Mcnabs 5th Gen Progression Thread

[mcnab]

[Table of Contents]

1) Page 1 Engine Bay Cleaning / Amber Corners [Quicklink]

2) Page 1 Exterior Washing[Quicklink]

3) Page 1 Pics Added[Quicklink]

4) Page 1 AutoX Pics Added[Quicklink]

5) Page 1 Strut / Sway Bar Installations[Quicklink]

6) Page 1 Interior Cleaning / Steam Extracting [Quicklink]

7) Page 1 Lower Tie Bar Install[Quicklink]

8) Page 1 OEM Kit Installation (Full Lip Kit) [Quicklink]

9) Page 2 Osram Nightbreaker +90 Bulbs Installed [Quicklink]

10) Page 2 Suspension Prep for Install[Quicklink]

11) Page 2 Suspension Installation & Pics[Quicklink]

12) Page 2 Updated Pics of Car w/ Suspension & AutoX Pics w/ Suspension [Quicklink]

13) Page 2 Osram Nightbreaker + 90 REVIEW WITH PICS[Quicklink]

14) Page 2 Polishing and Detailing Paintwork *NEW on March 15th, 2008*[Quicklink]

EDIT: I've put [Quicklinks] beside each section in the TOC so you can quickly get to the post you're looking for if you want a specific post.

Well I picked this up about a month ago, and it's complete bone stock (the only aftermarket part is the cross drilled rotors). The previous owner was the only owner since 98, it's in very good condition.

I've just worked on regular maintenance for now (so not much to see) but I started with a few mods, as well as cleaning it up.

Here is the Engine Bay after I cleaned it up. Use a lot of degreaser, washed everything, and scrubbed everything down. Im going to paint the valve cover as well, as it's got a little bit of flaking on it.



My first "mod" if that is what you want to call it, was to paint the front turn signals amber (to match the side ones). If I got with JDM fogs in the future, I will paint the top ones yellow as well, but for now this looks good.

I got a special "transparent orange" paint available from model plane hobby shops. IT was about $10 for a little spray tin. Before I sprayed the front turn signals, I made sure they were super clean. To do this I started with a paint compound (menzerna powergloss). It's a harsh paint compound used for removing wetsand marks on vehicle paint. I used this in conjuction with a rotary buffer on a 4" spot pad. The result is it level a lot of defects in the plastic, clearing it up. After this, I followed up with some "Plastx" on another 4" spotpad to remove the compounding haze, and restore a night gloss and smooth finish.

Lastly, before I sprayed, I wiped it down with an IPA mix (50/50 ipa/water) to remove any oils or conaminents left by the polishes. Masked the lights, and started spraying.

The result is the first couple coats left it yellow looking. You have to do about 3 coats before it looks orange..

Here are some pics.








I've got plans over winter for this which include

Full OEM Lip Kit [ purchasing from a PO member ]
Suspension
Wheels

[Nola_BB6]

that looks pretty good. and welcome to preludeonline.

[mushu405]

interesting....not bad...welcome!

[extinct]

nice work, welcome to the site!

[PininFarina456]

Looking good Greg, nice to see the progression.

[mcnab]

I gave her another bath today. Figured I'd snap a few pics of my wash process.

I use 1 bucket with a Grit Guard in it simply for rinsing. Then the foam gun for applying the soap. It sticks to panels, then I go over it with a dense Foam "Schmitt". The soap I use is Detailers Pride Extreme Foam Formula.

I go over wheels with a 20/80 mix of a generic degreaser w/ water. Then after washing I will do the glass with Stoners Invisible Glass.

Here are some pics..

Tools used for cleaning wheels (with 20/80 mix of degreaser/water)


Wash Soap mixed in the foam cannon


Foam Cannon hooked up to 2600PSI pressure washer.


Foaming the car


Foaming the car

[My2cents]

Holy Foam!

[PininFarina456]

Greg, are you a professional detailer? Thats some good equipment you have there and your process seems very skilled.

[mcnab]

Originally Posted by PininFarina456

Greg, are you a professional detailer? Thats some good equipment you have there and your process seems very skilled.

I do it as more of a hobby, than as a profession, I still hold down a 9-5 and go to school in the evenings. Then do a detailing business with my brother on weekends for cash. I've spent probably 3-4 years acquiring detailing products and tools, so I've got myself quite a collection It becomes an obsession after awhile. Nothing beats a lazy sunday like pulling out the car and giving it a really good clean!

