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Quite a few more things on the way. HKS V mount, FEED floor mats (my driver side front is a rear mat, currently), new front brake rotors from dixcel (currently have 2 piece rotors showing lots of small cracks, RZ/17inch brakes so had to order from japan), a set of crystal headlights and a projector kit from the retrofit source, j-auto pillowball kit and a few small things. Following this up will be new brake fluid and pads all around. Then hopefully im good for a while
I asked for a quick release for Christmas and she delivered. When I wear my work boots my knees/legs hit the steering wheel moving between clutch and brake. Really annoying. The wheel already had a spacer, I figured the QR would come in handy and also give me some more room. Not a works bell or anything but itll do, for now
The retrofit kit was really popular with the 8th gen civic Si when I owned one. It pretty much dropped in the civics factory headlights with little modification. These RX7 headlights will need that piece sticking out in the center cut out, and possibly smooth out the back side for the nut that holds the new projector in. I will try to do a DIY when I get everything.
Last edited by AE_Racer; Dec 26, 2018 at 10:12 AM.
I'm interested to see how the retrofit turns out. I was actually planning on doing that further down the line, but first I need to fix my headlight motor for the passenger side.
Headlights and retrofit kit will be in tomorrow. Hoping to get that done this weekend.
Also just ordered a koyo n flow, ebc greenstuff f&r and new fluid for when the v mount and new rotors get here (supposed to be next Friday). I'm done for a while now lol. Wheels and body work next if I ever complete all this stuff.
Got the lights and retrofit kit Saturday. One side complete. Wasnt as easy as I was hoping it to be but ill spare the details until I finish the other side and see if theres something I could have done different.
The sonar lights are great, super strong sealant though. The retrofit kit is a mini h1 with mini gatlin gun shrounds. I know the mini h1 arent the best but I wanted this to be a straight forward install. I was able to fit it in the housing without pushing it really far in so theres no issues behind the headlight in the car.
im gonna work on the other headlight today. Im having trouble figuring out where to put all this wiring, ballasts, relay etc. my car has HID lights in the feed lenses so its alot in one area.
More good news is my j auto pillowballs came in today, and v mount delivery got bumped up to today. Cant wait.
The feed mats have velcro on each end.. Nice touch i didnt know about. Look to be really high quality.
Now im really overwhelmed lol. Gonna stay focused on this headlight and get those done. Im waiting on the radiator, pads and fluid before I can get to the v mount or the brakes. Looking like ill be working the next two weekends so updates on those will be a while.
I have a thread on the HKS V-mount, it's a big job to install. I have a few hints in that thread that may help you.
Headlights look good!
Dale
Yes you do. I read through it a few times while trying to decide which kit to go with. Your thread helped sway me toward the HKS. I will definitely be referencing it again during the install. Thanks so much for all of your contributions to this forum.
I've got quite a few projects to do now so plan is to get the whole car off the ground after work this weekend and get to it. I'd like to have everything done and the car ready to drive to Daytona for the Rolex 24hr later this month but we'll see how much time I'm able to dedicate.
Added some 25mm spacers all around the other day. I was sick of the front being so sunken in with the wider fenders. Gave the car a bath and took it on a short drive this morning to check for rubs and such. All good so far. New offset is +13 all around. 17x9 255/40.
Afterwards I stuck the car in the garage and got it up on jack stands for the back log of projects.
Step 1. Dixcel SD front rotors, EBC green all around, ATE type 200 and speed bleeders on each corner.
Ive still gotta empty the brake reservoir to change the o rings under it and flush the system with the new fluid. Taking a beer break next will be the v mount and koyo install. Went ahead and did the most important part of having a HKS intercooler
I promised you guys a write up on the headlights. This didn't go as easy as I was hoping but overall it was still pretty simple.
Parts list:
Sonar headlights
Morimoto Bi-Xenon Mini H1 LHD v7.0 Projectors
Mini gattling gun shrouds
Morimoto 35w XB Ballast
Morimoto XB 4500k Bulbs
Morimoto MotoControl Harness (H4/9003)
Total Cost: $329
$99 for Sonar headlights, $230 for the rest as a combo package from The Retrofit Source with a discount code. Regular price was $270ish.
