East Coast RHD 4th gen build... - Honda Prelude Forum

abstractlude · 06-24-2009, 11:31 AM

so i recently started going on preludeonline.com and preludepower.com so i decided to update anyone who hasnt seen my build thread on some other sites i have it posted on.

i started off with a 93 prelude s model (the silver one, that is how it looked after i sold it to my friend)... got a mugen bumper and side skirts along with a few other minor mods and then ran it into a concrete barricade. a buddy of mine bought it from me for cheap in college and i picked up another 93 prelude s (the white one). i moved to california from florida and sold it before the move.

moving on.... while in california i was fortunate to find and purchase a 1994 honda prelude rhd imported from japan. i spent 8 months legalizing it in the state of california and then a few months later moved back to florida with it.

how it looked when i bought it (it was 100% stock besides a red top):

i did a few basic mods while in california (shocks and springs, black housings, amber corners, deck and components, alarm, aem cai, apex'i n1 cat back, magnaflow highflow):

i get back to florida and 6 months later crank walk gets the best of my h22 and 2 quarter sized holes are knocked out of my block:

so i get another h22 from hmotors that was rebuilt by a buddy of mine and have it dropped in. i clean my car for 6 hours to get it ready for the JDM UPS meet in tampa and on my way there a guy cuts across 3 lanes of traffic and the lady in front of me slams on her brakes causing me to rear end her

from this:

to this:

so after dealing with insurance and what not.... i managed to come out on top.
the car is getting fully repaired, new paint, and a bunch of new parts...i bought a front clip from the ****ers at royaljapanesemotors.com (dont EVER buy anything from them, they are horrible)!

thanks to RB Motoring!

as you can see though they need a little bit of work, as expected.

so i am refinishing them (taking them apart, refinishing the lips, powder coating, cleaning, etc...)

PS. i hate 3 piece wheels, they are a *****.

JIC Magics...

retrofit in progress.

this will look much better once its painted and in place of my destroyed stock hood

so my rims will fit on the car.

rsr ex mag, dc header w/ 2.5" collector, test pipe, type s intake w/ k&n filter, 5 lug conversion

hawk pads.. the rest of the brake parts will be here soon (stainless steel lines and oem replacement rotors)

done stripping, sanding, and polishing the lips

with my girlfriends help while i was at work the rest of the wheels have been cleaned up nicely.

_zac

abstractlude · 06-24-2009, 11:31 AM

LCA Spherical bushing kit:

and
Radius Rod spherical bushing kit:

and i picked up another set of jdm black housing one pieces so i can finish my retro fit before i get my car back from the shop:

front end apart and the motor out. the frame work and body work started.

the passenger side motor mount as pushed into the shock tower a bit.

and the front corner and core support will be replaced

and i dropped off my new exhaust and intake

started by shaving the raised "DOHC VTEC" and the raised bolt holes.

i stripped it down and put some JB weld to smooth a part out and fill the 2 bolt holes.

after the JB Weld was sanded and the VC was washed.

sanded off the H and honda writting on the wire cover

taped off

primed..

base and clear..

_zac

abstractlude · 06-24-2009, 11:33 AM

-my muteki chrome lug nuts
-megan rear toe arms
-pioneer deh-p6300
-stainless brakelines

aaaaaaaannnnnd! i finished my valve cover. =]

before clear coat, just taped everything off

finished product:

so i got a polishing bit for my dremel, a mothers polishing cone for my drill and some q-tips for the hard to reach spots and i went to town on my lips and bolts for my wheels.

damage fixed

good as new

_zac

abstractlude · 06-24-2009, 11:35 AM

so everyone say hello to my babies ....

=]

door are about 90% ready for paint... dents and scratches removed and a few coats of primer are on.

rear bumper is almost there too.

trunk and spoiler are prepped. just needing final sanding.

rear quarter panels and roof are next in line

but here is a preview of the rolled rear quarters

carbon hood is ready for final sand before paint.

everything has been stripped.

i am doing all of this to a spare jdm one piece headlight i have since its my first time... just in case i **** up.

so i go tthe headlight all apart and i took out the low beam reflector bowl so i can mount the projector to it which will allow me to use the oem adjusters to adjust the beam once its all together.

here is the reflector bowl... i drilled out 4 holes i measures to mount the projector to it.

here is a before and after of the back of the projectors. i cut out the packs to allow the bulb to fit with no problem. i trimmed off the stock mounting points for clearance issues. and then i drilled out 4 holes where the 2 halves of the projector meet. i got a long threaded pole from home depot to use to mount them to the reflector bowls.

so i cut the threaded pole and used some washers, nuts and thread lock to hold the 2 halves of the projector together. i was then able to push the projector into place with the cut threaded poles going through the holes i previously cut in the reflector bowl in order to use locking nuts from the back of the bowl to hold the projector in place.

here is a practice cut for a home made shroud made from a stove top drop bowl. a flange of sorts will be used on top of this to clean it up a little bit. i got this idea from lilboi on bayareaprelude.com

_zac

abstractlude · 06-24-2009, 11:36 AM

so the roof and quarter panels have been primed and block...

antenna has been shaved

trunk, doors, and rear bumper have been final blocked.

rolled the fenders.

they had marked where the side marker goes but i elected to have them shave the side marker from my jdm fender. i figure it will look a lot cleaner without the side markers.

so i took out the housings of my spare black housing headlights and taped off the part for the parking light. i am having the housings painted the same color as the car (glacier frost mica). ive never seen this done on a prelude so i figured i would try it. if i dont like it i have my other set of black housings so not to worry. i am currently wetsanding and buffing the lenses and i am finishing up the retro fit. ill post pics of the progress later.
i also cut out the centers of the grills, filled and sanded them.

