Racing stripes
You may recall from reading earlier blog postings that my brother bought me stripes for the 900 for our birthday. I received them in the mail a few weeks after the birthday, but never put them on because I didn’t know how, and I wanted to not be in trouble with my brother if I messed them up since he’d bought them..
Erik and Katie flew in to town last night, and this morning our mom dropped him off at
7:15 this morning to pick up the 900, which he’ll drive this weekend while they’re in town. He was pretty disappointed that the stripes weren’t on the car. He insisted we get started with their installation immediately.
The first step is to clean the paint with glass cleaner or Formula 409, to clean any residues or waxes off of the paint. Then you just have to line up the stripes, then peel off the backing slowly while smoothing the stripes onto the car. After the stripes are adhered to the car, just peel off the backing and you’re done. Simple, right?
We started striping on the hood, since that is where we presumed it would be the most difficult to locate the stripe properly due to the contours of the bodywork. We placed it 5.5 inches offset from the centerline of the car, which was easy to find on the hood due to a slight crease in the hood’s center.
You can open a little bit bigger view of the photo by clicking on it.
The ends are tricky to stick on properly, but we did pretty good. We next worked our way back on the roof, first with the section between the windshield and sunroof, then the sunroof, then the roof behind the sunroof. It took until about 9:30, so a couple of hours. We ran out of stripe after doing the roof, so we didn’t finish by running the stripe down the back hatch yet. Erik ordered more stripe so the stripe can be complete.
A lot of people have expressed some skepticism about putting stripes on the car. Pretty much every woman (like Ani, Katie, and Sue Frank) are horrified by the idea. I’m happy with how they turned out, it looks better than I had expected. You can look at the photos and decide for yourself. I’m thinking the stripes add a few HP. Let me know what you think!
Below is a comparison of Erik’s graphic representation in March, compared to the final product! I’ll bet you can’t wait to see it in person!
Hey Kevin,
Why did you keep changing shirts while you were working on the car?
I was hoping somebody would notice my cool and numerous wardrobe changes and give me a compliment on my stylish clothes. At least you noticed even if the compliment was missing
Don’t you have a regular job? Where does all this time come from?
I make the time by getting up early in the morning!
Stripes are way cool! Next- a wing/spoiler! Not some lame-ass new little
one all these tuner Hondas have but a 1970’s Plymouth Barracuda (???) 12
square feet of pure downforce kind of wing.
Don’t worry about the female contingent’s opinions on the stripe- they can
stick to stuff like wedding planning- our Y-chromosome is for stuff like
stripes (or strypes!).
I wonder how many tickets Erik will get this weekend with the stripe. No
one ever said cool was free.
Relax ladies- I was kidding in paragraph 2- I helped plan my wedding and it
was a great experience with my wife.
I’d actually like a rear wing spoiler like was standard on the 900 turbo. It’s not quite as severe as the spoiler Glenn mentions, but would really help complete the look of the 900.
You most certainly will turn heads now with the 900 driving down the road. Of couse that can be good and bad….
Yeah, it drives way more aggressive now!! Or maybe that is just me…
What- no picture of the “KRM Race Team” logo on the rear side window? Put it to a vote.
Also, I’m a bit disappointed with the lack of timely reporting on the much-anticipated removal of the A/C Compressor.
-Pit Crew
pretty sharp looking. u guys should try and replicate that white reflection on the left rear quarter panel in the last shot. that would be pretty cool too =D
I like the stripes in a lipstick-on-a-pig sort of way.
p.s. Don’t. Listen. To. Zane.
Nice stripes! I love your C900!