When you don’t want your car to look like every other vehicle with the same make and model, revamping it using unconventional methods can help you stand out from the crowd in traffic. Whether you have a tough time finding your car when you park in a parking lot or you have a unique personality that begs to be expressed through your personal vehicle choices, there are plenty of ways to change your car from drab to fabulous. Thinking outside of the box on vehicle design can allow you to tap into a creative side of yourself that you’ve never explored before. If you want to make your family vehicle reflect your values and aesthetic as a family, it can also turn into a fun bonding experience that’s sure to make happy memories for your family to remember every time they ride in your renovated vehicle.
Create a Vision or Inspiration Board
Before you can sit down to create the car of your dreams, you’ll have to brainstorm ideas for what your car could look like. Often, car owners may have a vague concept of what they might want their dream vehicle to look like but they may not know how to execute those general concepts floating around in their mind. To make it easier to see if your car ideas could translate to reality, you may want to look on social media or the internet as a whole to see if there are existing car concepts that speak to you. Otherwise, you might end up wasting a lot of time trying to bring a car vision to life that has no real basis in the way the real world works.
Outside of using a vision board to give you realistic ideas, you can also leverage a vision board to pull together ideas for a cohesive aesthetic. If you like monster trucks, you can include a combination of actual monster trucks and elements that you might want to see on one from colors to tire types to symbols. For those who are more into crafting, a physical vision board with magazine cutouts may be more enjoyable to create than a digital one, but you’ll have to go with whichever one seems more doable and fun to you.
Consider Financing Options
When you have a dream car in mind, money can be a barrier or a tool that leverages you to achieve your goals. For those who are low on funds, saving up for your dream vehicle modification or choosing elements to add to the vehicle that is inexpensive can be a way to have fun with this project without breaking the bank. If you want to make major changes to the structure of your vehicle or modify a luxury vehicle, you may have to consult with auto financing specialists to look into your options for credit or loans.
Antique or exotic vehicle owners may be able to use funds from their antique car insurance policy to finance upgrades as long as their policy provides this type of coverage. While many regular or even antique auto insurance policies do not provide coverage for upgrades, some policies have add-ons that let policyholders pay for some qualifying upgrades and repairs using the insurance. Before you bank on this option as an exotic or vintage car owner, you should call your insurance agent or a representative from the insurance agency that provides your antique auto insurance to make sure that the upgrades you have in mind would be covered.
Check with Your Insurance
For car owners in the United States, there’s a possibility that certain upgrades to a vehicle could impact auto insurance rates and coverage. If your vehicle is not up to the insurance company’s standards or the upgrades you add to your vehicle like aircraft type hose clamps cause an accident and damage your vehicle or someone else’s personal property, this can make the insurance claims process extra dicey after the fact. If you plan on adding things to your vehicle that make it unconventional or modify how it runs, you may need to ensure that your insurance coverage won’t change as a result of that.
If you add something expensive to the vehicle and want to ensure that it will be protected from theft, your insurance company would be better at answering questions surrounding that than general advice from the internet. Depending on the nature of the upgrades you add to your vehicle, it would be wise to consult with an insurance agent from your car insurance provider before you make any major changes to the vehicle. Additionally, you should see if your home insurance would be impacted by storing a modified vehicle in the garage to prepare for the possibility of damage being caused by this modification process.
Know Relevant Laws and Regulations
Before you start adding interesting elements to your vehicle or removing some parts, you should know about whether there are laws in your area or state that regulate vehicle modifications. Some modifications like changing the color of your car’s paint or adding decals to the bumper might not be impacted by regulations but other changes like tinting the windows beyond a certain threshold may fall outside of the law. Because car regulations exist to keep drivers and pedestrians safe, you should take them seriously even if you don’t agree with them.
Outside of causing harm to yourself, your vehicle, and others on the road, an illegal modification could have devastating consequences for you by getting you involved with the legal system. Although some law enforcement parties might give you a warning and an opportunity to correct your vehicle if you innocently didn’t know that you were doing something illegal, others might not be so lenient. To avoid risking getting into legal trouble or causing injuries, you should make sure that your modifications align with the law no matter how unconventional or wacky they might be.
