Another season has come and gone, and we're approaching the end of 2016. The new garage is nice; during one of the longest cold-spells in the last four years (wind chill temps dipped into levels between -21C to -34C for approximately 7 days), the garage only dipped to around -4C. Since three walls are more or less insulated because of the rest of the house, this means that most of it is already insulated. Hopefully this should make heating the garage easier in years to come.
The economy in Alberta hasn't fully recovered yet... There's no shortage of doom and gloom on the evening news. My wife has been reduced to part time hours, the Canadian dollar is still lower than it has been in recent memory (which has been an adjustment for me -- though if I'm being honest, it's probably where it should be to balance Canada's export businesses which took a beating with the high dollar since 2008), and I didn't finish nearly 1/4 of what I'd planned for this season what with the move to the new house.
I had originally planned for:
1) Remove bronze glass from spare hatch
2) Mugen Replica Spoiler Mounts
3) Mugen and CR-X license plates Found a Honda one instead for now.
4) Mugen replica wheel decal sets x2
5) Second Set of Mugen Front Bumper Brackets, Rear Brackets.
6) Installing illuminating front license plate / Honda logo Decided to wait for the Mugen style bumper install
7) Oil Change
8) Drain & Fill: Brake fluid, antifreeze, power steering fluid, transmission fluid.
9) Alignment Check
10) Skunk2 Pro Series Camber Kit 516-05-5660 if needed
11) Replacement License Plates (Gov’t issued)
12) New Door and Rear Speakers
13) Get estimates for Rock Chip protector (roof and headlights)
14) Remove SiR spoiler, install Mugen Spoiler, Re&Re DOHC glass
15) Heater Hose Kit Site that sold the one I wanted no longer sells them.
16) Door Visors for non-power folding mirrors PasswordJDM sold out and I found some on eBay for $1500.
17) Endless Brake Steel Braided Lines
18) Endless Front/Rear Pads (Vita Nuova maybe?)
19) Brembo Front/Rear Cross-Drilled Rotors
20) Installing the Tanabe exhaust I picked up in 2015. Went to the U-Wrencg garage but the place was closed.
21) Installing the C's Shifter w/Mugen shifter bushings I picked up in 2015 Decided to wait for my replacement shift linkage so I can pre-install everything then just pop it in.
Not one of these items was done. Money was a big factor for most of this; my wife's hours at work were reduced to part-time for the bulk of the year. Time was another big factor... and probably will be in 2017 as well - we rolled the dice and took a gamble on a new house and we are still organizing and settling in. My "honey-do" list has never been longer. Lastly, this season sucked weather-wise, with a lot of rain and damaging thunderstorms occurring every day for over a month.
Despite the challenges this year brought, I did manage to make some worthwhile purchases, some of them were (somewhat) major -- striking items off the list that had been on it for a long time; some items I didn't even know existed; and one item that I didn't even have on my list because it's so rare that I've only seen 2 for sale in the past 15 years.
I finally found the Mugen front bumper brackets for installing the ViS Techno R, which has been on my list since 2007. Then back in November I found a Luggage Tray aka Cargo Tray on Yahoo Japan that came from an EF8. I'd only ever seen two of them for sale previously and wasn't able to get them, but I was able to get this one with my wife's blessing (and with the promise that this would be my main Christmas present).
I've also made a major philosophical change with regards to the build for next year which I think is going to help a lot with the mostly stagnant progress. I'm going to shift focus from attaining the spare parts I need to keep the car going to a focus geared toward installing all the parts I already have in my inventory. That's not to say that if I spot something online that I need, that I won't buy it, but I think it's time I start to assemble the car and worry a little less about buying spare parts for the future.
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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