rICe bOi pICs yO! (engine painting & sill graphics)

[PhoenixGTS]

Call me rice. Here are pics of two rice mods I did to make my three-month-old-to-me Viper my own:

First, after my girlfriend and others burning themselves on the sill, I made these graphics. At first I thought they wre way over the top, but after having them for awhile, I'm going to keep them. Also added the rice boy speakers to give the car an updated look and solve the problem of the darn speaker grill popping off every 4th time I closed the driver's door.

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Second, my car came with the stock wrinkle red engine paint and Parts Rack chrome smooth tubes with red couplers. The wrinkle red on the passenger side was in tough shape with some big chunks missing so I yanked the intake manifold and valve covers and sent them to the powder coater. The theme of my silver GTS is no color (silver, grey, black and polished only) so I went with a grey color (smooth, as the coaters said they have problems with wrinkle on castings). Hand sanded the highlights myself. Cut the chrome smooth tubes down an inch (should have gone two as they are still too long) and had those coated int he same grey and got black reinforced silicone couplers to complete the laid back factory look.

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Added a few missing plug wire looms, taped up some beat sheathing on the PCM harness, and replaced a few broken and missing bolts and the engine compartment is looking good. Comments please.

 

[Achilles99]

I like the warning symbol for hot sills... I've had several people burn their legs before putting hiflows in!

 

[FLOORIN04]

POWERCOATING looks great.Are you going to do rotors as well? Warning symbol is nice .

 

[GR8_ASP]

Dumb question but why do you need the warning on the driver's side?

Also, I noted some insulation around the air box. Does that help?

 

[PhoenixGTS]

On the rotors I just used silver header paint. Was really quick and easy as the rotors stayed on the car the whole time. BTW, the powder coating of the intake mani and valve covers was $135 including stripping plus about $60 for the five required gaskets and another $60 for new o-rings for the injectors so it was about a $250 and a full days work project.

Regarding the driver's side warning, I noticed that when the car is parked and the doors open folks get really close to the sills when they look inside - no matter what side it is - even if they are not actually getting into the car. Plus I figured it would match the passenger side just like the little stock warning stickers.

 

[PhoenixGTS]

Also, I noted some insulation around the air box. Does that help?

The car came with headers that were stainless and leaked and they burned a hole in the front inboard corner of the fresh air box. I did a nice patch on the box but it was visible so I though I would do the insulation for the double duty of hiding the patch and trying to keep some heat out of the HVAC unit. It ended up making a noticeable difference in AC performance. It does not have a huge effect on the HVAC heat soaking from the car sitting with a hot engine, but when you are actually moving it must keep a bunch of heat out of the fresh air box as the AC worked much better afterwords (and as you can see from the cactus in the background of the picture I live were I can do some serious hot weahter testing). I would recommned it. I used a battery insulation kit from an old-skool speed shop in town. Cost about $30 and an hour of work.

 

[Got Venom]

WoW I can't believe people drive Vipers in the summer in Phoenix!! The engine looks great, especially the gray smooth tubes. I think I might try your insulation trick. By the way, you need to change your brake fluid. It looks way too dark.

 

[01sapphireGTS]

GREAT looking powdercoated parts !

 

[PhoenixGTS]

By the way, you need to change your brake fluid. It looks way too dark.

That is on the list of remaining things to do.

 

[Hirohawa]

I think the sills look great.

 

[Viper Specialty]

Powdercoating looks great!