Another season is here at last. This past winter was quite snowy and very cold. It was also the first winter in our new house and I'm happy to report that I don't think it will much of a problem to heat the garage when the time comes. On any given day, it was about 14C warmer in the garage than the outside temperature. A little chilly on those -27C days but it should allow some extra time to work on the car should I choose to. Since the end of April, the temperature and the weather is finally starting to cooperate and the Show N Shine flyers are already coming out.I decided that this year I would register for one, but which one? The "Driven" show is usually held up by Canada Olympic Park. One of the things I like about it is that it's inside an arena, but it is one of the first shows of the season, and besides all that -- it's way out of my CR-X's league. Those cars are immaculate; most coming from shops and local car clubs. Mine still needs a LOT of work (and a really good detailing) before I'd even consider it. Besides, even if I wanted to, there wasn't enough time to get the CR-X ready what with the late spring we've been having.
So, recently, I found one advertised at a Toyota dealership near my house.So, after seeing the flyer for the Steel Dreamz Show N Shine, and reading the blurb stating "Show will be held under the hailtents", I drove by to confirm, and Charlesglen Toyota does indeed have giant hail tents in their front parking lot!
A little background info: Last year and the year prior, Calgary was subject to some pretty wild weather during the summer months - high wind and rain, thunderstorms, a couple small tornadoes, and lots and lots of hail. You can see some of the pictures in previous posts on this very blog... Anyways, with damages in the hundreds and hundreds of thousands and rising insurance premiums to go with it, it looks like some of the dealerships in the auto mall in the NW section of the city bought these giant hail tents that stretch over almost the whole parking lot and that wrap almost all the way to the ground to keep their new vehicle inventory safe. Earlier this year, while at the Honda dealer at the auto mall I saw one they were putting up at the Lexus dealership across the street. They look quite sturdy and look like they could do well in our extreme weather.I really like the thought that regardless of the weather, we will be under the hail tents. No umbrella needed. Rain, sun, hail, whatever, I'll be comfortable and dry and so will the CR-X. Plus it's pretty close to my house in case I do need to take the wife's car to run home and grab something quickly.
The show is scheduled for June 3rd, and currently the race is on for me to get some things finished and parts installed.
So far, I've installed the genuine Mugen side skirt emblems, installed my OK Honda sticker and installed the front JDM "Honda" vanity plate I bought from Japan along with the tilt license plate bracket. In addition, I also modified my rear license plate bracket to accommodate the novelty rear license plate seal with the HM (Honda Motors) logo and affixed the Honda wing logo license plate bolt to the other side.
I reinstalled the Spoon front upper strut bar which I left off when the new suspension was installed a couple years ago. I tried to install the BackYard Special bar I picked up from Japan last season but sadly, it didn't fit as I'd hoped. The brackets for the bar were shaped beautifully and came out of the access hole like it was designed to do it, but unfortunately the base wasn't shaped properly to sit on the sheet metal for the upper strut mount so you could only get about 1 to 2 threads showing to get the nuts started and they would surely strip easily when torque was applied.
In addition the left bracket was touching and putting slight pressure on the adjuster valve for the suspension, which didn't sit too well with me, knowing those bars and bracket flex slightly while trying to maintain chassis rigidity. I did some further research on the bar and actually found it was the rear upper bar from an Integra. Disappointing but I'm glad I tried it nonetheless.
I tried fitting my old OBX rear bar that I'd had modified to extend the threaded rods allowing the mounts to be installed backwards so the side lining wouldn't have to be cut. The brackets are now too low and hit the Tein adjuster valve and will have to be further modified to raise the bar about 3/4". So for now, I live without the rear upper bar.The Tanabe Medalion Touring cat-back exhaust has been installed and I'm looking forward to taking some video and audio recordings of the sound. It's very well suited to the car; not a bee in a tin can, loud obnoxious fart-sound that screams "look at me! look at me!", but a low growl that just softly announces "I have arrived."
Fitment went ok but with the JDM Honda factory catalytic converter being a little longer than the North American equivalent, we discovered that the hanger locations were a little too far back, and we opted to bend them with a torch to get proper fitment without having to worry about the hangers slipping off while I was driving. I suppose I could have tried to run home and grab the two straight pipes I have in my 'warehouse' but I think that until I have the header question resolved, it's best to just mate it to the OEM exhaust and be done with it.
While under the car, I took some time to check out the stabilizer bar, just to see if I could triple-check my findings from last year that it is indeed an ARC front stabilizer. With flashlight in hand, sure enough, we noticed some yellow writing in the same font from the ARC bars! After 12 years I have finally solved the mystery of what brand my stabilizer bars are.
I have an appointment to take care of the dent my wife put in the door and then I can begin detailing her and gathering my 'props' which include some Japanese coins, pop, and snacks and some other fun things I've been working on.
It's been 12 years since I've done anything like this and I find myself excited and nervous and a little overwhelmed by the amount of work I've left to do in such a short amount of time.
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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