I finally installed that new door, and dammit, no power windows, locks, or mirror fold! Also bad scratches!

"Kat Callahan" (kyosuke)
10/23/2017 at 18:20 • Filed to: None

Bumping for evening crowd and adding some more pictures. So we had a major typhoon through about noon in Tokyo, so I got the day off from school. After noon, while things were still gusty, the sun came out and the temperature was nice and warm. So I decided to tackle the passenger door, finally. I got it on... only to not have power working for most things.

Mirror adjusts and audio plays, but no power window, locks, or mirror folding. BUMMER. Electrical is far out of my experience, so I’m going to go to Honda after school tomorrow and tell them to just fix it. I did try to go to Honda at around 3PM, but no joy. It was closed because of the typhoon and hadn’t opened.

Also, yeah, hi, I’m alive. If you’re wondering where I went, you can find me over at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! with former Kotaku writers Richard Eisenbeis and Toshi Nakamura. The attempt to repair the Logo continues.

Here are these clear coat scratches that Flavien and I were talking about. Are they removable by elbow grease or would I need to repaint?

DISCUSSION (33)

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Kat Callahan
10/23/2017 at 05:12

Glad to hear from you! Was wondering where you’d gone and curious how the little Logo was getting along...

Hopefully the electrical glitch is nothing too serious!

Kat Callahan > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
10/23/2017 at 05:16

It’s only in this door. The old trashed door electrical works just fine, so I put it in the back of the hatch, and I’ll take it with me tomorrow. My gut feeling is that because these are electric locks and the new door still has a different lock in it, it might be detecting a mismatch between the door and the locking system or something? I don’t know. In any case, maybe Honda just needs to swap the electrical components from the trashed door to the new door.

I’m not Jalop enough to handle electrical gremlins. I’ve learned a lot in my years here, especially my years as a writer, but electrical? LOL no.

kanadanmajava1 > Kat Callahan
10/23/2017 at 05:48

My friend had a Citroën Xantia that had a dented rear door. Ha also had a crashed spare parts car that had a good rear door in the same color. So he swapped the doors. Rather surprisingly none of the door electrics worked after the swap. The cars were made only couple months apart but for some reason the other had slightly different door locking system. We noticed this when we counted the wires going to the lock mechanism. There were mores wires in the good door than in the dented one. The connectors were still the same. Swapping the locking mechanism solved the problem.

So if you are lucky the Honda engineers were lazy and used the same wiring harness but with different components.

Kat Callahan > kanadanmajava1
10/23/2017 at 05:52

Yeah, I wondered if it might be something like that. I THINK the new door is a 2001 and I have a 2000 (after that no new Logos were made, instead they started making Fits). Anyhow, there is a pretty small wiring harness, so yeah, I’m hoping I just take it to Honda, and the service folks can swap it out. I don’t really have the time or space to mess with this kind of stuff myself even if I knew what I was doing (and I don’t). Even on days like today, I get dirty looks for doing it in my apartment parking lot. I just try to only do it every six months or so, to keep just under the point where anyone actually complains.

CRider > Kat Callahan
10/23/2017 at 06:10

Kinja'd!!!

Good to know you’re still alive, Kat.

Birddog > Kat Callahan
10/23/2017 at 06:25

Where the heck have you been?! Did you buy land there?

Edit: Crap. If I read further in.. Did you buy a place?

Flavien Vidal > Kat Callahan
10/23/2017 at 06:32

Hey! Cool to have news from you and glad to see you’re still enjoying the Logo! Not planning to go to the press day of the TMS 2017 after tomorrow?

Kat Callahan > Birddog
10/23/2017 at 06:54

Hahahaha. No. My finances only just recently improved enough to try to fix the outside of the Logo.

Kat Callahan > Flavien Vidal
10/23/2017 at 07:05

Nope, I’ll be at work. Teaching.

Flavien, HELP ME, I’m stuck in the Logo because it has valid registration and I don’t have a new parking space to give to any other car, but the outside needs painting or extreme buffing because it’s attracting cops and I lost my gold license!

Flavien Vidal > Kat Callahan
10/23/2017 at 07:17

Oh what happened? If you need a new paint, I may have someone who could do it for rather cheap, but it’s in Okazaki.... Not exactly close. Buffing can do miracles though and all you need is a good multi-speed drill and a couple good buffing wheels... Have you tried yet? Looking at the car in pictures it’s not too bad...

