My Saronno Red 03 GS

03_red3g · Mar 15, 2012

WARNING: PIC HEAVY
Well I've been on hear for a couple years now and decided i would finally make a members ride thread. Its been an amazing car i wouldn't have traded it for anything, many times i wanted to but am glad i didn't. But recently i purchased a 96 Lexus sc300 and it's time to say goodbye to my baby. Gladly I'm not selling it to some random person but to my younger brother where i can keep a close eye on it. Now for the pics.
When i first got it. Unfortunately these are the only pictures i took.

What you can't see is the roofs clear coat was peeling a little and the paint had faded. I bought it from a girl locally for $5000 for my first car. When i picked it up it had a tinkerbell sticker or the side back glass but was all stock with 116xxx miles. My grandpa changed the timing belt for me and we flushed the radiator and changed the transmission fluid and oil.
Sadly after having it for just a few months i was going to school one morning and got behind my, then, recent ex-girlfriend and at my school theres a pretty sharp turn with a three lane road. I'll try and get some pictures of it one day. Well i decided i was too cool and would pass her in said curve. Will passing something in the passenger seat was sliding so i reached to grab it and hit it into sport mode, i don't know if this caused me to lose control or not but i slid off the road and into a guard rail messing up the passenger side, i just kept going not even thinking about what i just did. I got out and looked at it and went to class. I didn't have a clue what to do and having a parking space right beside my ex-girlfriend didn't help. The police came and got me from class later in the day and went and wrote it up. When i went to court i lost my license for 6 months.

First body work my grandpas neighbor did, he's an retired auto repairer, drove it for a month then my uncle agreed to help me paint it for my graduation present. Pretty nice if you ask me.

Ready for paint!

I got this before the body work started for a good deal i thought. thank you ebay.

I wish i had the picture of it fresh after paint but it was on my moms phone and is long gone now. These are a month or two after being painted. Bought the wheels with the money i saved over the summer.]

Niteshaded my tails. This was the first attempt. Wasn't happy with it so i did the tails three more times but left the others alone.

]

Oh yeah got some evo wheels too.

Bought some coilovers, thanks Micheal, and getting ready to put them on.

Looks a million times better im my opinion. No more monster truck status.

Also go a whole set of sway bar end links off of ebay. i was pretty pleased with them. paid $50 shipped and was lucky enough got them in the middle of installing the coils. Especially since i only ordered them two days before.The fronts were beefier than the oems but the rears were the same. i just hope the quality is as good but they seem to be doing great so far.

It doesn't ride as good as stock but most everything wont. Im very happy with them and wish i would have bought them before anything. I blame my roads for how they ride though, i drove it up to South Carolina were i bought my SC and on good roads the drove like a dream and on the mountain roads handle amazing. Just buy some and don't look back.
Heres how bad my dash was. Rattled like crazy and really killed the look of the car.

Broke the ring on my speedo when i changed the lights.

Bought GTS seats before the coilovers got the fronts and rears for $200 along with a front and rear strut bar, front oem gt, for another 100. The car they came off of only had 26,000 miles. Cleaned them up wired in the driver seat and looks and feels much better.

After days after days after days of searching everywhere for a dash i finally found one in Dawsonville, barely over 30 mins from my house. Called the guy and asked how much he wanted for it. Only 60 bucks if i took it out, not a crack on it, little did i know it would be rougher than i thought.

The guy said that a family of mice or something had lived in it for a couple of years. Pictures do not do it justice. It smelled so bad i really needed a respirator. Everything was cover in crap and urine and there were even decomposed mice in the passenger floor board and so many leaves. The car had barely any miles on it. The engine looked brand new and the body damage wasn't that bad either. I asked if i could buy it and out everything for the gts into mine but he couldn't sell it which probably was for the best because changing everything over would have been more than it was worth. Just need to clean it up and get it in my car. Terrifying getting it home. I picked up more than just the dash, which i need to sell, all for $110. All in all definitely worth it. Will be updating with more recent pictures soon of my interior with new dash and cleaned up, along with the lighting and mods. Thanks for reading.

rsingh12 · Mar 15, 2012

Looks good, I just dont like the black spoiler

ccarrillo717 · Mar 15, 2012

Kept getting better the more I scrolled down... Good work

ZIG-GTS · Mar 15, 2012

:yesway: at first I was like, what the fuck. Good work man, I like the spoiler.

03_red3g · Mar 15, 2012

Awe soup boy you're killin me. Just kidding Raman. It's grown on me. I bought another spoiler to get it painted to match just never did. I have two sets of side skirts also I just need to get painted and put on. But thanks too ccarillo. I've spent a lot of time and money into and it's been great. Both you guys have nice cars too. Nicer than mine could be. But it's we're I want it for now. Thanks guys.

rsingh12 · Mar 16, 2012

Wait do I know you :lol: I love the tails as well

Hysteria FTW · Mar 15, 2012

I like it, very nice work.

S.Maxwell · Mar 15, 2012

Reminds me of how bad I want a paint job! Good work, It looks great!

