The Art of Low-Cost Customization: A Conversation with James and Nolan

In this episode of High-Low, James and Nolan delve into the world of low-cost customization, exploring the possibilities of transforming a car from a bland to a unique ride. The duo begins by discussing their approach to street sharking, which they claim is not a crime. "Street sharking is not a crime," says James, "we're just looking for ways to make our cars stand out." Nolan agrees, adding that the goal is to have fun and express oneself through customization.

The conversation turns to the topic of wiring, with Nolan discussing the challenges of working with thin wires. "This right here, is like the worst wire that you could work with," he says. "The only way this is good is when you buy it and you just don't touch it." James chimes in, noting that using slightly larger wire to create a longer line can be an effective solution. However, Nolan warns that burning out the LED or damaging the little controller in the long run is a risk they're willing to take.

The duo then moves on to discussing their own cars and the mods they've added. James notes that his remotes barely work, but he's willing to overlook this flaw for the overall aesthetic of the car. Nolan agrees, saying that he'd choose to buy high-end components just for peace of mind and ease of use. However, when it comes down to it, they both opt for more affordable options, such as low-cost taillights.

The conversation takes a turn towards style, with James noting that he chooses mods that fit the "smiles per dollar" approach. He believes that spending money on high-end components may not always be the most cost-effective option. Nolan agrees, saying that he'd choose to go with cheap options like low-car taillights and high-car headlight just because they suit his car's style.

Ultimately, the duo concludes that customization is all about having fun and expressing oneself through one's vehicle. They encourage viewers to get creative and experiment with different mods, even if it means taking a risk or two. As James says, "I choose to rebel in this." The episode ends with Nolan speculating on which car would win in a track battle: the high-car or low-car versions.

In the final segment of the episode, James and Nolan chat about their plans for future content. They reveal that they have a new show coming up, featuring the last of the Z series, a final track battle between high-car and low-car mods. The duo also tease upcoming episodes, including a new format called "Donut Every Day" which will be available until James says he's dying. As always, James and Nolan conclude by thanking their fans for watching High-Low and encouraging them to follow the show across all social media platforms.

