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Old Jan 13, 2026 | 11:28 AM
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Default Back again with a new Fbody

New to the forum but have been in and out of the seen for about 25 years. I just got my hands on a 2002 SLP SS 6-speed car. Sliver with black B pillar T-top car, Black leather interior, has 40,000 original miles, 100% bone stock other than an SLP intake air box. Should I mod it or leave it bone stock? Let me know your thoughts.

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Old Jan 13, 2026 | 11:58 AM
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My cars twin. By the look of it, those don't look like factory headlights. I run shims behind mine to move them forward to close that gap.
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Old Jan 13, 2026 | 12:40 PM
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I dunno... polls like this don't address the most important thing - Do YOU like doing mods to your cars? If you do, then mod it. If you don't, leave it stock. It's a 40K mile car. That's not low mileage for these, but it's low enough that all of your mods will be done to a car that doesn't have a lot of wear on the engine and drivetrain. My Firebird does not have a single stock part left on it, aside from the upper and lower control arms up front. I've literally changed or modded every single component. I love it, and that's why I do it.
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Old Jan 13, 2026 | 01:13 PM
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Sweet looking SS, I’d say a nice starting point would be the hazed headlights.
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Old Jan 13, 2026 | 02:09 PM
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From: Schiller Park, IL Member: #317
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Originally Posted by ss1129
My cars twin. By the look of it, those don't look like factory headlights. I run shims behind mine to move them forward to close that gap.
The headlights appear to be factory, but you are correct that the fitment is off. But, if you pay attention to the fender-to-hood gap on the passenger side you can see that other areas of front end fitment are also off. Looking even more closely at the first picture, I can see that the black plastic push-pin that holds the wheel well liner to the fender has been painted silver. It's not supposed to be body color, they left them black at the factory, so this piece has been painted at some point. My guess is that there was some paint or body work related to the front clip at some point.

Still a nice car, but not the sort of ultra low mile #1 condition collector grade vehicle that would greatly benefit from being left stock. FWIW, mine only has 20k miles and I don't even consider that to be ultra low mile; there are still examples with 3 and low 4-digit mileage that pop up for sale here and there, so a ~40k mile example is still many years away from being considered "collector grade".

All of that being said, it's still a great car and I love the color (all of mine are silver). I agree with LS1Formulation; mod it if that makes you happy or leave it stock if that makes you happy - the only real difference is that, should you ever sell it, the more seriously you modify it the more difficult it will be to find a buyer. Beyond that, it really doesn't matter.
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Old Jan 13, 2026 | 02:34 PM
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RPM is right, most of this car has been repainted.

mod the **** out of it.
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Old Jan 15, 2026 | 08:40 AM
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Nice ride! I'm a 'stock' guy myself but do whatever you like. I've kept my Trans Am as stock as possible ever since I bought it new. Hood, exhaust, the only thing I was really forced to do was buy new rims, so I went with 17" instead of the 16" that came with the car (the bead area started leaking too much over the two decades).
I keep all my rides 'stock'.


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Old Jan 18, 2026 | 08:18 AM
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Thanks for all the opinions! I wanted to mod it but wasn’t sure if I should just leave it stock. Now with your help about letting me know it’s been re-sprayed my decision will be to mod the **** out of it. Thanks everybody!
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Old Jan 18, 2026 | 08:43 AM
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The mirror is definitely off on that car. There's a lot of fbodies where the front bumper if off from the factory.
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