2002_GT · Mar 15, 2012

I really like the color and I agree with ccarrillo717 the more I scrolled the better it got, love red on black on a 3g.
you from GA too :wavey:

RicoSmooth · Mar 15, 2012

nice work

Rusty · Mar 15, 2012

Good work! The car looks great!
I felt the same way about my wing (black on white body). It's grown on me though.
I don't know if it'd suit your fancy especially since you recently repainted, but I think painting your roof black would look awesome. I've always wanted to see a red two tone. It'd flow better with the black wing too. I have that setup, but in white.

Meest00GT · Mar 15, 2012

Very nicely done! I honestly am a bit of a fan of your first set of wheels with darker red-ish lip. It's good to hear it'll stay in the family and not go to some random, for what could very well be their first car. Who knows what destruction could take place :lol:

grfft3r · Mar 15, 2012

Great work. Glad you didn't gave up on the car. You did a wonderful job. :twothumb:

rsingh12 · Mar 16, 2012

Hahaha non taken man. I just now a lot of the GA members and was wondering if you knew me :lol:

03_red3g · Apr 20, 2012

Well I have some new pics of my new car, some before I left to pick it up, and some with my other wheels.

This is cleaned up heading to look at my now Lexus.

Came back with this baby.

Yes it has a few dents and dings but has been kept up pretty good. The timing belt has been done and had a recent tune up. Only a two owner car(now three) and a 96 5 speed which is rare. All in all im pretty happy with it. Its got some power and will be fun to modify. Especially put on the ground then put a 1jz in.

While I was changing the oil in the eclipse, I noticed the rim was pretty badly scraped up on the inside. So when I got home I jacked it up and poped it off to find this.

That was rubbing on this. If you can see it, its the shinny little spot on the crossmember. Ill be grinding that off tomorrow hopefully.

After I found that i decided to put my other wheels on. I only put two on because I was lazy, tired and had to work at 4a.m. the next day. But I took a few pics.

Yes there is post it notes on the wheels. When I took them off it was time to rotate so I marked them and didnt take them off.

Ill be taking some more pics tomorrow getting ready for Import Alliance. Really want to lower it some more but we will see. Tried to lower after I changed the oil but the coils wouldnt budge. Weird. After Sunday the Eclipse will officially, no longer be mine and will completely be my brother and I will get my money. Then we spend it on the Lexus. :ndance:

2002_GT · Apr 20, 2012

03_red3g said:
Ill be taking some more pics tomorrow getting ready for Import Alliance.

will you be rolling with us? or on your own?

rsingh12 · Apr 20, 2012

My coils did the same thing man

What you going to do with the evos?

03_red3g · Apr 20, 2012

Really? I even sprayed mine down with WD40 and they still wouldn't budge. You ever get yours to go down? I'll probably keep the evos I don't know yet though. Tires will be cheaper for those and I can go lower with them. But I need to sell one set so I can buy some for the Lexus. You want the evos Raman?

rsingh12 · Apr 21, 2012

If the price is good. PM me and I will give you my number and we can talk about it. Mine coils did the same :lol:

03_red3g · Aug 13, 2012

Well guys its been a very long time since I've posted up on here. Meet some of the club3g guys at Import Alliance. Very cool guys. But sold the car to my brother the day after Import. So its offically no longer my car. I'm still the only one that works on it which I don't mind. Now for what I've been working on. Well I tried to unseize my coilover and it all went terribly wrong. So the lesson of the day is DON'T BUY USED COILOVERS!!!!!!!

Got it apart and put it in the vise and f****d it up, and it still didn't move. But it was definitely messed up before I am assuming. The pillow mount is as loose as a $2 hooker and the coilover itself is probably blown, but you live and learn. So hopefully my hero 3G Runner is hooking me up. I put the stock struts back on for now and awaiting my replacement. But here is what I did tonight.

Got my good front and both the rears torn down. The rears were a pain in the a**. At first I though they were seized too but nothing a 2x4 can't fix. Hopefully in the next week or two I'll get the one I need and clean it up and get them back on.
I guess I'll post some pics of my Lex too. Got some beautiful Powered By Max coilovers. They are gold as copper. Go look them up. I love them.

My teacher let me do it in class so everyone help and we got it done in a few hours. This was before we had to raise it up because the inside fender was sitting on the wheel and would barely move. I'll have to get more pictures of how it sits now. Its pretty brutal going up my driveway but I like it.

Then I bought this super loud exhaust. Drove 6 hours round trip to get it in Auburn. Didn't take the Eclipse but for lols I could have.

Then I bought me a front lip off of some guys car that he drives daily.

I just need to get some wheels and go lower. Sadly I plan on trying the same on the Eclipse. I won't take it this low but I'm gonna get it down there. So stay posted guys hopefully I'll have some updates in a week or two.

03Quicksilver3G · Aug 14, 2012

Clean 3g!

03_red3g · Aug 14, 2012

Thanks man. I appreciate it. Especially from one of the nicest 3Gs on the club.

scooter · Aug 14, 2012

Nice to see another saronno red. Looks good!

03_red3g · Aug 14, 2012

Thanks. Yours is super nice. Got the lip kit and I only wish I could do the swap like you have. Beautiful car man.

03Quicksilver3G said:
Thanks man, its come a long way to look like it is now:ndance:

Yeah it has. I dream of boosting my car like you two guys. Definitely inspiring.

My Saronno Red 03 GS

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