I just got my RA at the end of November, and I've just barely begun to do any modding on it. This weekend I was able to make a few fun cosmetic changes that I'm really excited about. Here's the before pics:













Everything was decently easy to take apart and paint. I used plastidip on the nose ring, emblems, and window chrome. Debadging the trunk probably took the most time, but it was worth it because now it looks so clean. Here's the after!

















Next things to be done are the rims. I'm debating on just painting them black and saving for better rims in the future. First engine mod in the works is swapping the intercooler for Evo X. More to come!

 

lookin good bro!! welcome to the Red Family lol!
what did you use to paint the chrome ring? Plasti-Dip? or wat?

 

No bro here! I'm a lady! Lol I used plastidip for everything. If you do it right, its the absolute perfect matte black.

 

Beautiful RA! Get it new or used? Nice job! I like the all black front
The black window trim is nice too.

I say leave your rims alone. They look good the way they are. Use
the time & money on engine mods!

 

Thanks! I got it used. Which is good and bad. the previous owner scratched and scuffed 2 of the rims. I feel if i painted them it would camoflauge the scratches better. i hate it cuz it sticks out really bad. Plus I work from home, so I basically have all the time I need to do the job well.

 

paint them. worst investment in a car is a ****ty set of rims. When u get tires on them too.....a good tire tech can tell how good the wheels are just by how they balance. You don't want to have a nice cheap looking rims full of weights.!
Good luck learning and modding

 

great point! Right now I have the stock Yoko's with like 90% on them. New tires are so expensive, they will have to come later when i have less tread and stuff. But I will definitely talk to the techs I know.

 

This weekend we replaced the stock FMIC and upper/lower pipes to the EvoX set up. What a pain in the butt!! So many hard to reach bolts. We had to buy a 6" x 1-1/2 piece of drain pipe to connect everything, but there is an amazing difference in the response of the car! Next I'll be switching the BOV to the EvoX. Very excited! Things are coming along nicely!

 

Nice! What are your next mods? Tune in the near future?

 

+1 what are your plans?

Looks good so far!

btw got a few questions, you said it was a PITA to reach all the bolts for FMIC and Pipes, did you take the fender off, and how long did it take ya? i got the FMIC L + UICP and BOV and dont want to take my car outta commission if i dont have enough time off to do it all.

 

Next up is getting my EvoX bov from the mail and installing that. After that probably intake and exhaust. Thinking about getting a bigger turbo, but thats much further down the line when I have more money. I probably wont tune it until I have the intake and exhaust in. I want to make sure I spend the money well.

We took the bumper off, and trust me that was the easy part. The hardest part about it all was the lower pipe. It's also connected to the radiator hose. It took about 6 hours for us to do. We did it on a Saturday, which I highly recommend. Buy the 6 inch drain pipe from Lowes or Home Depot before you start. Other guys on here were talking about ordering a pipe offline with a bead on it. Its all the same, really. The piece of pipe we bought was 6" x 1-1/2 and it had threading on the ends, so its grabbing the rubber like it should. It works perfectly as a permanent piece, especially since you're tightening it down. That will save you a lot of time and money. At the same time, I also plastidipped the black vents on the hood. Looks super clean now. Let me know if you have more questions, I'll be happy to answer.