The Beginning

One fateful day in April of 1999, I was standing at the Toyota dealership given two spur-of-the-moment choices: Either keep the baby blue Ford Taurus and let my parents buy any vehicle they want, or buy any car I could afford on the lot and give them my car. I was looking for something more sporty, but this was the best looking car they had and I knew that I didn�t want to be stuck with the Ford. So I took the Corolla, thinking that I was going to get rid of it the first chance I got, and I�ve been happy with it ever since.

The �Original� Look
This vehicle had what I always called �the brotha-man package�: Factory Enkei wheels with gold painted aluminum, gold pinstripes, wood grain on the dash, gold emblems�all it was missing was leather interior and a sun-roof. I never liked the tan interior or the wood grain, but the outside was doable. About the beginning of January, I was thinking about getting a new 2004 Corolla that would look more like what I wanted, but my friend Dave (see lovenpain link above) gave me the idea to mod the car. Not liking the idea of having to make car payments for another 6 years (and realizing that my car still had some life in it), I decided to take his idea.

The Plan
I still liked the Idea of having gold accents here and there on the outside, but I didn�t want it to look as ugly or fake as it was currently. I wanted a consistent theme all around the car that incorporated some of the old ideas with a newer �sports car� look. I wanted black to stay the main color of the car and keep the small gold accents all around it. I also wanted to incorporate green, my favorite color, into the scheme somewhere�I just didn�t know where I wanted it. I also wanted to kick the acceleration of the car up a few notches (I hated the Ford, but I missed the V6).

The First Mods
I think the first real mod I put on the car (with the help of Dave) was a Bomz Racing air intake system. The first time I drove Corolla after the intake system was in, it roared! That�s when I knew that I could make turn this car into a whole different animal. I also wanted to change the look of the lights. You can spot a Corolla or a Camry at all times just by looking at the taillights or headlights (or at least I can) I wanted to be able to look at the car from the front or the back in a sea of 97 Corollas and be able to pick mine out as soon as I lay eyes on it. I looked on E-bay and found out that parts for a 97 Corolla are really cheap! I bought a set of Halo �angel eyes� projector headlights, the Gen3 Carbon fiber Altezza taillights, and clear corner and bumper lights from Saber Motor Sports. Out with the factory bulbs and in with super whites from APC for the tail and corner lights and some free PIAA blue-and-whites for the corners. I also got a free PIAA super white for the interior light and covered it with a green bulb cover. Since they were only a dollar apiece, I decided to get two more green bulb covers for the back-up lights as well.

My First Big Mod

I was in desperate need of tires and Dave told me he could give me a set of his old Continentals that he took off of his 2004 Matrix as soon as he bought them. Only problem was that they were 16�s and my wheels are factory 14�s. So I decided to get rid of the gold painted aluminum Enkei rims and go for a lighter more stylish rim. After looking though countless books and sites, I decided to go for the Enkei RSF2. What can I say? Enkei has the best looking tires for my money and it still has the gold accent in the middle of the cap.
I call this a big mod, because it was a big pain in the neck! Long story short: four of the lugs that the wheel company gave me didn't fit, the free tires were the wrong size for the car (16" rims need a pair of 205/45WR16! Trust me!), and the only company that had my tire was charging $108 a peice for Sumitomos. I bought two for the rear and left the continentals on the fronts where there was hardly any rubbing, then ordered two more Sumitomos online for $76 a peice.

Need More Green!
Now I was still not happy with the lack of green showing on the car despite the few green lights I had. I wanted something that would show in the day and at the time I didn�t know if I wanted any vinyl on the car at all. So I decided that I needed to paint the brake calipers green. While I was waiting for my G2 Caliper paint to come in, I had a green StreetGlow neon undercar kit and set of green Quest/ Redline pedals installed. I had the pedals hooked up so that I could turn them on by green light up switch I installed in the car where the power mirror switch would be (if I had power mirrors). I had the undercar kit hooked up to work by remote (I got the remote originally to work with the angel eyes and the remote had 3 extra channels). I finally got my calipers painted Sunday. So far I've been doing this for about a month (I started moding Feb. 12). I'm currently cleaning the engine compartment out (7 years of dirt and grime...) and I plan on dresing the engine up in green, putting a body kit on, a new spoiler, a new exhust, a new paint job and new interior.