2011 Victory Red 2LT/RS, let the modding begin

[dianeokie]

I've decided to edit my journal, as I feel the need to tell my journey of how and why I have my car....

I've always enjoyed cars, going to car shows, drove my brother's Camaro in high school when he got grounded...which was often. I remember it was a celery green with a stick shift. It beat driving my 65 red convertible Corvair, although it was fun too.

When my husband and I met cruising Broadway, he had a 71 Charger. After that he had a 72 Cutlass and a 76 Camaro.
We married, had kids and the fun cars were all gone, replaced by station wagons, sedans, mini vans and company cars. When my oldest son graduated from high school, and the other 2 kids were driving, I decided to get rid of my soccer mom mini van.

I fell in love with the Gen 4 Camaro. I found a gently used gold v6 with ground effects and t tops. I think alot of jaws dropped when I drove up in the car and people saw me get out. Not your typical 40's something mom car!
When she started to leak oil and the rear end I had already replaced seemed headed south, I knew it was time to replace her (although I now regret it). The search was on, and I found a pewter 2002 Firebird with t tops and ground effects. I drove the Firebird for 4 more years and loved it. Since then, I've had a Honda Accord that was gone after 6 months, and my current Equinox, that I really love!

In the meantime, my husband had driven a series of hand me down cars and company cars for 22 years. He fell in love with a 2002 Roush Mustang. He wasn't in the market for one, but I cheered him on, as he NEVER thought of himself, and was always thinking about what was best for the family. He bought it and lovingly modded it. He very methodically added a factory supercharger, painted pony, stainless steel inserts for the Mustang on the rear bumper cover and many other mods. He never let it stay in the shop without him there to supervise. When he washed the car it was a 2 hour process. We never went anywhere without checking out the clearance and whether there were any railroad tracks or speed bumps, as it was quite low. We won lots of trophies and even won over some judges who were Mopar men!

In October of 2009, my husband knew something was wrong, and diagnosed himself with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). Within 11 months he was gone from us. Many things changed rapidly for our family as we adjusted to the inevitable, and sadly, his beloved Mustang was neglected along with so many other less important things. In October of 2010, I made the decision that I would never be able to take care of the Roush the way he did, and it deserved a better home. I had been looking at the Gen 5 Camaro, and knew that this was the best thing I could do. I can only hope he's smiling down, knowing that I'm still sharing that love of cars and trying to make this new car something he'd be proud of.

That's my story, and I am so proud of my car, but feel an awesome responsibility to make it something to be proud of.

I'm not really interested in too much performance modding, but more appearance modding. Finally threw caution to the wind and ordered my first few mods:

Factory ground effects from ChevyPartsPlus.com

MRT v2 exhaust for ground effects (thanks to Chris here in Atlanta for convincing me that the sound was awesome)

Loyds RS floor mats

Future plans:

Embroidered RS headrests

Rear blackout (done 2-24-2011)

Stainless Steel doorsill plates

possible black/white houndstooth seat "appointments"

I'm still trying to determine what else I want, but I'm sure some of the events I'll be attending will help me decide!

See my avatar for a before shot, the first mod was the stripes the dealer installed!

[Mr Twisty]

Nice start... you gonna paint the ground effects?

[dianeokie]

Originally Posted by MisterCamaro69

Nice start... you gonna paint the ground effects?

Ah, that is the question...I've gotten several opinions, most of them say paint them. I like the look of this car with them unpainted. My current rear stock fascia is black. I like the contrast, but we shall see.

One "bummer" is that the ground effects are on back order. Wonder if anyone else has experienced this. Looks like it will be a couple of weeks.:(

MRT v2 will be delivered by the end of the week and floor mats should be here by then too.

[scottc]

Hey, this is the rear gfx shot for ya.

[thespymaster]

Highly recommend some custom carbon fiber pieces from The Carbon Fiber Specialists and then add some AAC lighting products...

[dianeokie]

Thanks for the posts. My MRT v2 exhaust (for ground effects) should have arrived at the body shop today. Waiting for the ground effects and floor mats to arrive. I hijacked our old Roush car cover to protect it for now. It fits, just wouldn't expect to find a Camaro under a Roush Performance car cover.

[dianeokie]

At the request of Diane, this notice alerts you the following shipment has been delivered.

Important Delivery Information
Tracking Number: 1ZY408xxxxxxxxxxx
Delivery Date / Time: 04-February-2011 / 11:58 AM
Delivery Location: RECEPTIONIST
Signed by: MIDDLEBROOKS
MRT v2 exhaust has arrived. Now waiting on the ground effects from ChevyPartsPlus.com and the floor mats from Southern Car Parts.

