At some point during this build, I got bored with looking at all of the tired old hardware throughout the engine bay. So a few mouse clicks later, and I had a boat-load of shiny new bolts from Downstar.
I don't personally care for the polka-dot look of having colored washers all over the engine. So I opted for their raw aluminum color. This initial batch covered most of the visible bolts in the engine bay. Everything from transmission housing bolts, to starter, all the fender and radiator support, even all the bolts on the Skunk2 intake manifold. I also picked up a bunch of 6mm bolts for other random places here and there.
For as comprehensive as their kits are, you're always going to run into a special nut/bolt that they don't carry. In my case, the Ground Control top hats were one of those places. The upper shock mount nuts in the Downstar kit are M10x1.25, but the thread pitch on the studs of the Ground Control top hats is M10x1.5. It took a bit of searching around to find a nut that was not only that thread pitch, but that also had a flange that was the correct diameter to fit inside the Downstar beauty washer. I ended up finding an eBay vendor in the UK that had titanium nuts in the specs I needed. I wish I didn't have to pay for the upcharge for a set of titanium nuts, but it is what it is.
And here they are installed. Don't look too closely at the paint. It's one of those things about my CRX that bugs me the most, yet it's also the thing I have the least desire to go through the headaches of dealing with.
Next up on the list of things I had to source elsewhere was aftermarket hardware for the ECU cover. Sure, I get it, what's wrong with the oem screws that hold down the cover? Well, I changed the hardware just about every other place on the car, why stop now? lol Since Downstar didn't offer these, I ended up finding some through a company called Z Spec Design. Of course, a couple months after I purchased these, Downstar started offering them. So, of course, I picked up a set from them. Here are a couple pics of the Z Spec bolts though:
And here are a couple photos of what some of the Downstar hardware looks like in the engine bay.
The "wafer-thin" bolts you see on the VTEC solenoid and on the coil plug plate are from a different vendor, and then of course the Skunk2 low profile hardware on the valve cover that I've had on there for like 10 years now.