my inspiration for the color matched headlights comes from the honda fits, c6 vettes and nob's s15:

_zac

abstractlude · 06-24-2009, 11:37 AM

i have finished putting together the mounts for the projectors. i mounted them to the reflector dish and reinstalled them in the housing to the oem points to retain the beam adjustability.

these projectors fit perfectly inside the dish with very little modification allowing me to retain all the oem qualities of the outside of the headlight. the only thing done to the original parts of the headlight are the 4 holes drilled in the back of the dish in order to mount the projectors.

as you can see... the back of the headlight looks exactly like it did when i got it. when you look where the headlight bulb clips in you can see that the reflector dish to the projector is almost flush with the opening of the original reflector dish that the headlight came with. this should allow the bulb to go in just as if this came factory.

i began wetsanding one of the headlight covers.. hopefully i will finish with these this weekend and they should be crystal clear and good as new.

i am still in the process of making my own shrouds. i have a bit more cutting and test fitting to do.

and i just got this other little goodie in the mail the other day

alright so here is the test fitting on the practice headlight:

so i cut the inside of the drop pan and pushed it in so that when i pushed it over the projector housing it holds itself in place.

then i trimmed down the bathroom faucet trim that i picked up from home depot so that it would fit around the 3" projector and on top of the drop pan. i set everything up in the practice headlight.

that is basically what the finished product will be except the housings will be glacier frost mica to match the rest of the car.
the drop pan and the outter trim have been jb welded in place and arent going anywhere. now im just waiting for the housings to come back from the paint booth.
_zac

abstractlude · 06-24-2009, 11:38 AM

everything is pretty much taped off..

except the driverside door frame..

i got my tires in (i sent my 225-50-16s back for 215-45-16s)

i picked up some brand new slotted EBC rotors for $50 yesterday

and i picked up the painted headlight housings so i can put the retrofitted headlights back together this weekend once im done wet sanding, buffing and sealing the headlight lenses.

i started by finishing off the sanding and buffing of the lenses.
as you can see i removed the black on the bottom of the headlight and the black on the edge of the headlight.

then i taped off the lense so i could paint the portions grey that used to be black. this will flow better with the color matched inserts. i used a grey primer that matched pretty decent.

here is how it came out:

i started putting everything back together

for some reason getting the lense back on to the housing has been a ***** because of a slight distortion in the housing from oven baking them. but after some clamps and some wait time it seems to be holding up.

FINAL PRODUCT

and tires are all mounted, balanced, and the wheels are ready to be slapped on the car.

thanks for looking.
_zac

abstractlude · 06-24-2009, 11:39 AM

the only adjustable upper control arms available for the ludes that i am aware of. i believe is has -2.5 to +2.5 degrees of camber adjustment with the camber plate.

and they come with new balljoints

and...ummm..... a little teaser

well the one headlight i finished ended up not fitting as good as i wanted it and there was a spec of white plastic stuck on the inside of the lense that was bugging the **** out of me so i took the headlight apart again and shaved down the housing a little more so that it would fit properly.

then i wetsanded and buffed the other lense and put the other headlight together.
so now they are both finished and ready to be dropped off at the body shop...

there are some small imperfections and some little things i would change if i do another one but i am really happy with the final product.

_zac

madcatz · 06-24-2009, 03:41 PM

not gonna lie....that ish is hot

dawn0621 · 06-24-2009, 04:52 PM

yeah, wow, those are some crazy ass wheels

silver1998lude · 06-24-2009, 06:34 PM

Wow.....uuhhh wow.Great work now get it all together and get more pics up!!

dohcpower v2.0 · 06-24-2009, 09:46 PM

Great thread!

Can't wait to see the finished product.

abstractlude · 06-25-2009, 10:42 AM

thanks guys...

this is going to be a long build thread.
after i get it back and get everything together some interior additions and changes will be in store. then a few small exterior changes and then im focusing on the motor.

i am not made of money though so it will be a while but hopefully it will have steady progress.
_zac

minilogoguy18 · 06-25-2009, 04:25 PM

I searched all over for complete adjustable replacements for the control arms, I thought they never existed. I really like the headlights, thought about the same idea when I was walking past a C6 in a parking lot that was red. Strange that you shaved the side markers, most of us are cutting up our fenders just so that we can have them. Post moar!

abstractlude · 06-25-2009, 05:08 PM

hahah... yea if i want the sidemarkers back later i can always cut the hole. i just think that it will look much cleaner without them on it. the jdm rear bumper doesnt have the lights in them and it looks much cleaner so i figure i would try it out..
i will see if i can find a link to the UCAs. they just recently started making them. a company called chassis tech.
i will be posting some more pics soon

thanks
_zac

abstractlude · 06-28-2009, 04:49 PM

the car is still in the shop. ive been in orlando all weekend. i should be picking the car up any day now. this weekend all the parts will hopefully be going on.

since this is taking longer than expected i went to the shop this past thursday and snapped a few shots.

the paint is crazy. it looks gloss white from one angle, gloss grey from another, silver from another, then it shimmers with variations of a blue-ish purple.

thanks for looking. i should have a much better update in the next few days.
_zac

fatiye1 · 06-28-2009, 05:01 PM

WOW! I can't wait to see this project progress. I wish I had the time, patients, dedication and money to do a full on project form scratch.

PreludeVTEC01 · 06-29-2009, 12:27 AM

Speechless, great work!!

abstractlude · 06-29-2009, 11:35 AM

thanks!
_zac

abstractlude · 07-03-2009, 09:45 PM

motor is back in the car. it is being wired up and should be running by monday. then they are putting the front end back on and finally they will be waxing and detailing the entire car. i will probably set up pick up for this coming friday.

valve cover, header, and cleaning will be done before new bay pics are posted.

_zac