Yes, I had read that part, but I didn't know how to take the whole backing out of the mirror housing. When I tried to slide it out the side, it wasn't moving and when I looked in the back and noticed that whatever was connecting it to the little powered gears behind it looked really fragile and I didn't want to break them.
Before I say anything else, I will admit that I did not read all 5 pages verbatim. So if this question was answered, I'm sorry.
After doing your brake conversion, what happened to the stock calipers you painted blue? Only reason I ask is because I'm very interested in blue calipers but I really don't have the time, patience, or painting skills to accomplish this on my DD.
I made on thread on H-T looking for painted calipers and your closeup photo was posted. It was almost perfect because I also have an SH. The only flaw was as you already stated, the red centercaps. I did some photoshop magic on your pic and then on my car pic. Here's how it came out:
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1988 Prelude S - victim of an 80mph backflip
1991 Prelude Si - sold
1989 Accord DX - impounded
1998 Prelude SH - bolt-ons dynoing @ 173whp&140tq
2006 CRF150F - sold
2006 YZ250F
I'm gonna be honest, I will sell you those calipers I took out for $15 plus the cost of shipping, but I'd feel bad. You should take it from me that painting your calipers is the easiest thing you can do. If you're handy with taking a wheel off, you can accomplish the painting of these in under an hour and sit back and be happy with your job that you did.
In fact, as a Christmas Present, I painted my sisters calipers red and they're still looking great today. You don't have to get it completely perfect, you just have to get the parts that will be visible to everybody, as perfect as you can. It's as simple as spraying with the supplied brake cleaner, scrubbing with a toothbrush, spraying again and then painting it on with the supplied paint brush.
I'm saving you the money and grief because it's gonna be way more money to have a shop swap out your calipers for my painted ones than it is to even pay someone to do it, yet alone, do it yourself.
It really is easy man, just give yourself some credit and time and you can do it. Good luck on your center cap idea too, sounds like a good idea.
Yeah. I'd def paint them yourself. Its not gonna be that bad. I want to give mine a coat of fresh silver paint. I cleaned them a while ago and they looked great. But want a little bit more freshness. Def do it yourself
Haha, I'm a Captain. And my MOS is 91A, Ordnance Officer.
Are you initially from California? I noticed a majority of the people that join the military that are from California go either Navy or Marines. Why is that?
Probably because a large Navy base is in San Diego and Camp Pendleton (Marines) is real close to San Diego too. People can be stationed closer to their families in California, etc. Plus, the weather in San Diego is awesome and the beaches are nice too.
hahaha yeah I'm coming from the Bay Area. I never thought about the geography playing a factor in which branch new recruits would choose, but the ideology makes sense.
Hahaha sorry about that I remember reading through your thread that you were still a lieutenant while you were moving. (See someone actually read your posts!)
And that commissioned pay must really help in building your lude
With my car still in the shop this weekend, I figured it was perfect time to continue my painting project and now I finally have something tangible to show you all.
Refer to the previous posts of how I prepped and painted the sideskirts and eyelids so far, because today is the day I finally added clearcoat.
The clearcoat you see was purchased from Paintscratch.com, which I also purchased everything else from. Up to this point, these items have been sanded down with progressively finer grits of sandpaper, cleaned with paint prep wipes, sprayd with adhesion promoter, sprayed with a basecoat (white) followed by a midcoat 24 hours later (pearl) and now will be topped with the clearcoat pictured below. FYI, I am using catalyzed clearcoat which you have to push in the pin at the bottom of the can to activate the catalyzing agent that will effectively harden your clearcoat to the same level that normal automotive clearcoats harden.
But this clearcoat came with warnings from the website and on the can about the necessity to use proper ventilation masks, but even though I'm painting outside in open elements, I still abided by this. Please, always protect yourself!
The sideskirts have been wiped down one final time with a cheesecloth/tac cloth to ensure all little bits of debris on the surface are removed.
And the skirts and eyelids are sprayed. The effect is still a tacky surface when this picture was taken, but a full can of clearcoat was used on the sideskirts and eyelids.
