Alright, my parents and i picked up an 07 fit sport as soon as it hit the dealer floor a couple of years ago at this point. I drove it to college for a little while, around atlanta then the family situation changed and my mom has been driving it for the past year and a half. Recently I fractured my hand, so i was driving the fit because a one handed 5-speed driver is not so safe....
Anyway, I am going to go to grad school and my parents have offered to give the fit back to me to drive and not have to worry about it.
There are just a couple of things that i would like to get some advice on.

1. The ergonomics of the car. I am about 6' 1" and with the seat set to where my arms are comfortably very gently bent my knees are just about hitting the dash and my thighs are nowhere near laying down on the seat. I was roadtripping and i put about half of a queen size sheet under my thighs and the car became much more comfortable. I am wondering if there is a way to take the seat apart, remove some foam from the back of the seat bottom to put more angle on the seat, and restretch the fabric to make it fit properly. Or is there an easier was to accomplish this goal?

2. There was a stack of tires in the front of the garage and my mom was parking one day and hit the tires fairly hard on the bumper. The entire bumper has sagged about 3/8 inch. It is not a whole lot, but if i am driving a car that i think is nice, it needs to be nice. I am imagining that the plastic has busted at the mounting tabs, but i will tear the car apart to find the full extent. How much is a new bumper? oem or aftermarket doesnt matter much to me as long as it is a clean style. I do like the bulkiness of the usdm bumper though. The paint is already pretty bad, so i am going to have to touch up/ repair a pretty good bit of the car anyway.

3. I believe that the car also needs some better shocks, the well paved city roads the ride is good, but on the country roads that i live on now the car will literally give me a backache every day i drive it. Are there any good but budget priced standard replacement shocks, or am i going to have to run a higher performance piece? I do plan on keeping the stock height to keep cost down, and i scrape at stock height anyway.

Im sure i have some other questions, but that should be enough for today.
Thanks for any help or advice
Andrew

 

1. How far back do you have the seat? I'm 6 foot even and my knees aren't even near the dash; though, I never paid attention to my thigh position. I have my seat set on its furthest back setting and almost vertical so my arms can easily reach the wheel without cramping or straining. Though, I do think that these seats could use additional cushioning, because after driving 3.5 hours I got out and my legs gave out which resulted in me falling out of the car in a parking lot.

If you do decide to go with having some of the foam removed from the seat, it would be a bit of a pain in my opinion to get the material sculpt just right to were you're sitting comfortably and not hitting a rail or something in the seat on a hard bump. So if I were doing something like that, I would either let an upholsterer do it or get a new seat (like a Recaro, Sparco, etc.) with the appropriate seat rails.


2. A new front bumper will cost you $155.43 plus shipping from Bernardi Parts as well as the additional cost of paint.

Here is the link for the bumper: Honda FACE, FR. BUMPER (DOT) - Bernardi Honda Parts and Accessories

Please note that the Fit's front bumper has several tabs that helps mount the bumper, it could be possible that some of them could have popped out and can be popped back in place.


3. The front shocks cost $103.02 a piece from Bernardi and are side specific. The rear are not side specific and cost $87.30 per shock.

Front Left: Honda SHOCK ABSORBER UNIT, L. FR. - Bernardi Honda Parts and Accessories

Front Right: Honda SHOCK ABSORBER UNIT, R. FR. - Bernardi Honda Parts and Accessories

Rears: Honda SHOCK ABSORBER ASSY., RR. - Bernardi Honda Parts and Accessories

If you want something more performance oriented, adjustable, and compatible with the stock (and aftermarket) springs check out T1R's S-Spec Damper Kit. If you are interested in these, send a PM AJ PwR Jr. and he'll hook you up with a set.

Here is the damper kit: A&J Racing :: Suspension :: Coil-Overs & Dampers :: T1R S-Spec Damper Kit - Honda Fit/Jazz 06-08 (GD3/GD4)

 

I have problems being comfortable in about any car I drive and have found that long wool sheepskin seat covers raise me higher in the seat and provide support for my thighs and knees and allow me to partially recline the seat and still reach the steering wheel.. If there is a gap where the bumper joins the fender the phillips head screws that secure the bumper to the car may be pulled loose and the plastic possibly stripped and can be fitted with slightly larger diameter screws and pulled back into place.... I have added air shocks to my car because they are larger and provide better dampening on the rear and also lighter wheels and tires make a big difference in ride comfort and handling requiring less dampening needed to control the the suspension movement.

 

I was just looking through a upholstery book i have and it gave me and idea that i might be able to raise/ or lower the front/ rear of the seat to make the angle better. I am definitely going to need higher quality shocks, the honda ones only have 30k on them. and they have been too rough since maybe a year into having the car.
Andrew

 

im 6'3" and i sit fine. back straight arms not stretched all the way, even to shift and clutch its perfect. i was surprised when i first test drove it. one more reason why i love the fit.

comfortability is an issue for road trips its good for 3 hours. but driving from Miami to Gainesville (5hours) it was a bit much, but again no breaks, made it all the way through. but that goes for any seat.

Florida is too hot for sheep skin ><

 

yeah, i think it is mainly the seat for me, i may try to lean it up further or something. My miata running stiff suspension on Falken azenis is more comfortable for me to drive for more than an hour than the honda is. I need to figure it out, but looking around i think i can without a problem. i was starting to contemplate selling it to get something else, but i am gonna give the old girl another shot.
Andrew

 

mess around with the adjustments i find it a lot more comfortable than most cars. i had a 99 eclipse, i like the fit seats better.

