What modification first got you into modifying cars?

[Spork1569]

Was reminiscing on my past cars this morning and this thought came to mind as this is my first extensively modified car(have probably sunk a few paychecks worth into her already) . Curious to see where everyone else came from.

Doesn't necessarily have to be regarding the FiST but I think we all have that one car that we realized we wanted to modify (for better or worse) and lead us into the rabbit hole of car modification.

For me it was my last car, a 2013 Veloster turbo that I stuck a BOV and intake/exhaust on and instantly fell in love with the sound. So while not extensively modified, those few changes gave me a taste of modding cars which would then translate to this one. I luckily never had the money in high school to afford to rice out my past Hondas, which looking back I'm somewhat happy I didn't lol.

Curious to hear how everyone else ended up in this world of car modding and what car got you into it.

 

[koozy]

1964 vw bug, I was 16. Self taught to drive stick.
Keeping it running and restoring led to mods and personalization.

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[SrsBsns]

I was in HS when the Fast and Furious came out. I was into cars before that, but when the movie came out, it really exploded. My friends all started buying older Japanese turbo cars like DSM's and WRX's.

I bought a 95 M3 and pretty much immediately got into modding. Mostly, when something broke, I'd upgrade it. So when my suspension started getting soft, I upgraded to coilovers and did the bushings.

 

[cxwrench]

I did a bunch of stuff to the VW Rabbit ('80) that I got in high school. The biggest was dropping a GTi engine in it w/ a buddy at his dad's shop. Did a bunch of stuff to my '91 Civic Si as well...intake, header, exhaust, rims, suspension. It's impossible for me to leave my car stock. I've probably got as much money into my DRZ SM as it cost new

 

[Clint Beastwood]

1964 vw bug, I was 16. Self taught to drive stick.
Keeping it running and restoring led to mods and personalization.

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Yes! My dad taught me to drive a stick by driving me to the top of Palomar Mountain in a 1963 beetle and having me drive back down. Boy did I learn a lot about compression braking that day since the drum brakes kept overheating. Learned so much with that bug, how to change a belt while the car was running (because the battery was shot), how to use a toilet paper roll holder to line up a clutch, why there's an insulator between the rear springs and the top of the battery under the rear seat (my first car fire!) The bug was eventually a drag car, going something like 10.83 in the quarter at Carlsbad Raceway.

My second big mod (first that was 100% all me) was swapping a 4.9 cadillac PFI v8 into a Pontiac Fiero. That thing was a beast - maybe 250hp, but almost 400 lb/ft of torque with a 4800 rpm redline lol. It had 4.10 gears and a muncie 4 speed - topped out at like 90-100mph but with drag radials and the rear coilovers on full soft it could pull the front tires off the ground on a good launch. For everyone who wants to engine swap a fiero. Lift the car off the engine, it will save you SO MUCH TIME vs. trying to lift the engine out the top of the car :facepalm:

 

[Spork1569]

I did a bunch of stuff to the VW Rabbit ('80) that I got in high school. The biggest was dropping a GTi engine in it w/ a buddy at his dad's shop. Did a bunch of stuff to my '91 Civic Si as well...intake, header, exhaust, rims, suspension. It's impossible for me to leave my car stock. I've probably got as much money into my DRZ SM as it cost new

So have you still got the DRZ I take it?

 

[cxwrench]

So have you still got the DRZ I take it?

I do...it's 'for sale' but I'm not trying too hard. I don't have a garage where I live now so it's in a storage room at the bike shop I work at. I love that bike but I just don't ride it...it's an '05 w/ 10k miles.

 

[Spork1569]

I do...it's 'for sale' but I'm not trying too hard. I don't have a garage where I live now so it's in a storage room at the bike shop I work at. I love that bike but I just don't ride it...it's an '05 w/ 10k miles.

I'd keep it for as long as I could. I still regret selling my Ninja 300, albeit a small bike I learned to ride on it and was bike only for almost 2 years.

The fist is definitely a step up to all other cars I've had in terms of fun but the fun of a bike is just different. One thing I don't miss are the constant near death experiences though, especially here in socal with our traffic.

 

[FiestaSTy]

I definitely started on the other end of the spectrum. My first automotive love was a '79 Scout I named Jean-Louise. That was a much easier vehicle to work on that a tightly packaged FiST. I could literally sit on a fender well in the engine bay to tune the carburetor, etc. I put a 3" suspension lift, ceramic coated headers, Edelbrock exhaust and a higher flow carb on her through high school/college years. Had a u-joint on the drive shaft explode on me driving home from college one weekend so I just took it off and threw it in the back, put it in 4H and kept on going. My first FWD vehicle, quite by accident.

