[GK27V6]

A Brief Glimpse of my Life with my 2003 Tiburon GT
​

Quik Intro

Hello all,

My name is Gabe, and at the time of writing this I am nineteen years-old and a student taking industrial design at Humber College in Toronto. I was born in Austria and have lived in Canada since I was five years old. First off, I know that this profile will be overwhelmed with text and my life story, but I am sure you’ll find my story interesting if you take the time to read it. For those of you that don’t care about my life (screw you guys! lol j/k) here’s a garage link full of sexy goodness.


In the Beginning..

Let’s start with the beginning. All my life I was into cars. I would know more about cars than anyone I knew at any given age, and was proud of that. When I turned eleven years old, my dad bought me what be my first issue of a car magazine for my birthday, known as Sports Car International (sadly this mag no longer is being published). I remember reading through the articles, and was especially interested in an article concerning the Porsche 911 versus the Dodge Viper. I was a die-hard Porsche fan at eleven years of age haha. But there was another article in the July 2002 issue of SCI. It was an article introducing the GK Tiburon (I’ll put in a pic as soon as I find the mag.. lol)

When I saw that car I immediately noticed how amazing it looks, and would not have guessed it was a Hyundai. I read the entire article and I was just in love. Everything that was written about it was phenomenal to me. The parts I did not like reading were that it was FWD, and the cost. I noticed how much it costs for the V6 (30K CDN) and thought that I will probably never be able to afford this car.. haha

The couple things I was concerned about did not keep me from dreaming about it though. When I was around thirteen years old and really got into modded cars (thanks to NSFU and Gran Turismo series lol), I really wanted a heavily modded Tiburon. Being the crazy kid in love with body kits, huge wings and carbon fibre, of course I desperately wanted a Tiburon with the SC-2 kit, a tall GT carbon fibre wing, and all the goodies under the hood lol. From this point on I was deeply in love with the Tiburon.

The Influence of NT-phetamine

I joined NT when I was around fifteen. This community steered me away from the ricer mentality (thanks guys!). I learned so much from this site. It’s crazy how much I’ve learned! One of the things I’ll never forget is how at that age I knew how all forms of forced induction worked. That year when I was in tenth grade I wrote a full essay on superchargers versus turbochargers. I must have wrote the most technical essay ever written in my high school. This community has made me love the car so much more as I have never come across such an awesome forum community before.

At this point you may be thinking that’s great that I love this community, but how could I possibly love a FWD Hyundai so much? Well, it’s because I think the GK has an incredible “soul.” This is hard to explain. The guys at Top Gear know what I’m talking about, they call it the “X-Factor”. That’s what I’m talking about, and I think the Tiburon has a lot of that. This is especially true when you consider Top Gear’s comparison of the Tiburon to the Lexus SC430. As mentioned on Top Gear, the Tiburon successfully has the necessary sports car qualities. The Tiburon is a sort of an “underdog” to me (when you consider the reputation Hyundai had when the GK Tiburon was introduced), and I can personally relate to that. I knew that Hyundai no longer made crappy cars, and since then I knew for a fact that I wanted the Tiburon as my first car (I don’t like calling it my first car though, I feel as though that assumes I will one day get rid of it- I never will).


Later Years

As I got a little older I was still in love with the Tiburon, but just no longer as crazily as I’ve started to develop interests in other things. At the age of sixteen or seventeen, it has already been several years that I’ve been fantasizing about this car and realized that it’s going to take a long long time until I would get it. I thought of this as I was looking into costs of post-secondary education and I noticed that the cost of the Tiburon would is comparable to school... I started working and saving money up for school since my fifteenth birthday, just in case my parents wouldn’t be able to afford to pay for my education as soon as college time would come around (turns out at this time during the recession hit them hard, so luckily planned ahead). Not only did I work hard to save money, I worked hard in school too. Actually, I did so well in high school that I actually ended up paying nothing for school thanks to my scholarships

 

[GK27V6]

Gone off to College

It was November 2009, I was sitting in psychology class, and didn’t have anything to do during the fifteen-minute break. I noticed a classmate not too far on Auto Trader, and thought, hmm.. let’s check out some Tiburons. So I did, and I saw the general price range of them, and then took a look at my bank account.. I then thought, it’s time At the time, I thought it would be best for me to wait until school would be over for the year (May 2010) to buy it as at that point I didn’t really need it. This is especially true considering Toronto is just an hour away from my hometown, and I was living in residence. I thought if I were to wait until spring to buy it, then I can easily afford it as I’d likely have a job right after the school year.

