as far as tint, im thinking about doing 25% on the rear side windows and
gate. (can't tint the front side windows legally in IL...)

sounds about right? im going first thing Mon morning.

 

looks like the MOD moved my thread regardless of the progress of
my project.. from a complete newb to becoming something like about
50% or more of wat the fitfreaks already have on their cars... in about
one week. lol..anyway, feel free to comment on the progress of my
little fit project here. wat the MOD should have done was asked to
see if i wanted to change my thread title.

anyway i'll keep updating it so that you guys can follow along. i'll be
writing reviews, etc as well.

 

did 20% tint. turned out real nice. will post picts later on.


in/out in 1hr. 3 guys working on it.

 

got the zeta satin finish trim rings along with deadpedal and cargo cover/shade thingie.

here's my initial thoughts:

1) Trim rings - plastic has burrs, paint is kinda flaky... appears low quality.
paint being flaky is not good as durability is going to be one of the
main concerns.. i might decide not to use them if it turns out like crap
during the test fit. i might have my local guy repaint them using CF-like
overlay materials.

update: the rings fit well, but I think im going to do the door handle
instead. the door rings looks fine, just not my style. im keeping the
arch over the cluster and the HVAC rings. door rings are on sale $23
shipped. send me a PM and will ship today/tomorrow.

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/sale...tml#post207474

2) DeadPedal - looks good. nice an heavy, very durable looking
construction. reminds me of furishings for a fireplace..watever
that means. can't wait to install it. this one i really like
so far.

update: definitely a MUST-HAVE item! very happy now that i have
a very basic fundamental part of a MT car. not sure why Honda did not
include this on the FitSport 5MT's. install was very straight forward.
fitment is very good. very happy with this product.


3) Cargo Cover/Shade - shade box came crushed and bent in the middle.
will see if UPS damaged it or not later on... i hope not...


update: the cargo shade thing was fine. durable metal with spring loaded
ends just like the factory one. fits well, snaps into place. will knoww later
if it rattles or not while driving. quality of the canvas looks good. tension
on the canvas spring is pretty tight.

update2: no rattles that i could hear from the cargo cover shade thing on
the drive home today. not bad for the price!

 

alright, got an appointment to get the car aligned on the 27th...which is next thurs.
will give the springs good 2 weeks to settle. hope this slight sloppyness feel goes
away. the initial turn-in response is now a lot slower feel. it could be from the 40mm
offset im running vs the 55mm stockers.

after driving the car with DF210's for the 2nd day, i can definitely tell
the ride is stiffer than stock. not really bouncy per se, just stiffer.
also could be that im riding on different tires and with new size
195/50/15 instead of the stock 195/55/15. it feels closer to my modded
cooper-s, which is a good thing.

 

here's that tint i got on today... lookin' pretty good, i thinx.

 

any of you noobs have any questions, post them here.

remember, i only got this car 2 weeks ago. im also a newb.
will have more picts of the interior as soon as my honda
factory switch covers are installed later on this week.

so i got that, and also the Megan axle-back coming to me.

 

I think that % tint looks perfect. I have the same level tint on my civic....however I dont plan on tinting when I get my Fit. My local window shops always leave an air bubble somewhere on the tint. Car and wheels look great!

 

Looks good man!
For a 2 weeks' new owner, it's really coming along. But, judging from the other cars in your lineup from your sig, you know a thing or two
Can't wait to see what this looks like a year from now - especially if it's already this good.
forced induction maybe??? keep up with the mini? or maybe even overtake the mini???

 

thanks. i searched around this time and found a guy that's
been doing tinting for like over 25yrs. him and his 2 crews do commercial
buildings for their real income. doing cars is probably just extra
money for them. regardless, nice team they got.

im going to do my LegacyWgn at this shop next... after i confirm
that their work is top notch after everything dries in about a week.

 

thanks, seven! yah, been modding cars for a while now. ive done
stuff with nitrous, turbo, s/c. im still a weekend bolt-on kinda guy though.
im more into motoring and detailing my cars.

yah, the thought of turbo charging my Fit has been going through my
head a few times... but not sure, i dont think the Fit is slow by
any means. it does everything that i need it to do. i am especially
happy with how smooth the gearbox is and the drivetrain. as far as
over taking the MINI. from a mechanical perspective i think it's possible.
but from a character perspective, MINI's are MINI's. they have their own
distinct flavor that just can't be mimicked by any other car.

 

oh yah, i wanted to make a note on the Falken ZIEX912 tires that im
using right now. these are my first set of Falkens and will be my last.
lol the only reason why i got them were because my local shop
had these in stock and gave them to me at a great deal.

these tires don't grip worth shit in the cold weather even though they
are a/s tires. the factory tires were 10x better.

my next set will be 16's so will do the AvidH4's. i run those on my
LegacyWgn and they work great for the price all season long.

 

I'll give it that - the mini is like nothing else visually. beware the bulldog!!!

I think a little boost wouldn't hurt the fit, while I agree it's not slow by any means, it just runs out of the breath a little too soon for me...

if kraftwerks would just speed things up....

