BERNARDIO'S DODGE NEON R/T
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NEONICA |
MODIFICATIONS |
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My Wonderful Sony CDX-MP450x Head Unit!! With 150+ songs per MP3-CD, I rarely feel the need to use normal CDs. The XPLOD series from sony matches very will with the funny interior of my car. You can also take a peek at my Autometer Shiftlite. Hidden and out of the way, yet blinding and noticable when appropriate. I make sure to light that sucka up at 7400rpm daily! |
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I love silver accents in cars so I decided to do some accenting to Neonica. I started with the plastic piece around console displays. It was pretty cool and gave the car a neat look. A few months later I painted the cruise control pods and the defroster and fog light buttons silver. I think I'm done painting things silver in my car. There is a point when there are too many accents. I hope I haven't gone that far. |
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I see a bunch of Neons driving around where I live, but most of them don't look like my R/T. First of all I added mesh! Mesh looks neat to me and gives Neonica an aggressive look. I also removed the thing that sits between the front bumper cover and the hood. It makes the car look sorta strange, but I still like it. Finally I added the eyebrows to make the car look angry. |
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I've had some ricey ideas about coloring the R in the R/T red, but sanity took back control of my mind and silver it stayed. I've had a few people ask me "What kinda car is that?". The fact that Neon is not spelled out anywhere outside of the car is strange, but come on.. |
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I don't like sporting the license plate in the front and so far I have evaded heat with my mutant roller-vision and disgustingly safe driving skills. I did the whole mesh thing with home depot parts for less than 5 dollars. |
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I'm a stickler when it comes to grime so I wold let dirty linger in my engine bay longer that a dangling klingon. I've done a little accenting here and there and red seems to be the ongoing theme. |
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THE NEON EXPERIENCE October 1998 - I got my mind set on getting a Dodge right now. It's either a Stratus or a Neon. I definitely want a stick though so I think I'm leaning towards the Neon cause the Manual DOHC has 150 HP and is a wad cheaper that the Stratus. I think the base Status only comes manual with 132 HP. Neon it is then. Wow, look at the huge Neon community on the Internet! November 1998 - I'm a neon fiend and I don't even own one yet! There are tons of cool neons on the net will phat rims and go-fast mods. My dad's will is beginning to fold and it won't be long before he'll agree to go to the dodge dealer with me. I'm gonna play it like I want the neon cause it's cheap and then hit him with the "Wow dad, this one's the one I want" while pointing at a Viper. December 23, 1998 - I got my Black with sliver stripes Dodge Neon RT Sedan tonight! Only 11 miles on the odometer and its totally cool dude! It's a 150hp DOHC, power windows and sunroof having, power doors equipped, ac and am/fm/CD driving achine. It's pretty smooth and seems to handle great. Picked up a Hayne's manual for fun. A book I actually and interested in reading! January 1999 - Fixed the A/C for manual operation only and fixed the Fog Light wiring for stealth operation. Now you can't tell it's a Neon coming after you on the freeway. February - First Redline Run! For the first 500+ miles I tried granny driving to break in the car a bit, but in the back of my mind I really wanted to experience some WOT power. I always thought it was bad for a car to rev that high. People tell me no, but I still feel cautious about doing it. March - Snorkel removal fun! Damn that thing really muffles the powerful sound of the car! I think I'll leave it off for a while. The engine doesn't seem to run the same. Maybe too many redlines this month. Free oil change of 10w-30 from Dealership. April - Just driving around having fun... and my FMM is tearing. Better fill it with some epoxy! Wow, the cars got that powerful kick when I start her up now and it shakes like mad at idle. I like it! May - Shortened the shifter by cutting the shaft a bit. Bought a cheap azz knob at Pep Boys that looks sort of all right. Did I just scratch the tires shifting into second gear? Yes I did.. Cool. I think I beat on my car a bit too much. No more dealership oil changes. I got my Hayne's Manual, tools, a filter and 5 quarts of Moble-1 5-W30 Tri-Synthetic June - Received my Iceman from Howell Automotive and installation was a breeze. The extra power is cool! The epoxy in my mount is cracking now and falling out all over my garage. Time to order a new mount. My car has a creaking problem now from the added vibrations caused by the unforgiving FMM. July - Running with a torn stock mount and the car is idles smooth as butter, but launches like Jean's Renault LeCar! Got my bobble strut and clear corner lamps. Lamps look cool, but I didn't notice a thing with the new strut. I parked next to an old Civic hatchback and my car's azz is so much higher! I need to lower my car.. Maybe after Christmas. August - Finally got the Mopar Performance FMM from Moder Performance. It's a little better that the stock mount, but not as cool as a filled stock mount. I also got my Magnacore 8.5 spark wires! Must add more red into the engine bay to match the ICEMAN! Bought some red tie straps and some black flex tubing for detailing my engine a bit. September - Bought and received the AFX UDP from Howell