Marcos Barrios

today had some free time and went down to the shop to get some more work done

got the car up on the ramps


marked where i was going to cut out the hole


and went for it


pretty flush




these are the plugs im going to use when i do the wiring


ive had a slow oil leak for the last few weeks
a few drops every time i park somewhere
so before i left the shop i looked around for it and found it


oil pressure sensor is leaking
and i found my lost 10mm bolt haha
ill fix that on my next oil change




more updates soon

Marcos Barrios

you know how hard it is to find a picture of the family trip without the family haha
i managed to get three
but its just the road really
and what America is...just farm land
enjoy

over the bridge



a non straight section i got excited with this


and endless farmland


i really gotta get going on my lighting project thats happening right now
during the trip at night is when you really notice that im basiclly driving with one headlight only


updates coming this week

and is it just me or on top on the blue peak anti freeze sign
does that look like the ghost of someone

stampern22

What lighting project are you doing? I'm swapping my low beam bulb out for high beams, makes a decent difference. High beams in both headlight slots.

Marcos Barrios

i have that mod already ^_^
im useing the 2005 bulbs on low beam and high beam but my problem is that i only have one good headlight housing
on my driverside the paint inside of it has come off so *** you can see in the pic up above
even with a brighter bulb its still not lighting anymore
i have to take the housing off and respray the chrome
or get another housing
but on top of that im also getting the fog lights and side markers done

now on to todays update
i got my roof rack installed


and got to cleaning my air filters for the 4 cars i got at home


the truck the two civics and the element


i always wait till i have all 4 dirty so i do them all at the same time so heres the process
to those who have moved on to foam filters

with the mineral spirits in a bucket
place the filter inside and squeeze and turn repeat
for about 20 seconds
useing mineral spirits cleans the filters very well
its what my family has been using since the 90s


after your done with 4 filters your bucket is going to look a little something like this


but dont throw it away
we save the mineral spirits
useing the old trick from the radiator update

put everything back threw the funnal but the last bit




then we move on and clean off the bucket and fill it with clean cold water
and then we run our filters threw the bucket the second time
to remove any left over dirt or oils


and thats it for air filter cleaning
now you just let them dry and your done


the bucket i use for cleaning is the same one i use for storing
so when im done i clean it again
and store the filters in there and put a cover over so you dont have dusty filters when you need them


and before we install them we also oil them


i have this little tiny hand sanitizing bottle from work i use for the filter oil


i did the filter cleaning because i have to service the truck this weekend
but updates on the sedan are still coming

stay tuned

Marcos Barrios

this week was interesting
on thursday i went down to kawasaki
to have lunch with an old friend




that day i headed to the garage to fix a rattle /broken rear speaker
on the new york trip we noticed the drivers rear speaker was rattling and also not working well anymore
it had alot of bad connection and rasp problems
so today i said goodbye

and the plan is to install front first gen ford focus speakers in its place \
witch are about an inch bigger so i had to do some cutting
and of course in the middle of cutting i run out of blades on my dremel
so i called it a night

then that night we got about 5 inches of snow

it was fun driving around it in

so saturday i got back in the garage
and got to work




took like 4 hours in total
the cutting and the drilling
and the sodering of wires after





there bigger, have a nice clear sound , there louder and just plain better than the old set up
worth the time it took to install
opened the garage door and called it a good weekend

and the best park of all
they costed $12 for both at the junkyard
more updates soon

Marcos Barrios

having a moment with the car haha

Marcos Barrios

got off work early today so went down to the shop and got some work done


got in there and got the heater going
the plan for today was to remove the corner light housings for good
and wire in the side markers
enjoy

















enough said ^_-

more updates soon

Marcos Barrios

and so on to todays progress

on the new york trip our system was to have someone driving and someone sleeping
my camping set up is basic
and you can lay in the back of the car fully extended useing the back seat and the trunk area for your bed

during a rainy section i noticed i had a water leak in the trunk while i was laying back there
looks like its been there for a while too since the areas where the water was coming from had made some rust

so today was a rust repair/paint /leak seal day
enjoy






took a wire wheel to the rust and got it all out
it wasnt bad enough yet that i needed to add steel






found a old patch job here


and the paint began
gave it primer/flat black base /clear
but didnt worry about making it pretty since its a inside job just needed it to seal












left it there to dry for about a hour and a half while i was doing some other stuff around the shop

then came time to seal the leak













rust fixed new paint and sealed ^_^

a good day at the shop for sure

and before i leave heres a sneek peak of whats coming next


more updates soon

Marcos Barrios

it was dark and we had fresh ice


still made it out and got to work
on making my backing plate for the driver side corner so
enjoy





had to fix the result of my fender bender a while back
























once the plate gets welded in and body filler and paint happen
you wont even know there was a corner light there to begin with ^_-

and before i left the shop on saturday
i changed out my front brake pads also
they have been on there last legs for a while now




one rule i have for myself is to always buy new brake pads
but never buy them at the store
i always get junkyard ones
there $1 each so $4 gets you all four


these i got the same time i got my front lower control arms that i did the bushings on
i got them off the same car at the junk
the box for them was still in the trunk of the civic too
there the value craft ones

its nice to have fresh meat again


more updates soon

Marcos Barrios

1-27-2019

ran some arrands around town this morning




then made it to the garage and got alot of work done

starting with the oil leak
now to get the oil presure sensor out i removed the oil filter

1 i was changing the oil
and 2 i didnt have the socket for the sensor and with the filter off i could get a wrench on there



all i did was give it a wrap and then reinstalled


hope it fixes the leak

next on the list
got a new wiper




replaced my air filter
with a clean one








then got to doing some metal work






got the passenger side done and then i even got to throwing some primer down


those backing plates will be welded in this spring

more updates soon

Marcos Barrios

this weeks update was small and yet took a good while to get done
this week i got the wiring done for my fog lights
i made it so its plug and play
enjoy


1 ground for both lights


moved into the car with my speaker wire ^_-


found where to run it threw






then found a power source
to hook into


and then something happend that wasnt planned
my little brother called me crying
saying he was just in a car crash
so i had to stop
and leave the shop
my brothers 17 so at that age your bodies made of majic and pixie dust so hes fine
but he crashed my red 08 civic coupe
and totaled it
ill post the pics once the insurance company is done doing there thing
more updates soon

linkdeezie

The power source for the fog lights...that's a switched 12v that works with the headlights, right?

