I use my CRX for driving to work on nice days and for autocrossing.
The air conditioning is removed so I like the option of the sunroof, but I am not a fan of the extra weight. I removed all of the mechanism from the sunroof, but kept the frame and drainage tubes. This way the water still drains. In the future I plan to cast the frame out of CF (mostly for fun) and replace the metal. Anyway I bought a CF sunroof from visionmotorworks http://visionmotorworks.com/88hocrxsicaf.html. The quality was so so. I had to sand the entire surface to smooth it out. It had many ripples and the weave is a little irregular. After sanding I added a clear coat. When the sunroof is installed it looks pretty good, when it is off of the car you can still see the ripples in the weave. I was hoping for a little better quality. It is so difficult to find good CF parts. Finally to make it removable I used small aluminum pins. Now I can drive with it attached or remove it on nice days and for autocross.



I painted the bottom flat black. This is a picture from the inside.


A little farther away to show the overall image.


Sunroof removed pictures






Modified by hughesl at 10:20 PM 2/3/2008


Modified by hughesl at 8:23 PM 2/4/2008

 

Very nice work, and it's great that you still drive the car on nice days . Too bad they don't have a CF roof option for hatchbacks anymore .

Clean paint too btw, what color is that? Oh yeah, and the pics are a tad big haha. I had to scroll the page around to see the full images .

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 1989CivicSi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Oh yeah, and the pics are a tad big haha. I had to scroll the page around to see the full images . </TD></TR></TABLE>
Awesome job though! Does it squeak or leak at all?

 

that's pretty sweet!

 

Sorry about the picture size. I did not expect them to be that big. If I get time later I will shrink them.

The car has the original paint still, so the color is Rio Red. I bought if off a pregnant lady that replaced it for an Odyssey. She was the original owner. It was her college car. I picked it up in 2001. I have not taken it out or washed it yet so I can't say if it leaks, but since all of the drains are still intact it should be OK.


Modified by hughesl at 11:39 PM 2/3/2008

 

interesting idea, but couldnt someone just take the pins out and get into your car? i would have put the pins in upside down so that you take them out from inside the car.
cool though

 

I thought about that. It would be very difficult to mount the pins upside down. There are locking hood pins I looked in to as well, but they are huge and would have looked pretty bad. I also thought about other ideas, but this was the simplest and cleanest idea I could come up with. Finally for me being broken into is not a problem. The car is never left unattended. Work has a security gate, home has the garage, and autocross is pretty secure. If I drove the car everywhere I would be a little more concerned.
One time I left my keys in the car at work and they used a jimmy to open the door. Actually time to do that was probably faster than pulling the pins because to remove the pins you have to walk around the car, but the jimmy is all on one side.

 

looks good you should look into something like these
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...ZWDVW

then it locks and little more flush looking and when the tops off you don't have the pins still sticking up.

 

i really like it .. so it like a hard top right ??

 

so this panel can be used to replace the stock one? with motor working?

 

I think the panel is sold as a plug for removing the sunroof and motor altogether. Hughes has made it where his is not permanently fixed to the roof.

Honestly I didnt know SM2 allowed for CF hoods and sunroofs.

 

The Vision Motorworks sunroof is sold as a replacement for the original. It bolts on like the stock one and works the OEM mechanics. I made it removable. If you order one don't expect great quality. It took a lot of work to clean up the A surface. There are others that are sold as just plugs. The outer shell is CF and the interior side is fiberglass. It is a little lighter than stock. The real weight savings comes by removing all of the sunroof guts and removing the plug. I read the SM2 rules a few years back. I will have to double check them again, but when I read them before they allow for the romoval of the sunroof and they do not require a replacement.

 

 

Looks great. I have the same panel and I agree, the quality on the finish is disappointing. Can you post photos with the panel removed? How exactly are they fastened?

 

If I get time tomorrow I will post some pictures with the sunroof removed.

 

I thought about the locking kind for the same reasons you stated. Only problem is they are huge in person. For a hood they don't look out of proportion, but for the hatch they would look enormous.

 

def. a fan of this. in for pics with it removed.

 

I added the pictures with the top removed to the original post. I bought a black trim seal that goes around the frame from JC Whitney. The original Honda one is grey so when the sunroof is removed it looked a little strange. The black one blends in nicely.

 

Very impressive. Nice to see people coming up with new ideas for EFs 17 years after they ceased production.

 

That seal and the flat black makes it look so much cleaner. Thanks for the photos.

 

COULD PAINT PINS AND CLIPS BLACK

 

Thanks for the positive feedback everyone.
I figured this one could go one of two ways.

I thought about painting the pins and washer black also so it would blend in with the surrounding parts. Only problem is I don't know of any paint durable enough to hold up over time. After a couple of uses it would look bad. That is the main reason I plan to leave the aluminum natural.

 

why don't you powder coat the pins!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by hughesl &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Thanks for the positive feedback everyone.
I figured this one could go one of two ways.

I thought about painting the pins and washer black also so it would blend in with the surrounding parts. Only problem is I don't know of any paint durable enough to hold up over time. After a couple of uses it would look bad. That is the main reason I plan to leave the aluminum natural.</TD></TR></TABLE>

you could use a carriage style bolt and just drill a hole in it for the pin. Seeing... as you have it already set-up in the right locations.. it looks to be fairly easy.

And in all honesty..

Even though you feel your car is safe. If they want it bad enough... it's never safe.

 

definitely digggggin it