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UPDATE:
That shop in the Baaaaaston area took my money, and haven't heard sh*t since (no response to emails or voicemails). Their distributor is looking into it today. Ready to call the cc company and contest the charge, but will allow the distributor to see what they can find. This should be fun. Meanwhile, the Speed seat is still holding up thankfully, but it's only a matter of time.
On a positive note, I did drop off everything at the powdercoaters on Saturday. Because of the storms we've had in the NE, they're a couple of weeks behind, so things should be done in mid-April. Ended up really wanting to get the rims done in lime green, but wussed out and got them done in a smoke gray that's not too dark; they should look good, without competing with the car's beautacious Orion Blue.
Didn't get to that final piece of cf; will have to do that this coming weekend - spent most of the weekend painting up my crx's front bumper - had to mask everything off twice, as the car has both bumper black on two parts of it, and my bodycolor black on two other parts. I surprised myself by not completely hating the job I did. I used paints from the site automotivetouchup - very good quality stuff.
Dropped the Konis down to one complete turn from full soft, and is much better on potholes, as it was at 2 1/2 turns before. I'll leave it there til weather and streets both improve.
UPDATE #2:
Oddly, the idiots at the Boston place (D'Agostino Racing [obviously, I wouldn't recommend them!]) never got back to me, but as I said, I talked to the company that does their distributing (Griffen Motorwerke), yesterday and today, and they were very helpful. They sent me the UPS tracking info today; will be in my hands on Thursday, and I should have it all buttoned up by Sunday afternoon, weather permitting. I have no idea how a business can just not call customers, with money being so tight these days. It's amazing. Not quite as amazing as phister's need to extend his rims a foot past the fender of his car, but it's up there! :-)
UPDATE #3:
Recaro came in last night. Woo woo!! I'll take apart the old seat tonight and have it ready for installing in the morning. It's just four allen bolts; I'm hoping to be able to access them without needing to take the Recaro bracket off the OEM base. Though I guess you can't assume anything......
Last edited by tommy; 03-14-2014 at 10:55 AM.
Reason: update on seat
Got the seat in today. Anyone notice any customization?
Some a-hole parked very close to me, so I had to do the install from the passenger's side.
So haven't sat in it yet, will do that in a bit (sat with it on the floor of my apt, and the comfort is comparable). Couple of things -
The Speed is significantly lighter than the Sport, and the headrest is a little lower. Good for shrinking the blind spot in the left rear corner, I'd imagine. It's a little less wide too, especially in the shoulders, as the Sport has those batwings that almost touch the door panel of the car.
The Speed is held on by 6 thinner bolts than the Sport, which was held on by 4 fat 6mm-headed bolts. Should be a wash. With the way the Recaro bracket mounts, the entire set of flat steel had to be removed to get to the allen bolts for the seats, of course. The inner torx heads on the bolts of the Recaro bracket strip very easily, so go easy. Or, like me, become very good friends with your vice grips on the outside of the bolts. Hopefully, this will be my last seat - if not, I would probably get high grade replacement bolts with a more user-friendly design.
And while the seat back looks less cheesy than the Sport, as the whole seat is cloth, instead of the Sport's visible plastic back, the velour-ish fabric is already a magnet for lint. It'll be fun to keep clean. But the seatback flip handle is much stronger than the Sport, which is good. I'll have better pics later.
As you can tell, my B pillar fabric is also coming off - another sign of MB quality.
Decided to man up and replace the window trim switch for the O'Carbon piece this afternoon. Did it in my sister's driveway, where of course, I forgot that the three evil little torx bolts that attach the piece to the door panel are very, very small, and didn't have a torx small enough on hand to take them off. So I got home, and brought the panel back inside with me. I just replaced it, and will put the door panel back on tomorrow at work at lunchtime. In case you're wondering, the silly "Door Open" red lit malfunction comes up anytime you stop.
And if you do have a coupe and need the window switch trim or switch on the passenger's side, let me know, and I'll send it to you. I think that I won't be needing either again before my coupe goes to that big MB lemon in the sky (just about at 174k here).
So to wrap up this portion of things, here are some pics of the Ocarbon trim in full on the passenger's side. Did notice that my b-i-l let the seatbelt puncture the rear speaker cover (MB should burn in Hell for putting those speakers there - that's the second time on the passenger's, and had the driver's side do it once too).
