Bagged B18 '88 DX Coupe Build!

Well, another afternoon well spent makes for another update! We put some time in three main areas last night, the first being the fuse box corner. The goal is to clean up the engine bay as much as possible, so I'll be lowering the battery to Calabek's location in the open bumper square, and lowering the fuse box into the area where the battery lived, opening up the strut tower nicely, and also covering up a whole bunch of cords that run through there at the same time, I like it! The next project was cleaning up the hacked up core support. Since I have a taller radiator that's half as long, I diced up part of the support to make it work, and last night had that piece of metal getting de-burred and cleaned up before paint, nice! Then lastly is the quest to make hood struts work, after a failed attempt at fabricating brackets and 3d printing fasteners to shove a strut where it didn't want to be, we took some advice from a Cadillac STS, and swung the struts forward! They clear a lot better than the previous idea, and the ones that are currently in there are representative of the longer struts I need to source, but the current forecast has them coming from a Hummer H3, so we'll see how that works! Of course, getting the lift force to work for a stock hood and a carbon fiber hood is gonna take some more cash, but I'd love to find an off the shelf part for both! And there's lots of plans to do stuff long term, and that's good news! Here's a solo image to show things freshly mocked up, check it out!
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... I lied, here's one more as a bonus for reading all that text!
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Until next time! :D

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Originally Posted by B0CKS

Well, another afternoon well spent makes for another update! We put some time in three main areas last night, the first being the fuse box corner. The goal is to clean up the engine bay as much as possible, so I'll be lowering the battery to Calabek's location in the open bumper square, and lowering the fuse box into the area where the battery lived, opening up the strut tower nicely, and also covering up a whole bunch of cords that run through there at the same time, I like it!

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GG. Depending on how your mounting for it goes expect to have to cut your fender liner. Mine just didn't play nicely which sucks because when we were eyeballing it looked like it was going to sit snuggly into it.

I would also suggest perhaps incorporating a battery isolater switch so you don't have to take the bumper off every time you want to disconnect the battery if you plan on having the car sitting.

Great idea moving the fuse box down into where the battery sat. It's a good spot for it. :rockon: I chose to keep mine in the open so I can show off the JDM fuse box.

Speaking of, has that special package arrive yet? :)

Love the build man! I shouldn’t be too far behind you (knock on wood) with my own custom white 3geez vision. Yes, I am going to steal some ideas. Also, love the Corvairs. My first car, back in 1991 was a 1965 Monza 110.

Keep up the good work!

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Originally Posted by bscanlan

Love the build man! I shouldn’t be too far behind you (knock on wood) with my own custom white 3geez vision. Yes, I am going to steal some ideas. Also, love the Corvairs. My first car, back in 1991 was a 1965 Monza 110.

Keep up the good work!

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Wow, thanks so much! I'm sure you'll surpass me, I'm not a quick worker! :hsugh: But I'm so glad to hear that this build has come influence, I'm glad these silly posts are going to use! I can't wait to see what you create, and that you chose a 3gee in the best color to build! :D

And no way! I'm really impressed with how many people on this page have stories about 'Vairs, but I have to admit that they've certainly got a lot of the same ethos and reputation, a unique and underappreciated economy car with clean, timeless lines seem to describe both pretty aptly, so it's cool to hear that they're "common" stall siblings. And thanks for the compliments on the Corvairs, I'll pass on the word the next time I'm working with my old man on 'em!

Stay tuned, there's a lot more coming down the pipeline, we'll just take it day by day!

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Originally Posted by Calabek

GG. Depending on how your mounting for it goes expect to have to cut your fender liner. Mine just didn't play nicely which sucks because when we were eyeballing it looked like it was going to sit snuggly into it.

I would also suggest perhaps incorporating a battery isolater switch so you don't have to take the bumper off every time you want to disconnect the battery if you plan on having the car sitting.

Great idea moving the fuse box down into where the battery sat. It's a good spot for it. :rockon: I chose to keep mine in the open so I can show off the JDM fuse box.

