Bagged B18 '88 DX Coupe Build!

[B0CKS]

And, since Sawzall is just the go to tool on the B-Cord, there was one more keepsake I wanted to pull off the car before it goes to the great beyond- so after almost one minute of BRRRRRRT, here’s what will be an eternal keepsake of my first car.

But, all this is for a good cause- to make an another car exquisitely nice. Let’s finally get to the A-Cord and talk about how far that car has come in recent months. There’s been a ton of side projects I’ve been trying to work through while the car is at the shop, and while there’s still ever-more on the list, a lot has gotten done. We’ll start with one project that you guys are well aware with, the hood scoop! I finally had to bite the bullet and prepare the real hood for the shop to begin fab work on the added panel, so I had to get going on all the holes needed to mount the scoop for them. So, while I’m sure I’ve showed photos like this, this is the final hood, so I’ve gotta do this all right. I learned a lot with the previous hood and its templates, and started boring into the thing.

Pretty nervewracking, but all the holes worked pretty well and the part fits well! Can’t wait to see the metal formed up, and I’ll be excited to share those photos when we have time.

And one more thing scoop related- I got to throw down some paint on the grill dividing the inlet and duct, and it looks sharp. I’m still coming around on the badge, but it does kinda glimmer in there. Not bad if I say so myself.

Next topic- I finally powdercoated a bunch of silver parts, and they’re… alright! Hood prop is on the bottom left, the coil on plug plate in the middle, and “final” airbox is on the topright corner. And well, after getting it together, I’ll be honest, not sure if I’m happy with it. It’s for starters, really heavy, it’s chunky, and having ~20 rivnuts is just kinda messy, so I don’t think this will be the final part. Instead, I’m hoping to redesign the whole thing to be an aluminum part with (professionally) welded seams and rounded edges to make the part a lot more elegant. But- I’ve got cash going to all corners of the universe, and plenty of other things to model, so don’t be too surprised to see this airbox mounted up for a while.

So the next project I want to cover is all the black powdercoat- I’ve been personally blasting and powdercoating most of the small suspension parts that I can fit here- and it’s exciting to know all the details of this car will be properly protected.

But anyways, here’s the payoff from stripping the B-Cord down, the final piece of a trunkload of powdered parts. I had these done professionally, and frankly, the price was really good- about 600 bucks for all seven large pieces, which really isn’t bad for the hours I’m assuming they’ve worked. I’ve literally only had the boldness to unwrap one part, so this will have to be a good enough sneak preview until they’re bolted to the car.

But onto a muuuuch more tedious project- hardware. I really don’t want to use crappy hardware to bolt everything together on a shiny chassis, so I’ve started the uhhhhh “nut and bolt” phase of what has officially become the nut and bolt restoration of a base model Honda Accord. Huh. So, went out to get a quote to get my hardware plated, and it turns out, if I bring them one bolt, it’s the same price as bringing them a five gallon bucket and having four thousand bolts plated. As you will immediately infer, that means I need to take every nut, bolt, clip and weird bracket I can find and have it stripped- because it makes literally no difference to the plating company. As in EVERY, I’ve gone through and emptied out every bolt I’ve ever stashed from a junkyard, all the stuff the B-Cord, as much of the hardware as I’m willing to un-bag from the A-Cord and so on. Which meeeeaaans, I’ve spent like a solid week hunched over the sandblaster- and I’ve more than lost count of how many ten mills I’ve held in oversize rubber gloves. Turns out the Cadmium Dichromate (the cool new words I just learned) will be super dull with the finish that’s currently on the hardware, so fingers crossed that corn husk in a vibratory tumbler (four new words I also just learned) will polish these up and give a much better, glowing finish. Yay for more time and money- but DANG, imagine yellow bolts on stuff, gosh that will look good. Can’t flipping WAIT to sort all that stuff out.

[B0CKS]

Oh, also, fuel neck is gonna get plated. Prolly gonna be kinda dull, but that’s fine.

Okay, so let’s FINALLY talk about what’s been going on at the body shop for the car I’ve been doing all this for. The car has really moved along since I dropped it off and it has been super exciting. Let’s start at the engine bay and keep moving. The bay has been fully welded up as necessary and smoothed, and there’s a pretty large number of clean delete plates in welded in, plugged holes, and check out the added humps that give us a ton more clearance for the upper control arms. Flipping sweeeet.

