I’ve been working on cars since I was 8 years old, so like 24 years lol, but my moms ex husband would always tell me “everything needs to be looked at when you have a problem, cause with these cars (evo 8 at the time) it’s never just one solitary issue. Always look further”

So even now, I always go deeper and find minor issues that ended up causing the main issues, saved myself a lot of money and time just doing everything at once instead of going back later when minor issues became major.

This is going to be a long read brother but my best advice for you. Depending on mileage and current condition of your car I would probably start by going over all the regular wear items suspension wise und upgrading those to suit your needs for daily/track use. After that I would go over the brakes. Those are going to help improve time/lap consistency, heat management for brakes, and driver confidence as you get familiar with the way your car handles on a track. Starting with bolt on power adders can often lead to brake fade and slower cornering speed. While extra horsepower sounds appealing, a stock car driven hard on a road course will quickly reveal that its factory stopping power and standard suspension are the weak links. Track driving puts immense thermal stress on a vehicle, and adding power before upgrading the chassis drastically accelerates component failure. Stock brake pads and fluid are designed for street use and will boil or glaze after a few hot laps. Upgrading to track oriented pads/fluid and upgrading brake lines will help keep braking power consistent. More power puts extra strain on factory axles, transmissions, and differentials. Upgrading the suspension helps transfer weight smoothly, reducing violent shock loads on your drivetrain. A car's track speed is ultimately limited by the size and quality of its tire contact patches, which suspension components are designed to optimize. Upgraded coilovers, stiffer sway bars, and adjustable camber plates keep the tires flat against the road/tarmac during hard cornering. Stiffer track suspension minimizes body roll, pitch, and dive. This stabilization keeps the car's weight distributed more evenly across all four tires. Replacing soft, rubber factory bushings with polyurethane or spherical bearings eliminates deflection, giving you immediate steering response. Tires and wheels also make a huge impact. Once all those things are addressed then I would do supporting mods like cooling mods. Upgraded radiator and adding an oil cooler. Then after those things are taken care you can get into the fun stuff and performance mods come into play. Depending on how much money you have to play with at this point would dictate the order in which I made those upgrades. Being budget conscious I’d start with exhaust and then intake. Adding a cat back first and then just collecting parts that will require a retune so I can do them at once and tune once vs adding a part here and there and tuning multiple times. If you made it this far I hope this advice can be of some help. Do some research of your own and you’ll find an approach that will suit your needs best!

The first car I modified. I put a no-name, eBay exhaust on it and lowered it on unbranded eBay springs. It sounded terrible and rode worse. I'd have saved myself a lot of heartache if I'd just saved for some bottom shelf coilovers and a left the exhaust closer to stock. But buggering that poor Integra up was one of the things that drives me to do it right now. With family and kids and a mortgage my budget is still limited and I have way less time than I used to, but patience and determination DO pay off. Even if the progress is slow.

My Corolla is currently on the factory 16x7 wheels and dealer installed tires. I'm not sure I can be talked out of this mod at this point, but I'd welcome opinions on how to complete it. I'm planning to refinish (currently in progress) these 18x7.5 OEM TRD wheels to go on the car. I posted a little information about these in the Build Progress page but I love that they're a rare-ish, TRD-built factory option that you really can't just go out and replicate easily. And they're a great looking wheel to boot. I need to decide if I'm going to try to polish them, paint them, or powdercoat them and I'm very open to suggestions on that. Planning on the brightest silver I can get because there is a green or blue wrap coming later this summer for the car and I prefer the contrast.

If polishing is feasible my preference would be polished with a set of gold lug nuts to tie in with the gold titanium hardware I've begun installing under the hood.

The tire choice for these will be a fairly safe 225/40r18 Continental Extreme Contact DWS06 Plus because the car is a daily and sees a lot of highway use and commuting in addition to some "spirited" drives on occasion lol. And I live in Kansas so the weather is uh... Unpredictable.

Talk me out of my color choices? Suggest different tires? Pros and cons of powdercoat/paint/polish?

Form over function baby!!!! lol naw it would be reliability for me is first, then looks then performance.

Me personally I would go with performance first since for most cars those are the most expensive parts of a build, then go with looks.

Me im going to change it in the process of doing a 2 tone black and copper orgen

I’m in it for the long haul. I rather take my time, do things right, and save up for quality parts. Besides I’ve learned in the past sometimes trying to rush or save a couple bucks will cost you more time and money in the long run.

Doing something with the tan headliner

My suggestion would be maintenance refresh 100%

Exterior and interior. Want everything straight and clean and the inside custom and completely that 90s/2000 vibe underglow and all

370z, the wifey has a 350z. Plus I used to work on Z’s a lot when I was way younger so can use all the knowledge I know and turn it into a drift car or maybe a show car

5k right now id instantly put a cat back exhaust system, redo the paint and/or wrap it and from there id get some tires with white lettering. As much as I love a daily, it can be fun to also be unique and stick out from the crowd <3

I remember when I was first getting started working on my car and I was crunching numbers, i noted how expensive the build would take. In comes my friend who had a broken down 330i telling me he had parts for me and I could take what I needed. This man casually gave me a k&n cold air intake, rear trunk handle, shadowline trim, brand new BMW emblems, and so much more. I appreciate what he's given me, he's a great man, and whenever I work on my car, I always remember what he's given me. without him, I wouldn't have gotten this far with my project!

Wiring for me

I was choosing headers for christmas and decided upon some "ebay" headers for the price. Never again lol. They worked fine but the issue was the quality control was non-existant. We had to cut the flanges off the headers and add more exhaust piping since they were not a "true fit" like the description said. I learned from that to always buy from reputable sources. They work so far, but I plan to get some better ones. What I would never change would be the addition of the underglow. It bring alot of character to the car!

If you haven’t followed the YouTuber tanner (aka) Smeedia for most of subie need I would highly suggest it I’m good friends with him as well

same stuff, unfortanately I'll have to settle with the jack the car comes with, I also carry a 3/8th drive and 1/2 drive electric impact and a set of sockets for both

just fixed my mechanical linkeage bushing that popped out. wohoo!

Love this idea 🫶🏻