Serenity

[sam.u.el]

So this is my Thread to officially document and keep track of my cars transformation from stock, to my ideal camaro. Some people don't like naming cars, or find it pointless. I'm not one of them. I named mine serenity. Why? Because that's what I feel when I'm driving her. At the same time its sort of an oxy moron. By the time I'm finished modding the engine the way I like, the sound of her Roar will be far from calm and relaxing .

My Camaro/background Story:
Back when I was still in highschool I fell in Love with the Camaro. I'll probably get flamed for this but here i go anyways. It was During the first Transformers movie i first laid eyes on the new camaro (thats right, i said it). During that time its sad to say but i hardly knew anything about cars. I was out of the loop when it came to anything automotive. Then the Movie passed and with it I forgot about the camaro because in my mind "I was never going to be able to afford it."
Summer of 2008, I graduated and Found this new love for cars that i should've had looong before. Driving places with my dad across the country (he was a truck driver) we would pass by all these car shows. My father already liked classics, but those days being on the road with him Made me like them too. I started community college and studied automotive for a year and a half to learn more about what i recently fell in love with.
2010 Came and decided to look up the price of one of these beautiful Machines, and when i saw the Starting price i was in shock. I said to myself, "I could afford one of these if i worked hard enough." After speaking to my dad he Showed faith and encouraged me to do it. after awhile of saving i tried to put my money down for a used one but not having a long credit history i kept being denied :(. At that point i told my dad "If i can't have a new one, I'm going to buy a classic one." Long story short i ended up buying a 1972 Gran Torino (I know, It wasnt a camaro ) and worked on that for 2 years.
Fast forward to 2012, After rebuilding the Motor, Touching up the interior, and cleaning the body i finally decided to sell it and used the money as a Down payment towards a Brand new 2012 2SS/RS Rally Yellow Camaro with Black racing stripes. By This time My credit was Excellent for my age, Down payment was large enough, and interest rate was good enough for me to finally Afford the car i fell in Love with years ago. My dad was very proud to see me want something, and Responsibly earn it all on my own at a reletively young age.
Now here i am, Sharing my story with you all and learning new things every day from all the wonderful members! Thank you to Everyone that has given me advice, answered any questions i had, and to those with will do the same in the future. Also thank you to the all the Vendors/Forum Sponsors who gave me great Customer service and helped me pick out the right products for my Needs.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoy what's to come as much as I enjoy sharing.

Mods in order by date of installation:
August 21, 2012- CAI Cold air intake
August 22, 2012- AAC Concept Side Markers
September 5, 2012- Hydro-Dipped wheels reinstalled
September 5, 2012- JW Motoring LED Dome Light Pod
October 26, 2012- GOBO Lights installed, not wired
October 26, 2012- AAC Concept style mirrors installed, not wired
October 31, 2012- GOBO Lights/Mirrors Wired
October 31, 2012- Windows tinted. 35% fronts/25% rears
February 27, 2013- Rideskinz Bumper, MPD1 Hood, GM ground FX, ZL1 Grill, Painted Stripes
February 28, 2013- Stainless Works Retro Chambered Catback Exhaust


Here are pictures to start off with of my car completely stock. I didnt take much but we all know how these cars look stock already anyways .




Here's a pic of it at night for i will probably do a lot of Lighting mods.


I took a quick picture when i was in the process of plasti-dipping my wheels. I had to do one end at a time due to my garage not being organized to fit my car in completely. Just recently moved so a lot of the moving boxes still need to be organized. I have my eye on some Matte Gunmetal Nurburgrings That i'll Hopefully be getting soon. The Plasti-dip was mainly just to see how i would like the look of black wheels on my car.


The Other day i finally received my Cold air intake from CAI and installed it as soon as i got home. It was dark so i didnt take any pictures of the installation process but heres the finished results .




On a side note, in a couple of months i'm gonna have some yellow pin stripes painted on the cover of the intake box to match my car and to give it more of a custom look. The cold air intake will be my only engine mod for awhile until I can talk myself into Getting the Kooks 6511 full exhaust + tune that will void my warranty. Right now i dont want to void it so most of whats to come will be mostly cosmetic. Which brings me to the AAC Concept side markers i Just recently received also. These are just quick pics of them during the day, Later i'll take some at night. They really do look great at night and give it such a cleaner look. In other words, i'm happy with them haha.





Here they're on, which you can barely see, and also a better pic of my plasti-dipped wheels.

[Vader]

[Mister-Camaro]

Cool man, can't wait to see the progress

[sam.u.el]

Originally Posted by Mister-Camaro

Cool man, can't wait to see the progress

Thanks! I'm excited for this so I appreciate your Enthusiasm .

