didn't buy the lower grille? are you going to do a "DIY mesh lower grille" to protect the A/C condenser?

$5 for a mesh... is definitely cheaper than replacing the A/C condenser.

 

I was planning on at least the DIY mesh. I love the open look but WILL be expensive. I was looking for an aftermarket alternative but I haven't found anything I like. I haven't done anything because the paint doesn't match. So when I get the rework done, I'll be doing the DIY mesh.

-Ray

 

put my mugen sides on today, one thing i noticed is that the college hills video and the pdf manual handle the front part of the sides differently. in the pdf they have the inner fender go over the sides, in the video they put the sides over the inner fender.

i was originally going to do it the pdf route, however the sides seems a little too long and the square holes in the inner fender don't necessarily get covered completely with the side sill screws. also the rest of the mugen kit overhangs, so it might look weird to have that one end of the sill's tucked in, when everything else goes over it, so i ended up doing what collegehills did in their video.

just something to keep in mind, look forward to seeing your progress ... my mugen front gets here tommorrow

 

Agh! I'm still waiting for my painter to thaw out and respray my bumper to match the car. Maybe I should go ahead and order the Mugen parts... That way it can all go on at the same time...

 

I dropped off the sport bumper today. It will be ready Wednesday but I can't get it till Friday... Oh well. I ordered my inner fenders and they'll be in tomorrow. I'm hoping to get my springs installed by Sunday if the weather holds out a little longer. Here is a sad documentation of what I did on my day off.


The swap took only 30 minutes. I hope once it's back on I won't have to take it off again for a while.















There it sits at the shop waiting for a new shot of paint! They had 5 different samples for me to look at all the same color but different tones as he called it. The first time he sprayed the bumper it was the base color but the side-tones were wrong. On the curves it was darker so hood and fenders look BAD especially in pics! We settled on one that matched every angle in the sun and shade. We'll see how it comes out in pics this weekend!

-Ray

 

Friday I picked up the bumper on my way to work. Saturday I picked up the inner fenders on the way to work. Today was my day off. I got up early and did the bumper and inner fender swaps. OMG it took way longer than I expected. The inner fenders were a pain with the wheels I have and I didn't jack the car up. Once I got the fasteners out I had to wrestle the inner fenders out! It all went together pretty easy. Here are the pics of my work.

Bumper back from the shop.




Inner fenders





Getting started


Base bumper off.




Sport bumper and inner fenders on!




Hanging out Texas Fit meet vol6!


Next up will be the springs!

I am at a crossroads with what I want to do with the Fit. I am reconsidering the Mugen Kit all together. Once I lower it I may not want to add to the bottom of the already low front. I have to decide pretty quick though. Money has a tendency to go quickly for me!

-Ray

 

yay nice to see the bumper back on. i put my sideskirts on and my first thought is that they hung low .. but still looked good. then i put the sport spoiler on and the car really just came together for me, as much as I wanted to be spoilerless it really helps balance out the giant usdm nose.

i dry fit the mugen under spoiler and am really debating whether i should put it on or sell it (we have rain midweek so i have a week to think about it), it looks nice but i'm not sure if i need it considering i don't want to buy (ie. spend the money) the full mugen kit (rear and grill).

i'll be happy either way, it just seems like i wasted the cash on the under spoiler at this point

i will say once i got the side skirts on and the wing on ... i walk out to the car and thought ... yes this is what i wanted. as opposed to 'something looks weird'. then again i am super neurotic about these things!

also i noticed you were concerned about the mugen front being too low, it is a concern of mine as well, my initial reaction when dry fitting the front spoiler is that it wasn't as low as i was expecting ... <1" lower, the side skirts still hung lower. then again i don't plan on lowering my fit.

 

Ok it seems like forever since I have been able to do anything productive with my car.

Today (thanks to my brother) was very productive! We installed my DZ springs! OMG it was so much easier than I thought but the fronts still took a while. (1 1/2 hrs) Here's how it went!

We used the access holes instead of removing ALL of the plastics. We did this using a ratcheting wrench.





