2015 Orchid Pearl White Honda Jazz Si

[Chris_Music]

It's been a while and I thought I would update this thread with any mods I have done since the last update.

Painted Brake Calipers - July 2019

I wanted to paint the brake calipers white with black Honda lettering, in keeping with the black and white theme of the car. I used Hammerite gloss white paint for the calipers and Hammerite gloss black for the discs and metal surround

I used a wire brush drill attachment to clean off the calipers of any brake dust.
They were quite clean to begin with, so it wasn't much effort to get them looking like new.



I removed the calipers as best I could without detaching the brake hose, and made sure there was no weight being put on the hose. It was a bit of a pain to paint this way, but It was a hot July, so the paint dried pretty quickly.



I also painted the discs and surround while I had the caliper off, just to freshen up the look a bit



I ordered some black Honda Caliper decals and put a coat of clear coat over it to protect it




The final result:



I was really happy with how they turned out, but it didn't take long for them to get dirty and for the brake dust to cake onto the paint.



3 years on, they haven't held up well, and look dirty even when deep cleaned.
So I wish in hindsight I had painted them Black with white (or red) lettering.

I might redo them next summer, depending on how motivated I am to do all the work again.
I would like to paint them red, but I feel red is so cliche, and black will at least not look as noticeably dirty.

Wrapping the roof in black vinyl - September 2019

I always wanted to wrap the roof black, as I thought it would complement the white exterior well. I ordered some premium automotive wrap with air release (to help if any bubbles formed). I ordered from MDP, and I was very pleased with the quality of the vinyl:
https://www.mdpsupplies.co.uk/vehicle-wrapping/gloss-wrapping-film

It was definitely a 2 person job, and took several hours. There were some imperfections, but overall, I was happy with how it turned out.

I had to remove the radio antenna and the side plastic channels from the roof


Using a heat gun helped a lot as well.


The final result.




Wrapping the Mirrors in black vinyl - January 2020

I had some black vinyl left over, and I had previously wrapped the mirrors in some carbon fibre wrap I had, but I wasn't happy with the previous job, so I removed it and wrapped them with the black vinyl



Wrapping anything with curves is a total pain to do, and even with a heat gun, it was very difficult to do, and not for the faint hearted.



Overall I'm happy with how it turned out and looks pretty good on the car.






Future Mod plans

So I have a couple of mods planned over the coming months.

I have another roll of Black gloss vinyl and intend to wrap the bonnet black as well.

I have some Mugen Wind Visors on order coming from Japan.

I am currently working on a cold air intake system, but trying to figure out where to place the ducting is proving to be a pain.

So watch the space.

[123Drive!]

Love every thing you do! Keep it up!

[olduser1]

Love your improvement plan, I would take look over the mods on fitfreak.net should have a couple of relevant threads.

[Wawg29]

You’ve done an awesome job and a fantastic guide for other owners. My whole car has been neglected by previous owners so it needs a good clay bar, cut and polish. What brand of touch up paint did you use? I’m looking for a good paint match.

[Chris_Music]

Love every thing you do! Keep it up!

Thank you! It's been too cold to do anything, so I've been waiting for the warmer weather, but updates will follow soon. I'm planning on fitting my Mugen Wind Deflectors hopefully by the end of the month.

Love your improvement plan, I would take look over the mods on fitfreak.net should have a couple of relevant threads.

Thanks, yes I've been on there for a while. Many good ideas, all extremely expensive! Sucks being in the UK sometimes!

You’ve done an awesome job and a fantastic guide for other owners. My whole car has been neglected by previous owners so it needs a good clay bar, cut and polish. What brand of touch up paint did you use? I’m looking for a good paint match.

Thank you! I use Hondas own touch up paint, its not a perfect match, but it's probably as close as you are going to get. Especially if you have Orchid Pearl White paint, which is a pain to match and body shops charge a premium to respray anything in that colour!

If you're looking for good recommendations for car detailing stuff, I've recently switched to Bilt Hamber products and they are very good. the wax and clay bar especially. I still use Autoglym super resin polish because I have a whole litre of the stuff still to use up, but I hear good things about Bilt Hambers own polish as well!

[JA55 MOH]

As always, excellent work mate!

Keep us updated 

[Chris_Music]

A few updates for 2023 so far.

Red Fuel Cap

I had some red vinyl wrap spare from a work project and thought it might be fun to wrap the fuel cap red for that Japanese Flag look:





I don't know if I will be keeping it forever, but it's a nice simple touch that stands out.

New Honda Parts and Air duct from Japan

I found out it's actually cheaper to order New Honda parts from Japan through Amayama.com than it is to buy from Honda UK in many cases.
I needed some new mud covers for my rear bumper, as the previous owner of my car had replaced the rear bumper from one from a EX and then just cut the mud covers. So when I put the correct bumper on the car, the covers had a gap where it was cut.
I also needed some new clips and a front bumper mount, as I had damaged the current one and broken clips when I removed the front bumper, so the front bumper no longer sits correctly.



