Scratchy Gets a Repaint... Again.

Roof rust is a b*tch.

I have no choice but to have the car repainted again, but this time with a new roofcut from JDM land.

I decided to have the car repainted the soonest without even researching on other options -- so yeah, I settled for an expensive shop with so-so quality.

When I say quality, what I mean is the way you prepare the surface for paint or no-paint -- YES, it includes proper masking.

My complaints about the shop:

1. The owner rarely visits the shop, probably because he is busy with his other hobbies (like biking?). If you have a business -- especially a business that requires attention to detail, you should never entrust it to your staff. Those guys are painters and rely on a monthly salary and/or commissions. They couldn't care less if the car is turned-over like shit.

2. His staff doesn't care about plastic trims AT ALL. All the plastic pieces have broken and damaged clips. Even the most simple thing to remove like the sail panels don't have the clips anymore. I know the car is aged and the plastics might be a bit brittle, but an almost new sail panel? I even saw my black door card with black bricks cloth siding soaking in the rain. Come on!

3. My under chassis and engine bay have over-spray all over. Yes, this is very lazy in the staff's part. The engine bay plastic parts like the clutch fluid reservoir, brake lines, and harnesses have white paint on them. I would need to repaint all the black suspension and clean up the engine bay all over again.

4. It took over six months to finish the car. That long period of disassembly risks parts interchanged with other cars. Parts not belonging to me include the hood lock catcher, right tail light, and some bolts which for the longest time I made sure to keep original.

5. When the owner told me it's ready for pick-up, I drove 4 hours only to find out that the interior is dirty and full of paint dust, my OEM chin is still unpainted, antenna tip is covered in green primer, and rear trailing arms are white. So yeah, I drove back home without the car.

To be fair with the owner, he tried to make up to me by giving me his spare power window switch, right tail light, and not charging me for electricals done to the car.

Costings:

JDM Roofcut EG Hatch Civic without sunroof - P18,000 from JBT in Las Pinas City
JDM Brown Glass set except for the windscreen - P23,000 with shipping from ACVillaroman from Bacolod City
JDM Honda Access Snowflakes - P40,000 from the shop owner
USDM Rear Wiper switch with rear washer function - P1,600 from eBay
USDM EG Civic Air Filter Box - P1,500 from US Junkyard
JDM CRV 99 Integrated Control Unit - P2,000 from Darwin Martinez
JDM Honda Access 4-spoke Steering Wheel from the shop - P12,000
External washover from the shop with roofcut install - P70,000

Was the painting job expensive? Yes. Worth it? Definitely not.

The lesson learned for me is to check actual customers' cars and ask for feedback. Never ever trust what you see in car shows. These kinds of shops only do quality work on their own show cars.

The Overseen Overheating Problem

After I bought Itchy (projectitchy.blogspot.com), I rarely use Scratchy and would be parked for weeks at a time. One afternoon I drove it from Cainta to Banawe, and without hesitation pushed the RPMs while cruising Quezon Avenue. Upon reaching the corner of Q.Ave and Biak na Bato, I noticed the temperature needle almost hitting the red mark. Without hesitation, I pulled-over and turned-off the engine as soon as possible.

Good thing, the place was near a convenience store, so I bought Absolute Distilled Water to fill it up again and this is what I saw:

So there you go people, I have a blown head gasket. 

I was really worried about it so I had to buy parts for a top overhaul.

Here's a shopping list for the job:

Honda OEM Cylinder Head Gasket - P2,829

Intake Valve Seals and Exhaust Valve Seals (8 pieces each, 16 in total) - P205 each (P3,280)

Exhaust:

Intake:

Spark Plug O-Ring - P269 (x 4 pcs, P1,004)

Camshaft Oil Seal - P255.00

Oil Pan Gasket - P955.00

Oil Pump O-Ring - P95.00

I also bought:

NGK BKR6E-11 - P90 each x 4 pcs

Coolant - P565

Caltex Delo Gold Ultra 6 liters - P1,360

OEM Oil Filter - P350

VHT Copper Spray (IMPORTANT to seal the head gasket) - P580

Brought Scratchy to Blacksheep for the service, labor is P6,500 including machine shop. Good thing my head is not warped or cracked. It is still in perfect shape, done the machining just for assurance.

All done. 

I thought everything was okay, but I almost had an overheat again. I immediately pulled-over and wired the fan switch to turn-on all the time. After all that spending, my overheating problem was still not solved. So on to the hunt for that part.

...and Now Screaming with a Shiny New Spoon N1 Gen 3 Muffler

I got a good deal on the internet today.

Slightly used Spoon N1 Gen3 for only P16,000 from Erik of the FB groups. Met him at Caltex Julia Vargas, and he is also driving a hatch. The muff is fully compatible with the EG/EK Hatch with no modifications.

Check out the photos:

Having this installed for 300 pesos at Motech Imelda Avenue:

For those who are looking for a Spoon N1 Gen 1, contact me.

Getting a Car Part from any US Online Store

As you all know, Scratchy has a JDM OBD1 SOHC VTEC D16A engine. All local Civics of its generation run on OBD1 non-VTEC engines. So finding a brand new distributor (an ignition part, not the one who sells to stores/dealers) for my engine is a PITA (Surplus parts are available. However, these run for P4-5K -- overpriced for a used part).

Tried scouring Banawe, but they only have the one for the ESI or PH12 which are incompatible with VTEC SOHC. Replacement brands run for P6 to P8K and it's kinda expensive if you ask me. 

Then, I stumbled upon this site on a local car forum: http://gmettrading.com/.