Also, I took a quick peak at your build thread. Awsome work so far!

[sam.u.el]

Alright, Finally updated with some pics. The next Mods to come that I'm waiting to be shipped are AAC's Concept side Mirrors, and an interior color changing light pod from JW Motoring. From what i hear, the mirrors should be shipped soon so i'm excited as i ordered them in Black instead of yellow. Should look great! Or at least, i'm hoping they do

[sam.u.el]

So a small update.
After shopping around for different wheels and not finding anything I can afford right now, I decided to Hydro Dip my wheels.

Its going to be a gray carbon fiber finish over a black metallic base coat. I plasti dipped my wheels to see how I would like the darker color on my car before trying to buy new wheels and ended up liking it, so that's what helped me decide.

Here's a quick pic of my wheels I dismounted today with most of the plastidip peeled off (for those that wanted to know if plasti dip really does come off clean) before taking them to the shop that will hydro dip them for me.


I asked for them to take pics of the process and transformation from stock wheels, to hydro dipped, so as I receive the updates so will you guys

I'll be camaro-less for a week but I'm hoping it'll be worth it.

[sam.u.el]

I finally got my wheels back from the hydro-dipping shop and I'm pretty happy with them! I still won't be able to put them on the car until tomorrow evening so for now here's a couple of pics of them fresh from the shop.




From far they look like a nice glossy black but when you get closer in the sun, you can see the graphics

[sam.u.el]

Today I finally got my wheels back onto my car!

I was starting to have withdrawals without my car. I honestly never thought I would miss a car this much.
Here are the pictures I took after work today.

I took this picture right before I started to mount the tires back onto the wheels. This one is mainly to show those who are curious how and where the sensors in our tires are.


Here they are back on my car. The pictures don't do the real things justice, especially being of a cell phone quality picture. In the sun, the finish sparkles and the weave pattern comes out along with an unexpected hint of gold. From far or in the dark/shade they look like normal black gloss (guys at my work said it almost looked like black chrome) wheels. I hope you guys like them .

[RED DEMON SS]

Alright now great start to your build thread and welcome to this neck of the woods!

[sam.u.el]

Originally Posted by Farthestnorth

Alright now great start to your build thread and welcome to this neck of the woods!

Thanks! I appreciate it, I know so far its not much but that's what these are for right? . In the next couple of months I should have new stripes painted on

Btw if you or anyone else have any suggestions or recommendations feel free to throw them out there. I'm open to different possibilities as I'm still youngwith my build .

[pierre777]

welcome to the club , i think you should start with exterior mods to begin with like stripes ,ground effects and lighting goodies.

[sam.u.el]

Originally Posted by pierre777

welcome to the club , i think you should start with exterior mods to begin with like stripes ,ground effects and lighting goodies.

Thank you! I agree with you, my plan is to mostly do cosmetic mods for now as everything else I wanna do will void my warranty haha. But the ground effects is on my "to buy" list .

[sam.u.el]

So its been a little bit since I posted in here so here's a few updates.

I'm still waiting on the Concept LED Sidemirrors from AAC to be completed and shipped to me. They should hopefully be done and shipped by the beginning of next month or at least close to that.

Also, I Just pre-ordered Rideskinz Aggressor Front Fascia so I'm super excited to receive that and get it installed

Other than that I've got nothing else on the way. I'm hoping to have most if not all of my exterior mods completed by spring. Those include MPD1's Z/28 style hood, Ground FX sidekirts in black, 3 piece blade spoiler from GM, and Stripes painted on the sides of my car.
I'm sure all that is subject to change due to all the great products that keep coming out for our cars. Haha

[sam.u.el]

Finally! An update that features some good things!

I'll start with the small stuff, I ordered some GOBO lights from AAC out of compulse to install when my mirrors got here (which arrived today ).



I also received my Rideskinz Aggressor front bumper that I will hold off on installing until I have my MPD1 Hood to install with it and paint all at the same time. It looks and sounds like it will be a lot of work to install but I'm sure it'll be worth it in the end.



Now for the exciting stuff. My mirrors finally arrived and look to have no problems with them cosmetically which is a big relief considering the problems some have had who received those before me. I attempted to install them today along with the GOBO lights but had a couple of dificulties trying to wire them which I will solve tomorrow.
In the mean time here's just a couple of photos I took during the process. Not very detailed or good quality (phone camera) but better than nothing I guess





I will try to take more pics tomorrow and hopefully have them wired correctly to show the finished product. The door panels didn't come off TOO hard, I had my father help me so big thanks to him. The problem was/is trying to find the right wires to use.

Like I said I'll try to finish tomorrow and have more pics to come!