Automega Auto Accessories Blog

Are you up for a little “Nerf Bar Trivia”?  

Some wonder why such a rigid shiny tube on the side of a truck is called a nerf bar. Sometimes people refer to them side steps or chrome tubes because they cant grasp the concept of “Nerf Bar” as being a hard shiny stainless steel object. “Nerf” material, like the material used to make soft footballs, baseballs & frisbees you may have thrown around as a kid, doesn’t really relate to some hard chrome tube you would use to step on to help you step into your truck.

So here it is. The nerf bar was a tubular device that was originally intended to be fitted to the side of a racecar – often single seaters like a midget race car that competes on a race track. 

“Nerf” is also a racing term that refers to a small bump (rub) between two vehicles. When one driver bumps the other car in order to pass it, they call it nerfing.  Nerf bars protect the sides of the vehicles and keeps their tires from rubbing. Without them, the fast spinning tires can come in contact with each other causing the cars to lose control, or flip. Sometimes having nerf bars on your truck is a good way to help protect your wheels and body kits, however rub a stainless steel nerf bar up against a concrete barrier and you can expect to need to replace it. I’ll have to say sometimes I wish I had the old style nerf bars, because I’d occasionally like to bump into a few people myself on the freeway, but I guess you just cant win.

Why would someone take the time to send me that question I’ll never know. That said, rather than sending an email reply I thought I’d post it instead. There must be lots of other drivers out there that probably want to tie their body kits into a knot too. Surely there is absolutely nothing else to do, so lets try it..

It turns out that in some instances it is quite possible to do so without harming the part depending on the body kit part that you are working with, and it would obviously depend on the knot. So can I tie it into a:

 - Square Knot?   - NO
 - Figure Eight?   - NO
 - Overhand? - Well, read on…

Lets take a urethane Air Dam - it is very flexible and if you twist it into a million directions it wont break or crack, so I would say YES you can tie your air dam or probably even your side skirts in a pretzel shaped overhand knot. Let me just say at this point that i think you would probably be the only person that I know that has a knotted body kit, so good for you . However if it were fiberglass you would never be able to do that. Fiberglass parts are not flexible and if you try to bend them like that they will crack or break in half. Thats why people buy urethane body kits, for the flexibility alone. To prove the point we took a urethane front air dam (lip) by Wings West that was for an Acura Integra and took before and after pictures.

Here it is tied into a knot:

Here it is after we untied it:

Automega, an auto accessories website located in San Diego California announced on Monday December 11 2007 the top five auto accessories sold for the current year. Number 5 this year was car tail lights, in which the current customers seem to more interested in the LED Tail Lights that are now offered. Coming in at number four this year are Nerf Bars. Stainless steel nerf bars wont rust, and folks in the midwest and northern states with rust issues surely can appreciate that. Number three this year are lambo door kits. These lambo hinges give you the look and feel of a Lamborghini door which opens up like a gull wing door. They really do get you noticed wherever you are. Coming in at number two this year was car and truck graphics. Installing car decals is very easy, and it’s one of the least expensive upgrades that you can make to your vehicle, and in a matter of minutes you can change your “Plain Jane” vehicle into a faster looking, more custom ride. And topping it out at Number one this year are one of our favorites - Body Kits. Car and Truck body kits will dramatically change the look of your vehicle. If you are looking to get your car looking like its ready for the movie “The Fast and the Furious” or maybe you want to enter the drifting scene, then adding ground effects is one of the first steps you can make to enter the aftermarket scene.

This is the lowest pricing EVER for our Vertical Doors Inc. brand direct bolt on lambo kits at AUTOMEGA. Direct Bolt-On kits now starting at $899 saving you up to $900! These are high quality lambo door kits that are easy to install manufactured in the USA. No coupon code is needed. Sale subject to change without notice.

Hundreds of new Auto Graphic Kits added recently at Automega including our Car Graphics, Truck Graphics and Window Graphics products. Starting today 9/21/07 there is FREE SHIPPING on all rear window graphics & decals. No coupon code is needed, your savings will appear automatically once you place your window graphics order. You can always call to place your order at 1-800-232-6922.  Sale subject to change without notice.

Extreme Dimensions is at it again with their September Promotion on any of their full body kits. For all orders that are processed in September you can take an ADDITIONAL 10% OFF THE SALE PRICE on full body kits. No coupon is needed, your discount will appear automatically in your shopping cart. Extreme Dimensions is famous for their ground effects, hoods, bumpers and spoilers, and most products are manufactured in Duraflex Fiberglass or Urethane materials..

Dont miss this sale, it’s the best pricing of the year for Extreme Dimensions Body Kits!