They can buy from any website in the States, ship it here (with a cost of course), and all you need to do is to pick it up from their office. I guess this is my chance to buy the cheap TD-42U distributor from Amazon that I've been eyeing on for quite some time now. 

I emailed them and I received friendly replies even though I have a lot of questions. They gave me a quote for the item for P5,450. Knowing that this is in fact lower than the brand new replacements here, I went for it. I deposited half the amount into their BDO account and that's it, they ordered it for me. All I have to do is wait and pay the balance upon pick-up.

ETA is around August 8 or 9, 2013. I'll let you know once it arrives. :)

The Not-so-major Underchassis Refresh

I came to realize after years of using Scratchy, that its front underchassis parts were long due for replacement. It was still rolling on its OEM parts for 21 years already. Leaking rear shoks, cracked trailing arm bushings, clunking sound up front, and bump steer were some of the indications I needed to refresh the underparts.

First thing to do was to find what needs to be replaced first. I went to a couple of shops: Motech Cainta, Goodyear Servitec Marcos Highway, BlackSheep Autoworks, and Yokohama Gil Fernando.

Motech quote on parts and labor (in parenthesis):
Upper Arm Assembly Pair - P3,600 (P560)
Rack End Pair - P2,200 - (P560 including tie rod)
Tie Rod Pair - P1,900
Lower Ball Joints Pair - P2,200 (P560)
CVJ Boot - P200 (P240)
Alignment - P560
Motech TOTAL: P12,580

And knowing I could buy original 555 replacement parts cheaper from Banawe, my succeeding inquiries were just for labor.

Goodyear quoted me on labor for a few parts and were even more expensive than Motech. Knowing this, I got the quote and never intended to return.

Yokohama, on the other hand, said that I only need to replace the left upper arm and one rack end together with the CVJ boot. What I liked about them was that they didn't recommend replacing parts that were not yet due for replacement.  And labor was quite reasonable, too. So no breaking the bank for me.

I also got a quotation from BlackSheep for labor:
Rear Shocks Pair - P500
Trailing Arm Bushings - P1,600
Tie rod pair, rack end pair, lower ball joints pair - P1,000
Upper Suspension Pair - P350
Left CVJ Boot - P300
BlackSheep TOTAL Labor: P3,750

That said, I bought all the parts I need from LVC in Banawe:

Rear Shocks Pair KYB - P3,400.00
Trailing Arm Bushings - P900.00
Tie Rod End Pair 555 - P1,000.00
Rack End Pair 555 - P1,160.00
Lower Ball Joint Pair 555 - P1,100.00
Upper Suspension Assembly Pair - P2,000.00
Constant Velocity Joint Boot (L) - P215.00
CVJ Grease - P65
LVC Parts TOTAL - P8,940

I started having the shocks installed in BlackSheep, done in 30 minutes! Paid P500 for it. Then after a week, I returned to Motech. I know that BlackSheep was cheaper by a few hundered pesos, but I was willing to pay more in Motech for their relatively trained mechanics.

Here are the parts:

And the car while being worked on:

Some additional parts that were needed to be bought while installing:

1. Additional grease for the inner CVJ - P65
2. A new boot, since the one given to me by LVC was for an EK! Damn LVC! - P150

GRAND TOTAL for parts: P9,155

I think I had a break on labor. I had all the things to be done quoted again and they just asked for P1,000 for tie rod, rack end, ball joints, and boot. And since removing the knuckle would mean leaving only 2 bolts for upper arm to be replaced, I asked the mechanic to do that for me. I also added front alignment for P280.

So that's P1,000 + P500 (for shocks) + P280 (for alignment) + P300 (for the upper arm and mechanic tip)

GRAND TOTAL for labor: P2,080

Next in line would be the trailing arm bushings and if budget permits, Energy Suspension set for EG!

Will update you guys when that happens.

GE Jazz Rims Pretty Thick Tires: What to Do?

Recently had a deal with one of my old mates in a car club.

Got these for a reasonable price:

I've decided to sell the wheels to anyone who needs it. How much do 2011 OEM Jazz 15-inch wheels sell for anyway? However, I still don't know what to do with the tires.

Tires included are GT Champiro 55 at 195/55/15. A piece costs around P3,000 in tire shops around the metro. Two of which are at around 70% tread, and the other pair are at around 90%. 

Option 1: Replace my Falken ZE 502 set with these on my Spoons? I just don't know if it would look good on it.

Option 2: Install these on my 15s steelies? Steelies are just 5.5" wide.

Option 3: Sell the tire set? What's a fair price?

What do you think? Hit the comments to help me decide. :)

The Secondary Clutch Impromptu Repair

For a long time now, I was intending to replace my secondary clutch because it was still the original piece since 1992.

True enough, this plan slipped my mind, and darn... got me while cruising along Amang Rodriguez Avenue early this morning.

Clutch hits the floor and never returns. The entire reservoir of clutch fluid was on the asphalt.

I caused a bit of traffic build up, so I've no choice but to have Scratchy towed. Towing is free BTW thanks to Wheelers Club International (be a member now for only P700!).

Back home:

The culprit: a 21-year-old secondary clutch cylinder. A photo of its location, above where the leaks are.

Here it is in disassembled form together with a repair kit I bought from a nearby auto supply (the kit comes with the piston and rubber boot):

While at it, painted using Bosny Hi Temp flat black:

Fully assembled like new!

 Installed back into the car.

A summary of what happened.

I suggest you do this as a preventive maintenance to your ageing EGs. Total cost for repair is only P150 which almost cost me thousands more if not for the Wheelers membership.