I would like to do some kind of mild mod to my 1990 coupe and wondering if anyone had any ideas?

I would like to keep the costs down and would even go as far as trying to make it myself out of fiberglass, but I really have no idea what I want. I don't care for the look of most body kits out there. Mainly because they look like body kits. They look totally bolted on. I am going to lower my car soon, and it's going to get a paint job, making this the perfect time to work on some kind of exterior mod.

Whether it be replacement headlights to get rid of the flip ups, or a spoiler, or maybe even some kind of unique paint job.

I saw a youtube video once like 2 years ago of a c4 vette. It had a ton of decals on it, it looked like a GM race car. The thing just screamed fast and the video showed it waiting to pull into traffic on a highway, and when it finally got a chance it did, got up to 60ish miles an hour, then turned around (waiting for more traffic) and came back. I think the point of the video was how ironic it was to have a car like that but be stuck with all that traffic.

Anyway, anyone have any thoughts on what they like or dislike?

 

Plan Plan Plan
Don't change anything that cant be put back if you don't like it.

 

Since you're asking for my thoughts, I'll give them. I've never seen a C4 that looks better than the factory body lowered about 1.5". Once you get the wheel-well gaps evened out so it doesn't look like a dump truck, it's just perfect. Anything else just ruins the lines. IMHO of course.

The one thing that might look good is a set of the non-flip headlights. The only problem is they're $1,000. There was a member who was writing up his project of making his own versions of them, but last I saw it wasn't done, and I haven't seen the thread in a while.

That 'GM race car' c4 you saw very may well have been. There are still Corvette Challenge C4's out there, which are covered in decals and are GM-built race cars. I suppose you could build a replica of one if that's what you like. Mechanically they're pretty much the same as a standard C4, just special paint and wheels, and a roll cage.

 

I need to do a little more research about head lights and the requirements for it to be "legal", but I have been thinking about making them myself using LED's. I was thinking I could solder leds to a circuit board about the size of the head light hole in the hood, but make sure the led's themselves are angled at approximately the right angle. Make a lense out of Lexan or a simliar material, and then figure out a way to mount it all. This would be a very "thin" solution freeing up a ton of space that the head lights used to occupy (turbos?).

If I could find full color LED's that are bright enough, I could then even adjust the tint of the light. Give it a bluish tint, greenish tint, whatever.

Still looking into it, but personally, I didn't really care for the look of the c4's with flippless headlight. just too much big square clear area for my taste. I will have to take another look at it though. And they could look much different in person then they do in pics.

 

U will find most people here are against any body mods, whatsoever. While I'll admit that resale,(if that's an issue) is affected by ANY mods, as most purchasers will want a prestine, or as close to pristine, original from whatever year they are interested in. I also admit that the stock lines are beautiful.
Now for the other side of the arguement, not all of us want a carbon copy of someone else's car. A modified car will alwys draw more attention than a stock one. Don't believe me, go to any car gathering, whether it be a drive in, cruize, or car show, and see several stock bodied cars, say a 72, 92,2002, & a 2007. Put them next to a tastefully modded 74 or 84 and see where the crowds go. The main thing that irritates me is calling it "rice". Cars have been customized for a long time before the term rice ever was thought of. A customized car is someone's own vision of what THEIR car should look/perform like.
It appears from the jest of your post, that u can do custom body work. Have u thought of maybe buying a used body kit and fiberglassing in the seams, so it doesn't look bolted on? Also minor mods can be awesome. Check out member COPO's hood scoop, which is a bonded in Z28 scoop. Great way to think outside the box. Also was a post a while back about glassing in the GS fender flares.
Main thing is to make it look professional and not bubba'd up. JMHO, Tom

 

Hey, thanks for your help.

I have not done a whole lot of actual body work, but I have done some fiberglassing back in my hard core car audio days when I was making custom speaker pods and such.

I have been thinking about trying to make some molds of my body panels and making carbon fiber versions. I think if you are patient, methodical and think things through, it won't be too bad. If I were to fill in the seams of a bolt on body kit, maybe I could then make a mold of that. I did hear that it's very hard, or impossible to fill in seams like that without them eventually seperating because of the differences in temperature expansion, but creating one panel versions would fix that problem.

Maybe I could do one of those little spoiler things that are simply very small extensions that kind of flare up about 1" to 2" or so on the back. Would hate for something like that to actually hurt gas mileage though if it added too much drag. It's not like need a functional spoiler for driving back and forth to work.

I used to see a black vette around these parts and it's license plate number was "H8RICE", I liked it