GBRunner24

iTrader: (1)

So I'm sure my "build" thread won't bring much attention here because it will be nothing crazy, however I wanted to compile everything I've done/doing to the car so far/in the future. I always love building build threads to watch my own progress and help anyone I can if they wanna do something similar. Not sure if this was the correct thread, but hey lets give 'er a shot!

This will be an overload of photos, so be prepared! haha

Day One:


How it sits now (well in the summer, not winter mode):


I bought the car just about a year ago. At the time I was driving an awful Focus that decided to pop on an on ramp on the way to Chicago. I drove it with 2 cylinders for about a month until I found a decent deal, thanks to my parents neighbors. Traded the Focus in and got $3k (it was worth about $1000 in the shape that it was in) and got the Cobalt for just about $6k. It was in pretty good shape and I needed something bad. I'd always wanted an SS but I took what I could afford at the time.

Basically my main goal is just to have a little fun with it, make it look a little better, and make me happy. So far it's done most of that. I don't need anything fast out of a DD, so it probably won't ever get a supercharger or anything of the like. Who knows what could come in the future though!

2007 Cobalt LT
78,000 miles when I bought it
Automatic slush box
Cruise control
Grey interior
4x100 steel wheels
2.2 L61

Current Modifications:
ZZP 2.2 Intake tube and K&N Filter
H&R Springs and FE5 struts
Ebay 2.5" catback (sounds surprisingly good)
Anzo black headlights
17x8" ATS DTM wheels
SS leather seats
Partial black interior swap (still underway)
ZZP Front strut bar
Tinted tails and various painted bits
SS/Sport instrument cluster
Upgraded stereo and speakers

Future/Planned Modifications:
LNF front grille (Purchased)
Full SS kit (Bumper already purchased)
2.4 Intake Manifold (Purchased)
Single gauge pod for Wideband/Aeroforce (Purchased)
2.4 Throttle Body
ZZP Tune
ZZP header and downpipe combo
Full black interior
FE5 control arms
Rear sway bar
35% Tint
ETC...

The day I bought it:





Interior and exterior were extremely clean. Granted $6k for a base model may have been a little bit, but I had to do something with financing considering I didn't have $3k in cash on hand. Only thing that was really wrong with the car was the interior dome light was finicky and the fan blower ticked. I thought at the time that I was going to leave it completely alone and just drive it, but just as with all my cars the bug bit me quick.

Saved for editing

GBRunner24

iTrader: (1)

I can never stand driving a completely quiet car, so first thing was to rip out all the extra air box junk and do the "airbox mod". I don't have any photos of that, but it actually made a good bit of sound difference. However just that only lasted about a day.

I had heard of ZZP before but never looked into them since I had never had a platform that they worked on. After looking at their products and researching I found out that the ZZP shop is literally only 10 minutes from my house. AWESOME! I know some folks don't speak highly of ZZP, however I think the guys there are great and I've loved their products so far. Popped in on a day off and picked up one of their 2.2 Intake tubes and a K&N filter. Awesome product for the price and gave the engine a much better sound than just the airbox mod. Who knows if it actually increases any power, but who cares.

Nasty snowy day I put it on


Still holding up well into last fall


I plan on taking out that stupid plastic Ecotec cover, powder coating the valve cover and making the engine bay a prettier place to look at. That's in the future though.

Around the same time I picked up a ZZP front strut brace. I know on past cars I'd had the strut brace was a decent little pick up for the price, however it doesn't seem to do anything at all for me. Oh well.

GBRunner24

iTrader: (1)

Second to come was changing the look. I hate stock steelies and hubcaps so I hopped on good 'ole craigslist and shopped around for some wheels. I have a terrible impulse buying problem so I picked up some 15x7 Rota Slipstreams with some ridiculously huge tires on them. I got a great deal and it came with 5 wheels.



They were in pretty good shape and tires were fairly new.

WOAH. Holy wheel gap batman! I didn't realize until I got the stockers off and these on just how much wheel gap this thing had. I also have never had black wheels on a black car, so I didn't realize how bad it looked.





I knew something had to be done about the wheel gap before changing the wheel color. I did a bit of research online and landed on Canuck Motorsports springs. Helped a good amount with the wheel gap, but drop wasn't quite where I wanted it. I'll tell you what though, ride quality on the CM's was fantastic!


