5 Ways To Customize The Car You Love

Once you’ve found the perfect car, you have to take steps to customize it to your unique personality and taste. You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars to customize your ride. Keep these five customization ideas in mind when planning what to do to make your new car truly your own.

1. Change the upholstery.

The interior of the car can be leather or a unique pattern on fabric. You’ll also want your seats to be comfortable to sit in while driving or for your guests when riding, Select from options including cloth, leather, faux leather, and suede to truly customize your ride.

2. Change the paint job.

Decals make your car stand out in a crowd, but they are temporary and do not look as sharp and professional as a paint job done at an auto body shop like the one my friend runs in West Chester, PA. They can also peel off once they’ve been on your vehicle for a while. Anyone can go buy a sticker and slap it on their vehicle, but getting a custom paint job takes dedication and love for the design. A few racing stripes, a logo or a design creates a unique look that is sure to stand out whether you’re in a tiny town or large city.

3. Get a custom license plate.

Getting a custom plate doesn’t cost too much money and it grabs the attention of anyone sitting behind you in traffic. It will also be easier to remember your license plate when you need to write it down on forms or identify it to someone. You have so many options when it comes to selecting a license plate.

4. Add aftermarket lights.

Lighting is versatile and can be added in the front, back or along the sides. Use brightly colored lights to highlight your car’s primary color. Don’t go too crazy on the lights though. If you go on overkill than you might end up having too many contrasting looks that creates disorganization.

5. Modify your tires.

Your tires give you plenty of customization options. Choose unique rims that improve your car’s look and take it a level up from the manufacturer’s design. Select from black, white, silver or chrome to draw attention to your rims.

Cars provide endless opportunities for customization. Show your personality by modifying the paint, changing the interior or by adding custom rims to your vehicle.

Car Death or Injury: What to Do When Your Modified Car Gets in an Accident

“Ferris, my father loves this car more than life itself.”

“Ferris, he never drives it! He just rubs it with a diaper!”

As car enthusiasts we often spend years restoring and modifying cars. We invest our money, sweat, and time into the car. Like Cameron’s father from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, we can become a tad obsessed…although we prefer to think of it as passionate. We may not love the car more than life itself, but it might be one of our most prized possessions. We may not spend our free time admiring the sleek paint job and polishing it with a diaper because that would be crazy…

Ok, I admit, I do spend hours each month polishing my car with a cloth. 

Unlike Cameron’s father though, I do drive my car occasionally. It is a nerve wracking process, but what is the point of owning a car if we cannot go on adventures together? We have two choices, hide it away to protect it, or drive while proactively looking out for the negligent or incompetent drivers.  There is only so much you can do to protect your car from the outside world. Eventually an accident might happen.

What to Do Immediately After the Accident?

At this point there is nothing you can do to prevent the accident. What you need to do is follow the law to the “T”. State automobile law is on your side, as long as you are not at fault. As soon as the accident happens you need to complete these steps:

Stop your car. Pull over to the side of the road if no one has been injured.

When you talk to the other driver stay calm. You may feel like blowing a gasket, but you and your car are better served by being calm and meticulous. In no circumstances should you say anything that might be construed as admitting guilt. Don’t even say a polite “I’m sorry.” The time for niceties has passed.
Call the police about the accident. The police will catalog any injuries and damage to the vehicles.

Collect the other driver’s information and ask the police officer for a copy of the accident report.
Survey the scene and take pictures. Spend a few moments after the accidents taking notes. This is important because monetary compensation hinges on who was at-fault for the accident, and it is important to record critical details while your memory is fresh.

What To Do After

Ensure Your Insurance Company is Fair

At some point, you will need to inform your insurance company that you have been in an accident. Do so immediately after, but do not sign anything, provide a recorded statement, or allow a claims adjuster to look at the vehicle before consulting a car accident lawyer. Insurance agencies may protect you, but they are also a business who can lose money if they pay the full value for every claim that comes across their desk.  Lawyers can ensure that your insurance or the other driver’s insurance company will not cheat you out of the money necessary to return your car to working order.

Look Into Seeking Monetary Compensation from the Other Driver

You may also want to consult a lawyer to talk about filing an accident claim against the other driver. Whether or not the other driver has insurance, they can still be held responsible for the injuries and damages acquired during the accident. If the other driver is uninsured or under insured in an at-fault state, you will be able to file a lawsuit to receive compensation for injuries, monetary loses, and damages. If you live in a no-fault state, who caused the accident is not considered. You will not be able to file a claim against the other driver. You will need to collect your claims from your insurance company.

Car accidents can be hard. They can be made harder when a car is damaged or destroyed that you spent years building and modifying. With the proper preparation and after-the accident strategy, you can receive enough compensation to rebuild the car or begin to modify a new car. It’s not fair, but it’s something.

No One-Size-Fits-All Insurance Policies for Your One of a Kind Ride

There is a collection of goods and services that are often sort of hand-me-downs. For example, in my case I used the same barber, mechanic, dentist and doctor that my parents had, and I did so for years because I just didn't really think about it. That’s just where you went when you had to have your hair cut or transmission checked. I also used the same car insurance.