I also learned that some Japanese models come with this air duct to help airflow, and some people fit it to their Jazz to aid performance/MPG. Here's where I found the information: LINK.
The part number is 17244-RB0-J00, and it was £8+delivery. I don't actually know if it has made much of a difference to be honest, but I felt it was worth a try.


I had to glue it to the top of the ECU cover, as I didn't want to order the ECU cover that has the clips for the duct as well.



Bonnet Air Duct Refitted

I hadn't realised that the duct on the bonnet had actually made quite the difference to my MPG since I removed it to install the sound deadening. I assumed the drop was because of the 60KG of sound insulation that I added to the Jazz.
I set about removing enough of the sound deadening to allow the refitment of the duct. I also used some aluminium tape to smooth off the surface for better air flow I guess.






The MPG has definitely gotten better. I happily average around 44/45mpg now, which was around 42mpg before.

Bonnet Gas Struts

I had a pair of these on my first Civic and loved them, so I thought I would get a pair for the Jazz.
Finding anywhere that sold them for the GE Jazz was a really tough mission. I ended up getting a pair from AliExpress from a company called Xiangshang Car Parts, who seem to be the only manufacturer of gas struts for the GE Jazz.
But when I got the struts, the instructions were very poor and the mounts were completely different to the ones pictured in the instructions. I tried every combination to get them to fit, but the bonnet sat far too low, and the struts rubbed against the plastic.
I had a lot of back and forth from the manufacturer who kept telling me different ways to get it to fit, and eventually sent out a new kit. This new kit also didn't fit, but the struts in the new kit were slightly longer than the first kit, so I used a combination of parts from the first kit and struts from the second kit, as well as a pair of 10mm M6 stand offs to get the kit to fit just right.
I'm happy with the Frankenstein kit that I have, but I probably wouldn't recommend anyone buy one.
Maybe they have taken my feedback on board and made the kit correct now, so if anyone feels brave enough to try, here's the link: LINK





K&N Filter

I had so much trouble finding the right K&N filter for my Jazz, and I ended up purchasing 2 incompatible filters that said they were compatible from eBay, until I eventually found the right model for my Jazz which is Part number: 33-2422.
I would say I probably noticed the slightest increase in performance, very very small, barely noticeable, but I have noticed a small increase in MPG. Around 1-2mpg, but this also could be down to the weather getting warmer, so it might have made no difference whatsoever. But at least I don't have to change the filter for a while now.






Mugen Wind Deflectors

And finally, the wind deflectors. I purchased these from Torque GT (LINK) back in December, but I wanted to wait until the weather got a bit warmer before fitting them.
I've always owned Mugen style wind deflectors on all my Jazz's, but when I looked at the cost of the copies for the GE (around £90 from China), I thought I may as well spend the extra money and get the real deal that I know will be good quality and a good fit.
They were an absolute pain to fit, and the instructions were in Japanese only, so I had to rely on google translate for the English version. It took just over an hour to fit, but I'm pretty happy with them. They are great quality and a nice addition to the car.
They took a bit of getting used to, and make cleaning the car a bit more annoying, but overall they were a good addition to the car.








I have a few more plans for the Jazz over the summer.
I have black vinyl wrap to wrap the bonnet, and I'm thinking of buying a Buddy Club Short Shifter, but I want to do some more research first. So keep a look out for more updates over the next few months!

[shufty]

...Looks pretty good overall  , hate the 'gel' look number plate though 
apart from that 

[Chris_Music]

...Looks pretty good overall  , hate the 'gel' look number plate though 
apart from that 

Thanks. I also hate Gel look number plates, these are 4D acrylic plates.



Though, in hindsight, I wish I had gone for 5mm thick, instead of 3mm thick for a more pronounced look. But we live and learn.

[shufty]

...Ah just another name for them then 

What's wrong with standard plates?
I think they are the only things that spoil the look of your car.

[Chris_Music]

...Ah just another name for them then 

What's wrong with standard plates?
I think they are the only things that spoil the look of your car.

Each to their own I guess.
I like the embossed look with the sharp edges, I think it looks smart and subtle.

[Garyman]

Keep up with the good work ! 

[Chris_Music]

A small update that probably wont be to everyone taste, but I quite like them.

Dynamic Turn Signals

I came across these on AliExpress while searching for other things and thought they looked pretty cool on a black mirror.
If my mirrors weren't black I'm not sure if I would have liked them. But with the black, they blend in nicely.
I got them from here for around £12:LINK
They seem good enough quality, and plug straight into the original Honda plug.
They are fairly easy to fit. You have to remove the mirror glass, and then pop off the mirror cover from inside by pushing the clips, and then there are 2 Torx screws to remove. Took about 15-20mins in total.




That's all for now, until I stumble across something else on AliExpress!

[JazzHybrid]

I just read the whole thread start to finish, its come along very nicely!

In my view the best Jazz is this model, and in this particular colour.

And your Amayama suggestion is a very clever one, thanks Chris!

[harry22673]

Did you find when swapping the bumper that you needed the lower arch liner sort of plastic pieces