Silly cat getting in the phto!

Boom lowered!

Wait....that might be lowered. It was so tough to notice on the 15s that the springs did anything for a while.



At the same time I decided to paint the front emblem silver since I hated the gold. Didn't turn out too bad.



I bought way too much silver and decided to lighten up the wheels a bit. It was hilarious painting the wheels in the bathtub since it was so crappy out still. Needless to say the girlfriend was pissed haha.


The silver definitely made things look a whole heck of a lot better.

GBRunner24

iTrader: (1)

Next I got the silly idea that I was bored with the silver and wanted to try something gold like. Well after my trip to the store to buy paint the color I ended up with was more copper than gold, but I kinda liked it! The only problem was at certain times the copper color looked a little dirty.



By this time the CM's had started to settle a little and it might've looked like it was lowered lol.




I needed to get the stock badgeing off, and I finally got the chance goo gone and fishing line my way through it when it got a little warmer. I decided to keep the rear bowtie, although it looked a little gross because it had looked like someone tried to take it off before.





Around the same time I finally got rid of the awful chrome stock headlights and ordered some Anzo black headlights from eBay. I've never had experience with tearing apart headlights to paint so I figured for $90 I couldn't go too wrong. I just loved the way they pulled together the front end.

GBRunner24

iTrader: (1)

Once it got a little warmer last year I started in on the interior a little. I've never been a huge painted interior fan, but I really wanted a little project to do, and the stock grey everything was so boring. So I used the left over copper I had and went to town on the trim pieces.

Somehow I managed with a pretty cool pattern on the trim pieces. Basically I think I didn't let the primer base dry long enough and it made this pattern. After getting it in the car it definitely spiced things up, but I didn't keep it that way for long.




Before:


After:

GBRunner24

iTrader: (1)

Once it got warm enough to lay on the ground I decided it was time for a little noise. Also I hated how god awful the stock muffler looked in all my photos. I didn't really want to spend a whole ton of money so I took my chances on an eBay cat back. I made a little review thread here....

https://www.cobaltss.net/forums/2-2l...review-309201/

Needless to say I was really impressed for the price. It's actually held up pretty well through this winter as well.









The one video I managed to upload:


Finally things were starting to come along.

GBRunner24

iTrader: (1)

I must've mixed my timelines up and forgot to mention my second set of wheels.

I was tired of the little puny 15s and scoured craigslist for a deal. I found this awesome set of ATS wheels on the other side of the state for $250. Less than 100 miles on the whole set. I'd never heard of ATS wheels but from what I've looked into they're pretty nice. Only bad thing was the tires were staggered. The guy I bought them from wanted a thicker tire in the rear on his RX7 that these were for.



215/40/17 tires on the front and 215/45/17 on the rear. The guy actually was really awesome and helped me swap the wheels at his house. SO MUCH BETTER!







To this day I still haven't gotten tired of these wheels, which is very odd for me. I do with they were 18's though.

GBRunner24

iTrader: (1)

TO BE CONTINUED! (Still far from caught up to date haha)

Spawne32

iTrader: (1)

love this look, even if it is a base model

96S1

iTrader: (7)

Ha I actually like this accidental antique cracked look . . . but dude man clean up, your car is nasty with all that fast food trash and crap . . reminds me of this chick in high school we called pig pen, she was pretty cute and all but as soon as you get in her car - damn gross like a garbage can exploded!

Haha and I just noticed you have 50 air fresheners in your vents and rear view, if you just clean your trash up it won't stink! Again, just like our high school bud pig pen. Her car smelled like a nasty trash bin, I never rode with her!

andrewcarr1993

iTrader: (5)

I remember when he first posted that picture and I said that...

For how well he takes care of the exterior the interior leaves a lot to desire.

Now cave in and let ZZP SC it.

GBRunner24

iTrader: (1)

Yeah that's my weak point. When its cold out I trash the interior, however once it warms up I clean the interior all the time. It didn't help that I drove quite a bit every day with my old job. Its clean now I promise haha. Once I get back to my computer on Monday and finish up to my current progress you'll see that I've gotten better.

GBRunner24

iTrader: (1)

Thanks man! Means a lot. I know base models aren't much to gander at, but I try.

sandman

iTrader: (4)

Bring back those copper wheels!

