1991 Civic Hatch, Just For Fun

Brake clean and a straight razor blade. Best combination for removing tint adhesive I've ever found, and I've removed miles of crappy tint.

Thanks, I'll give that a try on the other windows. I'm trying hard not to break the defrost words on the rear window.

I used a Conair steamer on my CRX. I hate tint.

See page 1:

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/1988-honda-crx-si/58307/page1/

Dam Woody, I'm starting to figure who to message for ideas for short cuts on things! On my Mustang previous owner put a 6-8inch strip of tint across the top of the windshield and sucks. Interfers with my site line. Any ideas how to cut it down with ruining the whole thing. I'd like to cut it in half or about that.

In reply to Stang_guy03:

Put a three inch block up against the headliner and move it, along with a razor blade, across the top of the windshield to score a line. Then go back and peel the bottom half off.

Thanks for the steamer advice Woody. I'll see how one of the other windows go first. I feel like the hatch is the hard one and it should be smooth sailing after this.

Woody wrote: In reply to Stang_guy03: Put a three inch block up against the headliner and move it, along with a razor blade, across the top of the windshield to score a line. Then go back and peel the bottom half off.

Yeah that's an idea. I'll put that on the to do list behind installing the rest of my suspenion. First race day is approaching a whole lot faster than my wrench turning time comes along.

In reply to mazdeuce:

Carefully score the tint with a razor blade on each side of each defroster line and then try to remove it in strips. It's a big PITA. If you cut one of the defroster lines, that part won't work anymore but you can repair it. Permatex makes electrically conductive paint or adhesive, but it's expensive because it has gold dust or something like that in it.

This car is awesome! EDIT: had posted about needing to change the way the harness is mounted- I now see that you run with the rear seat folded flat. I thought the rear seat was the main thing keeping tension on the shoulder straps and nearly pooped myself

I must be the only one not thrilled with this car. I fear Mazdeuce will suffer from project overload and we'll see less of Fergus, the 911 and the most awesome CTS-V. It's not my decision of course but I'd have voted for more CTS-V track time. I'm sure the argument is that a 24 year old Honda can be written off more easily than a new CTS-V, but still. I'm following along anyway.

Petrolburner wrote: I'd have voted for more CTS-V track time. I'm sure the argument is that a 24 year old Honda can be written off more easily than a new CTS-V, but still. I'm following along anyway.

The V will see less track time. The plan is to do One Lap and effectively retire it from proper track time. The Civic is largely the solution the the "what are you going to do when you put the V in the wall?" conversation the Mrs. Deuce and I have had. I still want to do the Big Bend Open Road Race with the V so there may be more coming.
So the Civic failed emissions this morning. High NOX. Not cool. In an effort to make the car feel still loved, I used it to go get a new lawnmower. The strut bar takes a bit of the practicality out of the car, but not too much.

Almost forgot, I found this at the store today. It was the only one on the rack and I haven't seen an EF civic in at least a year. I'm having a good time collecting small versions of the cars I own.

mazdeuce wrote:

Petrolburner wrote: I'd have voted for more CTS-V track time. I'm sure the argument is that a 24 year old Honda can be written off more easily than a new CTS-V, but still. I'm following along anyway.

The V will see less track time. The plan is to do One Lap and effectively retire it from proper track time. The Civic is largely the solution the the "what are you going to do when you put the V in the wall?" conversation the Mrs. Deuce and I have had. I still want to do the Big Bend Open Road Race with the V so there may be more coming. So the Civic failed emissions this morning. High NOX. Not cool. In an effort to make the car feel still loved, I used it to go get a new lawnmower. The strut bar takes a bit of the practicality out of the car, but not too much.

What are the hydro carbon readings compared to normal passing readings? Most civics fail on nox due to timing to far advanced or an aftermarket cat thats not quite up to spec.

I am betting on the cat.

HC is 60ppm low (<153 passing) and 75ppm high (<159 passing)

I saw your other thread. HC and CO doesn't look to bad. The fact that CO is really low and HC is more around normalish, I'd suspect the fuel controller is masking what you'd see from factory which is an inefficient high flow cat.

Since its cheaper to just set the fuel controller up to let the computer do its job as though it was stock, I'd try that and see what happens.

If you want to take the "guess" work out of everything have the car looked at by a good emissions shop witah a gas analyzer. It wont take much to do pre and post cat readings and confirm the cat efficiency and if the motor is running properly or not.

When we had emissions testing up here I did a lot of diagnosis work on failed vehicles. high flow or cheap cats never had enough stuff in them to reduce NOx properly. It was always the first thing to fail. I always went with California spec replacement cats. Even my autocross car has a large body Walker Cal cat in it.

I pulled the fuel controller, reset timing and put in a new O2 sensor because I couldn't get good readings off the old one. Passed with flying colors!

Sweeeet!

wait, you don't have building regulations but you have to pass vehicle emissions???

monsterbronco wrote: wait, you don't have building regulations but you have to pass vehicle emissions???

Yeah, what's up with that?

monsterbronco wrote: wait, you don't have building regulations but you have to pass vehicle emissions???

Texas is funny. We're big on personal freedom, which is where the no building codes thing comes from. However, if the federal government says "your air quality sucks and we're going to fine the crap out of you" then it's all about 'the health of the people' or some such nonsense.

Good news. Nice ride btw. Funny thing is, next year it won't have to pass, and that building code thing is funny too. In town, they want their money. Rust also exists in Texas... we've got a family place near Kemah on the waterfront. Everything rusts to the ground. In a couple of years of parking it outside there, it would look like it was from Michigan! :)

I liked the gas strut / pipe idea so much I just used it on my new to me truck topper - no way I was gonna spend 20.00 (cheapest I could find) on a 50.00 topper when a piece of old shop vac pipe cost nothing and works perfect!

mazdeuce wrote: In an effort to make the car feel still loved, I used it to go get a new lawnmower.

More like "make the car feel jealous."

mazdeuce wrote: Moar pitchers! Car is very clean. A couple of dings but no rust which is what you'd expect on a Texas car. The hood is in primer. Something got on it and messed up the paint so this was the previous owner's solution. I'll need to do something about that. Nice behind. Drivers seat is a Corbeau with GForce belts that have four of five points present and a date stamp from 2004. Seat mount needs to be redone. Rear seats are basically brand new. Passenger seat is this weird old fiberglass Kingdragon seat. It is an FIA seat. Might be slighty out of date. I'll have to check the rules. It also has a MaxQData system. Vintage AX awesomeness.

In this picture your seat belts look like they are attached to your rear strut brace. Is this in fact how it is. My Mustang has a rear strut brace installed and I was looking at how to install a set of belts just to hold me firm in the seat while SOLOing, not track racing. I think this would work for me too. Eventualy I'm going to cage the car, but not for a year or too. Sorry no picture to share of it.

re. the seats … if autocross, then date doesn't matter … for track days (HPDE, PDX, etc …) again dates don't matter …

if TT then (for SCCA) some dates will matter … for NASA, dates don't matter

Yes, you can do what I've done. There are better ways. Safer ways. You have to think really hard about your strut brace manufacturer and whether you trust them. For autocross, it's fine.
If the angle is ok, I'd recommend attaching the shoulder belts to the rear seat belt Mounts. I've done this before and I think it's a better solution that the strut bar.