The next pictures will demonstrate the kind of shine you will get from using this product. I am EXTREMELY satisfied with the results it gave. It's smooth, glossy, and hard after 9 hours of finishing spraying them (probably could've been sooner, but this is the first time I've handled them).
I figured that I would also post up a couple pictures of the painfully-slow progress I've made on my front bumper. If you haven't seen it already, I made a post on the JDM bumper pole install I'm trying to do, so check it out here:
The bumper is has to have all dings and scratches filled in, because there is simply no other way to paint it without looking like crap. Using a flexible bumper repair filler (found at any auto parts store) is the best method, but it's time consuming and the results aren't always 100% on the first try, here's an example:
The bumper repair filler is "spatula-ed" on and left to dry.
Then it's sanded down progressively, I've been using 5" sanding discs on my Dewalt Power Drill (thank you Megan)
But not everything turns out rosey... sometimes air bubbles get in between the filler and the bumper, and I can only find out when i sand it down. This is a setback, and it adds more time onto this long process
Haha, I actually yell at my Soldiers when they salute me so much, but it backfires because they do it more often and more annoyingly.
I have two ProMasks in my apartment and I considered using them instead of buying this $25 filter, it doubles as EyePro too! But the filter says it's good for either 30 days or 40 hours of use, and I only have the front bumper/front lip to go after this, so I should be good.
I so wanted to steal my mask when I came back from country, let alone my DCU Gortex Jacket......sons o *****es said I had to give it back.
oh, and to be honest, I probably wouldnt have saluted you anyways......knowing you or not....less you are an o-4 or up
e-6 here in the Navy and less you can make my navy life hell I dont care too much for army folk...specifically 1st Cav 130th or 151st Field Art. people
I painted my old carbon fiber hood, and my oem kit with paint from paintscratch. Everyone has a hard time believing that its "rattle canned" but its all in the prep.
I think its funny when i hear the other branches say that they have to give crap like Gortex jackets and things back.
I have a total of 6 complete sets of Gortex, tops and bottoms
2 BDU
2 DCU
2 ABU...
oh wait, I forgot I just got another... I got the complete system from the Army, so I have three more jackets, and pants.
Parts look good...
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PFI Sleeves, Eagle Rods, Arais pistons, Supertech Valve Springs, Supertech Retainers, JR Supercharger reworked by ENDYN, Ported intake Manifold, Ported "S" tube, Skunk 2 Throttle body, AEM CAI, Hytech Header w/3" collector, Custom 3" Exhaust, Meizer Electric Water pump, Hondata S300, MSD SCI-L ignition, MSD Blaster 2 coil, walbro 255 fuel pump, AEM fuel rail, 1000cc Precision Injectors, FJO Fuel Injector Driver, manual tranny swap, Quaife LSD, Motor Mount inserts, and a little nitrous.
After 2 cans of primer, and two "bumper repair kits" (see: fancy-pants JB Weld) The bumper is now prepared for the base coat of paint. Unfortunately, at almost midnight, it is now time to call it a night. Fortunately, with daylight savings in the past, I now will probably have a decent amount of sunlight to come home tomorrow and lay down a good base coat. My ultimate goal of putting the bumper on the car this weekend coming up is a daunting task, but I will try everything in my power to prepare it as much as I can. This includes, basecoat, pearl coat, clearcoat, lights, wiring harness and then trying to get it all together in two days this weekend along with JDM sidemarkers and the new Depo headlights with TSX retrofits. It's certainly going to be a busy time!
By the way, as a lesson on something I've learned, when there are tiny holes that you've missed, yet show up with a fresh coat of primer, it's best to spray primer heavily over that area repeatedly in order to build it up and then sand it down when it dries (make sure to wait at least an hour, like I found out). The best technique for this kind of sanding is to just take sandpaper in hand (I did 180 grit followed by 220 grit when i ran out of the former) and do fast, light swipes using two or three fingers. If I pressed too hard down, it might scuff up the surface by taking all the filler out of the hole or scratch. After sanding an area, I ran my fingers along it to ensure a smooth, flat area was present.
Enjoy the not-so-interesting pictures of the bumper before I complete the task that I didn't think could ever be completed... the ultimate JDM front bumper!
