Jump to content
Do Not Sell My Personal Information


Cheap (Ish) Upgrades


Nick_Corolla_GS
 Share

Recommended Posts

Hi, I have a 1997 (92-97) Corolla GS 1.3 in black. Just wondering if anyone had any ideas / tips for upgrading the car's looks / performance without breaking the bank. Really like the car and would like to start making it my own. I don't want to make the car look chavy or anything, or make it sound like a lorry. Any ideas would be gratefully received. Thanks :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Well, in total over the next couple of years or so I don't really want to spend much more than what I paid for it (£800) so I'd say £1000 would be my overall budget, but I don't have much at the moment, so I'm open to any ideas really.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

cool. was just trying to gauge how much we have to play with :)

One of the cheapest things you can do is to paint :D

I recently painted my engine covers on my motor and they look beautiful now, it's made a huge difference to the look under the hood.

Callipers is another popular paint job. :)

if you go down this route I'd say try and stick to a colour scheme throughout (ie mine is blue and silver with hints of black here and there) as this tends to look better. sometimes people seem to go willy nilly with the paints and it looks a bit naff. IMO of course :P

You can buy a cheap air filter to make the engine bay look a bit more spesh and the car sound a bit nicer (something like this: Clicky)

One of the first things I did in my car was to upgrade the I.C.E, while this is not cheap it can be done in stages to spread the cost, and for people who love their music it's a must! (imo)

I started with the head unit, then I changed the Speakers, bought some amps, added a sub and now finally I'm going to be making my own fibreglass housing for it all.

I didn't really have much money up until now so I've been doing things slowly and on the cheap, there's lots of bargains out there to be had if you look hard enough :)

At the end of the day don't worry about your car being too "chavvy" it's your ride afterall and you should style it how YOU like :)

if you're not a chav then it won't be chavvy ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah paint is one of the things I was looking at :) need some new calipers at somepoint so I'll do that with the new ones.

Probably go with a black red and grey colour scheme (interior is grey mostly).

Going to put a small spoiler on the back and get the front bumper with fog lights in, may make the car look a bit better :) was also looking at some red under car lighting and interior lighting, just to, you know, cheese the car up a bit :P

And I totally agree with the I.C.E! First thing I did when I got the car was to change the head unit to a half decent JVC unit, and then changed the Speakers all round. Not amped the Speakers up yet or put my sub in, but defiantly something I'm looking to do soon. Looking into getting a slide out DVD unit, when I do that I'll fit my speaker amp and sub :) What stuff have you gone for then?

Thanks for the tips though mate, and thats something I realized the other day, gonna make the car my own :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Good stuff.

I currently run an alpine 9880R headunit with some inphase xtc693's (bulletproof don't cha know!) @ the back. a kicker 12" subwoofer in the rear and some clarion 6.5" tri-axels in the front, however these are going, thanks to the missus blowing one :(

going to replace them with some components but not entirely sure what yet.

all of them are amped up and it really does make a huge difference. The wires are hidden down the trims and once the fibreglassing is done it'll be one stealthy install.

be careful with the underside lighting, police down here are pretty hot on that :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share




×
×
  • Create New...




Forums


News


Membership