My Project

[Honda_Boy]

not really. The way to achieve the best results is to wet sand them with about 2000 grain sand paper and then use some Plastic X or something on them. They look close to new. Speakin of which I need to take my car somewhere and have the windshield treated. So many little nicks here and there. Them little nicks really make seeing hard with a passing truck at night.

[Honda_Boy]

Headlights restoration attempt. Passenger side looks great but the driver side one could stand to go through the whole process again but I ain't doin it anytime soon.

Driver Before:

Driver after (hey check it out, it's TJ monkeying with his bike in the background):

I only have an after of the passenger side:

and some shots of Midori sittin in her parking spot afterwards.

[JDoors]

Wow, that really DID work!

Now I gotta go look at mine ...

You did the sandpaper routine, right?

[Honda_Boy]

This was the tutorial I "followed" for this. I used 2000 Grit auto sand paper, turtle wax rubbing compound and McGuire's Scratch X. I also had a power buffer on hand.

Wetsanding Headlights Tutorial on My IS Forums

No I am not a member of this forum.I can't afford no Lexus IS. A fellow TennSpeed member gave me the link. He does have an IS300.

[sultan_emerr]

Nice cars

[Honda_Boy]

Ok, within the next month I should have my new hatch painted. After finally getting it back from my friend that was gonna paint it for free but never did, I talked to someone else I know (sort of) that has all the necessary equipment. He says he'll do it for around $75 to $100. I know him simply as GreyDel and he lives about an hour from me. He's got a paint booth, spraying equipment, all kinds of auto body stuff, you name it. Only thing he doesn't have is something to bake dry the paint so he just lets stuff air dry. Since he's a certified pro and vouched for by others I know, I totally trust him. Plus he says that I just give it to him on a Friday and it'll be ready to install Saturday. No 3 month wait.

After I get a new job or if I sell some of my old junk, it'll be new side skirts and gauge cluster.

[JDoors]

You reminded me of several things I relied on "friends" to do for me, all of which "fell through."

I don't even ask any more.

Just getting that hatch back on, painted, will be huge.

[Honda_Boy]

My dad told me that if GreyDel does a good job and when I get a new job, he'll loan me the money to have GreyDel paint the whole car.

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Too bad the whole front end needs to replaced pretty much. I'm waitin till I can get the EK4 SiR conversion kit before I paint the car. If ya'll have ever wondered what a 96-98 Civic SiR looked like then here's some pics of what I'm trying to create.

Little drawn version that really helps you get a good look

And an actual picture with a lot of the options, like fog lights, lip, gold emblems, and probably power windows (which has never been available on a USDM hatchback, they always horde the best stuff and share with Europe I swear while Canada and the US get the crappy stuff so we have to go through a lot of crap to either get or create what they've had all along)

and here's a link to the kit. The picture has the wrong headlights but everything else is right and the actual headlights will be right. It also for some reason doesn't come with the mirrors so I'm going to have to buy them separately.

Password JDM 96-98 Civic SiR Conversion

and here's the actual headlights

96-98 SiR Headlight Housings

and the mirrors (it says CTR which is Civic Type-R but SiR and CTR mirrors should be the same, in fact I think all JDM and possibly all EUDM 96-00 Civics came with these mirrors)

JDM CTR Mirrors

And here's another look at the front bumper. This one is used.

JDM SiR Bumper Used

Now the biggest difference between the USDM EJ6/JDM EK9 Type-R bumpers and the JDM EK4 SiR bumpers is the moldings. No one in this area has it and I'm going for ultimate uniqueness. It'll be expensive and take a while but it'll be great when it's done.

And after ALL THIS, then it's time for the motor work and the interior to replicate the SiR look and feel. It'll remain left hand drive so it ca be daily driven but at a quick glance you'd swear it was straight off a Japanese showroom floor.

Edited May 2, 2007 by Honda_Boy

[JDoors]

It's surprising the difference those little rub strips make in the appearance.

[Honda_Boy]

UPDATE!!!! Finally.

I sold the motor and transmission from my old coupe so i now have money. REPAIR TIME!!! Well actually the first thing I'll do will be tomorrow (or well today I guess since it's past 2AM here) is get a new gauge cluster for my car. I'm sick of the giant ugly drag tach in it. I'll be getting a cluster form a 96-00 EX Manual. It'll have a stock tach in it and I can replace the the plastic pieces on the sides of the wind shield that don't have holes in them. YAY!!!