Marcos Barrios

yes sir thats right

Marcos Barrios

hay Marco where you and the sedan been lately
oh im glad you asked honda tech
weve just been enjoying the winter
not really alot going on

ive been working on customers cars non stop
and im still not finished
i have 12 cars waiting in line to get worked on

so to keep you guys entertained heres what my little brother did to my 08 coupe








i could have fixed it no problem but my insurance offered me almost 5k for it
so i let it go
if i were to haved fixed it and then sold it i only would of gotten about 3k max
so its gone baby gone

other than that i started this the other day but didnt finish
not even half way yet
but its progress





more updates soon

Marcos Barrios

the cop said the road was unpassable
haha he doesnt know who he was talking to

my friend javi is the one up front in the truck
plus this was my first drive with the fogs working and pointed somewhat correctly
i love my new lighting ^_^
enjoy

Marcos Barrios

about time i got back to work
today is kinda of a big deal
its the start of the bench seat install


with this done i will be able to fit six people in the car if i ever had to
like on those airport runs for example around the holidays
i will be able to rest my arm either on the arm rest or on top of the seat when driving
and the most important ^_-
the wife will be able to sit next to me on the long drives

so today the first order of work is going to be moving the passenger side seat over about a inch and a half
as you can see here we have a 2 and 1/2 inch gap from seat to door panel

so on this part one of the update

im going to remove the seat and remove the rails tabs

enjoy


































and thats as far as im letting part one go
part two will be the welding and bracket making
to get the seat bolted up
along with this project we are also going to switch to normal seatbelts
and relocate the e brake handle useing a honda del sol one

more updates soon

Marcos Barrios

it just accured to me that i never showed the finished product of the fog light install
so heres the switch for it in the car


and heres the lightning mcqueen shots with the fogs working
enjoy






my lighting project is 75 percent finished now
all thats left is to redo the paint job inside the passenger side headlight
but thats going to have to wait till spring or summer

oh and heres a sneek peak of part 2 of the bench seat project





more updates soon

Marcos Barrios

look what finely showed up




my falken winter tires i ordered back in november haha
they were out of stock back then this is why im just now getting them
but now its too cold to install them
so they wont be used till next season

while im here im gonna show the progress on my seat rails






its a lotta work to move the hole thing over 1 inch
but it should be done by this weekend
and then we can start on the drivers side

more updates soon

Marcos Barrios

part 3









then took this dusty thing from my room and
tried to see how this 2/3 rds would fit




the other rail isnt even close haha


first the ebrake has to change location before i can keep going with this
more updates soon

~sp33~

I'm posting so we can try and get to a new page.

Marcos Barrios

let me help you then ^_-
heres a throwback for me my old si

Marcos Barrios

got my element in the garage this weekend

it had the stock radiator spring a leak
so i got a new one and installed it
and i thought that was it for today
i filled it and started her up and an even bigger leak happend !!
i got under the car again and found that the new radiator was also cracked haha
oh boy it was a bad day
so i removed the new one and snagged some pics to show the seller








hay now the hole on the side of the box when it arrived makes since haha

more updates when i get a new radiator to throw on there

mctrader07

That stinks about the radiator. Been reading your adventures for the months. The lights look great.

Marcos Barrios

hay thanks bro they work great too
the other day i drove a friends 2012 ford focus and the head lights seemed like they wernt even on compared to mine ^_-

i got a story for you guys this weekend

this weekend i didnt plan on making a update since my element is in the garage on jack stands waiting for the radiator
friday came along and i set off to go to work at 6pm and right before leaving my street i had the joy of my front lower ball joint breaking while i was going over a big peace of ice
my tire went right up into the fender and the axle popped out of the boot and i was done

so now my cars on the floor and i needed to tow it back home
not far maybe 50 yards
haha i jacked the car up and used 1/4 inch rope to hold the hub in place
the rope broke like 5 times during the towing
every time it would brake i would jack up the car again and then add more rope
the car would move like 10 to 15 feet each time before the rope would brake
i was just useing what i had
and after about two and a half hours
i made it to my driveway ^_^
haha then i went to work in my tuck
and to autozone to order a ball joint

the next morning saturday i got to work
check out the drift car status





had to work on my car in the snow and slush
had a great time ... haha

here you can see my broken ropes


it was time to get to work
so i removed everything
and saved my trailer hitch i mean broken ball joint for last






now while i was in here and i saw that my upper ball joint needs some attention also



and figured id change it out too
with one of my spares in my new parts pile


then noticed that my replacement wouldnt work
my ball joint is flat on top


and my replacment is the type with the bump on top


so i ordered two new upper ball joints
and left the old one on for now

then i finished the job
i got my new autozone duralast ball joint installed





got everything put back together and the sedan is fine


back to its daily duties of kicking *** ^_^





like nothing even happened

more updates soon

Marcos Barrios