My 2011 Black Inferno SS
 

I have seen so many start a journal on the adventure of customizing their 5th gen Camaro that I figured that it was time for me to do so. I have been a long time admirer of the 5th gen since seeing the prototype but before that I was waiting for a SAAB prototype to be released. Let's start at my beginnings. My first car, or SUV rather, was a dark red 1998 (now pardon this curse word I'm about to say) FORD 4dr Explorer XLT. I was young and though it wasn't what I wanted it was what I could afford. I was always taught that if you can't afford it, you don't need it. I had a friend in high shool that had a dark green explorer 2dr that he lowered, added green neon to and then a huge BASS thumping head rattling sound system. Though I wasn't a fan of lowering an SUV I began to dream up ideas of what I could do to mine other than lowering it (cause it really looked stupid). So I started with my stereo system. I bought and installed a sony xplode 10 disc cd changer. Then the bass bug bit me so I decided that I would build my own enclosure. I managed to find a few sheets of 3/4 cypress lying around my parents place and used that instead of MDF. It went well, except I thought that two 8s and a 200w amp would have been sufficient for my bass. Though it seemed to be ok for a while, I noticed that everyone else had 10s. At the time I was still in high school and was on one of the tightest budgets ever. I eventually found a friend of mine that was selling his box and almost brand new set of Jensen comp 10s. And here it comes, my budget (I still can't figure this out), I had about $100 saved so far. I asked my friend what he was selling the box and the comp 10s for (I totally expected him to say about $400) and he said I'll take $20. Yes, that's 20 BUCKS! needless to say I jumped right on it. I added bass blockers to the door speaker, then upgraded them and so on till I was happy with the sound. After that came the NEON. that's right, NEON and all its glass tube breaking glory. this is when LED Underbody kits just first started coming out (the first ones weren't bright at all). then I upgraded that to a newer brighter kit. I forgot the name of it but i do remember it costing me about $1400 for the whole thing. I added ABL and the list goes on..... I saved and saved and saved and was going to get rims and tires. it was one of the last things on my to-do list. Then one fateful day about a week before I was going to get my wheels, something terrible happened. A WREAK. My baby was taken from me. I had despised the thing when I first got it and here I found myself loving her. My g/f at the time was driving. A svhoolbus ran a stop sign and broad sided us. You read that right A SCHOOLBUS RAN A STOP SIGN. She was gone. my g/f was dazed a bit, and i had some cuts and bruised from the glass and airbag (BTW glass on top of the airbag from a broken window and your face don't mix.) I was pulling glass out of my face for months.

Now on to the other prototype I first saw before the beloved 5th Gen Camaro. It was a SAAB. The SAAB AREO X. It had a design that was so futuristic that i absolutely had to have it. Since SAAB started out with JETs I had to have the only car that had a "cockpit canopy" instead of doors. It was supposed to run on ethanol or biodiesel, or something like that. I imagine that the project was scrapped by SAAB. I could only imagine what kind of technical nightmare it would have been to have a cockpit canopy 2-dr sports car that ran on a twin turbo v-6. Plus I wasn't too keen on the idea of my cars exhaust smelling like french fries or fried food. Then I saw HER........

The all new prototype GEN 5 Camaro... I instantly knew that if this car was ever produced that I would be owning one. I didn't care how I was going to do it, all I knew was that I was going to have one and I was going to find a way to afford one. That day finally came. It started being produced and i had to have one. I was going through a divorce after marring the long time g/f (big mistake when you're only 19). so my dream girl was out of my reach for now. After a few more years and working extremely hard I finally found her and brought her home with me this past October. She's a deep Black 2011 SS/RS with Inferno Orange stripes and a Black/IO interior. When I first saw pictures of her, I wasn't immediately in love. I knew that I had to see her in person. As soon as I walked on the lot and saw sitting there I knew that I had to have her. She was beautiful. I'm sure there are some service members (Marine snipers to be exact) on this forum and I'm almost certain that most here have seen the movie Jarhead so I'll say this once. THIS IS MY CAMARO. THERE ARE MANY LIKE IT, BUT THIS CAMARO IS MINE....

I know I'm a bit late in the modding game but here she is... My beautiful, my Black Inferno, my new baby, Valerie is her name.......

Let the modding begin.....

Welcome to the addiction.

Thanks! I have already started on the addiction. I have obtained a partial sponsorship from one company and will be posting some pics, reviews, and installs soon.

