Progress is made on the Civic... at least a little.

OK, I admit that it looks like I did a lot more than work on the car for a couple of hours... my friend Stéphane gave me a bumper beam from his Civic track car and that was what I had been waiting for to install the fenders, headlights, bumper cover and grille. The result is what appears to be (but is not in fact) a complete car. 

It looks like a Civic, although one with a jacked up front end, since there is no engine or transmission compressing the springs. Although the job was relatively easy, there was some unanticipated work: there were three broken bolts among the 10 for mounting the fenders. I had to clean the threads on the bumper bolt holes, and almost every other hole. The hood spacers used by the previous owner took almost an hour to remove, because I rounded the heads of 2 of the 4 bolts holding the hood to the hinges. I noticed a crack in the windshield, I don't know if it was there before, but anyway, I have a spare from the crashed car. I have to figure out what to do with the hole in the hood and decide whether I want to paint the doors myself with a rattle can. The fenders are primed in satin black, so technically, I should also paint them gloss black. I showed Choo photos of my progress, and he suggested I start installing the wiring harness... this would be new to me. I'm not sure I know how to do this. I will focus on the interior for now, cleaning it up and painting the floor with grey Tremclad. I think I managed to repair the driver's seat mount, which had a bend in a small part that was preventing one of the sliders from locking. To be continued...

I often see this car, and I like it in this colour

Not my favourite spec F430, but still cool

Mean looking GD Subaru

Police horses on my street... I heard them before I saw them.

Cool retro camper-van

Grand-Prix Cycliste on Camilien-Houde

Even uphill, they were fast.

Nice GT4

Beige and black wrapped RS6

Charger Hellcat wide-body version

RS4 with Porsche calipers

Clean Miata with a good strategy for protecting the roof

Red on red E46 M3 with a child seat

997 is aging very well

More subtle colour for the M4

Cool JDM camper-van

Challenger Hellcat

Strange SUV-flavoured Taycan?

Nismo 370Z still looks good

Elantra N

... much more rare: Ioniq 5 N, first one I've seen up close

It's rare to see a WRX with a bigger wing than the STi one

Modern Ferrari

Rare wheels on this Fit, I think they are the ones from the 2003 or so Honda Michelin Challenge series

Still no progress on the replacement Civic...

Still not looking like a car

I'm embarassed to say that I have made no progress on the Civic project, except that I changed the second door lock (I know it's not much, but it's a nasty little job!). I am missing driving on track, but there's not much I can do about that in the short term. Even when I finish my part of the job with the new Civic (assembling the body, cleaning up the interior), I don't know when Choo will have time to do the majority of the work. My friend Stéphane has a bumper beam for me and I picked up a headlight support to replace the bent one I had. I ordered some brand new Chinese headlights on Ebay, as they were not much more expensive than the very used ones I was seeing on Facebook Marketplace. Technically, when I receive them, maybe next week, I will have all the parts needed to make the car look complete from the outside (hood, bumper, fenders, lights). Stay tuned...

The boys playing ping pong in the Palais des Congrès

Other than that, I have continued to enjoy the M3, using it as our family daily driver. It's been a pleasure to drive, as always, and 100 per cent reliable. I plan to drive it until almost the first snowfall (late November?) and then switch for the Subaru, which should be ready to roll without any work needed. There are a ton of cool cars on the streets of Montreal, as is usually the case in summer. Here is a sampling:

Lovely yellow S2000

The new Impreza RS looks kind of sporty (it's not actually that sporty)

Clean E46 sedan

Off-road-looking Westfalia

Nice assortment in Outremont

Rare 996 Targa

Subaru on Method wheels

Huracan in the neighbourhood

Cool Dodge Super Bee

Ferrari Purosangue at Milos

Modified Rolls also at Milos

... and there were 2 Maybachs that night too.

Same cool E30 with BBS wheels

964 convertible

My mom sold her trusty Fit (to my friend Henri)

Nice spec STi

The M3 at a small-town hardware store

A rare VW Type 3

Cool Isuzu pickup (manual) on French plates

This 635csi has been getting repairs at a local garage

Westfalia on Mexican plates

Clean lowered 993

The same Civic Type R

... and its cousin, the Integra Type S

Rare Fiesta ST

Subtle spec 991 GT3

... a bit of a sleeper on black wheels

I wondered when Toyota would produce the GR Corolla in that cool blue colour

Clean Cherokee 4.0