If you want to change car, I can help too... But you won’t get any money at auction from this one... Maybe 1000 yen? Yeah, kind of depressing :)

Kat Callahan > Flavien Vidal
10/23/2017 at 07:28

I’ll drive ANYWHERE for a decent paint job. Or a work space where I could do it myself or someone to help me with the buffing. Trust me, I can take some pictures tomorrow and show you where it’s in really bad shape.

I no longer have a valid parking space. I moved into Tokyo, and I’m lucky enough that I’ve managed to keep renewing my shaken no problem at my old address. If I have to submit proof of new parking, I can’t. And I can’t even confirm my area allows kei cars without proof of parking. Given that it’s pretty well in Tokyo, I imagine they cannot. I have access to communal, infrequent parking in the picture above, but only temporarily. I cannot leave it there, and working on it often attracts disapproving glares and snide comments. And I’m sure given my physical appearance, there’s certainly a portion of xenophobia and racism in there.

The car is fine mechanically. It just looks like shit on the outside, and it’s getting worse. Parts are plentiful, but time, space, and money are not.

Igt > Kat Callahan
10/23/2017 at 08:06

I would rather take a bath in used transmission fluid than to do electrical. Finding a short, multimeters, frustrations.... it’s all to much. I was once told by a sage “ if you find a good electrical guy hold on to him and never let go.”. Hopefully Honda will fix you right up.

Flavien Vidal > Kat Callahan
10/23/2017 at 08:20

Hum, I know someone who does paint cars for a friend of mine... He is a retired body guy who does it in his garage for the sake of making a bit of extra money. He works well... He did the top half of an Alto RS-X I sold to the US and the paint match was freaking perfect... For a full car expect between 10 and and 15-man yen. You have to leave the car here for a couple weeks though. If I were you, I’d find a “do-it-yourself” garage and try buffing the hell of it first for an afternoon though... From pictures it really doesn’t seem too bad at all and honestly, not really a car I’d spend 15-man yen to redo the whole paint unless it’s REALLY needed (massively faded paint...etc). Again I know of a good do-it-yourself garage, but it’s in Nagoya :)

You should really buff it completely first... If it’s not enough, then a repaint would be something to think about.

Duck Duck Grey Duck FTMFW! > Kat Callahan
10/23/2017 at 08:37

Could you swap the door harnesses and electrical components? There is no soldering or anything like that involved I assume. I had to do this when I swapped doors from a 90-91 Accord onto a 92-93 Accord.

Kat Callahan > Duck Duck Grey Duck FTMFW!
10/23/2017 at 08:39

With enough time and space, I could probably figure it out. I have neither, so “ll just pay Honda to do it. Right now I have money, but very little space, and nearly no time. I’m not sure what’ll happen if Honda says they need to keep the car overnight or for a few days. I can’t do that, I need it for a daily commute.

Kat Callahan > Flavien Vidal
10/23/2017 at 08:43

I’ll take some pictures. It’s really bad in certain areas. Like claws deep down to the metal and rusting bad. But mostly just long scratches running the length of the car. I could probably get away with hand-buffing the car in the space pictures above, but any kind of machine is likely to attract unwanted attention. As for the do-it-yourself garage, I haven’t been able to find anything like it in Tokyo, so if I have to drive to Nagoya, I would. But they’d HAVE to be open on weekends, and especially on public holidays, because if I have any kind of 3 day weekend, that’s going to be it. I’m a teacher, I obey the school schedule.

Flavien Vidal > Kat Callahan
10/23/2017 at 09:08

Yes, please post some pictures... I’ve seen some pretty bad paint go back to life with a good buff so yours might not be dead yet :)

I’ll send you the infos of the DIY garage in Nagoya... Been there only once to help a friend, it’s very small but the owner is very nice, you can borrow tons of tools for free...etc. Pretty cool place. Fairly sure it’s opened on Saturdays and Sundays too...

Anyway, I’m off to sleep. Leaving to Tokyo early tomorrow morning. BTW, if you’re around and want to have a beer, I’ll be there tomorrow and after tomorrow night. I stay around Nihonbashi and I’ll most likely be with Clayton Seams (Reidus and Cleyton: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCubitu4BPy6XXLikNUJZO7A ) who comes to cover the TMS for some canadian newspaper... I should be free to roam around Tokyo around 5pm tomorrow and until midnight or so on thursday evening...

