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2010 Kia Forte Koup


Burton
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The 2001 Grand Am GT that Kate was driving was really starting to nickel and dime us to death. Well, worse than nickels and dimes. Once we started adding up the reciepts and realized we spent nearly $3000 keeping that car on the road since January, we decided that kind of money would make a nice car payment. The Grand Am was our "reliable" daily driver, but Kate drives 50-60 miles a day, and since reliability was slipping and we could stand to spend less on gas, we decided to get something fairly econoboxish and cheap, but something that would be reliable and have a warranty. We also decided to just keep the Grand Am for me to use, since it has working air, and I don't drive much anyway.

 

After coming close to getting a couple VW's, we decided on a new Kia Forte Koup. We got the SX one, which is the sport version of it and comes with the bigger engine- a 2.4. It handles better and is quicker than a lot of the other cars in it's class, and it's one of the cheaper cars in it's class too. IMO, it's one of the best looking cars in it's class too. It also has a 100k mile warranty, which is nice. We got an auto because it's mainly a commuter car, but it's one of those shiftable autos. The stereo sounds really nice- Nicer than the Monsoon in the Grand Am, which suprised me. It also has Sirius and links to phones with Bluetooth for hands-free talking when in the car.

 

 

We won't be doing any real mechanical modding- Maybe a cold air intake and cat back at most. However, I will be doing a lot cosmetically to give it our own touch.

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/9-14-10_011.jpg

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/9-14-10_006.jpg

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/9-14-10_004.jpg

 

And after I tinted the windows....

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/9-20-10_005.jpg

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/9-20-10_006.jpg

 

More to come after this weekend.

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I love the car, but I hope you ditch those wheels.

 

 

I'm sure we will when the tires wear out, but until then, they will be getting some painting. The whole wheel is black, but the silver parts you see are inserts which screw in from the back of the wheel. Right now the plan is to pop those all off and paint them body color, or maybe just leave them off and go with the all black wheel look.

 

I'll be making my own fiberglass rear spoiler and maybe upper rear window spoiler. There are some available on Ebay for these things but they are stupid expensive, and I don't like the looks of most of the designs anyway. Other than that we'll be tinting the tails and doing some sort of treatment on the grilles. Oh, and we're gonna lose the kia badging too.

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I was never really big into the Kias either, but from what I've been reading, they are trying to clean up their image and make some very nice cars so they aren't just a "cheap car" automaker. They hired a guy from Audi in 06 and have been redesigning all their cars or coming up with new modelsto try and get themselves better.
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Been making some headway...

 

Got the fiberglass spoiler bases laid, and the general shape in foam, ready for the final fiberglassing:

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/9-25-10_013.jpg

 

Got the grilles modded and set up for some mesh. I made up 3 sets so I have the silver, black and body color, and will be able to switch back and forth.

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/9-25-10_007.jpg

 

Also got the wheel inserts basecoated body color, but may add some black towards the middle of them because it's almost too much blue:

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/9-25-10_014.jpg

 

More to come tomorrow, I'm sure.

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Got the fiberglass spoilers roughed in and off the car, and also got the paint work, and light tinting done. Still have to finish a little wiring for some lights tomorrow, put it back together, and clean it up, but until then....

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/9-26-10_010.jpg

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/9-26-10_001.jpg

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/9-26-10_003.jpg

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/9-26-10_006.jpg

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The spoilers will be needing some work yet, but I got them molded and off the car. Also got everything put back together and cleaned up. I do have some lighting on the way too which will need to be installed, but at least it looks a little different than the rest of the Koups out there now...

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/9-28-10_013.jpg

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/9-28-10_014.jpg

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/9-28-10_015.jpg

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/9-28-10_016.jpg

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/9-28-10_017.jpg

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/9-28-10_018.jpg

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/9-28-10_019.jpg

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/9-28-10_020.jpg

 

 

Damn, I just realized the tires are in serious need of some Tire Wet.

 

 

Anyway, so far it's coming out real nice, maybe even better than I expected. For a Kia, it's not looking half bad.

 

The only thing I'm not sure about is the mesh. I need to cut out the rest of the OEM honeycomb to make the mesh look better, but then I'm not sure if I want blue, black, or silver mesh. Good think I cut and painted a set of each so I can change them out from time to time.

Edited by Burton
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I saw one of these in traffic for the first time today. They look alot different to me in pics than it did in real life. I was very impressed with its lines and overall look in traffic. Great looking little car. Nice mods Mark, everything is well intergrated. Bravo!
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I'm not sure on the wheels yet though, have you tried just the black without the inserts?

 

 

The wheels look OK on the car just straight black. There are a few people in the Kia clubs that pop the inserts and just run them black. It looks OK, but Kate and I didn't really like the solid black wheel look, so it wasn't the best option for us. We thought about painting the whole rim blue then just do the inserts black, but then it would have been too much blue.

 

We're both really happy with the wheels, so they will stay like this until the tires are worn out, and then we'll get a set of 18" wheels, something with a nice lip.

 

 

Thanks for all the nice comments guys. I'm real happy with how it's turning out so far.

Edited by Burton
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Yeah, actually I see a lot of influences from many cars in it's class, but I also see a little of the German influence too- The designer of the Forte came from Audi on '06.

 

 

They may have copied a lot, but they took all the best stuff from the best cars, I think.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got the lighting on the front all handled, and now just have to finish out the spoilers, add some interior lighting and add a sub and amp.

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/100_0511.JPG

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/100_0520.JPG

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/100_0483.JPG

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Not much update wise... I still got a little more work to do to the spoilers, and we got some stereo stuff to put in it.

 

 

I did make up a set of blue headlight tint skins for it, so I could have pictures to sell them. I love the way it looks, but the wife does not, so this is only temporary. I may try it in smoke when I get some of that film in....

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/hl_off.JPG

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/all_angle.JPG

 

 

I plan on making some kits for the SQs also. I'm gonna try to get a GP going on those this weekend.

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Got the rear lip spoiler all glassed in and ready for finishing fillers and primer...

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/3-16-2011_020.jpg

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/3-16-2011_022.jpg

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/3-16-2011_024.jpg

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/3-16-2011_023.jpg

 

 

 

I also got some LED light strips installed inside a while ago, but forgot to put up pictures. Sorry for the dirty floors, it's a daily driver, and our "driveway" is made of gravel and grass...

 

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/3-16-2011_025.jpg

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/3-16-2011_026.jpg

Edited by Burton
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