Hey everyone.

Wanting to do some mods to my ES but not sure where to start. Been looking at putting VR-X tail lights and lip spoiler as a start and then maybe fog lights. Just want some view on what maybe I should do as I do require help. Had my car for almost 3 years and haven't done anything to it.

Any ideas or advice is greatly appreciated.

Hi Laura,
Welcome to AMC :D
What mods to do is a hard question to field. Everyone has different opinions as to what looks good and what doesn't. I'll list some of the more common mods though to give you an idea of what people do.
- 90mm Galant intake & cutting lower resonator (search for it on forums, heaps of info)
- replacing rear muffler with a straight-through (again search, heaps of info)
- bigger wheels. I'd recommend at least 19", preferably 20". Anything smaller than this doesn't really look that big and you'll be disappointed.
- lowering. Doesn't have to be on the ground, even a set of King Lows will set the car a bit lower and give it a nicer 'stance'.
- replacing rear tailights with VR-X/GT lights and adding boot lip (make sure you get the boot lip from a VR-X or a GT, not the lip from a S1 SX. The VR-X/GT lip extends all the way to the edges of the boot and meet the lip on the taillights. The lip on the SX stops about 2 inches before the edges of the boot so it would look weird.
- replace headlights with the blacked out headlights from a VR-X/GT
- replace seats with the sports seats from a SX or leather seats from a VR-X/GT
- replace inside trimming with the 'marble' trim from a GT


That's all I can think of for now. As I said, in the end it's all personal preference. There's a girl (lady?) on here that is currently tossing up painting zebra stripes on her car because that is the look she wants. Sure, that might not be my personal taste but it's your car - do what you think will make it look good.


EDIT: Oh and just quickly before one of the older members jumps in and says it (MadMax I'm looking at you). Before you do any of these things make sure the car is maintained. If it is due or a service, get the service. If it is overdue, get a major service. If it has over 100,000km and hasn't had the timing belt done yet, get it done. The last thing you want to do is spend all your hard earned cash on making the car look nice and then not having money when something goes wrong because it hasn't been looked after. Also invest in a good set of cleaning products. You'd be surprised how much better your car will look after you give it a nice thorough wash, wax and polish. If you can be bothered you could even clay-bar it.

How's it going Laura. With my es series III my ideas were similar to yours and it will happen......eventually, you ever considered Maby lowering the car first? Nice set of rims? A turbo? Jokes on the last one, just dropping her down a bit and a nice set of rims can improve the looks of the car greatly.

Thanks guys. I have found tail lights with lip spoiler on eBay that I am considering. My car is already quite low and I'm not sure if I should lower it anymore. Mags have been on the cards for a while as well just nothing I like. Car has not yet ticked over 100,000km still a fair way off. Joys of working long hours is that the car never gets driven. I am also looking at putting fog lights in the front and eventually replacing the headlights along with the front grill. Never thought of changing the seats around though. That's a fantatic idea. As for respray, that will be done once all mods are complete.

also as you have an ES you might look at the front and rear bumpers off the higher spec cars. as they are a different design and i think more appealing.

I haven't been able to source any bumpers as the guy I was emailing has sold most of the parts off the cars that he is currently wrecking. eBay doesn't have anything either which is a bit of a let down. Another question, where can I got to find out the colour of my car?

I haven't been able to source any bumpers as the guy I was emailing has sold most of the parts off the cars that he is currently wrecking. eBay doesn't have anything either which is a bit of a let down. Another question, where can I got to find out the colour of my car?
haha outside, to where the car is parked? common answers are white, black, grey :P

but seriously if you do a search for 'what colour is your 380' or similar there is a thread started by me that lists all the factory colours for 380s in a poll.
also in your engine bay on your compliance plate the paint code is listed.

I saw a black ES recently, 20" chromes, lowered, tail lights, and tinted. It looked bloody nice and I'm not fond of the ES to be honest.

Whatever you do, just don't get these.

http://www.bobjane.com.au/images/Status-s815-Grinder-Chrome_01.jpg

Stormie, my car is silver and just trying to make life a little easier for the poor sod who is spraying the boot that I will be purchasing. I'm hoping that it is an easy and widely available colour. I've also been told Mitsubishi make mags. Not sure if this is true. Google hasn't helped much. Thanks for the laugh though stormie.

Romanx, I will not be getting those. They are hideous!

