Ten Best Car Mods for less than £50

Sometimes little things can make a big difference, and they needn't cost the earth to implement. Looking to personalise your project while watching the pennies?  Here's our ten best car mods for less than £50.

1. Dealer style Show plates

Transform the look of your ride with these slick OE showroom plates. Simply stick on for professional-style photos and take off to drive home. At a cost of £8.50 each, they are available in various styles and you'll still have change to buy fuel to get you to your favourite location. Look out Instagram... Oh, and don't forget to tag us #driveheritage

2. Change your indicators

A staple of the nineties modified car scene, clear indicators and side repeaters can easily clean up the front and side flanks of your cherished VW or Porsche. Alternatively, embrace the amber lens or retrofit them to your car and coordinate with some other components like brake calipers, centre caps or interior trim for a retro OEM look.

3. Body Coloured badges

20 minutes with some sandpaper and a rattle-can could certainly change how your car looks. No, we're not suggesting you paint flames down the side, but how about applying some subtle colour coding to your existing OE badges in the style of the Rallye Golf, for example?

4. Stickers

In the age of the internet, you can order anything you like and it'll arrive within a few days. For less than a takeaway dinner, you could be applying go faster stripes or some more subtle pin striping to highlight particular features of your car. Don't want to mess up your paintwork? Why not go for the classic sun strip look or add a few retro stickers in the rear side windows.

5. Get a new knob

If you drive a manual transmission vehicle your hand will be all over the gearstick for every single drive. Along with refreshing any worn gearshift bushings to remedy the proverbial porridge stirring feel, treat yourself to a touchy-feely gearknob to transform your cog swapping experience. Shop our gearknob range here.

6. Exhaust tips

Chrome tailpipe trims, like those found on a Beetle, are prone to rust and a ten-minute fix on a good day. Don't own a Bug? You could take things into your own hands-on any vehicle, just grab a grinder, a welder and some polished stainless pipework to smarten things up at the back.

7. Coloured seat belts

Make your interior look like an expensive special edition by installing new seat belts that aren't black! Ok, so you won't be able to deck out the whole car for less than £50, but you can certainly make a start with one seat! Shop our range of coloured seat belts here.

8. Get some decent polish

A clean car will make you smile, look fabulous in photos and feel great to the touch (anyone else like to run the back of their hand over a freshly waxed panel?!) £50 will easily see you right with a nice car shampoo, a decent polish and a bunch of micro-fibre cloths too.

9. Add some refinement

Spend some time to trace those nasty rattles and annoying squeaks and add sound deadening behind your speakers and on your wheel arches, bulkhead and floor to refine your whole driving experience.

10. Wheel Spacers

You'll be amazed the difference a few millimetres can make to both the handling characteristics and the aesthetics of your vehicle. Fitting wheel spacers is a great budget modification that can easily be carried out on a driveway or garage at home. Safety Warning: Remember to fit longer wheel bolts or studs if you choose to fit spacers of more than 3mm thickness, otherwise your wheel will not be held on securely.

Hopefully, this selection of wallet-friendly modifications will fire up a little inspiration in you. You might not want to do all of them, but we reckon there will be a couple at least, that gets you reaching for the piggy bank and counting out your pocket money. Andy