Everyone,

Recently I picked up a dream car of mine, a 2011 XFR in Black on red interior. I've been pining after one for a few years now and finally found the perfect car at theT perfect price. Give I got it far cheaper than I expected I have a little extra cash to play with. I'm the type to mod all my cars in some ways, with something like this it'll mostly be visual and exhaust. It already surpasses all my expectations in terms of performance so no need to change anything there.

So as for my list here goes. I welcome any input you guys have.

- Clearbra (and some paint repair before, it has 47k miles)
- Tint (going full murder/blackout)
- Have ALL chrome trim painted/plasti-dipped black
- Debadge XF, leave the R badge
- Powder coat wheels gloss black
- Tint tailights
- Bake, crack open and remove orange signal markers
- Paint inside of front headlights
- (if I can't do that) tint front headlights
- Add halo eyes (if I can get it apart)
- Add upgraded/scuplted flat-bottom R steering wheel (if it's compatible)
- Navtool - adds video input to the Navigation screen
- Integrated Passport 9500 power cable
- Integrated phone mount (something very slim in the passenger area)
- Exhaust bypass valves cut in the center of the exhaust (somwhere) with a cabin button to allow bypass of the mufflers, basically straight-piping it
- Aftermarket/K&N Filters? Snake oil?
- What else should I do???

As I said I'm not looking for power or performance mods. She has plenty of power as my sometimes daily driver (I have a Pathfinder for daily duty) and will never out perform my heavily modded Lotus Exige. So I care about comfort, sound, fun and cool factor. I love that she's a sleeper but she's a bit too stealthy in stock form, as such I'd like to sinister her up a bit, if you get what I mean.

Thanks for any input you guys have.

-Ross

 

Check this thread out.
http://www.jaginfo.org/showthread.php?t=10161

 

Upgrade the subwoofer to something you can actually hear and brings presence to your music?

Leaper? Philhef, thought I'd save you a message.

Paint in the Supercharged letters on you rims in red and paint the calipers to match?

 

 

The real question is what kind of chicks are you trying to pick up? You bought it to be your date car. You already have a radical toy for your fun car. And you have a ho hum daily beater. By the time you are done with your mods above, your XFR will look and sound pretty gangsta, but is that what will appeal to the chicks? I guess if you want gangsta chicks, then yes. Do they even have a lot of gangsta chicks in Boulder?

 

Yes, this is definitely on the list - looks fantastic.

Already done - original owner took care of that.

What is that thing??

While I hear ya my goal is to keep it classy. I think all the blackout is classy (or certainly not gangsta) and as for the exhaust remember I'll have a cockpit switch so it can be stock 90% of the time (I'd only open it for car guys and at the track, etc). I also don't want/need to touch performance in anyway, as you say I have the Exige for that.

 

I recommend you show a few ladies pics of your car as-is versus one that's been blacked out and see what they think. What you are doing has been done before to the XFR, so you won't have trouble finding pics. I am betting they will choose stock as more "classy" than the murdered look.

 

I'm surprised you are still on board with the K&N style oil based filters.

 

Oh, sorry let me be clear - you're 100% COMPLETELY RIGHT. 100%. But while making it my date car is important to me that's far more about the interior than the exterior. Anyone I date is going to know I'm into cars very quickly so I am going to be myself there. There's just no way I can own this car and *not* murder it out as I'm such a huge fan of the look. And your'e right, plenty of pictures of blacked out cars which I love.

So while I agree you're right that women would find the stock look classier than my murdered out look I don't think any of them would call it gansta (well perhaps a few). The ones that did I wouldn't have any interest in anyway, I'll like the girl that either doesn't notice it at all or thinks it looks mean/sinister. Have had dinner with several friends this week, including a few women and the response has been extremely positive, especially in terms of the interior. I've never owned a car that I gush more about than this one.

 

I have plasti dipped all the chrome. It is holding up really well.


These headlights are a major PITA to open up. I recommend getting that professionally done. It requires cutting the headlight apart a bit. I did take one apart and figured a way to get halos into the light without taking it apart. It involves removing the projector housing. Then cut 2 slits, one on top and on the bottom of the shroud. There is ample room to get in to install a halo then and you will not see cuts.


I have this phone mount. Works really well.
Car Phone Holders and Dashboard Phone Mounts - ProClip USA

 

As far as the K&N filters, it's NOT snake oil. I happen to live about 4mi. from them, and went to a couple of their open houses and K&N is truly state of the art in their testing (They even lone out their dyno). And you really can run them 50k mi. with NO loss in performance.

 

Had my headlights done. They won't heat open. Have to be cut. Best mod I've done.

 

And, by the way, I painted a trim gloss black and roof. Added the Mina carbon fiber details. My car is NOT gangsta!! Lol. Menacing maybe!!

 

I want black trim as well, but heard once you remove it loses form and the dealer said its a one time install and could get ruined removing to paint. How did you do this if you don't mind. I would rather paint, but was gonna have the trim wrapped after I heard that.

 

Plasti-dip

 

I took mine to our local shop that specialized in luxury and better cars. Ht removed most trim but the window surrounds. I guess he taped it but it's flawless so I have no complaints. Looks factory.
I tried wrap but the trim shop had a hard time and it just didn't look painted.

 

+1 - this is what I'm planning to do. I'll most likely mask the entire car and then spray the trim. The great thing about Plastidip is if I overspray anywhere it's really easy to just peel it off and try again.

philhef I agree your car isn't gansta at all - save for the leaping leopard on the hood. Personally I think that is really hurting an otherwise beautiful car - but that's just my personal preference...

 

For anyone that doesn't know since it's not common knowledge and not mentioned in most of the YouTube videos, if you want a smoother finish with plasti-dip, that you should heat the cans in hot water before spraying. And you would want a smoother finish on the window surrounds since they are pretty thick.

I also cover the entire car because that stuff flies everywhere and while it can be removed, it's a lot more work to remove the rough feeling than just covering the car from the start.

 

Interesting, I had not read that about heating up the cans. In the past I've found that if you want a smooth finish that you just use many light coats instead of a few heavy ones. Not really sure how different that is than painting but I'm a terrible painter so I always welcomed help there.