Then afterwards, I'm gonna find out how much changin the differential will cost. Luckily, my mechanic is givin me one, but he's chargin for the labor obviously.

Maybe, just MAYBE, I might get that replacement hatch painted and installed. I have been waitin more than 8 months for this, dang.

[Honda_Boy]

Check it out. New gauge cluster. I won't be able to get good pics until my parents get back on Sunday. They have the camera. I had to use my V3 Razr to take the pics.

Here's the old one:

Here's a much older picture but higher quality

And here it is. The new cluster and no more extremely inaccurate drag tach.

Man that drag tach was wrong. It showed me hittin the rev limiter at 7500-7600 RPMs. The redline is 8000. I put this new cluster in and I was able to get it to 8200 and not hit the limiter so that other tach was way off. I had both of them going at once and the biggest difference I saw was around a 700-800 RPM discrepancy. Man that other tach was way wrong.

Well I'm real happy now cause those gray pieces aon the side got replaced too so no more holes. YAY!!!

[Honda_Boy]

YEAH!!!!! I just took my hatch for a night time joyride and found out the back lights on my new cluster are amber. SWEET!!!! They are stock clear lights so the gauges just light up white but mine light up amber. Awesome!!!

[JSKY]

Looks like everything is coming together real nice there. Your doing a fantastic job.

[Honda_Boy]

Just messaged the guy on Honda-Tech. The replacement hatch is gettin painted this weekend. FINALLY!!!!

I hope nothing happens that will change this.

[Honda_Boy]

well of course something happened. Now I'm gonna hafta spend a load on some engine and brake parts. I'm having idle issues and the motor needs a tune up. Plus my brakes aren't doin very good. I also need an alignment and something else. I'm really wishin now I could find someone with an older 92-95 hatch with a B16 if they'd want to trade but like hell that'll happen. Oh well, pretty much by next week or the week after I'll be working again so i can afford some stuff.

Damn.

[Honda_Boy]

well the since the hatch gettin painted is outta the question, it's time for repairs and maintenance. Here's the list:

Distributor Cap and Rotor

Spark Plugs and Spark Plug Wires

PCV Valve

Front Brake Rotors and Pads

It needs a lot of other stuff too, but this crap is priority. I need to get the tranny straightened out too but it can a wait a little. If the motor don't run right then there ain't a point in the tranny being in perfect shape. Also, as important as it is to go, it's more important to stop so brake work needs to be done.

I think I'm goin back to my original plan to just prime the hatch and put it on. Heck, from a distance, it'll look like carbon fiber.

[JDoors]

Why'd the hatch-job fall through? Man, you've been waiting a long time to get that done.

I would not recommend using primer on it, too many times people wind up losing motivation to get the job done and wind up living with a primer-job, then rust sets in, which makes the prospect of finishing the job even less palatable so it stays primered AND rusts out.

Either get it painted or wait until a better time to get it painted.

BTW, primer won't fool anybody, it'll just look like you're unable to get it painted.

Good idea getting the necessary stuff taken care of (and it sounds expen$ive).

[Honda_Boy]

Well I can't afford paint right now. But, who knows, my brother has gotten his friend at one of the O'Reilly's to ask the manager to pull out my app so I'm goin up there today after a shave to talk to him. I may be an employee there soon so I can finally be able to have money again AND get a discount.

Next week, my car is going to have it's oil changed and maybe all this other work done in a Mercedes Benz dealer.

So umm yeah, my brother works at Mercedes Benz so we are just gonna wait until the place closes at 5:30 to work on it and his 4Runner. They apparently let their employees use the lifts after hours.

The Rotor, Cap, and Wires are more than likely gonna be Honda Genuine so that's gonna cost a little bit considering I have to get this crap at a dealer. I could cheap out and buy it at O'Reilly's or NAPA but I prefer to stick to Honda Genuine parts.

[Honda_Boy]

Well, I'm not gonna work at Oreilly's anytime soon so I went down the road for 10 seconds and got my old job back. I need money.