 

so i looked at how the Zeta trims turned out this morning in
bright daylight.

these trim pieces are bluntly, a piece of crap.

save your money. if you want that door piece set i have on
sale you're welcome to buy it but be warned. the fitment
is sub-par to my standards. it looks decent from outside the
car. just dont look at it too closely while inside cause it will
remind you of a pos Mazda.

i might pull them off later on. the good is that it's cold
outside so the adhesive takes longer to set...meaning i have
more time to change my mind.

the deadpedal is nice though. thing is very solid.

so, in summary from Zeta:
1) trim pieces = NO
2) deadpedal = YES!
3) cargo cover shade thingie = YES

 

decided i want to stiffed up the front a little more so got a cusco
strut bar coming in this week.

 

so it's exactly 2 weeks from the day i did the DF210's. and going in for
an alignment this morning at the dealer to get the front toe corrected.

if the slight numbness does not improve i'll conclude that it's from the
40mm offset wheels. it's bascially a very slight tramlining that im
feeling.

 

got the alignment. car feels much better and more accurate. the
numbness i talked about from the toe-out is gone. car feels great.

Here are some numbers. the rear toe-in can not be adjusted, so will
rotate the tires every 3k miles, i suppose.

These are Actual/Before values in degrees.
*denotes out of spec

FRONT LEFT
Camber: -0.9/-1.1* (non-adjustable)
Caster: 3.8/3.8
Toe: 0.02/-0.12* at the limit <- this was the cause of the numbness.

FRONT RIGHT
Camber: -0.7/-0.5 (non-adjustable)
Caster: 3.9/3.9
Toe: 0.01/-0.06

REAR LEFT
Camber: -1.8/-2.0 (non-adjustable)
Toe: 0.30*/0.31* (range is 0 to 0.20, non-adjustable)

REAR RIGHT
Camber: -1.8/-1.6 (non-adjustable)
Toe: 0.47*/0.47* (range is 0 to 0.20, non-adjustable)


my final comments:
at least the lowering increased rear toe-in and not toe-out.
This provides better straight line stability and minimizes wandering
at full bump...so i don't really care. I just need to rotate the tires
more frequently.

you probably noticed that the Actual/Before values changed
even though the parameters are non-adjustable. this happens
often when aligning cars with progressive rate springs (DF210).
the alignment rack bumps the tires up to let it resettle after
adjustment, but progressive rate springs takes more than a few
of these bumps to resettle compared to linear rate springs.

so there you have it. my 08 FitSport 5MT.
it's a great car. so much punch coming from so little money.
i love it.

i dont plan on doing any major mods on this car. im going
to paint the fog surrounds black when it gets warmer, got
a chambered intake that i will be installing this week along
with a progress rear swaybar. that's about it.

might do a hella horn and wireup a ambient temperature
gauge in the bumper.

taken 1.13.08:

 

Hello to all you Fit maniacs. This website's made it obvious why I'm seeing so many around town!

I've been an owner since Halloween of a 2008 Sport. It was a slightly rough adjustment from a luxury car, but I'm doing well Thank You. I miss the telescoping steering wheel, arm rest and power, but the Fit is proving to be fun and easy to navigate (and doesn't suck premium gas). I named her Hissie, but haven't used the name yet, so now I'm not sure. So far my mileage has been 27.5 to 30.1 however the tire pressure light came on the other day and we discovered that all the tires were rather low, so maybe it will improve.

I've added floor mats, locking gas cap, blind spot mirrors, and cargo cover. Plan to add anti-sway bars, possibly a bra (since I discovered chips today while washing it) and maybe the armrest if I read that it's worthy enough, and a dead pedal.

I really wanted the bright blue color but we'd already ordered a Yaris for my husband that color because we thought I'd be driving a yellow SmartCar, but that test drive was not impressive, which meant hubby would now get my preferred color so I went with the light blue.

Enough said for now. Nice to meet you.

 

i guess i lied cause i ended up getting more stuff for my FitS...

recently got a SSI (intake), works great. highly recommend
these chamber type intakes. excellent improvement in mid range
torque and responsiveness. other chamber types are T1R, Topfuel.

also got chrome door handles (JDM) and right-side driver sun
visor (JDM) so that my wife has a vanity mirror when we go out.


also a Progress rear swaybar. on my DF210's the hardware
included with the bar was too damn big... the screw heads would
push the spring out of alignment, so got some low profile bolts
and locking nuts for it.

after doing the progress bar the headlight aim needed to be adjusted
which is easy to do if you have a ratcheting 8mm box wrench. the
aim dial is on the back side of the headlamp. for the driver side you
need to remove a small black cover which is easy to do to get access
to the nut dial. the progress bar's screw heads added about 3mm of height
in the back increasing the rake of the car.

once it gets warmer i plan to do the below:
1. hella horn
2. paint the fog lamp surround pieces black
3. maybe a set of summer tires with wheels... DR16's might be nice.

 

for those of you finding my posts useful, would you please send me
rep points (top right corner of my posts) so that i know how im doing?

Thanks!