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Cheap and easy mods Hey. So, I have an 09 Civic and am possibly 16. My dad doesn't want me to mod my car, but I really want to. If there are any cheap mods that I can do in my driveway (or have done at the Honda dealership I work at), hmu. I'm talking small stuff, not engine swaps, body kits, etc. Must be inconspicuous and easy to get away with. Thanks. |
Re: Cheap and easy mods If you are 16 it is much better to leave the car alone and learn about life. I would suggest you do lots of research about the cars and the issues that they have. It is a lot easier to make a mistake when modding a car than most people realize. I would focus all of the attention to making sure the car is in good operating condition and how to keep it like that. There are just as many DONT DO's as there are things you should do. |
Re: Cheap and easy mods I'd say learn how to work on it yourself first. Sure, you work at a dealership, but that doesn't mean that you're doing the work. Preventive maintenance, replacement of wear and tear parts, figuring out the cause of abnormal noises and vibrations. I just realized that I'm basically reiterating what @mcnoople said in different words, but yeah, it all holds true. When you mod a car and inevitably f- up (we all do, thus is life), if you have all that actual experience working on a car, you'll know how to troubleshoot, diagnose, and fix whatever it is that you messed up. __________________________________________________ _ edit: If you absolutely must start modding your car, there are way too many ways to go for us to answer the, "what should I do with my car that my dad won't notice?" question. What are your goals -- looks or performance? What's your budget? However, to answer your initial question, here's a list. LED lighting all around is a good, cheap, (relatively) easy mod you can do that 1) you can do without much notice and 2) if you get "caught," almost 95% sure your dad won't give 2 shits about. Now, I say relatively easy because LED turn signals require a bit more effort or money to make work properly. Slap on any pair of turn signals, you get hyperflash and just live with it. You can get bulbs with built in load resistors, but they're more money. You can splice in load resistors, but you have to splice into your existing wiring (which can go bad real fast out of nowhere if done half-assed) and find a suitable place to mount the load resistor itself (since they can get extremely hot). LED lighting for your headlights can also be tricky. Beam pattern on many bulbs out there sucks and produces a lot of glare, and the ones that do emulate traditional halogen light output tend to be expensive (>$100/pair). Not only that, beam "throw" for LED lighting tends to suck, despite the high localized brightness. HID is another route you can take, great light output, but are also expensive for quality components. Furthermore, If you install HIDs in reflector housings or projectors not designed for HIDs, you'll get obscene amounts of glare that can blind oncoming drivers and attract police attention. Wheels and tires are also another mod you can probably get away with. That is, however, a costly investment. If I were 16 and blew a couple grand on wheels and tires, my dad would flip his shit. Upgraded brakes and rotors would be one you can justify, if asked why you did it. You can always say it's for safety reasons. Full big brake kits can be expensive. Upgraded pad and rotor combos can be more cost effective and still deliver better than OEM performance. I'd personally stay away from cross drilled rotors, despite how cool they look. Suspension upgrades might not be a bad choice. You tend to get better bang for buck out of suspension upgrades with Hondas. Front upper strut bar will tighten up steering a bit, and are usually around $100. Not really noticeable unless you pop your hood. May take a little finagling to get it to mount (protip: jack one side of the car up and it should slip on easier). One piece bars perform better than 3 piece bars. Various suspension braces are easy to install and usually hardly noticeable. Sway bar upgrades could be up your alley, too, but you'll have to adjust your driving style for the new cornering dynamics. Increase the diameter of your rear sway bar, it'll decrease body roll in the rear and ultimately decrease understeer or promote oversteer. Increasing the front has the opposite effect. If you don't do any autocross or hard cornering, you may not be able to take advantage of any performance increase. Lowering your car will be highly noticeable, unless you do it very subtly (like, <1"). You also run into the problem with increased