Continued from here - http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0... Made A Commuter Car Decision

As the work progressed I'll update.

It arrived Thursday last week -







Then I still had time to give the grubby engine bay a quick once over with a stiff brush & some G101, came up OK for a 10min job. The IMA badge came off, the adhesive was shot, but it's in one piece so will go back on soon.



Had a quick whizz up the road a couple of times, basically OK I think. Input shaft bearing is pretty noisey but I knew about that, and the old girl kangaroos under hard acceleration, need to look into that, but managed to get full 144v battery guage after a while, although the 12v battery is very weak, it's on the original Honda one after 10 years so no surprise there.

Paint is very swirly (very very) but most of it I'll sort myself, bumper may need a respray and I have suspisions about one of the doors needing some paintwork.





Had a go at the paint on the bonnet to see if the damage caused by 10y ears of automatic car washes could be retified or if it would be a trip to the paint shop for a blow over.

Came up really well after a light wet sanding & polish with the rotary & so Menzerna FF.



Also had a quick go at the headlights, from this on both sides....





........then I thought I'd ive the boot area the once over...... found a stowaway.







Also sorted the cabin air filter.



Remember those skanky old seats?



Well, covers went through the wash & I've refitted them.

Started by feeding small zip ties through the wire frame in the seat foam i n place of the original wire ones.



The covers were then popped back onto the seats & the zip ties pulled tight, the excess cut off & the end turned away, so it was buried in the foam so as not to damage the cover.



Once finished it came up almost as good as new.



Also tonight I made a start on the boot carpet which is grubby & very worn.





So I got busy with........my hair clippers with no grading guard on!!!!

Very carefully I got busy shaving the carpet & after an hour or so I ended up with a bobble free carpet.





Once I get the extraction cleaner back from loan to my parents I'll get shampooing.

I'd not seen one of these til Harry Metcalfe from EVO bought one
Your work so far has made a BIG difference
+1 on the plate if you can get one for a few quid

Looking good, I love these. A proper piece of automotive history.

Depends very much how they have been treated.

I must say I'm surprised at the reaction to the car from the PH massive, I almost expected an outpouring of anti hybrid hatered.

There's a guy on here who has replaced the batteries and gets something bonkers like 150mpg!

This one's a "good" hybrid, it's how they're supposed to be done, and most importantly it's got faired in rear wheels which are cool.

There is something quite cool about the Insight...

The difference to those seats, bodywork and boot is fantastic. Shows what a little bit of effort can do to, what initially looked a tired example.

Yup. It's a great bit of engineering rather than a suspect bit of marketing.