Opinions Needed: Upgrading My Car

Deliguy

New member
Sep 27, 2006
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Oregon
I'm upgrading my 05' pontiac GP GXP. The rest of the parts are coming in here in an hour or two. The engine mods I got taken care of. It'll be pushing about 425 fwhp when its all installed (+-10hp depending on how the tuning works out). I got an idea of the paintjob though of what I want but hook me up with your opinion. There's a lot I could do, but I don't want it to look ricey, I want an american muscle look more then anything because its a pontiac and not a faggy import.

Here is the exact paintjob, hood, spoiler, front grill, headlight inserts, grill I got. The only thing i didn't go with was the ground effects and the lower air dam because the car in the picture is a GTP which has a slightly different lower front bumper and I think mine looks better stock then with the air dam.
m32_mlegat.jpg


I'm also going to from my stock 18" rims to 19" of which I haven't picked out yet but I'm thinking about these:
c899_black_lip%20copy.jpg
 


sell it and get a 335i.

but yeah, the car in that pic looks pretty sick. The important thing is the spoiler doesnt make the car look like it wants to fly.
 
oh and i should mention bmw fanboys need not apply to this thread although I do value your opinion on this particular car :)

I looked at plenty of bmw's when I bought that car. I don't dislike BMWs but I have no interest in owning one. Although I will admit I came extremely close to picking an 03' V8 745i, the rest of the lil bmw windup toys didn't interest me.

fyi, the only thing that broke the deal on buying it was I went to look and test drive it and the guy took one look at me and decided I was some punk kid with no money and wouldn't let me test drive it. He showed me inside and under the hood and later offered to drive it for me on the test drive just in case I might have had rich parents, but I quickly told him to fuck off when he said that.
 
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but yeah, the car in that pic looks pretty sick. The important thing is the spoiler doesnt make the car look like it wants to fly.
Agreed, I can't stand big ass wings on a car (unless its a lotus extige) especially front wheel drive cars :)
This is the new spoiler, it'll be painted all black:
gp1905_2.jpg


Here are the taillights i got:
gp1921.jpg


Also the car in the pic has aluminum grills. Mine will have dark chrome.
 
I don't want it to look ricey, I want an american muscle look more then anything because its a pontiac and not a faggy import.

The only thing i didn't go with was the ground effects...

Yeah if you don't want to look like a Sake Burner definietly stay away from the ground effect lights. They just seem a little bit cheesy to me for the most part. Plus, you cant even have them on while you drive, they only work when you are parked.

I like that orange(ish) brown rust paint for muscle cars, but your paint looks good already. Black is always cool though, stay away from red because it is 100% true that cops just gun for people who drive red cars.

Do you have a really loud muffler or intake on it?
 
Yeah if you don't want to look like a Sake Burner definietly stay away from the ground effect lights. They just seem a little bit cheesy to me for the most part. Plus, you cant even have them on while you drive, they only work when you are parked.

I like that orange(ish) brown rust paint for muscle cars, but your paint looks good already. Black is always cool though, stay away from red because it is 100% true that cops just gun for people who drive red cars.

Do you have a really loud muffler or intake on it?
The new hood is actually functional. I got a new airbox for it so it'll utilize the ram air for its cool air intake. I'm getting the magnaflow system made for it (waiting on the confirmation from the exhaust guy) which is kinda louder but not rattle can loud. It will however make it sound monstrously beefy (theres videos on youtube of that system on the car but i also heard it in person). I also got the exhaust shutoff valve so when I'm at the amateur drag races we have here every weekend it'll scare all the kids in the stands and release another 3-6hp.

gn5002.jpg
 
It'll be pushing about 425 fwhp when its all installed (+-10hp depending on how the tuning works out).

What have you got an LS2 in there? Hard to believe you're getting that much HP out of a stock 5.3L rebuild. Why didn't you just go with the GTO in the first place?
 
That thing is like the antithesis of clean lines.

Even the majority of classic american muscle is minimal with clean sweeping lines. Faggy eurojapo cars are clean. This thing's got scoops, indents and louvers all over it. The Beemer knock off grille is pretty hilarious too. The car in the picture has so much wrong with it, it looks like the car Homer Simpson built.

I'm convinced Pontiac went out of business because they made some of the ugliest cars in the world.
 
What have you got an LS2 in there? Hard to believe you're getting that much HP out of a stock 5.3L rebuild. Why didn't you just go with the GTO in the first place?
its all stock atm the last of the parts should be coming in here any minute and they're getting installed two weeks after the paintjob is finished. You don't believe that stock 5.3L can make an extra 120hp? You're nuts. It can actually hop up to over 600 at the engine for only around $6.5k (and I will easily prove that if asked!). GTO's are awesome. I have no excuses of why i didn't go that route.

key problem here is fwd
fer sure. It already has mad torquesteer!
That thing is like the antithesis of clean lines.

Even the majority of classic american muscle is minimal with clean sweeping lines. Faggy eurojapo cars are clean. This thing's got scoops, indents and louvers all over it. The Beemer knock off grille is pretty hilarious too. The car in the picture has so much wrong with it, it looks like the car Homer Simpson built.

I'm convinced Pontiac went out of business because they made some of the ugliest cars in the world.
I agree with you on the clean lines thing and thats why I like the looks of it. Some people prefer wavy lines like corvettes, some prefer bubbley shapes like toyota echos, some prefer rough shapes like older cameros and mustangs. I'm on the latter. And all pontiac and beamer grills look similar. I'm no car history buff, but i'm pretty sure neither one ripped off the other. If anything newer bmw grills started looking like older pontiacs.
 
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I have a cutout coming for my Aristo (JDM Lexus GS300)
2jz-gte (TT engine)
350rwhp

Make sure its efficient for your engine, i dont think they do well on non-turboed/supercharged engines (if yours is SC then nevermind) read. backpressure

And if you want to go faster, work on some weight reduction, and dont forget to upgrade brakes and suspension.
 
Please not orange bro! Paint it gunmetal or black or a paint with special effects. They have all kind of heat changing pigments and metal flakes. Just don't do lime green or orange please. Will just ruin it IMO.
 
I am not a huge car guy, but I have always been a huge fan of the "murdered out black" paint job. But, it may not look great with all the black accents you already have.
 
Please not orange bro! Paint it gunmetal or black or a paint with special effects. They have all kind of heat changing pigments and metal flakes. Just don't do lime green or orange please. Will just ruin it IMO.
You and I are definitely on the same page as far as paintjobs go. I hate green, orange, purple or brown cars. Gunmetal with black accents was my original plan until I saw the black and orange which has pretty much changed my mind but i'm still unsure of only because I don't like orange on a car. Hence the point of this thread because the orange and black although it looks hot as hell on that car, is really a stretch for me. The only thing that makes it okay in my mind is the rule that american muscle cars can be whatever color they want and still look great. There's an older bright purple charger that drives around my town. I'm not sure but i think its between 68-70'. Even being purple I wouldn't change a damn thing on that car. That mofo redefines sexy. They could paint that bitch hot pink and I'd still proudly drive it. European super cars fall under a different category where they MUST be a bright color, in fact as bright as possible IMO.

BTW the parts made it. I inspected the crap out of them.They look even better then in the pictures so I'm very happy.

Any other opinions on color combination I should consider before talking to the paint guy tomorrow? Red and green are the only ones that are out. Unless its a really dark red or a chameleon red.
 
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