I meshed in the front grille. I always hated the crome granny looking grille. This looks much better. Inserted the "KIA" emblem in the Passenger corner of the grille, which was in the center, on the factory grille.
Installed an APC aluminum rear wing just above the factory spoiler. Initially didn't like the idea of drilling holes in my car, but I think it turned out well. 7/18/09 The verts on the wing are now Real Carbon Fiber. No more painted metal side verts. Amazing that the metal ones weighed so much compared to the metal ones. I cut the CF by hand to match the shape of the original ones. Pics will be up soon.
Since the Rio has a slope to the tail if the car, I had to midify the vertical supports of the wing to get it so that it sits properly. By drilling a second hole on the front support struts I was able to bring the front edge of the wing level. That gives the downforce that I was looking for. You can see the added holes I drilled in the next pic.
Got rid of the stock aluminum 14"x 5.5" alloy wheels for a set of 15"x 6.5" Konig "Incident" rims and wrapped them with a 195/50 R 15 tire. Would have gone with a 205 tire but worried about rubbing issues in the rear.
Disassembled the headlights. I let the lights bake in the summer sun to losten the rubbery glue that held the lenses on. I removed and painted the bezels black. Gives a "blacked-out" look to the headlights and ties it in with the meshed in grille. Also added a set of front "canards" (recently replaced with Carbon Fiber) on the front bumper just below the lights (canards are made from a slightly flexible ABS type of plastic).
Updated the Canards on 6/25/09. They now have been replaced with a REAL carbon fiber canard that I had to cut out from a flat sheet! As you can see in the picture below, the top one is the new one and the bottom one is the old. All 4 canards are now the Carbon Fiber.
Painted the front and rear brakes in a purple epoxy paint. It's highly durable and has a nice glossy finish. This is the "G2" paint system found at www.g2usa.com. Excelent results. High gloss finish and no fading, or peeling.
Hand made a decal for the trunk lid. Utilized the "GT" lettering from Ford and the "R" from Nissan to create my own "GTR" emblem. Completely hand cut from nickel-silver and painted/filled as desired.
New front lip/splitter..... LOOKS AWESOME!!!!! A major thanks to Revolution Auto Works for this one. My car is the FIRST Rio to have this lip. I was chosen to test and keep the very first one for the Rio, although a nominal payment was still made. Some minor modifications were needed but I got it mounted just fine.
Lip before instalation....
Lip installed on car......
I invested in a vinyl cutter/plotter and designed my own decals to go with my color scheme. Custom modified several others to also fit my color scheme.
Wrapped the upper wiper arms in a vinyl carbon fiber. Most realistic looking decal material that looks like REAL carbon fiber. Has a real 3D look to it in the light, unlike most of the crap you buy, which looks fake from 3 feet away. Also used this stuff on my "B" pillars and my Gas door.
Installed some ultraviolet LED's in the headlight lenses. They are below the lense and aimed into the lense so that at night the lense glows purple. You can just see it in the picture below. At night it has a VERY evil glow to it.
11/15/09 - The last couple of weeks I have been working on some new exterior mods to the car. First up is the change in the rear spoiler. The side fins have been upgraded to real CF, and the wing itself has been stripped to better match the car.
The next thing was the compleetion of the hand laid fiberglass hood scoop. As with most things involving a hole in the body, I debated on this one for a couple of days before I actually installed it. I personally made this scoop from SCRATCH! Then painted it to match the car. Below is some of the progress pics and the finished product.
Sitting in an old hood and then sitting on top of the car for reference.
And now, the finished product, after a good 40 hours of work.
Page 1) Introduction
Page 2) Engine Performance
Page 3) Suspension/Drivetrain
Page 4) Interior Mods
Page 5) Exterior Mods
Page 6) Shows Attended/Awards
Page 7) Current Projects Page 8) Products/Parts For Sale
