Sorentosite.com Discussions

My 2005 4x4 Lx Sorento...





Just purchased a few weeks ago and the wife and I are really enjoying the new ride. I've been looking everywhere online for modded sorento's and thanks to this site and cardomain, I've found lots of great ideas. BUT, mods come at a price and times being the way they are, I'm going to have to take it slow and steady. Thats kinda going to be the theme for my garage, "affordable mods." So, if you have any penny pinching mods, please share!



First business of order; removing those pesky badges, cost: $0.00





Being my first debadging, I followed numerous recommendations, heated the emblems and used fishing line. They came off without a hitch but they left a ton of adhesive behind! Took a whole lot of elbow grease and Goo Gone, to the point that I was afraid I might hurt the finish but slowly they faded. There was still some outlines left behind from the emblems but after a good waxing, they're totally gone.


Next up; removed the cross members from the roof rack, cost: $0.00





I wasn't really planning on ever hauling anything up top and I've seen comments like "less drag" and "reduced highway noise." So with the price being right and a mere 10 minuets later... Voila!





I think these 2 mods help give my sorento a "cleaner" look and at NO cost!!! Little tip, you can remove the cross racks by yourself but its much easier with help. Secondly, 8lb test fishing line wasn't strong enough, it kept breaking on me, go with some 20lb or more. Make it easy on yourself and use a long enough piece so that your hands are away from the surface. As my string would break into smaller pieces my hands got closer and closer and my thumbnails left some hairline scratches that fortunely buffed out. Besides it's much easier to saw with a 2 foot piece than it is to with a 6 inch piece...duh!

Next up, gonna crack open the headlights. No, need to paint, mine are already black (sport version???) but I wanna remove the orange reflectors. Must say I'm a lil bit intimidated but the DIY guides here are awesome so thanks in advance for that!




...more to come, just "testing the water"  

My newest mods...




I got a 12"x15" sheet of "carbon fiber" vinyl decal. The nice thing about this stuff is that its heat wrapped, I simply cut a 5"x8" section out, peeled of the backing, placed it on and went at it with the wifes hair dryer, a plastic wedge and a credit card.





I wrapped mine while it was still in the car and then I removed it and used a razor blade to trim off the excess.




Its a really tight fit and it looks great... almost factory like? And best of all, keeping with my "affordable mods theme" ... $26.00 shipped


AND...





I removed the amber reflectors and used some leftover pieces to make some custom eyelids. So add four bucks for some silicone and my grand total comes to $30.00

...and because I just can't leave well enough alone, painted skid plates...

Blacked out tail lights (ala 07sorento, thanks for the tip). Not too terribly dark and I really didn't want them to be. Just wanted to darken them enough so they didnt clash so much with the paint scheme of my truck. So, only 1 medium coat of tint and 4 coats of clear and LOTS of sanding and they're still far from perfect Oh well, 1st try, I'm sure I'll redo them at a later date. I decided to mask off the reverse lights so hopefully that will help out in avoiding any unwanted attention, we'll see. Pretty much an all day, pain in the butt project, made more enjoyable with a few cool ones.





I also tinted my fog lights and they turned out really good and (since I dont use them) really dark. Was getting late so I'll try to post pics tomorrow.

As promised, blacked out fog lights...





They turned out awesome, smooth as glass. I wish I could figure out what I did wrong on the tails, not that they look too bad, just not nearly as smooth. I also scrapped the vinyl eyelids in favor of some super dark smoked ones. The grand total for tail lights, fog lights and eyelids...  bout $30 bucks. (tint spray, clear coat, sand paper and polishing compound.)

My Father's Day present, front windows tinted 20% to match the rears...



...$70 bucks + tax.

Very, very nice!