It's also gonna be a about a week or 2 till I get the tune-up parts. Man they are expensive. My brother gets some kinda dealer to dealer discount since he works a Mercedes so he can get the stuff from the Honda dealer cheaper but even then it's expensive. Oh well. Next week I'll be workin again and I'll get paid the friday after that and then it's parts time.

[JDoors]

A buddy of mine worked for Ford for years and we've had endless, and unresolved, discussions about why dealers charge so much (among other topics). Why, to make up an example, can Sears sell a shock manufactured by Monroe for $50, but the same shock, with a Ford sticker on it, cost at least 50% more? "Volume, overhead, mandatory stock, blah, blah, blah," was his usual response.

I do know "foreign" brand parts are higher still, that's one of my talking points when people ask me about what to buy. I eventually tell them about a guy who's starter cost $800 and no one had it in stock so they had to wait a month for it to be shipped from Europe (and that was an inexpensive brand).

That's unusual, but you can't say it won't or can't happen.

On the other hand, many domestic brands source their parts from the same manufacturers as the for'ners (or is it vice versa?), so it is less of an either/or issue nowadays (used to be domestics owned the plants and manufactured many of their parts here ... that's certainly no longer always true ... and many import brands source more and more parts locally ... though usually not the big ticket items).

Am I rambling?

[Honda_Boy]

I know exactly why they charge more. Cause they can. They know certain ignorant people will pay the jacked price. However, I need to get Honda Genuine parts and I need them ASAP so I have to get them from the dealer. Luckily my brother's little dealer to dealer thing knocks the price from the cap, rotor, and wires from $120-130 down to about $80-90.

Also the Honda dealer charges $130 for a full detailing ($100 with a coupon). Man my brother did full detailings inside and out with wax for only like $25-30 in our back yard for a summer. He did a damn good job too. He washed the car, cleaned the wheels, shined the tires, waxed the car, cleaned and vacuumed the inside out, and ArmorAlled the dash.

We at TennSpeed.net affectionately call dealerships "Stealerships".

[JDoors]

... "Stealerships".

Never heard that before.

To be fair, my buddy had a point or two (each has a counterpoint but I won't get into that). Using my previous example; Sears sells ten times more shocks so they get them cheaper to begin with and can sell them cheaper still because they depend less on them for profits, Sears can split overhead costs among numerous product lines and brands while dealerships rely on automotive sales only and their exclusive brand to cover all costs, Sears doesn't necessarily HAVE to stock any particular part so they only have the best selling ones on hand while dealerships HAVE to have EVERY part that may ever be needed whether they sell well or not (if Sears doesn't have a part they order it from a dealer -- at a discount the average consumer can't get -- if a dealer doesn't have the part on hand they might very well lose a sale -- to either Sears or a consumer).

(Sears comes to mind because I used to work in their auto dept., I realize they rely less on auto repairs nowadays but the concept applies elsewhere.)

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One example of the difference is: If you run around and around and call around and around to try to get a part and nobody carries it, where do you go? The dealer. That availability costs money.

Edited July 1, 2007 by JDoors

[Honda_Boy]

actually none of the Honda Dealers have the dern wires in stock so I may either have to get them from an Acura dealer (if they even have them) or get a different brand from an Auto parts store.

[Bubba Bob]

Dealerships may charge alot, but is there profit margin higher than any of there competitors (auto houses, Sears, etc) ? No! Bah towards dealership bashing.

What's the deal with Honda certified? Not really a deal breaker IMO. The car will probably outlast the auto house brands anyway. Dont mean that in a bad way, BTW.

Hmmm, last time I paid for a "Detail" it was $70 at a quicky-lube. The guy took the seats out. Steamed the carpet, soaped the seats. Then took a took brush and soap to the dash. That's a true detail, not jsut the thrown around, over used word.

Edited July 2, 2007 by Bubba Bob

[Honda_Boy]

Hmmm, well folks. There is a possibility I could be driving a B16A swapped 1988 Honda Civic DX Hatchback dyno'd at 156whp (Wheel Horse Power) with a plethora of JDM EF Civic SiR parts on it. Nice. A guy I think that's in Mississippi seriously wants to trade cars. I love my hatch and he loves his but he feels it's time to move on to a new project, and I feel it's time to move on to a car in better shape that's more reliable.

Check it, I gotta link.

1988 Honda Civic DX hatch

PS. I am Techy.