The Fit Fit update: Dashmat installed, initial review

Sure, a lot of people think of the 70's and velour when you mention most sort of dash coverings, but, in the case of my Fit, there is a huge amount of glare from the mile wide dash. I guess I'm sitting at the perfect height to have the sun bounce off the dash, reflect off the inside of the windshield and the smack my retinas with a 2x4. It is just one of those unhappy coincidences that seem to happen more often with how cars are shaped these days.

That being said, I took a chance on a dash cover from DashMat. It took a while to arrive, which was noted at the time the order was placed. I took it out of the box and laid it flat overnight, as was recommended. First impressions were that it looks good! The edging is well done, being consistent all the way around. The material is rather handsome with a subtle pattern.

I cleaned my dash off with a Simple Green solution and got to laying out the thing on the dash.

It honestly didn't take much fiddling to get it to lay well.

My only complaint is where it covers the gage pod:

I forgot to get a close up, but you might be able to see that the edging pops up a bit. That seems to be because the edging isn't "finished" on the inside, so the material past the stitching is frayed, pushing the edging up a bit. That might relax after a bit. We'll see.

Now I'm sure you're wondering if it was worth it? Yes! There is no more glare on the inside of the windscreen except from the defrost vents, but that is so low, it isn't a bother at all. I'm going to also state that I actually like the look quite a bit! The quilting and edging are gid looking, at least to me. My only cosmetic complaint is that the "hatch" for the passenger air bag is there. Since I can't do anything about that and the edges appear good, I can live with the compromise.

Overall, I like it. It works for what I need it to do and is good looking doing it. Yay!

Fit Fit update: brakes are in. ABS warning light is on. Brilliant.

I did manage to finish up replacing the brakes and studs least week, but I haven't posted on it as I've been busy with other things. The job isn't complete, but, I'll fill you in on the details in a bit.

I'm pretty sure I know why this whole mess happened in the first place. This is a close up view of the stock rim:

It is very difficult to get your fingers in the to start the lug nut by hand. This is very easily solved by using a deep well socket to start them by hand, then get your assistive tool on them and go to town. If you just slap the nut on the lugs and go, you will cross thread stuff. Some studs are designed to prevent this with an extended tip (like the ARP studs), but for normal studs and even the fancy ones, start the lugs by hand. Always!

To finish the job on the other side, I rented a hub puller kit. The only thing I used out of the kit is the smaller pulley adapter which didn't fit exactly correctly, but it worked well enough with my slide hammer to pull the hub out:

I got the axle out and re-bolted the spindle in place in preparation for getting the bearing out:

 Dorman part number for the studs, also good for the CRX:

 Everything was going smoothly until . . .

 Yes, I pressed the stud through the square hole of the socket. Der!

 I just used a CRX stud:

 Now THIS tool is super useful:

 Horrible Freight's wheel bearing puller. It wasn't cheap, even on sale, but it let me get the job done without pulling the spindle off the car, though it caused an unexpected problem, though that was my fault, not the kit's.

Installing the new bearing:

This part of the install went very well
The tool works as designed. The issue is that somehow the magnet in the back of the bearing got boogered up. I'm not sure how it happened. Mayhaps I should have selected a larger backing plate to draw the bearing in and it cracked the magnet? I was trying to avoid the ABS sensor as it sticks out into the space  between the bearing and the axle so I choose one that gave me room. I likely could have gone larger. Or, maybe I should have gone smaller so that I just hit the inner race of the bearing. The brake warning light and the ABS light are now permanently on, which is seriously annoying I'll be replacing the bearing and both sensors soon. At least I know how to do this and it should take much less time.

Here's the part number for the replacement lug nuts I used:

They are made very well. They are not closed like the stock ones are, but for now, they work well and were not at all expensive.

So far, the brakes feel decent and stop well. The engagement point is a bit low, but I do want to bleed the brakes and adjust the rear drums. Both should help the feel, though that says nothing about the ease of stopping. When you get serious with the brakes, they work very well and are very quiet and smooth. Hurray for good brakes! 

Something very improbable, nigh on impossible, happened.

Those of you who have known me the longest have likely heard my comments and complaints about my grandmother's distaste for cars sitting in the driveway. (I live at home with the rest of my family currently in the house that is owned by my grandmother.)

Due to a lot of things coalescing, this happened yesterday:

It is definitely not permanent, but I'm going to take advantage of it while it is there. I like the fact that even though it is in the garage, it is small enough to actually work around, not that I need to do much on the sides for simply swapping the engine.

In other news, my Legend is going away. A friend is going to take it off my hands, thankfully. I'll be swapping the tires between my Fit and the Legend, grabbing the head unit which might actually find its way into my CRX and making sure I don't forget anything personal in the car before it gets picked up and delivered to Oklahoma. This will take place without any money changing hands, and it will save me a good chunk of money in insurance and registration fees, so I'm happy to let it go like this. It's better than simply junking it or donating it for a tax break.

I'm sad to have to let it go. Starting it up and driving it around the block a little really makes me sad. It sounds so amazing. It's wonderful to have a car with real torque. Lol! Maybe I'll find another one in the future. Who knows.