Mentat Ghola

So, I used to spend my money on engines and performance mods. That was 4-6 years ago.
I feel a bit too old for that stuff now, but I still like modifying, so I decided to do some mods to make the daily driver a more comfortable/attractive ride.

So I got the 99-00 climate control stuff, and I thought well, if Im gonna have the dash out, I might as well pull the interior, dye it black, and do some sound deadening.
Heres the pics of the project, it took me about 3-4 weeks for everything. And today its finished.



First I gutted the interior:





Then, I painted everything with Second Skin's Spectrum Vibration dampener.
Did 3 coats of this stuff. It smelled for like 10 days, but the more it dried the more I noticed its affect.









I waited 2 weeks then did a layer of Ensolite (From Raamaudio) on top of the spectrum.
Heres one pic I have, its where the spare tire is.



With the Ensolite on top I notice a big difference. Road noise is down a lot. The accoustics are a lot better. And with this combination theres barely any added weight. I used 2.5 gallons of Spectrum, which weighs 25 pounds. and 75 square feet of Ensolite which weighs maybe 5 pounds. So thats only 30 pounds of added weight, for a much more comfortable ride. Plus I took care of all the squeeks and rattles too.



Now, here are all the panels ready to be painted



I used SEM Landua black ,like everybody else. I prepped it really well, cleaned it with soapy water, then with Fantastik cleaner, then with SEM's plastic prep.
Heres the result





Not bad. Im not a pro, some of the bigger panels could have been done smoother, but overall I am very pleased with the paint. Seems like its not gonna go anywhere. I even painted the steering wheel, and that is showing no signs of wear after 2 weeks of driving.
Plus I coated the interior with a protective spray.


As I mentioned, I also swapped out the climate control stuff. HEres the awkward 98 console



And heres the new, I cant believe Honda didnt get it right the first time



And some pics of the interior assembled (these are crappy, but its really overcast)












OK, I also decided to paint the headlight housing. I didnt use paint like everyone else,
I bought tinting spray, and just did several layers of that.
And I really like how it came out. Lookes like charcoal/chrome, its hard to describe.
But now I can tell that the headlights are really scratched, and need to be polished.







I didnt cover the turn signal reflector, but I didnt actively paint it either, just let the overspray darken it a bit, so its a bit tinted, you can tell in this pic



Stock CX motor, gets 35 to the gallon. But the cracked exhaust manifold is worrying me!




And the car:





HX wheels were my first mod. Look good and help with gas mileage also!


Anyway, I dont really plan on doing anything else, so this prohect is basically done!

The Collin

Nice job.

EK99hatch

I like the interior! One thing I did on my cx was paint the side moldings and the side skirts with krylon fusion satin black paint so they look good all the time and don't get that dry/ashy look to them. Might want to give it a shot!

92egvx

nice car...and nice little mods....

818ek9

it made A NICE DIFFERENCE MANN

DER0CC

nice work. keep it up!

ej1love

kewl

jdmwannabee

cool beans i can dig it

dhortz214

it looks great! this might be of topic but can you just swap out the console of a 96-98 to 99-00? all of the guides i have seen swap out the whole thing. i wanna do the swap that you did but i dont wanna go through a swapping the whole thing.

1988_96hb

looks good. You should swap your taillights out with the 99-00 ones to get rid of those amber turn signals

ccarey

can you list the paint and primers and products you used and where you got them. i may have to try some of this on some of the trim i have. this kid painted a bunch of stuff silver and i wanna go back black without having to buy all new parts.

Jestin25

i just did my carpets i love the way it looks

racerx510

NIIICE

TwoFaced

Why don't you polish the outside of those headlights and get that nasty oxidation off? Those 3m kits work wonders. I like the black though...good stuff.

SpeedoKing

cool man.

HoldTheRice

This thread is really old guys...

But if they OP is still on here, how many cans of each did it take to do the entire interior? I'm about to order and would like an idea of how much to get.

Smarg

Clean as a whistle. Nice car.

98BlackExCoupe

I'm glad I'm not the only one doing this haha.

athan21

i have the same climate control outta my 98 hatch , will it just fit right into my 96 hatch or would i have some modifications to make?