Ok, I was on a different track entirely (sound of train whistle). I was going to send you towards SmartMorph or something like that. The problem I see with what you're doing is the logistics nightmare you get into if you change the entire picture.
Say you...
add a rocket launcher to your car - picture changes
add mag wheels - picture changes again
the problem is you have to have a pic of each car with every combination of modifications to it and store them all
if you could just have the basic pic of the car - with outlines of various components that filled in if that option was chosen - it seems it would save you a lot of space and confusion on the front end. The final model used in the game would still have to have all of the changes in it; but you wouldn't have to worry about showing it on the screen before hand.
I've never built with a game engine before, (I work in a ship simulator - the engine is already in place - I just build the worlds) but I have done something similiar to the outline thing with web page stuff and active images.
Sorry if this isn't much help. Good Luck.
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