Printable Version of Topic

Posted by: wizewun May 24 2011, 02:23 AM

I bought my new Elantra on May 18th 2000 with 4 miles on the odometer. I needed something to commute in that got good millage and at the time Hyundai was the only company offering a 100K mile warranty. Well, 220K miles later, the Elantra had seen me through College and grad school. It has been through every kind of driving environment imaginable on countless road trips. It drove up Brian Head Peak in Southern Utah to well over 11,000’ and has been to Bad Water in Death Valley, and pretty much everywhere else in the western U.S.

At 220k miles the transmission finally took a nose dive and it seemed that it was time to move on. Or was it? Being the sentimental fool that I am, I decided that I’d bring it back to it’s former glory, with some updates as well. Below is a list of things that have been repaired, replaced, or upgraded. I’m pretty much done with the interior. On the exterior, in addition to what has been done already, I’m going to have the paint re-done with a fresh coat of Sandalwood and I’m going to upgrade the wheels. I like the stock look so the 2 replacement sets I’ve narrowed the selection down to both look stock but are larger wheels. One is the 15” alloy on the 01-05 Elantra, and the other is a 16” alloy by Eagle wheels that looks almost stock and would fit the Hyundai center cap.

Enjoy the photos.

Before

This was during a snow flurry in the Napa Valley (3/2006)



Interior

Stripped out interior and completely covered interior surfaces with Dynomat Extreme . This took well over 15 work hours and countless cuts and bruises. Always wear gloves























Steam cleaned the carpet while it was out



Replaced factory speakers with Pioneer TS-A6964R A-Series 6"x9" 3-Way (rear) and Pioneer TS-A1304C A-Series 5 1/4" Components (front). I’ll take more photos next time I have the door panels off. The Pioneer tweeters fit perfectly into the stock tweeter location.



Replaced previous head unit with a Pioneer AVIC-X920BT double din navigation unit.









Installed Kansas City Custom’s Leather Interior Package (replaces cloth seats and door inserts with leather) If anyone wants to buy the original cloth covers I have them in pretty good condition. E-mail me. Also replaced the worn window buttons and interior door handles with new ones.









Recarpeted the rear package tray. The old carpet had faded to a pale green



Put in new factory floor mats and installed Elantra scuff plates



Put in a new center console and console storage bin

Removed old tint and replaced with new 3M 50%

Exterior

Replaced worn headlight enclosures with new ones and installed factory Hyundai Avante fog lights in the factory locations. The American Elantra does not come with mounts behind the fog light covers so custom mounts were made. Lastly I installed matching PIAA 4100k bulbs in the headlights and the fog lights.





Replaced rusty windshield wiper arms with new ones

Installed Avante valve stem covers


Mechanical

Installed new struts, new engine mounts, had the transmission rebuilt at 220,000 miles. The original engine is still running strong.
As the Elantra looks now







Feel free to reply with any questions or comments.

Posted by: elantragt May 25 2011, 10:35 AM

Nice work man! I'm amazed how good those leather seats look.

I really appreciate and enjoyed the photo show. That's one of the best first posts in EC history.

Posted by: therockf150 May 25 2011, 10:52 AM

Absolutely superb work. I just did my whole car in Fatmat, so I know what kind of job that can be- you did a stellar install job there too! Beautiful car!

Posted by: popeye May 25 2011, 11:58 AM

Wow! Incredible... You're hired! I gotta hand it top you, a fantastic job and the concept of keeping the old gal on the road and in good trim is worth exploring for any owner. How does it smog these days?

Posted by: NevynPA May 25 2011, 12:05 PM

And I thought I loved MY car! You put all of us to shame.

In the long run, you STILL probably are saving money over replacing the car - I bet you didn't put 20 large into it yet, and it'll last you another 200k!

Thanks for all the photos - I feel like I could strip a J2 now myself!

Posted by: bhorste May 25 2011, 02:37 PM

Wow... that's a whole lot of work and love put into that little beast. Great job.

