[sarathlal]

Originally Posted by Tempelhof

I always send my car to the HASS; are there other steps that I need to take to keep the car for 15 years or so?

AFAIK no. The only issue that we could face is the car color. There could be difficulties as the Civic comes in rare shades.

[Tempelhof]

Originally Posted by sarathlal

AFAIK no. The only issue that we could face is the car color. There could be difficulties as the Civic comes in rare shades.

How easy or difficult it is to completely change the color of the car? Or, can we repaint the car fully with the same original color? Will the HASS do it if required? What'll be the cost?

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by sarathlal

AFAIK no. The only issue that we could face is the car color. There could be difficulties as the Civic comes in rare shades.

Today they do computer matching,i.e. take the filler cap and then scan and match & mix. Even otherwise colours tend to change with time.

Originally Posted by Tempelhof

How easy or difficult it is to completely change the color of the car? Or, can we repaint the car fully with the same original color? Will the HASS do it if required? What'll be the cost?

Please see above.I will not advise a full respray since the paint will not be baked, so will not be as glossy and hard. Total change involves permission from the RTO.

[sarathlal]

Originally Posted by Tempelhof

How easy or difficult it is to completely change the color of the car? Or, can we repaint the car fully with the same original color? Will the HASS do it if required? What'll be the cost?

Couple of months back, saw the post on Civic color change, please check here; http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-t...t-dos-199.html

[laluks]

I recently got a few bits painted on the civic, thanks to the biker gangs who move around like sperms always searching to fertilise an elusive egg on Bangalore roads


What I found out was the painting guys have a colour chart with grams of each ingredient marked for car colours. They mix that in right quantities to get the colour.

Other one is computerised which takes a sample of your color and mixes it automatically.

Mine was done in the first way. Colour matching is pretty good.

Then two coats of clear coat on the top.

[Tempelhof]

Originally Posted by laluks

I recently got a few bits painted on the civic.

Was this done at an HASS? What was the total cost?
Thanks.

[rr_zen]

Originally Posted by laluks

What I found out was the painting guys have a colour chart with grams of each ingredient marked for car colours. They mix that in right quantities to get the colour.

This is exactly what the paintshop guy at the H.A.S.S told me as well when I had been there for a showroom visit organized last year. But I am not fully satisfied with the color matching. Will help if I put up a picture here to explain what I mean.

[laluks]

Originally Posted by Tempelhof

Was this done at an HASS? What was the total cost?
Thanks.

This was done at Carnation this Monday.
Been there with them, and saw what they did. Pretty straightforward.

Cost was less than HASS.
HASS quoted 12K plus tax.
Carnation was 6K plus tax

Still another guy told me he can be cheaper - say to 4.5K.

[sumeethaldankar]

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

Got a quote for 10.8 k from SBI and they agreed for a IDV value of 5 lacs as well.Will look out for 1 or 2 more quotes and then maybe settle down for SBI. I hope SBI i's good.

Future Generali sent in a reminder with a premium value of ~ 13.5 K with a IDV value of ~ 4.7 lac.Also mentioned in the letter was that in case of a claim the renewal premium would shoot up to ~21k.Wonder why it would happen that the premium would increase.

Needless to say i am not going with Future Generali and have opted for SBI general.The policy will start from 1 july the day existing policy expires.

[spadix]

Originally Posted by nair

The SA told me everything was fine. Additionally he said not to worry to much about scraping the middle and back portions of the car. He said that hitting/scraping at the front portion of the car will be much more serious as, I quote him "There is a lot of hot pipes at the front, which can burst if you scrape the front portion". I am not sure if that is true, maybe the experts here can throw some light. But in my experience, I have never scraped the front portion of the car no matter how bad the bump/road. The scraping seems to begin from just behind the front seats. Have scraped the bottom end too once

Refer to my post a couple of pages back. The front-end is more vulnerable because the oil sump and air con compressor are simply not protected at all, and all that guards the rest of the engine is a couple of thick rubber sheets.

The reason why you have never recorded any hit underneath the front portion is because the bumper comes into the picture first. It sits lower than the exposed bits, thereby protecting them from just about everything other than flying gravel (Professor's Civic has been a victim of flying gravel underneath).

While the front overhang isn't too large, the angle-of-attack is very poor because of how low the front bumper sits. It is easy to scrape the bumper itself if you're at speed or try to ascend/descend a steep ramp. Steep ramps are better done reversed with this car.

I don't understand what you meant by "Have scraped the bottom end too once". Isn't it always the bottom of the car that gets hit/scraped?

