September 12th, 2023 - Mugen CR-X EF8 Update - Spring/Summer 2023

September 12th, 2023 - Mugen CR-X EF8 Update - Spring/Summer 2023

 I haven't updated the blog for a while with build updates because I didn't think much was happening really, but now that I've finished the outline for this post I realize more has happened than I'd realized, and now that I've typed it all out, I realized that a lot has actually taken place this year! So much so that I've decided to split it into 2 posts.

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The body shop came with an enclosed trailer to pick up the car at the beginning of February to take her to the shop. Initially, she would be kept indoors until they were ready to start on her and then eventually moved in and out as the weather warmed back up.

In the months that followed, I checked in every couple of weeks and even visited the car a couple of times, but due to some staffing challenges and the rapidly approaching summer vacation season, we both came to the conclusion that the best course of action is for me to bring the car home and enjoy it over the season and allow the shop to get their staffing issues under control and to look at rescheduling for the Fall. 

I brought the car back at the beginning of May and set about tidying up all the things I'd wanted to do before the initial trip to the body shop but couldn't because of timing and/or weather.

When my car was at the body shop, the overwhelming amount of the time she was stored indoors. When the weather warmed up she was brought outside the shop next to the front door during business hours. I don't mind that since I removed the valuable parts/accessories. But I didn't remove the steering wheel. I only have the Honda Access and the OEM leather wheel. Seeing comparables to my Honda Access steering wheel reaching the $1000 Canadian mark, I thought that I'd prefer to swap the steering wheel for a less expensive one. 

Going down a Yahoo Japan rabbit-hole one evening I spotted a pretty worn Momo wheel, 70068 TYPV35 - the same as the Spoon Momo wheel, though this was not the Spoon version. It was 800¥ plus shipping. I put in my bid and waited. And I won! It didn't come with a horn button, but I found a knock-off Honda horn button for an NSX on eBay from China. Installed the wheel and horn button to my existing hub and it works just fine, but looks a little rough. Exactly what I wanted from my $30 steering wheel! 

The next item on my to-do list was to try and confirm the fuel sending unit was the issue with the fuel gauge not reading all-the-way-full after gassing up. I have a spare fuel gauge as well as a complete cluster in my "inventory", and I decided that swapping the cluster would be easier than pulled the rear seat and measuring the resistance of the sending unit or even swapping just the fuel gauge itself into the existing cluster. 

After the cluster swap, I fueled up and waited. Still not reading completely full, I went for a short drive to see if it would. No bueno. Swapped back to the original cluster and it read the same. It's looking like I need to swap the fuel sending unit after all. Fortunately, I bought one years ago, so I'll keep that on the to-do list for after the body work. On the plus side, I confirmed that my spare cluster works flawlessly. 

Out for a drive on Canada Day long weekend in July, and I noticed something on my climate control. It had a crack that I'd never noticed before. It kind of took the wind out of my sails that day, so I came home early and removed the center console. Sure enough, there was a crack that resulted in a chip/chunk broken off the mounting tab on the right side. I removed the climate control and there was another, smaller crack on the passenger's side mounting tab. I had put that climate control in the CR-X 18 years ago, so we had a good run, I suppose. 

I bagged the heater control into a freezer bag to keep all the pieces together in my parts bin, and checked online for a repair panel or an entire 3D printed replacement controller. Nothing was available online that I could find for sale immediately and the one I was looking for was sold out. I didn't want to buy something without properly researching the options, so I chose to wait. 

I don't run the AC in the summer, and I don't drive in the winter; the heater controls rarely, if ever, get used. Instead I chose to buy a block-off plate to clean up the hole left behind in the dash. I went with the option I found online from EFB Motorsports. It has threaded sleeves built in for attaching, and a textured finish to it that masks the 3D print lines a little. I plan on attacking the climate control situation in the off-season. Given the increases in smoke from wildfires in recent years, I think it's soon going to be a big priority for me. I lost a lot of 'seat time' this year because of the smoke, and our summers are short enough as it is. 

Browsing Instagram one evening, I came across an account from Edmonton, about 3 hours away from Calgary, called Import Bible. They sell a lot of JDM-inspired apparel and accessories. The item that caught my eye were their Japanese license plate seal replicas. An innovative design, the seal is made up of a base that screws on to hold the license plate. The seal portion is secured magnetically to the base with optional locking screws to hold it in place. What I like is how easy it is to swap them out for a different prefecture if you own more than one seal. I bought a pair of Aomori seals for my car and plan to pick up a pair of Akita ones to go with some replica JDM license plates I plan to buy.

As summer dragged on, I thought that I might be able to go to some 'Show and Shines' where I could just put a sign on her saying "work in progress" like I'd done in the past. I decided to check out a local meet that happens every Wednesday evening not too far from my house and even created a new "Work in Progress" sign for the occasion.  

As my luck would have it (sarcasm), the week before I was planning to go, someone was doing burnouts and crashed their car leaving the show, not the first time it had happened despite the organizer's best efforts. As a result, the venue pulled the plug on any future shows there and the shows are on hiatus while the organizers look for another venue.

For weeks I'd been seeing ads for Village Honda's 3rd annual show and shine and decided that I'd see if they had any spots open. The only problem was that it was Thursday, and the show was only two days away! I had some work to do if the car was going to be ready. I went to their first one and had a great time, so I decided spur-of-the-moment to reach out and register. I'm glad I did. The weather couldn't have been better and the turnout was great, especially considering there was a competing show across town. I can't wait until next year's show! 

And I recently found out that the organizers of the Wild Wednesday show secured a new location that's even closer to my house than the old one. Sadly, they had to cancel the first one in the new location due to bad weather. I was planning to go since it was happening on my car's "birthday" and I'd bought some birthday balloons to put on her at the show haha. The forecast looks great for this coming Wednesday though, so I think I'll go then (without the balloons though haha)

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.