Obtaining a modular vehicle
First things first, find yourself a vehicle. Unless you are going full Gone in 60 seconds you can find them spawning along the roads. The modular vehicles on Hunting Season spawn “ready to drive”; find the red tank in the rear, put some low grade fuel in it and you are ready to go. On Noob Resort the cars also require you to install engine parts.
Repairing and car lifts
Vehicles have a chassis, modules that attach to it and require engine parts in the engine modules. The modules take damage from crashing into things, or people, and decay over time – less so if protected under roof. Parking your modular vehicle on a car lift, which is powered, will stop it from decaying all together.
You can easily repair a vehicle in two ways. Either you go over the modules with a hammer or repair the vehicle when it is standing on a powered car lift. If you have researched the modules or engine parts, and know their blueprints, you can repair them in a repair table. Or simply make new ones by a workbench. Repairing cars generally require some high quality metal, metal frags and wood.
Car lifts are essential for dealing with all your modular vehicle needs. On Hunting Season you can find car lifts at any Supermarket or Gas station, as well as at the Junkyard. You can also build your private garage and have your own. Noob Resort drivers will find a lift at the Junkyard unless they have their own.
Engine parts
To get a modular vehicle running you need at least one of each of the engine part types – pistons, valves, a carburetor, spark plugs and a crank shaft – put into an engine module or a cockpit with engine module.
There are 3 different quality levels of engine parts (low, medium and high). The higher the quality of parts you fit in your engine module, the more fuel efficient your vehicle will be and the faster it will go. To make a vehicle go really fast you can fit several engine modules on the chassis and equip them with high quality engine parts.
You can find low quality engine parts at some roadside monuments as well at junkpiles. You can also source parts from other cars you come across. Besides getting engine parts from other players, finding them in vehicles along the roads is the only way to get the best parts (Noob Resort players can research them in the Tech Tree). It can be good business selling engine parts and modules to other players.
Lock it up
To secure your vehicle simply place it on a car lift and use the UI to add a lock for 75 metal fragments. This will also provide you with a key. You can create additional keys (15 metal fragments each) from the same UI. If you wish you can add a written note to each key.
Having a spare key at home might be a good idea should you lose the one you are carrying. Without a valid key in your inventory the vehicle can not be entered (unless it is damaged to a certain point – close to being totalled). The vehicle can however be pushed to a car lift where any player can remove the lock and add a new one, should she or he so wish.
Customization
It is easy to pimp your ride in Rust. When you place a vehicle on a car lift you can both remove and add modules to it, or change the order they are placed. If the chassis is empty from modules you can chose to have it destroyed. Chop shoping vehicles to get the modules you want is good practice. Collect the things you need to build the ride you want.
Chassis and modules
Not all chassis are the same. Some support just two modules, others three. The largest chassis can have four modules attached. Modules comes in great variety. Some are armored, most are not. Visit this link to Rustlabs for a list of them all. Using the camper module will provide you with a mobile home, with sleeping bags and all.
Recycle modular vehicles
You can if you wish recycle modules and engine parts in regular recyclers to gain some high quality metal, metal fragments and a little bit of wood. Or you can do it like a boss and recycle whole cars at the Junkyard, using the yellow magnet crane available.
The magnet crane is driveable with low grade fuel. It is used to pick up modular vehicles (as well as scrap cars), at the Junkyard, and drop them into the shredder which acts as a vehicle recycler. Check out the video bellow: