Unless you go full bespoke, pretty much any modern car you might purchase is not going to be remotely unique, and there will be plenty of other people driving the same machine that you have, right down to the trim level and options. (Now hold on Corvette Guys, I know you have the only C3 convertible to ever be manufactured on a Tuesday with a white top and silver – not chrome – snaps or whatever, but you know what I mean). With few exceptions, no production car is going to really be just for you, an expression of your unique style and sensibility (easy there, Paint To Sample Porsche owners, it’s OK, I see you). And so, many of us personalize our rides.
Sometimes the personalization is stealthy – perhaps a suspension and tire setup dialed in to suit your refined sense of handling – and other times, mods are made that really scream to the world, “This is MEEEE!”
And why is this on my mind? I give you Aja Cassidy and her stained glass sunroofs, which I think are pretty clever and fun. I’m sure that’s some sort of peel-and-stick situation up there, not lead and glass, but it certainly is a very personal touch. No one who climbs into Aja’s Honda will mistake it for Bethany’s, or whoever’s.
In my much younger days, when I was on my second Dodge Omni (a red example just like the one below, which may have actually been a Plymouth Horizon, but it doesn’t matter), I decided the dowdy little hatch needed something to make it my Omni, a little extra kick that would say, “Hey, who’s that cool guy?” I’d noticed that a lot of new cars had their B-pillars and window trim blacked out, which made for a sleeker, longer, more-together look – as opposed to the old-fashioned chrome and color of my machine. Did I not spy a can of black enamel in the basement, left over from Dad’s refinish-the-wrought-iron-fireplace-screen project? I did. I brushed that stuff on in the driveway after carefully not preparing or even cleaning the doors at all, scraped the excess off the windows with a razor blade, and presto: the car was transformed, as you see recreated below. I shall hold for your applause.
Perhaps the king of personalization accessories was JC Whitney through the 70s and 80s, where one could procure via mail such wonders as WINKY The White Cat. WINKY (yes, all caps, you have to yell it) would have been more aptly named Blinky (no yelling) as she(?) would blink in unison with your turn signals adorably (UPDATE: horrifically). Now, if that’s not a unique touch for your vehicle, I don’t know what is.
How have you personalized your car, past or present? We’re happy to hear about how you’ve made anything else on wheels uniquely yours as well. To the comments!
I put a “HOWL if you love City Lights Books” on the back bumper of my Subaru so I can find it among all the other Subarus in a Montana parking lot (especially at ski areas, outside the REI, and the very nice “organic” grocery store). One time I was driving down the street as some youngsters beside me starting doing their wolf impressions. I wondered what they were doing until I remembered my bumper sticker. Missoula is filled with readers and writers.
Lets ignore the jurassic jeep haha. But on the mustang, I got a custom ‘coin’ that perfectly fits in the trunk lock, and essentially deletes it so that its smooth across the decklid. But it can come out if I need to use it! Thats somethign I havent seen on anyone elses.
For my accord, I swapped the grill from the standard 2017 chrome 70’s bumper thing to an accord sports slimmer design.
I tend to be minimal on the customization front but I do have a bear-themed stickers on the back window as a message to a certain type of fella.
The weirdest thing I did was probably to shave the antenna off my Audi 100. I even filled in the resulting hole and painted it. I wish I knew why I bothered.
I also put Saab 9000 turbo wheels on it,didn’t look too bad really.
I did a lot more “customizing” when I was a younger lad. Suspension, wheels/tires, big stereos, loud exhaust, etc. Standard early 00’s import stuff, but never full-on Fast & Furious shit.
My 4Runner is mostly stock with the exception of the wheels and tires, the TRD skid plate, and the rock sliders. My M2 is totally stock, it just has a couple of Danny Ric shoey stickers on the side windows. I kinda lost interest in modifying/customizing cars like 15 years ago.
Two cars at the same time, not me but my cars (note to self, avoid having clevershit friends). One was a Land rover MK11A, it had started life as a RAF MP vehicle, hence the gunners hatch above the passenger seat in the front, It then went to the forestry commission where it received some minor modifications. A second chassis welded under the first one and a sort of ‘roo bar across the front The front thing was made of old railway track, it was to push down trees with. Volvos at the time had decals saying “SIDS side impact defence system” My land rover mysteriously acquired remarkably similar decals that read “FIDS front impact destruction system” .The same irriot replaced the badging on my 412i with badges from a Ford Granada Ghia with the addition of a beautifully crafted chrome on badge on the back that read “Decadence is it;s own reward. I still have the Land rover, The Ferrari went the way of all such toys although it is still driving around somewhere, sadly without it’s modifications.
For reasons I cannot remember I drove the deeply odd Land rover from the wilds of Northumberland to London, it got a name then which has stuck, It is now known as the miracle rover because it parts traffic in the same way that Moses parted the sea!
The only change I made to my black 2016 Focus RS was 18 inch wheels power coated the same blue as the factory trim, and RE71s.
My buick has been custom repainted twice now. In high school my mom picked the paint scheme against my will so it became root beer brown complete with a way too ’90s paint splat on the front to look like foam on a root beer mug, one of my friends called it elephant j***.
https://www.pontiacventura.com/apollo_skylark_images/74apWAoakhbrRTBRFLT.jpg
Somebody aparently took pictures of it while I was on a religious mission after highschool prior to it becoming purple and put it on this website so here you go. Bask in it’s vaguely inappropriate paint job that my sweet innocent mom still never caught onto.
Then when I got to choose the new colors after my dad wiped out the quarter panel, I had it painted Honda Supersonic Blue Pearl with black GSX style stripes and red pinstriping.