This weekend is it, I have to get it all done because I have no free weekends left! From here on out it's vacations, time home and Megan down here until I deploy to Iraq. So I have my work cut out for me, unfortunately, I have so little time :frown:
The first thing is first. As soon as I got home, it was a mad dash to take off the wheels, bumper, and fender liner. P.S. I've never done the last two before, so I didn't know how long it would take or how much effort. Thank God they've been taken off before because there was a substantial amount of pop-screws missing around the fender liner and I have no under-tray under the car. So the whole process took me about an hour with setup and all.
Before I started that though, I laid down my final layer of white basecoat to the bumper.
And when the bumper came off, I took a look at what I was working at with my OEM front lip. A years worth of driving showed it took a really heavy beating. The thing was chewed up all along the bottom and there were obvious chips missing on the front from stone of all sizes hitting it. Even the paint had spider-cracks running along the middle from all the times the lip was hit on a curb and pushed up into the bumper. It is easier for me now to judge front distances and also ground clearance of upcoming objects, but as you can see, experience doesn't erase the mistakes of the past.
luckily the power drill with sanding attachment turned out to be just as much of a timesaver as it was on the front bumper. The lip has now been sanded down to 120 grit by hand and is awaiting a wash down and rub down to 320grit before being prepped for paint.
And after some food and some more examination of the wiring harness... I decided I should knock out at least one more thing. So I picked installing the Depo-style HID retrofit headlights I had made for me. It took a bit to set up the soldering operation and upon first turning on the lights, only one turned on, but later it turned out they both did and now they do it reliably. I was a little worried for a minute!
I also transfered my Osram Nightbreakers to the position of Hi-Beams and now I have to wait for daylight to break to tidy up the wires and to take pictures of ballast-mounting areas and the general look. But I'm just happy I now have working headlights!
Today was destined to be another fast-paced day because time is running out to get the car done. These following pictures will show the top things I did today.
The first up was to switch out the power-steering cooler for something a little more aestheticly pleasing to the eye. I had this old cooler left over from back in the day when I chose the current oil cooler I have for the ATTS (pictured above this Power Steering Oil Cooler if you want to know what it is you've been looking at). When I cut the lines, approximately a bottle and a half of power steering fluid came out, so if you're going to do this yourself, make sure to have 2 bottles handy.
Next up, I did another cosmetic mod that I came across while search some DIY forums. A member in another forum posted the secret to curing "bumper sag" which my bumper had a moderate case of. Simply putting a washer behind every 10mm bolt on top of the bumper (there's only 4) will raise up the height of the bumper. So I tried it out and when I get the bumper on, I'll do a follow up
There are two bolts on each end and two bolts in the middle
Now simply slide a washer the size of a quarter behind each one and tighten down the bolts
Up next was installing the new side skirts. I've shown in previous posts that these have gotten done long ago, but now I've finally got a chance to put them on. A little thing I found out was that the plastic tabs that hold the actual side skirts on the side will turn as you try to slide it back on in position. I used some JB weld to lock them into place so they won't turn as you push the sideskirt back into position.
better pictures will come when it's daylight
And throughout the day, I started on a project I've been wanting to do for a while. Many of you will recall my wheel debacle when I used to use 2 10mm spacers. However, there was one time I tried to put on 10mm spacer on and see if I could make due. The end result was brake caliper-to-wheel contact with negative effects on the pristine wilwood brakes. The pictures will show how I took care of that. You'll also see I decided to try something new...
And of course, the main hurdle of the day was finally preparing the front lip for paint. This took me throughout the entire course of the day as I primered, sanded, washed and then repeated the whole process about 10 times. On time 11, it was already close to 5pm and I laid my first coat of base-white. When the lip was completed, I mated it up to the front bumper for them both to receive the pearl coat at the same time. I figured this would promote consistency in the pearl coat and was once again, pleased with the results. The clearcoat and installation will come tomorrow...
I know one of the things alot of you wanted to see based on the bumper pole thread was how that and the cornering lights will be wired up. Sadly, I don't think I'll be able to get around to getting these pieces operational yet, but have faith, I believe it will all come together very soon. Until then, stay tuned for tomorrows final(ish) result of me trying to get the prelude back together so I can drive to work on Monday!
