Hey yall!
On September 9th I purchased my first car, a 2019 Veloster 2.0 in Gray.
![Wheel Tire Vehicle Car Grille]()
<--- The day I got her.
![Automotive lighting Vehicle Car Street light Road surface]()
This being my first car I was incredibly excited to get started with it. A flood of independence and responsibility washed over me the first couple weeks. Now, I've never been that into cars (except for e30s, but that interest was pretty surface level). The one thing I do like to whenever I own something new is make it mine. So I got to tinkering....
Mod 1: Blacking it Out
Okay VERY basic right out the gate. I decided I wanted to black out the badges. I'm sure this is a very 16 year old mod and very common, but whatever. I decided in didn't want the hassle of taking off the emblems, so time to mask. All in all it took waaaay longer to mask the emblems that we thought. With 2 people it took a couple hours, but it was worth it. After spray painting and removing all the tape I think it looks pretty nice (and not too tacky).
![Car Land vehicle Vehicle Hood Automotive tire]()
![Land vehicle Car Vehicle Hood Automotive lighting]()
![Car Automotive tail & brake light Vehicle Vehicle registration plate Automotive lighting]()
(I later did touchups and covered the spots between the 2.0)
Mod 2: Air filter
I know I'm going to get **** for calling this a mod but I don't care. I dropped in this air filter from K&N. The stock one was dirty and with this being the 2.0 I'm trying to squeeze out any performance I can. I'm not sure how much of this was placebo but I feel like it made the car much louder (which my immature brain appreciates).
Mod 3: Steering Wheel Emblem
This one is pretty lame. I bought a plastic stick-on cover for the steering wheel emblem. Its off-center but whatever, it looks nifty. Told you we were blacking this thing out
![Motor vehicle Car Steering part Automotive design Steering wheel]()
Mod 4: Interior Lights
I picked up these Govee lights. I hid the cables pretty well. I can set them to blue to match the accents and guests love them.
Mod 5: Calipers and Caps
I feel like this one is gonna be controversial. I thought that red calipers would look cool. In my opinion they do. Also decided to blackout the center caps on the rims with spray-paint.
It was annoying to get the wheels off, all but one of the bullets was over-torqued, but we got it eventually. Unfortunately during the process, due to me not have one of those plastic-covered bits, I scratched the ever living fuck out of the inside of the lug-nut wells (If you have any solutions to hide/fix them, that'd be amazing). Anyway, after a days work we got them painted. So far this may be my favorite mod.
![Tire Wheel Vehicle Car Automotive tire]()
![Paint Art Font Electric blue Visual arts]()
![Wheel Car Tire Vehicle Hood]()
![Wheel Tire Car Vehicle Automotive tire]()
Whats next?
There are several mods I wanna do after this;
I plan on getting the N Wing after the holidays. When I install that I will probably paint the white rear bumper (seriously, who thought that was a good idea?) the same color as the wing. Afaik the Duraflex wings suck, so I'll pick up the oem one.
Exhaust / Muffler Delete / Resonator Delete
I'm pretty tempted to do a muffler delete and have pipe fitted to connect to the normal exhaust. I'd really like the car to be louder without being obnoxious, so I'm not entirely sure. (Its my understanding that this is reversible as long as the replacement pipe is bolted on and not welded like the stock muffler.
Headlight bulb replacement
I don't know if I just have bad bulbs but the headlights are super dim. I live in a place infested with blindingly bright headlights, so any recommendations for good, non-obnoxious bulbs is greatly appreciated.
Wheels: Repair / Replace
My current stock wheels have a really bad case of curb rash (pictures don't do it justice). I'm likely going to just attempt to repair them as I do not have the fund for a new set of wheels, though I do really want some glossy black ones.
Tint
My windows have no tint. Its Florida. Its hot.
Conclusion:
In these past 3 months I've learned more about cars than I ever wanted to. This stuff is seriously addicting. I understand that these changes may be pretty obnoxious and "ruinous", but I'm young and dumb, let me express that in my vehicle.
