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!
At one point, most of the cars (and bikes) I owned had boring paint colours or randomly patched paint that made them look awful. Cheap matt black paint fixed that. But matt black looks boring, so a few more spray cans and some tape, and a flame job fixed that. On one of my Datsun 510s, a boring Saturday and the finding of a can of white enamel paint and a brush in the shed led to the flame job being embellished with a skull and crossbones painted freehand covering the whole roof. This was after getting bored of the white paint and Nissan Racing red/blue stripe scheme I previously painted over the olive green original paint.
My 1962 Valiant needed something to highlight the pastel green paint, so it got red steel wheels and red flames along the bottom of the doors.
The headliner fabric in my BA Fairlane Ghia is sagging away from the moulded backing, and I have a spare moulding from another Fairlane ready to recover and fit, so I might consider something more interesting than replacing the beige fabric with more beige.
And I would love a WINKY The White Cat for my parcel shelf – maybe a soft toy cat, some LEDs and bit of wiring and i could make my own!
Not my customizing, but my kid’s:
My daughter’s first car was a 2003 Forester. It was her mom’s car first, then I drove it for a couple of years. When she was old enough, it became hers. She’s gay, so driving a Forester is already the first half of the obvious lesbian joke.
Kiddo went a little crazy at AutoZone or Pep boys or someplace and added new seat covers, floor mats, steering wheel cover, dashboard pad etc. All of it in leopard print. Finally, she added the piece de resistance: a pair of truck nuts dangling from the bumper, but painted pink.
i bedlined my last e30 convertible with tintable bedliner. tinted a raptorliner kit white and did some body work- shaved the passenger side door lock cylinder and the washer nozzles on the hood. it was the piez de resistance on top of the custom stereo build, polished porsche seven slots, and a litany of other modifications.
i sold that care two months before my daughter was born and tried to buy it back a year later. buyer stripped the bedliner and sold the wheels and sent me a picture of a sad stripped carcass on jackstands
When the factory headliner fabric fell down in my 2004 Golf, I replaced it with blue sky & puffy white cloud print flannel. Hatchback practicality on the outside, open-air convertible fun on the inside! My kids love it!
https://imgur.com/a/rsMYOTB
My current car, Archangel, has a few decals (mostly the Archangel emblem that Garrus wears in Mass Effect 2), the name across the trunklid, and aftermarket black wheels in the not-winter. Nothing crazy but does help to make it stick out a bit.
My last car, Faith, had the arm tattoo of the protagonist of the same name from the game Mirror’s Edge going down the length of both sides, and her eye tattoo under the right headlight, which was shaped in such a way that closely matched the logo of the game. The circuit board inspired tattoo design changed the profile of the car dramatically. Wish it were easy to post photos here, though I know why it’s not.
I still very sorely miss it and wish I could have afforded to keep her, get her fixed up, and still keep her for occasional drives while still having Archangel as a daily.
The bride thought her grey/green Lexus ES300 was just a bit….well, generic…….and she couldn’t find it at times in the Target parking lot, so at her request I bought a set of magnetic stick-on flames for it. She loved them and now has them on her silver Allroad for the same reason. Lol.
On my 1994 Mustang GT 5 Spd had the side view mirror painted white to match the car.
Otherwise…. not much
If only we had some method of attaching pictures to show off our modifications.
I had a 2000 Nissan Frontier with prerunner bumpers, a graffiti paint job, and exhaust stacks. The interior had astroturf flooring, maroon seats from a Thunderbird, and no headliner with the roof painted sky blue with clouds. You’ll have to use your imagination.
Put a piece of tape that said “Turbo” above the AC button on my 1.6L 90’s Nissan.
Bam! It’s a Porche Taycan..turbo!
On my 2015 WRX, it had fake vents behind the front wheels, on the fenders. Since the car didn’t have any turn indicators on the side mirrors, I added them in the fake vent. Got a couple ~4″ strips of 12v yellow LEDs. Mounted them in that vent so that people in my blind spot and further back could see.
On my old ’84 Citation I mounted off road driving lights on the front bumper, recessed into the grill. I lived out in the hilly country, so they proved very useful on backroads.
