place to buy rims and some low profile tires. I prefer something that I don't have to order online (so that sort of takes out tire rack and discount tire).
You can always pick out what you like online, and then have a local tyre shop give you a quote and get the tyres/wheels for you. There are other threads which recommend good tyre shops for this.

4) I also want to debadge and blacken out the grille...how would I go about doing this?
De-badging is easy enough to do. Just buy a $20 heatgun and get some fishing line and you'll be all set. There are tons of how-tos and videos of doing this on the net. Blackening the grille depends on what type of grille it is. For a chromed-plastic grille (common on todays cars) you'll have to scuff the chrome layer, and paint properly. Of course there is always the possibility of stones chipping it and you seeing the chrome again which will be unsightly. The best option is to replace it with a factory or aftermarket grille which is black to begin with.

[Tomy]

go to dedicated forums, do more research first before goign abouts.

from the sounds of the post, you better get it done at a shop in case you break something.. (correct me if you're savvy in cars)

[bahasad]

Careful here this could be ghetto. Well it doesn't have to be but yeah, don't do it badly. Are these halogen headlights we're talking about? If so and if you have reflectors in this car what you could do is buy aftermarket housings with black-chrome reflectors and then put in something like SilverStar or Nightbreaker bulbs, but don't do something ghetto fabulous like spray paint the reflectors black and then slam some HIDs in there :rolleyes: The latter will only make your car look like crap, and annoy people from the blinding.


You could paint them with any high temp paint, spray or brush-on, but I highly recommend you get a couple G2 caliper kits off eBay (or TireRack). They are a two-part epoxy type paint that lasts much longer than conventional paints and don't require re-doing every year like you would find with a winter driven car and spray paints like VHT. They are about $37 US per kit (plus whatever in shipping) and well worth it.


You can always pick out what you like online, and then have a local tyre shop give you a quote and get the tyres/wheels for you. There are other threads which recommend good tyre shops for this.


De-badging is easy enough to do. Just buy a $20 heatgun and get some fishing line and you'll be all set. There are tons of how-tos and videos of doing this on the net. Blackening the grille depends on what type of grille it is. For a chromed-plastic grille (common on todays cars) you'll have to scuff the chrome layer, and paint properly. Of course there is always the possibility of stones chipping it and you seeing the chrome again which will be unsightly. The best option is to replace it with a factory or aftermarket grille which is black to begin with.


To be honest, I suck at spray painting. I did some small spray paint jobs on my own, and they were pretty bad. I'm going out now to check out what I can find around in some parts/tire stores I know.

[ES_Revenge]

To be honest, I suck at spray painting. I did some small spray paint jobs on my own, and they were pretty bad.
That's why the G2 kits are perfect--they are brush on paint, not spray paint ;)

[fleabaggs]

for debadging, i just used some fishing line, dental floss and sawed down the badge. Used some goo-gone to get rid of the excess sticky stuff. It's like there was never anything there.

[Tomy]

do research, there's shops that do caliper painting for you for a nominal price around 60-90$.

it's not hard tbh, diy is around 20$.. and for the rest of the stuff, u can always get someone from forums to do it for u (if theyre nice enough)

[bembol]

You could paint them with any high temp paint, spray or brush-on, but I highly recommend you get a couple G2 caliper kits off eBay (or TireRack). They are a two-part epoxy type paint that lasts much longer than conventional paints and don't require re-doing every year like you would find with a winter driven car and spray paints like VHT. They are about $37 US per kit (plus whatever in shipping) and well worth it.

+1


You can always pick out what you like online, and then have a local tyre shop give you a quote and get the tyres/wheels for you. There are other threads which recommend good tyre shops for this.

+1 I recommend tires23, talk to Billy.

De-badging is easy enough to do. Just buy a $20 heatgun and get some fishing line and you'll be all set. There are tons of how-tos and videos of doing this on the net. Blackening the grille depends on what type of grille it is. For a chromed-plastic grille (common on todays cars) you'll have to scuff the chrome layer, and paint properly. Of course there is always the possibility of stones chipping it and you seeing the chrome again which will be unsightly. The best option is to replace it with a factory or aftermarket grille which is black to begin with.

-/+1 No necessary. I debadged my Coupe, my family and friends by using a (Points, Credit) Card.


+1 Painting the Grille, may be risky as it may flake off. You might as well get it replaced with Aftermarket.



:)

[TheRide]

2) I want to get my calipers painted...black on the TL, and red on my civic. Where/how can I do this?

3) What is a good place to buy rims and some low profile tires. I prefer something that I don't have to order online (so that sort of takes out tire rack and discount tire).

4) I also want to debadge and blacken out the grille...how would I go about doing this?

2) You can pick up one of those caliper painting kits at Canadian Tire. It's very easy to use and you simply paint it on with a brush. It's about $25+tax. If you want it professionally done then you can check out SimplyTire.

3) Wheelsdirect, Tires23, SimplyTire, etc.

[bahasad]

Update: I successfully installed some sylvania white headlights to replace my yellow ones on my civic.

I am watching a debadging video and I think I got the idea. How much can I debadge though? (Is there some law or bylaw). I would like to remove the front emblem and rear emblem (honda badges). Is this allowed?

lol at ES for the ghetto fab. I don't want any super-ricey mods. For my civic (1996 Sedan LX...Dark Green):
- Tints (done)
- Install some whiter headlights (done today) and black out very lightly
- Low Profile tires + 16 inch black rims with white lips
- Paint calipers

2004 TL:
- Tints (done)
- Paint calipers


I should be able to debadge the civic soon and paint the calipers (although I think they need changing first since they are very rusty). Blackening out headlights will be next. In the meantime, I should have enough $$$ to get some low pros + rims.