Screw that.

I could not help myself. I just felt this need to have it at this time. I felt that it was necessary. I just needed to do one thing: fully learn the manual transmission. Since I was sixteen I was driving my parents’ Kia Rio sometimes, and it was an automatic. I really dislike automatics. IMO they take all the fun out of driving. In fact, as I was looking into Tiburons to buy, I came across some insanely great deals and then found that they were automatic: sorry, no clutch, no sale! haha. Anyway, let me explain how I learned the manual. At this time looking into Tiburons, I reintroduced myself to NT as I barely posted for the couple years I’ve been on it for, and at that time a member by the name of Mike (screen name Lessaj) noticed I went to the same school as he did. Not only that, his car was identical to the one I was looking into buying. To top it off, as we got talking, he offered me to drive it! I was so excited! He taught me how to properly drive the manual after a few attempts.


It Finally Happened!

Yes! It finally happened! In December 2009 I bought my Tiburon! At the time I felt that I could easily afford it for those next four months or so until I would get a job after the semester would be over. I decided to cheap out (something I normally did not do) and bought a 2003 GT V6 5-speed for $4400 at 193000KM. You get what you pay for. It had rust on the quarter panel, rust on both doors, paint scrapes and scratches on front and rear bumper, and fogged up headlights:

These are just cosmetic issues, no big deal right?

Wrong.

Let me explain the day I bought my Tiburon: It was Thursday December 23rd, and it was probably the coldest day of the winter (talking Canadian winter here). The guy I was buying it from was a one and a half hour drive away, and he had to work at 9am that day, so I showed up at 8am with my dad. I have to add that initially I would have bought it a week or two before the date mentioned, but some stupid unexpected delays came up hence why I was so eager to see it at this point. Anyway, it was seriously cold, it must’ve been -30 degrees celsius. So when I got there we talked about the car and what he has fixed and what needs to be fixed and whatnot, and then it was test-drive time! He handed me the key, and immediately I noticed that the key was really worn out and bent. Whatever, I figured if I were to buy this car I’d just take it to Hyundai first thing, and get a new set of keys since he didn’t have a spare anyway. So I got in, the key worked just fine and started up! I was amazed that the battery was strong enough to hold up in that cold. So I started driving down the road, made a right turn, and then decided to turn around through another driveway. So I turned in, and as I put it into reverse it stalled. This was for two reasons: one, I’m a newb at manual at this point; and two, the battery died. It would not start. So I pushed the car over to the side of the road and started walking back.. that gabe the owner and my dad a good scare lol.. So we got the ole’ booster cables out and it started up just fine. I thought, okay, it’s really cold, so this is probably normal, and the owner knocked $100 off the price and suggested I get a new battery soon. Okay, that’s no big deal, some keys and the battery, they worked then so I thought I had time to fix both of those issues. I paid for it and then we went to the ministry of transportation office to pay the taxes and get some licence plates! Then back to the car, I got in, and started driving it home

Now several hours have passed, and my dad and I got hungry, so we stopped at a fast food joint off the highway back. After our meal I got back in my car and had to jiggle the key a little to get it to turn in the ignition slot over to “start”. Then, the next hour of driving was just too awesome to describe with words. There’s no feeling like owning a car for the first time. What a joyful experience (minus the stalling and iffy starts/shifts haha) to get it home. I parked in the driveway, and went inside for a minute for something but just had to go back to it and drive it again. So I get in, and again I had to jiggle the key a little..

