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OK - wanted a place to run through plans and progress keeping my 2006 in good shape (and better than ever).
Current - 112k miles, anthracite metallic with light grey interior, no known outstanding maintenance, but beat up exterior (bumpers are full of damage and paint scrapes, right rear taillight damaged, right right paint chipped from rock hits, minor bumps otherwise, minor but ugly paint scratches on passenger side doors) and interior dash is starting to crack and leather has been disintegrating for several years.
Generally not looking for anything too flashy or major mods, but want to keep her in good running condition (focus on maintenance first!), add some luxury (working bluetooth, backup cam, fix leather, reduce road noise), and clean up the exterior, with slight mods. Kind of boring for what most people are doing here, but I generally like the style as is, and don't feel the need to mess with minor performance improvements.
Future -
Fix up interior first, within 1 month:
Just got blue interior LEDs, unsure if it's my style yet.
Ordered seat leather from Auto Custom Leathers (going with two tone, dark grey perf inside, same as current taupe/light grey otherwise), should arrive in around 2 weeks
Looking at second skin noise reduction options, planning to pull the trigger and replace leather at same time as installing noise reduction
Install backup camera and fix up my current BT45-HON3 microphone setup to use original HFL mic
Potentially new carpet in front, one side has ripped off of trim piece and looks a little messed up
Possibly sweet looking pedals, but not a priority (looking for some black metal, any good ideas?)
Front passenger window will roll up manually but not with automatic one touch. Tried the reset but that didn't work.
Possibly get coverlay dash cover installed, but going to wait on that
Exterior - within 6 months
Pricey to do right, but repaint all of the scrapes and scratches, possibly just replace bumpers if cost makes sense
Switch to black badging, and any silver exterior trim to black
Tint on headlights/taillights and windows
Fix curb rash on chrome rims (super pricey), or get some new black rims
Past - purchased certified pre-owned with 36k miles at 4 years old, didn't have access to this fine forum, took standard care of oil changes/etc. At 75k had dealership do maintenance and inspections -- laundry list of overpriced fixes to be made which I elected not to do with them.
Large maintenance/fixes to date -
New tires (bridgestone turanza serenity plus to try to get less road noise)
1x3 transmission fluid every other oil change since 75k miles
Remove HFL after going through 2 batteries and many jump starts (boo)
Power steering pump - didn't get the new o-ring until it was too late
105k timing belt/water pump/spark plugs/coolant
Motor mounts
Front and rear struts, front lower compliance bushings
3rd and 4th pressure switches
Swapped out omron fan relay (just in case)
Cabin air filter
Recently installed BT45-HON3 and very happy that I have bluetooth again. My tape deck was destroyed by a bad tape, so I haven't had any aux in. I had FM modulator but in Los Angeles there are no open stations haha.
Sounds like you know what you want and have plans to back it up, which is great. Looks like you got the timing belt/water pump so you have peace of mind going forward. I am going through a similar process myself. I bought my 06 a few months ago and am going through any preventative maintenance and repairs that the previous owners neglected. But also to have peace of mind for myself to know that jobs were done with quality parts. I've actually doing the exact thing you're doing now ( maintenance/repair logs) so i know im not the only one thats like that lol.
Don't forget about the fluids! I plan to do all of mines when the weather gets better
I personally dont like to tint headlights as it reduces output. If you have the time and energy try blacking them out instead, but that will need much much more time
Update - got my rear badges and the silver plastic trim plasti-dipped, and used a 3M headlight restoration kit (30 minutes per headlight, but turned out good as new)
3 coats of black, 1 coat metallizer, 2 coats glossifier
It was fairly easy, definitely a little learning curve, and not sure how heavy/light to make each coat to be best, but it looks great. Being able to paint on the car and peel off the unwanted bits on the trunk was really nice.
OK, first of 2 weekends fixing up interior almost through!
Installed backup camera and tvandnav2go -- which took about 4-5 hours but works well.
Notes:
Have a BT45-HON3 bluetooth which has a USB power output, I got a USB -> 12V power adapter and used that to power the tvandnav2go
I have not done much wiring in cars before, but it was really pretty easy. Spliced into backup light power for both tvandnav2go reverse sensing and for the backup camera itself
The switch for manually selecting alternative video needs to be connected to show navi -- I just hardwired it to show navi because I don't plan to display anything but backup cam and the factory navi
I sent backup camera wires through the license plate light housing, and totally messed it up. I need a new plastic piece // or I saw that they sell backup cameras integrated into the light housing on ebay, so I might get one of those and swap out the camera.
Posi-lock wire connectors are awesome, love them
Damplifier pro on trunk and under speakers -- I worked on this area first because I had never used the damplifier type material and I figured the trunk isn't that important for what I'm trying to do (reduce road noise mostly).
It was really easy to work with, and since I had the trunk all pulled off easy to throw on at the same time.
Installed damplifier pro and luxury liner pro on the doors
Notes:
The damplifier pro going onto the very outside of the door was really straightforward and easy
Getting pieces in place on where the weather barrier was before was also pretty easy
Luxury liner pro was easy to cut to size and hang, but I had a ton of problems with clearance and getting the door panel to fit back on. It took a few tries per door, cutting away at the luxury liner pro each time.
All in all not sure if it really did much given that there's not a lot of room to throw it in
I got new interior door handle because my silver foil is peeling off, but I could not figure out how to get it off. I am reading some other forum posts and going to give it another go at some point, but wasn't obvious to me. Like one of those puzzles where everything fits in strangely and has to go in the right order.
Next up:
Leather seat covers should arrive on Wednesday, so next weekend will be reupholstering/etc.!
New front floor carpet also coming to be installed next weekend as it ripped off on the passenger side where it attaches to the door frame and is covered by trim
After next weekend, interior freshen up will be done and on to exterior paint fixes!
Backup camera wire routing Backup camera wire routing Mess of wires in right rear Damplifier pro on trunk Damplifier pro on trunk Door with damplifier pro installed Luxury liner pro cutout ready to install on door
Last edited by swimgeek44; Apr 23, 2017 at 10:38 AM.
Reason: crop vin
Fresh leather has arrived! My weekend will be full of learning to upholster hahah!
i was going to wait to post until I had some before and after shots and was done, but this looks too awesome to wait. Original is all light gray as on outside, autocustomleather added the Acura logo, and I had them do dark gray inner to match the dark gray interior trim
Got hit with a cold last weekend, but still got the rear seats done. Not sure when I will have time to finish the front seats since I'm traveling a lot, but pretty pleased with myself so far! I had wanted darker than before, and this is much lighter, but I kind of like the lighter interior
Ok, all seats leather done!
still have to throw the driver seat back in but I'm glad to have that fresh fresh leather.
next up - new bumper off eBay installed, hopefully this weekend, and still need to install sound isolation under the carpet in the cabin, which I am probably going to push until another weekend.
Couple of maintenance items today -- AC stopped working and was making a whooshing sound, recharge and replace Schrader valves. Chatter in front suspension when going over large bumps -- replace sway bar end links. Also got transmission fluid drain and fill since why not!
rear bumper is on the way, and will replace right rear light cover at same time. Getting close!
I'll have to post some pics later but got rear bumper done this morning. Amazon painted bumper looks great, front and rear.
tried to replace the broken right taillight, but couldn't figure out how to get the light and wiring harness swapped. Left the bolts off so it should come out without removing the bumper again (per suggestion I saw on acurazine earlier!)
from here theres still still some minor scratches and things but generally looks great, especially for 11 years old.
new leather and new bumpers = awesome!
its all gravy from here so I'll let you know what fun comes next!
