Easy mods can make your car's interior a Custom Interior

A custom interior for your ride can easily be achieved with just a few modifications. Plenty of products can be purchased, made, or altered to make the part of the car that you see most, your interior, fully customized.

Before customizing your interior, you should put some thought into your ultimate goal for your interior. For instance, would you like for your interior to feature more options like heated seats, TV monitors, or perhaps some additional gauges?

The possibilities are endless but if you use your imagination, you can create a very custom interior for your ride. For some ideas, check out the following list of just a few things that you can do.

paint your interior trim pieces Things like the panel that surrounds your head unit, the panel that surrounds your door lock buttons, you’re a/c vents, and center console, etc. can be easily painted to create a custom look.

TIP: Before you paint any kind of plastic, be sure to really clean the piece with a soap that has a degreaser in it, such as liquid dishwashing soap, in order to remove all traces of oils from your fingers or other contaminants that are on the plastic piece. Next you will want to scuff sand, or lightly sand the piece with 220 grit sand paper in order to provide “teeth” in the plastic that the paint can more easily stick to.

After sanding, clean the piece again, and then you are ready for paint. The best paint to use for something like this will be spray paint that is designed for use on plastic. The label on the can will tell you if the paint is recommended for plastic or not.
Additional gauges Additional gauges are good to have in any custom interior. Additional gauges are available in many different colors or styles like carbon fiber, white-face, iniglo, l.e.d etc. Having additional gauges will not only look cool, but they will also provide you with a way to keep a close eye on how your engine is performing.

For instance, an additional oil pressure gauge will tell you the exact pressure (psi-pounds per square inch) of the oil in your engine which is vital to know because if your oil pressure drops while the engine is running, the engine will not have the lubrication it needs to properly lubricate internal engine parts and this will lead to total engine failure!

A coolant temperature gauge will tell you the actual temperature of your engine’s coolant. This needs to be known to ensure that you engine is not overheating. An overheated engine can and will lead to internal engine damage because as the oil in your engine gets hotter, it will also thin out. Thin oil will not provide proper lubrication to the major internal engine components such as bearings.

Another gauge that is good to have is a volt meter. This type of gauge allows you to see how well the charging system is working on your car, if at all. A volt meter gauge will tell you how many volts your alternator is producing. Low voltage readings indicate that you alternator has failed or is about to.
Custom Gauge Overlays Using custom gauge overlays is a simple way to make your instrument panel (speedometer, tachometer, fuel gauge, etc.) look way better. A gauge overlay simply installs in place of, or sometimes on top of, your existing instrument panel to change the overall look of this area. Like the additional gauges above, gauge overlays are available in many different colors or styles like carbon fiber, white-face, iniglo, l.e.d, etc. This is an easy mod for your Custom Interior
Billet Accessories These type of accessories are machined out of a solid block of aluminum and are often polished to a mirror like shine, but some prefer the unpolished, "satin" look . The use of billet accessories will allow you to ad a touch of Bling to your Custom Interior. Billet accessories are often used to replace or cover the existing trim in your vehicle like the trim that surrounds the head unit, parts of the interior door panel, console, and more.

Frequently Custom Shift Knobs, for automatic and manual transmissions are made of billet aluminum. Custom shift knobs are a great way to trick out the interior of your ride.

Another place that billet aluminum is often used is for custom rear view mirrors. Many shapes and styles are available for rear view mirror applications.
Make a Custom Console Creating a console for your Custom Interior, between the front seats for example, is a fairly involved process.

Creating a custom console is usually done by building a wooden frame that is the approximate size and shape of your final design idea. Then fiberglass mat and resin is applied in several coats to add strength and structure over the frame. After the fiberglass layers have hardened, the wooden frame is removed from inside the new console. The exterior of the console is now “rough sanded” to create a more detailed shape.

After rough sanding, a few layers of polyester resin (Bondo) are applied to achieve a smoother finish before the final sanding and painting process. As this can be an involved process, especially for a beginner, it may be a better idea to let someone build this for you. Custom Car Audio shops would be a good place to ask to build a custom console for you.
TVs & DVD System These are definitely cool mods that you can have installed in your Custom Interior.

TVs can be installed with the addition of a TV- tuner which will allow you to pick up local TV channels or with a DVD player to allow you, or your passengers, to watch your favorite movies which can really make those long trips seem to fly by.

These additions are also cool to have for car shows! Nothing helps make the time go by faster when waiting to be judged, or taking a break from cleaning your show car, than putting in a cool video to watch, or to impress all of the spectators checking out the Custom Interior of your show car!

A rear-view camera can also be very helpful, especially when backing into your parking place so you can see exactly what is behind you and how far away from it that you are.
Carpet, upholstery, floor mats Replacing the old worn out carpet/floor mats and or seats and door panel upholstery can make your custom car’s interior look very clean or fresh. With a little creativity in this process, you can create a totally unique and custom interior. Things like having your headrests and visors custom embroidered with your name or car club name can also add a personal and very custom touch.
LED Switches for accessories The use of L.E.D. power switches can give your car’s interior a cool high-tech look. Upon turning the led switch on to power the accessory that it is installed for (i.e. fog-lights, neon lights, TVs, etc.), the led switch will light up with a brilliant colored led light that can really accent, or contrast your custom interior.
LED/Neon lights or Strobe Lights LEDs (Light Emitting Diode), Neon, and or strobe lights can make a great addition to your custom interior. These styles of lights require very little power, especially the led lights, and depending on where you place them can create a cool glow of light to shine.

Some common places to place these lights are under the seats, in the overhead light, around your subwoofers, or even in your dash air conditioning vents. Hundreds of styles and colors are available for each of these styles of lights!
Custom Steering Wheels The addition of a custom steering wheel can send your custom interior to the next level of customization! Many different styles of steering wheels, such as polished billet, carbon fiber, or custom painted, are available for any car.

The billet aluminum versions are available in hundreds of custom designs that will compliment your interior. Some of these styles include a spider web design, flames, or just about anything you can think of. One of the only things bad about having a custom steering wheel is that you will no longer have an airbag (inflatable restraint system) in front of the driver, so this is definitely something to consider.
Custom Pedal Covers This is one of the most easy Custom Interior mods you can do. Custom pedal covers, available in hundreds of styles for both automatic and manual pedal configurations, simply clamp on to your existing boring black pedals to give them a unique custom look.