josh99ta

iTrader: (1)

2006 Spice Red Metallic GTO


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Installed:

- 20% window tint (sides and rear), 45% semi-metallic on entire front windshield (in overcast light it looks like glare across the windshield, otherwise you dont even know its tinted but you really have to look to see the GTO embroidered on the headrests, easy to see out of at night and cuts down on other car's headlight glare as well as sunlight glare)



- Xenon 4300k HID low-beam and foglight conversion, using the factory projector housings for the low-beams there is some very slight modifying to be done everything is mostly plug-and-play and there is plenty of real estate to mount the ballasts under the headlight area



- Midwest front splitter, just a flat black aluminum piece that I chose to leave the protective rubber trim on which serves only as an appearance/protection piece as it adds a little to the front of the car and takes away the "snubbed nose" look I think the Pontiac bumper has by extending the leading edge of the lower part of it... and it also protects as it'll scrape now before the bumper does, and its so subtle it cant possibly make a car look bad but I love the subtle sporty touch it adds



- Accents added are Grafxwerks dark red metallic arrowhead overlays for the front and rear arrowheads as the stock arrowheads have kind of an orange tinge in them and I wanted to get rid of that and streamline the car a bit more, and I also ditched the factory amber turn signal bulbs out of the headlight housing as well as the taillights as they reflected the whole area orange and replaced them with chrome/amber bulbs that dont cast any reflection at all but light up amber so at night the lighting looks stock but during daylight it gets rid of all the amber color on the car



To Do/Install:

- King springs front and rear, these will lower the front of the car slightly, approx. 1/2", and the rear springs should keep the rear of the car at stock height or raise it ever so slightly giving the car a very nice and subtle rake and the stance needed to really set the car off right (this will be done as soon as Pedders gets me the HD strut mounts that are on backorder)



- Racemesh lower grille insert, this will replace the horizontal bars of the lower grille area with a woven "racemesh" material that looks just like the grille material of the V-series line of Cadillacs but will be powdercoated black which should tie it in nicely with the "honeycomb" structure of the factory kidney grilles and hood scoop grilles (this will be done as soon as Racemesh ships my grille)



- Flat/satin black factory kidney grilles, have an extra set that I need to get professionally painted along with the lower rear bumper "GTO" valance to match, which should get rid of all the grey on the car and tie all the black together (this will be done when I get un-lazy and take these things to a body shop)



- Debadging the "PONTIAC" and "6.0" lettering off of the trunk lid to clean that up as well (tackling this one this coming weekend)



Notes:

- Lacey likes the camera, it gets her wet, LOL Seriously, the laws of nature dictated that as soon as the car was semi-clean it had to start raining. She was filthy and I sprayed her off at the local wash, did a quick hand-polish on the face and lip of the wheels, and then the water started coming down.



- It felt kind of good... the old Trans Am used to get tons of looks and compliments and the GTO isn't exactly the headturner the TA was, but since the addition of just these few things its already turning a few heads and while I was outside today putting the overlays on and it was cleaned up a bit and had two people stop as they drove by to ask about the car and compliment it, and when I was out shooting I had a guy stop by and talk to me about the car as well... I dont really do it for others as I'm doing exactly what I want with this car but its nice for others to notice the attention to detail you put into something



Wheels:

CCW 505As, 19x8.5 F (245/35/19s), 19x10 R (275/30/19s), Toyo Proxes T1Rs



Camera:

Nikon D80 dSLR 10.2MP with Nikkor DX 18-135mm lens



Thanks for looking.

patriotformula

iTrader: (28)

car looks amazing...

DrEvyl

iTrader: (5)

Sweet car, man... and those pictures rock.

Meego

Great look..
where did you get the Midwest front splitter from?

Teh Wicked

Thats a good looking Goat you got there...

Stang's Bane

iTrader: (22)

Best looking GTO I have ever seen, Major props man!!

