Have you ever heard of the show Pimp My Ride on the MTV Channel in the early 2000s? It had a host who chose lucky car owners to have their car upgraded or, to borrow the lingo, to have their car “pimped out.” The cars were in the worst shape ever until they were restored and customized to fit their owner’s style and personality, and the best part is that they get all those upgrades for free!
Now that show has long been out of the air, but the demand for vehicle upgrades and car customization has never been higher. It seems like everybody wants a car, and they’re ready to spend hundreds of bucks for it to suit their style. That’s why one of the best business ventures for car enthusiasts is to open their own custom body shops.
To be the go-to place for car customization, you’ll have to know your way around the industry. Your service should provide anything from minor tweaks to complete overhauls and renovations, depending on what your customers will be asking for. You also need to have a great contact list of suppliers that can provide you with all the components, accessories, or parts that you may need during the project.
To make that happen, you need to have the best equipment and team and have the capacity to stay on top of the trends. To start you off, here are some aspects of car customization that will never die out, which means that you have to know these well:
Upgrading Wheels and Tires
This is the most basic upgrade a car owner can do to personalize their car. Since this modification is more about appearance than it is the car’s performance, you have to be able to provide your customer with a wide range of upgrades to choose from. The tire and rim size, color, finish, and texture are all changeable aspects when upgrading the wheels.
But besides the appearance of the car tires, you, as the shop owner, have to know how to properly calibrate the car’s speedometer according to the tires’ ability to avoid future issues with acceleration or speed tracking. Knowing all these minute details can assure your customers that you can do the job and are worthy of their trust.
Making Exterior Alterations
Exterior modifications are done to make a car stand out amongst the crowd and are more about showing the car owner’s personality than enhancing the car’s performance. An example of an exterior alteration is changing the car’s exhaust. Having a custom exhaust can change the way a car sounds when it accelerates, and it can be done by just changing the tip or replacing the whole muffler.
Another common modification is by having a custom paint job. Your client can have their car’s color completely changed in the shade they want, or they can have cartoon characters or statements put in the design of their car. And while a person can do the job, having an automotive spray booth can better modify the modification. An investment like that can become a worthy purchase in the long run, especially since it is more efficient and less time-consuming.
Other modifications can include installing wings to make average cars look like sports cars, placing a body kit with side skirts or a diffuser, or basically, attaching anything under the sun.
Boosting the Car’s Performance
Finally, one of the best reasons to modify a car is to improve its performance. Most car owners who enjoy racing prefer to boost the car’s horsepower so that they can make it run faster and better without sacrificing the vehicle’s safety. Another customization is by turning their cars into a Gasser so that they can run on pump gas instead of racing fuel, thereby cutting down on future costs.
Stripping down excess weight in a car can also boost its overall performance, control the temperatures, and add a cold air intake. Even having tires that can enhance the appearance as well as performance can be a suitable modification.
There’s no such thing as easy in business. Everything has a price, but if you’re willing to pay that price, then you’re in for a world of thrills and enjoyment. Having a custom body shop may seem like too much hard work, but if you have a passion for vehicles and truly believe in the art of customization, you’re going to prosper in this business. You have to find the right clients that can ignite your business’s engines.
