f'it... sad day for my fit

[F'it_ImFromTx]

so where do i start... my fit has seen better days.

the first bummer happened about 2 or 3 months ago when a deer attempted to leap over the hood of my car when i was going thirty miles an hour, his knees hit my passenger side fender. denting it dead in the center right on the factory body line and right next to the head light. after that happened the passenger door rubs on the fender every time it is opened.

the second bummer was about a month ago when some dick decided to put his or her foot into my passenger door while i was in the grocery store, leaving a nice big dent for me to find when i got out.

things got better today, when i got off work me and a friend of mine took out my rear seats and installed my new racing harness. now i know that you purists are going to say that unless it is mounted to a roll cage/bar or harness bar that it is not safe, but i didnt install it for heavy duty race purposes. i just like the way 4pt harnesses look and feel. we did a totally killer install which i will post pics of later. the loss of the rear seats and all of the seat belts and addition of 4pt harness put a genuine smile on my face which stayed there the whole night until i hit the s curves...

i was on my favorite road on my favorite turn doing about 50mph when an armadillo leaped in front of my car just as i entered the turn. it happened to fast for me to react and even if i did i would have more than likely damaged my car more by taking evasive action at such a high speed on a turn that sharp. so i hit the dillo dead center, it gets stuck under my car and is dragged along for about ten feet. me and my bud pull over because we are both positive that my front lip/bumper are torn to shit... if you dont live in tejas or if you are not aware, armadillos are notorious for ruining cars just as bad as a collision with a deer due to there extremely hard shells. its basically like hitting a huge rock, but this rock can jump into the air and make it self into a wrecking ball if it so chooses.... so when we inspect we find that the lip and bumper are fine, other than some scratches on my lip from where it hit all we found was that the plastic lining under the lip had been cracked. i felt much better until i saw my hood, i still dont know if it simply damaged the body panels, or if it is frame related but there is now a 1.5 inch gap between my hood and front bumper and the hood does not close all the way. needless to say i am dropping the car of at the near by honda dealership to get inspected and repaired.

wish me luck. hopefully it just screwed with some of the body panels and didnt do anything to my frame or engine components.

lesson learned... racing harness+oem integration+some imagination=super clean looks and super big smiles
armadillos=major fail

[srtoomey]

Yeah I'd like to see those pics. If ya got em.

[niko3257]

Originally Posted by srtoomey

Yeah I'd like to see those pics. If ya got em.

X2
me 2

[BAF]

Hard to believe an armadillo would cause frame damage! I can see sheet metal damage, but the frame structure should be stronger than an armadillo!

You have bad luck with animals... First a deer, then an ass, and finally an armadillo!

[Firebat666]

man sorry to hear about tht... is this a first Fit v. armadillo?

[shazaam]

yuck. for every positive there's a negative Hope it's nothi9ng serious. Never seen an armadillo...don't really live up here :P but I deer could prolly do some damage to the frame of a fit at highway speeds/50 or 55+ mph.

[F'it_ImFromTx]

it was a total fit vs. armadillo accident. i got a chance to take off my front bumper this morning to inspect a little closer.

my front lip is cracked, the plastic lining and the front lip was ripped off completely, my drivers side fender lining has got some pretty bad rips in it, the entire front bumper stayed in the clips but it is slanted down ward really bad, my drivers side fog is shattered but still works, and i still dont know what is going on with my hood. there is a 1.5 inch gap between the hood and the front bumper, but it is still perfectly flush with the fenders, and some how the is about half an inch of a gap on the back of the hood where it meets the wind shield. it locks when i close it but wiggles viciously.

[F'it_ImFromTx]

here are some pics of the install

the finished product

another one

how it looks from the rear, i wrapped the stock belt around the back so the car wouldnt beep at me for not wearing it

side angle of the rear

these are the slits we cut in the carpet to make it look cleaner
this is how it looks under the carpet

this is a close up of how the shoulder straps are mounted. i nolted them into the holes for the rear seats, the cut a 5x2.5inch rectangle out of the carpet so it wouldnt buldge over the brackets

to mount the lap straps we just used the bolts for the front seat brackets. and the plastic covers still fit

[redrumm]

well i hope all works out with you.


id say after you get everything squared away maybe get a bucket seat in the near future after the suspension parts .

dont worry i wont flame you

[LOZA]

Damn Arick that sucks man...F'it go JDM front end..

[SLrocket]

armadillos are ghey.

they eat my friends lawn to shreds.

[F'it_ImFromTx]

and they are mean. back in highschool some friends and my self liked to skate this old ditch that was in the middle of a very wooded area. we would go out there at night and light it up with generators and spot lights with no fears of police, murderers or any other stereotypical fears that young dumb kids have about being in heavily wooded areas at night by them selves.

our only fear was armadillos. to us there was nothing scarrier than walking down a narrow trail surrounded by nothing but trees and bush while lugging a 75lb generator and hearing shaking and little foot steps in the grass next to you. because you knew that at any moment a pissed off armadillo was going to jump out of the bushes and chase you until he got tired.

god i hate armadillos soooooo much!

[x98myers7]

there are SOO many things wrong with your setup it's really not funny

please do not use your harnesses until you get a rollbar and can properly install them... for your own safety. seriously. even a minor fender bender will cause spinal compression with that setup and paralyze you.

a simple $2 child seat safety H clip and the OEM belt is equally as effective at keeping your ass in place in turns yet INFINITELY safer.

please take my advice as a HPDE instructor

[F'it_ImFromTx]

Originally Posted by x98myers7

there are SOO many things wrong with your setup it's really not funny

please do not use your harnesses until you get a rollbar and can properly install them... for your own safety. seriously. even a minor fender bender will cause spinal compression with that setup and paralyze you.

a simple $2 child seat safety H clip and the OEM belt is equally as effective at keeping your ass in place in turns yet INFINITELY safer.

please take my advice as a HPDE instructor

thanks for the advice x98meyers7

i am completely aware of the risks of using an improperly mounted harness as well as how to mount and use them safely. ive done a whole lot of research on the subject because i have wanted to run harnesses for a while but knew nothing about them at the time.

i dont plan on running this set up forever and definitely know better than to use it for daily driving, i can say that since i have installed this i have worn it for no more than twenty minutes total. i mainly installed it for the show factor and for a little more comfort on the turns until i get my harness bar which shouldnt be more than two more weeksfrom now, i also plan on getting some buckets very soon.

once i have everything i need i can promise you that they will be mounted to the right places and at the proper angles.