Add Unconventional Elements
One of the easiest ways to revamp your vehicle unconventionally is by adding unconventional elements to the interior and exterior of the car. From a punk rock dash figure to a bumper sticker that makes a statement, these low-cost, low-effort options make it easy to start revamping your vehicle without blocking out hundreds of dollars or an entire afternoon of your free time to get them done. Since they don’t require any special skills or knowledge to do, you can also get started on adding them right away even if you have minimal abilities in the car improvement department.
For those who are more skilled in car modifications, it’s possible to take unconventional elements that you purchase and further modify them with paint and other materials. For some added sparkle, you can get glitter or sequins and attach them to the elements that you buy. Of course, if you decide to use anything with glitter, you should be prepared to find it everywhere you go for months. For those who love a little sparkle, this might be more of a perk than a drawback.
Model after Construction Vehicles
When you’re looking for inspiration for revamping your vehicle so it’s not like every other car in a parking lot, you can take a leaf from the books of construction equipment. With their industrial design and practical uses, construction vehicles have a lot to offer those who want a vehicle that has more utility with an industrial edge. You can either base the paint colors on popular construction brands or build new parts on your vehicle that make it easier to haul items and conduct construction duties.
If you’re using construction vehicles as the blueprint for your vehicle modifications, you should keep in mind that construction vehicles have different purposes compared to traditional non-construction vehicle. As a result, even if you add a truck bed or hauling parts to your current vehicle, it doesn’t mean it will have the horsepower or strength to handle hauling large freights. What’s more, some modifications like turning your regular car into a wrecking ball crane or bulldozer might be unrealistic if not entirely impossible to do. For anyone who loves the idea of transformers, though, this can be a fun thing to think about even if it’s not practical.
Innovate Automotive Communication Structures
To revamp your vehicle so it’s ready to enter an era of high tech, you can install fiber optic seals. These structures enable efficient electronic communication in your car. They can also make it easier to hook your vehicle up to high-speed networks.
If you live in your vehicle and work as a digital nomad, installing features that make it possible to access high-speed data can revolutionize the way you live or work. When you don’t need to rely on your phone’s data plan or hotspot for internet connection, it can save you money as you’re traveling on the road. Once you figure out how to install fiber optic network infrastructure in your vehicle, you can also share that information with other van life influencers so they’ll be able to put that knowledge to good use, too.
Schedule a Swanky Detailing
Revamping your car doesn’t have to be a DIY project. If you have the funds and an auto shop you trust, you can take your car to an auto repair shop that does auto detailing services that defy typical conventions. Looking through local social media posts can make it easier to weed out shops that might stick with traditional auto detailing methods and find ones that aren’t afraid to take artistic risks to improve their craft.
Start from Scratch
Sometimes, you might just want to build up an old vehicle to tear it down. Places like a demolition derby can be great for showing off your hard work and then watching it fall to pieces in the best way possible. If you decide to enter your vehicle in a demolition derby, you should be prepared to walk away from the derby without it since it can be highly damaging to a vehicle. Once your car is destroyed, though, you can move on to another vehicle without any strings attaching you to the previous vehicle.
Fund Projects with a Settlement
After a car accident, you might feel like your car is a scary place to occupy. One way to fix that is by working with an accident attorney to file a claim with the responsible party’s insurance. After you get a settlement, you can look into ways to spend it that would make you enjoy your car more like investing in unconventional iron casting or a simple paint job that brings you joy.
Get Wired
If your car radio has been out for a while, you can restore some personal flair in your driving experience by having a local electrician see if they can reconnect the wiring so the stereo works. You can also rely on electrical experts to make an old model more innovative. Additionally, antique cars may benefit from having a tune-up to get modern wiring to enter a convenient car era.
Protect Your Truck Bed
While it’s not exactly unconventional, you should protect truck beds from corrosion and other issues with a spray in bed liner. If you find a colorful bed liner, that can be unconventional. Additionally, some materials may double as paint and protection for a fun twist.
Explore Options for Your Car’s Make
Some small businesses might make additions to your specific car company. Jeep owners may appreciate a Jeep accessory while Ford enthusiasts might stick with Ford. You can show support for your favorite car manufacturer with unconventional additions.
In conclusion, revamping a car in unique ways can be expensive but it’s worthwhile. For those who already own a car, working with what you have can save you money in the long run. If you don’t have a vehicle yet or you want to get a new vehicle for the explicit purpose of renovating it to reflect your wildest automotive imaginings, you should consider buying a used car to save money. When money is no object, of course, it won’t matter whether you use a vehicle you already have for this project or buy the latest release on the market of your favorite make and model.