Speaking of, has that special package arrive yet? :)

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Haha, still waiting for a special envelope, but it should be here sometime this week! Still geeked to have scored one, can't wait to throw it on!

Totally, I feel bad kinda' burying my fuse box! I think it'll still be enough of a read that it isn't a total loss of a cool touch! And you called it, I've got an isolator and a positive terminal (for jumping it, when I inevitably kill the battery :facepalm:) in an ebay cart right now, and plans to integrate them into the fuse box brackets, I'll be sure to make some callouts in the next post, I've got it (mostly) sorted! I'll pass on unnecessary bumper pulling if I can!

Dang, that's rough! But me and my fender liner aren't on good terms anyways, and could use a good cutting! ...but I'll certainly keep an eye out, did you have to relocate the horn? That's the only thing I can think of that would poise an issue.

P.S, dude, you gotta stop posting food on Facebook, I'm sitting in a cubicle and half my feed is making me hungry for desert lmao

Alright! Updaaaaates!

I'm still doing my best to dodge around the wiring harness, basically doing anything I can to put that off, since it's terrifying! Instead, I put some hours into deleting brackets, cleaning up the engine bay, and other odds and ends. I've got a heap of no longer used parts growing in the trunk, those being: the coil pack support, power steering fluid container bracket, the brake booster vacuum hose arm, the OEM overflow tank (& bracket!), the prop valve heat shield, fuse box rear support, pedal cluster cable management bracket over the engine mount and finally the throttle cable bracket (which is TBD. Might be putting that back on, that mostly depends if I can figure out how to make custom cables! Or, does anyone know someone who can??).
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That said, there's a lot of things I need to make, the biggest one being the support for the fusebox, which is in stage two of three right now! Our first step was to mock something up out of cardboard, just to sorta' get it in the place it wants to be. I utilized the battery tray bolts on the inner side of the frame rail, and made a small bracket that used the cold air intake screw and another OEM hole to match up to the little support that's part of the injection molded fuse box.
Attachment 9464
...and after realizing that setup had the box too high, I made another pass and got into sheetmetal, this time making a C-shaped central support bracket and shortened frame side bracket with a slight bend to match up to the existing fuse box screws. I'm not perfectly pleased with it yet, so I'll make one more with provisions for a positive battery terminal lead and isolator, fingers crossed that all the packaging works!
Attachment 9465
So that was the main thing, there's some different things here and there, but in the downtime I mocked up a better idea for my hanging subwoofer plan, using a trapezoid shaped box to hang over the tank so that it's still visible, and using all the space that's up there so I can have two subs instead of one in a clunky box! Nice!!
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...and to send off this post, we got a new (super bright) neon blue clock in the barn, which makes for some very Instagram lighting.
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'Till next time! :D

This build is looking so good! I love your attention to detail and how fresh and clean everything is looking!

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Originally Posted by 2ndGenGuy

This build is looking so good! I love your attention to detail and how fresh and clean everything is looking!

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Thanks so much! We often toss the phrase "it'll be cool when its done" around as an excuse to dig ever deeper into the pit of modification, so there's always room for improvement, which is ultimately going to drive this car to mechanical completion, then I'll be tearing down the whole car (again) and then repainting the whole thing (again), so that I can finally get everything right. I've realized cutting corners on this snowball of a build just makes more work for me later, so I'm trying to do as much as I can right! But thanks for staying tuned through this huge learning process! It'll be cool when it's done! :lol:

Time to catch up from the weekend, as many of these posts have gone, it was mostly focused on a few little details and trying to get them sorted! Friday and Saturday were spent on iteration three of the fuse box relocation, and all its secrets!

