Last week I was at my local junkyard because they had recently added a 1990 Civic sedan to their inventory. I was hoping to get the ICU but as usual it was already gone. I was exploring the car looking for other useful parts and I noticed the ratty old steering wheel cover and I thought to myself it probably looks even worse under the cover. I managed to peal the cover off to reveal a pristine steering wheel so I got that and at least the trip wasn’t a complete waste of time.

Today I decided was the day to do three little projects on my Civic.

First I replaced the rear view mirror cover/seat belt warning lights. The old one was still in one piece, but it was discolored. It was beige or perhaps even light brown rather than the original gray color to match the ceiling. The old part is very brittle. I was pretty sure the cover would break if I tried to remove it. I was as careful as I could be but as expected it crumbled in my hand. Not a great loss but it would have been nice if I could have saved it. The new part seems quite robust, the cover flexes as required for installation and the color looks perfect to me. I had looked at some of the 3D printed ones but they just don't look right to me. I mailed the original one to OctoClassic.com and they reproduced it exactly. It was a bit pricy. I just had to transfer over the red light filters and the electronics. So now OctoClassic.com has the design and they will sell them to anyone. They seem to be able to produce very good replacements for any plastic part if they have a sample to copy.

Original

Side by side

On the bench

After

After

Next I replaced the steering wheel. The old one was sun damaged and the rubber was a bit loose on the underlying metal rim. The texture on the old one was worn down and it had become sort of shiny. The “new” one looks and feels so much nicer the surface is not shiny and the rubber is still solidly attached to the rim.

"New" vs old steering wheels


Finally I took it for a drive and when I got home I changed the oil. Feels like a productive day.