• The site migration is complete! Hopefully everything transferred properly from the multiple decades old software we were using before. If you notice any issues please let me know, thanks! Also, I'm still working on things like chatbox, etc so hopefully those will be working in the next week or two.

Help with exterior of 2005 GT

P

pmsmith2032

New member
I have a 2005 GT that is one of our family, commuter cars (around 125k miles). I want to clean it up and maybe do a few mods. I don't want to spend a ton of money. Here is a list of things I tentatively plan on doing:

Exterior

1. Wash it, clar bar it and wax it. Any suggestions on wax (I've used Turtle Wax Ice in the past but it's been over a year). How about polishing it in between? I've always waxed by hand and do not have a polisher.

2. Sand and refinish headlight. Maybe paint the back of them black (I thought there was a "how to" on here somewhere but I can't seem to locate it). I don't like the factory bulbs but don't want to spend a fortune on upgrades (and don't want very short bulb life). Any suggestions?

3. Back tail lights seem to be in pretty good condition but I'm open to suggestions. Also, the finish on the light above the back license plate is hazy....and suggestions? Do I just wax? Can I sand it and refinish with Spar Urethane (like headlights)?

4. Sand back tail pipes (not sure if I need new mufflers or not so this may have some bearing).

5. Paint front grill chrome

6. Wheels have some "marks - pitting" on them (see picture). Any suggestions on how/if these can be cleaned up? Also, does anyone worry about the inside rim (part behind spokes of wheel - mine are very dirty and pitted)? I scrubbed with tire cleaner but they didn't come very clean. Any suggestions on how to clean up and then protect wheel wells?

7. Decals for front and back bumper "Pontiac" (thinking silver or white?)

8. Maybe paint brake calipers (not sure on color).

9. Clean engine compartment.

ops2ut.jpg


10d9sox.jpg


s4t8hx.jpg


6zvdea.jpg


350lxjb.jpg


Any and all other suggestions/tips are greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
 


I refinished my headlights twice and it never completely restored them. Just but new headlights from rockauto they are $50 a piece which is pretty cheap.If your happy with your tails leave them, altho leds are nice too. Reverse bar I refinished too and helped a bit.
Your rims need refinishing. Yours arent too bad so you could plastidip them.
You could paint your grille but it would look way better if you bought one. If you want refinished rims it will run you a few hundred bucks.
For the decals I would go with silver or black reflective. I have the same colour car as you and I have reflective black and love it. For the rear bumper get the dome style decal, its a couple more bucks but mines the regular decal and its peeling.
Calipers I did in black, didnt want anything too flashy.
I got the street scene upper and lower grille from partsforyoucar.com for around $100 and love it. looks great and helps protect the lower part of the rad from bugs and crap
 
I would recommend meguiar's ultimate line up of ultimate compund, ultimate polish and ultimate wax. It's available at your local store and it's great combination. You can also polish and wax the wheels with it. You would need to have the wheel refinished if you want to fix them. You could try to use a compound on the rear reverse light panel to see if it can bring some life back into it. If not it would need to be sanded. I would leave the grille as is or paint it gloss black. Or even find some SPO's.
 


Thanks. Any products that I can use to restore the dark black color of the gasket around the sun roof?

What are my choices of upgrading headlights and tail lights? Both are factory right now? Is there a list of possible mods for both and benefits/disadvantages of each?
 
Stick with factory headlights unless you plan on doing retrofits. I have halo headlights and they suck. LED taillights are good. I have a set and like them a lot. You can tint you factory tails with VHT night shades, there are write-ups on here on how to do this.

Here are a couple shots of my tails and head lights....


 


I would agree with the comments on replacing your headlights. My GP's headlights were not in great shape when I bought it last year. Mostly just the tops of the headlights. A couple of weeks ago I spend a few hours wetsanding and polishing them. They weren't perfect, but much improved. I put a polymer sealant on them (not nec designed for headlights, but I thought it would help anyway). Not 2 weeks later they looked almost as bad as before. I think replacing them and taking care of them is the best route. I have been going back and forth between paying extra for OEM or not. In my experience OEM headlights hold up better / longer, but the top of the GP headlights get bad so quick I am not sure if that is really the case or if I should save the $$$ and replace them more often.
 
