My LS coupe gallery

Ok, so what we have here is an installed RK Sport body kit. The pictures were taken at twilight, so my camera was pissed off and blurry. I'll take some more this weekend. The first couple are before the kit, stock new car. The next two are after installation. The next two show door fit. The first one, though not very well, shows the tight fit between the bottom of the door and the side skirt. The second shows how the body shop had to adjust the door up a bit to make clearance at the bottom for the side skirts to fit. You can probably see my reflection in the paint better then you can see the misalignment, but I thought I'd at least try. The passenger door actually squeaks a little bit from the rubbing.

I had the guys from RK Sport on the phone with the guys from my body shop trying to figure out a good solution for the tight door fit. I'm not sure that RK Sport actually gave them a solution or not. In the end, I just asked the shop to install it with the low clearance.

Another issue was the first coat of paint blistered badly and had to be redone. There was some chemical residue on the parts from fabrication that were difficult to clean off. The second coat went on nice and clean.

Some of the seam lines show a little misfit. They are on the front and back valances were it mates with the wheel well. I'll put up some pics. But overall, a nice tight fit. It removes the factory mud flaps and screws into those mounting holes in addition to several other mounting points (rivets, adhesive strips)

I'm intially very happy with it. It's a very clean kit, not really flashy. And my body shop did a great job with what they had to work with. Compared to the Razzi kit, I think it's much better (I've seen them both). However, the RK Sport kit is a little lower in front, so you have to be careful going over those high driveways.

The car goes in for tint in two weeks, maybe one if I can get it in. I'm in Illinois so I can only do the back three, can't legally do the door windows.

EDIT:
New picts posted, see my last post for details.

 

That car looks wicked awesome. I love the RK sport body kit. So...from your experience was it worth it? Also, what was the final cost in the end? I know the kit costs about $565 with everything, but what did that come out to with paint and everything?

 

yeah the car looks great

 

Not bad, not bad at all. All you need now are rims and a lowering kit and you've got yourself one sweet ride.

Just to make sure, this is a lip kit right? Not full bumper replacements?

 

damn what a difference that kit makes, geez, i'm lovin it, yeah get some 17" or 18's gun metal w/ polished lip, lower it atleast 1.5 " and you will have the nicest cobalt in this forum.

 

will as of now you do every one else is basicaly stock. so keep up the good work.

 

looks good

 

car looks good!

as far as tint, im in pa... i know a few cops and there are some state troopers in my army unit. they have told me that it isn't illegal to have tint on the windows. they told me if they feel you are a threat to them then it becomes an issue. so i guess if you arent horsing around, no one will bother you. not sure how it is where you are though

anyways, car looks great!

 

I'm in Cleveland right now working, car's back home in Chicago. I'll be getting some more picts up on Friday when I get home. Anyway, thanks for the compliments. The body shop charged me $600 for the install. It is in fact simply a lip kit. I don't want to lower it if I can avoid it, the front end is already too close to the ground. I will be going with 17" (still deciding on a style) and some Pirelli Pzero Nero M&S 225/40ZR17. This is the project car I have posted about in other places...

Hahn Race Craft turbo kit

On June 3, the car goes to the machine shop to get the powertrain pulled. I will be installing Eagle connecting rods and the GM Performance Parts piston set which is manufactured by JEPistons. I already have these parts, I'll takes pics of them too. I also got the Goodwrench head gasket kit for putting the block back together again, which by the way comes complete with new head bolts. The Automatic trans is going out for a bulletproofing which include the installation of an LSD. This process will take 3 weeks.

When complete, the engine will be able to safely handle 650 HP and the trans will be able to handle 500 ft/lbs. I won't get anywhere near that with the turbo, but at least I know I won't break anything.

I'll post again when the pics are up.

 

Man your car is gonna be awesome....a nice lil sleeper...You'll be running 13's in no time!

 

Damn that looks real nice...

 

Nice job! The kit is sick!

get some better pics

 

Ok, so I took these today. Much better then the first set. I would have actually deleted the old ones, but I didn't see a way to that. The new pics start with the car sitting in front of the jet. That's the plane I fly. From there, you get an around the car view of the RK Sport kit. Then you get a close up of the fit for the front valance. This was the only point where the lines didn't quite match up with the car, but it's not that bad at all.

