Back in august my 05 black neon R/T was totalled, may it rest in peace. I really loved that car. I had tinted out the windows, installed speakers, subs, car alarm, leather interior, etc. and I had been looking forward to doing more with it. But its gone.

Anyway, now that I am out of the hospital and up & about, I have managed to find another neon with a 5-spd stick. An 03 flame red SXT. I picked it up just yesterday, its very clean, looks like new except for some very minor scuffing which looks like the work of a brushed automatic car wash. Nothing a clay bar won't solve. It has a gray interior, 53,xxx miles, and I got it for a song ...which leaves a big chunk of insurance settlement left over to play cinderella with it. So this thread will hopefully just be a big long Q&A and brainstorming session towards that end.

One thing that bugs me is the front fascia. I have never cared for the 03-05 front fascia. On my R/T in glossy black and without the chrome accents it looked 'ok', but this sxt grill has to go. My first notion is to steal a front bumper from an SRT-4, which brings me to my first question: will a stock SRT-4 bumper fit properly on an SXT? I know it will fit the body, but the SRT has its own unique hood, and I'm wondering if the se/sxt hood will fit with the SRT4 front bumper? I know that it might look best just getting the hood and bumper both, but the more i've thought about it, the more I kinda like the idea of an SRT grill with a standard hood. give it sort of a vaguely retro, long nosed musclecar look. I'd kinda like to try it out that way and see how it works style-wise before making a final decision about the hood. If i did get a hood I lean towards the cuda style one. But I'd like to know if the stock sxt hood and srt bumper fit ok together? If not then i'd still like the stock srt front bumper and an srt-fitted custom hood I think.

To go with that, I've found a mopar body skirt kit, which would compliment nicely I think. With an SRT front bumper you just wouldn't use the skirt kit's front piece.
and um, if anybody is customizing their srt-4 and has a leftover front bumper, or possibly full 4 piece bumpers & skirts, I could put them to good use

The car currently has no spoiler. Personally I've always found the 03-05 neons to look like their missing something without a spoiler. I like the SRT styled spoiler best, where's the best place to get one of those?

The sxt's 15" wheels are kinda small, plus they don't look all that great. I want to get some 17" wheels, I've been browsing the styles at Tire Rack and Discount Tire Direct, are there some other places with a good selection I should be checking out?

Flame red looks nice, but it isn't my first color choice. On my deceased R/T, i found that black worked very well with dark tint windows wrapping around the rear glass. it changed the appearance of the roofline somewhat, and gave it a sportier look IMO. So i might paint the car black, or possibly 'cherry black' or 'midnight blue'. I've even thought of 'ghosted' racing stripes on the top. I'm just mulling it over for now, the flame red may grow on me, I'll see how it looks after I tint the glass. Call me n00b, but what does a good car painting cost these days? and what would you look for to make sure you're getting quality work?

Where is a good source for R/T or SRT cat-back exhaust systems? OR... would it just be simpler/cheaper to have a local place fabricate a wider pipe exhaust for it (and make it dual tip)? I'm not a huge fan of the idea that a metal tube has to be brand name to work well, but I do like both the rt and srt exhaust notes. would some blend of factory & fabricated parts fit the bill you think?

Turbochargers... I'm afraid I know little about them. I know that I want more power, and that I don't think a catback & cai by themselves would make the basic 132 HP engine have the punch i'm looking for. I don't feel the need to see how much psi my engine block can take before it explodes or anything, I just want some modest turbo boost to give my new SXT noticeably more power than my R/T had, and maybe eek out a smidge of fuel economy as well. Where do I begin? (My mechanical expertise is reasonably high, but i've no experience with turbos)

Interior recoloring... If I get into interior styling (I already miss my leather), I'll probably want to change the interior coloring from light gray to black. easy enough for the seats & carpet, but is there an easy way to go about recoloring the rest of the interior? I'm not sure how paint takes to the interior parts, but it might be fun to do some custom paint work on the inside of the car too. any advice on messing with this?


I plan to get stylistically matched euro tail lights and projector headlights. If i do paint the car cherry black or something similar i'll get them with black inserts around the lights, under a clear cover. This looked really sharp on my black r/t, made everything look body color matched. 30% 3M ceramic window tinting. I'm not going to replace the stock stereo since it's really just something to feed my ipod into, but I'll get an amp & speakers for it. anyway, I'm just kinda rambling, I'm a bit excited about this little project

 

letss see some pics

 

First off since you were wanting to modd it you should of went with a 2000-02 because of the ngc which is the computer your car has. It's a pain to really mod it. As for painting interior use a bottle called Bulldog adhesion promotor. it will make paint stick to any automotive surface. Turboing it you'll only be able to go 8 psi max with stock low end. Srt 4 bumper with your stock hood will leave a lil gap. Interior like seats i'd rob from a srt4. As for exhaust i've heard go with vibrant for money and sound wise. Hope i was of some help. Good luck with the build.

 

wow can someone say shopping spree

 

I agree with smallblock. Also you can also look at paint shop to do your interior panels. That is what I did and I have had no problems. No chiping and wear. for 3 years strong.

 

pics... well for now it looks like a stock 03 SXT in flame red with gray cloth. the only optional option it has on top of the sxt package is cruise control. I'll take some pics when the weather warms up a tad, just for comparison later on.

