Figured I'd make a build thread to document my journey in the Fit world.

Little background about me:
I've been modifying Hondas for 12 years, have been an auto tech for 10 years, and have owned my own shop for 6 years.
I'm no stranger to aftermarket modification and the Honda world as a whole.
I've had love for the Fit chassis for a while, have been around the Gridlife Spec Fit/Sunday Cup series for the last couple years, and when the right deal came up recently to own one I decided to jump on it.
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The car is a 2008 Honda Fit Sport 5MT, it was previously owned by a friend/customer of mine for 6 years and I've been working on it for the last 4 years, so I'm intimately familiar with the car.




The car is a little rough around the edges, but it's a perfect base for what I want to do with it, which is a fun daily driver with some performance oriented modifications while keeping all streetability and creature comforts. I want a car I can take to the track every now and then, but not a dedicated track car - I already own an ITR swapped EK hatch to fill that purpose.





Upon purchase, the Fit came with a nice list of parts on it, which are as follows:

TCS strut tower bar
Tanabe front lower tie barDC header
Megan test pipe (cat delete)
Cowl scoop(Rouge Se7ens)
K&N drop in filter
Megan exhaust w/street muffler
FIVE8 coilovers (super street)
Progress rear sway bar
Mugen grill
Mugen pedals
Mugen visors
Mugen sport wing
Buddy Club short shifter
Jazz door sills
The moment I got the car, I did two things: I threw on my Spoon shift knob, and put the spare wheel for my EK onto - 16x8 +35 Advan RG-D2 in black chrome.




I have a lot of cool plans for the car, and have already placed a couple large orders for parts to get the car to where I want it, so stay tuned for updates. I hope to keep this thread regularly updated as parts start to roll in and make their way onto the car.

 

Welcome, Seb, and thanks for sharing. Those 16s look great on the GD; it's also nice to see someone else running 16x8 +35, which is what I will be running on my car as well.

 

It's funny, the same wheels fit better on the GD, which is physically smaller, than they do on the EK.
I'm kinda obsessed with the way 16s look on cars of this size, I've sold off all my 15s.

 

Here's a peek at my new wheels. Waiting for my TCS-spec BC DS coilovers to arrive so I can install them along with the TCS top hats. What tire size(s) are you running on your 16s? I'm wanting to try a 225/45 & 205/50 stagger.

 

I run a 215/45 squared, which is a little bit stretched on the 8" wide wheel.
I'd like to try a wider tire in a 215 (I hear the RT660 runs wide) or a 225

 

I know Nankang's CR-S/CR-1 also runs wide and I hear good stuff about them--might be worth looking into.

 

If memory serves me right, they don't offer them in 16"

 

My bad, it was the AR-1 I was thinking of and I believe the CR-S is a faster tire.

 

Made a couple big orders late last week and most of that stuff should start rolling in this weekend
One of those things showed up early, so I decided to pop them on: hood struts!
I buy these for all my cars, it's one of the first things I do because I hate dealing with floppy hood props.

 

Waiting on my JHPUSA order to show up on Friday, but I started playing around with a mod I've wanted to do on a car for a long time: aftermarket steering wheel while keeping the horn and cruise functions.




I've got a 320mm Momo monte carlo that I'd like to run, but it looks like the DC5 cruise buttons are a little too big to fit comfortably between the spokes.
I have a 350mm wheel in my EK, so I'll see how the buttons fit up next to the spokes on it and see if there's much difference.
Going to be creating a CAD template (cardboard aided design) of a bracket to make out of steel sheet metal to mount the cruise buttons and sandwich between the wheel and hub, and then figure out the wiring.

 

JHPUSA shipment showed up today, threw on a couple of the smaller items.


JDM hazard switch




J's Racing reservoir covers


Also got a set of WeatherTech mats that I'll throw in tomorrow, as well as other items from the JHPUSA order I still have to install, hopefully I have time to play with the car a bit this weekend.

 

Part of my JHPUSA order was a Works Bell steering wheel hub, which comes with the plug to wire in the horn and doesn't trigger the ABS code with the use of a resistor.

