Late But Started (Alexa) - 2010 2SS Orange on Black

[Pr0j3kt1]

I've owned her since returning from Afghanistan in 2010. Purchased new in 2010 out of Swansboro, NC. From October of 2010 until roughly June of 2013, she sat in the garage, begging for a custom touch. I just lacked the testicular fortitude to start.

The first mod I started with was quite simple. I thought the headlights needed to go. Since she isn't an RS, I ordered some headlights from a website I stumbled upon, accidentally. Worked out nicely. I also ordered some red Oracle halos. Cracked open the headlight housing and the Oracles wouldn't fit. I may actually still have halos laying around the garage.

The second mod was a JBA catback exhaust. I shopped around for a few weeks trying to decide between Borla or Flowmaster. I've always enjoyed the sound of a Borla but just couldn't bring myself to put the money out for it. My previous Camaro (94 Z28) had a Flowmaster and I loved it. Unable to decide which route to go. I had side exit Borlas in mind but clearance became a concern for future interests. That and the unsightly pipes you could see from the side pushed me away from this. I had a huge interest in something I hadn't seen on the 5thgens, at this point. Something caught my attention and I learned of JBA. Possibly the Firebreather, but unsure now. Shortly after this, I put a JBA catback on order. Had a local guy do the install and loved the result. Has a bit of drone on the freeway, but very nice sound cruising around town.

Skip ahead to shortly before Veterans Day, 2014, I put some JBA long tubes on order. Received them in time to take the holiday to install. Install went nicely until I realized the cats would be coming out and I would have to order new cats. Failure on my part as I didn't do enough homework before ordering. I ended up ordering some JBA HF cats. Got those installed and fired her up. Huge exhaust leak above the passenger side header, where it meets the cat. I took it back over to the same guy who did the catback. After some poking around under the car, he credited it to the repair shop doing a poor job on repairs. (car was rear-ended fall of 2013. Some A-hole didn't want to get on I95 and decided to make a 3-lane change in one run into a stopped traffic lane.) While all parts damaged were replaced properly, they did remove the exhaust system and when they installed it, they didn't have lined up properly. He ended up cutting the cats up and fabricating pieces to connect it all up. Completely satisfied with the money spent at this point.
Somewhere between Veterans Day and the first week of December, I threw on a 63 Series K&N intake.

At the beginning of December, 2014, I discovered I was destined to be a recruiter. Being in San Diego for 2 months, I didn't want to be stranded without transportation. So I decided I would make a cross country trip in my Camaro over the first week of January. Checked in for the school and things didn't work out, so I ventured back to Virginia the next week. Somewhere during the trip to San Diego, my alignment got knocked off just the slightest. I'm assuming in Louisiana. Huge portions of the I20 are really bad. 5000 miles later, she needed a new set of tires. I decided to take this opportunity upgrade the wheels and tires to ZL1replicas. I went with 20x10 +23 in the front and 20x11 +43 wrapped in 285/35 & 315/35 BF Goodrich G-Force Rivals. I also ordered a Razzi body kit. I took the first opportunity to have the tires mounted and balanced and slapped on the car and hit another brick wall. In all of my excitement, I failed to order lug nuts that would work with the new wheels. Gorilla to the rescue! Put those bad boys on and was thrilled. I was also notified in early January, that I'll be going to out of the country for the next 3 years.

Next came the phantom grill. I sat on this grill for over 12 months. I wasn't sure if I really liked the phantom grill on the car or not, but the only pictures I had seen where the chrome grill. Having just put black wheels on the car, the chrome grill wouldn't fit, so a black phantom grill it was. Ordered the grill and some LED headlights. Got the grill a few days later and installed. Loved how it turned out. Did not receive the headlights yet. I really like how black and chrome go together but my racing stripes throw the look off. I also looked at the Heritage grill, just decided I liked the phantom grill better. I also thought long and hard about the DJ Grilles Hidden Headlight grill, but that setup is hugely expensive.

At this point, my Razzi body kit is still in a box in the garage. The weather had not been warm enough to really do the body kit. While I did have the option of a heated garage for the work & drying time for adhesives, I knew I would be too excited to leave it sit. So the body kit stayed where it was.

With another raging itch to scratch, I ordered some drop springs & a Moroso catch can. Turned out the BMR springs were backordered. So I ended up grabbing some 1.25" Pfadt springs from Apex. Ordered them on a Monday (March 23rd maybe?) and got them in time to do a Sunday (27 March) install. A buddy and I did the install. Took us a lot longer than it should have. Could have saved a lot of time by doing some youtube searches instead of just using the written instructions. Got the car off the lift and headed home (10 mile drive). Problem! Hearing a ticking/thunking sound coming from the rear passenger side. Dropped it off at a shop for alignment and to check out the sound. As I expected to hear, e-brake cable rubbing the rim. The sound was coming from the cable impacting against a weight. Used a ziptie to pull it away from the tire until I can get it on a lift and find a more permanent solution.

Threw the catch can on the next Friday. I had a few idiot moments during the install. I didn't realize the LS3 and L99 had different PCV lines. Someone didn't read the instructions prior to starting. Is anyone else noticing a trend here?

At the end of March and first few days of April, we were seeing 70* & 80* sunny weather, so I grabbed my buddy and threw the body kit in the ride and headed to the shop. Got the car up on the lift and jumped under the car to see what I could do about the e-brake cable. Having yet to find a solution, the zipties (150lbs zipties) are still holding the cable away from the wheel. Grabbed the instructions, and array of tools and started fitting parts on. The front air dam and side skirts required a bit of trimming to fit properly but we got them on pretty easily. The rear air dam ended up going on really easily. With a few doubts in mind, I drove the car home as easily as I could. Put her up in the garage and let everything settle.

This is an ongoing project but I'll have to suspend it this summer for a while. Apparently Japan doesn't enjoy our cars as much as we do and I cannot take it with me. Some folks are possibly thinking 2 questions.
#1. Why spend the money now? I waited, like a fool, to customize my ride for so long that I just cannot take it anymore.
#2. Why not sell it and upgrade later? There is a story behind how I got the car. My original plan was to tear apart and rebuild a '98 Firebird. I had huge plans for this but it was foiled by a surprise waiting in the driveway of a small house outside Camp Lejeune. To make a long story short, I am a Marine and have had a huge interest in Camaros for many years. When the 5th Gens were whispered about and talked about, I got excited. When the concept was debuted, I was happier than a child in a candy store. When they went on sale, I went to Afghanistan with the intention of getting one when I came home. Being that I cannot make a financial commitment that big, my wife made it for me. So, selling the car for something better in 3 years isn't really an option. A lot of people have asked me why not sell it. Sentimental value is usually my short reply.

Any further mods to her, I'll post up here. When I figure out how to imbed the photos in the post itself, I'll modify the post. I have a few install photos of the body kit.