Hi all!!

just wanted to say hello and tell a little about my self. i have only had my bird for about month and half. i must say i love my BIRD!!! well it's a 93' Formula, automatic, with hardtop. the paint is red and looks really good 10 feet away, has some wear and tear in the paint. not to sure if it's original. i traded my truck for this bird, and i think i came out on the better end of the deal. the car has and updated stereo, (Alpine stereo and Kicker amps/speakers and sounds really nice)!!! the windows have been tinted 5% limo tint, so she looks really good. the gears have been changed, but i haven't made time to investigate what was added. now i have added a CAI, and working on some of the free mods that are out there for our birds. my next big mod is the Cat-Back, and i am going with the Dynomax Race Bullet System. i will get some pics up soon. i want to say that this site is great, man i have come across alot of information. i look forward to learning alot and sharing alot.

thanks
Gary

To the source Gary. Many well informed folks on here for sure. Can't wait to see pics of that Bird!

awesome to see so many new members! Cant wait to see pics and maybe sum video of how that exhaust sounds!

Welcome man! My tuner is in NC (Durham). There most definitely is a bunch of smart gear-heads on this forum. Anything you need to know or troubleshoot, post it up!
Now...time for some PICS!!

hey guys thanks for replies, well i'm in Fayetteville, NC. been here since 79', father was military. so here goes the pics...hope ya'll enjoy!!

hmmm...must have done the pics wrong, thought they would have shown up instead of clicking the link.

Gary

I like the car... like the tint

now you need some chrome rims my man!

sorry about the small pics...don't know too much about computers..(that's what the wife's for..lol)..

the small pics never do our birds justice...

Welcome to The Source, Gary. That's a nice looking Bird.

That's a clean LT1 for sure! It reminds me of the times when i had 5% limo tint all the way around, i loved the look of that...the cops on the other hand didn't agree with me.

thank you guys,
man i love my bird. i don't really get to drive her all that much, so when i do i really take the long way to places. haha, sounds crazy huh??!! the only mods i have done to her is paint the calipers red, add the CAI, and mounted the bass/treble controls for the kickers in the ash tray so you can't see them. the previous owner obtained the car because a buddy of his owed him money, so gave him the car. have to find out what gears the first owner added so i can get the speedo workng right. can't wait to mod the exhaust. waiting on the money..hahahaha

talk to ya later,
Gary

Sweet bird You can find the gear ratio stamped on the pinion gear when you remove the posi unit.

Hey Gary, hope you continue to enjoy TFS! You did come out on the goodend of that deal, glad to hear you're excited about it

I'm from NC too, closer toward Mooresville. We do a bit of hot-rodding around these parts too

Nice car for sure, but please get some wheels... the 3 spoke swirlies would look great on there!!!

Take care - Jonathan

thanks for the responses and info on the rear gears. yeah, the wheels came like that from previous owner. he said he did not like the center cap so he took them off and added some chrome lugs. at this time i don't have rims yet. i am leaning toward the C6 wheels from vette' or the torque thrust II wheels. do you have any pics of this 3 spoke swirlies? i would like to see them.

also forgot to mention that owner had just put on new calipers,brakes,slotted rotors and wheels. i feel that i got the better end of the deal also, but i do miss my truck. 93' Chevy Silv Sportside Reg Cab, metallic green, 5 speed, 4.3 (non-vortech)....but hated the engine, just way to small.

Gary

so far haven't had any trouble with cops...but then again my exhaust isn't loud enough yet....but just wait!!

Im not sure what kind fo a town you live in, but around ere if you get in trouble once with your car, they have your number down cold...theyll know yur name, and kind of car and will pick on you for no reason...

if that the case where you live, id suggest keeping a lower profile (I know its hard ) I almost lost my lisence this year cuz of my formy...and the last 2 tickets where bs...anyway Im on probation till january 26th...only a few months away...keepin my fingers crossed...



as far as rims go, TTII's would look awesome. But also look into other American Racing rims, they make a few others that id love to see on a bird that i havent before...I got ZR1 style rims cuz they where at an awesome price-those would look nice as well...

make sure whatever you get for rims you get them as wide as possible! i look at the pics of my formy with the old rims and tires(stock similar size as yours i believe) and it just looks so goofy to me now! get some 10.5+ inch wide rims in the rear, and 9 inch wide up front for an awesome agressive look...

I think those wheels on the car now are 4th gen Camaro wheels. The 3 spoke swirlies I speak of came from factory on early 4th gens like yours and my old Formula seen below. Many people don't like them, but I for 1 do...