For those of you that have been following along, today was the final day of the build and I had my hands full yet again. I woke up early enough to find a location in the apartment complex to lay the clear coat on the bumper and front lip. It was going to be a long day since I knew that I couldn't work on my car outside of my apartment, for fear of neighbors that love to "tattle" on me. So I had to call my friend John once again to help me out and he came over with his truck so we could transport the bumper to his house. I also needed an outlet to run the soldering gun and dremel.
The first thing on the list upon getting to his house was to finally get the sidemarkers installed and out of the way. I basically did the drivers side by eye and then recorded the measurements and went and did the same thing on the passengers side. The dremel tool did wonders and in the end, I took some of my leftover spray paint and sprayed it into a cup and applied it on the bare metal with a q-tip.
I did make one mistake on the paint of the fender, but all that will have to be for another day and a paintscratch.com order for a paintpen and clearcoat pen and some rubbing material. Oh well, mistakes happen.
Up next was the attachment of the bumper. This slid on fairly easily and then it was time to hook in the harness. I still cannot get the cornering lights to work and I ran out of time to find a solution for the bumper pole to get wired in. But I zip tied the two connectors up high in the bumper for me to come back to at a later date. For now, I just needed to get the bumper on so I could cruise the streets legally (not sure if having the plastic outer bumper is a law or not). The fogs and turn signals are hooked up, so that's a good thing.
Then I took the car to get its first car wash in weeks. In the meantime, I took some before and after pictures with the eyelids. The Depo-style headlights don't fit too well even after I tried adjusting them. So if you're not a fan of the eylids, I'm pretty sure they're here to stay because they're the only thing to fill in the gap where the hood comes up short.
Before
After
I snapped a couple of pictures, but since I'm just starting with this photography stuff, I need to practice some more. Stay tuned for better pictures!
thats intense, love the jdm "flow" of the the side markers to the corner lights to the bumper pole thats a nice left profile lol
what brand of hood is it? cause if your stock lights and your retrofits both have fitment issues i'd be thinking it was the hood
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1997 cdn package
sir s-spec jdm engine, aem CAI, meagan racing header, seibon c/f hood,greddy front lip, ww back and sides rsx type-s rims
Yeah, it could be the hood. It's a VIS invader style hood. But I heard VIS bought out Seibon or vise versa, so really there aren't too many companies out there to choose from when getting a CF hood for our car.
Wow mike your sure making good progress. The Lude made such a transformation over the last couple weeks. I'm jealous of those dead sexy cornering lights. Do they work?
well vis isnt a bad brand of hood, that makes no sense. ohwell those retrofits = sex
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1997 cdn package
sir s-spec jdm engine, aem CAI, meagan racing header, seibon c/f hood,greddy front lip, ww back and sides rsx type-s rims
I agree it's not a bad brand, but when you go "bigtime commercial" and mass produce these things by the 100's, I'm sure quality goes down a bit. A smaller, more private company would've be a better pick for a better fitting hood.
Wow, after 3 hrs of reading and jotting down notes. I have to say its an impressive build. The last thing I read though about your depo headlights not fitting was kinda odd. Mine fit just fine on my lude. If you wanna check it out, they're on my members pics with the unpainted body kit. I wish you the best in your future add ons
Remember, I was painting parts that had pre-existing factory paint on it. So I'd sand it down to the paint/primer level so I could use that as some of my primer. Otherwise, I'd use this stuff and also a special primer that advertised it was a flexible bumper primer. Dammit if I didn't throw out the can already, but the bumper went through alot of flexing as we put it on and nothing cracked or anything, the paint is perfect!
Refer to permalink #180 for the picture showing me using this stuff.
Yeah, prelude1897 (brian) did mine. He usually lists his prices so they're fair across the board. The only thing that'll cost you more or less is the fact you have to supply your own headlights for him to retrofit for you, or you'll have to pay him the money to buy them in the first place. They're very good quality and I'm extremely happy with the light output on them. As Ebay would say "A+ seller"!
Thanks for all of your compliments everyone! I'll get some more pictures up when I take them. PM me if you have any questions on parts, most people already have and I'll do my best to answer them.