There were a few things I was not happy with with the previous iteration, the main one being a half flange-half harsh edge running across the top, and we hadn't sorted out a location for the remote battery terminal, so it was back to the drawing board! I traced out the previous bracket on a new sheet, made my radius' a bit cleaner, and spot welded the previous screw hole flange onto a new sheet, and dremeled out a hole for the positive post. But pictures describe it easier!
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And you can see how I (purely by chance!) lined up the positive lead with a divet in the frame here:
Attachment 9475
Which all explains the first bracket, but what about that other C shaped one? I drilled two holes next to the big hole (where most of my wiring will be feeding through) and then drilled through the fuse box (that was honestly a little nerve-racking!) through a hole that mated the two lower fuse box halves together, and put a longer bolt through it, which will ultimately be our third point of support for the box. (PSA, I haven't tested this method of holding the fusebox on the working car, and I highly suggest you don't do it until years from now when you know for a fact that this thing hasn't burned down in an electrical fire! :) )
Attachment 9476
So... that's about where that project is at for the moment! Still thinking about where to mount the isolator switch, but that's for next weekend, and also, huge shoutout for Calabek to ship one of his extremely cool JDM fuse box stickers literally half-way around the world, it arrived just fine, and I cant wait to be far enough along to finally apply it!
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So, among a new radiator fan, fancy PC grade fuel line hose clamps, a new carb for the moped, the positive battery lead and other bits, the first part of the new approach for the strut system arrived! I'm using two EXISTING :eek5: holes and dropping a 17" (compressed) strut onto them for a hopefully low profile strut location that should be around a $40 modification, and let you not have to spacer out your hood! Stay tuned and we may know by next weekend! Fingers crossed!
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So, another couple steps forward! Only six or seven more eons! :D
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Where is the sub box going. Under the rear deck pointing down?

I build a triangular sub box that fit flat against the back of the seat in the trunk. The top was 3" thick and the bottom was 10" or so. It looked clean and hardly took up space but wouldn't work if you want to fold down the seat to put longer items through the passthrough.

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Originally Posted by conozo

Where is the sub box going. Under the rear deck pointing down?

I build a triangular sub box that fit flat against the back of the seat in the trunk. The top was 3" thick and the bottom was 10" or so. It looked clean and hardly took up space but wouldn't work if you want to fold down the seat to put longer items through the passthrough.

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You're pretty much right on the money! I'll be hanging my box from the package shelf (as the tank lives at the back of the trunk) and pointing my speakers up, which will negate the pass through, but still give me access to the air ride control box if I need to make any repairs, along with staying out of the way of the panel that lifts up to reveal the spare. I wanted to use as much space as I could without impeding on the ever so important "Forged by Morons" decal. We'll see how it fits at the end of the day! Here's a shoddy section view sketch to explain my strange sentences!
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So, in the effort of cleaning up the engine bay, I've been trying to figure out to do with the extremely long pedal cluster cables. The carb'd 3gee is the worst offender when it comes to the length of the throttle cable, speedo, and clutch pedal, so I've been hunting down shorter versions of each. I've found that a fuel injected throttle cable from another 3gee is feet shorter than the carb'd one (thanks Snooz!!), and a DA Integra/ EF Civic both use a shorter clutch cable and speedometer, with a couple little fancy brackets wrapping to the back of the engine, rather than spooling around the front! So I was fortunate to find a DA Integra where Conozo was pulling his burgundy dash just the other day, so now it's on to test fitting!

The other rad news is about headrests, I've been getting more and more into EF Civics, and noticed that most of them had doughnut/looped headrests (big hole in the center, is there a term??) and was really hoping to find some to fit into the main Accord build. And it turns out, the DA holy headrest slides right into the Accord seats... which means they'll fit the Prelude seats just fine! Custom on custom, can't wait to get those re-upholstered and see what it looks like!

Holy parts interchange Batman!!
Attachment 9482

Well! I'm impressed, things went pretty gooood! The clutch cable fits nicely, and only took a little bit of trick to get done, the DA Integra headrest fits the Prelude seat well, and the speedometer cable is (literal inches) from working, so I've got a Prelude one on order, then we should be good for a writeup! Let's dive in!