I personalize every vehicle I own. Usually, it’s to make it fit my needs better. But one time, I was autocrossing my Saturn with the local BMW club after my E21 320i failed for an entire summer. The Bimmer had come with an ///M grill badge, which I removed the day I got it because the M3 didn’t arrive until the E30. But later I modified the badge and stuck it to the back of my M Saturn, just to annoy more snooty of the BMW club people.
Being a “33” freak I have in the past bought cars with a three in the name. I rebadged a Ford Focus ZX3 in to a ZX33. After signing the paperwork on my Mazda 3 I stood up and my wife says “your going to the parts department aren’t you”? Of course, that’s where the other 3 is located.
On my first car I painted an orange peace symbol inside a rising sun on the back window – of a 1949 Plymouth.
I haven’t customized my cars in visible ways, but I’ve done subtle and original touches:
– I had the foam of the Z4 driver seats customized to my tushy, and the cover done in fabric instead of leather. It’s stealthy, but once I point out that one seat is shiny leather while th other is mate fabric, you can’t unsee it.
– I added a ZHP shifter to it too.
– I’ve added a stitched leather cover to my 280Z steering wheel. It feels way better than the oem rubbery plastic.
– idk if that counts as customization, but replacing the old tar like undercoating by bed liner made the underside of the car Amazing
– there’s a Matchbox model of the 280Z hung at the rearview mirror. It adds a bit of fun to the build
I have always been a fan of subtle mods,
On my black 97 civic hb I basically blacked out the rear lights with black perforated wrap(back in the late 90s early 2000s)
On my 2003 protege5 I swapped the oem rear lights for clears since the fronts where oem clears.
On my 2017 forester I put a 27 inch led light bar hidden in the bumper since it had a slot between the upper and lower grills.
Well there’s this
https://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/.a/6a00df351e888f8834013488f55511970c-popup
Headliner had Keith Harring drawings on it, because he was a friend and I gave him rides.
Sadly the car got impounded and I couldn’t afford to get it out in 1981. Little did I know that the Keith Harring drawings would be worth a fortune now.
An extra point for the Onlinephotographer reference!
Seat jackers, front mounting points only. (Lexus GX460)
As someone in the average NBA height range, this changes the tilt of the seat bottom backwards, which bends my legs further, and reduces the amount of distance needed between my feet and the pedal.
Net result, I can sit comfortably without putting the seat all the way back, which is great for any big and tall passengers behind me.
Back when I was in college, one of my roommates had a manual 90’s Mazda Miata. Offered to let me drive it, but we later discovered it would only be possible if we removed the seats entirely, or performed a “foamectomy” to cut out foam from the seats.
Just a tall guy who loved cars. God has a funny sense of humor.
Related to my “no” answer about staying nondescript: I’m 80% sure that riding in an upright position with appropriate gear has let me get away with a lot. Looking responsible is the vast majority of seeming responsible, in a sort of videri quam esse.
Cheap ebay china crap on the dashboard top of my Figaro: Solar powered hula dancer and plastic flowers.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CYJtuajo3Kn/?img_index=1
You have to have some whimsy.
I have a springy hula dancer on the work van dash. She’d really be workin it when I was 4wheelin up to mountain cell cites
I’ve had a couple of Rocky Mountain Rambler cars I owned with friends which got a bit ridiculous with “mods”, but those are more of fuck around cars than something I drive to work. The stupidest/best one was on a 1996 Subaru Legacy wagon. We lifted it and built a custom front bumper with a winch (never hooked the winch up). We also built a semi-functional snorkel out of PVC pipe. And it had racing stripes but only on the hood. Oh and those roof clearance lights for wide trucks.
Otherwise, I’ve customized my cars but nothing that hadn’t been done before.
Not really. I try to stay nondescript.
Pretty sure stock appearance, stockish exhaust, and OEM wheels have kept me from several conversations with officers when I have literally popped up on their radar
I’m pretty sure I could escape detection indefinitely by doing my crime and then parking at the nearest Home Depot.