Garage GuidesAll guides
Garage Guides
Reference guides for keeping a real vehicle record: maintenance, mods, tools, costs, and performance.
The trust model is plain. Guides name their sources and carry a visible last-reviewed date. Specifications appear only with their verification level. Claims that cannot be verified stay out.
- Generations modeled
- 387
- Jobs in catalog
- 686
- Tool definitions
- 365
- Journal topics
- 8
Guides
Method rather than specification. Anything that depends on your exact vehicle lives in the libraries below, where it is generated from the datasets and carries a verification level.
Documenting
Keeping a record that survives the build, the years, and the sale.
How to document a car build
What to record per modification, when to record it, and why the receipt matters as much as the part.
Reviewed 2026-08-155 min
Costs
Budgeting work before it starts, and knowing what it really came to after.
How to budget a car build
The cost categories people forget, and why supporting parts are where budgets actually break.
Reviewed 2026-08-155 min
Maintenance
Service history, intervals, and proving the car was looked after.
Keeping maintenance records for a modified car
Why a modified car needs a better record than a stock one, and what to log when the book no longer applies.
Reviewed 2026-08-155 min
Tools and DIY
What a job needs before you start it, and what to buy first.
The tools your first jobs actually need
Buy in the order the work demands, not in kit form. What the first jobs require, and what can wait.
Reviewed 2026-08-154 min
Performance
Measuring what a change did, in conditions you can compare against.
Baseline before you modify
An unmodified number you can compare against is worth more than a big number you cannot.
Reviewed 2026-08-155 min
Reference library
Three public libraries generated from the product's own datasets, not written for search engines.
Vehicle Library
Makes, model lines, and generations
Chassis codes, platforms, and engine codes from the dataset the product runs on. Nothing is listed that the dataset does not carry.
387 generations modeled
DIY job library
Jobs with tools, hazards, and effort
Common maintenance jobs resolved from the product job catalog: required tools, hazards, effort ratings, and where verified data exists.
686 jobs in catalog
Tool Library
The tools jobs call for
Which jobs need each tool, how strongly, and where a substitute works. Built from the same tool profiles the readiness feature uses.
365 tool definitions
From the journal
Longer writing on recordkeeping, ownership costs, and documenting builds, organized into eight topic hubs. Browse the journal.
Free templates
Printable sheets that work with no account: a maintenance log, a mod list and build sheet, and a vehicle document checklist. Each one prints on a page and opens in any spreadsheet app. Browse the templates.