Prelude seat? Straight forward as they come! This will get re-upholstered, so don't mind the color clash, what's improtant is that they're see-through!
Attachment 9483

The DA Clutch cable conversion was a bit of a pain, but that's fine! The positives of 1) a shorter cable 2) getting brackets to hold it steady in the engine bay 3) it running behind the block as opposed to in front of it make the this conversion worthwhile!
So here, proof of point, you can see how the DA cable (left) is about a foot shorter than factory:
Attachment 9484
The only real difference is that the boot for the Integra is too large, so you have to swap those. There's a big flange on the end of each one, so while getting the DA one off is just some wrestling, I had to slice a slit halfway up the Accord one to get it to fit over.
Attachment 9485
So here, you can see the size difference- with the 3gee being much smaller!
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Then, since the Inner diameter of the 3gee hole wont happily fit around the large DA metal guide, I trimmed off the end so that it expands easier. I was thinking about cutting it further back up the first bend up, but that's a pretty negligible detail.
Attachment 9487
And then boom! It fits over, and will now slide right into where the last one went!
Attachment 9488

Next up, speedo cable.
While there's more to it than last nights work, here's a sneak preview! The DA cable wont work, but the Prelude one (should) solve the problem! That said, we'll still be getting a cable that's half as long as factory :nuts:
Attachment 9489
And! I'm giving too much away here, but there's a factory unused hole (well, on both my base model cars) that's specifically the same size as the speedometer cable boot, so that's an easy swap. Although you do have to cut a hole in the steering column support framework, but that will come at a later date!
Attachment 9490

Booya! Details! More photos and info to come as I continue to nerd out! Gonna make this thread soooooo loooong!

Awesome fitment! Meant to post yesterday about the headrests; definitely wouldn't work in my cars but I think they will add so much to the final look of your ride! Just the whole combination of the seats/interior and the Manarays and the B18...I love this unique build man and you are doing such great work.

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Originally Posted by Fixedit

Awesome fitment! Meant to post yesterday about the headrests; definitely wouldn't work in my cars but I think they will add so much to the final look of your ride! Just the whole combination of the seats/interior and the Manarays and the B18...I love this unique build man and you are doing such great work.

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Haha, thank you! I feel honored! It's been a ton of fun, especially as of late, and I can't emphasis how much it means to hear that! I've really been enjoying looking across the whole range of the Honda lineup and finding all the best looking parts I can find and making them work, there's an odd sense of accomplishment that comes with it!

But thanks again, please stay tuned as more oddball stuff goes down in our garage!

Heyo! Here's a bit of an update! I spent most of it splitting my brother's Equinox in half, so the Accord mostly sat idly by- and there's some big news I'll make another post about in a second, but in terms of wrapping the cable project, here's what got done!

I got the Prelude Speedometer Cable (Search google for PIONEER CA-3073, and buy it from whatever site suits you best) and it fits our car PERFECT. You can see it poking out at the tip of the second velocity stack up, and coming out of the speedometer at the bottom. there's no severe bends, it falls right place and it leaves just enough length that you can extend the gauge-clip end out a little and then plug it in.
Attachment 9498
The only hiccup was that I had to make a new hole in one of the steering column stampings, (in this image, the lower part of the image is toward the back of the car, and the top is heading to front.) Like any part of of under-dash work, it's best to stick you head in there and take a look around with the reference photo handy.
Attachment 9499
You can see here how there's light coming through the hole when you gunsight the speedometer cable hole to the center of the vehicle. which is where the cable ultimately runs.
Attachment 9500

That was the main event! Picked up some cable ends to adjust the end of the throttle cable, and then we'll be done with cable work! Woohooo!!

But, one other thing got done that I think is worth Dr_Snooz's attention as he had a thread about this not too long ago, but I made an odd discovery over the weekend, but I'll start at the beginning.
I was looking for a 1987 Integra lip, the only one I could find was across the US in Washington, and it was beat to crap, but I thought I could somehow restore it. It shipped to me in a one foot by one foot box, giving it all sorts of new bends and folds, and effectively made it look like garbage, no way around it.
Attachment 9501
But I took a heat gun to it Friday night, and noticed an odd phenomon, while it had not only done a great job of ironing out bends, it had entirely inverted the sun-dried trim to a refreshing solid black, it's not the absolute perfect finish, but if you have a spare piece of white-out trim, I highly suggest throwing it on the workbench and seeing what some heat does, as I have turned what i thought was garbage into something I'm excited to put on a car!
Attachment 9502
(that's the same lip!!! /\ awesome!)

