rsSteve's Build Thread

[rsSteve]

I own a 14' Ashen Gray Sonic RS 6spd manual. I went for the rs looking for a fun to drive commuter cars that still got good mpg.'s. I drive 100 miles round trip every day and so far i have not been disappointed.

**Edit- Will be posting new pictures soon within next week or 2, pictures below are way out of date now. Just need to find a nice place to take them at.

Mods so far:
Ported Intake Manifold, Bypass the Bypass, ZZP Turbo back exhaust no cats, DDMworks Intake and Shifter Bushing, MPfab FMIC, UG, Innovate Wideband and Autometer Cobalt Boost gauge, Trifecta Elite Tune, TTR Trans Mount, Dipped Chrome, Painted various accents on the exterior (no more plasti dip), Painted red brake calibers, LED footwell Lights activated by dome light, Shark Fin Antenna, WeatherTech floor mats, Rally Armor Mud Flaps, Boosted Snail and #Rememberthebuster sticker on the back window, ABS Fuse cut out switch to completely disable TC when I want

Future Mods:
Short Shifter, Maybe Tires/Rims

Here she is when I first got her, bone stock.

I then proceed to Debadge the Sonic, Turbo, and Rs badging. After that I blacked out the Bowties and got all the windows tinted to 5%. Then I purchased an Ultragauge and added blue led's to the footwells wired in through the dome light to come on as i open the doors. I also added red vinyl to the Bowtie on the steering wheel

After these visual changes I started with he free mods. I bypassed the bypass valve, removed the air intake silencer, and ported the intake manifold.

Before

painted it red while it was out

After

I know a lot of people on here are against PlastiDip but I wanted to see how I would like this long term before I committed 100% to painting it. I Diped the trim, headlight rings, 2 stripes on the hood, spoiler, and headlight caps red. I will redo the spoiler as the wind was picking up and I was not able to lay down the Glossifier properly. I am looking to do a design on the side but undecided on what to do yet.

ZZP Catback with Muffler and high flow cat

Next I painted the Heat shield and installed the DDMworks Intake with Heatshield and the DDMworks Shifter Bushings

TTR Motor/Trans Mounts

ZZP DP, MP, Test Pipe, and Vibrant J-Fitting

MPFab Intercooler Kit

Innovate Wideband and Autometer Cobalt Boost gauge

New Lip installed (she needs a bath)

 

[Hulty]

Great start, I like how you're showing off the Sonics incredible lines!

 

[RMinNJ]

How did you do the stripes on the hood? Just taped it off? If so how did maintain the edge of the tape to follow the hood curve exactly on each side?

Looks really neat.

 

[Natesriv]

sweet!

 

[rsSteve]

How did you do the stripes on the hood? Just taped it off? If so how did maintain the edge of the tape to follow the hood curve exactly on each side?

Looks really neat.

I actually had my GF tape off the lines as she has the steadier hands then i do For plasti dip its a little tricky to get clean lines. you actually have to spray it and while the dip is still wet remove the tape at a steep angle. then i re-tapped it after it dried and repeated to add the glosifier.

Normally when you paint/Dip you wait for 10 min or so in between coats but you can not do this because it will start to dry and you can not cut the Dip with straight lines. So what i did was for the first coat lay it down thin, about 50% coverage, let it sit for 30 sec to 1 min just enough to start to get tacky. Then I laid my second coat a little thicker then the first to get full coverage. Next once that was tacky, about 1 min, i laid on a nice thick coat waited another minute and another really thick coat. It takes a little practice to make sure it doesn't run, you just have to go with your gut. Immediately after the second thick coat i peeled the tape off slowly and at a sharp angle. The dip for me was still wet but quickly started to dry after only a few min. If you mess up its really easy to peel it all off and try again.

that may of been confusing so here is a good video to explain it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kBWaSDmj0g

 

[rsSteve]

Great start, I like how you're showing off the Sonics incredible lines!

Thanks Hulty!

i'm seeing a bunch of red-x's

I'll check at home..

what I did see looked cool though!

Thanks! might be because the images are kinda huge

 

[SouthFLSonic]

Be careful with colored Dip on paint, did these Rasta stripes on my hood and they were only there for 2 weeks and when I peeled them off this is what I had.

Now the colors faded out so my hood is white again but you can still see the outlines of where it was even after I clay bar car and waxed it.

 

[SouthFLSonic]

Now your car is black so it prob wont stain the paint red but it may leave the outline from where it was if you remove it.

 

[sonic007]

Looks good!

 

[Wydz]

Weird question, but what mount did you purchase with the UltraGauge?

Or, what is the most common mount to purchase?

 

[rsSteve]

Now your car is black so it prob wont stain the paint red but it may leave the outline from where it was if you remove it.

Good to know thanks for the heads up! Since I have to redo the spoiler anyways I will peel it up and see how it is making out since it has been 2 weeks already.

