improving car models...

Under the hood is a good place to start. Plug wires, battery cables and such. I use colored insulated wire from radio shack for all that.The inside is also a great place to try stuff like carpet useing flocking. Try these sites out for some good stuff.
http://modeltech.tripod.com/
http://www.spencer1984.com/tips.html
http://www.cueballweb.com/~worktop/tips_tricks/straps_belts.html

Hope those get you a start on some answers.

HEY,
Also, if you sand the tires a bit, it gives them a worn look. If you take sprue, you can shave it into a cube and make fuzzy dice for the rear veiw mirror, and doing anything to make the car unique, such as chopping the hood, custom exhaust, etc. OOOPS, almost forgot, the best place to start is the paint job. No matter what you do under the hood or in the interior, if you have a crappy paint job, it ruins the model. Hope this helps.

Randy

Tanks for the info, guys. That'll help me a lot. However, the one problem with detailing under the hood is that I currently have no reference material. However, I should be able to solve that soon...

Referance material for cars is easily found. What is it you are building?

PSF hobbies makes a great little kit with alot of the supplies for engine detailing. I have ordered it a couple of times. If they're being posted, they usually go for about 16-18 bucks on Ebay. (search for: engine detail kit) It comes in a little bag that is chock full. Its got something like 8 colors of sparkplug wire, 2 sizes of braided line, heater hose, seat belt material, battery wires, needle file and a drill bit to fit the wires. They also have some good instructions with the kit. I've had a LOT of success with that.

There are photoetched parts also. I found, that if you don't have a car where there is a specific PE detail set for, there are a few that are still useful. They're a little on the pricey side, but I found that I really use the seat belt hardware, some of the interior detail sets (window cranks, radios etc.) and some of the engine detail ones. I've always bought mine online, because none of the hobby shops around here carry anything like that. I've used modelcargarage.com before. They have a great selection, but nothing comes with any directions...grrrrrrrr
Some other sites I've used: scaledreams.com, detailmaster.com

One other thing that I've found very cool, is using machined aluminum parts. Mas-parts.com has an awesome collection, and I've been pleased with the parts there. They carry everything from air cleaners, to brake rotors, to exhaust systems.

So, feel free to ask any other questions. There are a few articles on interior detailing around. I could try to track some down. One model site you NEED to check out modeltech.tripod.com. They've got a huge resource on detailing cars...lots of articles. Then, at the bottom of the long list there are "general links"...that will hook you up with lots of the vendors of this stuff.

Hope all this helps...
Take care, and good luck

-jonathan

Try useing the net as a way to find what you want. I use google search ro punch up the URL for hot rod mag or other mags of that nature. I have spent like forever doing lil theing to modle cars for realism, I will be the first to tell you its fun but calm down I almost killed myself by sort circuting the old brain trying to shrink all that I seen. So dont try to do everything you see make a stoping point for your self and enjoy
Kit bash