but,

The key just would not turn. It was impossible. No matter what I or anyone else tried. Nothing. Did not even make it to “acc”. I called Hyundai (figuring they’d be the only place to fix such a problem involving programming keys) and they said they can’t do anything until Monday because it’s the holidays. That sudden change, from being so happy and excited to downright disappointed and miserable was so immense that I literally felt sick. I just laid down on the couch or bed for the rest of the day not doing anything, not feeling well at all.. It was awful. I had to wait four days with my poor car just sitting there in the driveway until I got to call a tow truck service to bring it to the dealer. Wasn’t all bad news that day though: With all the rust on the body I decided to ask the tow truck guy what the car looks like underneath, like if there’s any rust on the chassis as he was lifting it up, and he said no this car looks like it’s two years old- turns out there’s a good undercoating. This made me feel a bit better. So I dropped it off and I get a call saying that I need a new battery as apparently it couldn’t hold a charge past two hours. I figured whatever, let’s get that done too. So some days later I come to pick it up and it cost a grand total of $900 (parts/labour/taxes) for a new ignition cylinder, a pair of keys, and battery. Ugh, a lot of money, but I figured that would be all that I had to worry about for the next several months. And it pretty much was up until february when it was time for a new timing belt and new parking brake lines, but that’s another story.


The Verdict?

At this point, it almost sounds as though I have regretted my decision. The truth is, I haven’t. I still haven’t. Yes, I had to go through all that pain and spend all that money to get to where it is now, but it was worth it. I have learned soo much about cars in the past year of owning it. Now I know what to look into when buying a car. Now I know what is likely to go wrong, how to diagnose a problem, where to get the right parts from for the right price, and how to fix it myself (or who to bring it to if necessary). With all this money spent, I could have bought a Tiburon in pristine condition, but have left it stock, and not have learned very much about cars. So the quarter panels came rusted, oh well, at least that inspired me to put on those sexy flares And so the doors were rusted, but this was practically inevitable for the Tiburon considering it’s design at that age- not to mention this way I got new window motors and fixed a lock problem with my passenger side, and stumbled across the deal of the century that is $300 for a pair of FL doors with everything attached to them. Looks like a brand new car (heck even as soon as I bought the car people were asking if it was brand new, I guess they didn’t notice the rear quarter panel area), and that cost me around 10K Including the cost of the car and taxes/shipping/labour etc. Not bad in my opinion. In the end, I have the car I’ve wanted for a long time, looking the way I want it to, and it drives great, for all not that bad amount of money spent on it.

I <3 my GK​

 

[GK27V6]

This Thread is Worthless Without Pics!

11/2009 Shot from previous owner for ad:

01/2010 I developed “mod bug” in my system very early. In fact I ordered Tuscani badges a week before I even bought the car Not only that, my dad also gave me $1000 to put towards mods the reason for this is that as soon as anyone in my family turns eighteen they would receive that amount of money. The only trouble with me was that, as mentioned earlier, the recession hit my parents and so they could not afford to get me anything for my birthday (which is in July). So one day in January 2010 my dad told me that he made some money and said he has $1000 for me to spend on my car haha. With that, I got the following (keeping in mind that includes taxes and shipping):

So some of the mods above were not necessary per se, but some things I felt I just needed to brighten it up a little (the shorty antenna and aluminum interior rings make an incredible difference IMO). From this point on though, I would fix anything that was broken (usually fixed with aftermarket parts haha)

02/2010 I painted the engine plastics (currently re-doing them), and my car was missing a fog light ring so I thought a pair of $12 chromies was not a bad idea for a temporary fix:

04/2010 Now here’s one of my favourite all-time mods, the one and only FL bumper!

 

[GK27V6]

05/2010 I made some custom eyelines since I had my car’s paint lying around:

06/2010 The custom eyelines actually did not look the way I wanted them to as all I did was paint and cut vinyl, so I bought a pair of RoadRuns and painted them myself (RR on passenger, custom on driver):

07/2010 Then some weeks later one of them broke and flew off! This is what happened: When I applied that one to the headlight, the one side was not on very securely but the rest of it was stuck on so good that I thought it wouldn’t matter. And it didn’t, but it just so happens that the week this happened I was thinking I should probably take the time to fix it. The only problem with that was I was really busy then. I spent a good twenty minutes trying to find the half on the side of the road but the fields were so high on both sides that I had no chance. No matter though, I recreated the other half with Bondo

This was the condition of my Tiburon by the end of the summer (keep in mind that I bought it this way)

09/2010 Finally brought it to the shop!!
Of course no body work is complete without a set of 18” Tenzo DC-6’s ! (thanks to 03RllyRdTuscani):

 

[GK27V6]

Featured!

