Fix up my car!

[Grasshopper]

Hey I'm new, guess you can tell. Ok here's something for all you car nuts out there to do for me. It's a very typical thing to do so I guess you guys know what I should do. Ok here it is: I got a 97 accord lx, champagne (?) color and beige/brown interior (yuck), v4, automatic, nasty smell, and 3000 bucks. It was never modified from the date it was bought from the dealer. What should I do? muhahaha. Help, oh rice rocketers!

[Ice-9]

First off, I'm definitely not a "rice rocketer."

So why was this car $3000? A '97 anything should be more, unless it's pretty trashed. If it's already in reasonable mechanical condition (what's the nasty smell?), just put a reasonable sound system in it and be happy. It will never be fast, unless you spend far too much money on it, so just make it a good cruiser.

[Grasshopper]

haha 3000 for mods, not 3000 for the accord! hahaha! It was newly bought for whatever price it was. And its not too ghetto, just a bad color. Thanks for the thought though

[Ice-9]

Heheh, I'm an idiot occasionally. Like when I've been sitting at work for too long, staring at an emacs window for 8 hours.

So, once again, my route would be to throw a nice sound system in there, maybe a carbon-fiber kit, and an air freshener. You can't get any real performance out of a 4-cylinder Accord without at leat 10 grand, although you could just be like all the other ricers and put a K&N on it and a coffee-can exhaust. But if you do that and I see you, I will be obligated to demonstrate to you how slow your car still is. :) No offense, it's just that Accords are designed to be big comfortable cruisers, not speed demons. Ask rollhard for advice (and maybe some decent prices), since he runs a whole web site (http://www.rollhard.com) just for that kinda stuff. Good luck!

[Grasshopper]

Hah thanks for the tips, actually I wasn't look for a performance upgrade, its mostly gonna be cosmetic. I'm probably not gonna do anything to my engine anyway. Any suggestions in the area of looks? Headlights, dropping it, whatever...

[Sportzcoop]

Hmmm, If I had 3k to blow on an accord. Body kit (west wings are cheapest but fiberglass, doh!)with spoiler, piaa fog lights clear taillights, Exhaust, K and N filter, black outs for the lights. hmmmm, if that nasty smell is from whenthe a/c is on go to any body shop and ask them to spray refrigerant mold killer deodorizer stuiff down there. If it is from the actual car go to the supermarket buy some resolve if the car is cloth interior and powder it scrub it in then vacuum it up. Problem solved. If you want real rice go get some led windshield nozzles, and wheel lights. When you get more money buy rims. Any more questions??

[Grasshopper]

Thank you, oh wise one. I shall take this lesson with much consideration.