SS/SC Project Log: pictures of the fun stuff

Fuzzyneon · Post by **Fuzzyneon** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 2:01 am

slaw63087 wrote:damn that cars lookin good
im honestly considering getting one of the turbocharged ones when my neons paid off
i talked to a mechanic at a gm dealer about them and i want one so bad now

I had one on order but i couldnt let go of my car lol they look and from what ive heard are very nice

Mr Josh Zombie · Post by **Mr Josh Zombie** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 1:25 pm

WOO HOO!! New parts came in today!!

Sylvania Silverstar turn bulbs so my headlights are legal:

LUND Headlight covers:

and the part I've been waiting for.... My first performance part of my car. R.A.W 3" Stainless Steel intake:

Simply the best intake on the market for the SS/SC cobalt. 3" all the way back, sensors in the correct spot, and a nice Vibrant air filter.

Most people waited almost 3 months for this group buy to actually come through with. Thankfully, I only waited a month because I got in after someone dropped out. I was the LAST to pay for this, so I should be the last person to get it. Install will be at some point... depends on the weather. It's been non-stop raining all damn week. Car needs rinsed off BADLY right now.

Mr Josh Zombie · Post by **Mr Josh Zombie** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 8:57 pm

Got the crap installed today, w00t!

With the new CAI, the damn S/C SCREAMS! It's really damn hard now to stay out of boost just to hear the supercharger wind up like mad. Install wasn't too bad either, except for this part:

Wrench fell on my head and busted it open pretty good. It bled for awhile, slopped some greese in it to stop and went back to work.

No... seriously, haha.

After all that, went and washed the car... noticed a few things... will be posting a thread to ask a few questions soon.

TheRandom1 · Post by **TheRandom1** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 9:53 pm

lol, you fail at dodgeball!

"If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball!"

NiteHawk · Post by **NiteHawk** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 10:37 pm

at least he didnt get tagged in the nuts by a flying wrench....

i think that woulda been worse...

Fuzzyneon · Post by **Fuzzyneon** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 2:04 am

I love this project log it makes me want a ss/sc

Mr Josh Zombie · Post by **Mr Josh Zombie** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 1:08 pm

I would suggest ANYONE that isn't about INSANE speed, but likes a decently fast, good looking car to get one.

No, this car will never be in the ranks of a SRT-4 in performance, but it's still fun as HELL to drive, and imo looks a lot better.

This week I'll be buying the stuff to fix my eyelids finally... after that i don't know what i'll be doing to the car.

Mr Josh Zombie · Post by **Mr Josh Zombie** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 8:00 pm

Headlights are fogging

Next time I'm out towards Amits place were going to get it fixed...

Kind of starting to hate the color black because you can see -every- little scratch in it. It's quite the bitch to take care of.

I also decided to sell the headlight covers. I just think it sort of ruins the look for what I'm going for.

-Still need to get the stuff to fix the eyelids...
-Still need to get to the dealership to get the bumper fixed
-Need to zip tie the CAI to eliminate fender bulge, the wheel is rubbing on the fender lining a bit, a common problem
-July 15th I get to go pick up my full 3" exhaust... then I just need to find the time to install it.

glasswars · Post by **glasswars** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 8:03 pm

Can you post a picture with the covers before you get rid of them? I really wanted to see the whole car with them on.

Mr Josh Zombie · Post by **Mr Josh Zombie** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 8:31 pm

Sure, i'll grab the camera from work tomorrow and "install" them and take a small photoshoot.

If they didn't have the gay dimples on the top, I'd keep them.... but that's where you're supposed to install the velcro

Mr Josh Zombie · Post by **Mr Josh Zombie** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 11:18 am

I hit 20,000 miles on 6/12. In less than 2 months, I've already driven my car 2,600ish miles. Most of that is just cruisin around town because I enjoy my car.

Most I've done to the car is fix the little CAI issue. I can't seem to completely get rid of the fender bulge, but it's good enough for me....