I think you meant rear end. That is understandable because of the soft rear suspension and reasonably large rear overhang if you count the exhaust pipe and tow-hook. I lost the chrome exhaust tips on a speed-breaker the day after I bought my car!

Originally Posted by nair

3 km of off-roading?? Every 3 months I take the car to my native place where the last few 100 meters is the hardened red sand with rocks of varying sizes scattered. My heart will be in mouth the entire time and I even get down and move rocks out of the way if necessary. I can imagine how you must have felt those 3 loooooong kms.

I wish I had pictures/videos of the ~110 kms on the Gajendragarh - Kushtagi - Sindhanur route I took while returning to Hyderabad from Goa in April 2011. We were already getting late. Wife was unwell and asleep on the back seat. I had started to develop a headache and we didn't want to halt overnight anywhere because I had a flight to catch from Hyd the next morning. So I couldn't afford to take too many photo breaks.

This patch took 3 hrs to cover. An average of ~40 kmph might sound alright, but that's because the pattern was like this - 1-2 mins. in 1st gear at < 10 kmph and then half a minute of regular driving on smooth road - rinse and repeat for 3 hours.

Tractors were "off-roading" on this stretch because the shoulder was smoother than the road and so at least one side of the vehicle wouldn't bounce and bob. A fully-laden truck in front of me was zig-zagging across the road like most cyclists and two-wheelers do for fun on empty roads.

The only vehicles that were able to go straight at a decent clip were two-wheelers (which could find a path between the potholes) and a KSRTC bus (whose driver must be doing this route multiple times a day and so might have completely given up).

The car never scraped even once because I was so slow and careful.

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

Future Generali sent in a reminder with a premium value of ~ 13.5 K with a IDV value of ~ 4.7 lac.Also mentioned in the letter was that in case of a claim the renewal premium would shoot up to ~21k.Wonder why it would happen that the premium would increase.

Premium would increase with a claim because you would lose your NCB.

Originally Posted by Tempelhof

How easy or difficult it is to completely change the color of the car? Or, can we repaint the car fully with the same original color? Will the HASS do it if required? What'll be the cost?

Completely changing the colour of the car is a little easy compared to simply repainting with the same colour/shade in the sense that no colour matching is involved. However, RTO procedures should put paid to the ease and make it difficult to endorse.

And it is difficult in the sense that innards would also have to be repainted, so it's a very major and time-consuming piece of work. In addition to this would be the factors Professor pointed out (may not get factory finish).

Net-net, it's a difficult thing and not worth the time, cost and effort IMHO.

Regards,
spadix

[sgiitk]

To me 13.5k for IDV of 5L looks fishy. let us calculate - basic comp premium ~2.5% = 12.5k, Act ~2k, misc ~500, i.e. 15k less 50% NCB on basic comp reduces it to 9k. You an also take a Rs.7500 exception which knocks another 1750 off the premium. I paid 14k for an IDV of about 14L.

I have driven over enough village bumps in Haryana which will even bottom an SUV, forget a Civic.All that was needed at the next service were a few clips, costing about Rs.45 each! The condenser was due to gravel on the NS corridor of the GQ (NH75). This time gravel on the EW Corridor NH25 got my windscreen. Damages Rs.11k (Windshield Experts). I think these incidents say a lot about the GQ!

[ramanak]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

I have driven over enough village bumps in Haryana which will even bottom an SUV, forget a Civic.All that was needed at the next service were a few clips, costing about Rs.45 each!

Could you please explain:

''All that was needed at the next service were a few clips, costing about Rs.45 each!''

[spadix]

Originally Posted by ramanak

''All that was needed at the next service were a few clips, costing about Rs.45 each!''

The two rubber sheets that make up the splash guard that sits just behind the front bumper protecting some of the engine are held together by 8 plastic clips. Each costs around 80 INR here. Perhaps Kanpur HASS charges only 45 or this is a different set of clips Professor has mentioned.

Regards,
spadix

[swarooppatil]

Have finally been able to source the Osram Nightbreaker Plus in HB3 and HB4 spec for the high and low beam from Bangalore. Replaced the stock bulbs yesterday. Have driven only in the city since and hence not able to test them much, but definitely see a much brighter and longer throw of the beam. Got the bulbs for INR 1750 a pair.

[sarathlal]

Can you please suggest a good horn for the Civic (I intend to have this, in addition to the stock ones). I want something which is louder and meaner, but in all sense not shrieking. With the stock horn, some 'kid's' just won't leave the white line in the middle of the road :(

In addition, its always better to have an additional horn in the car, since in case of emergencies, on continuous usage, the horn will die out, and the second one will be handy. The taxi people vouch for this.