Then, final paint was laid down in the engine bay, and this photo doesn’t do it NEARLY enough justice as to how smooth and shiny everything is.

Oh, and here’s an odd aside- I went junkyarding! Turns out there was rust on my floorpan that needed to be fixed, and it’d be better to just find a clean OE section over having it fabbed- so guess what- BRRRRRT and the poor sedan in Ann Arbor got blitzed.

See, CHUNK. The rust I had was right in front of that seat reinforcement frame rail, and amazingly, this sedan has absolutely NOTHING left from rust in the rocker, but floorpan was immaculate.

Then, while yes, this is ultimately inconsequential I decided to burn the cash and have the interior sprayed. Arguably not worth it- but we’ve gone this far, might as well keep it up. And, you can’t even tell that that the passenger floorpan is from a tan sedan… or that the rocker is from the B-Cord, and so on!

And lastly, paint was thrown down in the trunk after a quick scuff, and while most of this will be met with sound deadening, feels very nice to have this all as a single color.

Carrying on in Polar White, I also removed the tires and fully sandblasted all four of the turbinas- why? While the paint on them was all fresh (which made stripping them down EONS easier), it was just a few shades off- and frankly, might as well do it right, I can do 90% of the work in house, so- might as well just do it and make the car that much more complete.

[B0CKS]

After a solid weekend of sandblasting, they were bagged and hauled to the shop, and caught paint within the week. Again, photos from the booth aren’t doing them enough justice, but it’s exciting nonetheless!

The next step after throwing down all the Polar white we needed for the interior and engine bay, the next step was the underside. They’ve done a ton of work with rust repair throughout the chassis and got to bring the rotisserie to it’s full use first laying down primer:

Then undercoating! After a huge mental dilemma of having to choose between white or black undercoating, we went with black for sake of long term repairability, as much as white bedliner would be a HUGE flex. Absolute showcar status. But- I gotta live with this thing forever, and since it will indeed be lowered and I will inevitably scrape on things here and there- I wanna make sure I can handle the bare metal that shows up without too much hassle. Anyways- CHECK IT OUT. ITS SO CLEAN. AAAAAAAAAAAAH

After all this, I got the privilege of bringing the car home. Now, as you can tell, the exterior itself is in a rough primer but that’s exactly where we need it right now. The exterior paint work has barely begun. What the plan is now is to get the car to be a near drivable shell- brakes, powertrain, suspension and wire harness in, so that I can then bring it back to the shop as a near complete car, then they’ll be able to hang and align the rest of the panels as necessary, and do it with plenty of experience under their belts. So, with the car being in primer, that means I can load the car with parts as I need to while not worrying about permanently scarring fresh paint- any ding or dent it catches here in the barn can be repaired. Hope that makes sense, but it’s a very exciting chapter! Currently, hardware and wiring are the biggest projects I need to square up, along with some vaporblasting- and I maaaaay source a new gas tank. We’ll see. But that’s the car as it sits at this very moment! Way too geeked to finally see some proper gloss on here!

And carrying on, Lets start with hardware- the corn cob media worked wonders on the hardware, and has just been dropped off to get plated today! Here’s the setup- bolts coming out of the sandblaster, thrown in the polisher, then vetted out after a day of polishing and hand cleaned and tapped all individually then they’re ready to go.

Here's a photo showing just how much a difference the polisher makes, literally takes these from a true matte to a nice sheen! It’s awesome! And, I just finished all the polishing and cleaning at 2am last night, and dropped off the parts to get plated this morning! Hoooopefully they’ll be done before Christmas and I can spend the break ASSEMBLING.

And so- I’ve got the Accord back, but no real hardware to assemble it with. I bought a couple hundred plated 10mms a while ago, so I’ve been able to install a lot of small stuff, a lot of small powdercoated brackets and the sort. And all the GROMMETS. I can’t express how fulfilling it was to be installing brand new grommets on such a clean chassis, the high is UNREAL. Worth pointing out- the washer tank had some grime and undercoating on it from its days on the road, and some steel wool really, really cleaned it up. Still has some yellowing, but considering you can’t get these new, I’m pretty pleased with how this came out.

The lil black grommets really pop in the engine bay, and installing the rywire bulkhead nearly made me ruin a set of pants, everything just looks SO GOOD. Can’t WAIT to get hardware back and put the motor in place.