UPDATE: my car featured on ImportShark.com for the M&S Flares!

 

[GK27V6]

Man Versus Machine

So, what happened after I posted my profile? A lot. A lot of bad things. Some good things. Here goes:

First off, due to some unexpected financial troubles I had to sell my Tenzo's :/ Not a big deal, as they're in good hands, i.e. Lessaj, yet another rally red Tiburon owner These wheels have now gone through three RR Tib owners haha. Anyway, after I sold them in the month of December 2010, I thought I'd wait until the school year is over to get a job and get another set again (if not buy them back lol). Well, I would've, if it wasn't for my throw-out (release) bearing separating on me the next month.

At the end of January, I happened to have had some free time one weekend (very rare for me), so I thought I'd hang out with my friends all the way up in Ottawa/Quebec, which is about a 5-7hr drive from here. So everything's going fairly well that weekend, minus a $50 parking ticket, and then come sunday it's time to go home. So my friends and I pack up our stuff, throw it in the Tib, and thought we'd tour the city one last time then head home. I was driving across a metal bridge heading into Quebec, and it sounded pretty good driving on it, so I thought I'd drop a gear or two and rev it up a bit Pretty awesome, except when that shift into third separated my bearing... I couldn't believe it. I pulled over as soon as I got off the bridge. This was very stressful. I had to get back home as I had school the next morning, and didn't want to miss that because of my car. When I figured out my TOB fell apart, I got my friends to push the car, then I hopped in and started it again and drove around the block until I found a parking lot to get out and think about what to do. I posted on NT hoping someone could hold onto my car, while I would take the bus back to Toronto and go to school and figure out what to do in the meantime. Well no one was close by enough, but Lukeman saw my thread. He told me I can still drive it home by bump-starting it. I was so stressed though that I really did not feel like doing that. Instead, I had a local shop tow it to their shop, and leave it there for a couple days. I took the Greyhound bus back to Toronto that night.

A couple days later, on wednesday night, I took the bus back to Ottawa, and stayed overnight, as I didn't have school on the Thursday. At this point my thoughts were a little more clear and figured I could drive it over to Lukeman's place to get some surgery done on it. I knew roughly how long it would take me to get to his place in London, which is about a 7-8hr drive away from where I was, and at what times and where on the highway 401 would be traffic jams. I planned it out perfectly so that I wouldn't have to shift very much, or come to a stop, considering I didn't have a clutch to work with. Anyway, in the morning of Thursday I took a cab to the shop, paid the towing fee, and bump-started it. Man, what a feeling. I couldn't believe it. It worked much better than I expected. For those unfamiliar, bump-starting involves the following process: At a stop, have the car turned off, select first gear, and turn the key and use the starter motor to launch the car forward. Boy, did it launch! From what Lukeman told me, I figured it would struggle to start moving but that starter motor had no problem at all launching the 3000lb shark at a reasonable rate. So after a couple bump-starts and clutchless shifts in the city, I got on the highway soon after and made my way to London. I was pretty good with my timing: I made it to London in 6 hours - I didn't have to slow down once. In fact, I stopped by an auto wrecker's in hope to pick up a transmission on the way, lol. Well, they quoted me $300 for automatic, or $1000 for my 5-speed :/ I fail to understand why it was that way.. but anyway I just left and kept driving, and searched for a new trans later. On a good note: my then 215000KM V6 Tib got 600km out of one tank of gas

So, when I arrived at his place, he started taking it apart and so began the surgery:

Miracle Tib

That's what we call my Tib (Lukeman and Lessaj), because it's pretty damn a miracle that my car has been working and hasn't fallen apart over the time I've had it. Yeah, so strangely enough my car had a Fidanza flywheel in it with an OEM clutch. I learned to drive stick on a car with a lightweight flywheel and unsprung clutch. I feel accomplished about that lol.. We also found that one of my struts were held in with one bolt that magically welded itself to the car..

