Auto Maintenance & Repairs Maintenance Driving & Safety Car Stereo & Audio Aviation Autos, Motorcycles & Planes WonderHowTo

Active Car Mods Posts

iOS 17 Tips, Tricks, How-Tos, News

How To: Turn Your '57 Chevy Classic (Or Any Old Car) into the Best Couch Ever

Antique car collecting and restoration is a very popular hobby practiced by many around the world. A quick drive through my town turns up with a handful of classic cars parked in their respective driveways, some in pristine condition, and others not-so-much. While some people end up eventually fixing up their classics, many also do not. Some cars end up rotting away, left to be either salvaged or sold off in pieces—mostly due to time consumption and excessive costs.

How To: Install a vent window seal in a classic VW Beetle Bug

Driving a car without windows attached can be a bad idea, especially for those who have never tried driving like that before. Windows help keep things from hitting people's faces and can help deafen the sound of the car's engine and the wind. So in this tutorial, you'll find out how to install a vent window seal in a classic VW Beetle Bug. Good luck and enjoy!

How To: Use Plasti Dip Coat to Black Out Car Emblems

Plasti Dip coating is a rubber like coating that can be dipped or sprayed on. I first remember the coating available as a dip years ago. It was first introduced as a coating used to dip tool handles in to provide a grip. However, since then, the coating has became available in a spray can. It has also became popular on car parts, such as wheels, emblems, and even entire cars.

How To: Hack Your Car's Cassette Deck into a Wireless Bluetooth Music Player

Still have an old tape deck installed in your car? This nifty hack lets you upgrade to the digital age without sacrificing your love for cassettes. There's nothing wrong with some low-fidelity tunes in your car every now and then, but if you want to listen to the tunes on your iPod or smartphone too, it's a lot easier (and cheaper) than buying a new in-dash player that supports line-in connections. Just add some wireless capabilities to you tape deck! All you need is a cheap cassette adapter,...

How To: Upgrade Your Car's Digital Clock with a Dash-Mounted iPod Nano

Have an older car with nowhere to plug in your iPod? Rather than paying to have one installed, you can mount your iPod nano on your car's dash like Redditor hyeinkali did in his 2001 Honda Accord. Normally, there's just a boring digital clock between the air vents, but it's perfectly suited for a nano-mod. This is a great hack if you plan on getting one of the new nanos or iPod touches, because it gives you a chance to get some more use out of your old nano and its old school 30-pin connector...

How To: Don't Smoke? Turn Your Car's Ashtray into a DIY Smartphone Dock

If you don't smoke, your car's ashtray is probably either unused or, if you're like me, full of loose change. And if your car is older, unless you've installed one, it probably doesn't have a place for you to plug in your phone. This quick hack by Jalopnik's Jason Torchinsky will solve both of those problems by turning your ashtray into a simple DIY smartphone dock that will charge your phone and let you play music through your car's speakers. After removing and cleaning the ashtray, Jason to...

How To: DIY Subframe Connectors

The guys at PMM show you how to make your own subframe connectors to help stiffen up the chassis, and potentially reduce vibrations in the car. All you need is a length of pipe, a drill, a vice, and some extra hardware! This can be one of the least expensive suspension modifications you can do to your car.

How To: Create a Ghost Flame on Your Car Without Airbrushing or Painting

Would you like to create ghost flames or other custom paint effects, but don’t know how? Here is a quick, easy, and inexpensive method. This method does not require a paint gun, airbrush, or even paint. Follow this step-by-step procedure and watch the video tutorial and you’ll be able to do this to your own car. Best of all, if you don’t like it, I’ll even show you a method for removing it. All it takes to do this is 1/8 inch fine line tape, 3/4 masking tape, a piece of 3000 grit sandpaper, a...

News: Just What a Hummer Needs... MORE

You'd think a Hummer couldn't get any more over-the-top (unless you're talking a horse-drawn Hummer or remote-controlled Hummer, of course), but Japanese tuner Calwing’s US division, 213 Motoring has come out with a Hummer boasting a whole extra set of wheels. I'm not quite sure why this is necessary, but nonetheless, Bornrich reports:

How To: Wrap Your Exhaust

Reduce your engine bay temperatures and improve the look of both your whole engine bay and your headers with something so simple as an exhaust wrap. It is really easy to do if you have the patience to do it. Just wrap it tight, clamp the end, and enjoy your work!

