# Got Myself An Interesting Project - Blog



## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

Been looking at various options for a replacement of the Fiat 500 I currently own as a commuter.

The car needs to be economical & different from the typical euro boxes that are so popular.

So I have purchased a 2001 Honda Insight that needs some tidying, and within this thread I'll be detailing the transformation from tatty MOT to daily commute.

The car needs some cosmetic bodywork attention, an MOT along with a gearbox input shaft bearing & a bloody good clean.

The car has 95,000 on the clock, which given that these things will last at least 250,000 miles before needing any real attention I'm well pleased

All for the billy bargain of £1000.

Pic before collection.


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## Tom_O (Jul 1, 2008)

I strangely really like these cars. Far more acceptable than the Prius (probably because this is hugely rare, and low key).

I read some motoring journalist's column, and his car had averaged 73MPG over 130,000 miles.


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## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

Tom_O said:


> I strangely really like these cars. Far more acceptable than the Prius (probably because this is hugely rare, and low key).
> 
> I read some motoring journalist's column, and his car had averaged 73MPG over 130,000 miles.


My first Insight that i sold about 4 years back averaged over 80mpg for the 100,000+ miles I had it for.


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## Tom_O (Jul 1, 2008)

That is brilliant. I would seriously consider an Insight, if this is the sort of price they go for?

What about battery changing though?


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## rtjc (Apr 19, 2009)

Wow, that IS a bargain! I'm looking to get myself a runabout for a grand after my hols, in a month or two, that's surely worth £2-3k easily once cleaned & fixed up!


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## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

OK guys,
Day 1 of the Insight rejuvenation is here. It arrived around 17:45hrs, & after I had finished putting up the fence I just about had time to get a couple of pics.



























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.



















Seats are sticky & minging too, so off with the worst seat cover (5min job) and into the washing machine with it.


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## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

Today I had a go at 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....










To this.....









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




























Also sorted the cabin air filter.


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## RandomlySet (Jul 10, 2007)

very nice mate.... bit odd looking though.... What's the idea with the plates over the wheels?


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## hoppy (Jun 11, 2008)

What did you use / how did you get the headlights like that?


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## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

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.


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## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

-Mat- said:


> very nice mate.... bit odd looking though.... What's the idea with the plates over the wheels?


All in aid of the ultimate low drag coefficient for a road car



hoppy said:


> What did you use / how did you get the headlights like that?


1000 grit wet & dry, followed by 2000 grit abralon pad, followed by Menzerna FF.


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## hoppy (Jun 11, 2008)

The Detail Doctor said:


> All in aid of the ultimate low drag coefficient for a road car
> 
> 1000 grit wet & dry, followed by 2000 grit abralon pad, followed by Menzerna FF.


was the abralon pad on a da if so would it be ok to use a rotary


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## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

hoppy said:


> was the abralon pad on a da if so would it be ok to use a rotary


I used it by hand.


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## hoppy (Jun 11, 2008)

Doc is it the PO 85 RE 5 stuff??


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## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

That's the stuff


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## chillly (Jun 25, 2009)

Cant remember when i last saw one of those. Good find and good project:thumb:


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## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

chillly said:


> Cant remember when i last saw one of those. Good find and good project:thumb:


They only sold 17020 worldwide, I belive only about 170 in the UK.


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## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

Todays little job before I go off on nightshift was to see what I could do about the state of the rear spoiler.
I gave is a really good clean with some G101 & some IPA to degrease.
I ordered a small strip of 3M Di-Noc to see how it would look on the spoiler.
It's no a 100% perfect job, a little extre use of the hairdryer to just pull things a little tighter on the spoiler, but for a first attempt I'm pretty pleased.


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## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

So, whilst the seats were out I took the opportunity to remove all of the interior plastics, I gave them a real good clean with dilute G101, dried & put to one side whislt I cleaned the head lining, which after 10years of tar, nicottine & dirt came up really well.










I used Chemical Guys Fabric Clean, applied by hand sprayer, agitated with a microfibre, & extracted using the George wet & dry vac.
Whilst spraying the roof lining it became apparent just how much cigarette tar etc was in the fabric.










Also had a brain wave on how to sort the cigarette burn in the seat base cover.










I thought if I could add stitched a seam, tucking the fabric into the seam, I could loose the burn in the seam, thankfully the wife is a dab hand with the sewing machine.
Thankfully the Mrs is a dab hand with the sewing machine so she got to it & for good measure she did the passenger seat so they match.
The carpets were cleaned with Chemical Guys Fabric Clean, agitated with my fingers, then wet extracted.
The plastic trim was re fitted, seats installed, head unit fitted & the cabin is now habitable.