inner shoulder tire wear without the installation of a camber correction kit. If you don't get a camber kit, your dad will definitely notice that you're going through tires very quickly. Sure, you can get an intake or exhaust, but that'll definitely be conspicuous from the sound increase alone. That, and you'll get very little, if any, performance increase for the price. Audio upgrades could be nice. Speakers aren't noticeable, visually, but can take a bit of disassembly. Many might require modification to install (drilling new holes, trimming metal, etc.). Most aftermarket speakers will require an amp for you to get the most out of them. A subwoofer will definitely require some doing to install, not to mention routing a fatty power wire from the battery to wherever you mount your amp. You can also end up spending a lot of money in audio components. Head unit installation (especially if you DIY) can take quite a bit of interior disassembly and/or soldering skills. Vinyl wrapping interior stuff can be cheap and easy and give you some aesthetics. I got a 12" x 12" sheet of 3m 1080 carbon fiber pattern vinyl for like.. 7 bucks on Amazon and did the trim around my shifter on my 2018 hatch. I, however, own a heat gun, so that made it a lot easier. If you get frisky, you can do some exterior wrapping (roof, hood, trunk), but that takes a lot more patience and work to make look good. Found a 5' x 5' roll of the stuff on Amazon for $100 on Amazon |
Re: Cheap and easy mods RiceBoy pretty much covered it all. Like mcnoople said learn about the basics of the car to and how to maintain it. That being said I started "modding" my 88 Accord and learned by doing it. Yes I made mistakes but I learn better when I do things myself and with my own hands. It had a set of rims and banging audio system worth 3x what the car was but I didn't care. If your dad sees how much you enjoy it then he may come around to the idea. I got my love of cars and modding things from my dad so its his fault lol.
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Re: Cheap and easy mods
Originally Posted by Not a ricer boi
(Post 4757251)
Hey. So, I have an 09 Civic and am 16. your age shows as 38... not a good way to start a conversation... |
Re: Cheap and easy mods
Originally Posted by sdaidoji
(Post 4758023)
huh... your age shows as 38... not a good way to start a conversation... Anyways, when I say that my dad won't notice, what I mean is he told me no modding, as in like body kits and stuff. I doubt he'd care if I change out the radio head unit and speakers, or put LEDs in, heck he'd help me with the LEDs he was an electrical engineer for years, so he knows this stuff. I could get away with a cold air intake, probably. Also, in response to the whole don't spend money and stuff, I would do it very cheap. I save a little bit every month for stuff like this that I want, and put every other penny in a bank account. My friend owns two junkyards, so its easy for me to get stuff like rims, mufflers, andareally any other oem parts I would need, even if I need to Bondo and repaint the rims or something. Thanks for your concern, but I just want to spice it up a bit, I don't wanna make it a project cars, just have a bit of fun. |
Re: Cheap and easy mods
Originally Posted by sdaidoji
(Post 4758023)
huh... your age shows as 38... not a good way to start a conversation...
Originally Posted by Not a ricer boi
(Post 4758024)
Well, maybe I am maybe I'm not, let's just leave it there. Lol. Anyways, when I say that my dad won't notice, what I mean is he told me no modding, as in like body kits and stuff. I doubt he'd care if I change out the radio head unit and speakers, or put LEDs in, heck he'd help me with the LEDs he was an electrical engineer for years, so he knows this stuff. I could get away with a cold air intake, probably. Also, in response to the whole don't spend money and stuff, I would do it very cheap. I save a little bit every month for stuff like this that I want, and put every other penny in a bank account. My friend owns two junkyards, so its easy for me to get stuff like rims, mufflers, andareally any other oem parts I would need, even if I need to Bondo and repaint the rims or something. Thanks for your concern, but I just want to spice it up a bit, I don't wanna make it a project cars, just have a bit of fun. |
Re: Cheap and easy mods Don't buy parts that are too cheap it will just give you headaches and make car look/sound/drive/whatever like crap |
Re: Cheap and easy mods If you're hunting sleeper performance without going for the engine swap route, then the only other options are, nitrous oxide or camshafts. |
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