EK9: Refurbish pt. 1 – The room mirror
As mentioned earlier, my humble TypeR needs a little brush-up here and there. The first thing i adressed was the room mirror. If you look closely, you can see how the edges of the miror glass started to oxidate. You won’t notice it if you don’t know, but since i look into this mirror everytime i drive the car, it always hurt me.
When i asked Honda in japan, they said they had exactly one piece left in stock, so i absolutely had to get it. Luckily i once also bought a set of interieur plastic removal tools, so to take the cover (with the sensor) off was a piece of cake: 
Next step was the removal of the miror itself, which is mounted with 3 screws:
There we go: Left is the new one (witht he old rubber spacer), right the old one, and top the feel’s carbon miror cover, which i had installed on the old one.
Here you can see the edges oxidated (especially on the bottom). in real life it looks even worse:
The rubber piece started to age and you can see white marks from the softener slowly going out (looks like white dust). In this picture i had already cleaned it with warm water and an old tooth brush. two pictures up, you can see how it looked before.
One thing i learned from my Datsun project is that Petroleum Oil (best known as vaseline) is great for preserving slightly aged rubber pieces. so after i gently greased the whole thing it looks and feels like new. excellent:
And everything installed back again. This surely makes more fun to drive now, even if it’s only for myself. it was something that really wasn’t nice to look at 🙂
Another thing i noticed is that the Feels carbon cover was never installed 100% to fit on the old mirror, due to a little installation mistake. Now it fit’s much better and doesn’t look like a cheap tuning part anymore, but more like a proper carbon mirror. excellent 🙂
Oh, and since it’s a new year, i decided to install the 2022 toll sticker for the swiss Autobahn usage in the same go. Hopefully the car gets on the road this year again, so the money wasn’t wasted:
If you got the right tools it’s a fairly easy job to get the old one removed and the new one installed. so here we go:
More updates coming soon, hopefully – stay tuned…
7 Comments
Kiret
Kool blog man. Can tell that you’re dedicated to the EK9. I didn’t know Top Fuel made mirror covers, they’re sick! Also, your garage space is like a Gran Turismo Scapes environment haha !
JDMjunkies.ch
Hey mate. Same to you, nice blog you’ve got, sir 🙂
I think you got something wrong. The Carbon room mirror cover is by Feel’s (Japan) not top fuel. I however got the tinted door mirror glass by top fuel too on my Ek9 🙂
Thanks for your feedback, i appreciate. The garage was one of my big life goals and when the opportunity turned up i just HAD to do it 🙂
Cheers
Kiret
Thanks, in this day and age only a few of us enjoy reading articles, I hope to keep doing this long into the future where people are in the metaverse or whatever (-_-)
My bad, I meant mirror glass! The rearview carbon mirror cover is also a nice touch. I bet you’re on the hunt for an Rx centre console too eh! 😀
JDMjunkies.ch
Haha same here. i hope i’m still here when it becomes cool again to hang around in online forums and read blogs *lol*
What’s the difference on the Rx center console? the ones i googled seemed pretty much what i have, but maybe i missed something? for the climate panel i have at least the H.O.P blocking plate installed, because you won’t hear the sound of a radio anyway in this noisy car 🙂
https://www.jdmjunkies.ch/wordpress/2013-11-01/ek9-radio-block-off-plate-installed-battery-switch-in-and-out/
Kiret
Yeah man, technology is moving krazyyy, virtual reality was kinda cool in the movies, but I am stumped at how people are going nuts with all this crypto and NFT :s I hope forums make a comeback too, and people move away from big brother big tech social networks.
I remember reading somewhere how Rx centre console is wet-look carbon, but now I’m kinda confused because your centre console looks quite shiny haha maybe its just aged and the clearcoat that used to be matte has been buffed over time and usage?
what exhaust are you running, I think I missed that part?
JDMjunkies.ch
Hi mate,
I use a Toda manifold, Sard cat, Tanabe G-fordan exhaust system, see here:
https://www.ek9.org/index.php?threads/first-swiss-ek9-and-modding-story.1473/post-28812
there’s also a youtube video with my first sound check here:
I have planned a bit of an overhaul for my EK9 thi ssummer and some mods laying ready to be installed.
Also i think the center console is all original. that super cheap fake Honda “carbon look” stuff is just as it came from factory. the block off plate however is much more realistic carbon look, alltough still far away from real carbon 🙂
Kiret
Out of interest, how many miles have you put on those exhuast components, specifically the SARD cat? Also, does your car pass emissions test like that?
Sounds great man, would be good to hear it fly-by using up to date video camera 😀