Why would anyone ever sell their fit

 

I raised the seat by swapping for long bolts with spacers & nuts on the underside to support the raise. The only catch is that the left front side has an angle which I got around by making a metal bracket to connect the offset holes. If anyone's interested I can post pics. Its been like 6mos & I love it, I can lower the steering wheel all the way to the lowest position without any contact from the raised seat.

 

i have been lifting weights off & on the past few yrs & my posture has improved. But the seat contours the arms forward, conforming to a hunch. Besides pushing the side cushioning back all of the time, has anyone found a good way of modifying the padding? Do I need to pull that crap out?

 

I am interested in some pictures... I bought washers and bolts 3 weeks ago and plan to do it soon but the bracket you described is of interest to me.

 

its just a 1-2mm steel piece that I cut & drilled exact holes for:

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/zoPdoO-YFa5KC5EjLdonKQ?feat=directlink

I searched out other brackets but I opted on making my own as predrilled holes probably wouldnt have lined up anyways. In the end its mostly outta sight by the plastic cover so it worked for me

 

The wooden beads you sometimes see in taxis! I got one at Autozone, removed the headrest, draped the beads over the seat, and reinstalled the headrest through the woven mesh. Much more comfortable in the shoulders.
Tip: put the beads "upside down" and tuck the narrow section into the cushion crack - looks much neater at the top of the back.

 

Has anyone tried putting memory-foam (e.g. temperpedic) cushions on the seats? I've owned my 2011 Fit for 3 days and it has aggravated my sciatica so much that I may have to sell it after only putting 60 miles on it!!
Any help out there?

 

I had considered using memory foam in a couple of places on my seat.. I have had sciatica off and on for 48 years and told by a doctor after an Xray 31 years years ago that my back looked like that of an 80 year old man that had labored in a coal mine all of his life... I got some long wool seat covers and they are working out well for me... My sciatica is a full time thing down one leg or the other but driving dosen't make it worse now. 2 Premium quality NZ long wool Sheepskin car seat cover - eBay (item 170400009668 end time Mar-21-11 22:42:08 PDT)

 

Thanks for the link for the sheepskin. So, you find the sheepskin covers to be sufficient, no need for a cushion underneath as well? In my Saturn (my previous car, which I loved, but also had the bucket seats that keep your needs above your hips, which is not good for sciatica), that I had to use a combination of a foam wedge and sheepskin. Unfortunately, that combination isn't working for the Fit, so I was thinking I had to try something else.

But, the sheepskin I used for the Saturn was from a local automotive store, nothing fancy....so perhaps the NZ ones alone will do the trick?

 

Consider this Mod that only takes an hour or so of your time.

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/fit-...extenders.html

I also added two cotterless hitch pins ($4 or so) to hold the seat in the farthest back position. Credit to dacollier1.

 

I finally decided to look up what "sciatica" was.

After reading about it, all I can say is, I tend to feel the symptoms of leg numbness and pin&needles the most when I'm sitting on the crapper!

 

Thanks for sending me the link. Unfortuantely, its not the seat distance that is the problem but the actual bottom cushioning of the seat. I think a foam wedge, temperpedic foam or a gel filled cushion might end up being the solution, but those can be quite expensive (~ $90), so I am going to ask my physical therapist what she recommends before I buy anything. If I can't find a solution, I will sell the car back to the dealer (I haven't even put a tank of gas in it yet - its so new!). I can't imagine long drives as my leg is painful after only ~ 20 miles! I wish I had noticed this in the test drives, but never did....

 

I had also bought a short wool sheep skin cover early on. It was an improvement but after driving over 2 1/2 or 3 hours I was ready to take a break to walk around and stretch my legs...I bought a more expensive set from this link for my wife's Forester and tried one in my car before I put it in her car and they are amazing. Sheepskin Seat Cover Sheep Skin Car Seat Cover Sheepskin Motorcycle Seat Cover Vancouver.. They lifted me up higher in the seat and moved my upper body forward to where I was able to tilt the seat back and distribute some of my body weight to it.. They conform to to your body shape without bottoming out and distribute it over a larger area even beyond the front of the seat bottom and even absorb road noise... The only problem is when you have to buckle you seat belt but part of that is that I have big hands but it is minor problem and my wife has no problem with it.. 3 weeks ago I drove over 6 hours only getting out of the car to fuel up once and ask for directions 3 or 4 times (never found my destination ). Except for being mentally drained from the stress of being lost and heavy traffic I felt alright... My wife and I are planning to treat ourselves with new recliners and a pair of cushions of the same type as these to use with them... I am pretty sure that if we do there will be times when I fall asleep watching TV and not go to bed... I do need to modify the sides of the one I got on Ebay to allow my side air bags to deploy if ever needed which can be done with 3 slices with a razor knife and silicone adhesive... The ones in the Forester don't need that, can easily be removed an used in another car or on any other chair you want to use it in and they are thicker than mine as well... It take a little time to adjust to not thinking there are a couple of huge bears sitting in your car as you approach it though.

 

Wow - those sound like incredible sheepskin seat covers! As I've been driving the car over the weekend, I'm beginning to think that I just made a big mistake in buying it - the seats are one thing but the choppy ride is another. We have terrible roads where I live and work, which I never noticed in the Saturn, and now I know every bump. The dealer has agreed to buy the car back from me (I bought it Thursday, and he agreed on Saturday). I won't know til tomorrow (Tues) when he is back at the dealership how much money I'll lose on the 'buy back', but we'll see. I think I may go for an Accord LX or EX instead - very comfortable seats and suspension, but this time I will test drive the car on my road instead of the roads near the dealership.

Thanks for all your help!