Hunting for Parts

So besides some small things such as motor mounts and strut bolts, I need a new:
Transmission
Clutch
Flywheel friction plate
Throw-out Bearing

Remember, I'm in school (and very very busy at that!) with little money, so I needed to find a good deal on items, but at the same time wanted to upgrade so that I could future-proof my car. At first, things were going well: Lukeman found a transmission for $300 with only 80000KM on it! Man, what a steal! It was clean and had the sensors and everything, and bought it in a heartbeat. Until we discovered it was a 6-speed (lousy wreckers told us it was a 5) :/ Thankfully, there was a 3-month warranty on it! For a week, I was thinking of finding another 5-speed or possibly even converting to a 6-speed. I knew that 6-speeds aren't the greatest, but the problem was we couldn't find another trans for any less than $600, so it might've costed less to find all the parts to convert to 6. Thankfully, Lessaj talked me out of it, and we found that it would cost about another $300 totalling 600 to convert. Lukeman managed to find a 5-speed for $500, with 145000KM :/ We couldn't find a better deal, and the mileage isn't the worst, but not great. So I returned the 6-speed and picked up the 5. I also ordered a SPEC Stage 2 clutch, and Fidanza replacement friction plate, and OEM TOB. Grand total: just over $1000 for one transmission, a clutch, a plate, and a bearing. Add in the motor mount and axle seals and so on and we're looking at 1300 or so. Which isn't all bad.

Still Not Fun

It was a major pain in the *** to pick up all those parts! Aside from the transmission mix-up, I also had to deal with other things: I ordered the replacement friction plate off a non-sponsor site for $70, which is an alright deal. Two weeks after I ordered it, I was wondering when it would arrive, and got a call from them that I need to pay them an additional $20 to process the order. I was furious! I had no car for weeks, and I was just waiting on parts to get it put back together. But no, not only have they not even sent the plate, they want me to pay even more, afterI paid in full including shipping! I wanted to strangle them. I e-mailed them and called them and opened a PayPal dispute, and after a week or two of expressing my rage to them I got my refund! I asked Kevin from KJB and he got me a friction plate along with the clutch. I didn't know he sold those plates hence why I first bought it off another site. Some two weeks after that (so 6 weeks without my car) I got my parts. I made it over to Lukeman's as soon as I could after that.

The Resurrection

Well, after I gathered all the parts, Lukeman, Lessaj, Detroit.Tibby and I got together and set the day to put it back together. What a crazy day. As we were going along, we found that we had only 7 of the 8 flywheel bolts :/ Luckily, we got a hold of Lessaj before he left to come over from Toronto, and the local dealership in his area happened to have had some He saved the day there lol. So, we're continuing on and we got as far as getting the engine and transmission back in:

^lulz, that's Lukeman with my engine overtop of him lmao. I forget now why he did that, but as we were lowering the engine, we found sometime had to be adjusted or installed quickly first.

 

[GK27V6]

Success! ..but...

Well, get this: We ordered axle seals from the dealer (as you can only get them there). Lukeman did the ordering, he gave them my VIN number and everything, and get this: they gave us the seals for the 2.0L. We were working on the car on a Sunday. Perfect. We couldn't continue. Lessaj drove me back home that night and waited for the next day for Lukeman to yell at the dealer. Thankfully, that was successful. Even though the axle seals are a part that you cannot return, they seriously screwed up so they did take them back and gave us the right ones. While I was in school that week, Lukeman put the new seals in, along with the rest of the drivetrain and everything else, and drove it to me that following thursday Of course, that day there happened to have been the worst Canadian winter storm I have seen for a very long time. Took him forever to bring the car to me, and longer still for me to drive him back home. What a night.

But anyway, I was just so very happy to have her back. And really cannot thank Lukeman and Lessaj along with Detroit.Tibby enough for helping me out. I really do appreciate it very much.

This is how she looks after a trek to Quebec, and a resurrection:

That was Then, This is Now

So, I sold my Tenzo's long ago to be able to fix that transmission. Long story short, the 'new' transmission got damaged during the install and was permanently leaking fluid. So this school year, I took my car off the road, and spent the whole year with Lessaj fixing it. We got ourselves another transmission, and had it rebuilt.

During this process, I as well worked on my crazy interior projects. I already had the custom centre fascia started, and finished my custom mission plate to hold in the multigauges.
I as well replaced the suspension, changed the rear brakes, painted the callipers as well as a lot of other parts and fixed whatever little rust I could find here or there. I also painted my stock wheels gunmetal, painted my entire interior satin black, and got myself a new head unit! Oh, and one more thing, I got spacers for my birthday!! lol. Pics will do the talking here:

 

[GK27V6]

SLAMMED!!

