Hello, Just bought my first Prius ever in August 2013. I have been doing a few mods based on the threads on this site and thought I would post a thread of all the modification I plan on doing and have done. First off, I never thought I would get a Prius, only because as a student in high school, I was one of the kids that would make fun of people that drove in one. However, now that I am older, have a full time job, supporting myself, and commuting to work 5 days a week, I thought I would give the Prius a shot. My first impression of the Prius when I first test drove one, was that it's not as bad as I thought. I originally thought acceleration was super slow and I would have to floor it every time I started from a stop so I wouldnt get honked at, but that was wrong. As of right now, I do drive kind of slow just because I like to baby my new cars, but I have pressed on the gas pretty hard in some scenarios, and was pleasantly surprised. All the mods listed here were installed by myself (unless otherwise noted). I have little experience with car installation, but enjoy learning how to do it myself. I have done a couple of audio installs myself, but not many. Guides provided on this site have been really helpful, and I will provide a link to the sites that helped me with the install. Now here is a list of mods I am interested in or have done: Exterior: - Tint (20% rears 35% fronts) - Red LED Turn Signals - Tail Light Overlays (Smoke/blue) - Black Vinyl Roof - Prius PLUS Rims - HID (8000K) - Engine Bay Covers - Grill - JDM LED Side Mirrors - LED Arrow Turn Signals - Bumper Vinyl - Weathertech Windwo Deflectors Interior: - OGS - Move USB Port - Seat Covers - LED Interior Light Replacements - Upgrade Trunk Light - Husky Floor Liners - Leather Steering Wheel Cover Audio: - Alpine PDX V-9 - Speaker replacement - Fiberglass enclosure - Pioneer Shallow Mount Subwoofer Miscellaneous: - K&N Air Filter - Lowering Kit - Alarm Upgrade Here is my ride
Congratulations on your new Prius. Great justification for your choice. The older you get, the smarter you get. That's a super aggressive list of mods you've planned. Best to prioritize your list, don't over extend yourself or your budget. Good luck and enjoy.
Window TintThe brand of window tint I used was from eBay, The BlackBox Tint. I have used them before with good results. The seller is Filmvantage and they sell precut tint for the Prius. I had to email the seller on eBay because they did not have one listed for the 2013 Prius. Link to sellers eBay Store: The Black Box Tint, 3M items in Filmvantage store on eBay! Product Cost:Approx $90 for all windows except the very front windshield. I purchased the top of the line for the brand. (Alpine series) 20% rears 35% front Installation: Difficulty 5 (out of 10)Very time consuming. I took off the door panels because I felt like that would be easier and less prone to messing up. The back window is not as hard as other cars because it is pretty flat. I installed window tint on my 2012 Civic a few months ago and had to get the back window professionally done because I wasn't able to get the heat shrinking down and messed up. Tips:Videos from YouTube helped tremendously. Search "Window tinting tutorials" and start watching. Videos by "TintStuff" was pretty interesting and very helpful. Here is the picture of the window tint:
Thanks, I knew with any car that I decided to get that there will definitely be a list of modification. However, I had no idea that Prius' had this much... Blew my mind when I found all the mods and accessories for the Prius.
Tail Light OverlaysI bought the tail light overlays from eBay, no preference to brand. I just searched Tail Light vinyl and chose a seller with good ratings. I do suggest that you pick a brand that has a width of at least 16 inches and height of 24 inches. Most of the sellers sell the vinyls with a width of 12 inches, which is not big enough for our tail lights. I purchased the black smoke vinyl from Metrorestyling and the ice blue from ez2buyonlinestore Link to Metrorestlying and ez2buyonlinestore on eBay:Avery Supreme Matte Wrap Vinyl, 3M 1080 Gloss Wrap Vinyl items in MetroRestyling store on eBay! Yellow Diamond Headlight Tint, Red Diamond Headlight Tint items in Ez2BuyOnlineStore store on eBay! Product Cost:Approx $20 for the black smoke vinylApprox $8 for ice blue vinyl Installation: Difficulty 6 (out of 10)Very time consuming and to me, it was harder than the tint because of the curve of the tail light. To cut the vinyl I used an Xacto knife. Tips:No real tips, just trial and error, thats why the black smoke vinyl I purchased was 5 ft so I could keep trying. I still haven't done it as nice as I want it, but at least its getting better. Here are the pics of before and after, I also included a pic of how the lights look in direct sunlight.
Rooftop Vinyl I bought the rooftop vinyl from eBay. The brand I got was 3M 1080 Black Gloss. The size I got was 5ft x 6ft, this gave me extra in case I wanted to vinyl other things. The ebay seller is autovinylsolutions. Link to autovinylsolutions on eBay:3M 1080 scotchprint vinyl, Avery Dennison items in autovinylsolutions store on eBay! Product Cost:Approx $70 (again, this was a bigger piece than necessary) Installation: Difficulty 4 (out of 10)Pretty easy install, just have to be patient when applying the vinyl. I did the dry method and just took my time. The black strips on top just come right off, just pry on one side of the strip to the other. The antenna was a little pain, I followed the steps of instruction for a 2nd gen prius. It was pretty much the same for my 2013 Prius. The fluid sprayer for the back window wasnt too hard either. I just pryed the panels off my trunk, using plastic trim tools, to gain access to it. Tips:With vinyl, make sure when you heat it, you let it cool for a little, then squeegee. If you heat, then squeegee, there is a chance you can damage the vinyl. Also, wrapping your squeegee in a piece of cloth would help, or purchasing a squeegee with a felt tip. This is so the squeegee does not scratch your vinyl. (I did both these mistakes with my install )Here is the link to the instructions for the antenna base removal. Instructions to replace antenna and base | PriusChat Here are pictures of the vinyl rooftop.
JDM LED Side MirrorsI purchased these MITAccessories1 on eBay. I purchased them painted in Taiwan even though some other people on here said the color is a little off. They were right, the color is a little off, but not by much, and not that noticeable unless you stare and compare it with the rest of the car. Link to MITAccessories1 on eBay:LED Lights DRL, CAMRY items in MIT Accessories store on eBay! Product Cost:- Approx $160 including shipping, and painted Installation: Difficulty 8 (out of 10) This install was very time consuming and you have to take a good amount of your car apart. The thread started by CivicSky and all the other people who contributed made the install easy to follow. I read through pretty much all 950 post and made my contribution on post #968. Everything works perfectly Tips:Should wire the white lights of the side mirrors to turn on when your headlights are on because if you hook them up to your DRLs, they are hardly noticeable when you are driving during the day.Here is the link to the thread for the installation. DIY JDM style side mirrors combo lights (Signal+Parking+Courtesy lights) | PriusChat Here is the picture of the side mirrors:
Bumper Vinyl Another vinyl application. I got this idea after seeing a picture of a Prius G. Thought it looked pretty cool. The Prius G one looks a lot nice, but I think I like it. I purchased the glossy metallic vinyl because the black portion of the bumper is metallic. I purchased 2ft x 5ft roll. The ebay seller is autovinylsolutions. Link to autovinylsolutions on eBay:3M 1080 scotchprint vinyl, Avery Dennison items in autovinylsolutions store on eBay! Product Cost: - Approx $30 including shipping Installation: Difficulty 5 (out of 10) Just very time consuming. No real instructions besides taking your time to lay the vinyl. Tips: Using Knifeless Tape was a life saver, I liked not having to cut directly on the car. You can get it on Amazon or eBay.
