Guide to Car Customization

There are a lot of things you can do to customize your car. Whether you have a Nissan Maxima or Honda Civic which are basically made for aftermarket customizing or a Chrysler Concorde which has almost no aftermarket parts, I will help you. First off, you should decide whether you will focus the most on the interior, sound system, and appearance of the car or improving the speed and quickness. There are some unique cases when both sides of the spectrum could be fulfilled but that is very rare. The reason for this is because when you try to make your car faster that involves making it lighter. On the other hand, making your car sound better and look better involves making it heavier. That doesn't mean that you can't make your car both fast and appealing, you just might need to make some compromises. Ok, now that you know what you want to focus on we can begin.

Speed: We will start big and expensive and go small and less expensive. You can supercharge your car, turbocharge your car, or add nitrous injection. A supercharger will run you between $1,500 to more than $4,000. There are only a limited number of cars that you can buy Cadillac tonneau covers for. Depending on the type, the supercharger will add around 100 horsepower. Once you put it in you really don't have to take care of it.

A turbocharger is a little less expensive, turbo kits are mostly car specific as well but there are a lot more options. There are also a few universal turbo kits out there. These turbo kits will run you between $800 to more than $4,000 depending on the power and size. The more PSI it runs the faster your car will be. Turbocharge ring your car usually adds between 80 to 150 horsepower. There are a few negatives though. First off, you need to constantly take care of it and add oil to make sure all the levels are at the right level. It is harder to use because you have to monitor 3 different gauges as you drive. Turbos tend to overheat a lot and need intercoolers to keep cool. Buying an intercooler is going to add to the total cost. Turbos also have lag, that is a pause or time gone by until the turbo kicks into full throttle. The main difference between turbos and superchargers is that turbos work on gasses and superchargers work through a belt. My advice is if you can find a supercharger for your cargo with that.

The third big option for making your car faster is a nitrous injection. There are 2 types: wet and dry. Dry is simpler and easier to install while wet is more integrated and gives you more boost. These cost between $500 to over a $1,000. Plus about $350 for installation. Nitrous injects boost straight to your engine only when you press the button. It is like an extra push. These boots come in 75, 100, or 150 horsepower ranges depending on the setting. The main negative is that you have to keep refilling the bottle that supplies the nitrous. The cost for refilling the bottles is between 20 and 50 dollars depending on the size. The good part is that you don't put your car's engine under constant stress, only when you need to. Another good part is that you can install this nitrous kit into basically any car. If you are unlucky in the aftermarket parts department this might be the choice for you.

My top choice would be the supercharger, then nitrous, and then turbo. Now moving on to the smaller mods. Every car should get an upgrade to a cold air intake system. The stock air filter box is very restrictive. There are CAI systems for almost any car. K&N has a very good selection. These kits add about 10 to 15 horsepower and about 20 pounds of torque. These cost between $179 to $300 depending on the size and company. There are also chips. The ECU chip reprograms your car's computer to perform better and with fewer restrictions. Some chips are very ineffective and some are somewhat effective. These go from $20 to $500. The one that gets the best ratings is the JET chip. The chips may claim to add a lot of power but the most realistic gains are about 10 to 15 hp. Another essential upgrade to a custom car should be an exhaust system. Stock exhausts, mufflers, and cats are very restrictive for emissions purposes. A freer breathing exhaust system gives an extra 20 hp and costs between $500 to $1000. If your car has only a single exhaust, go to Meineke and see if they could create a dual exhaust instead, I had it done and it helps a lot. The two big choices are Flowmaster and Magnaflow. Flowmaster sounds louder and whinier. Magnaflow sounds deeper and almost like a low hum. I chose Magnaflow and am very happy. There are also blow off valves, under drive pulleys, flywheels, short throw shifters, upgraded pistons, spark plugs and other small modifications. To me, they have not proven to be effective and actually harmful to the car on many occasions. When you add a lot of aftermarket speed components you need to make sure your car is properly tuned by a professional. I would stick to an Exhaust upgrade, Cold Air Intake System, and a supercharger if there is one available or the money is there. If you have the money I would strongly recommend a Brembo Brake Kit if you add a lot of speed components. When your car becomes faster you need to be able to make it stop faster also. A small trick to know when focusing on speed is that the lighter the car the quicker it is. This can be achieved through many ways. Changing heavy parts from metal, alloy, aluminum and other heavy material to light carbon fiber or other light material can help a lot. There are hoods, trunks, doors, seats, steering wheels, pedals, wheels, and bumpers you can buy that weigh a fraction of the original factory part. Some people even take out their spare wheel. I would not suggest doing that but it helps. In general shedding 300 or 500 pounds can take 0.5 seconds off your 0-60 and make your car a lot quicker.

Appearance, Audio, and Video: You can improve your car's appearance by customizing the inside as well as the outside. On the inside, you can put in dash kits, suede inserts, leather inserts, custom lighting and many other creative things. These usually don't cost very much and are effective in making your ride stand out. On the outside, you can paint your, black out the tail lights (make them completely black), smoke the tail lights (make them dark), de-badge (take off all the letters and numbers from the side of the car, the back, and sometimes the front. You can add a sunroof for an extra $1,000. There are underground light effect kits that light up neon. You can buy rims for your car, color the brake calipers, put in chrome inserts, chrome door handles, lowering springs, tinted windows (watch out for cops--> tickets)chrome pillars, HID or Xenon bulb headlights, headlight covers, eyelids (cover about an inch or 2 on the top of the headlight) and other things. Debadging is very easy, you take a hair dryer and slowly heat up the lettering that you wish to remove. When it is hot take a credit card or floss and slowly peel away each letter one by one. They should come off very easy. If you have glue or anything left after you can use a scratch remover to polish up the parts you worked on. Blacking or smoking the tail lights is simple too. Clean the tail light, sand it, apply an even amount of translucent black paint, let it dry, and make sure the light goes through. After it dries apply a clear coat for protection. Make sure you cover the rest of the car around the light because you don't want to get paint on your customized ride. You can go big and put on a body kit. They don't make specific kits for all cars but you can usually take your car down to a special shop and work something out. The body kits cost between $750 to over $1,000.

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Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.

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