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ToddF's '16 yellow LX
I got my Fit about a month ago, and it's to the point now where it's recognizable on the road. So, I might as well start a thread documenting the mods I've done. I should start by saying that I have no plans to do anything that can't be relatively easily undone.
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I'm a mentor for a FIRST high school robotics team. I decided my mods would make my car themed in our team colors. The first thing I did was make some custom wallpaper for the radio with our team logo and a pic of our robot from this year. The image is 1664x936, with a 160 pixel tall bar at the top.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fit...1a2e95de7a.jpg |
Next: interior lighting. I replaced the bulbs in the map lights, dome light, and cargo light with purple LEDs from
. Following instructions on these forums, I wired the dome light to the map lights so the map lights would come on with the dome light. This makes the car brighter when the doors are opened. I tapped into the under dash fuse block and wired LED light strips under the dashboard in the front, and under the front seats to illuminate the rear foot wells. Sorry, no link for the LED strips, as they were surplus from the robotics team.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fit...949fdb3b3b.jpg |
With no exterior mods, here is how the car looked.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fit...64669c9adf.jpg |
I considered custom wheels, but before dropping that kind of money I wanted to get a taste of what that might look like. So I got some aftermarket wheel covers from
, and painted them. I used the http://duplicolor.com/product/metalcast-anodized-automotive-paint paint system. The covers were first wet sanded with scotch-brite to promote paint adhesion. Then sprayed with a coat of the silver metal flake ground coat. Over the ground coat went a coat of purple. I packed away the stock wheel covers and replaced them with the painted ones and
. Here is the result. (That's our first Fit in the driveway. My wife drives that one.)
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fit...3707f4e360.jpg |
Using the same purple paint system, I painted some simple
and installed them. A buddy of mine spotted my car in the wild, at Busch Gardens, and snapped this pic.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fit...b5c7e79e51.jpg |
Welcome to the forums. You've got an interesting color scheme going. Reminds me of the old school joker:
http://www.jokeruniverse.com/wp-cont...sarrjkr009.jpg |
Originally Posted by 2Rismo2
(Post 1342447)
Welcome to the forums. You've got an interesting color scheme going.
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I pulled off the lower grill and added a strip of LEDs to the bar that the horn is mounted on. This gives the radiator a purple glow that is visible through both the lower and upper grill. To power it, I ran wiring from the right front interior light strip, through the fresh air intake duct, and down to the base of the radiator. This ties the radiator lights to the interior lighting, so they all light up when the car is unlocked, and go out when driving.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fit...d54757e4eb.jpg |
The purple wheel covers tend to blend in with the stock black wheels. As an experiment, I sprayed the two wheels on the passengers side with yellow Plasti Dip.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fit...121b5b39f0.jpg This shows off the purple wheel covers a bit more. https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fit...9bb8aefa00.jpg I'll see which I like better and either peel off the yellow to return the passenger wheels to black, or spray the drivers side wheels yellow to match. Or, maybe just go with some purple alloy rims. Another view... https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fit...ce16485483.jpg |
Interesting mods!
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Keep the updates coming. The yellow background to the purple wheel covers looks good.
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I used
vinyl wrap to wrap the rear bezel. Unfortunately, in the sunlight, the color was more blue-ish and didn't match the purple paint on the wheel covers. I ended up peeling the wrap back off. I'll need to keep shopping around to get some wrap that's a color I like.
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Removed the OEM pinstriping.
BEFORE https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fit...f6c6d4053a.jpg AFTER https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fit...ba9e7b4804.jpg |
This is shaping up to be a fun (and funky!) car!
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Definitely looks better without pinstriping!
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trunk lighting
Lighting for the rear cargo area presented more of a challenge than the front. I wanted purple lighting when the hatch opens, but that lighting wasn't really bright enough when digging around in the back for gear. So I added a push button switch that swaps between purple lighting and white spot lights.
Purple lights: https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fit...7eca7367c9.jpg White lights: https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fit...20438ec452.jpg It's not super obvious from the pictures, but the white lights are about 3X brighter than the purple. First I replaced the stock rear light bulb with a purple . To light up the left side, I used a short piece of purple . These were wired in parallel to each other. For the bright lights, I used a pair of white . These were also wired in parallel. I used a to switch between the purple and white lights. I tapped into the wires feeding the stock trunk light, used the ground wire as a common ground for all the lights, and used the push button to send 12V from the hot wire to either the purple lights or the white lights. When the button is in the "out" position, the purple lights are on and the white lights are off. When the button is "in" (it's a push on-push off style button), the purple lights are off and the white spotlights are powered. All the lights go out when the hatch is closed, and also go out when the hatch has been up for about 10-15 minutes. I wired the button to stay lit in both positions, to make it obvious. Depending on how you wire it, the button could have been lit with the purple lights or the white lights. One interesting thing is that the switch lights up in both polarities. This makes me suspicious that the light is actually a bulb rather than an LED, which should only light when wired one way. push button switch: https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fit...adccd080b5.jpg right side lights: https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fit...772c2d0628.jpg left side lights: https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fit...ae53fe0fc8.jpg |
new plates
My registration was up this month. When I renewed, I gave up my "KYAK FSH" plates in favor of "TRPL HLX" plates to match the theme of the car.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fit...926db5c6ff.jpg https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fit...eb7a7a0543.jpg |
Wow those white spotlights are crazy bright. Nice mod!
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A lot of really nice work!!! You have given me some inspiration to work with. I don't want to make a street car, I just want some simple mods to make my Fit standout a bit.
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