[Xryder]

Hello Everyone,

I owe this thread and the effort gone into it all to my buddy Naveen Raju.
He has been nagging me like a wife for the last 1 year to do this segment and I kept postponing it over and over again. I have completed quite a few mods and am in the process of chalking out many more. Finally the time has come to keep my word to do justice to this topic and so here goes.

MODS: This is a part by part depiction from the day of purchase till today detailing all the modifications done so far. Hence started this thread in this category.


The Preface :

The world looks so different once you step into it with your first job.

Fresh out of college and almost a year into my first job, I decided to buy my first car. I always loved one car from the day I first let my eyes gaze upon it.

The Suzuki Swift.
A great looking hatch and a sporty look that lurks within yearning to be unleashed. I had for long yearned to own one for sure, in this life or the next !

I had already decided on the color and the budget, but the question was would I be able to get one that satisfied both parameters.

The color I wanted was blue and with my budget, of course the obvious option was to go for a second hand, but then finding one in the color was a big ? .

Only time would tell.

And so began the journey to find "The-One" .

[naveen.raju]

Thanks for that dude. Now waiting for the pics. Upload them.!

[Xryder]

My search started in Chennai where I was posted for 1 year. The color+price factor did not seem to work out. It was during this time that I had asked for a relocation to Bangalore as I had wanted to be part of a new and interesting project.

I had spent most of 2008 in Chennai and finally reached Bangalore in the wake of 2009. My hunt for "The-One" started again almost immediately after relocation. After going round and round in Chennai, thanks to a bunch of unreliable dealers, I decided to focus all my energy on the seller directly and to avoid any kind of interaction with dealers.

January 09, flew by and February almost done. It was in the last week of February 2009 that fate had brought us together. Had seen an AD in the Team-BHP Classifieds (a big thank you to TBHP) and immediately contacted the owner. Decided to meet with the owner and the subject in question the very next day.

The little blue boy that he was, standing sturdy and stubborn, reluctant to get out of my head from the moment I laid my eyes on him.

Model : Suzuki Swift
Variant : Zxi - ABS
Color : Blue
Year : 2006
KM : 18,000

He was in stock condition without even a HU as the previous owner wanted to retain the HU . So to speak, I got a Zxi in stock condition. I had decided to go in for this purchase as what I wanted was a squeaky clean car (overlooking the minor scratches) and a good engine in stock condition. All other add-ons that did/did not come with the car, was not important for me.

Finally, the purchase was completed and the documents transferred within a week. The little blue boy was my brother, my buddy for life on February 20th 2009.

I christened him "|\/|@ver!c|<" (Maverick). He had a decent set of tyres (stock - JK) and the stock alloys which was as good as new with no cracks nor any scratches. No mod jobs done, no major accidents save the few scratches which is a given considering the Bangalore traffic and driving conditions.

Decided to give each other a small time frame to get used to one another, what I called the Honeymoon period.

The most memorable part was the first official drive with "my" |\/|@ver!c|<. It is a day that I will never forget for it is something just not possible to describe in words. Exhilarating and Overjoyed maybe, nah but that does not do justice and it shall be better if I let that sentiment be. I am sure you all know what it is.

So, having done the introductions, let me show you how |\/|@ver!c|< looked the day he came to me.

[naveen.raju]

Interesting write up dude. Now write about the mods and let the pics do the talking. Waiting for all the stages.

Cheers

[rg_chn]

Xryder, Maverick looks neat, congrats.

Nice write up, but, can you please finish it soon, we'd like to see the mods done

[Xryder]

I found it quite hot to drive around in Bangalore and elsewhere without proper tints. Even after parking in partially covered places also, the heat inside was quite like sitting inside a steam-room.

So by mid 2009, after much researching both online and offline, I had decided to settle for LLUMAR for the tints and Sony Xplod for my choice of HU.

Went to meet a friend (Akash) who also happens to be running a popular accessories pit-stop (Final Touch - Mission Road) in Bangalore. After going through his LLUMAR catalogue, decided on Charcoal Black ATR Series - CH 50/CH05.CH50 for the sides and CH05 for rear and front.

CH05 has 52% VLT and has little or no drop in visibility. At the same time, during the night, it reduces the glare from the ill-mannered few driving with high-beams on through out. Moreover, the CH05 along with the CH50 on the sides blends in perfectly to give me adequate privacy while maintaining the visibility required as per the Law.

Now the next agenda on hand was to get a good HU as part of the I.C.E setup. I wanted a HU which would play CD/DVD/VCD/MP3/AUX and play movies(DVD) as well.So after looking around through all the various options available in the shop(Pioneer,Sony,JVC), decided to buy a Sony Xplod HU as intended, went in for a model with CD/DVD/VCD/MP3/AUX capability as wanted. Along with it, I installed a roof-mounted LCD screen (Sound Barrier) so that my fellow passengers could watch the videos/movies. This was basically meant as entertainment for my family during the long inter-state drives. I decided against amps/woofers for the time being. Apart from this, I discarded the old set of speakers(JBL) as it was having some internal component problem and bought a set of JBL oval speakers.

Having done that, attaching a few pictures of the ICE and the Tints.

[naveen.raju]

Nice intro to the addons. Now for the main part, the exterior of the car. Waiting for some HQ pics.

[Xryder]

End of May 2010 saw me clock 32,000KM's on the odo. My boy was begging for a new set of rubbers and he certainly deserved it.The stock JK's had pretty much worn out.

I had started my search on TBHP for the best set of rubbers and the right size to upgrade to. Finally decided it would be either Yokohoma-S Drives or the Maxxis Aramis in the size 205/55/R15.

