Thoughts About Some Future Minor Mods?

[sdc]

I'm planning on doing a few minor mods in the next few weekends/months. Curious about thoughts and if anyone's done these already and we have some DIY's I didn't see.

1) Relocate battery to rear of car and possibly developing an alternate access point (for emergency and jumping purposes) in the engine bay.

This, along with a CAI, should provide a bit more room in the engine bay.

2) Replace passenger's window control on driver's side, and probably passenger's side, with controls that express up/down

3) Replace map lights with ultra-white LED's (and possibly all other interior lighting unless it winds up looking bad)



So what do you guys think?

[webby]

Sounds like great mods you have planned. If you do go ahead with any of those, I'd love to have a DIY on them. I'm sure a lot of other members will be doing those same mods. I love express up/down on windows and miss it on any car that doesn't have it.

[StarbucksSam]

The lighting thing sounds like a great plan - there is no other "yellow" lighting in the car, but there is white that it will go with on the speedometer and some white text on the tach and whatnot.

I would stay away from those windows for resale reasons unless it's easy to reverse. I know many people HATE that 'auto' feature and don't want it on one window, muchless four.

When I first read your engine thing, I thought you were trying to devise an escape route FROM THE CAR besides the doors... and I was sitting puzzled and wondering HOW you could JUMP from the engine. Jessica Simpson moment!

[CameronJr9]

Originally Posted by StarbucksSam

When I first read your engine thing, I thought you were trying to devise an escape route FROM THE CAR besides the doors... and I was sitting puzzled and wondering HOW you could JUMP from the engine. Jessica Simpson moment!

By far the funniest thing I've read in a while. Cool mods BTW. If you do any of them, definitely get some DIYs going.

[twistedframe]

if you do the auto down mod, you deff. gotta post a diy b/c i've been wanting to do this since i got the car!

[sdc]

Thanks for the input guys.

Quick update, I was talking to one of the parts guys at Brown's Honda in MD and he basically said that the window controls aren't sold or wired how I was thinking they would be. I'm still going to look into this, but it looks like it won't be as simple as replacing a control mechanism.

Oh and do yourselves a favor, get some fishing wire and debadge that "Civic." I left the Honda emblem on the trunk, it just looks weird without it. But the trunk looked a lot cleaner once I got that "Civic" badge off of the rear.

[cloudbreakmd]

For the badge, use waxed floss and a blow dryer to warm up the emblem first...

[letsgoflyers81]

I would LOVE to see how to get the passenger side window to work with auto up/down. Please keep us updated, I really hope it's not that complicated or expensive.

[webby]

Originally Posted by sdc

Thanks for the input guys.

Quick update, I was talking to one of the parts guys at Brown's Honda in MD and he basically said that the window controls aren't sold or wired how I was thinking they would be. I'm still going to look into this, but it looks like it won't be as simple as replacing a control mechanism.

Oh and do yourselves a favor, get some fishing wire and debadge that "Civic." I left the Honda emblem on the trunk, it just looks weird without it. But the trunk looked a lot cleaner once I got that "Civic" badge off of the rear.

post up a pic of your civic debadged - I'd like to see.

[YOGIx213]

Originally Posted by cloudbreakmd

For the badge, use waxed floss and a blow dryer to warm up the emblem first...

I just used an old library card and slowly eased it between the badge and the trunk. The gunk peels off easy enough.

Oh, and Webby, I'll post a pic when I can get around to it. It does look cleaner IMO.

[Celcius]

For the auto door down and up, are you planning on making it completely auto, or semi auto? By that I mean, if I press down heavily on my driver side button, it auto downs, but if I just press lightly, it'll go down and stop when I release. I'd love do mod that to my passenger side, because I like having both conrtrol and a lazy mans feature.

[letsgoflyers81]

Originally Posted by Celcius

For the auto door down and up, are you planning on making it completely auto, or semi auto? By that I mean, if I press down heavily on my driver side button, it auto downs, but if I just press lightly, it'll go down and stop when I release. I'd love do mod that to my passenger side, because I like having both conrtrol and a lazy mans feature.

If it's possible I'd want the passenger's window control to act the same way as the driver's window. Press lightly and it only goes down if you hold it in. Press all the way and it goes all the way down without having to hold in.

[sdc]

Hi guys,

I'll let Yogi post up debadged pics... but take it from me... DOOOO EEEET! DOOOO EEEEEET NAOW!

Simplest way to debadge a car:
1) Heat the area with a blow dryer (unless you're doing it on a very hot day)

2) Take some thin fishing line (thinner the better... I'd say 5-10lb test weight) and work your way across the length of what you're taking off using a sawing motion

3) Reheat the area as needed and continue... but honestly one pass should be enough

4) Go over the area with a glue/bug remover that won't ruin your clear coat (Look around your local auto shop, you'll see it. I'll post the name of whatever I used later tonight)

5) If you have adhesive residue, reheat the area and repeat Step 4 until adhesive is gone.

*WARNING*
If you must use Goof Off or Goo Gone or something similar IMMEDIATELY follow this process with Step 6.

6) Wash/wax the area (or whole car if you like) as soon as possible. The product most likely will be eating away at your clear coat. If it says it wont, wash/wax anyways. A spray-on wax will do fine, but it's always better to be safe than sorry... so as soon as you have the chance, wash/wax the area and make sure there is no residue or discoloration.


Remember, when you debadge something, there may be some discoloration. The longer you wait, the longer all the other paint is subjected to the elements while the paint under your badging isn't. If this happens... well... I don't know what to tell you. It may go away with time. I've honestly never had this problem, so perhaps someone else can post up what to do if you come across this situation.

[wannabe.si.er]

That was a great idea abt the battery relocation. I'd love more details abt your plans...

Thanks