Hi all,

I just joined up yesterday when I brought home my new TE. I want to get modifying but not too hardcore at first. What should I do as a starting point? The car is a stock altera with 210 on the clock. I was thinking maybe an exhaust or lowering it, but I am open to suggestions. So many options.....

Welcome to the forum!
Before you spend $$$ on mods, can I suggest you put that idea on hold and wait a few months?

In the meantime, do the basics first:
Pay for rego.
Pay for petrol.
In need of a wash and wax to protect the paint?
Brakes - check for wear.
Driveshafts - check boots.

Check the service records -
- Due for a service?
- Spark plugs done?
- Timing belt done?
- Tyres ok?
- How old is the battery?

No point in modding a car if you haven't attended to the basics.

Agreed with Max - the basics should be your first port of call. Magnas are pretty reliable cars, but like anything that's getting old, they need to be properly maintained.

If the tyres are crap or are looking worn it might be an excuse to get some new shoes.

Otherwise I'd look at lowering. Your suspension is more than likely original, and ideally should be replaced. Kill two birds with one stone by getting it lowered on a good set of shocks.

depends on your situation mate how much your willing to pay and earn and mad max is right do the basics first as no point having a nice looking car if its running really bad, if the car is in great running order. get a 2.5 inch exhaust system with a aftermarket muffler and if you got some extra money some extractors, next step is lowering you can go low or super lows depending on your area and how well you want to drive it, i would get a set of low springs....and no shocks are really needed with that, get some darker tint and headlight bulbs can get high and low beams in a pair for less then $200 and some wheels and you basically got yourself a nice looking vehicle, if you wish to do allot more advanced and further upgrades im sure there are many options out there and the guys at this forum will help you like they did me :)

I don't know about the rest of you, but I feel I spend enough money on the car with rego, insurance, petrol, the odd battery and tyres as well as preventative maintenance to really turn me off spending more on other things.

But if you must, there's wheels, tyres, tint, paint, lowering, brighter lights, angel eyes, loud radio with big speakers, turbo, supercharger, etc. Go your hardest, how deep is your pocket? Not too hard to spend $20,000 on a $3,000 car.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I feel I spend enough money on the car with rego, insurance, petrol, the odd battery and tyres as well as preventative maintenance to really turn me off spending more on other things.

But if you must, there's wheels, tyres, tint, paint, lowering, brighter lights, angel eyes, loud radio with big speakers, turbo, supercharger, etc. Go your hardest, how deep is your pocket? Not too hard to spend $20,000 on a $3,000 car.

To be honest, its probably because you are over the hill that you dont understand. Look back to your youth, see if you can remember your first car ;)

To be honest, its probably because you are over the hill that you dont understand. Look back to your youth, see if you can remember your first car ;)

Fully agree, I'm over the hill. lol
My first car was a VW, first thing I did was put extractors on it. In hindsight, the money would have been better spent on oh, I donno, fixing the brakes, fixing the chaff-cutter-blue-smoke-cloud generating engine? Since then, I learnt that keeping a car in good mechanical condition was more important than . . . . blah blah blah (you probably stopped reading by now anyway)

I have sorted out the basics. The car has been nrma inspected. It has rego till june.

My pockets aren't too deep at the moment but I would like to spend around $1000 in the next 6 months or so. Is that a bit more to work with?

im pretty sure everyone starts off with something and builds up from that haha and yes with $1,000 can really do allot to a car, are you able to do some work yourself? or get someone to help you as that will decrease your spending heaps....and my biggest advice is RESEARCH! its amazing how much gear is cheaper online then in store, for example i got Super low springs for my Falcon for $200 online and in store they were going for around $450 mark not including labor to install it

Front struts, lowered front springs seem popular. I would start there.

OK, so I think I can start on the struts and springs . I do my own work to an extent. Thanks for the help guys

Yeah I concur about basic servicing of your new ride - escpecially with more than 200k on the clock. Most here start with a clean ride before they make into a nice ride.

And research is vital as well. This forum has a "for sale" section, so see what other members are selling, as well as ebay. "MadMagna" has an ebay business and wrecking yard specialising in Magnas, he has a link to it on his post signature. Savings to be had are in the hundreds just for what your initally looking at. I worked at Repco for a while a few years back, so Im familiar of what retail shops mark up. Shame about the overheads for running a company, but you cannot knock back a baragin.

Welcome to the forum too bud - what state and area are you in?

for a neat TE its nice to keep them simple, lowered on a set of tastefull mags (not too flashy or modern for the cars era) and then just some little thins like window tint, clear side indicators, dont worry about body kits and spoilers on a TE unless your gonna go all out with a full painted vrx kit or something.

My TE was pretty much stock when i bought it so check it out :)

Brakes, suspension, wheels and rear muffler and walk away is my recommendation lol.

Straight through rear muffler for 200, probably around 150 2nd hand.

Suspension will be expensive since I'd recommend new.
Set of springs front and rear 240 + good shocks such as Boges 500 odd.
DIY this then do a full alignment.

Get some wider/bigger wheels, lots to choose from. 17" VRX rims, 18" CJ Lancer VRX rims etc etc.

380 brakes for around 350 second hand, need to do wheels first to fit these.

Then detail the car and you're laughing.