Wow, I can't believe you eyed it on the side markers, I have a 4th gen and I found a template as well as measurements on where to place them and I'm still scared to take a dremel to my fenders. =p
kinda skipping backwards a bit but when you did the sir interior swap, you put the dash piece under the steering wheel only, does the glovebox not fit either? just been wondering that.
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1997 cdn package
sir s-spec jdm engine, aem CAI, meagan racing header, seibon c/f hood,greddy front lip, ww back and sides rsx type-s rims
You know, I did find a guy online who was selling the RHD SIR dash with glovebox, and I inquired if I could buy just the glovebox from him and long story short, the deal went sour when he wouldn't ship to my right address so he refunded my money. But I believe the only difference between USDM gloveboxes and JDM gloveboxes is that the JDM one has no provision for a keyhole (minor issue). Otherwise, everything should bolt right up. Remember, Honda very rarely would manufacture a piece that serves the same function, different from RHD and LHD, I noticed this with all of the SIR interior as I was piecing it together.
Nooooo..... I didn't want it to end!!! Best Prelude "Story" ever!!!
Ok, so I must have been reading this thread of yours for over four hours!! You've got me hooked, and as far as I can tell you've stuck to with your Prelude saga more consistently and with better updates than anyone I've seen. I got my first 'lude back in '98 and the first of four Preludes! My first three were all 1991 Si 5 speeds. My most current and most recent only 2 weeks ago is a 2001 Silver Type SH. It is quite an upgrade from the 3rd gens that I had and as much in love with it as I am I will never outgrow my tuner bug! I finally have a Prelude with some actual aftermarket support, a respectable power baseline to start with in the H22, and the ATTS is an extremely fun bit of Honda ingenuity. Plus, the 2001 is as new as the Prelude will ever get! Anyway, you have an amazing car, you've done some wonderful things to it, and I can't fault you for getting any of it done, I'm just suprised that you were able to trust some of those guys! You were also pretty brave to do the painting and body work yourself! I'm in the Army too, and have a family so I know about time constraints, you just pick and choose what you can do and what you know is over your head. Hopefully in a couple years I will have been able to do half of what you have... Well it looks like I'm a thread thief! I better shut up, and let you get back to your updates!! Good luck and dare I say "Hooah"!!
This is by far the most amazing bit of determination and ingenuity if witnessed yet. Just as others have said im inspired now to actually save money up to give mine a face lift
But it'll be a while lol. Hope to see more!
The time has come, after a year and a half, the Prelude will return to Ohio again to wait out another tour in Iraq. As many of you have followed for the past half of a year, I have been putting in an enormous amount of time, effort and money into a deadline that would actually only result in me parking it for a year before I could enjoy it finally. The product before you has reached a stopping point for now and one more adventure awaits before it's safely tucked away for its "hibernation."
2100 miles separates El Paso from where I live in Ohio and I plan on accomplishing the feat of driving it there by the end of the day on Saturday. My goal is to not see the sunrise on Sunday, because I will be sleeping by then. Only to turn around on Monday and hitch a ride back to El Paso via plane. This will be the true testemant of how I've built my car and if function really did come before form. Based on the numerous times my car has broke down and left me stranded for the past year and a half, I know I have a small pool going within my co-workers and family on whether or not the car will make it home without breaking down. I'm sure there's even side-bets on what will malfunction first!
But to lessen the likelihood of a breakdown and to increase the chances of comfort as I sit back for the ride, I have taken the following steps the last few weeks to ensure that those bets will be lost
First and foremost, as much as I love the style and function of my Recaro's, I simply cannot sit in one for 12+ hours for two days straight. My vertebrae will have a permanent kink and my legs will lose all circulation as the side-bolsters squeeze my thighs together. There is no other choice but to utilize the tried and true OEM seat for the ride home.
The second step has been one I've neglected for the past 5 months, I can't roll my passengers window down. It's unfortunate for any passengers that travel in my non-A/C equipped car on the few hot days we've had this winter/spring, because there is no air circulation with just the drivers window down. Taking it into El Paso Honda quickly cured that when they found out it was just the fuse that was blown (d'oh!) but to ensure an hour of labor was not wasted just by them replacing the fuse, I also had the opportunity to have the window trim replaced I had ordered a long time back. Just another + to the exterior after the ratty condition the old ones were in.
