Nafeman's UKDM '89 EX-2.0i Aerodeck

[Nafs Asdf]

In theory, it needs to do that here too but they don't really check for it. If put the bulb back in on mine, the light is constantly on so it would be pretty noticeable.

[Nafeman]

Used to be the same case here, but they've started tightening down on it all more recently and do everything by the book.

[Nafeman]

Well I managed to allocate myself some time to play with the Aerodeck over the Easter weekend. I started off with "retrofying" the wagon even more ...

I swapped the front and rear bumpers over from the silver DX (It's the completely basic/no frills edition). The rear bumper on my blue EX had had a previous owner drill a hole in the side to fix it up when it had dropped. Where as it would have been a whole lot easier to simply re-fix it using the proper fixing mounts and screws that had just come undone ](*,) Anyway the bumpers from the DX are basic dark grey so in swapping the rear over meant I also had to swap the front to match to

The rear bumper was a simple swap. I actually used one of each cars two mounting brackets as both had one that had been squashed somehow.

The front bumper could have been simpler. Cutting the holes in the much better conditioned new one for the headlight washer jets was fairly straight forward, but removing the lip from the blue bumper was a complete pain in the ass!

Then after the bumpers I decided to swap the electric aerials over. My current one was bent and thus would retract or extend. The grey one struggles a little on the last 6cm but is fine otherwise. Anyway, it fits down into the A pillar and comes out and connects into a unit in the driver's foot well, behind the fusebox... behind the relays and all the cables... behind the foot pedals, in an area you can't even really focus a light on where you have to invert yourself upside down on the driver's seat laid flat just to give yourself a polio handed grasp on being able to thread the "always wanting to coil up" cable into the mechanism. Honestly it took a good 2 or so hours just to keep trying different methods. This was all not even knowing that it was going to even work! :shock: ... But it did

Then I swapped over the boot carpets as the original one was quite tatty. Which also then led me to swap over the hardboard spare wheel cover as the DX's was in perfect condition and the EX's was battered, had corners missing, was stained and everything. I also swapped over the OEM tool kits as the DX's was complete and the spare wheel clamping bolt as the EX's was seizing.

The parcel shelf had had a pivot point snapped off, so I swapped the pivots over from the DX's, and also one of the pivot retaining clips had snapped, so I swapped those over to.

I was missing the NS rear speaker mounting frame as well, so I had that away from the DX to.

Whilst I was in the boot and obviously cleaning away I swapped the boot lights over. It looked light someone had poured coke in the EX's and then thrown fluff at it!

Then a simple removal of the rear wiper pivot bolt cap and placement on the EX finished off the back end.

I'd also swapped one of the rear mud guards over when fitting the rear bumper, as the previous one was a little scuffed.

Now being this had been the first time I'd cleaned the interior I thought I best check down the backseat. I knew the previous owner to me had had kids. I'd already found umpteen of their McDonalds toys in the back side pockets And one quick look decided it for me... The back seat was coming out!

Look what I found!...



This picture really doesn't do it justice, but it was a good 6cm high

It was made worth my while though ...

[Nafeman]

Now as the rear bench was out I thought I may as well take this opportunity to swap the seats over as well. The interior of the blue EX is Grey and the interior of the grey DX is blue! They both work well together, but I thought it would be nice to introduce a bit of colur into the inside of the EX. The new boot carpet was now blue afterall I knew the balsters on the front seats were in much better condtion in the lesser mileage DX as well.

So I swapped in the blue bench. Oh and as simple as they are to remove and replace, not know the method does add a considerable amount of time to the process

Rear bench in and I move to the driver's seat. Unbolting and removing from both cars is pretty straight forward, but making a DX's driver's seat fit in an EX?... Ain't gonna happen :? I didn't even check to see if the mounting point were the same... As I'd already noticed that where as the seatbelt in the DX anchors to the chassis, in the EX it mounts to the seat! That's ok, the cushions look pretty much the same, so I proceeded to remove them. Again, easier said and done. I actually had to remove the "stitching rings" in order to lift the cover high enough on the back of the seat to get to the fixing bolts. The seat base came off a lot easier. Then I was left with this from the EX's seat...



I did the same to the DX's and then went to reverse the proceedure. Again the back was no problem (just as fiddly as removal) but then it was the turn of seat base to stick a finger in my eye! The difference between the EX and DX seat are in the mechanisms. Obviously there's more mechanisms in the EX, and this results in... Not the seat rails being wider, but the seat base being narrower #-o

So, the wider blue DX seat base wouldn't fit in the narrower EX's rail. So...



Off come the covers and pads and swap them over I do.

You can see here how both the seats differ...





I wasn't looking forward to doing all the same again to the passenger seat, but at least this time I knew exactly what to do. But as it turns out, the passenger seat was the same basic seat in both. Phew!

[Nafeman]

And pictures! After a good hover and clean (Although the pictures don't seem to have come out as blue as the blue is :?) ...

[Nafeman]

And pictures of the outside...

You can see where I swapped over the blue fog light surrounds, so they need a lick of dark grey, along with the number plate board...









And I also trimmed down the offset-lettered, wonky-holed number plate, which then allowed me to drill new holes and pick up on the OEM fixing points and leave the bumper completely unmolested ...









I actually prefer the grey bumpers quite a bit. May even continue the grey line below the side trim eventually.

[Fedor B.]

Looks good! Nice and clean.

[ab20000]

Sweet looking car - if you decide to swap the rims let me know mate

[Nafeman]

Sweet looking car - if you decide to swap the rims let me know mate

Cheers bud. Not very likely to happen but where abouts do you live?

[A18A]

Cheers bud

You can't get away with that here as the light needs to come on and then go out on start up in order to show the examiner it's working. If it doesn't come on at all on start up then that to is an automatic fail

i ran a wire from the bulb straight to the check engine light lol so it will come on for about 2 seconds when you turn the key, then off again

[Nafeman]

i ran a wire from the bulb straight to the check engine light lol so it will come on for about 2 seconds when you turn the key, then off again

Genius! And so simple! May look that way come 11 months time ... Unless I have a spare £150 at the time, in which case I may actually fix the problem properly

[ab20000]

Cheers bud. Not very likely to happen but where abouts do you live?

Hertfordshire mate - don't see many decks round here

[Nafeman]

Nor here. The only two I've ever seen are the two I have And I had to travel 2 - 2.5 hours north for both of those!

[stezie]

Lovely car! some good work you are putting into the car. Its good to see a few of these 3geez a bit closer to home than the states!

I actually had to get my Accord in London and take it back to Ireland over 5 years ago as there is none left here.