Just got the car back from my mechanic and it got a clean bill of health. I will upload some pics when I get a chance to detail it properly. The car was owned by an older lady so it hasn't been thrashed like a lot of the other TE's out there. By the way thanks for all the greetings. You sure are a friendly bunch.

I could use all the advice I can get on magna ownership so keep the tips coming I am taking it all in. I just had to let my vs commodore go which is a very different car. If I could pick up an exhaust on the cheap I would be very happy to hear about it. I am in northwest Sydney NSW. I will have a look at madmagna's eBay site for starters.

Want more power/response? 3.5L+Manual conversion (Anything you spend on a 3l auto in terms of performance is an absolute waste when it comes to value for money over this mod).
Want better handling/cornering? Swaybars, Lowered suspension, replacement dampers
Want more appealing body? TJ Rear conversion, Parabolic Headlights, Foglights, TH/TJ Front Bar
Want to get loud? Catback exhaust

Pretty broad thread. @life iI want it all. Bit by painstaking bit. What are parabolic headlights anyway? This is the first I am hearing about them

Pretty broad thread. @life iI want it all. Bit by painstaking bit. What are parabolic headlights anyway? This is the first I am hearing about them

I asked the same question when I started here too. In short they are the headlights that come on the VR-X and Veradas and look like twin front headlamps rather than the one big square one, check above with "LIFE" avatar and you can clearly see the headlights are different.

And yes, welcome to the club.

Boosty

Ok, how much do you think to source the parts and where do I look?

Ok, how much do you think to source the parts and where do I look?

Which parts? If you want to get the parts life suggested then here is where you will find them and approxiamately how much to pay for them:


3.5L+Manual conversion - These can be bought from Mal or from wreckers/dismantellers or engine rebuilders. Mal will charge $800 for manual kit, and engine is around $1000 with replaced timing belt. Wreckers may be cheaper but unlikely to come with any warranty. eBay sometimes has these engines around the $300-500 mark.


Want better handling/cornering? Swaybars, Lowered suspension, replacement dampers. Swaybars: Can be purchased through Megatron in the sponsors section for around $300 brand new. Otherwise 2nd hand off a vr-x/sports should be around the $100-150 mark. Lowered suspension: For magna's your choice is either King Springs, Dobinsons or Pedders. Kings Springs are very popular around here and can be had for around $300 on fleabay or through Mal. Call your local tyre shop or workshop and ask them for a quote.
Dobinsons can be purchased from Mal for around $280.
Pedders can be purchased from any Pedders store for around $250. Mixed opinions on this brand of suspension. Users such as Amin have good experiences while others claim they are "chumps."



Want more appealing body? TJ Rear conversion, Parabolic Headlights, Foglights, TH/TJ Front Bar TJ Rear conversion - you will need bootlid & lights. TL VR-X dark lights can be purchased on ebay for $200, normal TJ one's are around the $150 mark. Bootlids are around $200 where you look - can be as cheap as $100 at pick-a-part wreckers.
- Parabolic headlights: Getting harder to find but can be purchased through AMC sponsor: MRSPL who can also fit HIDs & Angel eyes for you. Around $500 w/HID's & Angel eyes - $250 without. Otherwise Mal or Ego on ebay (aboutbargains) has sets around $300. These were fitted to all Verada's, VR-X's and TJ Sports. Comes in 1pce plastic or 2pce glass. Search some wreckers for Verada's.

Want to get loud? Catback exhaust - Approx $300 at your local exhaust shop. Be careful with making your car too loud as it may be illegal and you could have issues with the Police who will defect your car and send you off to a EPA test as well.

Sorry should have been more specific. I was talking about the parabolic headlights. If I can source them for about $200 I would be very interested. The manual conversion is a bit much for me and the engine replacement is something that might happen way down the track. Thanks for the advice anyway. Great help.

I'm in the same boat as you, I only just got a TH Exec when I clocked 18 years (2 months ago, got the car about 1 month) and you really want to get everything looking good (eg, cleaning up paint scratches, detail cleaning interior/exterior) before laying into stuff. Replace/repair broken things too. On my shopping list is a rear bumper (some kind old lady was nice enough to back her bright blue 2nd gen into my car, thankfully she only hit the bumper, still rooted enough to warrant a replacement), and a rear tail light which has a crack on the lens. Once I get those done and pay off insurance/fuel etc as I go, I am also going to source some parabolic headlights, as they seem to be all the go and look nice.

If I were you, save a manual conversion until a rainy day or if the tranny dies. If mine dies in the next 20k km's (238k on the clock now) I may consider one, otherwise, why replace what isn't broken? ;)

Other than that, anything that can be drained/filled, do. Tranny fluid, engine oil, all of that, check and replace if neccessary. Chuck some engine cleaner in the fuel tank and fill up with premium, and flush the system. My washer res was full of algae and would leave smears on my windscreen, so I decontaminated the res and got a new wiper assembly on the same day because the old ones were rooted.

They're very easy to work around, took one guess to get the entire center area out to get to the head unit. Still took 2.5 hours of manhandling but it was worth it. Chuck a head unit in too if you've got a few hundred lying around. I replaced my tape deck :P .

It's such a different engine to what I am used to. I got so used to the ecotec in my old commodore, that I look at this engine and draw a blank. This is definetely going to be a learning curve for me so don't expect this to be my last post!!