2018 SHO PP

[drewbaloo]

My name is Drew and I live just outside of Fort Lauderdale. I recently purchased a 2018 SHO PP with 25k miles and have been quietly reading on here for a bit. Finally made an account in the past week and a half. While I have accepted mid life with two little ones, I still prefer to make engineers proud of their work. I am almost certain my son likes to make us run late in the morning as he says “Daddy I’m holding on!” or “Green means GO! GO! GO!”. So far all I have done is a drop in K&N. I have gotten my wife to agree to “refining” the car much like what was needed on my GLI. I have been looking at some options for a 93 tune for the car and am leaning towards Ortiz on HP RTD. Not looking to win any street races (as of this moment) but just wanting to get around all the old people with all day to get there but no where to go. South Florida is Heaven’s Waiting Room. Also wanting to blackout the chrome so any advice on that is more than welcomed! I’ll try and get some photos in better lighting soon.

 

[zoomlater]

Welcome!

 

[SM105K]

Welcome. A good tune package will wake the SHO up and it you will be surprised on what you will leave from a stand still. For the chrome delete, there is a few options. You can have it wrapped, plasti-dipped, or painted. To do it correct the items need to removed from the car. That being said, the chrome pieces above the window are extremely easily to crease and bend if you remove them. I would personally buy new pieces, have them wrapped or painted and install them onto the car. It maybe more spendy, but you will thank yourself later.

 

[tgabtg]

Welcome! Looks like the Drew crew grew!

Drew

 

[jasong_10]

Right with you on deleting the chrome, just did mine a couple weeks ago. I painted mine (all but the grille and fender badges/inserts) on the car, it can be done, it's just A LOT of time in masking off and prep.

 

[SeanDev]

Just a good tune wakes up the beast. And to save you from crapping your pants from your first wheel hop, go ahead and get some trans mounts when you start modding. Before you know it like the rest of us you'll start going down that rabbit hole, and mod after mod you'll find yourself in Wonderland.

 

[drewbaloo]

Right with you on deleting the chrome, just did mine a couple weeks ago. I painted mine (all but the grille and fender badges/inserts) on the car, it can be done, it's just A LOT of time in masking off and prep.

Yours does look pretty nice! How long did it take for you to paint it on the car? I did see some interceptor fender moldings that are black. Just trying to weigh the options.

 

[drewbaloo]

Just a good tune wakes up the beast. And to save you from crapping your pants from your first wheel hop, go ahead and get some trans mounts when you start modding. Before you know it like the rest of us you'll start going down that rabbit hole, and mod after mod you'll find yourself in Wonderland.

I had some crazy wheel hop on my APR tuned VW. Wife borrowed the car and called me very concerned the first time it happened to her. So the AD trans mount and 50 rpm idle bump is an ideal starting point?

 

[FiveLeeter918]

Welcome to the forum, and glad to hear you're considering Ortiz for your tuning experience. I likewise suffer with random detours so we have a chance to go fast in the mornings, windows down, that ends up with us powerstalling into the parking lot trying to beat the teachers from closing the door so we don't have to take the long way around the building to the front office haha. Our Ecoboost Starter Pack is everything you need to wake the car up in factory form, and we offer a plethora of performance products on our website to take you even further if you later decide you want more. We include datalogged revision support on all of our tune purchases and offer complimentary updates on any parts that you purchase from us down the road.

The chrome delete isn't HARD to do yourself, but it is very tedious and it does waste a lot of material which is why shops charge so much for it. You can actually do most of the project with a 2" roll of 3M 2080 exterior vinyl, but the grill and rear decklid require a little more and since shops have to scrap what they don't use in most cases, they charge you for it plus the experience to do it quickly with minimal waste on "re-dos." I bought everything to do it myself, but like every other modification that I have sitting in my garage, I like the time and motivation to do it at night after we finish with the day job, Ortiz work, baseball, and then family life. I can recommend some YouTube videos and parts lists if you'd like to try it yourself, but as far as shops I've seen anywhere from $200 to $1200 quoted depending on the shop and area.

 

[jasong_10]

Yours does look pretty nice! How long did it take for you to paint it on the car? I did see some interceptor fender moldings that are black. Just trying to weigh the options.

I'd only be guessing as I didn't really keep track, but I'd ballpark it at somewhere around three hours to mask off the window moldings, taillights, and trunk trim bar. Paint time would depend on what paint you chose and desired number of coats. I had the grille, accent light bezels, and fender inserts out of the car due to having a new bumper cover painted at the local body shop so I didn't have to prep/mask that stuff, so that could add a fair amount of time to the prep. Honestly, with how simple the bumper cover comes off (at least the 10-12s) it might be quicker to pop it off and remove those pieces to paint them, especially the grille as I wouldn't want any overspray getting on anything behind it.

 

[SeanDev]

I had some crazy wheel hop on my APR tuned VW. Wife borrowed the car and called me very concerned the first time it happened to her. So the AD trans mount and 50 rpm idle bump is an ideal starting point?

Ive only had my AD mount for a month, for me I didn't adjust the idle, just a little rumble in the steering wheel and no more wheel hop, everyone though has there preference, the quality of the AD mount was worth the price.