Pics:
Couldn't be any happier about the work that they do. My air vents above the center console broke (the tabs that direct the flow), so I got another one on ebay; am thinking about sending that off to Ocarbon too. Mmmm!
Wheels should be powdercoated soon and back on the car over Easter weekend.
Mini-me update:
Went to my local dealer's "clinic" day, where they try to drum up some business by finding problems with your car. I skated by pretty decently - needed a new valve cover gasket, then some general suspension issues (nothing named in particular, so I figure end links, etc., since they always go on these cars), and that was it. Since they gave a $100 coupon there, I went ahead and had them do the vc gasket. Had the C300 4matic from Thurs to yesterday, and yes, still hate them.
I'll probably throw the car at my local indy soon to have them work on the suspension bits; they'd be a ton cheaper, even without a coupon.
Rims are done, so they will be going back on Friday; will use my tires from last year and hope to get another season out of them (might not be likely with the Toronto trip coming up in May).
I did yank the A pillar gauges; much better with an unobstructed line of sight. The gauge that still works (and still is important, IMHO), the boost gauge, I remounted onto the new A pillar I had bought from Steve (MBenzNL) in black, down low, so that I can still see it, but it's not in the way. Pics to follow after the weekend...
Crazy to see your Coupe still going strong. You've outlasted the rest.
What brings you to Toronto? You know, if you are interested in some basically new HR coilovers and Stoptech BBK while you're here, it sure would save a heck of a lot off shipping to stateside... Just throwing it out there
LOL. If the Konis weren't almost brand new and I were flush with cash, I'd think about it. C'est la vie. I am suprised that you're having trouble selling your stuff - yes, it's a small market, but even smaller is the amount of parts that are available for our underappreciated little cars.
Yes, pretty soon it will be down to me and phister on US c classes from our generation that have substantial mods, and then it will be a steel cage match for ultimate W203/CL203 supremacy. Which phister would win, hands down, of course.
We have a Canuck affiliate in Mississagua that I have to go to meetings for. So I figured, since I have already too many vacation days this year, I might as well take the week off and enjoy myself on the drive up and back, and enjoy Toronto for a couple of days, half on the company dime, of course. Will be back up in July for the annual CRX meet near the Falls, which I try not to miss (shrinking level of membership there, too).
Got back from Toronto last night, and have the rest of the week off. So am taking the time to get some of my stuff together; downloaded some pics from my camera of the redone wheels and new tails that I couldn't pass up. Sorry the tails pic is so horrible; will redo sometime this week. The wheels are a "smoke gray", which look much darker in low light, but I like them - the difference from the old darker charcoal is substantial. Also got another set of nuts powdercoated smurfy, and the valve stems are black aluminum ones from 949 Racing, which are the cheapest I could find that are safe to use.
Enjoy!
Have a couple of other tricks up my sleeve, which I'll post soon enough. One hint is that infected should be happy about me putting a small trim piece back on the car.
Quick summary of what's been more recent (no pics - let a friend borrow the camera for his vacation, should have it back tomorrow):
Put on the black a pillar trim pieces I bought from Steve months ago, simplified the gauges - only have the boost gauge very low on the pillar now, which eliminated the blind spot I used to have there and makes it less fast and furiousy
Had replacement rotor rims put on last week on the two piece front C32 brakes; as Todd has said, those brakes last forever, but the warping was getting out of hand. Found out that I had a broken bolt for the sensor, so glad I did. Went with slotted this time instead of slotted and drilled as a precautionary measure.
Used the Mother's deep scratch headlight restoration kit (the kind that you use with a drill for the sanding as well as the buffing) - worked very well, but hard to tell where you missed when they're still wet. Will have to re-do in a couple of spots.
The headliner continues to separate - very sad. Couldn't help myself this morning, and pulled it a little, which of course only made it worse. Will be hoping to get it redone in black by Labor Day, but not sure.
For the center console, have a new vent unit for the top - on my original ones, both of the directional controls have broken off, so had to get something new. Also picked up an A10 from a guy in Latvia; looking forward to seeing if it's any different in sound than the stock unit - hoping for it to be at least a little louder; hate the radio when the windows and sunroof are open.
And for infected, picked up a new front tow hook - had the bolts powdercoated in smurfy blue when I was getting the rims done, of course.
