Archive for the ‘Mustang’ Category

2010 Camaro Specs


2010 Camaro Concept

For a very long time, it seemed that the American muscle car had gone extinct.  We were left with modern, lackluster and sometimes comical interpretations of the golden oldies.  Who can forget the less than stellar Chevy Nova of the 1980’s?  However, things have changed in the automotive world, once more.  While much of the focus is on environmentally friendly cars, the American muscle car may not be done just yet.

The Ford Mustang was the first American muscle car to have a much-needed facelift, followed by the Dodge Charger and Challenger.  Chevy, not be be left out, debuted a much-celebrated concept Camaro back in 2006.  However, once that car show was finished, little more was said about the car, other than vague promises by Chevy to make a production run, sometime.

That time will be 2010 (actually, the first quarter of 2009, as a 2010 model year). Full production is slated to begin in February of 2009, with the first of the cars rolling into dealerships sometime in the first quarter of the year.  This is fantastic news for those who fell in love with the concept’s aggressive, sleek lines.  The new Camaro is something totally new and American’s are waiting to sink their teeth into this beautiful creation of steel and chrome.

While the exterior of the car has been shown many times, with its aggressive stance, long nose and short tail, gills fore and aft and its V-shaped front end, not much has been said about the engines that will be available.  However, Chevy has finally released the specs for Camaro power plants.

LS and LT Models – A 3.6-liter VVT V6 will power the LS and the LT models.  This will be mated with a six-speed manual transmission, using Chevy’s trademark TAPshift system.  The engine and transmission package are rated for 300 horsepower and a startling 26 mpg on the highway.

Upgraded LS and LT Models – As an upgrade, buyers can purchase a 6.2-liter V8 that produces around 400 horsepower.  The manual, six-speed transmission includes advanced fuel economy technology, capable of reaching 23 mpg on the highway.

SS Models – Those with the need for even more muscle under the hood can choose the 6.2-liter V8 package with 422 horsepower.  There are other upgrades for the SS model rumored, but not yet confirmed by Chevy.

The Camaro will also boast 4-wheel disc brakes, an upgrade from the disc/drum combination present for so long with many cars.  For consumers who fear that the new Camaro will be a front-drive let down, fear not.  The new Camaro will hold true to its roots and enjoy true rear-wheel drive power.

However, to purchase the new Camaro, you’ll have to come up with the estimated asking price.  Chevy anticipates $22 - $28,000 for the hardtop and $28 - $35,000 for the convertible model.  What that means is you will have to have financing, unless you have enough cash on hand to buy it outright, of course.  Luckily, auto financing will be widely available for the new muscle car, but you’ll need to ensure your credit is in proper order.

My biggest fear is with the slumping economy.  With so many people  turning away from the SUV and gas guzzling classics like the Mustang and Camaro, we can only hope the sales of this beauty take the auto industry by storm.  One of the new brands I work with (Special Finance Leads) will do it’s part in providing quality leads to the Chevy dealerships to help easy the pains.  Even though the Mustang and Camaro have fought like aggravated siblings for so many year, I for one am excited to see this car back on the streets.  The new era of classic American muscle is here and it is fun being a part of it.

CS Motorsports

The boys over at CS Motorsports have an impressive showcase of custom cars.  They have been serving the Carolina’s since 1993 With over 83 years of combined experience.  They guarantee the best knowledge, service, warranty and price.  Of coarse, after calling around I was able to find plenty of places that beat their price on window tinting for a 2006 convertible mustang in the greater Charlotte area.  Although many people beat them in price, I will likely make the trip to their showroom just to check it out.  The C S Motorsports website is impressive although they are not using it to its true potential with the search engines (other then local search).

According to the CS Motorsports website, they specialize in:
Car Stereo - Navigation - Bluetooth / Handsfree - Car Video/DVD - GPS Tracking / Lojack - Alarms/ Remote Start - Wheels / Tires - Air Horns / Train Horns - Chrome - Accessories - Car & Truck Grills - Heated Seats - Power Windows/ Door Locks - Light Bulbs / HID / Xenon - Tail Lights / Headlights - Running Boards / Nerf Bars - Hitches / 5th wheel / Goose Neck - Spray-in Bedliners / Drop in - Lift kits / Lowering Kits - Full Air Ride Systems - Exhaust Systems - Body Kits / Hoods - Window Tinting - Racing Stripes - Fiberglass work - Computer Chip Performance.

I will post back once I take a tour of their shop and let you all know what I think.  In the meantime, check out their online showroom to see some innovative custom cars.

Car Window Tinting in Charlotte NC

The #1 modification on the GrubbDawg Mustang Laundry List is window tinting. I did some quick calls around the area to find the best source for quality and price. So far C S Motorsports is killing the competition.  They have a well built site that could kick ass in natural search with a few tweaks (I’ll give them a call here soon).

