lscamaro's College Budget Build Thread

[lscamaro]

Ok, well I had some time today and I decided to go ahead and finally start a build thread for my car.

Backstory: It was 2010 and I was a 17 year old senior in high school when I first laid eyes on a Camaro. I knew from that moment that I would do everything in my power to get one. I never actually thought I would get one but hey, a kid can dream right? Well I had a 2006 Honda Element that I used to take me to and from school and loved the thing. It was very roomy on the interior and wasted very little gas. Regardless of this, I went ahead and asked my mom if she could possibly think about getting me a new car. My mother eventually went to my uncle, who is a car nut. She asked for opinions on cars that were safe, reliable, and got decent gas mileage. My uncle immediately pointed out a Camaro. He had a 1979 Camaro Z28 and he has always loved them. Coincidentally, he also had just bought a new white 2011 Camaro LS. When my mom started considering the car, I started to actually believe it could happen! My uncle eventually asked me what color I would like "if I were to get one." I had seen never seen a CGM in person but when I saw one the day before I was asked, I knew that was the color I wanted. Well on December 28, my uncle got a call from Wommack Chevrolet saying that they had brought in a CGM as he requested and it was there if we wanted to see it. We made the 2 hour drive to San Antonio to see it. The whole ride, I was excited that I might actually get one but I tried to remain as non-excited as I could be in case it didn't work out. After just 3 hours of talking with the dealer, my uncle turned to me and smiled. "It's yours" he said. I had never been so happy in my life! I was actually going to be driving a Camaro! When we finally rolled into Laredo, heads turned left and right since not many people had a Camaro yet. The next day, I immediately woke up and looked out the window to make sure the car was still there and it wasn't just a dream. When I saw it, I fell in love again! I immediately headed to my friends house to show it to him! As you can tell from the pics, he loved it too!

Stock Specs
- Color: Cyber Gray Metallic
- Year: 2011
- Trim: LS
- Engine: LLT
- Transmission: Automatic

Cosmetic Modifications
- Stock Cyber Grey Metallic Spoiler
- LT wheels plasti-dipped black
- Black Camaro Fender Lettering
- RS Headlights
- LED Fog Lights
- Gloss Black "Hash Mark" Stripes
- Painted Front and Rear Bowties
- RS Tail Lights
- DIY CGM Side Markers
- CGM Heritage Grille

Performance Modifications
- Vararam
- Mace 25" Intake Manifold Insulator
- Mace Ported Intake Manifold
- Borla Pro-XS Custom Axle-Back
- Rear-Cat Delete

Interior Modifications
- OEM Leather Steering Wheel
- OEM Leather Shifter
- Red Footwell Lighting
- Custom "Chevy Racing" Embroidery

Suspension Modifications
- Pedders 27mm Front Sway Bar
- 1.3" Front / 1" Rear Pedders Spring Drop
- Pedders Front Z Sway Bar
- Pfadt Trailing Arms

[lscamaro]

As soon as I got the Camaro, I realized I wanted to change a few things on it to make it my own. Having never ever modified or even messed with a car at all, I started to do research. I stumbled upon this site and immediately I began reading and reading. I started looking for pictures of CGM cars and stuff I could do to them. One night, while searching through photos, I stumbled upon the JBA Camaro. I loved the way it looked! That car was the car that gave me the idea to do a Red/CGM theme on my car.

[lscamaro]

I was so excited to have my car I decided to put a vanity plate I found in the back of my closet.

[lscamaro]

A few weeks after having received my car, I went for a cruise with a buddy of mine who had a scion tc. His car has an intake, exhaust and a 75 shot of nitrous at the time. We even took a few pics at a random parking lot!

Now, my friends tc was repainted the 370z blue and now has a turbo in it.

[lscamaro]

I was searching through ebay for bowtie overlays for my car and found these bad boys. I put them on the day I got them!

[lscamaro]

To continue the CGM and Red theme I had going, I decided to install red gill stripes on my car and also painted the Heritage Wheel Trim rings.

[lscamaro]

Later, I decided that I wanted to add foglights to my car. My uncle helped me come up with a plan to add some. We bought a generic fog light from Wal-Mart for about 20 dollars and wired them to a switch I put in the cabin.

[lscamaro]

After that, I decided to look into cheap mods that would make my car look better. We went to autozone and bought some red led strips and put them in the grille area. My new grille lighting!

[lscamaro]

I then decided to really get bitten by the mod bug. After about a month of research and looking for deals, I was able to find my borla pro-xs mufflers. Here's a pic of her getting her new axle-back. Also, as you can see in the pic, I added a stock style spoiler to the car.

[lscamaro]

A little after that, I found a great deal for some non-rs lamps with pre-installed AAC dual color halos. Red/White halos. With the help of the friend with the scion tc, we installed them. We started at around 10 pm at night (weather is extremely hot in south texas) and went at it not knowing what we were doing at all. By 7 am, we had everything installed and just needed the wiring and install of the switches. My friend crashed at my house for the night and we tackled it and finished it the next day.

[lscamaro]

Eventually, I got bored with the bowtie overlay I put on the car and got the courage to just paint it. I painted it Transformer's 3 style. Black in the middle and red on the outside. I also decided to paint the rear bowtie and paint the taillight bezels black.

[lscamaro]

I had wanted to add some sort of stripe package to my car but since I wanted it in red, I didn't want it to overpower the look of the car. So the classic camaro stripes were out. I ended up going with some hood spears. I think they look great!

[lscamaro]

Then came the point I was desperate to get rid of the heritage wheels. Sadly, I'm on a college student's budget so I looked for options that would be lightweight since I like to drag race the car and would fit on the existing tires. My uncle and I came up with the answer. Buy the stock LT wheels. They were light, fit the stock tires, and looked pretty good to me. I decided to plasti-dip them black while I was at it.

[lscamaro]

After pretty much dedicating all my spare time to thinking of ideas of how to mod my camaro, I came to the conclusion that I really wanted to lower my car. But after seeing a few of the prices for springs and being quoted the labor cost, I realized that it was probably never going to happen :(

Well one day, while browsing through the regional texas forum, I saw a post by JusticePete from Pedders. He was looking for 2 v6 Camaros in the San Antonio area to install his lowering springs as proof that Pedders springs worked on the v6 as well as the v8. Pete and I began to PM and after being told the deal I would get, I jumped on it! I was finally going to get my car lowered... and by arguably one of the best suspension companies for the Camaro! I took off that Friday morning to American Muffler & Brake in Fredericksburg, TX to get my springs installed! It's safe to say I loved the look of the car after. This is probably my single biggest cosmetic mod to date and it definitely alters the look of the car a lot!