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[Blown]

My dad and I constructed a homemade cold air with the filter in the fender of my first car (Mustang GT). Fast and the Furious days so immediately followed with underbody neons and a body kit “why lower it when the body kit makes it look low!”

Holy wheel gap 🤣

 

[Dpro]

72 Datsun 4 door 510 was 17 self taught driving manual.
It was lowered with Libre racing mags when I bought it. Wound up buying a 69 two door 510 and it was off to the races, lowered it. Then engine blew a headgasket in the water jacket and I drove it for another 1500 miles before getting another block and head. Had the bottom end balanced with 240z flattop pistons 40 overboar. L18 head ( larger valves than the stock 1600 head, ported and a DeLong cam 456 lift 273 duration. Sidedraft Weber and Hooker headers with exhaust and a Turbo muffler ( yup thats what they were called)
.
Blew up a couple of rear ends and a trans. With that engine lol. So did tranny swaps and rear end swaps in my Moms driveway in front of the house lol.
This was what the start of my modifcation days were like. Ah life in Palo Alto back in the day.

 

[Erick_V]

Before this I had a 2nd Gen Speed3, I got the Accessport for my car and threw on a stage 1 tune. Car felt great! Then I needed to replace the HPFP internals to keep up with the extra 2psi of boost it made lol. The HPFP internals are pretty much the first mod you need to do to those cars or you'll lean out and blow it up. After the internals I had full bolt-ons and a tune and was going to start suspension and exterior mods when it was paid off.

Theeeeennnn I moved to Texas and the car gave me all sorts of issues. Oil catch can was filling after 100 miles, some of the plugs had a little oil on them, car would sputter and die sometimes, the battery decided to give out the morning of an interview. Still miss that car even after all the issues. Was working 2 jobs and didn't have time to work on it so I stocked it out and sold it for the FiST. Texas brought out all the bad luck for that car, after seeing the Carfax for the next owner it was rear ended within 2 weeks of him buying it and another accident 2 months later. Everything happens for a reason lol

 

[Ledfoot]

The very first mod I ever did was a carb/intake/exhaust setup with my Pop on an '84 Mustang (last year before EFI). That really started it for me a long time ago.

 

[Blindeye_03]

Had a Subaru Impreza RS and met a good group of guys in Atlanta. One was parting out his RS slowly and I ended up buying his STi version 5 seats, STi suspension and a few other parts. Once I sold that car I never really got into modding again.

 

[LastMK7]

I grew up working on trucks and jeeps, used to spend most weekends installing lift kits, long arm kits, etc. I eventually matured into performance auto, but tinkering on trucks and jeeps is what got me hooked.

 

[Jerickson88]

92 240sx, in the year 2004, put the biggest fart can I could find on it lol.

Eventually, wised up and changed scenes

 

[Ford ST]

I had a 64 Chevy short bedtruck I did a cam swap. I was 14 and self-taught had to let it go it was financially impossible at the time. 5 miles to the gallon but the sound that engine made was glorious. I used that Truck while I had my learner's permit. No seatbelts, no power steering, no power brakes. You become a much better driver when you realize you have nothing to save you. My first daily driver was a 96 Ford escort piece of shit with a fart cannon, and homemade cold air intake.

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[Kinnaird]

It was probably when I was in say 11th grade. I had this 2001 S-10 Xtreme, now I'm not too mechanically inclined, but my dad is, he was the mechanics and I am electronics. well we had ordered a 3.5 in intake from K&N but got sent a 4 in. So my dad, being who he is decided to cut it and have another rubber coupling and made it work. Looked jacked up af but it felt awesome being able to make something unusual work out even if it wasn't suppose to. Now I have my 16 ST and am slowly trying to do more with it with the help of some other mechanically inclined people.

 

[Se7eN]

In my case I had a 99 ford explorer when I was 18 (long time ago) and saw that it needed a little engine noise. Went to Pepboys got a cone filter and a MAF adapter. Sounded great and added 0HP but I was a kid so I thought it was awesome. Also later I added a sound system.

Didn't really get into working on my car and modding it to go fast until I got my F-Body 4th Gen Camaro Z28

 

[jfisch822]

First mod ever was a short shifter on a 2002 BMW 330Ci. Mod bug bit me hard much later when I went a little crazy on my wrx. So far my FiST is stock but my short shift adapter should be arriving today...here we go!