[SSE 4 2SS]

As mentioned before, the first mod, other than me putting my butt prints in the seat and leaving some rubber on the street in front of the dealership was the installation of the GMPP Offroad axle back exhaust by the dealer during the PDI.

They sound great, but my wife is a little tired of the drone from 1750 to 2000 RPM. Outside of that RPM range, they are awesome....They have a little popping on deceleration, and sound great when I'm in hammer mode...

I didn't want to spend much on any exhaust upgrades, as I still wasn't sure where I was going down the road, and didn't want to have to pull off high end aftermarket parts.

I decided that some cosmetic mods were first in line. I saw a thread somewhere where someone had cut out the top of the engine cover and put in screen material. I liked it... and thought, I can do that... so. I mapped out the cuts, several times to make sure that I had them even, and then broke out the dremel. It took several tries to determine the best blade to use, but I got there. I cut it all out, short of the lines, and then used a hand file to close in on the lines. Off to hme depot for some screen material, and walahhhh, I had a custom engine cover... hmmm, don't care much for the color... so, off to AutoZone for some paint...

This created a problem, but not much of one. AutoZone carried a line of paints known as duplicolor.... but they didn't have anything to duplicolor RJT... so.. time for the scientific method of paint color selection... don't try this at home....

I asked the girl if she could unlock the paint cage and let me try several cans... Fortunately, it was a partly cloudy day, so the light wasn't to harsh, nor too soft... I got about nine cans of sray paint that were close to the proper color, and carried them out to my car...

This step is important... I got a detailing rag out of the trunk and cleaned the dust off the tops of all the cans, (which I'm sure the girl inside appreciated) and then held the cans up to the front of my car, nope, nope, hmmm close, nope, close, nope, hell no, really close, and maybe...

Then I took the possible candidates around to the side and then the back of my car, comparing it to different levesl and angles of light... and settled on one that I could not tell the difference on at any area of my car... I returned the others and bought every can they had of my selection...

I went home, taped everything as best as I could, (I'm not a painter) and started sanding the silver parts of the engine cover. I cut the screens back out and when all was ready, I sprayed the almost RJT paint on the sanded areas. Hmmmm, not bad, but... wait, it's lacquer, so, I wet sanded the painted areas with 2000 and then 3000 grit sandpaper, and then got out the dewalt... I had a buffing pad and some polishing compound.. wow, what a difference...I went back to home depot and got some number 8 stainless screws and washers and used them to accent the engine cover a little. There is also a pic of a trip my wife and took in the Hill Country right after Christmas 2009. It was really cold,and this pic was taken during the only time the whole three days there wasn't a drizzly rain...I managed to clean it at a little car wash and made it to this spot for the pics...