When I started to drive I was bundled into my parents’ family plan and when the time came I just switched over to a personal plan with the same provider.

That is- until I began restoring a classic Corvair (the one deemed “unsafe at any speed” by Ralph Nader). I found that the classic/antique/specialty insurance offered by my company wasn't that great. It just didn't fit for me. I was right on the cusp of shrugging, biting the bullet and signing up when I had a revelation: I didn't have to use the insurance I always had!! I could shop around! It opened a whole shining world of personal shopping scenarios for me and changed my life forever! OK, maybe it wasn't that dramatic but it was certainly a convenient realization for my wallet and insurance coverage.

Anyway, like me, I have the feeling car insurance isn't really something people spend loads of time contemplating. It’s understandable- car insurance isn't exactly the most mind-blowingly thrilling topic in the world to consider but it’s an important one. And it suddenly becomes an all-important topic when the car you've put dozens of hours and thousands of dollars into is blindsided by a bar-hopping party animal.

When I started looking into insurance options for a specialty car my experience was that the big three insurers (the ones with commercials featuring a bubbly, streak-haired, price-gun wielding hipster woman; a British talking gecko and disaster/mayhem personified) didn't have the greatest specialty policies. That too is understandable- they’re huge and accordingly have a huge cut of the market, which means millions of customers, the great majority of whom have convenience and transportation vehicles and the generalized coverage to match. So it’s just not a system that’s really set up to accommodate more personal, specialized policies.

After the shortcomings of the big three became apparent to me, I focused my search for good specialty insurance on the less well-known providers. What worked best for me was to hunt among the companies that weren't so obscure I’d never heard of them, because that made me a little nervous, but weren't so huge that their focus was necessarily on standard insurers. The best bets were reputable and established insurance houses that weren't known for their car insurance and as such offered great policies to compete with the big three monoliths.

The example that comes to mind is a place like the Hartford. They meet the criteria- reputable and established but they don’t pop to mind for car insurance despite the fact that in 2012 they topped JD Power and Associate best car insurance provider list, came in at number three on MSN Money’s ranking and ranked among the top five on pretty much every other list of the kind. They also have a personalized antique/classic/specialty package that’s specifically tailored to a specific car and its owner.

Not that I’m suggesting necessarily that you run out and sign up with them immediately or anything, just that it’s those sorts of places where the best deals are found. In fact, after the research I've done, my advice is: the insurance-provider ranking lists I mentioned above are a great source for finding a great provider. They usually work with data that’s been culled from surveys that involved thousands of customers giving feedback. Once you've narrowed down a list of places that sound good and rank well, look over their specialty policies, get in touch with their agents and find the one that’s right for you! Good luck and good driving.

Author Bio

Edward Oberg is a writer who blogs on everything he finds interesting. While that covers a pretty broad range of possible topics, his writing focus often finds its way to anything automotive, water sports and fishing-related, travel and entertainment. He has a wonderful wife, a beautiful daughter and a friendly, rotund pug named Wallace.

The Secrets Of High Octane Powered Engine Speeds

“High octane” is a term many might get a headache thinking about. And when throwing "physics" into the same sentence, one might quickly turn and run the other way. However, one need not worry in this case—here, brought to you by Greenball Tires, the physics of high octane power will be basic enough for any layman to understand.

We’ll start with the term “octane” first. Octane has to do with volatility, or, when speaking of fuel, the tendency to explode. It’s a general rule that the lower the octane number of fuel, such as 87, the easier the fuel combustion under pressure. Conversely, the higher the octane number, the harder it is for combustion. This is why high octane fuel is more expensive—high octane fuel’s trait of combustion less easily has been shown to extend the life of high-performance engines, and many of these engines require use of this higher octane fuel to function correctly.

When many people think ‘high octane fuel,’ they think ‘fuel that’s more explosive than regular fuel.’ Well, believe it or not, high octane fuel is less explosive than the fuels with lower octane levels, which is optimal for high-performance engines. The reason for this has to do with how an engine compresses gas. All car and truck engines have motors that compress fuel.

As many know, high-performance oftentimes means more horsepower. And higher horsepower means greater forces throughout the engine (where, then, more force throughout the engine means more force to the wheels, where the driver feels the resulting horsepower).

The forces we’re concerned with here have to do with the force of an engine’s pistons plunging into its cylinders. When an engine pushes a piston into a cylinder, fuel beneath it gets compressed. If the fuel has a low octane level, it combusts easier during this compression. With a high-performance engine, it is not good for fuel to easily combust as the crankshaft turns at higher-than-normal revolution per minutes. The pistons in these types of engines move so fast that if they don’t have a pocket, so to speak, of fuel that is harder to combust, the piston may hit the bottom of the cylinder, which can cause major engine problems. Keep in mind that with lower-powered engines, fuel that combusts easily is innocuous to the engine—because the pistons are cranked into the cylinder with less force, they are unable to slam against the bottom of the cylinder. So, ultimately, high octane fuel keeps a high revving engine healthy.