Do you want to customize your car and give it a complete make-over, all by yourself? But if you are confused, and want to know how to do it, then this is where you’ll get help for your lovely ride.
You may own a vintage car like the 1964 Mercury Monterey or the 1968 Chevrolet RS/SS Camaro convertible or an ultra-modern Chrysler 300 S6, but do you associate yourself with your ride? Are you desperate to customize it? Then don’t wait to get nominated for ‘Overhaulin’! It’s time you show some passion for your car, and take a step towards its customization. For most of us, money can be the biggest factor. Start by allocating a certain budget for this purpose.
How to Go About It
If you want to make your car design reflect your personality, you need to almost rebuild the car. You need to learn how to customize or modify almost all the parts of your car, not only for looks but also for performance and handling. Right from the engine and car interiors, to the wheels, exhaust, and suspension can be customized. Let us start with some information along with some advice that you will need in building pimped out cars. We’ll start with what changes you can go for, where and how:
Engine: The engine is the heart of the car. Customizing the engine is putting your plans into the first gear.
- You can start by looking for a suitable turbo charger or what is simply known as a turbo. This increases the amount of oxygen being sucked by compressing the air entering the engine. First used on diesel engines of heavy vehicles, turbo is a forced induction system similar to an air pump. This process increases the engine’s power and efficiency immensely, and marginally decreases pollution. If coupled with an inter-cooler, the turbo would perform more efficiently.
- An advanced prototype of turbo is the supercharger, the only improvement being the removal of the time lag associated with simple turbo systems. Its immense popularity can be attributed to their cost efficiency, reliability, and performance. Superchargers can result in huge power increase ( by 50% and 100%), making them great for racing and customizing.
- Performance enhancing chips can reconfigure the car engine to optimum power and efficiency levels by controlling the fuel injection and transmission systems. This is done electronically by an electronic fuel injection (EFI) system. When it comes to the issue of performance and reliability, there’s no better system than the EFI.
- There are many more modifications that can be done to enhance the engine’s performance, like installing a nitrous oxide system (NOS) kit. This kit increases the engine’s bhp by about 40 to 50%. Other additions can be Air-filters and fuel pumps; they ensure free flow of pure air and gas respectively.
Car Interiors and Exteriors: For complete and impressive modification, you need to redo the looks to suit your personality.
- Start by customizing your car seat covers. An indigenous design to customize the seat covers is ideal as your own creativity can comprehend the entire car.
- Don’t forget the floor mats. Personalization is incomplete unless you customize the floor mats. Matching the tone of the floor mats to the color of the interiors of the car is important. Factors like weather should be considered while going for floor mats. Vinyl mats are ideal for areas with snowy and wet weather. Tufted nylon can be chosen for a more luxurious look and feel.
- Do not deprive your car of decalcomania, more commonly called decal. It is the cheapest of all the techniques, and it involves transferring art patterns, drawn on plastic or ceramic or paper, on to another surface. To modify the decals, you can start with the window glass or the hood or the trunk. You can make your own decals by selecting funky patterns like the logo of your favorite NBA or MLB team.
- Roll in style with customized wheels for your car and let the wheels do some talking too. To add a punch to the wheels, add rims of aluminum alloy or chrome. Most people go for a rim and tire combination of a larger size as it increases the rubber contact and the grip on the road.
The Exhaust System: The work of the exhaust system is to take away the spent gases from the engine. For proper functioning of the engine, a larger exhaust can be a logical option. Exhaust systems of sizes up to 2.5 or 3 inches will better the flow of gases. Most people try to retain the existing muffler which is not a good practice. If only the exhaust size increases, there will be an increase in engine power, but if combined with a larger streamlined muffler, will considerably increase power.
Suspensions and Brakes: Last but surely not the least, you can go for customized suspension to increase your comfort levels and give you improved handling of the car. Superior suspensions can provide you the edge in any kind of a terrain, especially for SUV modification. For low rider cars, hydraulic suspension systems are ideal as they give these cars the optimum ground clearance. Also, for such a high performance car, you must go for high performance disc brakes.
Never compromise on the quality of brake pads and the disc rotor. Go for a slightly bigger sized rotor, as in case of disc brakes, the bigger the better. Badges, logos, and graphic stickers are among the cheapest customization stuff available. They can prove to be your personal style statement. These points should surely guide you in the right direction. Hope you get a ride that turns heads as it burns the road.
