Heavily Customized Cars

There are some people in this world that don't conform to our social norms. This is most evident in the car scene. The amount of different styles of modification is already crazy enough. There's hotrods, tuners, track babies, showcars, and many more styles of car building.

I want to talk about my favorite. Nothing screams "Passion!" like a fully customized car. Please understand - I am not talking about cars that have been painted, have nice rims, suspension, etc. I'm talking about cars that are completely unique. My favorite ones are the ones you can't tell what car it is right away. Example?

Yes, I thought it was a Dodge too at first. It's an LS400. The lines on the side gave it away.

I'm going to include slightly modified cars to kind of show the progression.  What I want to talk about, though, is the rare unicorn that is a completely customized car and the people that build them. The first person to ever inspire me was my grandfather who, I believe in the 1970s in Lithuania, built his own car from parts he had.

The man ran a successful mechanic shop and although I never got to question him about the car fully, he made a very nice, luxury car from what he had. Don't ask me what motor or anything. I know it had a custom body reminiscent of those big, old cars gangsters would drive in the 1930s and 1940s. The back had no trunk - it was rounded. I'm sorry but I don't know classics like that or I would give you something to compare it to. Just imagine a 1940s gangster car where they're unloading automatics into a store.

Grandpa Kestas Reklys had to join together a frame, suspension, motor, transmission, body, and connect all of the gauges and seats. The man was a jack of all trades and a master at some. I mentioned in another article that he built two houses.

When it comes to these completely custom cars, I want you to imagine the process the builders went through. Let's go back to the Lexus above. I would be surprised if they didn't completely gut the car. Then they had to fabricate the parts to make the front end look right - not to mention making it. This is a front end swap. It's hands down my favorite type of modification. It turns the car into something completely different.

My dream is a back end swap. I want an LS400 wagon.

The amount of customization differs from one person to the next. This Nissan caught my eye. I've seen a few of these wide body kits but never have I seen someone running 50mm spacers. My jaw dropped when he told me. I said 30mm? And he drifts it. He knows it's dangerous. The balls on that guy...

But what caught my eye was the faded paint and how awesome it actually looks with the wide body kit. It looks like something out of Mad Max. It had a nice exhaust so it shows the guy put good work into it. He said he was eventually going to paint it, though.

Funny - a true car enthusiast will do paint last. Always.

That Nissan is a good example of a car somewhere near the midpoint of the build. I don't know if he just wants some paint and that's it but I doubt it.

I used to think that most custom cars were made in a shop and bought. Turns out that a lot of these cars were created by their owners over time. I used to think you had to have money to do this but it's not true. Yes, it does cost a lot, but you will be putting it in little by little. The average person makes enough money to maintain the car and save up the extra money to get something new here and there. Years later, the car is a complete beauty?

I've had at least three people with very nice cars tell me this; little by little!

Next is a 1990s Lincoln? I believe. This one is customized very little. Just a big drop and paint job. Thing is, I've never seen one of these cars looking like that. And you know what? It looks amazing slammed like that! Made me want one.


(X Mercury X)

These cars are all vehicles I saw on the road except for this Celica. It's truly hard to find a completely customized car. The owner of this beauty has customized his headlights to be one long bar which, to me, is a great look and great idea. It really makes the car stand out

You can do something simple like this and change the entire look and feel of the car. This brings me to the whole point of this article;

1. You don't need to be rich to create an amazing custom car.

2. Small things can completely change the look.

3. Do what YOU like and don't get discouraged by anything - within reason. There are times when we come up with an idea that seems great at the time but a few days later you ask yourself "What was I thinking?" It's good to write your ideas down before you implement them.

4. Write your ideas down. Have a notebook just for that. I have a good 40 designs in mine of which I've used maybe 5-6 and I am waiting for the resources to do some of the others.

5. Before you do any big modifications, you HAVE to fix any problems the car has first. Fix your check engine lights, maybe get a tune, get it inspected. You need to know what potential problems may arise.

6. Have $300 set aside just in case something breaks (more if you can afford it).

7. This goes with 5 and 6; when initially fixing your car, you can start spending a little bit of money like $20 for every $100 you put in to fixing the car. That's what kept me sane waiting. $20 gets you a lot; fenders, headlight tints, hood pins, spoilers. You can work on the look as you work on the mechanics.

I will leave with this. If no one has done something in particular that you thought of, instead of getting discouraged, be the first person to do it! I was thinking of putting a roof rack on the LS400 but I can't decide if I really want it. Roof racks aren't my thing BUT on certain cars they look really good. I don't even have a picture to look at to see if I want it.

My car is in Phase 1. I had to make a set of phases to get my car where it needs to be. Starting at Phase 0, I hit 1 after taking care of major maintenance (timing belt, water pump, spark plugs, spark plug wires, alternator, sensors, hoses, misc.). Another requirement was that I had done some things aesthetically as well.

I bring this up for a reason. As I mentioned before, you CAN build a $40,000 custom car as long as you do it little by little. There's X amount of things I have to do to get to Phase 2 but by Phase 5, the car will either be a wagon, have a front end swap, or something else radical. If anyone has seen an LS400 wagon, please let me know! By 3 or 4, there will be a supercharger. And I know it'll take me a few years but it's fine! I love the car already.

- Rokas K.