Next is a gap I got that appeared a couple days after installation. There is an adhesive pad inbetween there that just plain doesn't stick that well, and it separated. We have already corrected the problem by adding some shims to the wheel well attach point and pulling that gap back tight again.

After that is a door sill picture showing the clean install look. The next one is little blurry, I was too close. Its the spot on the passenger door where the kit rubs the bottom of the door a little. Not too much I can do about that.

Then there are pictures of the engine parts for the upgrade. Figured you might be interested in seeing those.

Tinting in a week and half, engine and trans come out after that. I'll keep posting.

 

Featured Car
Nice work

 

That kit makes it look 100 times better, Nice car!

Congrats on the Featured Car!

oh..and im looking foreward to seeing your progress with the car, good luck with everything!

 

Beautiful Citation II and Cobalt!

Where abouts are you based out of? I fly out of KBLM (South Central NJ) in C-152/172's... though, I'm only 16 (turn 17 on 6/1) so that's as good as it gets for me at the moment

--Jason

 

Well I just read the newly published GM ECOtec build book. That was good stuff. It convinced me to use the Wiseco 8.9-1 compression ratio piston instead of the GM Performance parts 10-1 ratio pistons that I got. Since I'm going forced induction, it just made sense after reading that book. I just ordered them, I'll take a coupe of pics of them when they get here.

BTW - Window tint is done, car is coming along nicely.

 

nice pictures! r u a professional? i like the hanger ones the best. nice to hear that ur beafing up the drive train and engine. it should make it much more reliable and strong. excellent job!

 

Awesome progress! I like the body kit.

 

lol no affence guys but why wouldnt yas have bought the SS which already comes with the rims and the Y rated performance tires and supercharger and performance exhaust and pull of some smaller modifications for alot cheaper like the stock SS will still blow all the Ls coupes away no matter how arrow dynamic your body kits are dynamc makes a diffrence but wont help when you pull up to the strip with a 2.2L 145 horsepower ecotec compared to the 2.2L 205 ecotec you have no chance at all you couldnt blow away the crappy celicas and tiburons and ellicples or however you spell it with a 145 horsepwoer not trying to put down your awsome cars i do love them but why not the SS?in the end it would be worth spend the extra 6G or so on the SS? am i wrong you can do all these mods to the SS too

 

Punctuation, paragraphs, spelling and...spelling are your friends.

 

sorry mistake on my last post the SS is a 2.0L ecotec not a 2.2L

 

I knew I would get one of these guys asking the proverbial "why?"

Well, here ya go...

I looked at the SS. There is one reason why I didn't get it right away. The trans. I don't want a manual trans. I'm not going to debate the pros and cons of manuals vs. Autos. I can tell you that most drag racers are in fact automatic clutches with manual shift selection. But the plain and simple was, I wanted an auto, and the SS didn't have that option.

So I thought, which would be easier, but an auto in an SS, or put a turbo in an LS? It doesn't take too much thinking before you realize that the turbo LS with an auto was the way to go. Besides, I got heated seats. Does your SS have heated seats? No, it doesn't.

If you read my other posts, you will find that my goal with this car is to produce a street legal everyday driver with as much power as it can handle. When I am done, I will produce nearly 300 HP, and I will blow the stock SS away, even with my Automatic.

 

I think it looks good with the body kit

are you bummed to know that the 2006 SS Coupe (not S/C) has a 4speed auto + TC , optional trans ?
then you'd have 4 wheel disc brakes, 2.4 172HP motor to start with, FE3 Sport Suspension, the deck lid type spoiler, front fascia with halogen fog lamps, 17" polished aluminum wheels with 205/50 tires .... etc.

heh

 

I must say you have very nice looking car, that kit is awesome. Sorry to hear you don't like manual, its definitely the way to go in any high performance vehicle

As for installing a turbo in your car, I'm not so sure why you would want to do that. Two reasons - there tends to be some serious turbo lag when you pair an automatic with a turbo (read any auto WRX review) and I don't think the 4T45E would handle close to 300HP without an expensive rebuild.

Also note that the SS S/C is build for high output and boost. Its got forged engine internals, and the Getrag trans and clutch are made to handle all the power without a problem. Its also got the handling package that the LT does not have, among other performance/convienance features.

Well either way good luck with your car. I'm just trying to point out a couple things that you might want to be wary of before you go any start installing a turbo kit