Pimping up cars is something you might associate with new SUVs or sports cars. What most people don’t associate that with is old cars – especially old Toyotas! Any car can look good once it gets customized.
A growing number of avid car enthusiasts are taking to buying up old Toyota cars and pimping them up! If you own an older Toyota model, keep reading to learn how you too can pimp your ride!
Engine
Before you do anything, you need to make sure that your old Toyota’s motor is running as sweet as the day it left the factory. There’s no point pimping up any car if the engine is about to die soon!
At a basic level, your Toyota’s engine should have a full service and tune-up to make sure that everything is working as it should. That involves changing the oil and filter, renewing spark plugs and checking the ignition system.
If your Toyota is running rough consider giving it an “Italian tune-up.” A term coined by Ferrari, it involves driving a long distance in lower gears so that the engine runs at higher revs. It’s a great way to de-coke your engine and give it a new lease of life!
Italian tune-ups work for motors that have idle problems or sticking valves (due to carbon build-up).
Bodywork
Is your ride around twenty or thirty years old? If so, the car’s bodywork will have seen better days. Once you’ve sorted any engine woes out, book your car in for a respray. The folks at your chosen body shop will repair any dents or damage to your Toyota’s body before they respray it.
Having a car resprayed isn’t a cheap job but the results are worth it! Your old Toyota will look like a brand new car once the respray gets completed! You can choose to have the car resprayed in the original color, or you can opt for a different one.
The services guys over at Inchcape Toyota want to point out that the latter option is more expensive because extra labor is involved.
Wheels and tires
Rolling around on those old steel wheels and skinny tires? It’s time to get rid of them and upgrade to some awesome new alloy wheels and tires! I’m not going to recommend any specific wheels because each person will have their own individual tastes in alloys.
The only thing I will say is that you need to ensure the offset of the wheels is correct. In case you are wondering, the offset is the distance between the wheel hub (on your car) and the center of the wheel.
If you choose wheels with the wrong offset, your tires could end up scraping the lips of your wheel fenders.
Suspension
Fitting bigger wheels to your Toyota will usually mean that you have a large gap between the top of your wheels and the bottom of the fenders.
To cure this problem you need to fit new suspension that will lower your car’s center of gravity. You can buy fixed or adjustable suspension kits for Toyota cars. Good luck!