How To: Get Free Manual Electric Fans on Your Vehicle by Removing the AC Relay

Turn your stock fans into 100% manual fans by tacking out the AC relay. Doing so will stop the signal to your compressor telling it to turn on when you hit the AC button. However, the fans will still kick on when pressed, and when released the fans will turn off. This will give you 100% free manual electric fans whenever you want. If it's a hot day and you want the air conditioner on, all you have to do it put the relay back in.

How To: Make a DIY Cold Air Intake

Instead of paying hundreds of dollars for a cold air intake, make your own version for your car. Cold air intakes can free up about 4 horsepower to the wheels, increase fuel economy, increase torque and make your engine sound better. All you need is a mass airflow sensor adapter, some metal pipe, couplers, and some clamps to hold it all together.

How To: Install a Grounding Kit on Your Vehicle

Reduce the risk of blown fuses, blown sensors, shorted wires, and even possibly increase shift times on an automatic and possibly increase horsepower with a grounding kit! All you need is some wire, terminal ends and electrical tape or heat shrink. To make this work, all you have to do is run ground wires from essential components to a good ground area, such as the strut tower.

How To: Paint an Engine Block

Tired of your old engine looking... not so good? Clean it up and enhance the overall look with a simple paint job! In this episode, we show you how to paint your engine block, costing you only a few bucks and about an hour or two of your time!

How To: Vent Your Hood for Only $3

The guys at Poor Man Mods show you how to vent your hood to reduce engine bay temperatures, which can lead to lower intake temperatures and protection to components in your engine bay. To do this, they just take a few coupler nuts and screw them onto the studs on the hood where the hinge is. Doing so, they create about a 1 inch gap in-between the hinge and the hood itself, which raises the rear of the hood up, allowing hot air to escape. Near the turbo, this help reduce engine bay temps by 12...

How To: Install a ham radio in a Jeep Liberty

I you are interested in installing a ham or cb radio in your car, this two part tutorial should help. In these videos, you'll find out how to install a ham radio in a Jeep Liberty. It's a tricky task and requires that you make a few holes here and there, but in the end the result will be a car that has a useful ham radio in it. So good luck, be careful not to cut any wires, and enjoy!

How To: Install an old timey horn

Want to make your car unique while annoying the hell out of people who annoy you on the streets? Then why not consider installing an old-timey horn? Racous and very cartoon-esque, it's a fun and creative way to give the middle finger to that bastard who just cut you off on the 405.

HowTo: Build a Poor Man's Chevy Volt

Wish you could make the shift to electric or hybrid, but you can't afford it? If you've got more than a few free weekends on your hands, you may want to consider undertaking Benjamin Nelson's ambitious (to say the very least) car conversion project.

How To: Fabricate and install door bars in a stock car

Fabricate and build door bars (aka sissy bars) for a full tube chassis 1981 Camaro racecar by following along in this instructional video with Jeri Ellsworth. The door bars are being built for a very rugged car, designed to withstand a large amount of side impact. Tools and materials needed for this project include 1 3/4 x .120 tubing, an "Affordable Bender" tubing bender, a Millermatic welder and a Hypertherm 43 plasma cutter.

How To: Fabricate and install a roll bar in a stock car

Learn how to fabricate and install a rollbar into a 1981 Camaro being converted into a racecar. In this video, Jeri Ellsworth bends and cuts tubing into a rollbar and welds it into place. Tools and materials needed for this project include 1 3/4 x .120 tubing, an "Affordable Bender" tubing bender, a Millermatic welder and a Hypertherm 43 plasma cutter.

How To: Tie subframe rails together in a stock car

Learn how to tie subframe rails together with a Millermatic welder as this 1981 Camaro gets rebuilt into a racecar. In this video, Jeri Ellsworth welds the rails and shows proper preparation and technique. Tools and materials needed for this project include 1 3/4 x .120 tubing, an "Affordable Bender" tubing bender, a Millermatic welder and a Hypertherm 43 plasma cutter.

How To: Install an iPad in your car

The iPad is the king of the tablet PC's. One of the reasons tablet PC's are so awesome is that their thinness and lack of folding allows them to be used in positions where normal computers and even netboooks cannot. This, it turns out, makes them perfect for installing in car! This video will walk you through the process of installing an iPad into the dash of a car, which is pretty freaking baller.