At the bottom of the page you will find a quick reference guide for car window tinting in the Charlotte NC Area. Included are the quoted prices for tinting a 2006 Mustang convertible with 35% tint (the North Carolina legal limit for auto tinting). I should be getting my car tinted within a month so stay tuned for a writeup with some pics. Enjoy!

——————–

C S Motorsports - $139
2051 E Franklin Blvd
Gastonia, NC 28054
(704) 853-1990

———————

Speed Styles
13417B E. Independence Blvd
Indian Trail, NC
(704)882-0333

———————-

Unique Visions - $125
622 W Main St
Rock Hill, SC 29730
(803) 324-2663

———————–

Carolina Auto Tint - $125
1257 Cherry Rd
Rock Hill, SC 29732
(803) 328-6866

————————

Premium Window Tinting Of Charlotte - $140
9690 Vinca Circle
Charlotte, NC 28213
(704) 606-8468

————————-

Premium Mobile Window Tinting Of Charlotte - $150
212 N Polk Street
Pineville, NC 28134
(704) 345-4043

————————–

Big Dog Window Tinting - $160
413 N Polk St
Pineville, NC 28134
(704) 889-1708

—————————

Sun Stoppers Charlotte - $180
14105 East Independence Blvd
Matthews, NC 28104
Contact Mike Burke at:
( 704)563-4444

—————————-

Solstice Window Tinting - $180
Castle Abbey Lane
Charlotte, NC 28277
(704) 650-4071

—————————–

Pro-Tint Inc - $189
2702 N Cannon Blvd
Kannapolis, NC 28083
(704) 938-8468

——————————

Lightning Mikes Window Tinting: Monroe - $200
1005 W Roosevelt Blvd
Monroe, NC 28110
(704) 225-1629

——————————-

Vintagev8 on Nice Day Convertiblitis

Nice Day Convertiblitis

I have to share one of the best reads I have had in years.  I don’t know this guy (yet) but I can tell you he examplifies what we in the Mustang world call a true enthusiast and friend through association.

Vintagev8 from AllFordMustangs.com said…

GrubbDawg, I see you are a relatively new member to these Forums. It saddened me the more I read your post, as it became clear, as I have been member for some time and also own a convertible, you are suffering from a very unique malady. “Nice day Convertiblitis”.

I do not think you, being a relatively new owner, can fully appreciate the degree of false euphoria this malady will cause.

Once an infected owner puts the top down, especially with a Roush convertible, the malady is more serious with the dark color models, the resonating sound of the exhaust as you cruise down the highway can cause the driver to, well, never turn back. This situation can be exacerbated by mistakenly turning up the radio / CD / or MP3 player playing some of your favorite tunes and cruising down the highway, thus falsely allowing yourself to believe “this is the life” and thinking you are having a great time. You are not!! It has been found that many drivers from the East coast have recently been arriving at the banks of the Pacific Ocean and standing on the back seat looking over the ocean and singing “Is that all there is”.

The cure I am afraid is to immediately take the car back to the garage, put up the top and only take it out on rainy days. Sorry.

That is in responce to my 3 hour joy ride last Friday,  Much respect!

Replacing Mustang Parking Light Bulbs

Replacing Mustang Parking Light Bulbs
With Xeon Chrome - Amber Bulbs from StangMods.com

Chrome-Amber-Bulbs

Parts:
3157 Xenon Chrome/Amber Bulbs (big ones)
194 Xenon Chrome/Amber Bulbs (small ones)

Let me begin by saying this process took all of 15 minutes so the writeup will be quick and to the point. I saved time by pulling my Mustang to the edge of my garage to give me an extra half inch of clearance. I am a big guy at 6′5″ 240 with ape like arms but was able to replace the bulbs without jacking up the car.

Mustang Clear Corners Bulb Placement

The above picture is what you will see when looking up under the skirt of your Mustang. Nothing to impressive here and I have to apologize for using an old picture. Note the stock corner lights instead of the clear corners. I reused this image from the “Installing Clear Corners on a Mustang” post. The lights are secured in the housing unit tightly to prevent any moisture from getting inside. Firmly twist them counter clockwise but make sure not to pull down on them. If you do, you risk breaking the bulb inside the unit when it comes loose (then you would need to remove the corner and shake out the debris. While holding the base, gently pull each bulb out of their connectors. Replace the bulbs with the Xeon Chrome-Amber bulbs you bought from StangMods.com. Try not to touch the bulbs (not sure if it is an old wives tale or not). They come in a nice small plastic bag that you can use to hold them. Push the Chrome-Amber bulbs into the housing firmly until they are snug. When you insert the bulbs into the clear corners, make sure you apply firm pressure as you turn it clockwise. Turn firmly until you you are not abe to rotate it any further but be careful not to use to much force. Congratulations! You now got rid of that annoying yellow color from the front of your car and you are still street legal.