and that thing was a biatch to install. Broke one puller and scratched up the AFX beautifully when fitting it. Car has a bit more spunk now but the belt tensions are adjusted too loose I think. I can hear some squeaking from under the hood. October - Had plenty of fun adding mass amounts of injector cleaner into my fuel tank cause I felt the car needed it. The stuff didn't seen to do a thing for the rough idling engine. I think I read somewhere that the pulley also acted as a dampener so that is probably causing the added vibrations. Oh well, I'd rather have power than too much comfort. That squeaking is still there and I'm wondering if it's something else besides the belts cause I tightened them to spec. Maybe the exhaust manifold is loose or something. November - Played with my grill and now I got some crazy setup with mesh and stuff. Those damn 2000 Neons are growing on me. A beautiful black 2K es pulled up next to me at a light and I couldn't help but stare at it. Hoping the guy driving it would attempt a race (he looked like the type), I gunned it on the green only to see didn't try. After that he caught up and gave me a chase for a bit. I feel bad that I didn't give him a peace sign or something cause afterwards I just felt like a punk driver. December - I hit 13,000 Miles in less than a year of ownership. Time for me to change the spark plugs! I know it's early, but some one on the Neon.org board said he changed them every 10,000 miles and it's just a few dollars. Thanks to the Neon Community for helping my figure out which plugs to use! I also purchased a Creative Labs WebCam Go! Now I can take some low res pictures of my car and post them on the net! January 2000- OH NO! It be the month of my Birthday! What will I buy for my car this month? Could it be Springs for the Fall? I think so! I when and ordered a set of Jamex Lowering Springs from Modern Performace and installed them all by myself! Can you believe I didn't use spring compressors!? I found some strong rope and wrapped it around the spring coils vertically. With physics behind me, I pulled on the rope and the coils squished together nicely! It took me about 4 hours to do, but I'm really glad I did it by myself. I didn't notice any change in camber from the drop, but my tires will tell me in a month or so. February - It's been a slow rainy month with little to do. My tires seem to be holding up to the camber change from lowering my Neon pretty well. I love the added stability in the turns, but I'm noticing a popping noise from the springs during slow driving on a bumpy street. I think I need to add cushioning between the coils or something. I epoxied my FMM this month for some added vibration fun. It's not too noticeable except for when I start moving in first gear from a stop with a low RPM. I can live with it though so yeah.. March - It's the month of the Exhaust! I though long and hard about which one to go with. I asked a few friends what they though and found that I didn't care about what my friends though. I'm getting the THERMAL! It's not as flashy as the Vibrant with the separated tips, but it beefier that the stock DOHC muffler tips. Well, I ordered one from Howell Automotive and I know I'm gonna love it! May - It's been awhile since I bought something new for my car. Allthough I'm sure it won't do anything for handling performance, I'm still ordering a upper strut brace for Neonica. I know the red aluminum brace will accent the red Iceman and the Magnacore wires. What the hell, Howell, here's my VISA number!! Send one over!! June - I decided to hook my engine bay up with some more red stuff. I painted the cover on the fuse box red and put a Modern Performance Sticker on it. I bought some red zip ties and black wire loom to clean up the wiring and clean some of the mess up. I'm considering buying some red loom to put around various tubes to liven things a bit. July - In my quest for red accents for my engine bay, I gone ahead and purchased a red aluminum oil cap to replace the stock plastic cap. It looks pretty and all, but I accidentally scratched it when I attempted the difficult install. I'm thinking about posting a detailed how-to so no one will have to go through the install without a reference. Overall I did notice an improvement in acceleration and better heat dissipation. For seven dollars, you can't go wrong with a new oil cap. August - This month I tried to tint my windows and was actually successful! I think I've tried self-inflicted tinting about 3 times during my ownership of Neonica without any luck till now. Now Neonica can be seen cruising with 20% tinted rears sides and a non-tinted back window. I have no idea how to begin tinting the back window. Maybe I'll shell out some dough to have it professionally done when I'm up for it. September - This month I shelled out some serious duckets for a new ECU for my car. For the lame-man, ECU stands for Powertrain Control Module..umm..yeah.. It give more power that the stock PCM by tuning the gas and air mixtures and raising the rev limiter. No only should my performance be improved, my mileage should also improve under normal driving conditions. The PCM looked stock (not like it did in the pictures), but it has the raised rev limiter and seems a bit more touchy that the stock one was. Overall, it's a pretty good mod. October - I was seriously thinking about getting those shiny Altezza a.k.a Meatball Tail lights for Neonica, but I thought they looked a bit to stand-out-ish. After a few weeks to searching for black sedans with the Altezzas, I came to this decision. I'm not gonna get them. Intead, I'm getting the carbon fiber looking ones! They'll look cool on a black car and they don't stick out as much since they are darker and not crazy reflective. Well, they're on