1998 firebird for B-day present and only $300 to spend

[bulldog_3333]

I just got a 98 firebird for my 16th birthday like 5 days ago. Since I don't have a constant income I only have about 300 buck saved. I have no idea what to do, no mechanical experience, and no knowledge of cars. I want to do something nice for the car before school starts in about a month, but what should I do with only $300????

please help

[pyrokilla]

lower it and slap on new exhaust. best mods , and cheap too

[bulldog_3333]

its already like 4 inches off the ground though. I think the people before me got like skirts on the side or somethin.

[MingisDew31186]

Definately go with a nice exhaust. It will free up some HPS and give your car a nice tone. Try the one from RKSPORT. www.rksport.com . Its a Dynomax catback. Sounds very nice. Welcome to the website! Good luck with your car!

[BadLiLBowtie]

deffinatly a cat-back, sounds good, little performance boost, and DRAWS ATTENTION.. :eek:

[zlexiss]

Before you mod, look at how much you need to spend on maintenance. I'm guessing the car has 60-80k miles on it, so some periodic things might be (over)due. Hopefully the prev. owner had decent recordkeeping.

What shape are the tires in? Are fluids (oil, coolant, transmission, differential), filters, plugs, wires all in good shape? Alignment, shocks, suspension components ok?

I don't want to sound like I'm raining on a parade, but when buying a used car, one always needs to bank money for things that are worn out. I'd much rather see you out driving on a stock car than waiting for money to repair a modded car on jackstands..

-Jeff

[L32Projekt]

Darn, beat me to it! Definately use that $300 towards making sure your car is mechanically sound. It'll help to show your parents that you're being responsible. Also, please drive carefully. I'm sure none of us want to hear another story of "I wrapped my car around a telephone pole" and thus removing another F-Body from this mortal coil! [img]graemlins/thumbsdown.gif[/img]

Jon

[SlimJim1284]

Your parents are invited to my birthday party

[bulldog_3333]

amazingly, the car was kept in a garage for the first 2 years of its life (documented) and only has 29000 documented miles on it. Thanks for all of the help by the way. This is a really nice sight!

[Slow-N-ugly]

Welcome to the sight and congratulations on the most kickass birthday present a person could get. I also have a 98.

I think you should ask your self, what do I like? And go from there. Do I car more about speed or appearance?

You need to realize 300 wont go far in the speed department.

Check your options that the car came with, the tech base can help you identify your RPO (is that right?) codes found on your drivers door sill.

Mine has the monsoon stereo so I don’t really need a sound system.

Does your car have tinted windows?

If you are into speed, you better start saving your money. It going to cost you.

There is a whole lot of things available in the speed department that are under 300.00.

Suspension, intake/exhaust, drive train.

[NightEye]

Like someone said above, definantly be careful with it. Cherish that car. I lost my V6 a month ago, and it sucks.

But with $300, definantly make sure everything is taken care of maintence wise. You'll have a lot of time to do other things to it later; just make sure its in top-notch working condition for now.

- Mike

[FireFighter]

good luck, i got my car for my brithday when i turn 16, christmas i got my 18's with tires and my 17th birthday i got my $1300 system :D

although at the track a few weeks ago i broke my rear and you know what, i just had to get my 3.42's and lsd installed then after sitting in my room for a month d*mn.

ps i would do the intake first, i did my exhaust first and wished i had done my intake.

[Fierdon]

Congrats on the B-Day Present. The best thing, IMO is to go with exhaust, it makes your car sound a lot better. Like MingisDew31186 said, go with the DynoMax, its the best I've heard so far. Hopefully i can get one on my car, cause the Flowmasters aren't sounding as "mean" as i would like them to.

[bulldog_3333]

How much do u think all of this exhaust stuff would cost to install?

[AlienInv8r]

check around on eBay for an exhaust system, or the classifieds too. You can get a used one for pretty cheap. Or just call up your local muffler shop and ask them what they can do for you. The flowmaster, dynomax, and edelbrock catbacks are relatively inexpensive. I have the flowmaster 80-series, and I have no gripes about it. I think it sounds really good, it has a nice rumble to it. Also, look around the net for some free mods. You can do the free ram air mod to save some money instead of buying an intake system right away. I did this to my car, and I can really feel a difference in its performance. There's a lot of other cool appearance things you can do yourself also for really cheap. Like painting your interior and painting calipers. Good luck though and enjoy your new car.