With my gas savings, I bought this! (2000 Honda Insight)

[cowmeat]

In case you missed it in the G1 thread, I also tapped into full-time power to my back-up camera this weekend, effectively making it a rear view monitor. Works pretty sweet since there's actually a giant blind spot on the sides of the Insight, but the camera shows 180 degrees. I can see cars about to pass on the sides that are completely in my blind spot with the side mirrors. Took about an hour to hook it up.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post457654

[cowmeat]

So far this week on my vacation I have:

Installed the grid charger harness and grid charged it for 24 hours
Installed new Sylvania 9003 headlight bulbs
Pulled off the crushed passenger side rear aero panel, and added a couple of metal strips to it to straighten it back up, and re-installed it
Rotated the tires and pumped them all back up to 60 psi
Buffed out the headlights


Now I have to get to the real work
Tear down the shed with the hole in it's roof (from oak tree) and cart it to the dump
Run the chipper (I just bought it off CL real cheap and will re-sell for a profit when finished with it) and make mulch of the oak branches from the neighbor's oak tree that crashed through my back privacy fence

[Ecky]

Maybe you can turn that into a game too.

[cowmeat]

Lol, I can try, but so far this game sucks!

Halfway through the giant pile of oak branches and I'm already worn out. The chipper thankfully ran out of gas, so I'm taking a break. That thing's a beast!

[cowmeat]

Found the material for the full belly pan on Craigslist, cut a deal with them on the 4 x 4 pieces and I'm going to pick it up tomorrow!

Sheet Aluminum

Doubt that I'll actually get a chance to work on the car at all until the following weekend, but at least I'll have the materials on hand now. Unfortunately this one won't be a freebie like most of my mods, but it'll be an easy installation.

I plan to just screw the 4 x 4 pieces straight to the aero panels on both sides, and overlap the pieces, starting at the rear and working forward to the front, like fish scales.

[Ecky]

That's how I've been doing it. Wish I had aluminum instead of coroplast, it tends to crumble after being exposed to the elements for a few years.

[cowmeat]

Yesterday I finally cut the insulated sun shades into the correct shape and silver taped them to the rear window. I was also able to remove the rear view mirror, and it took my cordless drill set at low torque to ease the screw loose. I wasn't able to get a Phillips screw driver to work, it kept slipping and I was afraid I would strip the screw.

The rear camera actually helps more with the blind spots on the sides of the car than it does as a rear view mirror. The side view mirrors are great for seeing directly behind the car since it narrows at the rear, but they leave a huge blind spot on the sides which the rear camera fixes.

[cowmeat]

And particularly the kill switch will gain you more MPG than anything else. When you finally install it, you'll kick yourself for not having done it sooner. It preserves the car's Autostop logic/functionality, so the electric power steering remains active and the engine automatically restarts (quietly, via the IMA motor) simply by: 1) putting the shifter into any gear; 2) depleting brake vacuum; 3) pressing the accelerator. It's all very slick.

Okay Metro, I have finally added the kill switch. I can already see just from testing it for a couple of miles that you're correct, I'm already kicking myself that I didn't do it earlier!
It's just like when I used to P&G in Black Widow, minus all the work!

Make sure clutch switch is off (or car wants to re-start)
Simultaneously push in clutch pedal and click the kill button to the off position
Cruise down to lower speed or full stop in neutral with engine off
Push clutch pedal back in and click kill button back to on position
If starting from full stop, it autostarts
If re-starting at speed (P&G) it autostarts and I just have to shift to correct gear and match revs

Pretty sweet, and I have to assume on the next tank I will see a huge mpg gain. The one thing I hate about the Insight is how bad the gas mileage is around town, and I think I'm about to overcome that last hurdle! Turtle is about to become the favorite car I have ever owned!

Thanks to Balto for that nice write-up with pics! I walked right through it with no trouble at all

[MetroMPG]

I'm glad it's been long enough that I'm forgetting how awesome my Insight was (so I'm less dissatisfied with anything else I drive!). Especially the auto-retart feature.

[tradosaurus]

Originally Posted by cowmeat

I'm not sure, but on the way home yesterday on a 70 mile trip, it topped out on the charge, and I managed to get 61 mpg on the trip. I have to assume this thing has either been driven 200,000 highway miles or the battery has been replaced. It shifts great, the brakes are good, it tracks straight down the road, the autostop works great (I did turn off the AC long enough to find out).

Those seats are awesome, leather(like) with no wear on them at all.

I need to Google that Kenwood system and find a manual for it. The original owners manual was in the glove box.

So far, so good!

How much did you pay for your Insight?