[Solid]

I really like what you did with the front turn signals. That would look even better on a car with jdm style amber side markers (the ones that go on the fender rather than front bumper).

[lude2lust]

I would love a DYI on how to clean the engine bay so well, while being safe. great work man

[mcnab]

Originally Posted by lude2lust

I would love a DYI on how to clean the engine bay so well, while being safe. great work man

Sure thing I'll write one up whyen I get some spare time. I should have taken some befores, it was pretty bad!

[mcnab]

Just looking through the FAQ, this has been addressed before. Read this thread here:

engine bay cleaning Look at the last post.

I do things differently, but this is certainly a good start. I like to have the engine bay warm (not hot) as it makes it easier to release grime etc.

You will definitely need a high strength degreaser. They reccomended Simple Green, but I would use something like Castrol Superclean (only for the very dirty areas). Otherwise dilute it about 10:1. This will be good for most grime.

Before you do anything, bag off the alternator, distributor cap, and fuse box. They reccomended using a garden hose with low pressure. I wouldn't use that, I used pressure washer, as this has FAR less "volume" of water, but more pressure. I would use a pressure washer. If you only have access to a garden hose use it on the least amount of pressure you can. You DO NOT want to soak anything.

Start by liberally spraying down the engine bay with the degreaser. Making sure you get the grimey areas very well. Make sure you get all angles (ie don't just spray from the front, spray down along the top etc. Let it sit for about 3-4 minutes in the heat of the engine bay (notice I say warm, not I just drove it for an hour hot).

Then crack out the pressure washer, and SPRAY er down. I had to do mine about 2 times to get it to where I wanted. If there are areas that are stubborn, get an old toothbrush and spray degreaser and scrub!

Now that you've got the main areas clean, you can work on details. Get out some metal polish, and polish intake manifolds strut bars etc. Also, if you would like use paint polish on the strut towers, etc.

For all the painted parts, I clean those by hand with "Optimum No Rinse". Make SURE you get the underneath portion of the hood. Nothing looks worse than a clean engine bay but as dirty underside of the hood...

It all depends how much tiem and how anal you want to be.

The LAST thing you want to do is apply a dressing. I use CD2 Engine Bay dressing. It is hard to find, but man this stuff works awesome.

I reccomend Stoners Trim Dressing as well. It's pretty high gloss, so buff it off after letting it sit for a bit. Other than that, that's all there is too it. it's more time consuming than anything.

[mcnab]

Shot a couple pics of the car today after giving it a quick wash again. I wanted to get a few shots of it before I put the OEM Kit on, so I have a good comparison of before/after.





Sunday will also be the first time I'll take this car out to AutoX. It'll be far different than driving my Skyline at AutoX like Im used to, so im curious to see how I'll cope with ridiculous amounts of bodyroll and understeer

[Common Sense]

what year is your lude? very nice detailing job.

[mcnab]

Originally Posted by Common Sense

what year is your lude? very nice detailing job.

It's a 98.

[mcnab]

Well I finished my first AutoX in the prelude on the weekend (done a ton of autoXing prior to this car). Things went about as well as I had expected. It's been awhile since I had driven a FWD car, so it took some getting used to. Some things I'd like to note.

I was expecting MUCH more understeer than was prevalent. Totally bone stock prelude and didn't have as much understeer as I thought it would. Bodyroll was quite prevalent as you'll see from the pics, but overall I was quite happy for a stock prelude.

I was put in a Street Modified class for some reason (with cars wayyy faster than me) should have been put in B stock class. But oh well. I did manage to place about midway through the pack. My times improved by about 2 seconds over the course of 7 runs, so I was happy with that.

Here are pics.

[PreludeNmphs]

I hate to ask a question about cleaning spots off the glass on my lude in this thread, but since you seem to be an excellent detailer. These spots seem to be just part of the glass now. They have been there for quite some time and I have had it with them. I've tried all kinds of chemicals, cleaners, steel wool, detailers clay bars. I have thought about using a razor blade scraped but haven't yet. Nothing has removed the spots. How is it that I can get the finish pretty dang spotless but can't seem to ever get the glass as nice?

[o1ambre1o]

Gawd you make me miss my lude

[PininFarina456]

:sigh: I miss auto-xing the lude. Get a nice suspension Greg and the body roll will be much less with the strut bars too.

Your lude looks so clean, I love it!