Thanks to an awesome local member here, jeff7670, I got myself a full set of Eibach Sportline springs and KYB struts! A definite improvement over stock!!

WOO WHEEL UPDATE!

So, one day Cosmis Racing wheels posted on Facebook that they're offering a special rate on someone to buy a full set of their S5R wheels in gunmetal. Turns out I have been dreaming of those exact wheels since I heard of them last fall. I asked for their special pricing and it was certainly unbeatable! hese wheels weigh the same as stock, are forged aluminum and are 9 inches wide Only trouble is it wasn't worth shipping these to Canada, so I sent Will51 a message, since Syracuse isn't all too far from here. At the same time, I had another set of modifications sent to him for me to pick up there (stay tuned for that one!). Anyway, I picked up the wheels and had my current 215 tires stretched onto them. There was some rub up front going over bumps, so I had camber bolts installed all around. Didn't help much. so I inspected the fenders and noticed where it was rubbing and modified accordingly. No more rub, and am totally loving the current setup!

This was the bolt I had to modify. Simply drilled beside it, put in a new one with a smaller washer and cut off what was remaining on the bracket.

Not bad for quarter of a million kilometres Speaking of which, I intend on hitting 1,000,000 with this car. I'm serious.

I want to give a special thanks to:

Will51 for picking up my wheels and parts
Lessaj for being a good friend
bobthewarrior for recommending an awesome tire shop
Speedy for informing me of his wheel setup


CLOSE CALL

Yeah, so in August 2013, I was on my way to see a girl an hour away. As I was driving along I noticed my car was vibrating a little more than normal. So I stopped in a parking lot and inspected everything on my car. Seemed fine, so I thought maybe I somehow got one of my wheels unbalanced. No big deal.

Wrong. It was not an unbalanced tire. 20 minutes later of driving suddenly the vibration got way worse! And made a loud noise along with that. And at that moment I realized exactly what happened. I then pulled over, and got out to find this:




Yep, that's right, two of my studs snapped off, and had only two nuts holding in my wheel! so, I sat there for 5 minutes in the rain being disappointed, and thinking about the great impression I'll be making for this girl showing up late because of this. Anyway, got the trusty jack out, and retightened the three nuts on the three remaining studs as hard as I could. I figured it would suffice for the evening. Thankfully, my evening was not ruined. I still took her out to dinner with 3 nuts on my wheel lol. Then, I had to make the hour drive back. Every 15 minutes I would stop, and check the tightness of the nuts. they were fine, but I was in a bad mood because of that situation. Alas, the next morning took my car to my favourite local shop and had 5 brand new studs put in. This was shortly followed by new tie rods, tire rotation and alignment. All was well then.

In short, torque your wheel nuts properly.

 

[GK27V6]

I HEARD YOU GUYS LIKE UPGRADES

Oh boy, what an eventful last few months (and next few months to come hehe).

First things first, and that's safety first! In August 2013, I was driving home from work and during a rather sudden braking on the highway due to upcoming traffic suddenly slowing down I noticed my car was not braking well, and was pulling hard to left doing so. I soon enough found out that 3 out of 4 of my calipers were seized. So it was time to fix that, with brand new dual-pistion XG350 front brakes and the best 12" rotors you can get from RockAuto. And of course, I painted them rally red (yes, actual rally red) because I just had to, end of story. lol. Shoutout goes to Lessaj for a smooth install. Fun fact: in order to clear the brakes with my wheel setup, I had to put on 5mm spacers, replacing my previous 3mm's. Which means I had to grind down my fenders and fender liners to stop rub. That 2mm sure made a big difference. Stay tuned for next year when I put on wider tires lol, serious fender modification will follow.

Next: I had an exhaust leak. This is the second time I have experienced an exhaust leak during the ownership of my car. It kinda sucks. I kinda lucked out this time as actually the majority of the time it did not sound bad, only had some of that fuzzy whistling at 1500RPM which I am rarely at. As opposed to my first exhaust leak three years ago, that one was LOUD. Needless to say, I was getting fed up with, and thankfully the member here klutch225 (excellent seller btw) posted up his SFR headers for sale. I snatched them up right away!

