Detailed guide on how to mod cars - and everything about them (handling, looks, sound, etc.)

Chelios

Wanted to share this with my fellow modders, especially the ones who want GTA V to be a bit more realistic in terms of driving experience. So forget the arcade handling, the shitty sound of your car or the small, ugly wheels: here is a guide on how to make your car look, sound and drive as you've always wanted it to.

Using mods.
Yees, first things first, you need to have Open IV (brilliant auxiliary program) in order for your modding life to be made significantly easier. I know 99% of people here already know this, but I wanna be thorough. After you got it, look up a guide on how to install and use everything properly and you're good to go.. oh and don't forget to use the Tools - Search as many times as you need it, makes everything so much easier to find.
And one more thing. UPDATE YOUR MODS. After Rockstar puts out a new patch, dont forget to get to the 5mods site and download the updates for your used mods (you can add mods to your Favorites and this way the site will send you notification if the mod has been updated - and don't be impatient; after a new patch is released the modder guys have to adapt their mods and this process might take a few days but most likely 1-2 weeks).

The car itself.
So you've got some cars that you like and you download them. You can install them either as a replace (instead of other, already existing cars) or as an add-on (a completely new downloadable content pack - dlc).

Trainer.
Your cars won't just spawn themselves, will they? You gotta download a trainer (I use Menyoo's but if you find it a bit difficult to use at first, you can get the Enhanced Native Trainer - ENT which is more user friendly (just don't forget to download the latest patch not the old one if you go for ENT). In-game you can spawn cars with these trainers, modify them and then save them - this is useful, as you don't want your hard work of finding the perfect wheel or painting your car the finest color to be in vain; just go and save it.

Looks.
Haven't you always wanted since Need for Speed Undeground 2 to customize your cars to the smallest possible detail? Well Rockstar and the modding community have given us this wonderful opportunity some 10 years later. Here's how you're gonna do it:

V-Stancer.
This bad boy is one of my favorite mods in this game. It lets you customize the wheel size, width and camber and (oh yes) the height and width of the suspension. Just give your car the perfect stance (you can be stupid with it and make some ugly-ass looking cars, but if you use it with style, your stance will be boner-inducing, trust me. Add a custom plate-text to your car (do it with trainer) and save your stance with V-Stancer - this way the next time you spawn the same type of car with the same plate, it will apply the suspension and wheel alterations automatically.
Rims.
GTA has some ugly rubber, brake disks and rims in the game. You might not think it's true, but trust me, after you've seen the Vossen-B Rims Pack or the HQ-B Rims Pack in action, you will feel the same. These packs might seem hard to install at first but they really aren't and it is absolutely worth struggling a bit for them, they're gorgeous.
Corona.
No, not the beer (khm, family). It's that ugly thing that shines in plus on your car's head- and tail-lights. When you start modding in cars, this will become rather annoyingly ugly, so get rid of it; easy to install and never have to think of it again. Corona Begone.
Speedo.
So you can see how fast you're goin'. NFS gauge. You're gonna need it.

Sound.
Don't recommend using altered sound files that mods provide you: they're gonna sound like a dying pig in a dungeon - hopeless. Instead swap around already existing car sounds.
Oh and if you're a realism-junkie as myself, then do it properly, research which noise is a V6, straight 4, V8, V12, etc. and swap it accordinly. For example if you've just modded in a Huracan, put the Tempesta's sound in it - glorious V10 and no turbo.
There are several methods to do this.

Trainer.
Yees the good old trainer comes into play again. With either of the trainers I've provided, you can change your current car's sound - this sound-swap will work just fine in-game, but if you want to record gameplay for videos via Rockstar-Editor they won't take effect in the replays. So here is an alternative to achieve that.
Manually.
For add-on cars you, find the vehicles.meta file, search for <audioNameHash /> and change the name of the current sound to the name of a sound of a car you'd like. For replace you do the same thing, but it's harder cause you have to search for your car's name in the many vehicles.meta files of your game. If you've found it, do the same thing as you would for add-on cars, written above.

Handling.
So this game's handling isn't even remotely realistic; it's arcade-like. To change that you have to do two things:

Alter the handling.
We've arrived at THE BEST MOD in the fucking game. The fucking Realistic fucking Driving fucking V. Find it. Install it. Update it. Lick it. It will only work for replace cars, but you can copy the particular car's handling that you'd like; find the handling.meta file that contains the handling you're looking for and paste it in the handling file of your add-on car. You'll have to make some minor changes after you've copied but I won't tell you which, research it yourselves you lazy mofos - Tutorial - Handling.meta I believe it's called, you can find it on this very site.
Manual Transmission.
Second best mod in V. Fucking astonishing. It's called Manual Transmission and Steering Wheel Support. Install it and set it up as you would like.
Will take some time to get used to these but it's definitely worth the time if you really love driving.

Hope this helped, now get out there and make some great shit.
If you still have questions feel free to write to me.
Wanna see my 100 car collection? I'll send you postcards
Props to the epic people who realized all the mods we all love and use, thank you so much.

Chelios.