I couldn't be happier with how this car has turned out. I understand it isn't the fastest, but damn if it isn't fun. I haven't shown it to a single person that didn't say "that's cool" or "wait why does it have 3 doors that weird". Thank you everyone who has helped me through many, admittingly dumb, questions on here and on the reddit. Viva la Veloster.
Ps. I'm still trying to think of a name for the car. Preferably something related to "black-out".
- Grant
Grant.Works
Thanks for reading.
On September 9th I purchased my first car, a 2019 Veloster 2.0 in Gray.
This being my first car I was incredibly excited to get started with it. A flood of independence and responsibility washed over me the first couple weeks. Now, I've never been that into cars (except for e30s, but that interest was pretty surface level). The one thing I do like to whenever I own something new is make it mine. So I got to tinkering....
Mod 1: Blacking it Out
Okay VERY basic right out the gate. I decided I wanted to black out the badges. I'm sure this is a very 16 year old mod and very common, but whatever. I decided in didn't want the hassle of taking off the emblems, so time to mask. All in all it took waaaay longer to mask the emblems that we thought. With 2 people it took a couple hours, but it was worth it. After spray painting and removing all the tape I think it looks pretty nice (and not too tacky).
(I later did touchups and covered the spots between the 2.0)
I know I'm going to get **** for calling this a mod but I don't care. I dropped in this air filter from K&N. The stock one was dirty and with this being the 2.0 I'm trying to squeeze out any performance I can. I'm not sure how much of this was placebo but I feel like it made the car much louder (which my immature brain appreciates).
Mod 3: Steering Wheel Emblem
This one is pretty lame. I bought a plastic stick-on cover for the steering wheel emblem. Its off-center but whatever, it looks nifty. Told you we were blacking this thing out
Mod 4: Interior Lights
I picked up these Govee lights. I hid the cables pretty well. I can set them to blue to match the accents and guests love them.
Mod 5: Calipers and Caps
I feel like this one is gonna be controversial. I thought that red calipers would look cool. In my opinion they do. Also decided to blackout the center caps on the rims with spray-paint.
It was annoying to get the wheels off, all but one of the bullets was over-torqued, but we got it eventually. Unfortunately during the process, due to me not have one of those plastic-covered bits, I scratched the ever living fuck out of the inside of the lug-nut wells (If you have any solutions to hide/fix them, that'd be amazing). Anyway, after a days work we got them painted. So far this may be my favorite mod.
Whats next?
There are several mods I wanna do after this;
I plan on getting the N Wing after the holidays. When I install that I will probably paint the white rear bumper (seriously, who thought that was a good idea?) the same color as the wing. Afaik the Duraflex wings suck, so I'll pick up the oem one.
Exhaust / Muffler Delete / Resonator Delete
I'm pretty tempted to do a muffler delete and have pipe fitted to connect to the normal exhaust. I'd really like the car to be louder without being obnoxious, so I'm not entirely sure. (Its my understanding that this is reversible as long as the replacement pipe is bolted on and not welded like the stock muffler.
Headlight bulb replacement
I don't know if I just have bad bulbs but the headlights are super dim. I live in a place infested with blindingly bright headlights, so any recommendations for good, non-obnoxious bulbs is greatly appreciated.
Wheels: Repair / Replace
My current stock wheels have a really bad case of curb rash (pictures don't do it justice). I'm likely going to just attempt to repair them as I do not have the fund for a new set of wheels, though I do really want some glossy black ones.
Tint
My windows have no tint. Its Florida. Its hot.
Conclusion:
In these past 3 months I've learned more about cars than I ever wanted to. This stuff is seriously addicting. I understand that these changes may be pretty obnoxious and "ruinous", but I'm young and dumb, let me express that in my vehicle.
I couldn't be happier with how this car has turned out. I understand it isn't the fastest, but damn if it isn't fun. I haven't shown it to a single person that didn't say "that's cool" or "wait why does it have 3 doors that weird". Thank you everyone who has helped me through many, admittingly dumb, questions on here and on the reddit. Viva la Veloster.
Ps. I'm still trying to think of a name for the car. Preferably something related to "black-out".
- Grant
Grant.Works
Thanks for reading.