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## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

OK, saggy headlining.........










Sorted










Boot area finished being cleaned










Sorted the horrible gap between the gaiter & the gearknob, amasing what you can do with pipe insulation.


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## Pandy (Jan 19, 2008)

That looks fantastic, not a car you see many of :thumb:

Interior has come up a treat, bet it hasn't been that clean for a good while.


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## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

It's time to start sorting the paint, which is basically sound, but very abused, covered in scratches & very hazy.



















Also showing signs of damage from sunscreen.










Thus far I've only used a Megs Red pad with 203 S on, still needs refining with some Menz FF but it's coming up great.










Front & rear wings done.










A small repair to be done to the sill, the vinyl chap (Carbon-Era)is going to do it with Hexxis vinyl along the sill swage line when he does the black trim that he's doing.


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## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

Todays little jobs.
Check & adjust the rocker clearances, all were a little large, one however was at 0.020", now lost the top end tappety noise unsurprisingly.
Looks clean for what's basically a 100,000 mile car.










Replaced the spark plugs also as I was working in the same area.
Tommorrow job in order to avoid the TV coverage of "that wedding" is to do the auxillary drive belt & check the handbrake adjustment/bias.


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## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

OK, getting near, the results speak for themselves thus far.

Got the EGR plate all back together so the old girls is up & running again.

Still need to get the wing mirror on after saturday when it's sprayed, need to sort the wheel centre caps, I'll try spraying them first, if they look naff I'll buy new ones.

You can see how nice she's looking now, need to finish off the machine polishing & sort the gearbox and that's about it!!!!


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## JJ_ (Oct 26, 2005)

Never realised these were two seaters, look pretty funky


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## Lancashire (Apr 5, 2010)

Reallt cool little car


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## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

Back with an update.......

The car passed it's MOT last Tuesday with flying colours.

Been concentrating mainly on the mechanicals really, work to date includes.....

Full service including clutch & brake fluids, plugs, tappets, filters
Full gearbox rebuild, replacing all seal & bearings
New clutch assy including flywheel skim
New front discs & pads
Cutch master cylinder overhaull
Repair fault passenger airbag connector
Total strip down of interior to allow for a really good deep clean
Replacement of various trim clips
Install some tunes including new speakers & under seat subwoofer.










On the first full week of commuting I've managed just a shade under 75mpg average!!!!!

Few things left for the to do list.

Get the propoer machined wheel centres on, they are on back order.
Get the ding in the pass door PDR'd
Damn good machine polish & some Zaino to go on to protect the paint
Slight leak from a perished seal on a trim clip above the door means the seat belt gets damp during heavy rain, parts arriving Thursday


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## Bezza (Oct 6, 2010)

Really interesting little car! Its not something I would normally like, but I would kill to be getting 75mpg. I'm currently getting exactly half of that in my 1.6Turbo Astra H on my 26mile commute on the M1 and M62.

Good work!


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## Ming (Oct 16, 2007)

Great work mate on an interesting little run about
.
.
.
but
.
.
.
I have to say I think it is pig ulgy!!:doublesho
Sorry. Just my opinion.
Looks good on the inside but the outside is like some 70's citroen.

Ming the honest


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## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

Ming said:


> Great work mate on an interesting little run about
> .
> .
> .
> ...


It's not a stunner I agree, I think "quirky" sums it up best, it's a case of designing for effiency, not asthetics.


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## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

Well I'll be buggered, the had the Oaktek Insight Rally car on The One Show tonight... http://www.oaktechybrid.co.uk/site/content_racing.php


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## PugIain (Jun 28, 2006)

I saw that ^
Random.


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## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

I actually have some of the upgrades from that car on the bench ready to go into my Insight.


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## JBirchy (Oct 9, 2010)

Very interesting little car! My brother was looking to get hold of one a while back but were too expensive for his budget!

Apparently, these have one of the best Stop/Start systems going? The bloke who owns EVO Magazine bought one a while back to try and cut his running costs, and he loves it!


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## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

Best stop start system by a mile, uses the large, 3phase, brushless motor on the flywheel to start, it's silent in operation as it has no moving parts & is instant.


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## woodybeefcake (Oct 12, 2008)

Excellent work OP. No offence, but is this not what the 'project and restorations' section of the forum is for?


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## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

Yes it is, bit it's taken you long enough to notice!!!!!

Mod, can you move please????


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