Spring Shopping Cart (and my opinions)

[mammoth713]

So i bought a bunch of goodies for Spring of 2010 so i can enjoy the car until i sell it a couple years from now. I figured i should post my findings so people can look at my experience and learn from it. I had a hard time finding certain information out looking on forums so hopefully this puts it out more. And these are all fairly common mods for ls1 fbodys

ENJOY

OBJECT->INSTALL EASYNESS (0 out of 10)->OPINION
*SLP Intake Lid----2----i dont know if i got a bad one or what but i tried heating the neck of it to fit better and blah blah, there was NO WAY the MAF was going to fit.. got it halfway in and then it got seized up... dropped the MAF atleast twice during this process driving it into the neck.. tried screwing it in, tried pushing it in.. NOTHING worked.. what i ended up having to do was dremel out some of the plastic (a lot actually) and even with that, its still super super super tight.. its unbleievable.. for $100 for a plastic box that doesnt even fit my MAF, i was pissed to say the least. KILLED my hands trying to pull the MAF into the neck too.. probably will never buy another SLP item again.. i like my LM1 but between this lid and the bowtie grill i'm not really impressed by SLP


*WS6Store Short Stick------10-----the best fun for money investment i have in the car. literally took all of 5 minutes to swap out and the chrome plated one looks great.. makes the shifter feel a lot tighter. i have read on forums about removing the upper console rather than the boot and it made the install 100% easier than risking breaking a boot clip. i highly suggest doing so. overall extremely pleased with the purchase. looks great, works great!


*Sony CDX-GT640UI----9----this installation was actually very easy in the camaro. i was actually really worried with ruining the dash or wiring it wrong.. wiring it outside of the car and just plugging in the harness was great! and plus the stereo sounds great! i installed the stereo and had all the guts of it laying out and just gave it a test run on the stock speakers and i would say that alone made it sound way better. sounded almost uncompressed and having more headroom compared to the stock HU. lastly, the red/white theme on the stereo matches really well with my stock dash.


*Kee Audio CDT CL-E61CV w/ CL-E6NEO midbass----8---install was easy. only part that was dissappointing was the midbass chassis not fitting the stock diameter between the stock holes.. what i had to do is only attach it with 2 screws and have a third screw in a triangle shape basically using the side of the metal that the screws usually screw into to actually hold the threads.. its hard to explain but it worked out ok i guess.. As for sound quality, i have done live sound for years as well as being an audiophile for a while.. to me these speakers are awesome. my only dissappointment is that the front tweeters are almost TOO good or loud.. they cut through too easily. when i purchased the midbass speakers i knew i wasnt going to get crazy bass but i hoped it would atleast give good general bass support. and thats exactly how they turned out.. good bass but not overpowering. very pleased with this purchase. sounds great with an aftermarket HU. A major suggestion is to double check the clearance of your speakerwires because its a long story but i had to rip the one door back apart once i realized the window hook at the bottom was pulling up on the speaker wires


*PAC SWI-PS--------8------for how bad people made it sound to program and whatnot i kind of expected the worst for installing this.. to me the worst part was making sure i had all the wiring right.. i installed it all and tried programming it.. wasnt getting any response from the unit and then i realized i spliced into the WRONG dark blue wire in teh factory harness. SO WATCH OUT. i didnt realize it was the smaller one of the two even tho when i was splicing it i was like "hmm this wire is a pretty thick gauge for just steering wheel controls".. after i changed the splice it programmed fine! and worked.. put all the stuff back in the dash and then i realized an hour later the steering wheel controls stopped working... ripped it all out again and then i realized the plug for the PAC unit came out of the HU when i put it in... put it back in and made sure the cables were organized better and then it worked great! very pleased with retaining my stock steering wheel controls!


*SLP Bowtie Grill-----7------Looks great! really changes the catfish look of the front end. I hate how you have to drill holes in the bumper to attach it with those dumb xmas tree fasteners. To me, itd make more sense to have it just clip into the stock clip holes in the bumper, but i guess that would have just been too easy.. the 1/4" drill bit they recommend to use is not nearly big enough, so i slowly reamed out the holes further until the fasteners went in snug. i currently have it attached with 4/8 fasteners i think, i will probably do 2 more in the next coming days but its just too hard to get to the upper 2 fasteners and get them to go in. SLP charges by far too much for this grill, to me its definitely not worth $200+. maybe if it was literally a pop-in connection i could justify the price. i ended up buying it because it was the look i wanted.


*BitViper's Shortie Antenna-------10------This antenna seriously changes the look of the whole car, makes it appear sleeker/lower. I saw pics of other people's cars prior to purchasing it, but in person it really changes the look of the car entirely. a really great, inexpensive part. Reception is nearly the same if not better than the stock truck antenna. BitViper was great to order through, and had a speedy delivery at a fair price! I would highly recommend!


