Facelift Insignia SRI 1.8

[troublednoodle]

Hi All,

Recently joined up and collected a black 63 plate insignia.

Previous owner has already done some mods to it, and i plan to do a whole bunch more. I bought it as a trade in through a family members workplace, so i don't actually know some of the details on what the previous owner did to the car as the dealer didnt know themselves.

Thought i'd start a progress thread and chuck up some pictures after finally getting round to giving it a proper clean including claybar, wax and polish etc after picking her up last week!

Previous owner:
19inch axe alloys
Lowered it - not sure by how much. From looking under the car it's just on springs and not coilovers.
Tinted the windows
Carbon fibre vynl on the silver trim round the windows.
Aftermarket exhaust - again - not sure on the details - but it certainly doesn't sound stock! Either that, or the exhaust is on it's way out!
On looking under the bonnet, there's a big K&N induction kit in place of the air filter box.
HIDs - Not sure on the colour temp, look pretty close to the DRL. I'll get some night pictures.



You will notice the tailgate lights are painted black, there are a matching set of rear lights that the previous owner has spray painted/smoked black that the dealer took off to pass it's MOT, and actually gave to me to put back on. I was planning on doing a comparison to get folks opinions, but I couldn't actually figure out how to unclip the light cluster. There's a little red release that pulls up on the connector, but for the life of me it wouldn't come off. I actually want to retrofit some working tail lights anyway, so might leave the rear lights as is.

Cheers for looking. I'll post here with some updates as I crack on with my plans!











You will need to forgive my crappy polishing attempt, i've never actually bothered to claybar/polish a car before today!

Sorry for the book!

[RBH]

Looks good mate.

Are this 3sdm alloys???

[Lewish]

Looks very nice. I like the wheels, probably 19s you'll have to look at the tyre. I don't like the black tailgate light.

Aftermarket shark fin too :-)

I hope there's still enough mods left for you to do.

[troublednoodle]

Looks good mate.

Are this 3sdm alloys???

Alloys are Axe's.

Looks very nice. I like the wheels, probably 19s you'll have to look at the tyre. I don't like the black tailgate light.

Aftermarket shark fin too :-)

I hope there's still enough mods left for you to do.

You know what, I can't believe I didn't een think to just check the tyres, what an absolute idiot. They are 19's.

Didn't even realise the sharkfin wasn't stock. I'm coming from a beamer and honestly didn't even notice it!

I'm sure I'll find a few things to do and keep me going.

[exclusiv.]

looks nice

[marko301]

I like it. I've said this before...Black cars with everything blacked have a pretty mean look going on.

[MattG]

Welcome, best colour

[Langy]

black is where it's at....

it's good to see more 'black Alloys'

[VXLINER]

Am really liking that as is, nice car buddy

[Hisham El Zanatti]

Looks aggressive Wow

[troublednoodle]

Been a busy couple of weeks doing wee things here and there.

First off installed LED ambient lighting around the gearstick, the gap under here was crying out for some nice lighting, this now matches the little LED ambient lighting in the door handle recess. I am planning on doing something similar on the inside of the large handle on the door card, not sure how I am going to do that one just yet.

[troublednoodle]

Installed some parking sensors as well.

You can see these below underneath the red dots.



Wiring is routed up into the boot via the below grommet, which also contains the wiring for the license plate bulbs.




Wires are then fed up to nearhand the light cluster via the wiring already in place






Behind the lightcluster/next to the fuse box is where I am storing the "unit" for the parking sensors, the wiring is an absolute mess. I didn't have time to tidy this up properly. None of it can be seen once the trim is back on, so I'm not that bothered. You can see the power plus and negative fed out the light cluster grommet to the light cluster where I have tapped/soldered into the reverse bulb + and -. I could've taken this feed from the cables feeding to it the grommet, rather than after, but wasn't sure about the reverse light -, and wanted to be sure.




This was soldered, shrinkwrapped, and wrapped in tape, so I'm fairly confident it will be water tight and last.



From where the sensor gubbins is all stored, I could then run the display cable up via the inside of the rubber seal of the boot



And into the cabin, where I have stuck it on the roof so it's out the way.

[troublednoodle]

Swapped out all the interior bulbs for bright white LED ones, previous ones were red and I wasn't a fan.



Done the front, back, footwell and the boot lights. Makes a massive difference.

[troublednoodle]

Previous owner installed this bad boy.



And these, although I may swap them around so that the badge reads correctly from inside the car, rather than to someone standing outside it.

[marko301]

Looking good! Really changes the interior.

Parking sensors are a must on insignias. Well worth fitting them. Did you need to paint them or are they a good colour match? I bought bright red ones when I had my facelift and they were a really good match to the power red.