Some of the Best Aesthetic/Bodywork Mods

In a lot of styles, especially eclectic ones like the Japanese bosuzoku, the cars are heavily modified aesthetically. In bosuzoku, the cars look like they're out of a cartoon. With VIP, the cars look like a Russia diplomat is in the back. What I'm trying to say is there is a distinction between styles. A big idea, if I'm not mistaken, behind bosuzoku is making your car unique and stand out. It should attract attention and also have an anime hood (wait, is that a requirement?).

I can dig it. 

It is obvious that aesthetic body mods are the number one thing you can do to change the appearance of your car. A simple lip kit already makes your car look better (depending on the car, of course). In my opinion and many others, though, there has to be a balance.

Nope, can't dig this. Unless I can drive up on the lip kit. I believe the pipes are the exhaust...

Why is it that you look at one modified car and it's completely gorgeous yet there's another one down the street, same model, also modded to all heck, that doesn't do anything for you. You see, that first car has it. It is something that is very hard to get right. Simply put, you cannot put too much! Your car has to be clean.

Now there must already be people disagreeing with me but do you really think the CRX with one different wheel, a huge spoiler, a diffuser, rice-burner exhaust, and a fake hood scoop has it? Isn't it annoying?

I think what it comes down to is class. There's a Miata that drives around where I live that has custom fenders that look like they're bolted on sheet metal, the car has a big spoiler, but you know what? It has nice tires, a nice exhaust, and you can tell it's a quick car. The engine sounds nice. It's flat black and just looks Mad Max-ish. Kudos to people who just go out and do stuff like that. I'm sure in that case, the 'crappy-looking' fenders are there for a reason. I suppose in bosuzoku it would be function over form. As far as I can tell, in that culture, even though the cars are heavily modded on the outside, they don't sacrifice anything but maybe weight. Actually, I take that back. I am so confused with bosuzoku. Look at the car above! It must weigh 1,000 lbs more than it did so maybe someone can explain that culture to me.

In all, the car has to perform good, look good, and be unique. Those are the most important things to me and I strive to achieve that balance.

I'm not writing this article to talk about the common mods, however. I want to talk about some seriously awesome exterior work. Like, for example, a front swap? As in taking the front end of another car and attaching it to a different one? Check out this Miata with a Shelby front end.

I think that is one of the best looking cars I've seen. That's a Mazda MX-5.

That's the top of the aesthetic game but the ones I really dig are a big easier to pull off. In an earlier article, I talked about how Louis Borbon managed to fit a diffuser from a Lexus IS250 onto his LS400.

The man deserves a shout-out so I left the above picture untouched. You can find his YouTube through his Instagram profile: @1classyls_4.

While we're on the subject of swapping out front ends, let's talk about the interior for a second. I'm sure many of you have heard of interior swaps but it's something new to me. I must have glossed over it but I have to say, this is another amazing mod. There is a company out there that is run by Slick. It's called Stitched by Slick. He put a new Pontiac GTO interior into a '69 Chevelle.

This is a different project by Slick. As you can tell, the man is a genius when it comes to upholstery. Beautiful.

Then there's sleepy eyes, another one of my favorite aesthetic mods ever and especially on the LS400! To me, it just truly makes the front look so mean.

I personally like even a little more headlight cover than this but it totally changes the style of the car. If you took the badges off, some may have a little problem identifying it.

Thanks @lexus_club8.

Look at how beautiful the above car is! Notice how it has nothing huge... Just tasteful small things. My five readers should know by now that yellow fog lights is something I've considered but I'm doing my headlights yellow and foglights are gonna be something crazy like purple.

Tasteful things, remember? Like the spoiler pictured above. Now if you slap a huge wing on your car, it better match the rest of it or I hate you. That's sarcasm, of course, but this type of roof spoiler is what inspired today's article. I realized that you can probably find one that you can fit on an LS400 and guys, I'm telling you, this is now my goal. No one has that!  A small, simple spoiler looks good on an LS400, too. Small!

Finally, possibly my favorite body mod - the wide-body fenders. On this car, they have to be very good quality. Don't ghetto-rig some, like the Miata I mentioned.

Personally, if I could, I probably would have a little of everything on this list. Just remember people: make sure your car is running good before you spend money on body mods! I drove my last LS400 for a year and a half trying to fix it completely. The hood and some other things were messed up. It looked like crap, but if it doesn't run then it doesn't matter how good it runs. Have a good day, people. Build a bosuzoku car... Or not.