The link that lougreen posted is great!

Also Grounded, you're correct about IL's tint laws: Welcome to TintLaws.com

 

Even the 35% will help a ton though. My monte was pretty boring, but then came along the tint. "BAM"

 

i have a shade under limo tint! its perfecttt i wouldnt go any darker. it just makes the car look soo much nicer. ive had it on for like 2-3 years and never had a problem with cops or anything. costed around $125 at the time but now since its summer prices are going up because of the heat!

 

Cheap but looks great:
SLP Grill ($80-$140)
Painting Calipers ($5)
Tint ($100-$200)
Pin Striping ($20)
Racing Stripes ($50-$200)
Racing Spoiler ($100-$150)
LED Taillights ($100)
Cowl Hood ($300-$500)

Cheap Performance Upgrades:
Air Intake ($100-$200)
Resonator & U-Bend delete ($200-$300)
New Exhaust ($500-$100) maybe end of summer for this one

These are just estimates. Check eBay which is where you can find great deals. SLP Grills show up often but I don't think there are any up at the moment. Hope this helps just a little.

 

Painting Calipers should be much more than $5 if you want to do it right and have it last

A cowl hood, though you can purchase at $500, still requires a lot of prep work from a professional body shop AND painted. Can easily become a $2000 project.

K&N intakes are terrible on these cars. I would look for a Wizaired kit from ZZPerformance.

What do you want out of the car? You are 16, so this is fun. But seriously think about what you want out of the car.

Do you want power? Do you want performance? Do you strictly want looks?

Looks, tint it, SLP grille is good, black headlights, LED tails, new rims, possible getting a different spoiler.

If you want power, save up for a Top-Swap or a turbo.

Performance, there are plenty of little things you can do. Get a proper cold air intake (not K&N like I said earlier), a front powerlog, a ZZP downpipe, a cat-back exhaust always looks and sounds good (not much for performance though), a canned tune from ZZP will change the way the car drives after those mods. And you should be happy.

 

I'm with Chibi.

I've done a bunch of stuff recently to my Monte. It's added some nice power to it and pretty much that's the end of my major tinkering to the car. But, it all costs money and time. I need to update some of my pics, but this link lists 90% of what's been done to my car thus far:
2004 Chevy Monte Carlo SS

A downpipe and high flow cat would be a great starter. Perhaps then a Power Log and a resenator delete. Even though I have not added a CAI to my car a Wizaird might also be a great add-on to go with those two small exhaust mods. After that, you're going to start looking at items requiring more work time and tuning.

Do youself a favor, research WHAT you want to have in the end and then formulate a way to aquire the parts and go from there. Such as, if you want to go with a top swap or a turbo, then the size of downpipe you get will be important

 

Hey there,

I'm with you - I'm all about cheap mods. Here are a couple ideas...

1. Paint the center of the Chevy bowtie emblem on the trunklid. I'm assuming it's outlined in red, correct? You could use a dark blue with a metal flake, or just plain gloss blue. Of course, it would also look good in a matching red. It's up to you. It's subtle, but distinctive. You can use spray paint or modeler's paint applied with brush. You could also use a paint pen.

2. A bit more expensive, but you could paint the rocker panels a contrasting color. Dark gray, charcoal, or a dark metallic color would look good. If you are an experienced painter, you might be able to do this with a spray can. If you have a friend in the auto body business, he could possibly get you a good deal to have it done professionally. Be careful, though - working with a pro can get expensive fast.

If you do it yourself, be sure to mask off the ENTIRE car if you use spray paint. Trust me, it's well worth the extra time. I did this when I painted my grille and trunklid emblems, and I'm glad I did, because the overspray on the masking paper was all over the place!

Best of luck!

 

to 'chibiblacksheep' (BTW.. where does your post name come from??)... will a 'front powerlog' be appropriate add/available for my 3400 SFI LS? From what I skimmed over, it's a better/lighter front exhaust pipe?

 

Well I decided that I'm going to straight pipe my exhaust tomorrow. I am also planning on painting my calipers and tinting my tail lights. Thanks for all of your suggestions. I am also hoping to get a supercharger sometime in the near future. Please keep giving me new suggestions. I am very open minded about this.

 

pics of the calipers please!! and can you post a video wth the straight pipes? im considering doing it myself if it sounds good. are you doing a res delete ?