Mustang before and after bulbs

I personally dont think the pictures do the change justice. It is so much more noticeable in real life since the yellow bends and reflects as you walk around the car. You can still see the difference the Xeon Chrom-Amber bulbs made to the clear corners though.

Mustang street legal lights

STILL STREET LEGAL!

Can you tell which of the above had the Xeon Chrome-Amber bulbs? Neither can I and I took the pictures. I can tell you that the above picture is of two mustang clear corners. One has the basic orange bulb and the other has the bulbs purchased from StangMods.com Mustang Performance Specialists.

Mustang front end with chrome-amber bulbs and clear corners

I think this picture does the Mustang clear corners with chrome-amber bulbs a little more justice. You definitely need to be walking around her or see her in real life to appreciate the major change. My Mustang is black with red accents and now has no yellow or orange tones in its styling. When my wife can tell the difference it must have been worth it.

StangMods Mustang Modifications and Performance Parts

StangMods.com Mustang Performance Parts

As you all know, I am constantly looking for more mustang modifications for Black Sunshine. I have been looking at a ton of sites and following all kinds of forums while brainstorming on what to do. While I was hunting around for a set of Chrome Amber Bulbs to go with my clear corners, I stumbled upon stangmods.com. What a find (thanks Partsbill)!

For those who have been there you know what I am talking about. I found myself browsing their site for over an hour just brainstorming what to do next to my mustang. StangMods has just about everything from lights to headers, wheels and gears. If you are looking for any kind of mustang performance parts or styling modifications then you need to check them out. Free shipping always adds that little added bonus at the end of the shopping cart. The prices kick ass and their cart is clean and secure.

I added them to my favorites and will definitely keep everyone up to date if anything new and exciting comes up. As far as their site is concerned, StangMods loads fast and super easy to navigate through. Their parts directory is split up and are easily found through their left navigation. They have obviously done some SEO research or have a developer who has a clue. Their URL structure is clean and meta data is unique and clean for all mustang parts. Impressively, each image of a mustang part has alt text which most sites ignore. I only wish their header image would return me to the hompage when clicked.

Anyway, I was impressed by their online store and how clean their site is. I will definitely buy from them again.

Xenon Chrome-Amber Bulbs for Mustang

So I went to my favorite source for Mustang information on Friday (MustangForums.com) and asked around on where to get some stealth/phantom bulbs for my clear corners so all the yellow tones would be removed from my front styling. Both d4rb and Partsbill pointed me in the direction of StangMods.com. I went ahead and ordered a pair and will update everybody when they come in. In the meantime, here is the location of the bulbs.

StangMods Clear Corners Bulbs

Image courtesy of StangMods.com

http://www.stangmods.com/Chrome-Amber-3157-Bulbs-p/00729.htm

http://www.stangmods.com/Chrome-Amber-194-Bulbs-p/00730.htm

On a side note, Partsbill has a pretty badass Mustang as well. I am going to drop him a line and see if I can get permission to post some pics of his baby.

Installing Clear Corners on a Mustang

So my clear corners came in from Jegs on Saturday. That is pretty impressive seeing as I had just ordered them on Thursday and did not pay for any kind of special shipping. The box came with both clear corners (left and right) as well as all four yellow bulbs so I can stay legal.

The installation was super easy and the only tools I needed were a phillips head screw driver and a pair of channel locks.

Start off by turning the wheel towards the opposite side of the car then the one you are working on. The first thing you do is obviously remove the bulbs. There are two bulbs in each corner (as marked in the picture below). To remove them, simply twist them counter clockwise and let them hang while you remove the lens.

Mustang Clear Corners Bulb Placement

The easiest way to remove the lens is by taking off the three screws in the mud well so it will open up a couple inches. To get the lens to pop out, pinch and squeeze the prongs (see below) while gently pushing in on the light from the outside of the car. The lens should pop out with little trouble.

Mustang Clear Corners Light Clips

To install the clear corners, just reverse the process. It is a tight fit so you may need to wrestle with the new part intil you get it right. When you get it in properly, you will know it. It will take no effort to get it over the white prongs. The trick is getting the inner tab to go in just right.

Mustang Clear Corners Before and After

Now that you have your clear corners installed in your mustang, you need to go out for a joy ride. I absolutely love the clean look that the clear corners give the mustang front end, especially on a black Roush with those extra fog lights.

Mustang Profile with Clear Corners

I love knocking off another mod from the laundry list!

Mustang Clear Corners

Mustang Clear Corners from
Jegs Performance Auto Parts

Check out the Installing 2006 Mustang Clear Corners post

My brother in law bought a 6 banger black convertible mustang about a month ago. Like me he picked it up from many miles away and got to know her with a great road trip. he passed through on his way home and our two cars had a chance to hang out for a bit. Needless to say we spent some time that evening going over all our mod ideas and what we wanted to do. On the list - him tossing on some break caliper paint and me getting tint (swapping pre-existing options). A few things we both planed on doing were sequential break lights, clear corners and chrome handles and a laundry list of others.

