Tasteful interior/exterior modification

[JohnMate]

Hello I have just signed onto this website and have been taking a look around. A little bit about myself I have been a BMW owner since I could drive but unfortunately its life was shortened on a wet night and the insurance money left from my e46 330i was not enough to cover another decent one. I have recently bought a 2005 156ti selespeed and I have been looking to do some 'tasteful' aesthetic modification. I am currently attempting to carbon wrap all of the plastic like metal accents. Now surely there is more I can do! I have taken a look around and from what I have seen there is no definitive page on alfa interior modification... Could you either perhaps guide me to the page or give us some examples of what you the members have attempted. Please let me stress i am not putting a disco ball in or anything just looking to make the interior/exterior more aggressive on what is already an aggressive car.


Thanks in Advance,

JohnMate

[Anthony Miller]

You might want to try the ausalfa.com site, most folks here are more concerned about modification of their engines and suspension, you know...the the go fast, stop hard and turn bits The Ausalfa guys have a board devoted to styling.

[spieret]

And with an attitude like that, we never will cover styling. I don't think we should be sending people away because of "Sorry it's not my interest", maybe we should look at a styling section. There are a lot of new people buying newer Alfa's and attitudes like that will push people away and erode the membership of the club.

[Anthony Miller]

Tony, sorry that you've misundertsood me and then decided to flame me, surely this site is not the be all and end all of Alfas in Australia. Not all members of this forum are club members and conversely not all club members are members of this forum and moreover many members of this forum are also members of AlfaBB forum and Ausalfa forum. I was merely just making the OP aware that there are other places to find the information that he's looking for. Definately we should have a page dealing with styling, buy as we don't and Ausalfa forum does, what's wrong with my trying to be helpful attitude? Flaming each other is more likely to push people away and erode forum membership.

I have taken a look around and from what I have seen there is no definitive page on alfa interior modification... Could you either perhaps guide me to the page or give us some examples of what you the members have attempted

[L4OMEO]

Hi John, and welcome to the community. As you can probably tell, it's a place where people generally speak their minds, so don't hold back.

I like your choice of wheels, quite a change from the 330i (which I also like, but I'd never admit that here).

While there's lots of options for improving performance and handling there's not as much off-the-shelf stuff for aesthetic mods as you might find for the BMW. This is particularly true for the face-lift model which already has quite a stylish interior, I suspect there's simply not a big call for improvements. If you search around you should find various options for carbon-look consoles, new dials faces, after-market leather boots for gear-lever/handbrake, plus the standard add-ons like alloy door-lock poins and sill plates etc etc. I probably have a few websites I could recommend so reply by post or PM if you're interested, but try www.alfisti.net (go to the shop) as a start.

As I indicated, performance mods are more plentiful and you should get lots of worthwhile recommendations here. If there's something specific you want to improve, just post a new thread and see what comes up.

Cheers John
Rory

[Anthony Miller]

John I forgot to say nice choice, been thinking about upgrading to a later model myself. How do you find the difference from rwd to fwd, it's one of the things that's holding me back

[shiny_car]

most folks here are more concerned about modification of their engines and suspension, you know...the the go fast, stop hard and turn bits The Ausalfa guys have a board devoted to styling.

you might be surprised by what some of us 'ausalfa' guys do in terms of tuning.  

but hey, we are a pretty helpful bunch over there, for all matters Alfa. 

[John Hanslow]

Clash of civilizations or clash of cultures between two groups.  Not really !  Horses for courses may be.

For what it's worth the club is always ready to take on new aspects of the Alfisti experience.  I am continuously on the lookout for new discussion, ideas, new activities etc. Our register captains are devoting time and effort to get people involved. I do seek ideas and response from non club groups.

I would run a tuning workshop if need be but we need support.  Our club is highly sucessful in running race activities so the tuning and improvements may be focused on track work. I am not sure but I assume that with comments about stress on cars due to said 'track work', the improvements are for a better drivibg experience and the focus may be across the board.  That's fine and so be it.  We even had a car detailing workshop before Spettacolo and quite frankly, the support could have been better so I can not build up on that unless I have a 100 year special event !!!  Which comes back full circle, we have good info for race track related issues, the alternative site is well versed in non track modification, improvements etc.  We all like our cars (old or new) and that has to be respected.

Always open to ideas to broaden the Alfa experience.  Cheers.

[JohnMate]

sorry its taken such a long time to reply uni is riding me for what it is worth I have been stalking the pages. I must say in regards to anthony miller to rwd to fwd its not as bad as i suspected. I mean its only the 4pot but the power they pull out of that engine is ridiculous! an 7 second (well i assume give or take) out of a 4 cylinder is fantastic i mean i really enjoy driving it the only thing giving me the shits is the smg (selespeed you call it?) i have learnt to wait for it to charge but atm it is not liking reverse so i find myself parrellel parking and rolling it from neutral if someone parks in front of me. I have changed the battery and its not complaining about oil levels. I am also interested in tuning but as a uni student the budget is stretched

[Anthony Miller]

Hey John, take it to someone with a diagnostic computer, one of our sponsors maybe. Check out the link on the sponsors page on the main website. These guys might be able to fix your car with the click of a mouse, it might just be a reset issue and at the same time you can see if your running the latest OS upgrade. This is one where you have to bite the bullet and pay someone to sort it out, you can always buy the software and cable and do it yourself but this will take time. If it's more than a software issue, fortunately you can replace components rather than the entire gearbox. Good luck 

[John Hanslow]

and back to the start, perhaps we need a forum catagory for Style Enhancements - Interior/Exterior Modifications.

[JohnMate]

I'm more than happy to experiment with a few general mods i learnt owning my bmw's and posting pics if you would like? once i get this gearbox soughted out that is.. then I can spend money! I want to carbon weave wrap the silver bits. Alcantra the steering wheel and add some hd foam to fatten it up. give it a more chunky/ sporty feel other than that maybe l.e.d some of those orangey passenger lights to give it a crisper appearance. I love the red light in the dash the e46 used to also have these led's the same colour as the instrument lights that cast a orange over your hands when reaching for the center console wouldn't mind to try that in the alfa but with red. you couldn't see it otherwise. outside wise.. Stagger the wheels lower it maybe(when soughted out gear box) a H.I.D conversion (looks hard dont know yet) wouldn't mind some outside carbon fiber maybe a strip along the boot lid, tastefully of course. Nothing too big. plus my hood is all dented up from hail or something so I'd like to in the near future vorestnier that and repaint it the same colour as the car but leave a trim around the bonnet holes. THIS IS ALL DREAMING THOUGH UNTIL IM SURE IM NOT UP FOR 6G