For some reason I remember those rims being referred to as "salad tossers", yeah I know. can't remember from where.

i understand that most people want to build a car that looks like what other have done or alot of people want to stand out with that unique look. alot of birds have similar wheels that i have seen, it's hard to imagine what other wheels look like on your bird. wish there was a way to see what other wheels looked like on my bird to see how they look. just have to continue to google pics of other birds and see what some people have done to there bird.

yeah i saw some vette rims with 9 to 9.5 up front and 11 to 11.5 in rear, if i remember correctly.
thanks,
Gary

nothing against those rims, but i really don't like anything that came stock from factory....i feel like i have to change so i can be different from other people. not trying to sound like a a#@hole or anything, guess it's the indviduality that my father beat into me..hahahaha. but thanks for the response.

Gary

sorry about so many post, but what do ya think about wheels with the same paint as car? Red car + Red wheels?? would that look terrible? saw a white tahoe with white star type wheels, and to me i thought it looked good, all i have seen is the black on black style, and i won't go into all the imports that have that setup..what ya think?

Gary

It could look ok, depending how you do it...

personally, I dont think id like it. But hey, ive proven myself wrong before...
I saw a car with black rims the other day and i loved how it looked, but traditionally I HATE black rims...

just be careful if you plan to do any powercoating/painting ect.
its best left to a professionial if you dont know what your doing it could turn out BAD...

for sure on that, i don't have any exp with paint except the spray can variety. (hahahahaha) it's gonna be awhile before i can get some new wheels for my bird.

i heard from a friend of mine that powder coating was the way to go on wheels instead of paint, does that sound about right?

thanks,
Gary

I just got TTII's for my car and I love them. I still haven't gotten to polishing them up, and i'm going to order chrome lugs so it flows with the wheels...but i have to agree with everybody that says "go wide" for the back. However, there is only one downside to that, and that's the fact that you can't rotate your tires to get maximum wear out of them, and you'll be going through tires MUCH faster than you would if you had the same size rims on all 4 corners. Not a big sacrifice, but one non-the-less.

As for your car, you should look into some black rims with a red lip. I think that would look really hot on your car. You would probably be able to buy some black rims like the ZR1's or the TTII's, or TTM's, and just take the wheels to a professional joint and have the lips powdercoated red. Guarantee that would look great as long as you kept some tireshine on the tires.

man that sounds like a great idea!!!!!!! i didn't think about black/red....all i have seen is black/chrome or straight black....HMMM........i likey!!!!!!

i don't mind the offset wheels, though i would like to tell everyone here that as a newbie, whenever you pull your wheels/tires off the car and put them to the side mark them with marker or white out to remember if they go on front or rear cause i couldn't find any markings that said frt or rear on the wheels. and make sure you can read your own writing.......i learned a very valuable lesson after i started to tighten my lugs down and wondered "why is the tire not going on right"??? hahahaha, i then had to pry it off....stupid mistake but no damage to wheel or axle..

thanks,
Gary

a red powdercoated lip would look awesome...

and yes, powdercoating is the way to go with rims...thats what it is when you see a white grand am or trans am with white rims(idk if you've noticed these but thats what they are ) good enough for GM, prolly good enough for what yur lookin to do

I know this is on a civic but you get the idea of how the colors go with each other. I say "GO FOR IT!"

Bros,

i have to thank all of you guys for the great advice!!!!!! i love the look of the black/red lip, that would go great with some red powder coated lugs and the red cailipers i already have. do you think that would be over kill in the red department??? really don't want to "rice out" my BIRD....(LOL)

thanks for the pics, i'll save that to the computer.

Gary

I dunno if id call it "ricing" the bird...
Id think of it as more of a "modern" styled bird...

all them darn rappers have this stuff of there lambos and bentleys...i wouldnt called them "riced out"

just a different vibrant modern style...and when its done right, I REALLY like it...

that civic looks pretty agressive...i hate ricers, but that contrast is very nice...

Im sure that thing is slow as crap...but with less and less people knowing about cars these days, i bet the driver still gets attention! unfortunately

I dont think that it would be overkill with the red, i think it will flow very well with your car as a whole. However, i would have to honestly say to skip the red lugs...that will not look as good as you think, especially on a firebird. I would get black lugs to match the black rims. Much more discrete and clean looking. As for that civic, I wouldn't call it rice. Rice, in my own words, is a car that has been "modified" with cheesy stick-on hoodscoops, chrome trim that is glued on, homemade window tint, and a big fart can to go on the back of it. I think tasteful modding is perfectly fine, and this honda has it down. If i owned a red honda, i would get rims like that in a heartbeat...and yeah i do like the new honda civics haha.