As the episode comes to a close, it's clear that James and Nolan are passionate about customization and self-expression through their vehicles. They offer valuable insights into the world of street sharking and modding, while also showcasing their own unique sense of style. Whether you're looking for inspiration or just want to learn more about the art of low-cost customization, High-Low is definitely worth checking out.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- $400 Lighting,verse $1,200 lighting.- Does more expensive,mean more better.- Let's find out(upbeat music)we got two identical Nissan 350Zand we've been modifyingthem to be fun daily drivers.They can take the track.one Z gets really expensive, cool parts,and the other Z gets the cheap stuff.Then we test them to see which componentsare actually worth spending your money on.- we Compared coil overs,brakes,wheels,tires,we've turbocharged both of our cars.And today we're addingsome stuff that doesn'tnecessarily improve the cars performance,but when you look good, you drive good.At least that's what I'm hoping.These are $800 taillights.- On real.- Made by a company called Yunique.I've heard that Zach job can potentiallyprogram these in any way that we want.- Insane.- We got some XK GlowHeadlight Bulbs here.These are $150.They're more advanced thanI knew headlight bulbs could be.We also got an Underglow Kit.This was $250.I can sync both of these to my phone,do strobes and change colors.You got to pay attention Nolan,cause you won't be driving home one daymeans that Joe rolled behind youand say... (funny beeps)flashing them blue and reds, man,you get pulled over.We'll beat you up.(both laugh)- All right, I'll keep an eye out.(both laugh)On low car We have 400bucks of eBay lights.Let's just dig in and see what we get.- Both boxes for ourlights are the same boxes.So we had a suspicion thatthey were the same lights.- They definitely are.They're the same design for sure.- And what we think happenedis the guy that we bought these frompurchases Nolan's lightsand then retrofits coolLED stuff inside of them.- Yeah.- I'm actually kind of stoked thata card dude made theserather than the factory.- Low car also got some under blueJames avoid it.It's just a strip of lightsthat we'll have to fixourselves I suppose.- Let's got.- sticky tape on the backand it comes with a bunch of zip ties.So I'm sure this will be nice and secure.(laughs)You might've gotten some headlight bowls.We got a full headlight housing.What do you think dude?- It looks like there's guns in it.- Yeah.- I'm so stoked it. I love it.That is so perfect for those cards.- They were $213.- I think they're worthevery single penny.- Yeah.So we've got our $400 set up here.We got our $1,200 Set uphere and the question is,can the cheap stuff flex as hardas the expensive stuff?- Do you yours change colors?- No.- Not after to a good start.(upbeat music)- It's time to swag out the low car.I've been looking forward to this episode.The whole time we've beenshooting this series.All right. So I'm removingthe stock tail lights.They're held in with three 1mm boltsthat hide on theselittle plastic tabs here.They come out pretty easy.And then according to the internet,you kind of just pull it sideways.There's these little tabs in therethat are holding them in.There you go. Oh,I already see a problem with the wiringfor the aftermarket lights,they do not use this kind of plug.It's gonna be moredifficult than I thought.- Basically we got to connectthese Steez to the battery.- These bones connectsto the battery bonds.- These things can change like into30,000 different colorsby using your phone.- 16 million James.- 16 million?Are you kidding me?- No.- I can't even name 16million colors dude.- You better get started.- Red,green,orange,pink,purple,teal,light teal,light purple,neon green,hot blue.- Maybe I'll do one headlight.Make sure that it'll fitand then it works.(man yelling)So this is the bulb thatwas in the car. It's an HID.This is the Age 7 connectorthat the XK glow kit was based around,which is a very different connectorthan what's on the bulb.So we can just cut some stuff,solder some stuff and make it work.But it's a little unforeseen hurdle.- It's not a plug and placesystem as we thought it would beand I'm gonna have todo some custom wiring.Now it's gonna tell you, wait an hour,at least to get it running.(Soft music)I guess the only thing to do isgive the headlights a try.Just smells like farts in here.- Sorry.(laugh hilariously)- All right, listen.We're going to make thesecolor changing bulbswork one way or another.So this car has HIDs.So it's got this littletransformer box here.Basically power goes in,it becomes high intensityand then it dischargesinto the headlight bulb.So we're going to justcancel that thing altogether.Clip the wires right here,run those wires to our new bulbsand we should be in business.Check back in 20 minutes.- Ever since we've bought this car,there's been condensation in the headlightand we just never addressed itbecause you know what? Low life.so many zip ties holding thisfreaking car together, dude.Second light going in.- Alright.So this is our firsttest with the new head.Nolan, you Ready?- Go ahead Aaron.(super bright light shinning)- Lets get those headlightsmaking colors, huh?- Yes- So we're going to wire this stuffstraight to the battery for right now.I was planning on doing it too. You know,like an ignition source from the fuse box,but we don't have that much timeand well, that's really it.- We started this show to compareexpensive parts to cheap parts,but I also want to add that it'scomparing expensive parts to cheap partsunder a very tight timeline.So we got a party lights going.See this, Ooh, red, white,and blue Marka- Today I'm gonna betackling new steering wheel.Oh baby.An NRG three-spoke wheel.I don't even know whatyou'd call this finish,but I think it matches thespirit of the car very well.Before you install a new wheel,it's very important thatyou disconnect your battery. Why?Because your airbag,you don't want to blow your hands offworking on your car.That'd be very unfortunate.(man screams)Along with our wheel, wealso got a quick release hub.It's a race car thing.You know, having your wheel outmakes it easier to getin and out of your car.Especially with racing seats.We're going to take thisplastic face off of the wheel.Underneath there willbe the airbag assembly,which is the reason wedisconnected the battery.There will also be a nutholding the steering wheelonto the steering column itself.Once we loosen that,we'll be able to slide the wheel offand begin the installationprocess for a new wheel.This is the dumbest toolfor this job, but whatever.(man struggling)That was scary.- Our aftermarket brakelights came with four wires.Two of them were black,one's green,the other one is greenwith a white Stripe.So just to double check,even though I'm pretty certain,which one does what.I got this power pro right here,which tests continuityand gives things 12 volts.So it's very easy when you're tryingto figure things out.When it beeps, complete circuitthen you have continuity.I'm going to give 12 voltsto one of the green wiresto figure out which one is which.So this one's the greenwire with the white Stripe.That's probably your running light.Then I'm gonna go to the greenwire and do the same thing.