Mustang Brothers with Yellow Corners

He had chrome handles within a week and ordered the sequential break light mod soon there after making me drool for my next wrench job. Well last night I got a text from him about clear corners on specials at Jegs for about 50 bucks. I logged on first thing in the morning and ordered me a pair. Stay tuned for the “how to install” post here in a week or so.

If you don’t know what Jegs is, it has tons of performance parts for just about any car including dragsters. I have been following prices through all my paper media and was expecting to pay between $75 and $119 for the clear corners. $50 was a no brainer. They were listed in their “Mustang & Ford Racing Specials” category which was real easy to find.

My first experience with Jegs was from a catalog my neighbor gave me when I got my Mustang. The Jegs Catalog has pretty much every part you need to build or restore a car from the ground up. I was very impressed and honestly a bit overwhelmed since I am still fairly new to the self modification scene. Anyway my buddy down the street has a kick ass 69 Nova that is louder then a tornado and oh-so cherry. He has been my mentor if you will and the only place he buys his parts is from Jegs. That recommendation alone is pretty much all I needed. If you can see what he has done to his classic you would understand. Anyway…it wasn’t hard to get me to log on to their site to grab me some clear corners.

Their website is laid out real well and their listings are structured almost like a directory site making it easy to find what you want. The transactional part of their site is straight forward. You add to a cart then have 2 additional screens. I love that they are not selling out to the online marketing punks that fill the web today. Their checkout is not filled with endless cross sales and the site is not wrapped up in Google Adsence. This is an old school site that loads fast, is clean and to the point. They don’t use flashy animations or cheep consumer behavior tricks to make sales. It is refreshing to do business with a brand that stays focused on their customer. They want you to find your parts and check out then get on with your life. I guarantee that I didn’t spend more then 2 minutes on the Jegs site and I accomplished what I set out to do. I can see how you can spend hours daydreaming about your next modifications and browsing their HUGE inventory. Thanks guys! I guarantee that I will be back…and send more people your way.

- Installing Mustang Clear Corners -

Discount Tire

Discount Tire
You get more then you pay for

Let me start out by saying I love Nitto Tires. I have 20″ rims on Black Sunshine and want only the best performance possible. Before you all start yelling at me for grouping 20″ shoes with performance on a sports car, let me tell you that I don’t care. I like the aggressive stance that the larger wheels give and if I sacrifice a small amount of power then it is my choice. Anyway, I wrapped the rims with Nitto NT555 high performance street tires and I couldn’t be more happy. The side wall is short and the grip feels great (as long as the road is dry). It is easy to get my baby sideways in the rain with the 4.10 gears but these baby’s were not optimized for Seattle.

Anyway, to the point of this post. Not many tire stores keep the Nitto NT555 in stock let alone give good pricing on them. I had the option of ordering them through parts stores or paying $10 more to go through Discount tire. I decided to go with Discount Tire since they would do the mounting and balancing along with the other stuff that I just don’t have the tools for. The mounted all the tires quickly and the guys there were very helpful. Being a gear head, I had a blast browsing through their showroom of different tires and got a chuckle when this lady came in and wanted the cheepest tire possible for her little Toyota. Tires are not the part on your car to go bargain shopping on!

So when my tires were finished, the salesman at Discount Tire gave me the usual sales pitch on “hey do you want the warranty on your tires?” I usually shy away from add-on sales and cross-sales but we are talking about my freekin tires. At about $25 bucks a piece I was able to buy tire insurance for the tread life of each tire. This is one hell of a deal for anyone with performance tires and I will back this up.

Last week after getting my warranty service, I noticed my tire was running low (very hard to tell with such a short side wall). At 15psi I knew something was wrong. I was even more disturbed when I could hear air escaping after tossing in some air. I called Discount Tire and made a appointment for my lunch hour. They did not have any Nitto NT555 in stock (no surprise) but they would take a quick look at the problem. I got there right on time and they brought me right into the bay (make an appointment people…walk-ins always wait longer). Sure enough there was a nail in the middle of my tread. The guys there patched it right up and I was out the door in about half an hour. I was in and out and did not pay a dime thanks to the tire insurance.

Long story short, I would send anyone to Discount Tire and almost force them to get the insurance for their tires as long as they aren’t buying the cheap non-matching used rubber erasers for their Toyota. Thanks guys!

—- EDIT/Addition 2008-03-12 —-
It looks like my boys over there at Discount Tire are getting some love from Google.  It seems that their first week using Google Analytics gave them a %14 boost in online sales.  I have always been an advocate of GA and I am glad to see some of the places I like to shop get some love (especially in online transactions).