We are happy to offer a great opportunity to save on Extreme Dimensions Body Kits. The deals are $25 off Full Body kits or any combination of 2 bumpers and a pair of side skirts. The second offer we have is $10 off any bumper. These coupons are taken automatically when you put Extreme Dimensions items in your cart, no need for messy coupon codes! Both on these deals are only for DuraFlex Fiberglass parts which is more than 88% of our Extreme Dimensions inventory.

Well here we are, back again with another issue and another bonanza of can’t miss deals for you to check out. This month we’re celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, so pull up a mug of green beer and get ready to have some fun. Did you know that St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland? He died March 17th in the year 461, the date that has since that time been known as St. Patrick’s day. Though actually America didn’t begin celebrating St. Patrick’s day until 1737. And there’s your trivia for the month. You can share that information with anyone who tries to pinch you for forgetting to wear your green next Thursday! Now, here at AUTOMEGA® we’re definitely feeling a love for the green, and while we can’t ship you green beer and shamrocks, we can offer you THREE great deals this month that will save YOU a little green.

TIP SHACK

How to refinish plastic tail light lenses. With minimal effort, they can look brand-new.

We had recently purchased a late model used car that had seen too many trips through a brush style car wash. A no-no for any real car enthusiast. But, for the populous, those time-saving, discount gas station car wash machines are a might bit tempting.

The whole car had taken on a patina from the swilling automated car wash brushes. We knew that we would be able to restore the paint work in short order with System One products sold by the Eastwood Company (www.eastwoodco.com) However, we wanted to concentrate at this time on the plastic taillight, headlight and decorative trim. The objective was to rejuvenate these areas to a “like-new” finish. We selected Autosol Paste for this project [we recommend the 100gm tube instead of the 1000gm can, as this stuff goes a long way].

We first set about to carefully wash the entire vehicle, eliminating dirt, grit and contamination. Turning our attention to the taillights, we applied AutoSol by hand. We applied a small amount to a clean dampened cloth, and, with only a small amount of pressure and elbow grease, we could see out taillight lenses rejuvenating before our eyes. A quick final polish with a clean rag had all but eliminated the car wash brush marks.

If you are interested in a solution that takes less sweat, try this. Apply AutoSol to the taillight lenses with a damp rag. Use a loose 40-ply 4″ buff wheel attached to a wheel arbor on your electric drill [you can get both items for less than $10]. Buff the surface at 90° angles. Be sure to occasionally check for heat build-up. Though you’ll most likely find very little, better to be aware of the potential for heat build-up than to not pay attention to the possibility at all. Within a few minutes your taillight lenses will be transformed to like-new condition.

After the taillights, we turned our attention to the plastic headlamp lenses that suffered from the same problem as the taillight lenses. The AutoSol cut through the dullness in short order. Deeper stone chips could not be removed, but, overall, our headlights were as clear as ever.

Next, we applied the same procedures to detail the car’s ornamental plastic grille lens. The results were equally wonderful!

If you have some AutoSol paste leftover, don’t worry - it has many excellent applications on metals, too. Give it a try!

To purchase Autosol, contact the Eastwood Company directly.

WEB NEWS

You don’t have to drive a green car to take advantage of this amazing deal. Actually, you don’t have to drive a car at all - a truck will work, too. I’m talking about our sweet new deals on Lambo Door Hinges. You know you’ve seen these and you know they’re hot. AUTOMEGA® has both Vertical Doors, Inc. Brand and AutoLoc™ Brand Lambo Door Conversion Kits. Vertical Door, Inc. Brand systems are made as a direct Bolt-on installation with pre-drilled hinges to fit specific vehicles. AutoLoc Brand systems are totally universal with hinges that are not pre-drilled and are not direct bolt-on installations. So no matter what you drive we’ve got an option to work for you. And with our recently reduced prices, new product line additions, AND free shipping, it’s no wonder these are flying off the shelves.

Have you started gearing up for spring yet? It’s right around the corner, you know, and we’ve got the products you need to get you out and about after a long, cold winter. Check out our racks to find the right bike rack for your vehicle - and hey, we’ve even got towing racks. So you can pull your boat out of dry dock and bring along your bikes, no hassle.

Hi again from AUTOMEGA® world. Can you believe it’s already November? It seems like once we get done with August the rest of the year just flies by. In no time we’ll be ready to ring in another new year. I like the fall, aside from the whole “fall back” issue. In theory it seems like a good deal—who would turn down an “extra” hour of sleep? But then that first Monday evening commute when you’re driving home in the moonlight it hits you that, hey, my day is missing something. Like, I don’t know, daylight maybe. It’s not until then that you really realize what that extra hour of sleep has cost you. Maybe we should all move to Arizona, where for whatever reason they’ve decided to buck convention and bypass the entire fall back/spring ahead extravaganza completely. In any case, these shorter days do make it a little more difficult to get in that quality time with your car or truck, but we’ve got a few things to get you excited about spending Saturday out in the garage.

