Car mods no one seems to do any more
Discussion
mph1977 said:
late 1970s/ ealry 80s pre - cellular ? effectively trunked PMR with an interconnect to the PSTN ?
Must have been 80-81. No idea of the tech terms as I was a wet behind the ears 16 year old 
I know the chap I worked for reckoned they would never take off and CB radio was the future !
daveofedinburgh said:
I'm 34 and feel ancient thanks to this thread.
Don't think of myself as being 'old', yet worryingly I can recall pretty much all of the 'Max Power' era mods, and indeed having a driving licence/ my own car and thinking many of these mods would enhance my car.
'On a mission' stickers struck a particular chord- in my youth these marked out many friends' rebellious older brothers in eg. mk3 Escorts. My memory fails me- who was the little dreadlocked, baggy-jeaned fella that used to appear on 90s car stickers? This indicated a car that smelled 'fragrant' and had bits of tobacco all over the carpets.
LED (and often chrome) washer jets didn't seem like such a bad idea for getting local sl*gs to notice you in McDs car park.
Bolt-on big exhaust pipes, some with a ring of LEDs(!) were a legitimate way of enhancing your cars' look.
Aftermarket clear/ LED side repeaters (triangle 'Focus' ones spring to mind) were commonplace.
Stick-on bonnet vents (Subaru scoop, Escort Cosworth, Astra GSi), often lacking the ar*ed to colour-code to the rest of the car didn't seem totally sinful. You could go the whole hog and do it 'properly', perhaps by having an 'F50' vent smoothed in to the bonnet of your Polo...
Unpainted/ primered bodykits/ bumpers, often seemingly wilfully ill-suited to the car (boxy Escorts with straight lines wearing mad, swoopy 'Delta' kits). Nova owners seemed to have a real penchant for fitting Mitsubishi-Evo-look bumpers.
Lexus lights are too obvious- how about those genital-wart looking rear light clusters you'd see on eg. mk1 Puntos (again often in chrome!)?
'Smoothed' tailgate/ number plate recess that would crack the moment someone looked at it. Usually accompanied by a poorly-though-out relocated numberplate with cheap lighting/ visible wiring.
Thin-spoked, too-large aftermarket wheels accentuating rusty drum brakes (or arguably worse: painted drums).
Bad-boy™ bonnets, made small hatches look comically angry no matter how lairy the engine swap.
Laguna splitters were pretty ubiquitous in the 90s, and arguably a relatively 'tasteful' mod given everything else that was going on at the time.
Metal flake paint.
'Devil-horn' rear 'spoilers' most commonly seen on Saxos.
Screw-on anodised door locks (my mk2 Astra sported these, with matching gear knob and handbrake lever/ gaiter!). Pure Halfords chic...
I could go on, but it's a surprisingly depressing exercise recalling how tasteless 'we' were in my formative car years.
Love this and recognize so much of it! Don't think of myself as being 'old', yet worryingly I can recall pretty much all of the 'Max Power' era mods, and indeed having a driving licence/ my own car and thinking many of these mods would enhance my car.
'On a mission' stickers struck a particular chord- in my youth these marked out many friends' rebellious older brothers in eg. mk3 Escorts. My memory fails me- who was the little dreadlocked, baggy-jeaned fella that used to appear on 90s car stickers? This indicated a car that smelled 'fragrant' and had bits of tobacco all over the carpets.
LED (and often chrome) washer jets didn't seem like such a bad idea for getting local sl*gs to notice you in McDs car park.
Bolt-on big exhaust pipes, some with a ring of LEDs(!) were a legitimate way of enhancing your cars' look.
Aftermarket clear/ LED side repeaters (triangle 'Focus' ones spring to mind) were commonplace.
Stick-on bonnet vents (Subaru scoop, Escort Cosworth, Astra GSi), often lacking the ar*ed to colour-code to the rest of the car didn't seem totally sinful. You could go the whole hog and do it 'properly', perhaps by having an 'F50' vent smoothed in to the bonnet of your Polo...
Unpainted/ primered bodykits/ bumpers, often seemingly wilfully ill-suited to the car (boxy Escorts with straight lines wearing mad, swoopy 'Delta' kits). Nova owners seemed to have a real penchant for fitting Mitsubishi-Evo-look bumpers.
