I've had my car now for a little over five months and it has been an interesting psychological trip.

Why?

Decisions, of course.

Nothing is easy with this car. The decision process never ends. Too many choices. Too many paths to take. You try to educate yourself so as to take the right path, but invariably, the path you choose will be the one you are kicking yourself over later. (see wheel thread)

I thought, once I bought my wheels, that the agony would be over. I have pondered getting tint on my windows. Would tint look good on a white car with gold/bronze/whatever the hell color they are wheels? I dunno. I have thought about it and thought about it. I, typically, like light colors, but I thought the contrast on the windows against the white might look good. I have spent the last few weeks pondering the tint. Okay. Fine. I will get the tint.

I go to see the tint man. He looks at me and says, "well Word, how dark do you want them?" "Uhhh,,,,,,kind of dark, I guess. What do YOU think would look good?" He says, "whatever you like, man." He is kind of an older man, but is the type of older man that can get away with saying the word 'man' and not sound goofy. I'm like, "well,,,what are my choices?" He says, "oh,,,,,35 is what the law will allow." "Oh,,,okay, I guess I will do 35, then." But then he says, "But hell, none of the cops around here will say anything to you if you go darker than that." "They won't?" "Nooooo,,,,,,a lot of the cops here have personal cars that I have done with darker on it than 35." "Oh." I say, "What about a 25?? Do they make a 25??" He's like, "no, I don't have that, but a 20 might look pretty good on it." "Okay,,,,20 it is. How much will this little tinting thing cost?" He says, "plan on 200 dollars." Lesson learned: You pay for dark.

I am going to have the tint put on next Friday. I should have some 235 foot by 300 foot pics on the internet for you to see next week.

I had been thinking about doing the audio next, after the tint, but decided that I better start doing a performance modification, so as to not get that dreaded "ricer" label. For some reason, in today's world, people seem to get offended by what someone ELSE does to THEIR car. And since I am the kind of man that makes sure my yard stays mowed so as not to let the neighbors see how actually worthless I truly am, I will do my best to avoid the ricer label.

Back to research. Okay,,,,I will do the exhaust thing next. I have read about/studied/ and listened to exhaust videos and have done everything that you could possibly do to make a smart decision about choosing the right exhaust. But guess what? I already know that I am going to choose the wrong one. How do I know? Because I know how much thought I put into the wheels and I think I should have went with the black ones. Soooo,,,I already know that my tint will be too dark/light and my exhaust that I will choose will be either too loud/soft.

Just like the tint and the wheels, the choice for exhaust is the same labryinth of decisions. Needswings, mopar, or Maxfabb downpipe? 3" all the way back? What about that side exit thing? What about a Cat? What about a cutout? An electronic one??? What about throwing codes? Does an exhaust need a stage?

It never ends. The beauty of this car is also the curse. It's like having a beautiful woman. if you had one, then you spend all your time wondering when she will leave you for the next hot bod to walk by. There is no peace. I love my car, but I'm pretty sure that my next car will not be one that you can mod. I make life too complicated. An ugly woman and a mod free car....tis the path to true happiness.

 

I don't know about your area, but for 15% on the back, and 5% on the front, I got quotes anywhere from 120 to 300 bucks. I ended up going with Solargard from the guy who would match any price AND come out to my house and do it AND give me a full warranty. Most of the places I called (85 in all) specifically said "any shade you want", so that by the end of the list of calls I would just tell them how many windows and not even mention the shade and they would give me their price. Anyways, for most tint places, they won't make you pay extra for dark tint. A few places weren't comfortable discussing illegal tint over the phone, but they still didn't change their rate. So maybe shop around a little more before paying 200 bucks (I'm hoping you're getting all 5 windows for that price), and definetely get the best warranty you can get. Make sure you get Llumar or Solargard tint, they are very good.
I definetely don't think tint will get you a ricer label.
I will keep in mind to not try and download your pics unless I have a week off.
The tint should definetely not be as mind-wrenching as your wheels were because there are way less choices, and exhaust should be even easier because you won't see it every time you look at your car.
By the way, I like your wheels. Seems to me like you're valuing others' opinions too much about your wheels. They're YOURS, so if you like them, then they're perfect. PSIChick's exhaust sounds awesome (there's a vid of it on "the other site"), so if you want my opinion, just get whatever she has (it can obviously support good power [8D]).
People with aftermarket exhausts will definetely chime in and help you out with the decision.

 

I LOVE PSI's exhaust, but I remember reading somewhere that she had a custom made one and I am sure that the cost of it would be a lot. I saw that video of her car on the other site, and it sounded awesome. Did you, by happenstance, see her rub her car after someone revved it up really loud. Too cute.

Oh,,,I like my wheels pretty well, but I just wish i had went with, what I perceived, as the safe choice.

I live in a town of 18,000, so my choices for tint were pretty limited. there is another place that does it, but everyone says he doesn't do a good job.

