6. Modifying your Car, When stock just isn't good enough

Manufacturers have this nasty habit of making cars that suit the normal
grandma who needs to drive to and from the shops every day without
messing up her hair. Even sports cars are usually made for the fifty
year old men who can actually afford them, and as a result most cars
performance is sacrificed purely so the target market will buy them.

User Stores

Thankfully we have some shops here on LAPL which will help that shopping trolley
of yours go faster, handle better and stop on a dime. User Shops all work a little differently, or cater for special needs, so look around each of them, read their rules and see if you can find what you're after.

Mechanical Modifications

After looking around the shops you've found what you're after. There's a
nice Cold Air Induction Kit you've got your eyes on, and a Short
Shifter Kit will help you reduce your quarter mile times a little. Once
you've bought these sorts of modifications the process is easy. Account
for the transaction like you did with your car (quote the sale post using the
button), add the parts to your profile under the car you're fitting them to, and adjust your cars statistics (horsepower and weight) in both your profile and signature.

Because you can not see these sorts of modifications from the outside of the car you don't have to update the image of your car. Simply modify your bank balance, profile
and signature and you're done! (you must reference the link to the shops work in your cars profile.)

Visual Modifications

The standard rims were a bit bland were they? A rear wing would definitely
help you pull the girls as well. Visual modifications vary from store to store, so make sure you thoroughly understand what is needed of you before posting. Generally there are four types of visual purchase:

Pre-made, Shop Installed
- Basically you choose what you want from the shops catalog and pay
them to "install" it - rims are a good example here. They will give you
a new image of your car, and this image will replace the one currently
in your profile and signature
Pre-made, Self Installed
- You choose what you want from the catalog, pay cash and walk out
the door. It is then up to you to "install" the part, which means
editing your cars image yourself
Shop Made, Shop Manufacture
- You give reference pictures to the shop and pay a lot of money. They
then return you an image of your car which will resemble your reference
pictures. It costs more because it's not a simple cut and paste job,
just like in real life installing a Veilside front lip is a lot faster
than manufacturing one from scratch using fiberglass!
Self Made, Shop Manufacture
- You've given a go of tuning yourself. You already have the pixel
image of your car which is the "final" product. Go to a store and
simply ask them to quote it for you. This will cost less then a Shop
Made part, because you have already done the hard work, all they're
doing is "manufacturing" it for you.(make sure that you are infact the one who created the part and not something you found on the web.)

Check with each store though, some don't do Shop Made body kits where as others have Dream Services where they will even put performance parts in to suit your
needs.

Crediting

it is very important that you credit the person who has made visual modifications to your car, even if it was you. Crediting is taken very seriously and can lead to you being banned if you don't! Crediting is like an artist signing their painting before selling it, so please credit any member who has done any visual work on your car,
in your profile.

Keeping your Profile up to date

Don't forget two things. Don't forget the Car Restrictions around how much power you can produce and how much weight you can take out, and don't forget to keep your profile and signature up to date. Unless you keep your profile up to date, judges won't know what parts you've purchased and you stand less chance of winning races.

You pay for EVERYTHING

Nothing on LAPL is free. Even if you make things yourself you must go to a User
Store who will "manufacture" it for you. (See Self Made, Shop Manufacture Rule above) In the real world you won't find many people who can make a set of rims in their backyard, and the average Joe's skills with fiberglass and carbon fiber is much to be desired, so there is a blanket rule - if you didn't pay for it chances are it's not allowed on your car.

One should include all thread links on modifications to their vehicles in their vehicles post on their profile.