[B0CKS]

Moving back from the engine bay at this current moment, the interior is also catching its first parts, I restored the center console shift linkage closeout, got a very helpful hand with the fuel and brake lines and dropped in the firewall insulation along with a series of grommets and lil bits. Looking good so far, freaking in love with the contrast.

Same with the rear seat area, I can’t install anything too large yet, but I’m starting to be able to go through my bucket of powdercoated parts and install them, and it’s too satisfying! I hope you like these over-enthusiastic posts, because there’s plenty more where this came from.

Oh! And! I went to Chicago! A three hour drive from Lansing- why? Because PRELUDE. A 2g showed up in an LKQ surprisingly close to me, so I had no choice but to zip down there- I mean, reasons being pretty obvious. I was thankful to have found the car pretty much complete- someone else had grabbed the spoiler and wheels, but the rest was untouched! So I LEPT INTO ACTION.

After a few hours in 20 degree weather I hauled home some good stuff! Factory radio and eq (score!) complete dealer optional fog light setup (with OE switch!!) and of course, another 2G front bumper. Gonna give the shop a plethora of options to choose from! This is my third!

Lastly, I also picked up a bunch of fresh clips and small bits to clean things further, but I’m also excited to say that I ordered (and am trying to patiently wait for) a set of expensive Cheddas rear lower adjustable control arms, something that’s been on the wishlist for an eon or two. Oh, and also, thought I may be buying a CRX for a minute, so I scored a set of OE 14” CRX Si wheels for a decent price. Gonna have the pretty tired tires removed then sandblast and respray them. They’ll probably be a flip, but I may hang on to them for fun.

So that’s where we’re currently at! Can’t wait for BOLTS. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[Dr_Snooz]

You haven't posted in awhile, but you weren't doing nothing. It's all looking great!

[conozo]

Inspirational...........

[B0CKS]

You haven't posted in awhile, but you weren't doing nothing. It's all looking great!

Absolutely! Constantly got you guys on my mind, but rarely have the focus to sit down and bang out a few thousand words to keep the updates constant lmao! Glad to see you checking in, glad you approve!

Inspirational...........

Thanks a ton! Really been flattered with how much the community has appreciated this car as of late- means a ton, thanks man!!

[B0CKS]

Yo! Got some more updates to write up! This time I'm only like a few days late, instead of having a backlog of months!

The Gord and Zord have just been chilling, the B-Cord and A-Cord are all I'm going to be talking about today, so might as well hop into the fray. The B-Cord was pretty much at its end of usefulness, and we'd known for a long time that there was no market for the car as it was, so we ended up at the point that we should scrap it (in the exact fashion of the red Civic, no usable parts, just a rusty, beat shell) and a buddy of mine had it titled it in his name for a minute like a couple years ago and was too booked to get a duplicate, and since we can't recycle a complete car without a title, we decided to do the right thing and just turn the car into chunks. So, a few hours on a brisk morning and here's what we were left with of it:


And, so we dropped off those chunks at our metal recyecling plant and made a healthy 80 dollars (woah), and there ends the epic saga of my first car.

Orrrrrrr did it? Thought had crossed my mind to maaaaaybe keep some barn art around and sneak a chunk of the car away from the scrap yard (well, along with the firewall with the VIN on it). And so here's a fun piece of quarterpanel! Don't really have a plan for it, might hang it up in a friends barn or something! And to answer your question, yes I still have both doors for it! Could definitely donate one to the cause.

And that's... I mean pretty much it for the B-Cord, I mean I really can't imagine too many more posts involving it! So let's move onto the A-Cord- what I'm always supposed to be talking about! Hopping off my last posts, I have acquired hardware and it is BEAUTIFUL. SOOOO psyched up about it! I mean, those of you with eagle eyes I'm sure will recognize some of the specific and unique hardware throughout the pile, but I'll call out some of the cooler stuff in the following images.

First thing I sifted out was the e-brake linkage, which for some reason has been something that has enraptured my brain for no real reason- but I LOVE the way this looks (Still gotta tighten those bolts, I know!)

Another part that is now adorned in gold, is the rear bumper support! I honestly can't believe I had just enough screws (considering the way they love to rust and freeze into place) to fully load the part. Fortunately the front end has a unique set of hardware, so I don't need to worry about that bumper.

