Want to be a modern-day MacGyver who can make something out of anything on hand? Well, there are some awesome car hacks that can help you make your way to greatness. There are some seriously cool stuff you can do to make your driving life a whole lot better, easier, and not to mention, more enjoyable. Here is a look at some amazing car hacks that actually work.
- Minties for that hole in your fuel tank: Do you have a hole in your fuel tank? Are you looking for a temporary fix until you can get your car to the mechanic? Get a couple of Minties and chew one until it sticks to your teeth. Once it sticks, chew it a little more to flatten it out. Wipe the area around the leak with a rag until you make it as dry as you possibly can, and then apply the Mintie to the leaky part of your fuel tank.
- Toothpaste to clean cloudy headlights: Have you heard that toothpaste is remarkable for cleaning cloudy headlights? This is actually true – especially the whitening kind. You will need quite a bit of elbow grease for this one. With a cloth, apply toothpaste to the plastic lens cover and rub it thoroughly all over the lens. Once that is done, rinse it off completely and thoroughly with clean water and then dry. To protect it further, use car wax or furniture polish with UV protection.
- Wet newspaper to get your registration sticker off: Do you find that out-of-date registration sticker annoying? Have you tried to get them off without success? Sometimes those stickers can feel like they have been set in the glass. But do not worry – all you need is wet newspaper to get the job done. Get some warm water and wet the newspaper. Place it over the sticker and leave it for 10 minutes. The warm water will penetrate the sticker and it will come off more easily.
- Nail polish for small scratches and chips: Is your car scratched or chipped because you parked a little too close to the vehicle next to you? You can fix the problem with a little bit of nail polish. Of course, you will need a shade that is closest to the color of your car. This may be the only option if you cannot obtain or do not own the specific color from the manufacturer. Unless someone takes a really close look, no one will be able to tell the difference.
Tinted plastic sheets as moveable shade: How annoying is it when you are driving when the sun is at a low angle and your visor is unable to stop all the light from coming through? In some cases, this can be quite dangerous as you can be temporarily blinded by the light. There is a sterling trick for this – use moveable tinted plastic sheets as a shade. Surface static allows the sheets to stick to the surface of your windows, so you can place the small sheets on the side windows or windshield to block some of the unwanted light out, giving sweet relief to your peepers.- Mesh bungee for extra storage: Are you in need of some extra storage in your vehicle? Get a couple of coat hooks and a mesh bungee net. All you need to do is hook the bungee net to the door handles, and voila, you have extra space for storage. You can use the space for almost anything – hats, coats, gloves, and so forth. These days, most car roofs are curved so the things that you store up there will not block the driver’s view of out of the rear window or be in the back passengers’ line of sight.
- Plunger for removing small dents: Fairly self-explanatory, this hack is a useful one to know. If one of your car panels has a small dent, a plunger is a fantastic item to use to try and get it out. When you pull the plunger back, its suction power also pulls the panel’s dented part forward and back into place. This is easy to do and works well in most cases – most cases. You may not want to do this in the rain.
- Hand sanitizer to de-ice car doors: Do you often have problems with your car door lock in winter? It could be because the moisture within froze overnight. Alcohol-based hand sanitizer is a prolific way to get the problem solved. The heavy alcohol content helps in effectively breaking down the ice and the type of bottles that squirt the sanitizer make it easy to inject the liquid into the lock and de-ice it.
Tinted plastic sheets as moveable shade: How annoying is it when you are driving when the sun is at a low angle and your visor is unable to stop all the light from coming through? In some cases, this can be quite dangerous as you can be temporarily blinded by the light. There is a sterling trick for this – use moveable tinted plastic sheets as a shade. Surface static allows the sheets to stick to the surface of your windows, so you can place the small sheets on the side windows or windshield to block some of the unwanted light out, giving sweet relief to your peepers.There are common problems that you often have to put up with when you own a car, but with these simple yet effective hacks, you can solve them in no time. So the next time you have one of these issues, take a look around your car – chances are that the item you need to fix the problem is somewhere in your household.