This message is just to show you how you can design modifications to your car beforehand, without having to hand out any hard-earned(?) cash for styling items you're not sure about how they'll fit the overall image! You just need a computer with photo-manipulating software and some imagination!

For example I was thinking, how can I make my daily driver, a boring red R19 GTS, stand out from the mass? I had been toying with the idea of maybe fitting 16V bumpers or even ordering a body kit from SK Tuning or such. That would transform the car, but gets expensive. And, like you may have noticed, cheap is my middle name!


Here's what I came up with:
- Colour-coded standard GTS bumpers, door mirrors and door handles.
- Colour-coded sideskirts from a Phase1 16V.
- B-post painted black or graphite (not yet decided which)
- Chrome strips added to the door protective mouldings. Alternatevily (if suitable chrome strip can't be found) get complete mouldings from a TXE.
- Rear suspension dropped by one spline (expecting a 40-50 mm drop). Front already has lowering springs fitted.
- Mild tinting of door windows, rear screen darker
- Last but not least (and painfully expensive...) 17" wheels&tyres

Hoping for the result to turn out something like below:

Standard:


After modifications:


And what'll all this cost? Surprisingly little, if you count out the wheels! Here are my estimates:

€ 10,-         a spray can of paint for the B-post

€ 100,-        plastic primer, filler and paint for colour-coding, using a compressor-fed spray-gun

€ 100-200,-    a pair of used 16V sideskirts

€ 30-60,-      chrome for door protective mouldings (or complete mouldings)

€100,-         have the rear screen tinted by a pro with proper 3M sunfilm

€50-60,-       material for self-tinting the door windows

€0,-           rear suspension lowering

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€390-500,-     (without wheels)

+ €1000,-      17" wheels with cheapest 205/40R17 tyres:

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€1390-1500,-   in total

We'll see how my budget holds in the end (hoping to affort all the mods by the end of July).
As you can see, those bloody 17-inchers swallow a huge amount of the budget. Without them, the project would be a walk in the park! But, on the other hand, the car would still look rather anemic without them...

A good way to complete your body kit is to put 2 others bumpers ( used or damaged on the top) on the reverse side and you both them and seal it with something to hide otr with fiberglass.

I did that my r-5 (longtime ago) with the front bumper and look like a DTM lips.....For GTA owner , you could do this with the little skirt of the front bumpers, if you have a extra one...

You have to cut them somewhere between the half of the bumper, that depend how much you want to near of the ground.

This is a low cost modifications and if you do it well that nice.

I joined a small picture of Juha R19 with the modif on it.....(P.S. Juha I am not good as you on photoshop but you will see what i mean with the modif.)