For starters there are a few things we needed to remove from the strut prior to removal





Once the first strut was out it went very quick. (PS don't worry if the CV shaft comes out. It has a snap ring. Rotate it slightly back and forth with pressure. It pops right back in)


Noticeable difference between the springs appearance



Front is done! Time for the rear!



The rear was SO MUCH easier! Jack the car. Use jack stands. Disconnect the lower shock mount. I had to raise the car more to get the swing arm to drop enough to get the springs out.




The difference with the rear springs was noticeable too!


Put everything together and car back on the ground! I cant wait to see what it's like after the springs settle!








Tomorrow is Spoiler time! Oh and I almost forgot to mention. I played with the wipers! I hate the small useless one... I put the regular one in place of the small one but I think I'm going to put it back where it belongs and just get a longer blade!

-Ray

 

I call that small wiper the "retard wiper"...I just removed it altogether.

The springs look really nice...very nice drop. Will you take a pic of your lower control arms at that drop height? I want to see if they angle up from the center of the car (meaning handling is actually worse).

 

Here are the lowers from both sides.





fun shots








Here's my Spoiler! Not OEM but OEM style. (No clips and ABS = easier to install and lighter)







Just another fun day!

-Ray

 

Perfect! Nice job....LCAs are parallel. Your car really looks great at that height.

 

Yeah the LCA's turned out to be perfect. It seems like this is the height the car should have been. IMO it handles much better now. I was worried about rubbing in the front. Lock to lock at varied speeds NO RUBBING!

-Ray

 

Your Fit is looking sick, man! How'd you attach your spoiler? Did you bolt it on or just use double-sided tape?

 

Thanks man. It came with hardware but I just used the 3M heavy duty auto trim double stick tape. I took the orig tape off. I drove over 100 miles on Sunday without any problems. Those were mostly hwy miles so speeds excess of 80mph. (Don't tell anyone but I like to drive fast sometimes) The spoiler is on there good. I was going to do an OEM one but kind of a hassle. So many holes to use any OEM sport stuff!

-Ray

 

Looking good! as a motorcyclist I'm not sure I could just use tape, even the vhb stuff, then again I'm pretty risk averse hehe. I'm going through a ton of hassle coming up with a mounting method for mine. I'm using the 2 main top bolts, and tape instead of the 4 body clips.

 

I know what you mean about using just tape but since its just ABS I figured I'd give it a try. I didn't want to drill holes in the hatch in case I didn't like the spoiler.

-Ray

 

Ray, did you buy your spoiler off eBay? I bought mine off there and it sounds similar to yours--ABS, factory-style, etc. I'm interested in how you put the tape on yours because after covering my spoiler in tape and testing against the hatch, it doesn't seem like all the tape would bond. It seems like quite a bit of the spoiler doesn't rest on the hatch at all...

Did you notice this on yours as well?

 

Yes it is an eBay spoiler. I will start by saying not all eBay junk is created equal. The deal with the spoiler is location location location! It lines up much further back than I thought. I washed the car, wiped the hatch and wing with alcohol after removing the tape that came on the wing. I added more tape between the areas that originally had tape. Fill the gaps. Grab a dry erase marker. When you find the "right" position mark the corners and side on the hatch to line up. Pull the backing on the tape, and line the wing up to your marks and hold it in place.

When I first tried I felt the same as you. It more than likely is the same as mine. Try several different positions.

-Ray

 

Well today was another quick easy change that IMHO makes a BIG change to the car. These are OEM JDM tails I traded to a member who is in Thailand. His name here is auan. He will trade JDM for USDM all you pay is shipping. Heres what showed up and how the go in.

Unique packaging



Well packed!



Like new...



Open hatch or fold down seats. Remove access cover. Remove three 8mm nuts.



On the RH side you may need to remove the body ground to reposition the wires. The wire harness is a tight fit.



On the LH side you will need to remove the clip (shown) for more slack.



Before



After







This helps set mine apart here in Houston!

BTW this is plug and play. No cutting of the original harness!

-Ray

 

looking good! was debating those tails myself, the black base headlights look good but i have always thought they clashed with the rears being all chrome.

@dudeitson
if your looking for quality tape i would recommend 3m vhb tape, you can get it from mcmaster ... they have 3 thicknesses .065" #4991, .045" #4941, .025" #4926/#4936