Covet

iTrader: (1)

As I stated before I'm the very proud new owner of a really gorgeous 02 Camaro. I do have a lot of questions though that I felt might be worth their own thread. I did read through the FAQ but I didn't see the answers I was looking for there (or maybe I just missed them there. I don't claim to be perfect )

anyhow on with my questions!
1) How much would it cost to get a slick looking console for the car? The stock console just doesn't impress me that much.
2) How much does it cost to really make the interior looking nice?
3) Decent sound system cost?
4) How hard is it to convert a hardtop to t-tops (if it's even possible) and is it worth the effort?
5) Feel free to recommend other things.

1 BLOWN V8

iTrader: (17)

1) No idea on that but I would thing lots of $$$
2) Depending what you are looking for but I would say $1,500-$2,000
3) $1,500 on up
4) Yes you can add t-tops. About $1,200 to $1,500 and I would look for used t-tops.

I take it you are looking for looks only? Not performance.

Covet

iTrader: (1)

Performance is cool and I'm willing to do some performance modifications but I don't plan on doing anything really intense to it until after college. I'm not the most savvy person regarding cars. Eventually I'd like to make it fast but for now it's plenty fast for me (my only other car was a 94 4runner automatic so this m6 camaro is a drastic change ) for now the goal is to make it sexy as hell. (Read: Panty Dropper)

yak

iTrader: (15)

Well as far as going from hardtop to T tops I have heard that it is an ugly process. I heard that they pretty much chop your roof off and weld a t top roof on. But I may be wrong, I considered doing that on my 91 Z28 but the roof chop scared me away.

Making the interior nice looking is very subjective, I like my stock interior the way it is, but I would say anywhere from 2k to 8k and you will have a bitchin interior. A system can be relitivly cheap depending on that you want, I like my stock monsoon system enough. As far as a custom console close your eyes and hand out your wallet because I would believe that it is mucho mucho dinero. but then again do what you want to do... I'm the 16year old who spends 50% of paycheck on insurence 20%on gas and the rest on prefomance mods.....

TheBlurLS1

iTrader: (8)

it would be an absolute travesty if you converted an 02 SOM SS HARDTOP into a t-top car. your car is VERY rare, its not often that you see a hardtop SS, but a hardtop SOM is even less likley. hardtop cars are known to be a bit stiffer and do better for racing.

if you spend the money on t-tops, you will end up never taking them out like 90% of the rest of the people on this board, i've had my car for a year and can count on one hand the number of times i've taken my t-tops out.

if you want to make her drop dead gorgeous, throw on some nice 17 or 18" wheels and a 1.5"ish lowering kit. f-bodies look unbelievable when lowered and its fairly cheap.

as for stereo, theres a nice little box that tucks into the driverside rear fender area in the very rear of the car. 1 10" or 12" sub cranks out nice bass through it. i love the interior in my car and dont think the stereo sounds half bad either, but its all relative. i've also never seen an aftermarket console for one either.

Martingale

Hardtop V8 F-bodies are rare...I'd keep that the way it is. If you want advice on a sound system try www.fbodyaudio.com and the message forum at www.termpro.com. Both have helped me a lot. For a good sound system you're looking at about $1,500 to $2,000. One advantage to the hardtop is that you have a hatch for good subwoofer and amp placement. With T-tops you have to use custom boxes and amp racks or give up your T-top holders.

Covet

iTrader: (1)

Okay then I'll take your advice and keep the hardtop :X

Any chance you could direct me to some nice 17 or 18 wheels and the lowering kit? Also, I have some questions regarding what you guys have said:
1) I've seen the custom box for one sub...is there any way that I could get 2 12's in there and not have it look grotesque? I'm looking at dropping around 2k on the sound system and 1k on an exhaust. I'd like to make it so that it seems like part of the car instead of just a couple of 12's I slapped into there haphazardly. Figure if I'm gonna drop the cash might as well go all out and do it properly the first time around. I have some pretty nice rims and tires on my car right now (The rims are these sexy chrome SS ones that I love and the tires are, if I remember correctly, raptors or something? Old owner put them on there, dealership guy said they were pretty nice and they look like they've gotten barely any mileage on them.)
2) recommendations on an exhaust? I read up and it seems like flowmasters aren't too popular around here, my friend had recommended borla so I was thinking about going with that, and a lot of people here are mentioning gmmg or something like that.
3) The lowering kit....will this cause problems during daily driving? I'm used to driving SUV's, I've never really had any experience driving sports cars in general so it's gonna be a challenge for me to get used to the nonexistent clearance, how much would lowering it add to my woes? Denver's roads aren't the best, especially around campus here.
4) everyone is saying lots of money for a redesigned console...that's what I figured though, could someone give me a ballpark please?

The interior will prolly have to wait for a year or two until I can build up finances for that. I want to probably drop 5k on a really, really sexy interior. I don't plan on selling this car, ever, so I'm willing to be patient and get everything exactly how I want it.

evilbadz

iTrader: (1)

I have 2 alpine 10s in a custom box that sits above the trunk space behind the seats, a 400 watt Coustic amp and 4 6" sonys in the panels, a $300 mp3/wma/cd player and it didnt cost me anywhere near $1500.

Martingale

Try searching the handling and braking forum for "lowering" or "lowering kit." There's a lot of info in there. These cars aren't cheap to lower if you want to do it right. At a minimum you'll need the springs, adjustable panhard rod to align your rear end, and lower control arm relocation brackets to bring your control arms down with the new geometry. Parts will be about $450. www.thunderracing.com sells a kit with everything. But most people strongly suggest that you buy aftermarket shocks at the same time as lowering springs with the stock shocks will make the car ride really stiff.

Covet

iTrader: (1)

I have another rather unrelated question. My dad is being really cool and is offering to pay for me to take a class on how to properly drive this vehicle (I don't have any experience with manuals). How much do these cost and how can I locate one?

camar0guy

iTrader: (5)

i did the whole t-tops conversion myself for 470 bux

02WS6Bird

iTrader: (2)

Just use the search button, every question you've asked can be answered by looking around man.