Just a couple of years after buying their cars, a lot of people grow tired of it. And that’s not often because they’ve fallen out of love with that specific brand or model, but because the vehicle now look, well, tired.
But instead of stretching your tight budget further and try replacing the car because it looks totally used-up, you can restore it to its former state. At least, almost. You may not be able to get your 1998 Hyundai looking like its sleek 2017 model, but with a little bit of cash and some elbow grease creativity, you can get tantalizingly close. You just have to know which part of the vehicle to focus on and ensure you do regular car maintenance.
Do a thorough cleaning
Thoroughly cleaning your car’s exterior and interior takes more than just a quick, artificial scrubbing. It requires you to do some serious deep-cleaning that reaches everywhere. You’ll need to take out the carpet and upholstery and shampoo them, dig up all the trash moldering in the trunk, scrub the tyres hard, and polish the plastic of the dashboard, as well as the cup holders.
Make the car breathe clean air
Air filters won’t make your engines working as perfectly as the first day you bought your automobile, but it will open up its inhalation system, pump up its horsepower and make the car breathe cleanly again.
You can achieve the same thing with a new exhaust system and give your engine a new roar, but good quality exhaust pipes don’t come cheap and are not easy to install. That level of upgrade is recommended when your car actually needs a new muffler.
Clear the lenses
The new sets of vehicles that have been released into the market in the past couple of decades are often fitted with plastic composite headlights that wear out and dull over time. Replacing an old or damaged headlamp will not only give you better illumination at night and in hazy weather, it also means improved safety on the road for you as your vehicle will become more clearly visible to other motorists from a long distance. And certainly, it will add a cool and “new” factor to your vehicle.
Customise your seat covers
The quickest way to tell a car is old, worn and poorly used are a set of cracked, torn or faded upholstery, especially on the front seats. Fixing them is also one of the smartest ways to pimp your ride.
You may choose to reupholster your car seats, but that doesn’t come as cheap as you may have imagined; plus it’s time-consuming. Or you could decide to get stylish and at a lesser cost by buying a pair of matching cool seat covers for all of your car seats.
Paint
Nothing revamps as a coat of high-quality paint splashed on your automobile. It puts a cap on everything, and so should be applied carefully and preferably by a professional. For modern auto painting, powder coating (doesn’t require a solvent) is the way to go. And so does ECQ come highly recommended, as they boast expertise that “extends to the most demanding aesthetic finishes required by vehicle OEMs (original equipment manufacturers).” All you have to do is stay back and watch your old car magically transform from a dull exterior to a spanking new automobile that’ll make you blush with joy.