Ok. So, I decided to put in some halos and demon eyes. I started looking at all the different companies offering the different kits. Single LED replacement vs complete halo ring replacement. I also started weighing the different options. Did I want them to change color or stay a static color? While I am a fan of all of AACs product offerings (i.e. Oracle), I find the prices of almost any LED halo kit to be extremly expensive. Especially considering that the price of LEDs and PCBs are so inexpensive as well as the labor involved because most are built by automated means or purchased in bulk from an overseas source. Even the controllers are somewhat overpriced. I couldn't see paying $400+ for one set of rings plus a controller and the 80mm rings. Call me cheap or whatever but I decided to try and find the rings cheaper. After much searching and emailing people back and forth I found some really nice budget halos for a fraction of the cost of other kits and they look just as good and are just as bright as the rest. Grant it they don't have as many LEDs per ring as others, but considering the price, they're a pretty good deal and still look damn good. I also did the DRL with the 80mm RGB rings. Even though the 80mm rings for the DRL work and fit, it seems that if you wanted the rings to be closer to the outer edge of the DRL or fogs, the rings would need to be 85-90mm. but again I'm not complaining cause the price I got these for was ridiculous (PM me if you are interested in some. I have 4-80mm RGB rings, 6-160mm RGB rings, and 2 controllers left).

The two things that were the most of a pain was 1) baking, (which I had to do twice to one light because I was being overly cautious) opening the headlights, positioning the two 80mm rings, and 2) finding a suitable hole in the firewall to run the wires [which I ended up drilling in the end]. Over all this mod rates pretty fair and I am pretty pleased with the outcome when it was finished.

Before and after pics here in my shop.....

The headlights were crusted with bugs and dirt. Needless to say I polished them up real good before I put them back in.

DAYUMM! those eyes looks mean!

I just ordered my DIY side marker kit for $99.99 from Xtremeledsonline.com. From what I have seen its a pretty good kit and if you have the time and don't feel like spending $350+ on a set, this is defininitely a great alternative.

There are 2 red 40 count LED arrays, 2 amber 40 count arrays. The only cutting you'll have to do is on the marker lights. If you don't feel comfortable opening your factory marker lights there are tons of aftermarket pairs on ebay for like $25-$30 plus you could get smoked or clear ones, do a vinyl wrap on it, cut out where the lights are, and BAM! Looks just as good as some of the others but WAAYYY cheaper. I'll be posing a DIY when I get the kit in case there isn't one already. Oh another big thing is they're American made and manufactured and they have a lifetime warranty against LED failure.

Here's a pic from their website. Kind of a preview of whats to come...

EDIT: I'm also going to try my hand at ghosting the marker lights with paint (I bought clear aftermarket lenses). It should be interesting to say the least. If anyone is interested I can do a DIY on it once I get it figured out. I'm fairly certain that you just thin out the color with a clearcoat and layer it.

Thanks. One was a pain to get to work, but it was my fault for not following my own wiring guide. Plus each halo is RGB. I could do pretty much any color combo per halo set. They're actually pretty nice and so far I'm the only Camaro in town with them.http://www.camaro5.com/forums/images/icons/icon10.gif

Also, if there is anyone in or near Vicksburg, MS (aka sucksburg, turdburg, etc,...) I can help with lighting and minor performance mod installation. Only thing is you have to bring your own tools. I have had too many people swipe my tools in the past and I'm pretty anal about my tools.... lol

looking good so far! always liked the IOM stripes against black :thumbsup:

I like the stipes as well. When I get the gfx kit I thought about painting the gfx IOM and doing something a bit different with the stripes. Keeping what ever I do with the stripes still IOM.

So I contacted Vengeance Racing about buying a cam from them. I have seen a lot of people go with just a cam, LT headers, and a CAI. I'm planning on ordering my CAI from Vararam and getting the tune model. I'd like to see how many have the tune model and get their opinions on performance. I'd also like to see how many had another aftermarket CAI and switched to a tune model of the Vararam and noticed a difference.

OK, so I got my marker light kit from XtremeLedsOnline.com and these LEDs are amazing. I couldn't help but test them before I got too invloved in installing them and all I could say was DAMN! These LEDs are really bright, almost blinding if you stare at them too long. I was so excited aboult getting them installed that I just pulled and used my stock marker light housings. I'll do the ghosted clear housings when I can find some more time for mods (which are piling up in my shop). I'm going to have to find a good camera because for some reason mine just wouldn't take good pics of anything. Here's a pic before and after and I'll be doing a DIY if I cant find one here to link to.

The after pics are really blurry from some reason. I'll see if i can get better ones tonight.

Well I am finally getting around to updating my journal now. Since my last post, I put JBA 1 7/8" long tube headers on, cut the mufflers off, plasti-dipped my tail bezels, got the technostalgia tails, and bought my vararam tune intake. I've gotten so many more packages in for more upgrades and whatnot that I feel like its Christmas in July. lol. I suppose i should post some pics of what I have conquered already....

Here are my pics of the headers. I took the O2 and the temp sensors out of the stock cats. I quickly found out why some just buy new sensors to replace the old ones. It seemed like the factory had cross threaded 3 out of the 4 sensors. I managed to take a die and recut some of the threads to make them work. All in all it went fairly well given all the interruptions and what not. It would have went a whole lot quicker if I had help. I'm happy with the new exhaust tones, but I have to get rid of the popping. I've been debating on getting some high flow performance mufflers like Flowmaster Super 10s or something. I don't want to muffle it too much. Just a little.