I plan on going to the autoparts store and getting all the paint and crap i want/need and doing my eyelids and front badge.... but, i don't know if i have enough motivation for all of that

Nutmeg · Post by **Nutmeg** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 11:27 am

God you drive A LOT.

Does the CAI really improve it that much? More so than it would on a Neon?

TheRandom1 · Post by **TheRandom1** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 11:28 am

Damn dude, 20K already?!?!?! I’ve had my neon for over 3 years now and only have 47K on it!

Mr Josh Zombie · Post by **Mr Josh Zombie** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 11:38 am

I've only driven 2.6k miles in 2 months. I didn't buy the car brand new, it had 17,4xx miles on it. And I do take it to work from time to time, and that's a 120 mile round trip

And yes, a cobalt actually DOES respond to mods. Butt dyno doesn't really say shit, because i've never really been able to tell if it gets faster, but I have seen -many- dyno proven sheets about mods and cobalts. And they tend to do it the RIGHT way. Dyno the same day, same place. Run the car once, install the part, run it again. This -should- of netted me 9 - 15whp, but I have no way of really telling without shelling out more money for the dyno... and no thank you.

Oh, and a little fun fact:
2,600mi = 104 gallons of gas (i average 25mpg per tank)
at an average of $4.10 a gallon (it ranges a LOT, but... just guessing)
I've spend around $430+ in gas in 2 months with this car.

OH!! and I almost forgot, a couple of weeks ago I put the car on a truck scale and figured out -roughly- how much my car weighed.

With my subs, tools, and girlfriend in the car, it weighed in about 3,185lbs. My buddies 06 mustang v6 weighed in at 3,680lbs. No, we haven't raced yet, so i don't know who would win.

Scale is probably off a little here and there, but it weighs a lot less than I first thought it would.

TheRandom1 · Post by **TheRandom1** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 11:52 am

Ouch… I spend maybe 160 a month for e85 which only gets me roughly 18 mpg

Mr Josh Zombie · Post by **Mr Josh Zombie** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 11:58 am

pffft, that's just on the cobalt too. now, add in the girlfriends car which we use as the commuter car, and in 2 months we've spent about $1,200 on gas

whole reason we're moving the second the lease is up at the current place...

TheRandom1 · Post by **TheRandom1** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 12:01 pm

Hot damn... you spend one of my two week paychecks every month in gas. That's sad!

Mr Josh Zombie · Post by **Mr Josh Zombie** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 11:16 am

Stopped at the dealership last night... once again the service tech wasn't in

i'll be showing up there everyday until this gets taken care of....

I did finally get around to painting everything. Pulled the front badge off the car, masked it off, cleaned, painted, did a little wet-sanding to get out some dust, and cleared it. When I get home from work it should be 100% ready to pull off the tape, do a little clean up, and re-install it on the car. Pictures to follow, I have some of the progress, but it was with my shitty ass camera, so it's hardly worth posting.

I sanded down my eyelids with some 800 grit to just rough it up and get ready for primer. After almost an entire can of high-fill primer, I've got almost all the defects out. Tonight I have to sand it down a little more, get some hairs out of the primer (i hate painting in the house for this reason..) and then I should be able to start actually painting. Here's hoping that turns out fine...

Oh, and for the hell of it I stole kornholios idea and painted my key fob

I just did a quick pass with 2 lays of black, and 2 layers of clear. It didn't turn out bad, but I expect it to chip off. It was just for fun.

Also, the girlfriend needed new headlights, so I bought some of these:

For my car, and I'll just take my stockers and put them in hers. It's a win win situation! They're supposed to be a SUPER bright white bulb, so we'll see how it turns out... Now to just get some yellow H11 bulbs for the fogs and I'll be good to go.

Fuzzyneon · Post by **Fuzzyneon** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 1:38 pm

Opi wrote:Stopped at the dealership last night... once again the service tech wasn't in i'll be showing up there everyday until this gets taken care of....

