Body design, or car body upgrade, remains the most popular way to make your four-wheeled “horse” unforgettable and special. Therefore, those who want to increase the aesthetic appeal, and sometimes the technical parameters (driving characteristics) of the car are always more than enough. This has now become quite affordable for the mass car owner, although previously it was the prerogative of only well-off people with a car. Let’s try to figure out how to achieve the originality of the car body with the help of tuning, and what methods of such transformations are acceptable and unacceptable.
External car tuning
The word tuning means adjustment or customisation. A car with a bright, eye-catching tuning is guaranteed individuality. Such cars are always viewed with interest by other car owners who evaluate the skill and imagination of the author of the design and vehicle’s appearance update. External tuning involves aesthetic modernization of body elements as a way of self-expression of the car owner. The ability to distinguish your car from hundreds of thousands of other cars becomes for some a kind of hobby and even a way of life. You can tune almost everything in the body – from door sills and handles to the trunk lid, hood or roof of the car. The popularity and variety of body tuning is growing all the time. The only question is whether the car owner will deal with such transformations independently or with the help of specialists in a tuning studio (or maybe combine both options). In general, if there is a desire, time and opportunities – why not? Tuning made with his own hands is a special pride of the car owner. After all, most of the work is carried out quite simply and doesn’t require special skills, and the result of upgrading the car body is not just impressive, but stunning. Body, trunk, handles, sills, splash shields, body kits, optics, wheel caps, etc. are tuned. Tuning with a protective film allows you to protect the vehicle elements from chips, scratches and exposure to aggressive external environment. Modern upgrade technologies allow to perform the necessary work qualitatively, quickly and relatively inexpensively.
However, you should know that unusual cars are more often stopped by traffic officers, their documents are checked extremely meticulously – all significant car upgrades should be registered with the traffic police.
The main solutions that transform the appearance of a standard production car relate to seven parameters:
Aerography
The most difficult and expensive way to change the appearance of the car due to tuning is considered aerography. This is applying a unique drawing on a part of the body or the entire car, drawing with an airbrush on the surface. The image is applied with a small spray gun (aerograph). The principle of its operation is as follows: paint is sprayed on the surface under air pressure. Aerography services are in well-deserved demand. They look incredibly impressive and can make all passers-by and motorists pay attention to the car. There is also a cheaper alternative in the form of stickers, but they are short-lived, have a less presentable appearance. But if desired, they can be quickly removed and replaced with new ones. The main and basic condition is to trust the performance of airbrushing to a professional who has experience, demonstrates samples of his work in the portfolio and has a high-quality (better Japanese) airbrush. In reality, most of the work of an airbrush artist can be easily done with your own hands. To perform airbrushing, special stencils are used, thanks to which proportions are created. More detailed parts, such as shadows and light gradations, are drawn separately. When small mistakes are noticeable when applying a drawing, they are leveled using a lacquer base.
Tuning of the car body using aerography is considered decorative. The airbrushed image doesn’t change the main body color. Usually, Autobase car paint is used, this is the so-called base. Since only car paint is used in the drawings, the painting technology is not violated. After that, the drawing is covered with several layers of automotive lacquer in order to protect the drawing from damage. The final step is to cover the drawing with varnish, followed by polishing.
Body kits and lights
The aerodynamic body kit gives the car not only a catchy appearance, it also provides a real aerodynamic effect in many trim levels. It is known that when driving, the resulting aerodynamic forces change the weight distribution along the axes. At the same time, handling and braking performance deteriorates dramatically. In order to give the car the correct weight distribution, adjustable spoilers are used, installed both on the roof of the car and on the trunk lid. The front bumper spoiler (sometimes referred to as a skirt) is also designed to increase downforce at high speeds, it helps improve the car’s handling, both on direct roads and in turns. Also, the aerodynamic body kit can carry several other important functions: improve the cooling of the engine and ventilated brakes, both front and rear. An additional air intake helps to pump air into the turbocharger, simultaneously cooling it through intercoolers, or can just provide passive boost. Therefore, tuning is a single whole, and it is obvious from the example of a body kit that external tuning not only gives a spectacular look to the car, but also performs real work.
But: very often, with the current external changes, decorative spoilers and bumpers, supposedly improving aerodynamics, in practice only worsen the behavior of the car. It becomes less stable at high speed, and the balance is disrupted. Therefore, you should very carefully choose such components.
Exterior tuning can include various neon lights on the car bottom and xenon headlights. Xenon improves visibility in the dark, without blinding oncoming drivers when the lighting is done in accordance with the requirements. Otherwise, blinding head light is prohibited, and you will have to pay a rather large fine for the so-called janky xenon.
A car with or without tuning must be driven by a person who has a documentary proof of the right to drive it (preferably an international one). If you haven’t yet obtained a driver’s license of this level, we invite you to quickly and easily process the international driver’s license on our website.
Published December 17, 2020 • 6m to read
