Haha them ***** is not cheap! Your car is perfect though because its new enough and still has that Honda feel to it. I don't want to drive a super soft car that handles weird. I like how my hatch feels to drive and I would surely miss the feeling. Would I like to get something else? Sure but I really dont mind my car at all and would keep it on the side. I love driving it and its not even that nice at all.

Ha so true but do it for yourself man, they don't understand the roots of the car! Its part of who you are! We're all on the same boat haha, we'll upgrade a few years down the road. Gotta buy a 2 car garage house first haha.

Update:

I got my birthday present a little early this year, I asked my buddy if he would sell his Alpine deck to me and he needed a new clutch so he agreed and used the money to buy his clutch. I gave him my deck for the time being so that he wouldn't be without one so when he gets one he'll just give it back.

The deck is an Alpine CDE-103BT and I also got his iPod accessory cable which sells separate I can skip from the deck itself and its very fast and easy to find songs. I installed it as soon as I got it haha, didn't even wait to get home haha.

The deck is really nice first of all, it sounds a whole lot better and my previous deck that only had cd/radio but this one has cd/aux in/iPod/usb/radio. It also has built in Parrot bluetooth for making/receiving calls which is one of the best available. I installed the mic up top on the A pillar right next to the sun visor. Came out very clean! I'll take better pictures tomorrow when its light out but these will have to do for now! I'm loving this thing! Its made driving a lot more pleasant. Big shout out to my friend Terrence for helping with the install!









Heres a little something I did a few months ago but never posted. Just cleaned up the tranny ground a little bit, couldn't really clean the green stuff out but its better than before.








Gave my car a wash as well earlier this week, it was so trashed with salt. I have to wash the bay asap as well, so much salt everywhere




More coming soon!

 

Bump for a clean hatch

 

I love the appearance of this car right now. Looks so good all black with those fat spoke si wheels.

I'm taking a different route with it, going 15-spoke with it. If it wasn't so dam uncomfortable outside to work on it, I would start with those side markers. Have you made the electrical connections for yours yet?

 

Yeah the Si wheels flow pretty good with the car IMO. 15 spoke huh? CPRs or what lol. Yeah its freezing outside

I haven't made the electrical connections yet. I'm just going to get the OEM harness for it, not sure who sells them separately. Inline4 sold me these for $50 and I assumed it came with the harness bc of the pics that were on the website. They never replied to my email either asking about it. Everywhere else sells it for the same price with the harness but I didn't know about those places b4. Kinda shitty but oh well.

I took some more pix of the deck in natural lighting and with flash. Notice how nice and dark my dash looks. This product I used during the summer is still on there like it was the day after I applied it, looks great and makes it look very natural and not super wet/glossy.

 

haha i still dont have a cd player in my car since i bought it in august of 09. Lol drove to IA with out one and all. So stupid i just keep buying other things and putting it off. Though i no my friend has one laying around.

 

Yeah I remember that, headphones ftw lol. I actually have another deck of the same model laying around. I had bought it bc I thought mine had taken a **** but it was just the fuse . I wish I knew, I woulda given it to ya for IA.

 

I've rocked my Alpine deck with the Ipod interface for over 4 years now in 5 different cars/trucks. Awesome feature to have for sure. I'm waiting to cut in my side markers too but I got the original clips with 4 inches of wire to tap into. Keep it up bro, when I move home in May ill have to finally meet you with clumbzy

 

wow

 

hahahahaha das wassup homie

 

Yeah its like night and day in terms of selection. No more reaching the glove box for unlabeled cds haha. I love mods that require less attention and lets the driver focus more on driving. Thats something that I love about 90's Hondas, they're very to the point.
What up! Is that a good wow or?
Terrence what up shun! Thanks for giving me a hand, it made things go a lot faster. We're gonna have to take a stroll in the EG at IA!

 

fosho homie

 

Me driving back home after I installed the deck.

 

dude ,hatch is clean...as for your dad ,send him my way i'll knock him out ...legit haha i will

 

nice rolling shot!

whats that thing mounted in the upper right of your windshield? a mic?

 

Yeah, his head unit has the bluetooth option that's the mic!

 

haha chill! Its whatever! Thanks dude.
Yeah I like it too, and yea its a bluetooth phone mic that goes into the deck. Works really well.


Updates:

Part 1!
I am going to be installing my sister's subwoofers/amp in my car since she does not need it and they will have TONS of bass. They are quite a step up from my current set up which is not too shabby! Its good as is so I'm looking forward to this.

I'll be going from a 300 watt amp to a 600 watt amp

The subs are made by Audiobahn which I'm sure many of you have heard of, they make good quality sound components. I believe they are 12'' but could be 10''. The enclosure is much better than the current/previous setup. They light up blue inside and have a bass **** that I can adjust from up front.

I ran out of time today to install the amp to the sub but I will try to finish tomorrow.

I am also removing my spare tire/tools/jack/hazard since I really don't need them. The rear strut bar won't fit with the subs so I'm taking it out and maybe I'll give it a polish!

I am also benefiting from a weight loss here as well.