Lexus lights are too obvious- how about those genital-wart looking rear light clusters you'd see on eg. mk1 Puntos (again often in chrome!)?
'Smoothed' tailgate/ number plate recess that would crack the moment someone looked at it. Usually accompanied by a poorly-though-out relocated numberplate with cheap lighting/ visible wiring.
Thin-spoked, too-large aftermarket wheels accentuating rusty drum brakes (or arguably worse: painted drums).
Bad-boy™ bonnets, made small hatches look comically angry no matter how lairy the engine swap.
Laguna splitters were pretty ubiquitous in the 90s, and arguably a relatively 'tasteful' mod given everything else that was going on at the time.
Metal flake paint.
'Devil-horn' rear 'spoilers' most commonly seen on Saxos.
Screw-on anodised door locks (my mk2 Astra sported these, with matching gear knob and handbrake lever/ gaiter!). Pure Halfords chic...
I could go on, but it's a surprisingly depressing exercise recalling how tasteless 'we' were in my formative car years.
I'm going to add a couple:
1) Interior neons - gotta love your nike airs glowing away with random light coming from under the glovebox - bonus points if running off an ugly visible ciggy lighter adapter.
2) A-Pillar gauges, proper fast+furious stacks of two or three in a cheap plastic pod - bonus points if the boost gauge in itself causes a minor boost leak!
Morette lights- You don't seem to see cars with them anymore. they usually be one of the first things anyone would do along with a body kit.
Also I never quite understood why everyone who decided to swap their headlights to one of a different manufacturer always ended up using ones from the peugeot 306 or 407 coupe.
Also I never quite understood why everyone who decided to swap their headlights to one of a different manufacturer always ended up using ones from the peugeot 306 or 407 coupe.
Grahamdub said:
Gunk said:
I remember having my brand new car being pulled apart to fit one of these bad boys
I used to fit the first car phones as a lad. The control box was the size of a small briefcase and you would have to try and hide it somewhere and then route the huge cable through the car somehow. You couldn't ring directly either. Every call had to go via an operator. Ah, the good old days ... techguyone said:
blues brothers?
Ashamed to say I've never seen it! The only time I've ever seen an 'on a mission' sticker was on the back of an otherwise totally standard Renault Clio. I had assumed it might've been some sort of religious thing; spreading the gospel or what have you. 
PoleDriver said:
TankRizzo said:
daveofedinburgh said:
My memory fails me- who was the little dreadlocked, baggy-jeaned fella that used to appear on 90s car stickers? This indicated a car that smelled 'fragrant' and had bits of tobacco all over the carpets.
"Dready", I think.This kind of thing:
aka_kerrly said:
Mr Spliffy, the logo for Eclipse clothing. I remember there being a non uniform day at secondary school (circa 1994) and some of the older kids were sent home for wearing Mr Spliffy jeans and Bomber jackets
This kind of thing:
I bought my OH a Hungarian Puli years ago.This kind of thing:
She couldn't decide whether to call him 'Winston' or 'Shabba'!
My kids decided on 'Mr Spliffy' and that's the name she kept!
PoleDriver said:
aka_kerrly said:
Mr Spliffy, the logo for Eclipse clothing. I remember there being a non uniform day at secondary school (circa 1994) and some of the older kids were sent home for wearing Mr Spliffy jeans and Bomber jackets
This kind of thing:
I bought my OH a Hungarian Puli years ago.This kind of thing:
She couldn't decide whether to call him 'Winston' or 'Shabba'!
My kids decided on 'Mr Spliffy' and that's the name she kept!
" Mr Spliffy come here /stop eating that/don't s
t there" and all those other kind things we say to dogs..
ambuletz said:
Morette lights- You don't seem to see cars with them anymore. they usually be one of the first things anyone would do along with a body kit.
Also I never quite understood why everyone who decided to swap their headlights to one of a different manufacturer always ended up using ones from the peugeot 306 or 407 coupe.
Is it wrong that I really like the Morette lights ? If I could get them for my current car (C30), I probably would Also I never quite understood why everyone who decided to swap their headlights to one of a different manufacturer always ended up using ones from the peugeot 306 or 407 coupe.
generationx said:
Grahamdub said:
Is it wrong that I really like the Morette lights ? If I could get them for my current car (C30), I probably would
They looked good (when done right) on Escort and Sapphire Cosworths as it was really similar to the WRC cars/becauserallycar
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