This exhaust situation sure got interesting very quick:

Like mentioned, I previously had an exhaust leak years ago. At that time, being nineteen and desperate I snatched up the first flex pipe I found. This pipe had its flange cut off, whatever. I had a family friend who welded it in for me, and did a really nice job. The point is the flange also had to be cut off my original mid-pipe t make this work. Now, after picking up these headers I was not much in a position to acquire my dream exhaust, the Borla, so I figured hey why not just pick up another stock mid pipe for cheap, and mate the SFR headers to that. I mean, that will fix the leak, and I can pick up the Borla in a couple months. So I did exactly that, and then Lessaj and I started the install. Oh man, what a day... er night, and then morning. Took us 21 hours total, here's why: first, here in the Canadaland everything gets rusty and corroded faster than charlesp2's Tib races M3s (if you do not get that reference then you missed out, sorry). So, we spent 5 hours alone on a single bolt holding in the AC compressor. What a headache. Anyway, by the time it got to like 2am we figured out I was accidentally sold an I4 mid-pipe, which if you don't know, is identical to the V6 in every single way except for that flange being a different angle (thank you Hyundai for making sense!). That got me in a bad mood. I didn't know what to do. So I posted a local thread looking for any replacement to my exhaust! Can be found here. If you checked out that link, you will see that @BramptonTib responded. And sure enough, he saved the day! or morning, I guess. He just so happened to have taken off his DC exhaust not long ago and so he sold it to me. So we ran and grabbed that, and tossed it right on the car! So what can I say.. some serious ups and downs, but in the end I got a virtually brand new full stainless exhaust system. A phenomenal improvement over a leaking stock one! (though that should not be surprising lol).

So, that worked out. For the most part. I have a lean code at the moment so I will have to double check the tightness of all the fasteners, as it is probably leaking. On a side note, I do intend to still trade my DC exhaust for the Borla. It is more reflective of my taste in sound. Make no mistake, I am not complaining about my current setup, but with my car I intend to go after only the parts I have ever dreamed about in my life. Ironically I did not dream about SFR headers but that was because brand new they were considerably more expensive than the competition for what its worth, so they were rather unobtainable for me, but, here we are, and I absolutely love them. Wouldn't trade them for any other set.

I'm a visual person, so my upgrades are worthless without pics:





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I also realized I haven't put up any nicer photos lately, so here's a great shot taken by @skyliner of my interior:

[URL=http://s248.photobucket.com/user/GK27V6/media/1044035_501797036560908_1090266857_n_zps0b59c3ae.jpg.html]


OH, AND ONE MORE THING

Check out the progress on my self-designed and (soon) self-fabricated 3D printed lip kit:
http://www.newtiburon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=244666&highlight=3d+printed




Current Mod list

[EXTERIOR]
Self-designed, 3D-printed, fabricated, painted and mounted lip kit (front, sides and rear pods) and partial fender flares integration
Modified M&S Carart fender flares all around
3D-printed center caps
"OEM-style" carbon fiber hood
Aerocatch flush-mount locking hood latch set
FL1 front bumper cover
FL1 headlights
FL1/2 side mirrors
Painted front air dam and rear diffusor gloss black
RoadRuns eyelids
Painted calipers Rally Red
Red-out taillights
Painted gas cap in gunmetal
Ark short antenna
Tuscani badges
4300K low-beam HIDs
4300K fog light HIDs

[INTERIOR]
Self-made fascia wrapped in 3M brushed aluminum vinyl
Window switches and miscellaneous parts wrapped in 3M brushed aluminum vinyl or smoked vinyl
Self-made mission plate
Self-designed, 3D-printed and painted key ring
Modified KDM multiguage unit
KDM passenger cupholder
KDM full metal pedal set
Metallix Racing interior accent vent ring set
Billet aluminum shift boot ring
Billet aluminum gauge rings
Billet aluminum heating control knobs
Bros Metallic gauge faces for main gauges and multigauges
Exos billet aluminum handbrake accessories
Exos wiper and light lever controls
Exos multigauge rings
FL1 grab handles
FL1 black-brown leather, red-stitched seats and door panel inserts
FL1 red-stitched steering wheel
RedlineGoods black leather, red-stitched arm rest cover
RedlineGoods perforated black leather, red-stitched handbrake boot
RedlineGoods perforated black leather, red-stitched shift boot
RedlineGoods black leather, red-stitched gauge hood
FL2 red-stitched floor mats
FL2 Clarion DFZ675MC double DIN head unit
FL2 clock/hazards unit
Ark sport shift knob

