Being around the forums for a while can really help out when you want to mod. You've made friends that give you good deals, you know your local parts places and get deals there....and you know enough to try and look around for parts in other places.

I current DD a 97 Buick Regal, it'* my 6th in under two years. Each time I buy one..soon enough someone wants to buy it and I sell. Currently I'm looking for a 2000+ with folding rear seats, heated seats, sunroof and probably an NA motor. Body should be in decent condition. Everything mechanical I can fix and probably have spares sitting in my garage already. Yes, I do have a motor and 3 transmissions....lol

Sooo I had found this exact car last week on Craigslist for $600/bo. Called and tried to see it the same night. Soonest the guy could do was two day (Saturday). I made the appointment. A half hour before I was going to aim back from the JY to make the appointment, he called and mentioned a son'* friend bought it. Oh well. I have some grand plans though...

One of the plans is upgrading the brakes. A common swap on the W bodies for brakes is F body brakes from a 98-02ish Firebird with V8. Dual piston, bigger rotors and all you need to do is tap the brackets to accept the correct pin used on the Regal.

ZZP wants $250 for the calipers alone, probably new. I can get the calipers new locally for about the same, because brackets are $30 each. Savings would be the costly charges. I hopped on Car-Part and found the same calipers in Florida/Texas for $10 each. Called, asked for the brackets with them and was quoted a price of $60 shipped for the calipers and brackets. Either way I'd need rotors and pads, but those are additional costs on any of the setups. The first part of this project, I saved $190.

Keep in mind that there are alternatives available to spending a lot from a performance shop. Sometimes the parts aren't very special or tough to come by if you research the parts and learn where to find them for the best cost.

Junkyards have lots of great parts, Rockauto has reasonable shipping and tough to beat prices, local parts stores have no shipping costs and can order nearly any part, ebay is another great place to find cheap parts. Then theres your fellow club members.

That is a very good point to make! I'm actually happy you brought this up. I mean it may not be saving the most money but seeing as i know nothing about cars... for the most part i am not mechanically inclined and have trouble working on my own car.... I have a friend whos parents own a performance shop . He gives me pretty good deals on things does alot of free maintanance once in a while and will sometimes let me use the shop after hours if i need to do something special (ie underbodies going on soon). However you mentioned a break upgrade. If my breaks were bad and i needed them would it be a good idea to go to a better break for my car?

Sure..it would be great. Unfortuantely to my knowledge no one has found an upgrade to the 87-99 Bonneville setups without swapping struts etc.

Ahh yeah that would get costly... Ive just noticed my breaks go pretty quickly... i think i replaced the breaks just over a year ago and there needing it again (granted i drive a little hevier on it too). Also i hate getting new ones cause well everyone that drives a Bonnie knows that it means new break dust can build up on my new black rims :(