Then, I had a lightbulb go out on the JDM fog (driving) lights almost as soon as I installed them. An order was placed through a company in Hong Kong, and they promised 2 to 3 weeks on delivery, but as week 4 passed, I wrote a nasty email inquiring why they weren't here yet and was quickly refunded. I bought these in turn off of Ebay (ahhh, old reliable Ebay) and now I have some driving lights that are completely unneccessary in the wake of the TSX retrofits, but nice to have anyway
I've also had a bought with squeaky brakes that shook the car and got the rotors resurfaced as well as got new pads. Now the car stops on a dime and the pedal feel is smooth as butter. To compliment a non-compliant straight-line ride, however, I made both a trip to Discount Tire again to have my wheels rebalanced (free of charge) and all the tire pressures checked. Turns out almost all of my wheels needed about a half ounce added on them, which may save me some money in gas throughout the journey. I also had the whole car aligned which makes it all worthwhile as well.
Then, I had to take the big dive and ugly up my front end to meet Ohio's ghey law of having a front license plate. I hated drilling into my front end, but in the future I will find a way to cleanly detach my license plate. I tried using a universal license plate frame adapter, but found I had no hardware that could fit in the existing JDM bumper holes (that's right, not even a 10mm bolt could go in!). So I took the supplied screws straight to the paint
One last hoo-rah
Of course, I love the tinted covers by themselves, but after a traffic checkpoint in El Paso where I nearly got a ticket for a tinted one over the rear license plate (apparently that's illegal), I switched to a clear one. But going back to Ohio, I decided to get matching ones so the rear got a tiny makeover
Speaking of rear, I needed plenty of supplies to ward off any obstacles along the way, so what better way to stockpile on all neccessary fluids before the journey began!
Not pictured is the two bottles of Honda DOT3 brake fluid. The oil may seem like alot, but I've got enough to do an oil change upon reaching Ohio, as my car will have about 4000 miles on the current oil. A fresh oil change as it sits is never a bad thing in my opinion. Let the good times roll. Also, I don't know how much my dad will be driving the car, so a good fuel stabilizer is always good insurance to keep the fuel fresh in the tank. I know many of you may jest at the NOS Octane Booster, but I know there will be at least a 400 to 600 mile stretch where gas stations vary their premium octane rating. I encountered two stations last time who only had 90 as their highest rating. This time I won't be caught offguard since my engine is more finely tuned. Finally, the water wetter was added in my overflow can to hopefully help a tiny bit in the cooling department. I'll drive it tonight to try and help circulation.
The final bit is 3 jugs of Honda Type 2 Coolant, because I've got a section of hose I'm a little concerned about popping off. My eye will be on the coolant gauge constantly to make sure it hasn't popped off if the action itself is inaudible or invisible at that time, but I want to have some backup just in case.
And as a final act of insurance, my spare tire is making its first trip with the car on this 2100 mile journey. You're probably asking yourself why I've never carried a spare and the truth is, I just don't want the clutter and weight of the spare in the rear, so I've left it behind two previous times before now, and now that I have it, It'll get me a little farther should I pop a Falken. Now my trunk looks a little more busy...
After searching through my car for unneeded trash to take out, I came across the distributor cap inside cover and realized I hadn't put it on since the last one I took off and lost, so on it went, I don't know if it would help out anything though...
And finally, no trip would be complete without some tunes, a special thanks to my Fiance Megan for loading up my iPod with some badly needed tunes that aren't a decade old
Now all that's left is to load up the remainder of my tools, clothes and things I need left at my parent's house while I deploy, and the car is set. Look for my car coming through a city near you starting tomorrow! I plan on going through Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Springfield, St Louis, Indianapolis, Dayton, and Columbus all before arriving at my destination. Now it's time to drive off into the sunrise
I met up with a ameteur photographer at the last import night I went to here in El Paso. It was a crazy night with tons of cars and tons of cops chasing us around from spot to spot, but I'd like to share pictures that aren't mine, but include some of my car. Ahhh, memories...
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