Something I've been wanting to do for years is an aftermarket steering wheel while keeping the use of cruise control buttons, so I decided the Fit was a perfect candidate for that.

I know there are products out there that do this already, but they mount the buttons way too deep and they don't seem like an OEM fit that would be flush with the spokes of the aftermarket wheel.

In comes my friend Ram Board (I highly recommend this stuff if you're looking to make templates to transfer onto metal or other materials) and some RSX cruise buttons



I'm still undecided if I want to use the 320mm or 350mm wheel.

I run a 350mm wheel on my Civic without power steering, but I think the 320mm would do well in the Fit with the smaller interior and electric power steering.

Next up is making a metal template to check for fit once the thickness of the metal is accounted for.

I also found someone with access to CNC equipment, so I may make a small batch of these as plug and play kits for people who wish to keep all the functionality of the stock wheel on their aftermarket setup.

 

I've been looking for a way to keep my stock cruise control. I would definitely get one if you decided to have some made!

 

Good to know!
I'm still working towards finalizing fitment on the bracket to have a prototype made.

 

Got a special shipment today that I've been waiting on for a couple weeks.
Hoping to have some free time this coming week to work on the car.

 

How many miles on the car, Newcar?

I used to have an '08 Fit. Bought it new and kept it stock (pretty much). It blew my mind the first time I took it up in the canyons on the roads that I was running with my S2000. That day, I just couldn't stop smiling.

Subscribed.

 

Nicely done bro!

 

Car has 150k on it, it's a really fun chassis.

Thanks!

 

So I spent a little time digging into the car today, and I feel like everything I touched turned into a rabbit hole.

Got the rear bumper off to see that it wasn't mounted properly when the only accident the car has been in was fixed.
The body shop didn't replace the brackets that hold the bumper near the quarter, and the tabs on the bumper are broken as well (I assume they reused the bumper from the incident since the VIN tag on the bumper is painted over).

Went to go put the LED tails in to learn that the plugs are completely different.
I guess that's my fault for not reading up on the conversion, but at least the lights came with pigtails so I can make them work, it's just a little more involved than I had hoped.

​​​​​​Tried to replace the trunk handle because it sticks and the bolts that hold the garnish above the license plate are rusted in place and I'll have to figure out a way to remove those.

Midwest cars are filled with surprises.



I also got a new batch of Seb's Garage banners made, so of course I had to throw one on the Fit.
​​​​​​Try not to judge me for how dirty the car is, I plan on having some paint issues corrected and a detail done once the car is more sorted.

 

So this is what I was greeted with when I took off the driver side tail light.One side was already broken and the other snapped as soon as I touched it.



Fear not, for the mighty finger belt sander and center punch exist.
I decided that the best course of action would be to drill holes and use rivnuts so I could use new M6x1.0 bolts to hold the bumper support bracket in place.



A few minutes and a quick lick of paint later, and it's as good as new.



With the new light installed, you can't even tell anything happened, and since the threads are now inside the vehicle they shouldn't seize again.
if you ask me, they should have been captive nuts and bolts from factory instead of the stud and nut design.



While I was at it, I decided to take the rear garnish off and replace the sticky rear handle and broken plate light shroud.
I have a backup camera on the way to fill that hole as well.



While wiring the new tail light's reverse lights (only modification needed to run the OEM JDM lights. Rest was plug and play) I decide to also include a weatherproof plug to make the installation of the backup camera easier on myself in the future.



And of course, the very dirty money shot.
If you've got a good eye you'll also see that I replaced the crusty plate bolts for Mugen ones.
I hate that the car is this dirty, so I went out tonight and bought a new pressure washer so I can take advantage of the nice weather this weekend and wash the fleet.



And for an added bonus, I installed this Mtec shifter spring.
Having done a few of them on K series transmissions, install was a breeze, the hardest part was breaking the old seal between the shift selector and transmission housing.
Shifter feel side to side is much stiffer now, and the shifter goes back to the neutral position much quicker.
I honestly don't quite know if I like this mod yet, it feels a little too stiff.
I may wait and put a couple hundred miles on it before I decide, just to see how it goes.
I did keep the factory spring in case I want to revert back to it in the future.