SolaraGuy.com

Been lurking here for a while, haven't posted much because I don't have much to contribute.
As someone who shouldn't be spending a lot of money on my car at this point in time, and hates the look of my wheels - are there any cheap alternatives I can do to them to make them look better? I read something about wheel rings, would those look dumb? Yes I know anything will look dumb on stock wheels... maybe I'm answering my own questions here lol.

I love my car but I don't have the money or knowledge to lower my car or do any of the obvious things, so I was just wondering of any cheap mods I could do... unless "cheap mods" don't exist haha. Thanks.

Gotta pay to play.

I built my car on the cheap, but it came out nicely enough.

For example, the wheels and tires were $300. If you can't do at least that much, you probably shouldn't be doing anything.

ThatVietGuy wrote:Gotta pay to play.

I built my car on the cheap, but it came out nicely enough.

For example, the wheels and tires were $300. If you can't do at least that much, you probably shouldn't be doing anything.

Yeah figured as much. The dealer put on new tires for free when I bought it, so. Kinda small. Maybe I'll make everyone jealous with some sick hubcaps, hah.
Well aside from the tires I'm sure I can find other things I can do that are in my budget.

What wheels do you have now? Ttry painting them black lol, thats what i did to mine and i am pretty happy with it.

yeah dude. Plasti Dip them black. Get 3 cans and you can paint them in a day. Its practically foolproof if you follow directions and if you fuk it up you can just remove it....lol. It holds up to all weather and looks nice when you shine them up. Either that or go to craigslist and get some updated rims but beware of bent ones and make sure to do research on sizes. The most important thing I can tell you is stay within the offset value of your Solara. Meaning only get rims within the 35-42 realm of fitting. Theres a stamp on the back of wheels. other then that 5x114.3 is your lug pattern and no higher then 225/50 on your tire sizes. okay!...peace...

Thanks for the replies guys. I just have regular, what's the stock size, 16's? With the stock rims. Yeah those look really nice, I was looking into getting some plasti dip actually. And Steve, I see you have blacked out corners too? I love that as well, I can't tell from the one picture I saw but are they actual black corners or did you just tint them? I was looking at VHT Nightshades but I'm too hesitant to actually use it. Oh and back to the Plasti Dip - I've seen people use it on their lights - what's up with that, that doesn't seem right to me.

from the PlastiDip to the tail light tint you can find out how to do all of it on youtube man. You don't have to spend alot on these cars. If anything for $50 bucks get a K&N filter drop it in the airbox, then do the airbox Snorkel removal mod and there alone you can get 3-5hp and a little more noise. You can get T304 mufflers on ebay for around $75 bucks too. Take it to a muffler shop to cut and weld for like $30 bucks...

TheGreenDutch wrote:from the PlastiDip to the tail light tint you can find out how to do all of it on youtube man. You don't have to spend alot on these cars. If anything for $50 bucks get a K&N filter drop it in the airbox, then do the airbox Snorkel removal mod and there alone you can get 3-5hp and a little more noise. You can get T304 mufflers on ebay for around $75 bucks too. Take it to a muffler shop to cut and weld for like $30 bucks...

Yeah, YouTube's where I saw it; I just meant that I didn't know that it was safe to do that on your lights. Jeez you're getting ahead of me here, I'll start out small and see where that takes me haha

ComaBlack wrote:Thanks for the replies guys. I just have regular, what's the stock size, 16's? With the stock rims. Yeah those look really nice, I was looking into getting some plasti dip actually. And Steve, I see you have blacked out corners too? I love that as well, I can't tell from the one picture I saw but are they actual black corners or did you just tint them? I was looking at VHT Nightshades but I'm too hesitant to actually use it. Oh and back to the Plasti Dip - I've seen people use it on their lights - what's up with that, that doesn't seem right to me.

Yeah they are stock at 16'. Yes I used VHT night shades and tinted out the corners. It looks dark but the light shows through perfectly. VHT is the best for light tinting. Don't be hesitated to use VHT. If you don't like it you can always take it off by wet sanding it off, but it has to be completely dry first in order to sand it off, than you can compound polish it to bring the original look back. About the plastidip taillights, DON'T do that, because plastidip does not allow light trough, so its basically illegal on lights. Its just a rubberized paint solution, so yeah i recommend doing wheels and trims only with plastidip.

SteveSolara wrote:Yeah they are stock at 16'. Yes I used VHT night shades and tinted out the corners. It looks dark but the light shows through perfectly. VHT is the best for light tinting. Don't be hesitated to use VHT. If you don't like it you can always take it off by wet sanding it off, but it has to be completely dry first in order to sand it off, than you can compound polish it to bring the original look back. About the plastidip taillights, DON'T do that, because plastidip does not allow light trough, so its basically illegal on lights. Its just a rubberized paint solution, so yeah i recommend doing wheels and trims only with plastidip.

See I knew it didn't sound safe to me lol, don't know why people would do that. I wasn't aware you could remove VHT, maybe I'll look into that after the plasti dip. Thanks for the info

Sure thing, any questions or need help, don't hesitate to ask. We will be glad to help

SteveSolara wrote:Sure thing, any questions or need help, don't hesitate to ask. We will be glad to help

I'm taking you up on that offer then!
So lately I've just been applying touch up paint to my road rash and I also just got new fogs in the mail. Upon inspecting my fog lights I noticed in the right one there is a bunch of built up brown stuff... has this happened to you? I don't know if there would be an easy way to do this, it literally looks like a bunch of diarrhea and I want it out, haha.

ComaBlack wrote:

SteveSolara wrote:Sure thing, any questions or need help, don't hesitate to ask. We will be glad to help

I'm taking you up on that offer then!
So lately I've just been applying touch up paint to my road rash and I also just got new fogs in the mail. Upon inspecting my fog lights I noticed in the right one there is a bunch of built up brown stuff... has this happened to you? I don't know if there would be an easy way to do this, it literally looks like a bunch of diarrhea and I want it out, haha.

Well you can take the fog light out, and use a buffer and compound to take that brown stuff out. Than use polishing liquid (any kind) and polish the fog light back to its original look. This is the best way to do it unless you want to sand it down with 500, 600 .....up to 3000 grit sand paper and than polish it.

OH! also clean it down with a de greaser or alcohol wipe it down before you do any of the restoration process. Let me know how this turned out.

SteveSolara wrote:

ComaBlack wrote:

SteveSolara wrote:Sure thing, any questions or need help, don't hesitate to ask. We will be glad to help

I'm taking you up on that offer then!
So lately I've just been applying touch up paint to my road rash and I also just got new fogs in the mail. Upon inspecting my fog lights I noticed in the right one there is a bunch of built up brown stuff... has this happened to you? I don't know if there would be an easy way to do this, it literally looks like a bunch of diarrhea and I want it out, haha.

Well you can take the fog light out, and use a buffer and compound to take that brown stuff out. Than use polishing liquid (any kind) and polish the fog light back to its original look. This is the best way to do it unless you want to sand it down with 500, 600 .....up to 3000 grit sand paper and than polish it.

OH! also clean it down with a de greaser or alcohol wipe it down before you do any of the restoration process. Let me know how this turned out.

I'll keep all this in mind, thank you. I've looked around here for how to remove them, unless I'm missing it, I can't find it.. Here's a picture http://i.imgur.com/fDDVJ.jpg

Haven't been able to do much lately since it's been raining forever.

Oh Wow that from the inside of the headlight itself. go to the DIY section and look for Black out headlight housing. It shows you how to take the headlight apart, i think it goes for the same as fog lights too.