DIY: The Toothpaste Trick

Words and snaps by Ben

Modern cars are well known to carry as much plastic as possible. With the low cost, light weight and versatility of plastics, car manufacturers try to replace as many elements of a car with plastic. Among these are the headlights.

Old headlights, made of glass were deemed dangerous - when shattered they left tons of little cutting pieces scattered everywhere, which is always a bad surprise, unless you are a fakir. Plastic headlight covers, on the other hand, where much more friendly in this aspect. They were also lighter and much cheaper to produce, which quickly sealed the deal.

Yet plastic headlights have they own flaws, one of them is their tendency to become opaque with time and exposure to the elements. This not only reduces your vision when driving at night, but it also makes your car look old and badly maintained.

In Singapore, where the sun hits hard and the rain is acidic due to the air pollution common to big cities, you can often see cars with opaque headlights, such as my aunt's 8 year old Mitsubishi Grandis.

This was the perfect test mule for me to try out the toothpaste myth. You've probably heard about it too: all you need is toothpaste, a cloth and some elbow grease to do the job (count about 10-15 minutes per headlight depending on their state).

Here's how to do it:

Put the toothpaste on the dry headlight (water cancels the polishing effect of toothpaste).

Then rub the heck out of your headlight.

You will very quickly see the plastic clearing, it's so easy it feels anti-climactic.

Rinse the headlight with water and voila! Job done!

See the difference?

Do note that the advantage of using a flavoured toothpaste will be that you'll enjoy a nice smell while rubbing the cloth. Mine had a nice minty fresh smell. Very nice!

An alternative option is for you to go buy some headlight restoration products and do exactly the same job. It will take just as long but will cost you about 10 times (or more) the amount of money. Your choice.

Paris je t'aime... Part 4 - L'Atelier Renault

Words & snaps by Ben

Welcome to L'Atelier Renault, the 4th stop in our visit to Paris' concept dealerships!
So far, the trip had been rather disappointing, with Citroën showcasing their 30 years old (and older) models, Mercedes living in a fairy tale, and Peugeot exploring a culinary road.

I still had 2 stops planned - Renault and Nissan, and I was hoping to see at least a handful of cool cars, but my hopes were rather low after the previous 3 visits.

Until I stepped inside the Atelier (read: "workshop", in French), where I finally found what I was looking for - behold, the long awaited, first concept car of my Paris trip - the Renault Dezir.

It's easy to find where they derived the name of this gorgeous concept from: Désir, meaning desire in French, but with a "z", 'cause it's more hip.

The car is how we like concepts to be - sexy with organic lines, slapped with big wheels on all 4 corners.

The inside, glimpsed through the gullwing door revealed some rather funky-looking seat that Captain Picard would love to have in the Enterprise.

The steering wheel too looks pretty forward-looking, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one who wanted to grab it and take the electric-powered concept for a spin.

Then it showed us its booty, which featured a big array of vents (or new-age diffusers?), and the charging port, right underneath where the back window was missing. Who cares, it's a concept car! It'll probably have an array of cameras linked to a holographic projector in the car, or maybe a couple of laser beams that zap anything you could run into. I love concept cars!

Then I looked behind me and saw the Renault Captur. This time they removed the "e" at the end, 'cause it's more hip.

As I gazed further in the Atelier, Renault was showcasing another 2 Capturs, both sporting the same colour and trim as the one near the entrance.

And then there were even more Capturs. They were everywhere. Renault seemed to be in a craze about their new crossover. They seemed to be so excited about it that they could have pinned it on the wall. Well, they actually did.

On one side they were showcasing the heart of the Captur - a 3 cylinder engine.

And guess what? There was a Captur parked next to it, just in case if we were wondering which car this motor would be fitted in.

One the side, a station showed the extent of customisation you could bring to the Captur. A cute little console allowed you to select your favourite body colour, roof colour, rims and interior trim, and would render the results on its screen.

I think it was a great move by Renault to have this console, otherwise I would think that it only ever came in orange, with a unique interior and a single set or rims, as showcased on the 5 examples that were spread out everywhere around.

Then I discovered a small passageway, out on one side, that led to another room. Were they hiding their more precious prototypes over there?

No, of course not, that would be too easy. All they had back there were their electric cars, starting with the Zoe. This is Renault's electric city car, also known as the Leaf on Nissan's side of the Renault-Nissan partnership. The two brands use these models to spearhead the growing electric car movement.