The process:
I'm not going into removing and installing the headlamps into the car. Its fairly simple to do both and running the wiring for the new headlights is up to the installer. I have mine temporarily ran as I'm gonna be pulling apart the front end for the v mount soon and i'll make it more permanent.
Step 1: Open up your housings.
I saw some posts about these lights having some perma-glue. I used a heat gun instead of the oven and after about 5 minutes of circling the edge of the lights I was able to pry them apart pretty easily. There are also 4 clips that hold the housing together and those are straight forward. This is what you end up with:
(sorry for the crotch pics here guys)
When pulling apart the glue will be kinda stringy. I used the heat gun to soften it up more, if you just pull it apart with the strings hanging you could get glue on your clear or reflector housing and its hard if not impossible to remove.
Step 2: Finish prepping the light for install. That big piece hanging in the front needs to go. There's a screw on the back that holds it in and then it drops out. Really simple. Then you move on to the back side where things get more interesting.
I meant to take more pictures here but as you can see, the bulb mounting is twisted clockwise. With projectors, this is no good. If you installed it this way, your cutoff would look like this: \ instead of the desired: ----. The morimoto projectors are designed to drop right into the housing this way, with that metal clip being a resting point for the nut that holds in the projector. You can also see it is keyed to even it up. I rectified this buy using my dremel to remove the "key". This allows the projector to rotate freely, but now means its no longer able to be locked down tight. So you have to make it permanent.
At this point my shipment from Japan came in so I got excited about that and totally forgot about taking pictures.
Step 3: Install projectors.
I JB welded the projectors to the housing, still using the nut on the back for more security. I eyeballed mine straight, but you should have the housings ready to go in the car and apply your "glue" of choice as you ensure the cutoff is even.
The projectors have a shield that moves for the high beams, there's two wires for this. I took some needle nose pliers and busted off the plastic piece that holds the original halogen bulb retaining clip. You can see it on the right of the headlight opening. This was big enough for the two wires to pass through.
Make sure whatever adhesive you use, you allow it time to set. For the jb weld I let mine sit for atleast 24 hours.
Step 4: Reseal housings.
Give both sides of your housing a good heating, slap them together, reinstall the clips and you're done.
Once reinstalled, be sure to aim your headlights. There are some write ups on this, I believe sake bomb garage is the one I found that was really good.
Flushed the brakes with the new fluid. I half way bled the clutch, I didnt buy an extra speed bleeder for it and my gf was gone so ill finish that up in the next day or two.
Got one side of the j auto pillow ***** in. That upper control arm to knuckle reassembly bout drove me nuts, **** would just not go back in with the new pillow ball. Finally pried on it enough to get it in. Plan to do the other side tomorrow.
New plan is to have everything done by this Sunday but I know the v mount is quite a bit of work so we’ll see how it goes.
Also, I think i mentioned I bought all of the hatch interior pieces. This was back around Thanksgiving. They were coming from the UK, the box got wet and was returned to sender. He finally got it back a few days ago and I just got an update from Fedex saying it should be delivered this Friday. Super stoked. Just need a 17” spare and trunk carpet.
A few updates. Still no intercooler install, i've been extremely lazy as im really dreading draining all the fluids again. I have a ton of coolant and oil already that I need to get recycled.
Hatch interior pieces came in yesterday. Unfortunately I found that the rear side panels will not work with the lrb seat delete kit. So I removed it. I loved the lrb kit but I like having interior and speakers better. Its for sale if anyone is interested.
I also took the time to install the power fc mount I got a while back. Really nice piece and went in no issues.
I looked at those LRB interior pieces and agree - OEM panels really are the way to go. Who makes that Power FC bracket?
Looking forward to seeing the intercooler in there, love that you added the HKS logo!
A guy from Canada actually. Derek Slater. Made a run of steel and aluminum. Not sure if he's doing more? Should be able to find him on Facebook.. he posted in some of the RX7 groups.
Thank you for the kind words. I started tear down for the intercooler but the daytona 24 hr was this weekend so didnt get anything else done.
