Once again life has interfered with my CR-X build. It looks like a new job is on the horizon and I needed to take the money I'd saved up towards my build for a new wardrobe and other responsibilities. With summer fast approaching I'm concerned that this set-back may prove disastrous to my "comeback" attempt.
Luckily I've got plenty I can do in the meantime to keep me occupied. I set up some RSS feeds to eBay searches and a couple forum sites I frequent, like JDM Universe, and I started looking for some new contacts in Japan to get items from. The recent events with regards to the Earthquake/Tsunami in Northeast Japan has slowed progress on this front, but I will begin emailing potential contacts again near the end of the month.
I did manage to place a phone call to Mugen’s offices in Japan and I spoke to a very nice gentleman there… A couple weeks ago a genuine Mugen PRO.2 front bumper came up for sale on eBay, and the seller actually had the original front brackets to go with the bumper. I asked him to sell me the brackets but he wouldn’t (I didn’t think so, but I had to try), so I asked for the specs on the brackets so I could make my own but never heard back.
I called King Motorsports and spoke a nice enough guy there, but I had one good and one bad experience with them and I don’t trust their information, especially when their blanket response to a question is: Discontinued. (The good experience was a set of BNIB spoiler brackets I ordered back in 1999 -- The bad experience was: I called with part numbers for side skirt and spoiler emblems. “Discontinued” was the answer. That was July 2006… Then in November 2006 someone posts a JPG on the forums with a caption that said they just received “the last set anywhere” with the emblems and a King Motorsports invoice in the picture) So I figured try them first them call Mugen in Japan “just to make sure”. The man I spoke to at Mugen said he wanted to thoroughly check this item for me, so he asked if he could call me back, which he did within ~30mins.
Sadly, there are no more brackets available, and the company that fabricated them went out of business many years ago (he said he’d hoped to be able to send me direct to them or have some made for me). He thanked me for my enthusiasm for their product and said to send him my email address and since he knows some people in the Honda scene there, he said if he heard of anyone selling or who would measure them for me, he would send me an email. Now THAT’S customer service!
I also called a local company who does mobile glass repair and restoration to come out and perform an estimate for me. I have some minor scratches in my driver and passenger side windows from the worn and weathered belt-moldings. I replaced the belt moldings back in 2005, but I never tried to buff out the windows. They've gone out of business since the economic downturn so I suppose I'm back to the drawing board.
Anyways, part of getting back into the swing of things also means refreshing my brain on CRX information and all things CR-X... Some things I've just simply forgotten, like the OEM sway bar sizes for an EF8 (LOL), and some things I just need a little refresher on. A couple weekends ago I installed my EPCs on some Virtual Machines on my PC. I installed the JDM, EDM, USDM Honda/Acura, and Canadian Honda/Acura catalogs. I also cleaned up and organized the CRX pictures and information on my PC.
It wasn’t all roses and sunshine though… I spent the better part of 2 days working on an error with my JDM Honda EPC (Electronic Parts Catalog) I installed. Every time I look up a part that req's an Interior or Exterior Color Code the application crashes. I have all of my EPCs on a Virtual Machine - Canadian Honda/Acura, US Honda/Acura, JDM EPC v1.20 and EDM EPC v11 so playing with different apps and settings are a breeze.
I downloaded the JDM v4.3 EPC and I tried every combination I could think of to get it to install but unfortunately it keeps asking for a password to complete the installation. I don't have the password. Fortunately years ago I had called a Honda dealer in the UK every day for a week checking supercessions on part numbers. After some time getting to know the parts rep he actually gave me his access to their online Japanese parts catalog… I saved all the parts data for a CR-X SiR just in case, so I still have access to the information... It would just be more convenient to use the parts catalog by inputting my Frame Number.
This Easter long weekend I did inventory on my Honda parts in my garage. I used an iPhone app to scan the barcodes and email myself the information. Four large Rubbermaid bins and seven pages later I had all the information in my Google Docs folder for safe ‘cloud storage’ keeping, and also put locations of what container the parts are in as well. I also looked up the remaining parts I need as “spares” for my CR-X and got the Honda part numbers for them then had them checked to see if any are valid in Honda Canada’s database since the dealers are open on Saturday here (none of the parts were good in Canada).
Then just this afternoon I received a reply from a potential contact in Japan for spare parts.
Fingers crossed…
Remember, this blog was written in chronological order so, you will need to click OLDER POSTS to move forward in time, and click NEWER POSTS to go backwards.
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