Project Hazmat '09 Honda Civic Si

In reply to thedanimal :

That would be great for him but the extension ran out 3 years ago...

Good catch however and it might be possible to get a friendly dealer to put the paper work in to attempt to get that fixed but I'd say the chances are slim.

In reply to Samebutdifferent :

Ah, good insight. I remembered from my CarMax buying days and that was a few years ago.

Yeah, probably have better luck playing pick up sticks with his butt cheeks than getting a new paint job from Honda at this point

Yes the paint recall is long gone. We'll probably just sand it all down to get all the loose stuff off and then hit it with paint to keep moisture out and lay vinyl on top. 

I suggest a Spoon livery, but change the colors and call it Spork. 

In reply to Daylan C :

This is genius.

Not gonna lie, the sun-scorched silver paint was my favorite part of Hazmat's aesthetic.

I'm not going to pursue bright colors. The car needs to be semi normal for my plans right now. I need to not attract all the attention in the world. 

But I have run the idea of a fork or spork theme before In my head. It's just not practical for what it would cost to be durable. 

So don't know what I'll do. But for now paint stuff is mostly done. 

We should get some translucent matte (once the car is shiny) and we can cut all sorts of weird E36 M3 that will barely show up. 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

I Like where your head is at. 

Oh yes the old Westmoreland PD plan. Always a good one.

Everytime with this car I pickup sandpaper 

Downsides of owning a 10 year old super common E36 M3box 

-all the rubber bits are worn out and things are starting to break

Upsides of owning a 10 year old super common E36 M3box

-all the broken bits are readily available and cheap. 

Case and point.. Those front compliance bushings are torn on the driver side and getting ready to go on the passenger side. 

Moog sells proper bushings for $15. Cool

Went on rock auto looking at something else and realized they sold the arm loaded with bushings... AND a new ball joint.... For $30 shipped... So $60 for the pair.

PSH DONE! 

Ordered Monday arrived today

They'll go in this weekend

I would seriously consider unbolting the ball joints and using the ones that are in the front knuckles. I know they're old, but I've had better luck with 150k mile stock pieces than new super cheap pieces. Then you have a set of spare ball joints sitting on the shelf as well. 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

That is precisely the plan. And just toss the new ones in the spares box. 

spacecadet said:

Went on rock auto looking at something else and realized they sold the arm loaded with bushings... AND a new ball joint.... For $30 shipped... So $60 for the pair.

dude.....i like the cut of your jib.  stealing this little tidbit of info for later! 

In reply to ScottyB :

Thanks man! They're ultra power brand....so we'll see how they do long term. But this leave me the ability to possibly send the stock ones off for.. Spherical things... 

Put this on the car today.. Cause my dumbass needs the reminder.. 

Also noticed this yesterday.. 

Forgot the Si was a Low Emissions Vehicle...NOT ANYMORE! 

I assume that's for you to ponder when it's upside down?

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

i wondered why it didn't look right.. i had a long day.. 

wrench once and drink twice to how stupid I am.. 

Wrench once and think about what you've done. 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

for better or worse

Seth I'm fairly certain my Saturn is the exact opposite of your logic behind that sticker. But it wears that sticker anyway. At least mine isn't upside down...

Lots more progress today. 

New control arms installed, the used front struts went in and I got the brake fluid and clutch fluid flushed. 

And we pulled the backing plates so we can get proper airflow to the front brakes.

This is what came out of the left front.. But the whole system had stuff like this everywhere. It needed this overhaul badly. 

But man, the clutch fluid. Whoa baby......

Oh and here's what we flushed with..

Castrol SRF has a Wet boiling point in excess of 500F. Experience of the racers I talk to is that this stuff requires only an anual flush of the whole thing and at the wheel flushes each weekend. So it ends up being same price as the cheaper DOT4's. 

So worth the extra coin. And the reality is that we're talking $50 vs $20-30 per liter of the motul and other DOT4's that are popular. So this is cheap insurance. And after looking at the paint i cooked off the backing plates on the DTC60's... i need this stuff bad! 

Clean fluids make me happy. 

I'd be surprised if a car that light could torch Ate Typ200 enough to need more than annual flushes.  Generally I use SRF for cars I take to the track alot, that are very powerful and fairly heavy.