Bumper & one headlight mis-aligned from accident

[bpapa9013]

My girlfriend just got a 2000 Insight 5spd that came with a little bumper damage, we are probably just going to put a bra on it, but the bumper and one headlight are a little mis-aligned from the accident.

I am wondering if I could just remove the bumper and headlight and "hammer" the mounting points back into place. All the mounting points are aluminum, just like the rest of the car I presume. So a little careful pounding in the right places should do the trick?

Any thoughts would be welcome. I have been browsing this forum most of the night and I am impressed with the wealth of material here, and everyone seems pretty cool as well.

We are also considering:
-Going back to the factory tires (last owner swapped to some cheapos)

-Upgrading the speakers and putting in a CD deck (I have some old Rockford Fosgate speakers lying around that used to be in my 4runner that I think would fit, and I have an old Pioneer CD deck as well)

-A Bra to cover the bumper damage as mentioned

-She really wants a center arm-rest (I found a really nice one for a Civic SI that I think might fit, I emailed the company to see if they could help in determining possible compatibility Zeta Products Civic SI armrest)

-We are very interested in the Rostra cruise control system

-And finally I think we are going to get the windows tinted.

I am actually so impressed with her Insight, that I am actually considering looking into one for myself, if I can convince my parents to take my old 4runner which I doubt I will ever be able to part with until it literally falls apart.

[originalbadbob]

Bpapa,
Sears has a mallet that has a red rubber tip on one side and a harder (but pliable) yellow plastic tip on the other. I would use something like this as it will be less likely to damage the aluminum and paint.

I had to use a similar technique with some of the mounts since mine had apparently had an off road excursion at one time before I got my 2000.

If you don't use a mallet, at least use something to cushion the blows to the aluminum like a block of wood so the hammer won't just dent the aluminum.
good luck with it.
robert

[Rick]

If it's just a little off there are some adjustment screws somewhere on the housing.

[bpapa9013]

Yeah, thanks for the tip. I was planning on using a rubber mallet, or possibly just duct-taping a folded up washcloth over my regular hammer if I can't find my mallet (it has a habit of falling behind my storage shelf, or getting itself otherwise lost due to infrequent use!)

I had thought about the adjustment screws as a temp fix, but oddly the beam isn't that mis-aligned, I think the headlight housing just got pushed straight back under the hood and cocked a little to the center so the body panels obviously don't line up with it right. But I am going to make sure to center the positioning screws before I "realign" it so it will still have all the factory adjustability when I am done.

I also installed the "old" aftermarket speakers from my 4runner in the door panels of the Insight over the weekend. They are a couple of Rockford Fosgate 2way 6", I had to cut out part of the back of the stock housing and fudge the screw placement a little, but they fit and don't interfere with the windows rolling down at all!

It took me a little while to realize that the sound system actually sounds better when you balance the front-rear fader in the middle (as if you had rear speakers) and just turn it up a little louder than normal.

Hoping to get rear speakers in soon, but I have to clear their placement with my girlfriend first. She says she doesn't want to compromise cargo space by having them (no nice easy boxes), so I'm sure I'll be poking around under the carpet for a while looking for somewhere that has good acoustic placing.

[jrrs]

Originally Posted by bpapa9013

It took me a little while to realize that the sound system actually sounds better when you balance the front-rear fader in the middle (as if you had rear speakers) and just turn it up a little louder than normal.

imo, this depends largely on where your seat placement is along the slider rails. the more back the seat is, the greater the potential for muffling effect.

[bpapa9013]

My own "rational" reason for thinking this was more along the lines that the stock honda deck was having trouble sending a clear signal to the front speakers with the additional wattage of the rear channels.

When you balance all the output to the front channels, they do get louder, and in the case of my car, they also got preciptously more garbeled. It sounded exactly like a channel source problem rather than a speaker distortion problem. Thats why I drew the conclusion about the full front fader being the problem.

I do not doubt that having my leg right in front of the speaker would have some muffling effect, but I don't know how that could cause the sound to be distorted. Especially when I was outside the car (leaning in through the window) for most of the time I was playing with the stereo settings.