*Rotoworks Drilled/Slotted Rotors------10-----These rotors are great! I purchased the cross drilled/slotted ones and they look like they mean business. I dont track my car, but for DD and spirited backroad driving, these rotors fit the bill perfectly. they do what they're supposed to, look awsome, and are priced cheap! Highly recommend!


*Hawk HPS Brake Pads------10-----Pads work great! car feels new (beside the fact i needed two brand new front calipers b/c 1/2 pistons were seized on each side ) Would highly recommend!


*UMI Adjustable Panhard Bar-------8-------Easy to install., looks great! Great for re-centering the rear of the car once its lowered. Kind of a lot of money for a metal rod tho :\


*Koni 4/3 Shocks--------8------Pretty freakin expensive (and i even got them on sale) but they do perform awesome. I am pleased i bought them and can have the piece of mind that they have a lifetime warranty too. The handling improvement is pretty impressive. Going into a turn, the car feels like it leans in almost. I thought my car handled great before, now its just ridiculous. Literally the best handling car i've driven thus far. I would suggest these to someone who is lowering the car and planning on having it for over 2 years atleast so you can get your $ worth out of the shocks. BTW, my car needed both new front upper control arms (i think thats what they're called), due to the rust. Its a really common problem on these cars from what i gather.


*Strano 1.2" lowering springs------10-----Great price, great service, easy install, and they look perfect. I looked around all different forums etc looking for the car with the best stance. The koni/strano springs are not only in perfect stance but handle perfect as well. The car feels like it is planted on the road. Very pleased. Here are the Height measurements stock VS lowered w/ koni/strano setup (KEEP IN MIND- had the tires rotated while installing the stuff, so it may be off a little because the front would appear to not have dropped as much b/c the front tires are taller than they used to be)

STOCK...................LOWER..................... ...DIFFERENCE
FL....27-7/8"...............26-7/8"...........................1"
FR....27-5/8"....................27"......................... ......5/8"
RL....28-3/8".................27-1/4".........................1-1/8"
RR....28".....................26-15/16"......................1-1/16"

*UMI Shock Tower Brace-----7-----Great price, looks great. Only thing is, mine fit kind of funny and didnt have enough threads on the bolts to use the provided washers as suggested. Its hard to explain, the face of the shock mount where the bolts pop thru the body into the engine bay was not flat at all.. and the shock tower brace bottom is flat. So what i did is use one washer on each side to make the bar come flush as possible with the body in the engine bay. But, now that its installed i am really happy with it. Noticed a little more steering response or rigidity. My car has Ttops so i figured why not try a shock tower brace..



PICS ARE BELOW

[10spokess]

wow sounds like someone went to town on their credit card lol jk but all in all sounds good man

[Z28boy2000]

ill be waiting for the pics

[tatertot91]

Looks good, wait til you do the front suspension

[mammoth713]

Looks good, wait til you do the front suspension

haha i am looking forward to it.

its amazing how good that differential cleaned up with a wire brush and a can of spray paint.. i cant get over how much better it looks

[tatertot91]

its amazing how good that differential cleaned up with a wire brush and a can of spray paint.. i cant get over how much better it looks

definitely a lot nicer

[10spokess]

man youve been buissy cant wait till your done

[mammoth713]

Here are photos with the before(pics of the day i bought it)/after

[mammoth713]

Here are some random other pictures with the install done:

[mammoth713]

ok so 280 views and 8 comments hahaha

[ggino85]

the car looks awesome

wats with some of the pics, the color is kinda funny, makes it hard to see the car in detail.

[tatertot91]

think it looks great, never a fan of those tips but it looks good.

[mammoth713]

the car looks awesome

wats with some of the pics, the color is kinda funny, makes it hard to see the car in detail.

cell phone

[az gt eater]

ok, im sold on the antenna.you werent kidding about the difference. im gonna do the same fo sho

[ggino85]

cell phone

Oh ok, well it looks good none the less, just means it would look even better with a real camara.

think it looks great, never a fan of those tips but it looks good.

i dont think any tips look all that great on our cars, i think they all need CME, IMHO

[tatertot91]

i dont think any tips look all that great on our cars, i think they all need CME, IMHO

not to jack this thread up but i think camaros look best with the CME setup or no tips at all

But thats a whole different subject

[10spokess]

huge improvement man i think a suncoast hood install in your future

[mammoth713]

not to jack this thread up but i think camaros look best with the CME setup or no tips at all

But thats a whole different subject

idk i like these tips that i got.. IMO i dont like CME, the valence on camaros makes it look weird or that its trying to be like a corvette too much

huge improvement man i think a suncoast hood install in your future

well i spent all this $ at once for the reason that i'm done with it. I dont wanna put anymore money into the car. I am looking forward to enjoying the car how it is now until i sell it.

My next mod will be a c6 z06 in 3 years

[tatertot91]

idk i like these tips that i got.. IMO i dont like CME, the valence on camaros makes it look weird or that its trying to be like a corvette too much

Thats all that matters

My next mod will be a c6 z06 in 3 years

inb4 next mod