Vehicle mods are usually the first thing a new modder attempts, and usually the first thing they abandon halfway through — not because the modeling is hard, but because they skip straight to it without a plan.
Start with reference, not a blank viewport. Real photos from multiple angles, dimensions if you can find them, and a clear sense of what makes the vehicle recognizable at a glance — the silhouette matters more than any single panel line.
Blockout before detail. A rough gray shape that reads correctly from ten feet away is worth more at this stage than a beautifully detailed hood on a body that is the wrong proportions. Dutch Iron’s handling-pack concepts on this site follow the same discipline for a reason — get the big shape right before anything else.
Plan your UVs before you texture, not after. Reworking a UV layout on a finished texture set is the single most common reason vehicle mods stall out for months.
Keep the scope small for a first project. A single livery variant on an existing silhouette teaches you the whole pipeline — reference, model or edit, UV, texture, review — without the risk of a from-scratch mesh burning you out before you finish.
None of this can be tested in-engine yet, obviously. But a vehicle concept built with this discipline is one that ports cleanly the moment there is a real pipeline to put it in.