I *think* with the exhaust, I am "leaning" toward a needswing downpipe with the upgraded mopar exhaust. That is exactly the setup that Andy will be getting, so I am anxious to see how he rates his.

 

Word, Word, Word.......

Don't beat yourself up man (I too am an "older" man who can get away with saying 'man'..... at least I think so....... well... hope so...... I digress). If too loud is a concern, dude (OK, maybe I'm pushing my luck with the whole "dude" thing, But I still think me saying "man" is OK...) then I think you will be safe with the Mopar/Borla exhaust. The price is right, It sounds good and throaty, and it's not too loud, as opposed to an open 3" [in competition with carpet bombing] exhaust (just kidding Crystal, your exhaust does sound great.... but it is loud). I think the downpipe is a good companion to it, though I doubt you will need / use a side exit. If louder is better in your opinion, then go with a 3" pipe only exhaust (no resonators / mufflers). LSP's does sound great, and the turbo sound that comes from the back end of the car is awesome! OK, enough about LSP's back end, back to your situation (wow, maybe I am too old to use dude or man...). As far as the tint goes, It certainly wouldn't hurt to get some other prices. I definitely agree with Am_Mscl on the warrantee. I feel for your predicament (sp?) with not trusting yourself to make the decision, but I think you will find that you're quite capable to do so. You just have to trust your judgement. Make sense???

Good luck man (crap, there I go again with the "man" thing)

Scott

 

LOL, man, you crack me up... I put too much thought into stuff aswell and always second guess my choices after I finially make a desicion.

But anyhow, I believe every car looks much better with tint on the windows - as long as of course the tint is not purple with bubbles lol. 20 is a very good medium choice.

As far as exhaust... According to UPS tracking my Needswings DP will be here tommarrow! I hope somewhat early so I can get it installed before it gets late. I'm pretty excited about it.

What are the emissions testing in your state?

 

Go with what your passion says to go with. It's your car, your car payments, your insurance payments, your gas money, your mod money. In other words, you "earned" it!!!!!!!

Dusty

 

Dude, Man, Daddio whatever. The wheels are fine. I'm serial.
I, being born in '65 feel almost obligated to use man. It's probably even in my contract. I also like very much to say dude because I like to think young and luckily for me everybody thinks I'm about 10 years younger than I am, but most importantly, I don't care what they think. Ha!
As far as the exhaust goes, I think the Mopar is the most bullet proof decision-wise. Nobody can even question it, it is so sensible. However, Your future performance goals have to be considered. For me, that means a 2.5 inch Mopar exhaust is a little smallish so that puts me in the market for a 3". There are a whole bunch of of the shelf systems available. Perfomance-wise I'd guess them to be fairly equal so the sound suppression becomes more of a deciding factor. Some have no resonators, one resonator, a transverse muffler or 2 bullets as in Psi's custom. All are going to be louder than stock. Most bordering on too loud and unliveable. You can have resonators put in any of them. (As you can see, I am stuggling with this decision too as I know whatever I do will be some kind of compromise) I was sure I was going to have a custom system made with a Hooker Aerochamber muffler, but getting it made out of 3 inch stainless becomes very expensive. I could design one this way that would function awesome but it would have to be made of aluminized steel and would rust. Therefore, I have decided it has to be one of the off the shelf stainless ones and I will probably customize it. I would not bother with a cutout unless my car was going to be seriously raced. As in for money. I think it will be just too much potential trouble for whatever little good it is. Premier Truck (a sponsor) will ship a 3" turbo back from GHL for 805.00 but it has no muffler or resonator. I would have to add a GOOD resonator at least. I am still shopping though because I think that price can be beat.
Just keep in mind that more than most things you'll do, the exhaust is a compromize. It will not be perfect for everything/situation.

 

Word, I finially posted my DP info. No video of the cutout open yet, though I have my thoughts for you about exhaust...

First, I think Pressurecooker laid it out very nicely. There are a lot of choices, one thing to think about is your ultimate goals for the car and all that. I don't get the feeling that you want to go crazy all out big turbo etc etc. But you want more performance and more sound.

As much as I like the Needswings DP I'm not so sure it's a great choice for you, the cutout is crazy. From the sound of it you don't want crazy loud, and that's what it'll give you. Something you might consider is the Maxxfab modified borla... It's a 3" downpipe (No cutout) and he removes the 2.25" bottle neck so you have 3" to full 2.5". Either that or you have your choices of full 3". I think if I were to do my exhaust over I would go with the Maxxfab borla. I like the borla sound and to be honest the 3" DP + catback is more than loud enough for me and I like and want loud. My intentions with my setup was to be able to swap out the DP for emissions time but still be able to get the power from full exhaust (cutout) but after installing it I'm now leaning towards just keeping my stock exhaust and swapping out the whole exhaust when it comes time. After doing it, I think it might actually be easier than trying to do just the DP.

So many choices