Thanks. Has anyone seen/tried painting the back of the headlight black? I thought I saw another post about this, but I can't seem to locate it.
 
If you mean the chrome reflector yes I've done it and others have done it as well. You can't paint them though unless you retrofit some projectors into them. Running standard halogens or hids the chrome is what reflects the light.
 
pmsmith2032 said:
Thanks. Any products that I can use to restore the dark black color of the gasket around the sun roof?
Click to expand...

Give meguiar's ultimate black a shot on the exterior trim. You can pick it up at your local auto parts store. You also want to make sure the trim is clean so it adhere's to the trim and not run. Also apply it thin.

pmsmith2032 said:
Thanks average joe! How much did your lights cost and where did you order them from?
Click to expand...

You can get them on ebay or amazon. Do a search for grand prix LED. The red one's look the best in my opinion.


pmsmith2032 said:
Thanks. Has anyone seen/tried painting the back of the headlight black? I thought I saw another post about this, but I can't seem to locate it.
Click to expand...

REDCOMPG said:
If you mean the chrome reflector yes I've done it and others have done it as well. You can't paint them though unless you retrofit some projectors into them. Running standard halogens or hids the chrome is what reflects the light.
Click to expand...

As redcompg stated they are only painted when doing a retro with projectors. You don't want to paint them with halogens unless you don't want to see at night. Stick with factory lights unless you plan to retro projectors. With stock lights look into HIR headlights. They are still halogen type bulbs but with better light output.
 


Yesterday I was able to wash,clay bar, polish and wax the car (used Meguiar Ultimate). I also cleaned the engine (first time it's ever been done).

2z68rp2.jpg


20l1qpd.jpg


124y69i.jpg


2liegxi.jpg


6dze2r.jpg


30w8pwk.jpg


358t0jo.jpg


idcapx.jpg


idcapx.jpg


15559hj.jpg


29lbwir.jpg


I still need to refinish the headlights and polish the tail pipes. I also need to order decals. I also need to paint the calipers and buy new grills. Any other exterior mods? I do have a couple of follow up questions:

1. Is there any advantage to leaving the plastic engine cover off? Is there any advantage to removing the insulation on the underside of the hood?

2. Can someone explain to me what halogens, LEDs, HIDs and projectors are? What are advantages and disadvantages of each?

Thanks in advance!
 
Looks great cleaned up. Good to see you got good results with meg's ultimate wax.

To answer your questions.
1. You can leave the engine cover off. It's primarily for looks. You can also remove the insulation if you want. It's there for noise absorption and in case of a fire. I didn't notice any difference in noise after I got my aftermarket hood.

2. Halogens is what is stock on the car so you know what kind of light output you are getting.

Projectors are what you see on modern cars today. The focus the beam and project it farther down the road. They typically use high intensity discharge bulbs aka HIDs which are brighter. The aftermarket assemblies that was posted on here and that you see on ebay are halogen projectors. HIDs can be placed into them but the light output on these is not as good as the stock lights with halogens. The other option is to retrofit a projector into the stock headlamp assmeblies to give you the benefits of a proper projector set up. There are plenty of write ups hroughout the forum on how to do it. HIDs can be placed in stock assemblies but the light scatters and it will blind oncoming traffic.

LEDs are typically used for your sidemarker lights or even tailights. Although there is a set of aftermarket LED tailights that you see in the pics posted above. They are typically brighter than stock tails with halogens. There are LEDs that can be used in the stock tails. Diode dynamics is a vendor here and has more information on that.

One option that 04+ grand prix's have is that they can utilize an HIR bulb. This will give you good output and sticking with stock assemblies. This link will provide good info HIR Headlights 9011 9012 bulbs
 
I would get the windows tinted as one of the first mods. A pro tint job will really set your car off right.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top