(continuous beeps)Since it's brighter, that's a brake light.So now you know which one's, which.You don't want to cut wiresuntil you know exactly what does, what,cause it's not very easy to repair.(whistles)Brake light.- They look great.I mean, they're not too muchdifferent than the stock ones,but I like the design.- Things are rowdy, dude.I love it.- Kind of debating on howwe're gonna run the wires.I think ideally I'd gounder the carpet inside,but again we don't have that much time.So I'm debating whether ornot there's a good optionto go underneath the carand just go up to the taillights that way,but it's not looking too great.This door panel, huh?- We've got power and groundto our taillight harness now.So I guess I'm gonna plug them inand see if they work.- Well, Job is working on the taillights.I'm gonna lay out our Underglow Kit.Make sure we have all of our parts.Up until this point,everything we've done about these carshas been to add The Fast.But today we're gonna add And The Furious.You can have any beer you want,as long as it's a Corona, bam.(upbeat music)Oh yeah.That's how people know we're serious.Oh, hi baby.Don't chill in the car.Don't pee.Hello doggy.(gibberish)Look at this thing. Come on, come on.- Hey I'm Frank. We're aboutto plug in this taillight,see if it does anything.See, dude, give me a plug.Dude. Give me a plug.Plug me.- Check out Zach job's news show.- You actually, you know what?Go ahead.- Take out Zack job's new show, Money Pitonly on Donut Media.He's building a sick Miataand we encourage you to build along.We're doing it with a budget in mind.You guys have been asking for mid cart.I think the Miata is mid cart.- Now that's a good plug.Now plug in like this.- Okay, cool- And let's see what happens.(all cheer)Hey, I might be stopping or am I...(all laugh)- This is what you callsteezing for no reason.(upbeat music)The tail lights are in and working.Time to move a ontothe underclothes, Yeah.- Yeah.Are you missing some hardware?- I don't know.- Let's move on to the underclothes.- Alright, here we go.(honks)Works.Yes.Oh, that's such a cool noise.Well, this thing's at Z days.It'll be a pretty easy.- I think it's good.- I feel like a grandma right here.This is like some NASCAR.- Yeah, feels like NASCAR.- I do like the feel of itand a surprisingly easy to install.It's time to install The Under Gloves.They came with these little,little channel things thatyou screw up into the carand they'll hold the lights.So we got a drill,we got an impact driver,all ready to go, baby,we'll go a little more forward.And a little more forward.(metal grinding)The taillights are in and they work.The headlights are in and they workand The Under Gloves are in placeand they're working.So now it's all the tedious stuff,hiding all the wires,tying stuff up and all that kind of junk.This is a universal kit.So they gave us enoughwire to wire, a semi truck.- This part kind of sucks.Cheap.It's just cheap.Our $25 lights are so smallthat we're going to have liketiny bits of like lightshining from under,under the car instead of the whole thing.- That's pretty cool on the wheel up here.Everything's wired up. It's working.It looks, steezy AF,a little silly, but super fun.We're going to go do some crimes.- I'm in for crimes.- I love doing crimes with you guys.You guys are great for doing crimes with.Street sharking is not a crime.(upbeat music)- We don't have enough lengthto get all of our lights to wherethey should be to make the car look good.- I think I can do this thing.Such things for very,very thin wires.- This right here,is like the worst wirethat you could work with.The only way this isgood is when you buy itand you just don't touch it.Because the wire is so brittle that ifyou crimp it a littlebit too hard, it snaps.And then you mess up your line.- No, that's all under the sway bar.- Come on, man.- No, I would like it togo through the car, right?(chattering)- Like get a long these guys,a bunch of armchair quarterbacks.Can't believe this.- You know the coffee's good.Sometimes you just gotta drink it.And he was able to pull it off.What he ended up doing wasusing slightly larger wiregoing from very thin 24, 26 gaugeto like an 18 gauge.Pretty decent wire.Because it's so long could potentiallyburn out our ledor damage the littlecontroller in the long run.But for now we can look legit.Let's see if we can getthese things to work.- No dude, no dude.- So ridiculous, dude.I loved it.- I think it came outpretty dope for 25 bucks.- Yeah, dude.- 50 bucks totaland now you got all of it.- I love it.- It looks great.- It's making light.It might not be quite as bright as ours,but I think at night thisthing's gonna look sick.These cost $25.You can't go wrong.Put these in my room.- There's only one more thing to do.Wait for the sun to go downand mob with my boys.- Think this is like my boxer, honestly.(man blowing through the exhaust pipe)(upbeat music)- So, does more expensivemean more better?- I'm going to say, Yeah, Yeah,- Really?- Yes it does. (laughs)Our remotes barely work.- Yeah.- We had to get extra wiringto run the lights all the way to the back.- Oh, yeah.- But Hey, for 20 something bucks,I think it's a good value.I just think the high car componentswere of a better quality.- The fact that high endedup spending over $1,200just to make the car funnier.I think like smiles per dollar,You guys destroyed us in this challenge.- Absolutely.I think there's a far lower chanceof getting pulled overwith our taillights than...- Cause when we hit the brakes,they cause people tohave epileptic seizures,those headlights are atrocious,like a tribal arm tattoo.- That's what the car is missing.That's why it shows them.They suit the cars so well, I think.I choose to rebel in it.- Yeah, totally.They're like 100% on pointfor the style of this car.Nolan, which one would you buy?- By component,I think I would go with the expensive LEDsjust for peace of mind and ease of use.Taillights,I think I'm going togo with the cheap ones.They worked welland they won't get me arrested.I'm going to go withthe high car headlight.- I think I'm the same.I think like high car headlights,low car taillights,and I'd probably go low car neonsjust because I can't notice a difference.At the end of the day, all ofthis stuff was just to be fun.And I think both cars are super fun.So I'd rather do it ata fifth of the price.Thank you guys so muchfor watching High-Low,this episode and allthe episodes before it.Next week is the last of the Zs.- It's the final track battle.It's the final confrontationbetween high car and low car,which mods will come out on top, James.I can't wait to find out.- We got a lot of new shows.We're not slowing down at all guys,Donut every day,official now until the day I die.Follow us @DonutMediaacross all social media,following Nolan @NolanJaySykesFollow me @JamesPumphrey.- Thank you.- I love you.(laughs)- See you next time.