CSiJason

Nice pictures but a bit dark and lacking in shadow detail. I like the CCW's but it seems everyone and their mother bought them for their GTO when CCW decided to make a production wheel to fit the GTO based on the popularity of the Woodward GTO.

01bird58

iTrader: (9)

Best looking GTO out there, hands down.

Bobbo1

Nice Goat and nice choice with the color.

josh99ta

iTrader: (1)

Thanks everybody. I really appeciate it.

I got it directly from MidwestPD. They're a sponsor over on LS1GTO.com.

josh99ta

iTrader: (1)

I prefer my pictures to be on the darker side. I usually shoot to proper exposure on my camera's internal light meter then go in and knock the levels down one or two notches for a darker look. I just prefer the overall "mood" of slightly underexposed photographs better. Everything you see in those photographs is intentional.

As for shadow detail you're not going to get much shadow detail when its completely overcast and spitting rain outside.

And I'm all about being original but not at the cost of passing up a better looking choice just to be more original. To me the 505As are the single best wheel for the GTOs out there... period. When I decided to drop the money on CCWs I could have had almost any other wheel on the market that I wanted but I got these because they were what I wanted. They're thick enough that they dont look too thin for the GTO but the split in the spokes adds a nice sporty touch to enhance the look of the GTO's lines. I've seen alot of GTOs and I've never seen one with CCW 505As on it in person besides my own. Sure, you're going to have see a few here and there on the net, but they're far from a common wheel for GTOs and you're really stretching it if you're trying to imply that these are like ZR1s or Z06s on F-Bodies IMO.

CSiJason

Thats cool, I just work in professional photography and having that much black without any detail is typicaly a no-no. I do like the "mood" of the pictures though.

No offense, I like the wheels but you and every third GTO owner have them. That's why I went with a custom wheel nobody else had.

Cyborg

iTrader: (8)

Looks awesome.

josh99ta

iTrader: (1)

Any ideas on how to get more detail? Obviously the lighting and conditions weren't the best but I was actually just going out to snap a few quick shots at one nearby location to show some of the new mods... I didn't even intend for them to come out close to as good as they are here.

I'm also using a circular polarizer. Would that have any effect?

I'm open to all the constructive criticism you've got. I'm always trying to improve.

LA_Phantom

josh99ta, if you do not mind me asking, what are the offsets on your wheels? Also, did you have to modify the rear fenders in any way?

BTW: Your goat looks super sweet! I find the front window tint to be extremely intriguing. Keep up the good work.

-K

CSiJason

I'm assuming the shots were taken in low light. Use a tripod, set the camera timer (so you dont have to touch the camera to shoot), set up your shot and play with manual exposure settings. Longer exposure can give you more detail all over and still give very dramatic light and you can tweak it down from there.

josh99ta

iTrader: (1)

But with longer exposure you run into having to change around the aperture settings to get the exposure you want and I may not be able to get the depth of field I'm looking for that way. Obviously it's all give and take though and I should probably play with ISO more as well. I had my tripod with me but like I said I never intended for the shots to be even this good, was just going to snap a few pictures of some of the new mods.

LA_Phantom, no idea on the offsets. CCW took care of all that. I haven't touched the rear fenders. I am going to King springs though so the rear is comings up just a touch. The only time I get rub is with other people in the car on HUGE dips and if I ever try to kick the back end out it'll rub ever so slightly on the passenger's side. With the King springs it should be smooth sailing.

LA_Phantom

Thanks for the information, josh99ta. I am currently in the process of developing a plan to get some fat rubber out back to help mitigate traction issues.

-K

Kevano26

so basically Im going to steal your car. that is the sexiest goat I have ever seen. your pictures have me seriously considering getting one now over a c5. and dont listen to others about the wheels, I dont think you could have put a better looking set on, of all the gto's around my area I have not seen one with the 505a's. like you said were not talking zo6's or zr1 here. awesome.

-Kevin

superchargedbandit

By Far The Best Gto Color.