The second and last road-ready electric vehicle featured at the Atelier was the Twizy. With a name that sounds like a popular chocolate snack bar, 'cause it's more hip, this weird contraption is like a four-wheeled scooter, a sort of quad if you want. It can carry up to 2 people and is made for the youngsters.

In France, teenagers are allowed to pass a special license at the age of 14, which only requires a basic theory test and allows them to drive a scooter up to 50cc. The Twizy and its 5hp fits in this category, which surely delights parents, as they'll feel it's safer to let their kids go about on 4 wheels instead of 2, and with a roof over their head in case of rain. Understandable.

The Twizy is not really a novelty since it has been on sale since March 2012, but it's electric, so it still had its place there. Come to think about it, the Zoe has also been in production since 2012, so Renault wasn't showing any groundbreaking stuff there.

And that concluded the tour of the Atelier Renault. Next up, the final showroom: Nissan!

DIY: Tow be or not Tow be

Words & Snaps by Ben

A couple of years back, I messed up some fuel mileage calculations and ended up stranded on the side of the Malaysian North-South Highway without a drop of gas left in my tank. I was offered a tow, but fell short as I realised my car did not have a front tow hook.

There's a specific bolt welded to the chassis in which you can screw in a tow hook, but that tow hook was nowhere to be found.

I ended up being rescued by someone with a jerrycan of gas, but what stuck to my mind was that in case of emergency, my car could not be towed. At least not from the front.

I decided to get a tow hook, but the original seemed to be a rare piece of metal that even Santa couldn't find in his magic workshop. Buying an aftermarket tow hook would do the job, but I was looking for a solution that wouldn't get unwanted comments from the authorities (hard tow hooks being illegal for pedestrian safety reasons).

The solution then: getting a soft tow hook. Or more precisely, making one.


This is a pretty basic DIY job, and all you'll need is an old seatbelt, a couple of metal eyelets, a sturdy bolt and nut, a drill (optional), and about 10 minutes of free time.

I first checked where to install my tow hook and decided to use the original tow hook location, behind the front left fog light cover, for practicality.

I then took my seatbelt, made a first fitting to measure how much I wanted it to stick out and proceeded to cut the belt.

As I don't have the tools to put on eyelets, I went to find someone who had the tools to do it.

Note that I only installed 2 eyelets and left one hole bare. The reason for this is that once the rivet in place, the belt would not be able to pass through the bolt hole in the chassis as the hole is half obstructed at the back.

This done, I then looped the belt in and secured it with the bolt.

To let the soft hook come out of the fog light cover, I took it out and drilled a slot in it.

I then put the cover back in place, slid the tow hook through the slot and voilà! Job done.

Paris je t'aime... - Part 3 - Peugeot Avenue

Our visit to Paris' concept car dealerships had not been the most exciting. Both Citroën and Mercedes failed to impress us, with one focused on the past and the other one busy showing off some princess dresses.

Continuing along the Champs Elysées, I was starting to wonder how the car scene was going to evolve if the dealers are more busy doing weird stuff rather than coming up with some cool concepts. It was then that I reached the Peugeot concept store, dubbed Peugeot Avenue.


On the shopfront, some sentences that could either herald some cool stuff, or spell out disaster: Shooting Secrets, Get behind the scenes.

I was really looking forward to seeing them share some insights how they shoot their concept car videos/ TV ads. And I was, once again disappointed.

Nothing new here, Peugeot was in a retrospective phase where they relived the highlights of their cars on the silver screen, with movie extracts playing all around the place. Like Citroën, they seemed to be reveling in the past. Was it the emo season in France or what?

One interesting exhibit was this old Peugeot limo, an old model I have never heard off, that seemed to address more of an American market by its looks.

The cool element was its transparent body, which let everyone see its insides, yet a small barrier was impeding us from getting up close and personal with the car, so the details were lost...

Surprisingly enough, Peugeot was not even showcasing the most famous Peugeot of the silver screen: the souped-up 406 taxi.

The only new thing in Peugeot Avenue was the 208, stored in a corner.

At the back of Peugeot Avenue, the French carmaker was showcasing miniature of their most iconic models.

They were also showcasing some of their classics, along with the ads they were promoted with.

Completing their journey to the past were some of their car hood emblems from the 60's or earlier.

And then there was the back wall, where Peugeot was selling... Foodstuffs. Like salt and pepper grinders and herbs and more...

French cuisine is, after all, world-famous, and I guess Peugeot must have been confused as to what they sell. Cars, dude, you sell cars, not food!

I guess they never read the memo.

Next stop: L'Atelier Renault!