Ahh, i knew the 03-05 computers were a pain, but i didn't realize the 00-02 were better in that regard. Bulldog Adhesion Promotor, thanks I'll practice with it a bit on cardboard, get a feel for what I can do with it, how the finish turns out, etc. I had read somewhere that 8psi is the safe maximum for the stock motor. I don't really plan to race it, sub-200hp is ok, but I'd like more muscle than stock. So I'm thinking a very 'modest' turbo boost, like 6-7psi. I don't know as much about it as I'd like though. I don't know what effect different psi's would have on engine wear, or if something like a very high quality intercooler would have more effect, etc. SRT-4 bumper fits with a gap between it and stock hood... hmmm. I'll probably get the bumper first and see how it looks, if the gap is too noticeable then I'll splurge on the mini'cuda style aftermartet hood, fitted for an srt4 bumper. Even if the gap isn't too noticeable, i might splurge on the hood. I like the mini'cuda hood, but its not at the top of my wishlist. As for seats, I'm not crazy about the SRT4 seats, actually my favorite seats for a neon were the R/T seats. But the sxt/se seats are decent enough. I'll likely buy a leather kit for the stock seats front & back, and install it myself. Vibrant exhaust? I'll have to try to find someone who has one and listen to it. I'm a fan of a refined smooth exhaust note, but I like it to be deep/bass.

And yes, a shopping spree it is! I got $11,000 settlement for my totalled R/T, it was low miles, every available option, in flawless condition, etc. This replacement car I just couldn't pass it up when the dealer offered me $5,000. It had $8000 in the window, and I visited the lot to look at it because i was shopping 5spd manual neons. I wasn't in a huge hurry to buy, just shopping around, but the dealer was really desperate to sell it. Basically got it for just over wholesale price because the dealer needed liquid cash really badly. So yeah, i paid 5grand for the car, and have 6grand left over to mod it. I know that 6k will disappear fast when I start buying things, so I'm trying to pre-plan as much as possible, get the best deals I can, and do much of the work myself. Someday I should date a guy who can actually help with this stuff. Really to get everything I want I think it'll end up going over 6k. I'm guestimating more like $8-9k for everything I want, but hopefully I can find some ways to cut costs. If not I could put the interior work off a while, and the car has new tires so I could drive on them a while and get some value out of the tread on them before replacing the wheels. And I won't add a rear antisway bar until i get new wheels/tires at the same time, since all of that will call for an alignment. I'm not going to lower it, so that saves a bit of cash. It would look nicer, but the roads here are a bit rough in places, and for now I kinda need some seating height so I can get in & out easier with my busted up leg. maybe i'll lower it once i'm fully limber again. I had kinda wanted an SRT-4 (as if you can't tell ) but the insurance costs on it looked to be 'horrible'. Plus if i can mod this car how i'd like for around the same price as a good used srt4, then i'll come out like $150/month better off on insurance, get an extra 5mpg or so, and have a more unique ride. with a tradeoff of it not being quite as good as an srt4, but everything is 'not quite as good' compared to something. if it is fun to drive, turns a few heads, and embarrasses a few people at a red light, i'm happy.

 

I know that the SRT bumper looks good and all, but if I were you, I wouldn't make it an SRT copy if it wasn't an SRT. You'd get all kinds of expectations of a SRT but then you would let yourself down. Personally, I love the look of a 02 front bumper with some sort of Civic Lip modified to fit. Some example of pics:








What do you think?

 

I think the 02 front ends in the pics look really beautiful. mine's an 03 though, are they interchangeable? (the pics of the red R/T do a great job of selling why I kept my stock 16" wheels on my old R/T )

Really the only body parts I want to steal directly from an SRT-4 are the front bumper & spoiler. I have some other styles in mind for the sideskirts & rear, actually pretty understated subtle stuff. And for the hood its either stock smooth sxt hood or the mini-cuda fiberglass hood. And the wheels won't be srt either. But I do really like the front bumper on srt's, and the srt's spoiler is well matched to the contours of the car. I'm keeping an open mind on the spoiler though, I haven't seen one i like better than the srt yet, but I'm still looking. Actually there was a lip-style spoiler I saw on a neon a couple years ago, that would look very nice too, and theme well with the cuda hood. I've seen a lot of aftermarket front bumpers, most of them are a little too gaudy for my taste. The srt bumper is 'aggressive' but in a way which doesn't seem outlandish or especially 'ricey'. I'm not very fond of the srt hood though. I like front ends in the pics you presented though. I really hadn't thought of a modified 02 bumper

 

Yes the 02 bumpers are interchangeable. But you have to switch out the headlights with the 00-02 headlights because they are different than the 03+ ones.

I don't know if you've ever seen a pic of a SRT front with mopar sides, but it looks a little off since the srt bumper's lip is lower than the mopar sides. So if you're going srt front, then you should get srt sides.

And I can't remember exactly, but the srt bumper would create either a gap or its too high and might get in the way. It's one of those.

The red RT that you spoke off was a 2003 RT with the original stock 03 bumper. But he switched it out for a civic lipped 02 front by the way.

 

Mat why did you have to show me those pics. Now I kind of want a lip kit for mine. Kath good luck on the car.