I did finally get around to painting everything. Pulled the front badge off the car, masked it off, cleaned, painted, did a little wet-sanding to get out some dust, and cleared it. When I get home from work it should be 100% ready to pull off the tape, do a little clean up, and re-install it on the car. Pictures to follow, I have some of the progress, but it was with my shitty ass camera, so it's hardly worth posting.

I sanded down my eyelids with some 800 grit to just rough it up and get ready for primer. After almost an entire can of high-fill primer, I've got almost all the defects out. Tonight I have to sand it down a little more, get some hairs out of the primer (i hate painting in the house for this reason..) and then I should be able to start actually painting. Here's hoping that turns out fine...

Oh, and for the hell of it I stole kornholios idea and painted my key fob I just did a quick pass with 2 lays of black, and 2 layers of clear. It didn't turn out bad, but I expect it to chip off. It was just for fun.

Also, the girlfriend needed new headlights, so I bought some of these:

For my car, and I'll just take my stockers and put them in hers. It's a win win situation! They're supposed to be a SUPER bright white bulb, so we'll see how it turns out... Now to just get some yellow H11 bulbs for the fogs and I'll be good to go.

Car is coming along nice i keep close eye on this log you have a very "clean" taste in modding

Mr Josh Zombie · Post by **Mr Josh Zombie** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 8:15 pm

Thanks

Here's some pictures of the badge installed on my car:

As you can see, it didn't come out perfect. I didn't do that good of a job of masking it off on the bottom of it, and i still need to buff it to give it that "glass" look. But, for my first thing ever painted well, I'm proud of it.

Here's some updates to the eyelids as well:

I couldn't get EVERYthing fixed with it.... as much as I damn well tried to.

But, it's all primed and prepped.

First layer of black:

Second:

The damn can keeps shooting out globs of paint, so now I have to wait for it to dry better and wet sand it down... I'm rather pissed off at this, but what can ya do. I guess I'll just have to be more careful next time.

If these don't turn out well, then I'll just take them to a body shop to get completely fixed. At least I gave it an honest effort!

Just for fun, a video of my CAI: http://forum.2gn.org/viewtopic.php?t=33009&highlight=

TheRandom1 · Post by **TheRandom1** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 8:45 pm

You shouldn't be proud of that paint job, it looks worse than my tails did!!!!!

I'm just kidding man, for your first time it looks pretty good!

*edit* Holy crap man that sucker revs up fast!

Fuzzyneon · Post by **Fuzzyneon** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 12:57 am

TheRandom1 wrote:You shouldn't be proud of that paint job, it looks worse than my tails did!!!!!

I'm just kidding man, for your first time it looks pretty good!

*edit* Holy crap man that sucker revs up fast!

forced induction FTW lol

Mr Josh Zombie · Post by **Mr Josh Zombie** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 10:04 am

Welp, it's official. After failing with my eyelids, I'm sending them off to Lilsparkplug to paint them.

At least I tried, but I just don't have the money to screw them up again.

Also, the headlights I ordered are discontinued i guess, so I ordered some Silverstar Ultras from a member on Cobaltss.net for cheap, so those will go in when they get here.

All modding of this car will likely be put off for awhile now. I'm moving into a new apartment come August 1st, so I have to direct my money towards that instead.

Boo.

Post by **racer12306** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 10:08 am

I hear ya on that. I have new house expenses to save up for.

Real Life FTL

Fuzzyneon · Post by **Fuzzyneon** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 3:21 pm

racer12306 wrote: Real Life FTL

Seconded

NeonOn19s · Post by **NeonOn19s** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 3:35 pm

Fuzzyneon wrote:
racer12306 wrote: Real Life FTL
Seconded

Third....

I have a house, but i feel the pain... my money doesn't go into the car much any more... only when I can sneak some in...

SILVER-ES · Post by **SILVER-ES** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 11:15 am

Opi wrote:Welp, it's official. After failing with my eyelids

It was a sign, a sign that the Cobalt does not want eyelids!