TIP SHACK

This month we’d like to address something a little different—saving money at the gas pumps.

We all know that gas is just about as expensive as it’s ever been. And yet, despite rising costs, we still have just as many places we need to go. But there are ways you can cut costs, without having to cut back on your driving. The thing we’d like to focus on is how you can get better gas mileage every time you drive. And these tips are so easy to implement that you’ll be doing them for life, even when (if) that gas prices finally go down.

The first thing you need to look at is your car or truck’s wind resistance. If you drive a pickup truck, this is likely the easiest thing you can address when it comes to saving money. This is because as you drive, air flows into a pickup’s bed and runs into the tailgate, causing a lot of resistance and making your car work harder to get from point A to point B. To reduce wind resistance, you can drive around with your tailgate down, as some people do. Or you can remove your solid metal tailgate and replace it with a tailgate net, so the air can flow through. An air gate operates under the same principle, but it’s made from metal tubing or mesh, instead of vinyl netting. Another option is to install a tonneau cover or a truck cap. Not only do these products smooth the airflow over your bed, they also can provide lots of secure storage space.

Another simple savings solution for both cars and trucks is to keep your tires properly inflated. Tires that are low on air are going to decrease your gas mileage, again by making your car work harder. Under inflated tires will also wear out more quickly and require replacement sooner.

Taking it a step further, you can improve your gas mileage by making your car’s engine more efficient. An engine that burns 90 percent of the air and fuel mixture is much more efficient than one that burns 60 percent. It therefore will make more power from the same amount of fuel–because what isn’t burned in the combustion process becomes waste and gets sent out your tailpipe. So, a more efficient engine is not only more powerful, it gets better fuel economy. One way to address this is to improve the spark to your engine, so it burns the air and fuel mixture better. You also can make a motor more efficient by reducing internal friction, so it doesn’t have to work as hard. One way to reduce friction within an engine is to run a high-quality–or synthetic–motor oil.

This is by no means all of your options for improved fuel economy, but I hope this will get you thinking of other common sense practices you can put into play to shell out a little less cash at the pumps each week.

WEB NEWS

This month we are proud to offer you a brand new product to AUTOMEGA® at a fantastic deal—Aluminium Billet Grilles, as well as on our very own brand, MegaBillet Stainless Steel Billet Grilles. These lightweight all stainless steel Billet Grilles are made of 304 grade polished stainless steel that will not tarnish. This grille will look brand new even five years down the road. Several makes and models available.

If you haven’t gotten yourself a set of Altezza tail-lights yet, now is the time. We’ve recently added in several new models and have everything in stock reduced to it’s lowest pricing yet. This won’t last forever, so get started finding what you need.

Hi again, my fellow auto fanatics. Thanks for taking a moment out of your day to visit with us and see what is going on in AUTOMEGA® world. So, with the Autumn Equinox on September 22 this year, we’ve got less than a week to go until the official end of summer. Although I know it probably felt like the end of summer as soon as you finished that last Labor day long weekend. Did you know that the ancient Greeks celebrated this time of year (the Equinox, not Labor day, in case you were wondering) with huge festivals in honor of the upcoming harvests? And while we know there probably aren’t many of you prepping for a harvest, and we don’t actually have a festival, we do have some great end-of-summer savings we’d like to pass on to you.

TIP SHACK

We recently got the question:

I have a 1997 Eldorado. I just realized I DO HAVE a trunk light, but the bulb has been removed. When I find the bulb I need, how do you suggest I verify the light is going out when the trunk closes? Having a missing bulb in such a seldom used spot makes me wonder if the previous owner had a problem with it.

That’s a good question! I would suggest getting into the trunk and pulling the lid down as far as you can without locking it. Ideally, station someone outside the car with the keys, just in case you do lock yourself in, they can rescue you (make sure this is someone who really likes you and will actually let you out, should the need arise.) You may be right, the previous owner may have pulled the bulb because it would not shut off, so you better check that out before it kills your battery. I’m just happy you didn’t ask me about your refrigerator light bulb!

WEB NEWS

Looking to give your car or truck a new fall makeover? Your timing couldn’t be better, because we’ve got literally hundreds of different graphic kits, pinstriping and rear window graphics to choose from. Many of these are recently discounted, and new styles are added regularly.

Now that the weather is cooling off, maybe you’ve been thinking it would be nice to get out after work and do some cycling, get that old heart pumping. Take it from me, you don’t want to risk damage to your car or your bike by just tossing your bike into the trunk. AUTOMEGA® now carries a full line of bike racks. From fold down racks to tire mounted racks, we’ve got you covered.