View Single Post
Old 05-12-2011, 06:02 AM   #1 (permalink)
tugboat
EcoModding Lurker
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Statesboro, GA, USA
Posts: 25

Rocinante - '19 GMC Canyon
Thanks: 9
Thanked 3 Times in 2 Posts
New modder in Statesboro, GA

Hi everyone,
My name is Clark, I have been lurking and reading for a while, but with a 1.5 mile commute I didn't really have the drive to risk angering the wife unit modifying the car... but I got a new job that requires a LOT of driving (100-120 miles/day mostly highway) and that changes the equation a bit. So: my car is a 1999 Toyota Avalon V6 with 197k miles. It is as-yet unmodified although I now have permission from the wife to tinker with it (I only told her about boattailing the wheels and covering the gaping holes in the stock alloy rims... easier to get permission for little things then get big later). I got my SG in the mail yesterday and it's hooked up and working. I will gather some data today with no mods at all as a baseline.
I am fortunate enough to have experience in my wood shop and in metal and fiberglass fabrication, so I will be building most of my mods in balsa wood and styrofoam, then 'glassing over them and removing the styrofoam. On the early to-do list are: radiator and lower inlet blanking plates, covering the fog lamp cavities, boat-tailing the wheels, radiusing the aft side of the wheelwells, and putting on airdams, at least in front of the front wheels. I need to get a better look at the underbody before I know if underbody panels would help. I want the mods to look reasonably professional, but then with a shop in the back yard, if I don't like the way something looks, I can trash it and make another Some stuff will be painted to match, other stuff will probably wind up black (cause who needs a Diamond White Pearl wheel boattail?) Needless to say, this will take some time, but I've got plenty of that (need at least 11 more years of govt employment to retire).
All advice cheerfully accepted, with the proviso that money to change the 6 out for a 4 isn't in the cards. So I will have to work with what I have.

  Reply With Quote