So if you have time... Let me know :)

Good night!

Kat Callahan > Flavien Vidal
10/23/2017 at 09:13

These are the spots that I think COULD potentially be buffed out. Luckily the other areas are ones that are at their own right angle (the wheel well) which means I COULD sand them down, tape off the area and repaint them and re-clear coat them without affecting the look. There is a fender that is being replaced, but the rear door and rear quarter panel are staying, so could use buffing. The rear bumper cover can come off and be repainted. See what I mean?

Kinja'd!!!

RallyWrench > Kat Callahan
10/23/2017 at 19:09

Hey Kat! Nice to see you post again.

jminer > Kat Callahan
10/23/2017 at 20:21

Glad to hear you’re doing well! I wondered what happened to you.

I’m not much into Anime but I’ll head over and check out your new home.

I’m awful with body work so I can’t offer any helpful advice, all my cars are dinged and scratched to hell and I only wash them about twice a year... I live on a gravel road and frequently off-road and camp so my vehicles aren’t treated with kid gloves.

Tom McParland > Kat Callahan
10/23/2017 at 20:33

Hey Kat! Glad you are doing well, too bad about the damage to the Logo.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > Kat Callahan
10/23/2017 at 20:47

Kinja'd!!!

promoted by the color red > Kat Callahan
10/23/2017 at 20:57

YOU’RE ALIVE!

Also, holy shit are they really releasing a Koi to Uso live-action movie? The anime ended about a month ago.

Kat Callahan > promoted by the color red
10/23/2017 at 21:19

They are, yes. It’s set in the near future and has a different set of protagonists (the main girl is related to Nisaka). I did a lot of my major articles (including on Japanese constitutionalism) based on Koi to Uso.

Kat Callahan > Tom McParland
10/23/2017 at 21:21

Oh, man, yah see, I got attacked by birds. No shit. Attacked by birds. A crow did this:

Kinja'd!!!

Kat Callahan > jminer
10/23/2017 at 21:25

I’m attracting cops. I made too sudden of a lane change and a motorcycle cop had been eyeing me already, and he swooped in and pulled me over. $60 fine and my gold license is gone on my next renewal. I can see it every time I pass a patrol car, I’m getting eyeballed because of the outside condition. It has to be fixed because I commute to work every day. Lots of chances to get pulled over.

Tom McParland > Kat Callahan
10/23/2017 at 21:30

That’s some Hitchcock shit.

Kat Callahan > Tom McParland
10/23/2017 at 21:35

YUUUUUUUUP. I was at a red light in the middle of Tokyo at the time. Scared the shit out of me.

jminer > Kat Callahan
10/23/2017 at 22:22

Yeah, that’s no good at all. I live in the US and my daily driver is just nice enough to not attract any attention. I do have an old International that’s half rust and bright orange so attracts a bit more attention from the coppers than I’d like so I have to be quite careful in it...

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > Kat Callahan
10/24/2017 at 21:55

An easy place to start on the electrical would be the wiring where it passes between the door and rest of the car. Pull back the rubber boots and see how it the wires inside look. Because they flex and bend every time the door opens and closes, they’ll eventually break in that spot. It is one of the first areas wiring usually fails on an older car. It may be as simple as repairing a couple of easily accessible broken wires.

Kat Callahan > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
10/25/2017 at 01:08

Naw, I took it to Honda, they told me it’s bad news. The entire motor/rotor/wiring system in the door is an entirely different design. It’d all need to be pulled out of my old door and put in the new one... And they won’t do it. Not like will charge me an arm and a leg, literally said, “Maybe a private mechanic will do that, but corporate policy won’t let us touch this. Safety and security means we can’t swap these particular parts like that.” :/

StndIbnz, Drives a MSRT8 > Kat Callahan
10/25/2017 at 08:16

You attract cops because of a few scratches and the bumper? Wow, Japan is SUPER strict. I’ve seen cars over here that have been t-boned on the drivers side, but some clear plastic up and keep on driving.

Birddog > Kat Callahan
10/30/2017 at 01:40

It’s nice to see more of the Logo. I’m in a similar situation. In Iowa, but.. You know. What’s one more year as a renter?