GBRunner24

iTrader: (1)

And I'm back! Time to get this up to current day...

Photoshoot Time after the new wheels!
This was still on the CM springs















Around the same time I went ahead and painted the front bowtie a nice shade of blue.



Then I matched the rear one as well...(a little ghetto but it worked haha)

GBRunner24

iTrader: (1)

Next on the list was starting to change around the interior. The stock grey interior just wasn't doing it for me.

Picked up a set of white faced gauges to replace the stock 120mph unit. I can't remember the exact model that these in particular come off, but I believe it was the Cobalt Sport or SS/NA with a particular dealer option. I made the mistake of picking up a '06 cluster at first and the DIC didn't work. Thankfully I sold that to another member on here and picked up an 07 unit that worked great. I think they look awesome! And they're not as common as the SS cluster, so that's kinda cool.





Next I drove over to the Detroit area and met with Justin who sold me his old set of SS leather seats. Much better than the stockers.



I still haven't been able to find a set of leather rears which kinda sucks.

GBRunner24

iTrader: (1)

After getting the seats I knew I needed a change on the interior. So started the black swap, and a change for the trim pieces. I went with blue to match the bow-ties. Picked up a pair of door panels, the steering column piece, and the glove box in black. I still need to get the kick panels in black and do the rear.

Gross stock grey (yes it's dirty haha)


After the black panels went in


So much better. Also I really liked the blue over the copper interior.

Soon there after I stumbled upon an awesome event at Gingerman raceway called Gridlife. Found it on facebook, had the weekend off, and decided to swing down there. Absolutely awesome time, and anyone who is in Michigan/Illinois/Ohio needs to go this year.

Here's my full coverage on it....

https://www.cobaltss.net/forums/pict...2014-a-310370/

And some photos of my car

blueLNFftw

iTrader: (16)

I told you that you should have held out for at least an LSJ!

GBRunner24

iTrader: (1)

Trying to remember my timeline here but I believe the H&R's came next. Picked up a used set of H&R's and FE5 struts to get me a little lower. I definitely like them over the drop on the CMs, however the passenger rear still seems to sit weirdly high for me, however I've heard the same with other people.

This was when I initally put them on and they definitely seemed to have settled since then










Here's the most recent photo I have, right before the cold started, and they've definitely settled



Ever since I had done the back bow tie in blue I knew I needed to tint the tails. I had never done it before and picked up some nightshades. I've since wet sanded and gotten them to be quite a bit clearer, but I think it pulls the rear end together better. Three layers of nightshades and they're just dark enough, but are still extremely visible.

Before with stock red


Half and half


Fully done


Booty

blueLNFftw

iTrader: (16)

Lay some clear coat on the nightshades.

GBRunner24

iTrader: (1)

ALRIGHTY THEN! I'm pretty sure that's caught up to present day. I've been starting to stockpile some parts for warmer weather and get this even further.

Got some Champiro Ice Pro winter tires for an awesome deal thanks to a friend of a friend that works at discount. This thing ****** rocks in the snow now. First time ever having snow tires. Doesn't look to bad for winter mode







Picked up an LNF grill, cant wait to put this in. Brand new from Partsgeek.com, I'd definitely recommend buying from them.


Picked up an SS bumper. New but needs paint and a lip. Got a good deal on this puppy.


Not sure if I'll even end up running these, but got an amazing deal on these 18x8.25 Enkei GF1's. They need to be re-purposed and powder coated/painted, but for $50 I couldn't deny them.


Lastly I picked up a 2.4 Intake Manifold at the same time. I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE WARMTH. No garage sucks.

GBRunner24

iTrader: (1)

There is. Those initial pictures were after I put clear and before I wet sanded/buffed them. They look much better now.

07blackg5

iTrader: (8)

Nice wheels
and they are 7.5 wide, fyi. the width is inside lip to inside lip, not outer dimension.

Why is the manifold not on yet!?!

I still miss those wheels sometimes, but i like my 17x9's haha

GBRunner24

iTrader: (1)

My only day off was yesterday and there was no in hell I was going out in -10* weather to put that on! Haha

I think I'm going to do the wheels in gold or the copper I had before. They should look pretty good!

07blackg5

iTrader: (8)

We should have just thrown it on while you were out here. If you didn't have a 2+ hour drive home, I would have suggested it. You saw how fast it came off