Having decided to change the tyres, I had already decided on the kind of alloys w.r.t the design. Now finding them in a decent brand and price range was the next task. Had enquired with quite a few people and could not locate anything close to it. So called up my friend Akash and had asked him to source me the same design from a decent brand like Lenso,Konig or AVA.

A few days later, I get a call from Akash saying he has something for me. I go over to his place and he takes me to his storage warehouse. VIOLA !
Exactly what I had in mind from KONIG. He had sourced out the alloys in the exact design I had in mind. Purchased the tyres Maxis Aramis - MA-Z1 Victra - 205/55/R15.

So by October 2010, my boy was running with a brand new set of shiny 15inchers and fresh smelling rubbers.

It was during this time that I had tried to reuse a custom bodykit made for another swift. It did not work out well as the ground clearance was very low for the front. Whats worse was that I had been at the end of a hit-and-run. A biker on a bullet with a crash guard which was rather too big for a crash guard had tried to squeeze in between me and a rick that was waiting at a signal. Even after seeing the gap was too small and narrow, this chap decides to go through thereby making a dent+scratches all over my left side starting from the rear-wheel arch all the way till the front. He also scrapes and scratches the rick on his left. He pulls through the gap thereby pulling out the left side of the front bumper and then takes off in a jiffy jumping the signal as he had damaged both my mav and the rick. In the shock of the moment, I failed to note down the bike's plates.

Anyhow, damage done is done. After 2 days, I went over to Sai Colorium, Bangalore. I knew the owner, Mr.Anant, through a mutual friend. Plus I had seen a lot of good reviews for Sai Colorium on TBHP. I wanted the damage repaired through insurance as there were multiple dents and scratches on 4 different panels. While at the place, I noticed that there were a couple of cars with custom body kits without the mods painted. Enquired with Anant and found out that they do custom body mods/restorations etc. He introduced me to R.K.Ramesh, who is also a Bhpian. RKR, is freelancing as an automotive designer for Sai Colorium and in charge of the mods division there.

I had spoken to him about giving a new look for my mav. I had initially decided to purchase the Hikari kit and get it painted at Sai Colorium along with the damage repairs. Then changed minds after seeing quite a few swift's on the road running with the same hikari kit. Spoke with RKR and showed him a few designs of what I had in mind.RKR worked on blending the designs I had showed him and i loved the outcome. Dropped the car off with Sai Colorium in the 2nd week of december 2010. By now, it was decided that they would build the custom body mods.

Along with the body work, I was considering on installing a set of Hella lamps for highway usage. But the addition of something like that in the front was quite disturbing as I wanted the final outcome to be one as a whole. Fixing Hella's was dropped. RKR had a better suggestion. He suggested a more powerful set of fog lamps to replace the stock lamps. T700 lamp units with powerful 80W90 bulbs were sourced. The work went all the way till end of 2010.

31st December,2010 - RKR gives me a call to come over as he wanted to discuss some critical issues. I reach his office and lo behold - |\/|@ver!c|< was not the little blue boy anymore. He is now a grown up.

I dont know what it was that I was feeling, but it sure felt good alright. The feeling was something that I felt on the day I saw my Mav for the first time.

Let me show you why -

[naveen.raju]

Awesome pics there dude.Nice mods, kept within the range and nothing overdone. Any performance mods under the hood? What's planned next?

[Champion]

Dear Xryder, your love of |\/|@ver!c|<is so unambigous with your write-up. The passion of owning a beauty (na not owning one, its earning one) is so much stronger with the growing day that it becomes an obsession. As much as I would like to know "what's next", I certainly prefer to wait and read what you have gone through all along to get at this.

Cheers
Champion

[vraghuz]

Xryder,

Do you by any chance have your office in Sigma Tech Park ??

[Xryder]

Originally Posted by naveen.raju

Awesome pics there dude.Nice mods, kept within the range and nothing overdone. Any performance mods under the hood? What's planned next?

Performance mods in the pipeline. Nothing under the hood as of now. Budget constraints have forced me to put it on hold. Considering FFE+Headers, a CAI and an upgraded clutch. Need to do a little more digging here in TBHP while the fund grows.

Originally Posted by Champion

Dear Xryder, your love of |\/|@ver!c|<is so unambigous with your write-up. The passion of owning a beauty (na not owning one, its earning one) is so much stronger with the growing day that it becomes an obsession. As much as I would like to know "what's next", I certainly prefer to wait and read what you have gone through all along to get at this.

Cheers
Champion

Unambigous. I knew somebody would point it out, but yes you are right. My write-up does not do justice. I will try to improve it in the subsequent write-ups. For now I hope the pictures would do justice more than the words. I spent a lot of time clicking over a 100 of them and filtered these few out finally.The whole ordeal of getting to this stage was quite testing and tiresome. Come to think of it now, perhaps it would have been better had I started this thread sometime back so I could have updated it as each new addition was done with a little more detail and some more personal insights.
Better late than never.

Originally Posted by vraghuz

Xryder,

Do you by any chance have your office in Sigma Tech Park ??

I used to come there to visit a friend who used to work there. I had come over to meet him on the 1st day.

[thedreamcatcher]

Its about time you came up with this review. Had seen the pics with the other white modded Swift from Kerala and they looked stunning together. Love the wheels and the tyres

Keep it coming. And the blue is cool

[Xryder]

Originally Posted by thedreamcatcher

Its about time you came up with this review. Had seen the pics with the other white modded Swift from Kerala and they looked stunning together. Love the wheels and the tyres

Keep it coming. And the blue is cool

Thanks buddy. Had been postponing this thread for a long time. Finally got around to it. Actually, I had wanted only this blue and nothing else. Just love the color.

[cityvic]

Woah it looks fabulous.

Get the Headlights and Tailights smoked or changed into angel eyes and LED lights.