Mr Josh Zombie · Post by **Mr Josh Zombie** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 6:30 pm

Updates from Crystalmarie

LilSparkPlug wrote:Went to a local dealer they didn't have the paint and told me it takes TWO weeks to order it. So I went to another dealer further north and they had a can left. *score!* They had alot of "divets" if you will so I wetsanded the hell out of them to remove them. I brought them down to primer/filler in some spots as you'll see in the pictures to get rid of these holes, so I primed them with SEM High Build Primer Surfacer. In another 40 minutes or so I can block sand this down and prepare for basecoat, but I may wait until tomorrow to spray the basecoat and clearcoat since its raining here :-\ and I don't want to stink out my garage.

After they are cleared I want them to sit for AT LEAST 48 hours to be sure they are cured before I send them out to you. I don't want any blemishes occuring during shipping because the paint is still soft. That would totally suck. OH and I'll ship this can of paint out with the eyelids when they go back to you since I'll have no need for it.

So here are your first photographic updates. Like I said I'll have plenty of pictures for you throughout the whole thing.

Here is how they were when they arrived before I touched them:

And the products I'll be using on them, my miniature arsenal:

After wetsanding those holes out with 400 grit and making sure the surface was perfectly sanded here is that end result:

And after the third coat of primer surfacer, high build because I want to fill those divets in, here is how they currently sit, drying in the garage:

I may get to sanding them today, and I may not. I have physical therapy in approx. 1.5 hours, so they may get sanded after that. I need to block them with 320, then block them again with 400 before I can base them tomorrow. Normally I would hit them again with 600 but the GM paint calls for 400, so thats what I'll use on em.

Any questions feel free to ask, I added you to my AIM, I'm LilSRT4SpkPlg so that way you can get in contact with me if you have any questions and can't get to me on here. Since I'm out of work I'm on there alot lately lol.

-Crystalmarie

She's doing WAY beyond what was asked of her.

I'll be excited to get these back.

Got ahold of the dealership today to once again talk about my bumper... I guess they no longer give out loaner cars? Something about new policy or some shit like that... Either way that REALLY dicks me over, because the girlfriends neon is acting up like something fierce so I don't have a second car to drive now. I'm not sure what the hell I'm going to do now.....

My car is almost done for the year right now. Once I get my eyelids back, they're going on after I fix the fogging headlight. I already found the leak, just need to get the silicone to seal it up. I get my 3" header-back exhaust July 15th and have to find some time to get that on, and then I'll be done unless I magically find money up my ass.

At MOST i may paint the calipers.... but that'll be determined if I have the extra $20 for the kit.

I'm already planning out next year though after all the credit cards are cleared off. I could either go more performance or looks. I've already got the performance part priced out:

-60 Lb Injectors w/harness
-M62 Modular Pulley System (with 2.8 and 2.9 pulleys)
-GM stage belt
-CXRacing heat exchanger
-Devils Own Progressive Meth Injection Kit

Just Parts would be 950 plus shipping. Parts + Tune would be 1250. Parts + Tuning + Install would be 1600. That should hit me at about 270whp maxing out the supercharger, and still be super reliable.

Or I could go the route of:
-Coilovers
-Re-paint rear bumper (it's scratched to SHIT)
-RK sport 3 piece spoiler
-MAYBE, just maybe RK sport ram air hood

I'm not even sure of the total cost there, considering all the paint that would be required. It's all being done to the car at some point in time, I just don't know the order in which it'll be done, ya know?

One day at a time, one step at a time.

ZeroChad · Post by **ZeroChad** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 7:21 pm

Dang, looks like your eyelids kicked her beast out of the garage! Looking good man! So are you doing the headlight covers and the eyelids? or did you ditch that plan?

That intake looks badass though! Nice choice.

Mr Josh Zombie · Post by **Mr Josh Zombie** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 7:22 pm

covers are getting sold hopefully soon. i put them on, hated them, and decided to ditch 'em.

i'm only buying the best this time around. (half the reason why the exhaust was almost a grand by itself....

)

2GN.ORG

SS/SC Project Log: pictures of the fun stuff

Can you make it out Sat. Nov 21st to tear the car back to stock?