'Till next post!

Okay, time to take the lid off of a little side something something that's been in the works for a little while! To those of you who remember seeing TE37s floating into this thread while knowing there's no way I'd replace my Manaray wheels for anything else, wonder no longer!

I'm crossing off a huge item from my bucket list, a roadtrip across the U.S. in a rad old car! (and it also happens to be with a super cute girl, only to sweeten it up!) The car I mention is this amazingly clean and stock 1988 Honda Civic (DX, with AC, a sunroof, and five speed! Awesome!), I recently remotely purchased it, and its currently sitting in LA at a friends apartment while plates and titles make their way across the country!
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so YEAAAAA! Super geeked to get another parts hauler for the Accord(s!), in fact I was on the verge of buying one of these when I got into 3geez (imagine that timeline!) and have thought they were awesome ever since. So I'm extremely excited for this trip coming up in May!

The current plans are to make LIGHT, REVERSIBLE modifications, the big three being a full disc swap, and some nice Skunk2 suspension work, and the Integra lip that was mentioned in the post above! I'm stoked, had to share!!! Can't wait to once again own three Hondas at once!! :D

Dusted off my favorite program yesterday after cooking up (what I think) is an interesting idea!

The thought started here; my Dad and I were checking out Cadillac seats and were enjoying seat mounted speakers. Which lead us to talk about speakers mounted in the Accord seats, and were thinking about making custom ones out of the stock Prelude headrests, which happened to be around the same time I really wanted to get headrests with holes, so I cooked up a new idea for mounting another set of speakers!

The idea is that you take a factory EQ unit, and remove the main box, leaving the bezel and a large cutout,
Attachment 9511
And then take two (in this case) RockFord Fosgate 4" speakers
Attachment 9512
And make a custom 3D printed mounting scheme that angles one speaker toward the passenger and the other towards the driver, and wire the left speaker as a right, and the right as a left, so that the angled sound works in stereo for each person. And mount this assembly on the backside of the EQ bezel.
Attachment 9513
And lastly, I remembered I have a speaker grill sitting around from the door of a hatch, so I can use that cloth to wrap the front face, and appear like a factory part! I'll also 3D print a surround for it, so that it has a nice finished look.

Should be fun! Certainly an easy way to waste ~$100 bucks!

Awesome shit! Such a cool idea with the speakers, and I love that you have the 3D printing capability! Anything custom for these cars is a win for the community. Also, super exciting about your trip in that Civic, it'll surely be an unforgettable experience!

Edit: Just read the integra lip post too and damn! Good trick to remember. I had two of those and gave them away before I moved out of washington when I thought I'd be living with a (now ex) girlfriend. Stupid stupid stupid!:banghead: oh well I'll find more hahah.

Very cool news! It's fun to see someone so excited about discovering these cars.

I too made my accelerator cable a lot shorter when I replaced it and I'm wondering if that isn't why it's still notchy. I think those long swooping bends keep it from binding up. I'll be interested to see if you have the same trouble with yours.

Nice work on the lip. Keep going. This is exciting!

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Originally Posted by Fixedit

Awesome shit! Such a cool idea with the speakers, and I love that you have the 3D printing capability! Anything custom for these cars is a win for the community. Also, super exciting about your trip in that Civic, it'll surely be an unforgettable experience!

Edit: Just read the integra lip post too and damn! Good trick to remember. I had two of those and gave them away before I moved out of washington when I thought I'd be living with a (now ex) girlfriend. Stupid stupid stupid!:banghead: oh well I'll find more hahah.