Sure Mitsubishi do mags but unless your getting secondhand they will not be cheap. Plus their sizes are silly. 17x7? Hey instead of having a normal 8 inch width let's design a nice rim with a small width so owners have no choice but to buy the skinner more expensive size tyres instead of the much more superior and much more common and cheaper tyre........I need a new job.

Hi Laura, welcome to AMC I've got a silver 380 also and thought I'd take a pic of my paint code to help you out a bit :) our colour is called Platinum http://i867.photobucket.com/albums/ab231/kif_380/7eded6d3.jpgPaint code is EH another thing you can do is get your painter to remove your fuel flap to colour match if needed :)

I have something like 5 380 being wrecked at the moment including series 3 sx wheels and rear bars also in stock ( silver one is for my car but have others)

A lot can be done easily as well as getting jessiejames to revamp the interior

Madmagna, Do you have any pics of the wheels? Just picked up tail lights which will hopefully go in next weekend.

The cars I have are all in my ebay store, there should be some reasonable pics of the wheels there, there are also some individual wheels listed for the series 3 sx which will show decent pics of the style

Do you have a show room or anything? There is a blue vrx that has some nice ones on it. You don't have any vrx grills by any chance? Or right hand head lights?

I have a workshop in Montrose, all of the address details arein my web site

I dont have any grilles, only wheels I have at the moment are the sx wheels, all of the vrx ones have long since been sold

one great thing about having a ES, is if you ever want a better stereo, you never have to worry about about errors in Top Display, coz we only have a clock there...Some of us anyway (http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z467/Shootmarty/DSCN0023.jpg)

The best thing I ever did to my silver 380, was to get rid of the ES suspension...Its a hidden mod, but very rewarding if you like a drive in the hills.....
I've usually modded my cars to reward me, looking from the inside, not OP looking at me from the outside.

Sh00t, I love your interior. In regards to suspension, I don't really drive in the hills. More of a city driver. Is it worth doing suspension for freeway driving?

Sh00t, I love your interior. In regards to suspension, I don't really drive in the hills. More of a city driver. Is it worth doing suspension for freeway driving?

with suspension, you CAN change a few characteristics of the car.
these are broadly: LOOKS, COMFORT, HANDLING.
Basically what you are running at the moment is the basic kit from mitsu for the lower price point cars.
This is standard height, maybe a bit floaty (never been in a base model 380) and not great handling.

to change you have the following options.
Springs: Kings Superlow or equivalent- pros looks aggressive, will improve handling. cons obviously stiffer spring mean you feel the road more bumps and whathave you. also under your front bumper may take a beating until you get used to the front of the car being that bit lower.
Kings Low or equivalent - Pros as above but slightly more conservative. (car sits a bit higher). cons as above but obviously less extreme.
Kings Standard/OEM 'Sports' Suspension- roughly equivalent wont change the look of your car but will change the feel, and handling. springs are little stiffer but obviously reduce body roll and whatnot.
You still require Shocks for all the above... it would probably be best to upgrade to SX/GT/VRX shocks, either oem or ask Mal (^MadMagna) about aftermarket options.)
Coilovers Ksport or equivalent: more costly than the above options. but allow customisable height and SOME flexibility in 'stiffness' - certainly wont be able to make as soft as your existing suspension. viewed as the bees-knees in suspension options but will set you back more than a grand.

Basically it comes down to what you want to get out of your car. if you want to retain the stock appearance then maybe a swap for vrx/gt/sx suspension setup would be right.
if you dont mind what the ride is like and its all about screaming look at me then maybe superlow front springs and some low rears, and a set of BIG aftermarket rims is what you are after.

The best thing I ever did to my silver 380, was to get rid of the ES suspension...

Well, you know you can thank me for that can't you Marty? :D

I could almost forward the Pm's between me and Mal as I'm enquiring about the same car, well not literally but an ES model.

I saw a black ES recently, 20" chromes, lowered, tail lights, and tinted. It looked bloody nice and I'm not fond of the ES to be honest.

Whatever you do, just don't get these.

http://www.bobjane.com.au/images/Status-s815-Grinder-Chrome_01.jpg


I saw a black 380 driving around with these on them around Mildura where i am. Certainly looked interesting

also as you have an ES you might look at the front and rear bumpers off the higher spec cars. as they are a different design and i think more appealing.

+1 on this, those front bumpers really didn't do it for me. I'd chuck the mags on first though, that will make the biggest difference. Just make sure they're fairly large

Hows the car coming along?