New ebay side mirror covers should be in my hands tomorrow night - the current mirrors have given me errors a couple of times, and can see condensation in the passenger's side - hoping that these fake newer style ones will be free from the same problems, as the construction looks simpler, at least so far. We'll find out soon enough; I'll post a review. At least the install should be a piece of cake.
Some pics, for your viewing pleasure:
I'm pretty happy with the side view mirrors; they light up more uniformly than the stock or LED versions. As I described in the mirror thread, the wiring is a bit wonky, and also I had to adjust the driver's side a little by hand as the mirror was a little caught up in the cover, but am really liking them now.
Little pic of the new tow hook for infected's viewing. Used Mother's deep cleaning headlight kit - the one with the sanding discs that go on a cordless drill; the headlights needed a very deep cleaning, and it took two times to get it right (hard to see how good the headlights are doing until they're completely dry).
The A pillar trim covers in black I got from Steve/Wanda - will serve as a model for the headliner later on this summer / early fall. Why do I need a headliner? Well,,,
It kept coming down lower, so I just got out a handy razor and chopped away. Ain't it purdy? Will be getting the B and C pillars done at the same time, as they also were more than happy to shed the fabric that covered them. Lovely.
Mini-update:
The pleather on both door panels is coming up where it goes against the window, and as both panels are pretty much coming apart at the seams (most likely the glue that was used for putting the panels back together with the custom leather is disintegrating) and the passenger's rear speaker cover is punched in from a thoughtless passenger , I thought I'd go ahead and get some replacements off the bay. Yesterday, I decided to go ahead and get a passenger's side with the godawful cloth pattern, and then was going to pick up a driver's side when I could. But today, there were black leather panels on there for both sides, so I went ahead and bought both. I'll transfer the Ocarbon pieces over when they arrive (issue will be with the trim that goes behind the chrome door opening lever - that's glued on, which annoys me - might just not add that part), and be done with it. It'll suck to not have the blue/silver combo on the doors, but it'll be a hell of a lot newer looking and the windows will go up and down without a problem.
So I'll have an extra cloth passenger door panel coming in shortly, and a plethora of window switches as well. I'll set up a for sale post about all of that stuff when I swap them out, but I know that a lot of people are starting to have the door pull / window switch issues now, so if you do, let me know - I'll be selling things very cheaply.
Other than that, the front tow hook should be back from the powdercoaters this weekend, and I curbed one of my rims. Luckily, it's the one rim that had a bump in it anyway, so I'll use that as an excuse to buy a new rim and get it powdercoated this Fall.
My mileage award is taking a serious fade on it ; has anyone polished theirs? I'll try some metal polish on it this weekend, assuming no one has a better suggestion. And need new wipers already; these new fancy-schmancy ones seem to not last nearly as long as the old school ones.
Just past 178k here; still hoping to get at least another year out of the lemon, but the new Fit comes with a sunroof and is available in purple, so I feel it calling out to me....
C230 Sport Coup + 2006 W164 ML350 + 99 Ford Escort (What the heck, it gets 38 mpg!)
How many fingers are your front wheels sitting off the fender oh Blue one?
See how many you can put there...mine stock was like 4.
I don't want that again.
Sorry, forgot to measure the front fender - will do at lunchtime, when I'm putting in my new wiper blades.
JDM - the car just turned the 180,000 mark today. Which surprised me, with my recent troubles. I have a good amount of fixes/improvements still to do. My vents in the stack above the center console don't move anymore (the connections from the adjustment wheels broke off), and I have a replacement I bought off ebay. I also have an A10 that I picked up ready to install as well, so I'll probably combine them in one fix at my local indy sometime this winter, along with them looking at the a/c unit - I'm sure that some of those pesky little flapper thingies are done, as the a/c hasn't worked perfectly in several years now (that is the beauty of the panorama sunroof, though - open the door windows and the roof, and who needs a/c?).
I also need to do something with the headliner, which is getting worse and worse. The fabric is now off the B and C pillars completely now, and on the headliner midway through the area around the sunroof. I'm thinking now to just remove the fabric, scrape off the foam, and dye the headliner and pillars black instead of having them redone with foam and fabric. I'll probably do that first and then have them done in fabric if I hate it.
Then my summer rims need to be repowdercoated; one's got a bump in it and I also nastily curbed it, so I was going to buy a new OZ rim to replace, but the more I think about it, the more I hate the smoke gray on the rims. I need something more blingy!