[dianeokie]

Just ordered the rear blackout vinyl from RiderGraphix last night. I'll see how I like it and then decide about a permanent blackout. I'm pretty sure that I won't have the ground effects painted, but maybe I'll have them place them under the car so I can kind of get an idea of what the contras will be, then I can decide for sure. I've had opinions both ways, but the stock rear diffuser is black now, and I like that look!

[dianeokie]

Update:
MRT v2 exhaust at the body shop
black vinyl rear blackout around bowtie arrived
Loyd's mats arrived
GM factory ground effects on the way

Now, decisions, decisions....whether to paint ground effects or not.

All opinions welcom, but after looking at P Ham's photos, I'm almost convinced!

(Really bad iPhone pic)

[dianeokie]

Newest arrival - GM ground effects
Went to the body shop today and snapped some photos of the boxes, took a look at the exhaust.

By next week, she should look totally different!
ground effects box
packing slip for exhaust
photo of 1/2 of exhaust

[dianeokie]

One week later....and the exhaust is on

Ground effects being installed tomorrow


Woohoo

Then the rear bowtie surround black out

Don't know how to resize or insert pics in the middle of text, but you'll get the ideas. Sorry for the bad iPhone photos...

[Da Hose]

Your build thread has been HOZED::::

[dianeokie]

I am honored

[dianeokie]

Picked the car up today....it's awesome. They had it sitting out front, maybe advertising, not sure, but it looked hot! I was so impressed with this shop and the owner, Jason Mundy. He is so hands on and is really comitted to excellence. I'm not sure how to change the size of the photos, so I'm only going to post one for now. The new MRT v2 exhuast is really great too!

[Elykson]

That looks hot, more pics!!!

[dianeokie]

Originally Posted by Elykson

That looks hot, more pics!!!

Your car is the hot one, but I'll put one more on

[MOMSREDSS]

Looking good! That reminds me of what my car looked like before we painted the ground effects. I'm glad we painted our ground effects. Look at mine, then look at yours. I'm sure you'll see which you like better. Good luck : o)

[dianeokie]

Originally Posted by MOMSREDSS

Looking good! That reminds me of what my car looked like before we painted the ground effects. I'm glad we painted our ground effects. Look at mine, then look at yours. I'm sure you'll see which you like better. Good luck : o)

Thanks for the comments. I had seen your car, along with so many others. I really wasn't positive which way I wanted to go, but I like to contrast of the argent and the red. I think ground effects look good, whether they are painted or not. Now, what to do next. I think I'm going to get someone to help me remove the headrests so I can get them embroidered with the RS in red with silver. I'm also doing some research into houndstooth interior....old school.

[MOMSREDSS]

Post picturecs of your head rests when they're done. We want to do something too. have some ideas, but still looking for final decision.

[dianeokie]

Originally Posted by MOMSREDSS

Post picturecs of your head rests when they're done. We want to do something too. have some ideas, but still looking for final decision.

Check this thread

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31141

[dianeokie]

Decided to give my car a name. It does look like a red hot candy, doesn't it? Visited an interior/upholstery guy Saturday. He quoted me somewhere around $1500 to do houndstooth interior in the middle area of the front and back seats. Looks like the air bags are in the side of the seats, so he's a little concerned about taking out the seats, doesn't want to deploy the airbags. Any recommendations?

[MOMSREDSS]

Great idea! Funny thing, that's what I was thinking. I haven't decided yet. You said it first, so it's all yours.

A name, still thinking.

[dianeokie]

Originally Posted by MOMSREDSS

Great idea! Funny thing, that's what I was thinking. I haven't decided yet. You said it first, so it's all yours.

A name, still thinking.

I keep hoping I will see someone else do it first so I can get a DIY! We can't be the only ones thinking of doing it....

[dianeokie]

Been a while since I posted!

Newest updates:

Replaced rear black out with a "gray out" metallic stripe on the black.
Clear bra "xpel Xtreme" installed on front fascia, front lights including markers, mirrors and gills. Recommend my installer, Derek, highly. Pm me for info.

Future plans:
Door sill plates on order
Headrest covers
Waiting list for Vararam CAI

Picture of the clear bra, dare you to find it!

[dianeokie]

Look what came today. Those with the SS have them stock, but I had to order...can't wait to put them on....