How do you put insulation between the headliner and the roof? And what does NHBP mean? What does this mod cost?

 

It's the color of the car. Nighthawk Black Pearl.

I live in the Houston area so I know all about how hard it is to cool in the mid day heat. I have my windows tinted as dark as legal all the way around and I keep a sun shade on my windshield when it's parked. That made a huge differance. It takes about 4-5 min.'s to cool enough for comfort but I never put the a/c knob past 2. If you keep it on one or two it gets cold faster.

 

Gonna be 108 here today, 112 by Friday... quit your whinin' about 95+, lol.

 

It's not the HEAT, it's the HUMIDITY!!! Ha ha bet you have heard that a million times! Yeah, whatever, hot is HOT and when it's over 100, that's an oven. I'm not whining yet, I haven't bought a Fit but I can get my fave color, Vivid Blue Pearl in a Sport AT if I want it...just on the fence about whether it's gonna "fit" my lifestyle or not.

 

What does tinting cost? And since you are in Houston, what is your insurance like? We get JACKED for insurance in this city! (I'm 51, clean record but have a 17-year-old son who is driving.)

 

I paid $150 for 35% front 20% rears.

I was in Dallas, moved to Wichita, and in both places the best deal I could get is $200/month. I'm a 20 year old male with the good student discount and I've never had a ticket or an accident. I think it's just because it's a new car.

I don't know how much it would cost to have it done, but it seems like people are spending about $100 on dynamat and they're removing the headliner(taking off the upper panels with the battery unplugged so airbags don't deploy, likely replacing clips as the panels come off), applying the dynamat, then replacing the headliner with a design instead of the original headliner, buying upholstery glue and reapplying the headliner. as of now it's a DIY mod, I imagine it would take a good full saturday to do, however, so you'd probably much rather NOT pay someone for it. if you have a friend who's done work like that before, have them do it, however I don't think it's necessary to insulate the roof in order to keep the car cool. like I said, it rains here, then the same day it ends up being 102 degrees, so I know what it's like to have the sticky hot. I keep one of those foldable front window covers under my seat, and with my windows tinted I don't have any problem keeping the car cool at all.

I don't think you should worry at all about your fit's AC. I sit in my car in the 100 degree heat for about 15 minutes before work(I leave early so I don't get stuck in traffic) with the AC dial on 1 and I read a book -- completely comfortably.

Worse comes to worse, you refill your freon like Sid said. Cheap, easy fix.

 

It can get pretty hot here in Boston when it decides to. I just do a combination of initially cooling off the car with the A/C, and intermittantly opening up the windows to let a bit of fresh air on.

I can't wait to get my tint installed with my next paycheck (in a couple weeks). It will be 35% in the back, and 20% in the front. I was quoted about $300.00 to get it all done.

 

i agree, the side vents suck, thats why i close them and use only the middle vents. you get more air flow at lower settings, and you can actually feel it. never needed to go past 2 with both middle vents aimed at me.

 

I paid $115 with the eyebrow included (Shurgart Glass in South Houston). My insurance is $130 a month and I'm 26 with no tickets.

 

I noticed with my Fit that if the vent selector was set to upper and lower, it became hot in the car when the temperature was over 90F. I usually set it to upper vent only/recirculate and I was fine. I got the windows tinted after the first summer and it made a huge difference.

I don't care about the people in the back, they complain too much anyway

 

I think I will do the 'eyebrow', too. lol, I guess it will look more like a unibrow.

But really, I am amazed that more peeps don't use the reflective sunshades- it really does make a difference in keeping the interior slightly less hot when parked. I'll even use it in the winter to kep the UV from degrading the plastic dash and leather steering wheel.

 

What is an "eyebrow?" I know I'm being a bit of a pain, but you guys have so much lingo I can't make heads or tails of it!!

That tint price doesn't seem like much. Guess I can afford that.

 

I think by eyebrow they mean the strip of tint that goes at the top of the front windshield.

 

Thanks for the name of the shop! That doesn't seem too bad. By "eyebrow" do you mean the darker strip at the very top of the front window?

 

^^^^^^ Yep.

 

Most tint shops are going to call that a 'visor strip'. If you walked in and said 'eyebrow' in most shops, they wounldn't know what you're talking about either. Some people call the chrome trim that goes over your fenders 'eyebrows'.

Be sure and check out the thread in my sig for a lot of answers to tint questions.

 

Nice Thread! Very informative.

 

Must be a regional thing- just got off the phone with a few tint shops for quotes and all three referred to it as a brow strip. Must be that Rocky Mountain High.

Great link BTW, love all the pics of various tints. Wish we could do 5% or even 20% here...*sigh* 27% it will be.

 

I think you're going to get a Fit, you are already hooked on the forum, you HAVE too!!

 

I test drove a Fit Sport AT a little more than a month ago, but wasn't in the car but for 15 min. and it was ok. I was 30 miles north of New Orleans, LA and at the time it was between 85 and 90. It did take a while to cool it down, but judging from the comments and the fact that every compact/sub-compact from Honda I've owned has had a less than adequate A/C systems. However, as stated in a previous response, my accord and prelude were ice cold.

I also had a friend who recently traded her Fit back to Honda for a new Civic b/c of a leak that could never be repaired correctly. Together with the A/C, I've unfortunately decided against the Fit which is very disappointing b/c I know it has a lot to offer.