Help Please?!

[Newbie]

Hey there!

Yeah, I know I'm a newbie and all, but this seems the place to go for information.

I recently got a 1995 Neon Sport. My friends are all telling me to put all kinds of stuff in it, but I honestly don't know what to do first.

Can you guys tell me what it would take to make an "ideal" Neon?

Its like electric blue, with factory everything in it right now (Stereo, Spoiler, Rims etc). I also have the funky Neon "splash" on the side.

Any help you guys can give me would be MUCH appreciated.

Thank you!

[KatWoman]

For a clean and simple look on the outside start off by lowering it a bit and throwing some nice wheels on it. A WingsWest body kit would compliment the blue nicely (painted to match of course). If you have gray moldings you can paint them to match the car.

For mild and less expensive performance upgrades do an intake (IceMan, AEM, and I'm sure there's other brands), underdrive pulley, and exhaust.

For interior you can pull out your vents and paint them to match the car color or if you have a dark gray interior silver looks nice too.

Here's a pic of mine



www.modernperformance.com

www.howellauomotive.com

www.cnnpracing.com

www.neons.org

www.modernmopars.org


Here are some awesome links to Neon/Mopar resources for you.

[Newbie]

KatWoman thank you very much for your help *so far lol*
I have one question in regards to the body kit *the skirt and everything correct?*

I live in a city where we get an ample amount of snow in the winter, and have a few massive speed bumps on/near major centres *malls etc*... Will this cause a problem? I mean I occasionally have problems with the speedbumps as they are now, or should I just find alternate routes?

Also is that your original shifter or did you install that yourself (or have someone else do it?). I only ask because I like it, but I noticed it was the same colour as your air vents which made me wonder.

Thank you for you for your help, now all I need to do is find $2-3000 .

[KatWoman]

You're welcome, glad I could help

The body kit could pose a problem in snowy places...depending on which one you go with, cuz different ones hang at different heights from the ground. There is one person I know of that hangs on out Neons.org that actually removes his kit in the winter, but I think after doing that a few times he is running into a problem getting the skirts to stick cuz they are held on with heavy duty double-sided tape. I think he is having trouble with the front bumper hanging right too. A few of people on that board too also have a truck or some kind of beater car and put their Neons away in the winter...which is the best solution to keeping a body kit nice in snowy areas.

Also, the silver area on the console by the shifter was pulled out and painted to match the vents. The whole console has to be removed to get to that piece. The shift knob itself is an aftermarket carbon fiber one for the automatic. My fiance gave that to me for Christmas (2000) along with a carbon fiber gauge cluster overlay. He put both of those in for me and also helped me pull that plastic piece out of the console to get it painted.

[dnkygirl]

Hi Katwoman,

I really love that paint job. I am doing the same to my car right now. I am having serious technical difficulties ... I keep goofing up the paint. I'm now on my third try. This weekend will be paint and prime a rama. I found this sweet chrome paint that works with my brushed aluminum dash kit. I like the idea of the painted vents so I'm going to do that this weekend as well. Thanks for posting the photo gave me lots of ideas on modifying my interior. I like that shifter too I have one like it... I also found a E-brake that matches it.. that was a project in itself... 3 hours of grinding the shifter to fit a standard one.


Dnkygirl

[KatWoman]

Dnky, I have been looking for a matching e-brake handle to no avail....where did you get yours? Good luck on getting your interior done lemme know how it turns out, and post pics if you can.

[dnkygirl]

Hi Kat,

I found the E-brake on jcwhitney.com , only thing thou is that it fits a standard sized e-brake... which the Neon's is not. I had to file the handle down a bit to make it fit. About 3 hours later... and a few finger nails it makes a great addition to the car. Check out my webpage I have pics of what I've done so far.


http://www.cardomain.com/member_page...page_id=186281

I'll post photos there as soon as my paint catastrophe is over. ;o)

[Santonucci]

There really is no *ideal* neon. Your Neon is what you make of it, and nothing more.

Some people trip it out with rims, paint, body kits, etc...
Others are all about speed (such as myself).

If you're into looks and not speed, I suggest a body kit (preferrably one that doesn't require too much body modification to the fenders and such so that you can put the stock bumper back on in the winter.
Also, a nice set of rims will do some good...17's are good for showing, 16's are great for a happy medium between weight and speed, 15's if you're serious about weight redux.
Tint the windows and add some clear markers...
There's a list of things you can do to the Neon, it's really all up to your taste buds.

Performance wise...you should start with the air intake...the stock one is terrible! Since you own a 1st gen, I'd reccomend the Iceman CAI, though recently one of their warehouses burnt...so the shipping has been a bit slow.
I believe a Sport is a DOHC, so your exhaust system should be fine (unless you want a louder exhaust system)
Then replace the heavy stock crankshaft pulley with a lighter UDP (Might I suggest TTI Racing's pulley? Dyno'd to give the greatest percentage of return to the engine, 33%)
Next, replace your stock ECU with a Mopar Performance PCM.
Then a bigger throttle body (52mm bored to 56mm work well)
and have the intake manifold port & polished to match.
Replace your header with Pacesetter or Chikara headers if you want to stay emissions legal...Blackdog if you want the biggest gains.
If you follow in this order, you should be fine and notice some serious gains.
This will produce a Neon that runs 14's on a 1/4 mile track and be a decent threat on the streets.

Hope this helps.
-Steve

[KatWoman]

Originally posted by dnkygirl
Hi Kat,

I found the E-brake on jcwhitney.com , only thing thou is that it fits a standard sized e-brake... which the Neon's is not. I had to file the handle down a bit to make it fit. About 3 hours later... and a few finger nails it makes a great addition to the car. Check out my webpage I have pics of what I've done so far.


http://www.cardomain.com/member_page...page_id=186281

I'll post photos there as soon as my paint catastrophe is over. ;o)

Looks very nice I registered at CarDOmain awhile back but I need to get some better pics of my car before I post them up there. I wanna actually clean it up real nice and go somewhere nice and take some really good pics. The good ones I do have show my old wheels. E brake handle looks very cool...did you have to grind down the factory one or the CF one?

[dnkygirl]

Hi Kat,

Yes.. I had to grind down the factory shifter for it to work. Luckily it's not hard metal, it won't take long... focus on the top square part first then smooth out the bottom last .. that will save you some time. I am looking for an all chrome colored one... I saw one somewhere... I need to search around again. Good luck on your webpage... it's alot of fun watching how things change during the upgrade process. I'm thinking about changing out my headlights too... I'm looking at the toyota celia's headlights. I need to take some measurements and see if there's enough space under the hood to support it. Yeah huge welding project... gotta find a welder.


Dnkygirl

[dnkygirl]

I finally finished the paint job from hell. Took me 3 weeks.. yeah I know... i'm awful at painting guys... I cracked my center console trying to reinstall the gear box last night so I'm sad about that... I started out with a chrome colored paint, but ended up with a metallic brushed grey. Looks good with my brushed aluminum dash kit. Check out my page here:
http://www.cardomain.com/member_page...page_id=186281

Let me know what you think. I am going to do the center steering plate the same color... I'm coordinatin... ;o) and now i need to find the neon grave yard so i can change out my console.. oh joy.