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Yeah man, there's a ton of stuff on the horizon I'm looking forward to! The speaker pod will be a fun side project, the carbon fiber hood is shipping as we speak, struts are in the mail, tons of stuff little bits are coming together! Then crossing the continent is coming up this May, and then lightly building out that car will be total therapy, I'm every type of excited! Thanks for staying tuned, I'll try and keep the updates coming!

Awwwww, two of em??? And holy cow man, that seems like quite the story to be told. Sorry to hear that things don't always work out. In terms of finding more... are you referring to Integra lips or girlfriends?? :rofl:

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Originally Posted by Dr_Snooz

Very cool news! It's fun to see someone so excited about discovering these cars.

I too made my accelerator cable a lot shorter when I replaced it and I'm wondering if that isn't why it's still notchy. I think those long swooping bends keep it from binding up. I'll be interested to see if you have the same trouble with yours.

Nice work on the lip. Keep going. This is exciting!

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Thanks a ton! It's been a blast as of late, so I'm trying to ride this wave of motivation as long as I can! :lol:

Yeah, your thread on that swap is how I discovered those shorter FI cables, so we'll see! I'll be sure to report my findings, i̶n̶ ̶a̶ ̶c̶o̶u̶p̶l̶e̶ ̶y̶e̶a̶r̶s̶,̶ ̶w̶h̶e̶n̶ ̶I̶ ̶f̶i̶n̶i̶s̶h̶ ̶i̶t̶, and let you know! And I think you're right there with the length, I mean Honda did it for a reason, but I'm hoping that with similar geometry to the FI setup, I'll be able to get away with it.

Right? That lip was a total surprise! Can do, thanks for staying tuned!

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Originally Posted by B0CKS

Awwwww, two of em??? And holy cow man, that seems like quite the story to be told. Sorry to hear that things don't always work out. In terms of finding more... are you referring to Integra lips or girlfriends?? :rofl:

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Hahahaha, definitely referring to the Integra lip there but I sure do hope I find another one of those girlfriends again, too

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Originally Posted by Fixedit

Hahahaha, definitely referring to the Integra lip there but I sure do hope I find another one of those girlfriends again, too

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Hahahaha, thanks for clearing the air! I wish you luck finding each lmao! :D

Another weekend, another couple steps forward!

I've got good news! I've got a near working hood strut system! Its SO close to finally being a thread! But I'll show ya what I've done so far so that you can take notes!

I'm using a SINGLE factory hole (it's a 10mm bolt on both sides of the car) that has m6x1.0 threads, one holds down some vacuum lines on the drivers side, (or you can replace the bolt that holds down a leg of the coil pack bracket on the passenger side) and replacing that 10mm bolt with an m6x1.0 ball stud! Here's what I bought:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Zinc-Pl...cAAOSwNnRYh9xq

Then, since we're only using one hole, you cant hold a bracket arm steady for a full 90 degree rotation, so I bought these:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Nitro-Prop-...72.m2749.l2649

And they swing up quite nicely, feel free to scroll up to find the near duplicate photos, and you'll see how they work.

And now getting to the good part, I bought a pair of Cadillac CTS struts from here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Hood-6249...IAAOSwOztciryb
(IMPORTANT NOTE. You MUST buy these from this seller. The ends (unlike OEM) are threaded on, and that has to be true for this setup to work so you can swap the ends.)

Then, lastly, I'm using a M8x1.25 13mm ball stud from a Ford Taurus for the upper hood hole. I'm not using another m6x1.0 ball stud since we're mounting it in flimsy sheet metal. There's a preexisting hole in the hood near where the struts wants to live naturally, so I'm drilling in new hole near that and (once it arrives) installing a matching Riv-nut there. Ultimately giving you a setup that looks like this:
Attachment 9514
It closes nicely even while only being held up with one strut, and lifts the hood with ease. I'm excited to be getting so close to cracking this! Plus, if you buy everything listed, you can build the other one and sell it as a kit to some other dude! Or put it in your spare 3gee!

(In other build news, I got tires for the Rays! They're small and for a Civic, but accidentally showed up on my Accord.)