[SUSPENSION/WHEELS/BRAKES]
Year-round:
Progress 22mm rear sway bar
RRM front strut bar
DC Sports rear strut bar
Front sway bar poly bushings
1.75 degree camber bolts all around
5mm spacers all around
Hyundai XG350 dual piston calipers with 12" Raybestos solid premium rotors
StopTech stainless less braided brake hoses front + rear
Moog rear end links
ARK ST-P coilover suspension
Cosmis Racing S5R 9" wheels +22 offset, wrapped in Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires 225/45/17
H&R Trak+ 15mm spacers up front and Sumo Racing 25mm adapter spacers on rear end


[ENGINE/TRANSMISSION]
Fujita cold air intake
Seoulfulracing System Upgrade Type "C" headers
Seoulfulracing System Upgrade racing catalytic converter
DC Sports cat-back exhaust
Nick Boers lightweight underdrive crank pulley
Koyo Racing radiator
Clutchmasters Stage 2 clutch
Fidanza 9.5LB Flywheel
KJB Delrin shifter bushings and aluminum base bushings
Stainless clutch line

[OTHER UPGRADES]
Odyssey PC680 lightweight battery
Mishimoto slim fan
A/C-delete
ABS-delete
PS-delete
slave cylinder delay removal
Poly front motor mount
FL2 ambient temperature sensor
Rear spoiler removal

PROGRESS PHOTOS ON PAGE 4!

Thanks for reading

 

[GTL07]

Wow what a story....Nice tibby..GOOD LUCK.

 

[brooni23]

those fender flares make it look like an rx8 in some of those pics, nice story and thread +1

 

[anthonyisd3ad]

i havent been on this sight in quite some time and so far every car I have seen since I typed in the words "newtiburon.com" in the address bar and looked around for about a half hour have been completely riced out. After reading your story and looking at your car you have made me a happy camper. I love how you turned a tiburon that was rotting away into a masterpiece! keep up the good work my friend

 

[TibbyMatt]

wow goodstory, read the whole thing. You really made it nice, great work

 

[HardcoreBacon]

actually took the time for once to read a long story and enjoyed it love the tib and good luck in the future

 

[Sebascaris]

Nice car man!

 

[Lessaj]

I read the whole thing.

+1 for mentioning me haha.
-1 for having a car with more work done to it than mine despite having it for less time.

 

[Desert_Sage]

wow you really transformed your tiburon.. keep up the good work! spacers are on top of the mods list besides whatever else that needs to be repaired

 

[03RllyRdTuscani]

Great job with the tib so far. When you add the spacers and coilovers you might beat me out for my favorite red tib. Im glad my old rims went to another great looking rally red tib. Thanks for the shout out.:3_bier:

 

[Sparks Fails]

You definitely need spacers. Its sunk, brah.

 

[GK27V6]

those fender flares make it look like an rx8 in some of those pics, nice story and thread +1

Well that's rather insulting.. but ok lol I'm glad you enjoyed it

i havent been on this sight in quite some time and so far every car I have seen since I typed in the words "newtiburon.com" in the address bar and looked around for about a half hour have been completely riced out. After reading your story and looking at your car you have made me a happy camper. I love how you turned a tiburon that was rotting away into a masterpiece! keep up the good work my friend

Awesome. I'm really happy to read that. Hopefully I continue to impress you in the future haha

Great job with the tib so far. When you add the spacers and coilovers you might beat me out for my favorite red tib. Im glad my old rims went to another great looking rally red tib. Thanks for the shout out.:3_bier:

Haha really? well that's awesome. I'm planning on getting coilovers sometime this coming summer, as my current rear suspension is a mess.. and thanks again for the wheels! They are awesome, I love them, and so does everyone else.. funny story though, the more I see your car now, the more i want gold rims.. haha.