EK9: The Overhaul, pt. 3

I have a week off and decided it’s best to “finish” the EK9 project, so i can put it in hibernation. At least I’ll finish all the work i can do myself.
After putting the car on the lift, i first inspected the work done from my Honda garage recently. Like installing the Endless brake pads:

And the full spoon bushing kit (which make the car handle like a completely different car. And i don’t mean it was bad before…)

Then? Off with the front bumper and get the parts ready:

I drained the oil and replaced the standard Honda oil drain plug with a High magnetic neodynium magnet drain plug from TopFuel Japan / Zero1000:

The advantage is the strong magnet collects all metallic debris in the oil at the magnet. Not that i really need that for my usual drives, but hey – why not?
And then i had this thing lying in my garage for years now and thought it was finally time to install it 🙂

Next? Radiator. The Original honda item started to “sweat” minimal. it is still more than OK, but i thought i’ll swap it out and preserve it for the future and instead put something more modern and safe into the car. After long searchis for a standard-width unit, i found this recently released Trust / Greddy item:

You can clearly see the difference in thickness:

Unfortunately this meant the old SSWorks radiator shroud i had installed would also not fit anymore:

So out it had to go:

After draining the whole system:

The old one (surprisingly light unit) came out:

You have to swap the rubber feet / bushings to the new one:

I decided to give them a quick clean and some vaseline (petroleum lube) treatment, so they look almost new again:

The fan when to the new item too. Unfortunately i realized a screw had damaged threads so i will need to replace it. but for short drives it’s not critical:

And back in it went. Forgot to take a picture. Unfortunately also the Greddy radiator shroud wouldn’t fit anymore. so outit went.
Either i will cut it or leave it away. not sure yet.

I had replaced the original honda radiator valve cap with a Seeker item. but this one only barely fit. it seems they have slightly different tolerances. So i had to install the included Trust / greddy item (not shown in picture):

Next`up was to install the Laile / Beatrush under panel. First you need to install these mounting brackets at the front control arms:

And five screws later, the whole panel is installed:

It uses all original mounting points which are not originally used but are there. So it gives the front bumper additional stability. And i love to unwrap this stuff 🙂

Installed: You still have access to the battery drain plug and it has some nice vents too. Great piece ,if you ask me. However not sure about the effect.

Next on the list: The window visor mounting plugs. I had sourced them from an EK9.org member. these things are incredibly hard to find. but luckily my visors are complete again:

After i cleaned all the spilled oils and tools i called it a day. What’s next? In spring (hopefully) the car will go to the paintshop). This old original Honda battery tie-down was in the corner for years now, after the original paint peeled off- I decided to have it repainted in original black and reinstalled. The Skunk2 unit is nice, but somehow it doesn’t fit the “JDM” theme and it’s another flashy item in the engine bay. back to OEM will look nice.

And then the car has quite some “Battle-scars” which require a repaint of the front bumper and lip:

the scratches on the bottom are unavoidable i guess and not so much of an issue since you don’t see them. But at a random hi-pressure washing station, suddenly the paint peeled of on the front lip in large chunks. most probably from a previous stone-chip or something. Thisd really looks ugly and i thought it would be a good opportunity to have the whole fromt bumper and lip repainted.  maybe even the hood…

That’s it. I might give it a test-drive if the weather is nice in the coming days, otherwise i’ll put it in hibernation, since the temperatures are alraedy cold outside.
I have planned some work on my Z project though 🙂