order and I might see them mid-November.. hopefully! My car is going to look pretty tricked out. What's next? RIMS!!!!! November - Man those CF Meatballs take forever to get! I still don't have the set I ordered on October 14th, but I'm pretty patient.. HURRY UP AND GET HERE ALREADY!!! I got my rims. I decided on Konig Rated-R Wheels in 17" with Kumho 205/40/17 Tires. Discount Tires Direct Hooked me up with a solid deal, but one had a slow leak that no wheel shop could find. Frustrated and angry, I yanked the dud off and threw it in my bathtub. Going over the whole tire with a bubbley solution, I couldn't find a leak anywhere on the tire. The valve stem showed no sign of a bad seal or a leaky valve. After the splashing stopped, I heard a little bubbling and what do you know.. the hole was on the rim. A tiny little pin hole hidden behind a spoke was causing a good 15psi+ drop in pressure every day. The good folks at American Tire Company agreed to work with their online counterpart to get me a replacement. I just might be rolling like a big balla before December after all! December - From what I can tell, those CF Meatballs are avoiding me. Howell has them on backorder and Modern Performance is suffering from the same problem. Besides the tail light delema, I'm begining to feel that my neon is finished with the modding. The only thing I might still do is headers and maybe some dink repairs. Biggest news is I got a digital camera! I take some pictures when weather permits and let the world see the new Neonica after her slight makeover. This month I also had to replace the alternator belt. Driving home from Fry's Electronics the alt belt found it's way off the pullies and got chewed up pretty badly. A little internet searching and pepboys shopping got me back on the road in no time. January 2001 - Bad month!! I broke my stupid foot on one of those damn razor scooters. Haven't been able to walk very well, much less work on Neonica. I did clean her and the engine bay. I also swapped the epoxy-filled FMM back in for some vibration fun. I've been feeling a bit Turbo curious lately. Sure it cost bucks, but the power seems worth it. Maybe during the summer.. February - Another quiet month for Neonica. I bought the Prothane inserts for my Mopar Performance FMM. The epoxy-filled mount was a bit much and I figured, it was time to spend some more money. The install was harder than I thought! A mallet and a few hours allowed me to fit them snug puppies in the mount. After that, popping that sucking in the car was a breeze. This month I also removed the airbox from the stock intake setup. I was lagging on this for quick stock intake switching just in case of Warrantee issues. Now that I'm past the milage coverage, screw it right? March - I ordered an Auto-Meter Shift Light! It's sorta flashy, but the riceboy urge has to be silenced every once and awhile. It's pretty cool! Now I can keep my eyes on the road when I feel like redline driving. I think I'm gonna keep my car NA. Next serious mods will be a Header and maybe a ported intake manifold and bored throttle body. I spent too much on my car! April - I caught a brief audio bug and bought a new deck. It's a Sony CDX-MP450X that plays CDs and MP3s on a CDR. It's pretty cool and matched the black, red and silver theme of my interior. I'm probably going to buy matching 6x9 for the rear when I get the chance no plans for a sub or an amp yet. May - The Audio bug is still alive and kicking. The casualties add up to $550. Got the Sony dec, the mounting kit, the harness adapter, Sony 200w 6"x9" and Sony 130w 6.5". I'm torn between covering up the speakers or having them displayed. The explode series looks really nice and they were made to be shown. I allready killed the carpeting over the rear 6"x9". Will I cut huge holes in my door to show the 6.5"? hmm. Oh yeah, I ordered the Pacesetters Header from Modern Performance. June - Still on the audio-kick, I got an amp for my main speakers. I chose the Sony XM-604EQX since I wanted an Equalizer as well and having them both combined was fine with me. I also picked up two Rockford Subs 3410 and a pre-made box. All I need now is a kick-arse amp for the subs. Right now I'm running them off of an old BOSS brand POS. July - Some minor new things purchased and installed. First I finally installed the Pacesetter Header! It was pretty hard, but after cutting the cat, there was no turning back. Haven't really noticed too much, maybe there's a bit more kick in the higher rpms. I'm just happy it's not leaking. I a got carbon fiber gauge from Modern Performance. Looks really neat. I printed out a "92 Octane Minimum Required" and a "Dodge Neon R/T" sign (to cover the fuel door thing) to place over the stock text. I'll take pictures and post them shortly. Finally I got the Prothane Side Motor Mounts. Last time I peeled out, my skip marks were dotted lines. These should help. August 2002 - What?! It's been over a year since my last update?! Anyhow, not much has been done to the car since then anyhow. I removed the Pacesetter Header and swapped in a Shiny new Mopar Street header. Slight performance gain over the old one. I removed the carbon meatball rear light and it's back to stock. I'm getting old and they kinda leaked during the rainy season. I'm at 58k miles now.. Removed all the extra audio equiptment (subs and amps). The deck power the speaker fine and I'm getting too old for this stuff. My neon has lost its race appeal and is looking more like a transport every day I see an M3 or WRX or G35 or.. the list goes on. I lost my garage space and the neons been looking dirty as heck with the dusty road grime combined with the morning dew. I'll probably remove the exhaust soon to muffle Neonica's wales of despair... |
Last updated August 30, 2002