Posted by: silet May 25 2011, 03:03 PM

I always thought that the J2 was the best looking Elantra! I loved the 99 I had! The J2 is lighter and truely has 140 hp

You can always upgrade to the 01 to 06 Alloys, but you have the very light 14" stock alloys on yours. I had the same and added 205/60/14 Michelin Pilots and the car handled like a dream!!!

Welcome to the club!!!

Posted by: slowgls May 25 2011, 06:36 PM

Wow, guess i have some catching up to do. I love the door stills.I also want to get the fogs for my car. Very Very nice Silver J2.

Posted by: milehighhyundai May 25 2011, 10:04 PM

Most awesome. It's great to see someone take pride in their car after all of these years and miles.

Great job and welcome!!

Posted by: wizewun May 25 2011, 11:56 PM

WOW, thanks for all the great comments

Slowgls -- I got the Elantra scuff plates off Ebay, they were like $30 for a set of 4 and the fog lights assemblies were $60 each from a Korean parts site called www.fourgreen.com

Silet -- Thanks for the advice, I'll post more photos as more work is done

Popeye -- I ended up replacing the exhaust manifold and the cat 2 years ago. The cat was melted due to a misfiring spark plug that allowed excess fuel down into the exhaust. At the time there was already a small exhaust leak coming from the manifold and smog was coming up so I replaced them both. Needless to say after that it passed smog with flying colors.

Posted by: ronjr8102 May 26 2011, 12:56 AM

great job. If it aint broke dont replace it. With the sound proofing it must feel 10x more solid. The leather makes it look brand new. Nice job on the Avante upgrades. Some nice rims would set it off nice. The strut definetly make it better (did all 4 on my 93 Accord, feels new). Something everyone with an older car would love to do & u set the bar very high.

Posted by: popeye May 26 2011, 01:09 AM

QUOTE (wizewun @ May 25 2011, 09:56 PM)

WOW, thanks for all the great comments

Popeye -- I ended up replacing the exhaust manifold and the cat 2 years ago. The cat was melted due to a misfiring spark plug that allowed excess fuel down into the exhaust. At the time there was already a small exhaust leak coming from the manifold and smog was coming up so I replaced them both. Needless to say after that it passed smog with flying colors.

Posted by: elantraelite Jun 1 2011, 07:03 PM

Wow! that's an amazing looking J2! You've looked after it very well to be in such good condition after all those miles! The Dynamat would have been a tiring job, but well done!

Posted by: fastmanakos Jun 13 2011, 12:47 PM

amazing job dude.

Posted by: fastmanakos Jun 14 2011, 12:59 AM

how much did all these cost?the leather seets are amazing!

Posted by: wizewun Jun 14 2011, 12:04 PM

Thanks, costs were kept down by doing a lot of the labor myself and really searching online for the best deals. The leather kit is a $1500 option that someone ordered fron Kansas City Customs then never picked up. I got it for $100 + shipping and they were happy to free up space in their wherehouse.

Posted by: wizewun Jul 17 2013, 03:43 AM

After a couple years of looking for the right replacement wheels, I settled on refmanufactured 2009 Kia Spectra Sport package wheels. They're 16x6 with an offset of 43. One of the benefits of using a Kia product is that Hyundai used the same mold to make the Kia Spectra center caps as they did to make the Elantra caps. So, I bought a set of Elantra caps and they popped right into place. Also just passed 245,000 miles.

Posted by: 2000J25SP Jul 17 2013, 06:05 AM

That looks incredible for having 245k miles!! I like the wheels. Any more mods planned for it?

Posted by: a_v Jul 17 2013, 06:44 AM

Wow wow wow! Missed this thread first time around. I love what you've done with the car!

Posted by: wizewun Jul 19 2013, 12:22 AM

Thanks guys. For now this is pretty much it. I’m going to keep it status quo for awhile. Eventually I wouldn’t mind adding fully adjustable shocks, a body kit and having it re-sprayed. Maybe implant a 2.0T from a genesis…….

For now though, I like it the way it is.

At a quarter of a million miles I plan on having it professionally detailed.

Posted by: Alex2013GT Jul 19 2013, 12:00 PM

Apparently I missed the initial post too. Just absolutely amazing work there! Really appreciate you taking the time to post all the detail and pictures. Here's to her lasting many, many more miles for you!