Weird question, but what mount did you purchase with the UltraGauge?

Or, what is the most common mount to purchase?

I purchased the "Vertical Surface Mount & Velcro & Bracket" although I didn't use the Velcro (it was a tiny piece). It did come with 3m tape on the bottom of the bracket and has been holding up well in the heat.

 

[rsSteve]

I installed the ZZp Catback with high flow Cat and muffler about 2 days ago. Install was very simple only took 1 hour and 15 min, would of been faster but it took about 30 min to cut through the stock exhaust since I only had a dremel lol.

I have to stay I was worried it was going to sound ricey/farty for how cheap it was, but I definitely does not. It has a nice deep tone to it and is actually pretty quick. If i'm not accelerating and have the windows up i can barely hear it. The closest thing i can compare it too is like a stock wrx type of tone. Overall I am very happy with the sound and quality of it.

 

[red hot sonic]

Removing the air box silencer. What does that do for the car? Does it make it where you can here the turbo or something? ? Very nice RS btw. You got skills man

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

 

[rsSteve]

Removing the air box silencer. What does that do for the car? Does it make it where you can here the turbo or something? ? Very nice RS btw. You got skills man

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

Thank You! Sadly no it doesn't allow you to hear the turbo noise still, but you can hear the intake noise (sucking in air sounds). The main reason i did it was because I already had the bumper off from dipping the headlight rings and I knew I was going to get an intake soon (DDM coming on the 5th :banana. This way I wouldn't have to worry about removing it later. It is not necessary to remove the bumper in order to remove the silencer, it just made it a little easier since I had more access.

TBH even if i wasn't going to be getting the intake I still would of did it. The intake noises are much more appealing plus the intake air temperature never changed from what I cold tell. Based on non scientific monitoring from my ulraguauge, before removal of silencer the IAT would sit about 8-10 degrees over the ambient and after removal it sits around 8 degrees above ambient. This is as I am driving, when I am sitting still (redlights etc.) it does seem to read slightly higher than before.

 

[Hulty]

I installed the ZZp Catback with high flow Cat and muffler about 2 days ago. Install was very simple only took 1 hour and 15 min, would of been faster but it took about 30 min to cut through the stock exhaust since I only had a dremel lol.

I have to stay I was worried it was going to sound ricey/farty for how cheap it was, but I definitely does not. It has a nice deep tone to it and is actually pretty quick. If i'm not accelerating and have the windows up i can barely hear it. The closest thing i can compare it too is like a stock wrx type of tone. Overall I am very happy with the sound and quality of it.

I agree 100%, I have the ZZP Catless Turboback and I absolutely love the deep sound at low RPM'S, yet it still screams if you want it to when wide open.

Keep it up brother!!

 

[red hot sonic]

Rs steve..
If I did exhaust and cold air intake would I gain any mpg's without a tune. Im about to have the extra cash for rims fog lights because my LT didn't come with . But fog lights are a must just like rims. What size tires come on the rs. Im going with 17". I really want to wake up that 1.4 but I can live with rims fog lights. Cold air intake and exhaust.

 

[red hot sonic]

For now any way lol..

 

[rsSteve]

Rs steve..
If I did exhaust and cold air intake would I gain any mpg's without a tune. Im about to have the extra cash for rims fog lights because my LT didn't come with . But fog lights are a must just like rims. What size tires come on the rs. Im going with 17". I really want to wake up that 1.4 but I can live with rims fog lights. Cold air intake and exhaust.

Some people claim that they see an increase of 1-2 mpg with the sri\cai. After removing the air silence I didn't really notice anything definitive maybe 1 but it definitely didn't hurt. After all of my mods I am noticing a significant boost to mpg but I never did any scientific testing to eliminate all the variables. Stock I was getting about 34 wish mpg, now the last 2 tanks afterporting the IM I am getting 38 & 38.9 mpg (hand calculated and 87 octane, just put 93 in for this tank so we will see how that does). Most of my mods have been done back to back with only 1-2 tanks of gas in between so its hard to say if I am seeing the increase from other variables (warmer temperature, engine more broken in, etc) So far none of the mods I have done have decreased my mog though.

The tires on the RS are 205/50/17. IMO I do like the 17 wheel size but I think 18 fills out the wheel well much better and looks perfect. If I were to get new rims I would go for 18's.

 

[red hot sonic]

Ok thanks. I agree with the 18" I don't think the price difference is that big. How about that ultra gauge. ? Where did you find that I'd like to watch the boost and other

 

[rsSteve]

I bought my ultragauge from UltraGauge, OBD II Scan Tool & Information Center its nice to be able to see a lot more information about what is going on with your car like water temp, battery voltage, boost, etc. One thing to note is that there is a delay before what is delayed on it. So the boost reading will be what the boost was a second ago. Still helpful though. Also, it can clear trouble codes which is essential on these cars. Simple unhooking sensors and hooking them back up will throw a code.