The Home Made Mod Post:

[Candyman]

Hey Everyone,

Its kinda funny, their are a ton of ways to customize a car, but whenever I am at a Show looking around, the things that I love the most are the totally one off home built little details that makes the car unique and one of a kind. Their can be a lot of ingenuity out their using every day items that may not even be automotive related, but used in cool ways to make cool looking stuff for our rides. As a great example of what I am talking about here, their was a guy over on PT Enthusiasts Forum who used to do simple write ups on what he called (Penny Mods) which were basically cheap ways to mod your PT, and make it look cool without breaking the bank. One such Mod was to head to Home Depot and look for some plastic chrome lighting fixture covers which cost just a couple of bucks, and as it turns out makes a great looking Strut Tower Cover under the hood. Even in my PT, when I recently redid my audio layout in my trunk my installer buddy helped me make a really cool looking amp rack out of PVC Pipe which he custom formed using a hand torch by heating and bending it to the way we wanted it, and then I sanded it, bondo, primed, and painted it, and it looks like expensive metal tubing but weighs nothing, looks great, and other than the paint, the materials used were under $10.00! Here is a pic of my amp rack for ya.



So I was wondering if any of the rest of you ultra cool PT People out their have also done home made Mods, or seen other people's home made mod, or have a cool idea for a home made Mod, and was kinda hoping ya might share it with us here.

Go easy, and I'll catch ya later.

Candyman

[careyk]

just little added touches.....note the home made DREAM CRUISER plaque for the dash under the window controls

[careyk]

sorry for the small pic....by the way Candyman your ride / mods look awesome...and my wife says I spend too much on my car

[pt_tom]

Yup, remember the guy well, Ratdaddy. Had a ton of great, cheap mods.

[Candyman]

Hey CareyK,

I thank you big time for the props on my Ride, and your PT is still looking insanely cool and cleaner than mine as usual, and I totally feel your pain as my Wife is also hugely jealous of the time, and effort that gets put into my ride, always in the garage/tent I got, under a cover, or getting washed and polished like it does once a month, always gets premium gas only, and the list goes on. We got a pretty good program though, she gets a nice dinner, maybe some flowers, sit down for an evening and just talk, or whatever, and then after the romance subsides, ol Momma lets me play in my Candyshop for as long as I want. Basically, if Momma's happy, then everyone is happy, and Candy can play !


Hey their pt_tom,

Yes sir, that's the guy! I have been trying to read through a lot of his older posts over at PTE and the guy was a genius in the world of Penny Mods! I really wish we could get him back, or I could try to track down some of his photos of his mods to see some more of what he had accomplished! In harder times like these, I think most everyone would love to do more penny mods like old Ratdaddy used to offer, and if we could work with half the imagination he had, I think we could really come up with some way cool custom stuff without breaking bank, and still look great!

That was kinda my whole intention with this post was to kinda try to get everyone to maybe think a bit outside the box and see where it takes us. So fr its pretty quiet, but I'm hoping more people might have some cool ideas out their somewhere, or if you could get Ratdaddy to swing by and drop off some of his way cool ideas, that would be beyond outstanding!

Anyways, go easy, and I will catch ya later.

Candyman

[twress]

Hey Candyman thanks for this idea for a thread, I myself bought a 2001 LE Inferno Red cruiser back in July and love it. It got about everthing in it but the heated seats. I've been looking for ideas to a little customizing to mine. Hopefully this thread will give me some good ideas. I know there's alot of people with great ideas out there so hopefully we'll see alot. By the way your PT (not just a car) is one of my favorite, love the color and especially the flames the way there done. I went to Detroit to look at a tangerine Dream Cruiser when I started looking for a PT, drove 1 1/2 hours saw the car on the lot and it had just been sold a few minutes before I got there. Any way I found a Inferno Red 01 bought that and couldn't be happier (for now) so lets those ideas flow..Thanks Tim W

[07Cruiser]

spray paint.

[Candyman]

Hey their twress,

As always, I thank you so much for the props on my ride! It is always much appreciated!

Hey 07Cruiser,

Kewl!

Here is another really simple cool idea I dig on brought to you once again by Ratdaddy.

Would you like a cheep way to tint your foglights a different color? Just Cruise on over to your local Walmart, or other favorite Retail Store, and pick up either a binder with a transparent cover in your favorite color, or a cheep transparent colored gift bag over in the party section and so on, remove your fog light, place it face down on the colored plastic surface, mark around it with a # 2 pencil, and cut it out. At this point you can cut tabs to fold over and apply using some 3M double sided sticky tape, or use a small bead of epoxy around the edge, or any other means of attaching the new plastic cover over the fog lights, and once you are done simply reinstall your newly custom tinted fog light. Repeat the process on the opposite side and enjoy. Here are a couple of pic's as well as a template that shows the dimentions. Here are the pic's.







I thought it was a pretty cool simple and cheep idea that only costs a couple of bucks, and I am now kinda wondering if it works on fog lights, if the same idea might be able to be applied to the inside of headlights as well using the old trick of removing the headlight and putting it in the oven for five minutes to soften the glue around the edge of the lens cover on the headlight assembly, and applying a either a slightly smoked, or possibly even orange plastic cover using the same concept, pop the lens back on, and enjoy.

Quick Warning, I rarely drive my PT on the road, and use it mainly for show only. Fog lights should be legal, but tinting headlights may likely be not so check your State Laws first, and also keep in mind for headlight purposes, no matter what method of tinting headlight lenses, you will obscure a slight amount on light which could have an impact on your visual acuity, and perception at night, so as cool as this Mod sounds, if you choose to do it in any form or fashion, you do so at your own risk from both a Legal, and Safety Standpoint. DOn't say I didn't warn ya!

Another really cool little bonus PT related idea for ya if you by chance have one of those New Bright giant PT Cruiser Radio Controlled Cars that doesn't work anymore, or you want to just buy one new for this purpose, either way here is a cool, and unique use for one. If you look around online you can find them around pretty easy for around $20 or so which I know is a little higher than the cheep Mods, but still not too bad.




Anyways, their are a couple of quick and cool ideas for yall.

Go easy, and lets see some more cool ideas!

Candyman

[pt_tom]

I've pm'ed Ratdaddy to see if we can get him to come into the thread.
But we've not heard much from him since he crashed his PT. We'll see....

[Ratdaddy]

Hello all, Yup the rat's still alive and well. I just can't believe that you guy's are still talking about my penny mods,thanks ever so much. My mods came about because of little cash on hand .The first mod i did was the shock tower covers it was a plastic plumbing pipe wall escutcheon i got from Lowe's
with a .99 cent spot mirror on it I think the next was my hood blanket.
I used a heat duct wrap from Lowe's gently peeled the two layers apart and spray glued it to the existing fiber blanket and installed it with new
hood clips. Most of my mods were for a 2002. Tell me what you might be thinking of and i will put the old brain back in gear...Again thanks for keeping my Penny Mods in your hearts and minds...Oh the colored fog light idea was not mine. Sorry can't remember who did that one..Here's a pic of the last mod sorr this one cost more than pennys