So to answer your question, I'm really hoping to keep the car at least a couple of years more - I'd like to get the next milestone, which I think is around 225k? But you never know. I really won't replace it unless something very seriously goes wrong, but at the same time, the new Honda Fit now has a sunroof and still has cloth and a manny available at the same time (not to mention interesting yellow and purple colors), so you never know.
Top of the page - you can see the updated tails are on.
Am also thinking about some projectors for the headlights (meaning projectors in the updated clear housings, not Depos), but those get damn expensive damn quick.
Ok, cleanly, so that they're on top of the tire, two fingers cleanly, then maybe about another 1/8 or so.
Put on my new windshield wipers, cleaned the inside of my windshield, and polished up the high mileage badge on the grille with some Blue Parrot Metal Polish compound. Stinks to high heaven, but cleaned up the badge nicely. Not bad work for 15 mins during my lunchbreak.
And Fortune's website is www.fortune-auto.net , though I'm sure you Googled it already.
Looking through your thread, it looks like I had a lot of the same problems you're facing before I sold mine. I decided not to spend any more time with it and sold it a couple months ago, although I do miss it at times. AC problems, headliner, door panels and window switches were the things that really annoyed me. They're not big problems, but I come in contact with them on a daily basis and I couldn't justify the money to fix those. I admire how you kept yours for so long. I currently have a 02 miata. The lack of space isn't really an issue since I have another car for that. But one thing I definitely miss is the torque from the c230. Not a fast car but the supercharger does make it fun.
Are you talking about OEM projectors? I can't imagine how much those would be!
Sorry, wasn't clear. I'm talking about a xenon projector retrofit into my current lights. The lights are cheap, but the labor is up there. I don't think I'd want to try to do them myself.
I understand what you're saying about buying something else. Miatas are awesome cars. The earlier ones aren't good for fatboys like me, though. Looking forward to the new gen which should be more like the origals, light and more tossable.
Oh that makes sense, my brother did that to the rsx headlights. He fitted G37 projectors I believe. They are pretty fun cars, I never saw myself in a Miata until I drove one. The new gen will be nice, even if it's not turbo like the rumors say, the weight loss would make a dramatic difference.
This could be final picture time before I start selling off stuff.
Got my Ocarbon center caps back this past weekend (couldn't cancel the order once I realized the situation with the rust, as they were too far along). As usual, they did a great job. Slapped 'em in and they make me wish I still could keep the Benzolemon, but have to move on.
yes, it's upside down. deal with it
Mmmm, smurfy!!
So that's it. My smurfy has come full circle, and now parts will start to be available for purchase shortly. I'll put up another thread once I have pics and have everything organized. I'll have a ton of stuff to sell, including some things I was saving for future work that I now won't need to deal with.
Tomorrow the EP3's new suspension is going in (RSX A-Spec matched springs and struts/shocks) and it's getting inspected, so it will be all legal. License plates have been transferred, so won't be able to legally drive the coupey. Oy.
03-10-2014, 01:26 PM
Meanwhile, the Speed seat is still holding up thankfully, but it's only a matter of time.
I'll leave it there til weather and streets both improve.
Which phister would win, hands down, of course.
, I thought I'd go ahead and get some replacements off the bay. Yesterday, I decided to go ahead and get a passenger's side with the godawful cloth pattern, and then was going to pick up a driver's side when I could. But today, there were black leather panels on there for both sides, so I went ahead and bought both. I'll transfer the Ocarbon pieces over when they arrive (issue will be with the trim that goes behind the chrome door opening lever - that's glued on, which annoys me - might just not add that part), and be done with it. It'll suck to not have the blue/silver combo on the doors, but it'll be a hell of a lot newer looking and the windows will go up and down without a problem.
Which surprised me, with my recent troubles. I have a good amount of fixes/improvements still to do. My vents in the stack above the center console don't move anymore (the connections from the adjustment wheels broke off), and I have a replacement I bought off ebay. I also have an A10 that I picked up ready to install as well, so I'll probably combine them in one fix at my local indy sometime this winter, along with them looking at the a/c unit - I'm sure that some of those pesky little flapper thingies are done, as the a/c hasn't worked perfectly in several years now (that is the beauty of the panorama sunroof, though - open the door windows and the roof, and who needs a/c?).
