Weirdo Joe & Aveo :)

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Salutations!!! I'm Joe, and this....this is my car! :p ;D =]
I been loving this site so far...

I was never a "car-guy". I always took my ride in for an oil change (about ; ) whenever it was due, and that was it. All my other cars were pre-2000. My last car was a VERY reliable Geo Tracker I had for (about : ) 6 years. :p Hit and run driver took care of that, and I wound up with a 2008 Aveo LS. I fell in love with the body from the get-go. It had a GM tag, as did the Tracker. I always wanted a lil' tuner car. A NICE car. I couldn't even put hubcaps on the old Geo because the 4wd locked in at the hubs. So, 1st thing I did was get some chrome hubcaps, that made it go from looking like a good deal off the lot, to a car that somebody LOVED. After that, I wanted to put some neon underneath (laugh all you want, I like what I like, and not because other people think it's cool. :) and get real rims, and tune it up, get it a lil' faster... When I realized a custom CAI from a local mechanic would run 300-500 dollars to "piece together a high end model" and I could get one for 50 bucks on ebay, well... I kinda decided to learn how to do it myself...
"It was a love affair... mainly me, and my car." Ministry-Jesus Built My Hotrod

So, here's the minor things I've added, and use on my car:

14" KT Chrome Finish wheel covers
Pilot Chrome perimeter license plate (frames installed today! :)
Armor All "Wash and Wax"+microfiber mit+drying cloth= roughly $10= 15 washes. =]
Maguiars "Fine cut cleaner #2" for polishing out minor scratches and removing road salt.
Traxx gps app on Blackberry... This is REALLY cool! It takes quarter mile times, and seems to be quite accurate! So far, with no mods and manual tranny, been getting mostly 21.05-21.95 with a few 22+. Trying to stay below 4,500 rpms. ;D

Planned modifications-this year...
Chrome Intakes CAI
Underdrive pulley from Daox
Muffler (not noisy-better flow-any suggestions? :)
Grounding kit

Planned modifications-next year...
Neon underneath
Rims w/ sports tires
Figure out what headers are/do. :p
Investigating REAL engine chips/ECU tuning.
Audio upgrade

Well, that's it. I'll post new stuff as I do it/get it. Plan on spending quite a bit of time here, and getting to know the regs! Thanks for all the advice so far! =] If you have any suggestions for other mods, brands, or anything like that, lemme know! =)

Funny the similarities in what we are doing, but you have the newer engine. After my fender bender, decided to begin the commit to doing car work myself and diverting dealer shop rate savings into tools. Things that interest me right now are the hushpower exhaust, the grounding kit, pretty much any kind of modest weight saving and power improvement that would make this fun, instructive car, better.

Heck yeah!!! I like the sound of that... "Hushpower" exhaust? You lookin' at that on ebay, Autozone, or elsewhere? I think I have probably read some of your threads on here, but I've read SO many in the last 2 1/2 months... :p Did you get the front corner of your car wrecked, in almost a perfect way for the CAI to fit in? I just got mine in last weekend! Plan to post some pics tomorrow! Been crazy buzy since I did it... but it's nice! You can really tell from the sound it makes the car is modded, and already beat my old 0-60 time by roughly 1/2 a second... anticipate a full second, after getting some more times, better starts, etc. ;) It even seems to affect the "shift points"... (not sure if term is proper) -my rpms are lower in the same gear/speed. Is that the result of more hp? Just wondering. Thanks for commenting, northguest! Nice to meet you! :)

As far as the exhaust, I am interested in the company because they do original design based on engineering principles from an interview I saw. I only contacted a sales rep to ask some questions, and he recommended hushpower with stock diameter. He also said the cat(s) are already high flow so they can be put back inline with the stock o2 sensor(s), and the setup will still pass emissions, and improve power and mileage, if one can get off the lead-foot.

As far as the accident goes, ya its kinda hilarious that the truck perfectly took out just the airbox in the engine bay - it was just shattered to pieces! And I was able to drive the car away - I mean it was like one inch from trashing the the radiator setup, I couldn't believe it wasn't leaking coolant. And just think if it was on the other side... battery, w/w, p/s and brake reservoirs. It could have been so much more expensive.

Underdrive pulley and CAI just waiting for a day off to be installed :)

edit: just realized i dont know what engine you'd have, my error still learning about all the releases

Oh, yeah!!! :p Dunno if I answered in a msg already, but it's a 1.6 L. Also, sealed up the IAT sensor in the intake... cut the pipe... all that info, along with pictures can be seen on the BASIC CAI INSTALL w\ Pics thread in the "how to's" Also, some idiot hit my car downtown while it was parked at my girlfriend's, so I used some of the paint from a manufacturer that was supposed to match, but it was a bit too dark... I got some brighter silver, mixed a bit together and got it almost perfect... I should post some pics of that... but here's a pic of the freshly polished hubcaps with some tire polish on the... y'know. Tires. :p I like this pic...
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