Spare tire= -19 lbs
Jack/tools/hazard= -5 lbs
Subs+amp= -52 lbs
Strut bar= -2lbs
Subtotal= -78 lbs
New subs+amp= +65 lbs

Total= -13 lbs

I'll be driving tomorrow without the subs so I will be -78lbs lighter, lets see how much that changes handling and see if that stuff that I took out was part of the rear noises.


Before:

After:










Vacuumed it up!


This thing has seen better days



Rear trunk was pretty dusty, I cleaned it up with a wet and dry cloth after. I also realized how dirty the carpet is, I'll have to shampoo it when I take out my rear seats for reassembly.


Gave the interior a vacuum as well, I need to wash the plastic part too but the vacuum helped a lot.

 

i remember wheni took out my tools and spare tire to save weight...then i got a flat

 

It never makes any sense to remove your spare tire on a daily driver.

 

Thats a bummer! Bet you're rocking a spare now haha.
I've never needed it but alright, you convinced me to put it back in and so I did. Its not that much weight anyways.


Update:

Part 2!

Removed this cover to clean it up since I knew it would be dusty. 4 tabs on the top, 2 on the bottom, to remove it simply pull it outwards.

Clean!
Sanded paint dust managed to get in here I'm guessing?



USDM rear interior doesn't really have a place to put the jack and tools, jack is too big to fit inside the rim and I couldn't even find their proper location on the helms manual or pictures of it online.

I managed to get it to be snug on the side there, does the trick I guess :shrugs:


I picked up the rear strut covers last time I was at the junkyard so I threw those on after I removed the strut bar brackets.. Took a little more work than I was expecting since the socket could only tighten the bolts so much since the studs are long and so it pushes the ratchet out of the socket so I had to use a wrench (17mm) which doesn't have much room to move to fit with the panels in the way.

I do wish my rear interior panels weren't so beat up but oh well.



Done!


Honestly its not really my thing to have huge subwoofers but its an upgrade and I only daily my car so weight isn't a huge concern. Plus I can simply take them off for auto-x days. 2 12'' subs is no joke, its super loud. At first I couldnt even go higher than volume 3 without my ears popping lol. I adjusted the bass and subs to as low as they would and couldn't go past volume 7 lol. Then I adjusted the amp crossover screw to the lowest and it was much better. Still too loud haha, I need to lower the bass boost and fine tune from there for a good balance between the speakers and subs, I just want deep bass, not really loud bass.





On another note a good friend passed away on Feb.15th which was also my birthday. He was such an awesome person and always willing to extend a hand. Always energetic and laughing simply having a good time.

We weren't close friends like that but we had good times together. I remember the first time I went to an SHG meet and I didn't know anyone personally and no one knew me either. I was hanging out by the grill and said "whats the hold up, lets get this grill going!" Someone said we didn't have lighter fluid so I went looking for some and a couple let me use theirs so I brought it to the grill and me and him were trying to get a flame going. We all grilled some bomb *** food and joked around. He made me feel like I wasn't out of place, thats just the kind of person he was.

We had a great time going to IA2010 and I'm glad that I got the change to hangout with him then. Talking at 2am sitting on the grass outside the hotel talking about harnesses, I'll never forget that talk. Eating at the Waffle House on the way back home and we're all super tired but were just laughing hysterically because of his jokes and contagious laugh, if you knew him you remember his laugh! Considering how little I knew him, it feels like I lost a best friend even though I don't think we ever talked outside of those meets. His close friends are really going to miss him, I feel bad for them for having to deal with such a loss. He was your east coast harness guy, what rywire is to the west coast Adam West is what the East coast had. I couldn't help but cry when I heard about it, its incredible how much he touched all of us.

He was the passenger in a car and the driver lost control and hit a pole. Much like our friend Nick Haines from 1320 racing passed away. He went to the hospital where doctors suspected that he was brain dead, it was then confirmed on Friday and he was taken off life support later that day.

I just ask that everyone in here to be careful out there so that things like this don't happen, its very sad and happens quicker than you would imagine. I just ask that you guys take safety seriously when building your cars and when driving.

I wish we would of spent more time together and even though you left us so soon, you're in a better place now brother. We're gonna miss you! Rest in Paradise homie!

 

I remember that night like it was yesterday. Meets wont be the same in the Northeast with out him.

 

Yeah I do too. That was when I really got to know him well. I also agree about the meets part, I don't it will never be the same again, especially this year. He would of wanted us to keep keep going harder and harder though and thats exactly what I plan on doing. I want my harness to come out in a way that he would of been proud of. Its unreal thats its gone.

 

This hatch looks better and better every time I check the thread! Keep up the good work, pal!


And sorry to hear about your friend. RIP....Always sad when the community loses such a vibrant member.

 

holla. somehow i was subscribed to this...so now i am

 

loving the build! inspired me to hurry up and build my eg :D

 

Ha thanks man, its always nice to see you in here. Really need to get going, 2011 is well underway!
Yeah he was really helping putting the east coast on the map, he helped out a lot of random people with their questions and was always helping someone with their bay.




Ha yeah thanks, do it up! It feels really fun to drive it once you do your basic suspension and running gear work.

Doing my amber lighting this week! Can't wait

Stuck with this for the meantime lol