The front 2G prelude arms also got a refresh- I had sandblasted and only spraypainted the bodies, so those went through the powdercoating process, and I grabbed the cast banjo bolts (?) that capture the arm from the B-Cord and had those plated, and BOY do these look good. I don't have enough images to show the way these package into the clearance bumps that the shop made, but I can assure you, it is more than enough, another project, done to completion!

[B0CKS]

And speaking of suspension, the cheddas arms finally showed up, which, along with the hardware means the rear suspension can be fully assembled! I resprayed the rear calipers red to match the front Wilwoods (which I personally think looks a bit flashy with all the gold and silver, but I'm not complaining. A lot of powdercoated parts also found their homes with this assembly, which is great! Love seeing this come together.

Still have to mount the rear sway bar, but I think that's going to wait until the car is back from the shop. Freaking love all the clean parts that show here.

Now hopping onto the chassis, the gas tank received a clean then a new layer of undercoating over the old, and was subsequently mounted in the car! Takes a squint, but the plated J hooks and filler neck really pop here! Glad to have it all hooked up!

Then, the front wheel wells as well as the core support also caught a can of undercoating, as much as I loved the white, there's no way it was sustainable in the long term, so I added a layer of protection onto those surfaces. Plus white behind the grille would look super weird. No thanks!

Now for some BIG CHUNKS, with those and some smaller tasks complete, it was finally time for some big installations! The rear subframe was mounted in the car and looks way too cool. Again, a little flashy, but I think it has enough pop to show that it's been gone through with a fine tooth comb. I'd say it's pretty perfect!

The other big project we did that night was to do a (hopefully) final load of the motor and! we rolled it out of storage, swapped the DA reverse switch for a DC2 one by tilting the whole motor at a steep angle with the lift (making all the trans fluid flow into the driver's rear corner of the trans) and removing the old switch, leaving no fluid flowing out of the case and installing the new one. I felt smart. Then we dropped the car around the motor that was onto two wheel casters, cushioned by a seat from the B-cord, got some bolts through the mounts, and BOOM. The crown jewel is in! Also, I had finally gotten a solid layer of paint onto the replacement brake booster, and I have my Dad to thank for giving it a great sand and polish. It doesn't show much here, but the gloss black really pops against the firewall. Finally filling in!

So, last photo of the night, but here's the engine bay after some more fiddling, some of the larger lines are in place, the wiring harness connected, along with the core support. Frankly, some more suspension, the radiator, a few power motors and the bay should be pretty much fully populated. I'm also going to bring this up here as a prelude to future posts, but we've decided to do a brake line tuck- for those of you who know where this is- there's a power antenna mount that my base model car doesn't put to use allllll the way at the top left corner of the firewall almost behind the brake booster. The plan is to put the prop valve there, then run join the rear lines halfway with some hardlines along the inside of the firewall, and make some slim fronts! Gotta clean it all up! But anyways, here's where we're at for now! Can't wait to PEEL THAT TAPE.

I want to make a little asterix here, the motor is only held in by two mounts at the moment, the rear T bracket is floating as the rear subframe is still out of the car at the moment. Now, there were plans to adapt the B series power steering pump to all the factory Accord lines, but due to a very surprising turn of events, A 3Gee Facebook member from Canada very recently reached out to me with a special thing from his parts car- and gave me a lead on a manual steering rack! For those of you who don't know, Canada got a now very rare, very base form of the 3Gee without power steering, and every car in the US came with power steering along with practically all of the Canadian models as well, so I think it's easy to imagine how tough this part is to come across. Naturally I enjoy the perks of a power rack, but would love to empty out the engine bay further, and a manual rack is a great silver bullet for keeping things functional while still emptying out the bay! From my understanding there's some custom bracketry that needs to be done to adapt it to a power steering subframe, but that's right up my alley. I figure with an alloy block instead of a cast iron one (and a general de-cluttering of the bay) there'll be a bit less weight over the front axles which should also alleviate some of the discomfort that comes with a manual rack. So we'll see if that comes through- I, for one, am quite looking forward to it if it all works out, and I'd also love to make that mod NOW, before I've got a huge install I need to deal with.

Anyways, till next time! Thanks for staying tuned!

[bscanlan]

Loving the build man. You’re killing it.

[ShiRen]

How come this guy isn't plugging all of us on manual racks??
What is the difference with the reverse switches?
Also, nice danger sign for the battery.

[B0CKS]

Loving the build man. You’re killing it.

Yo! Thanks a ton man!! Can't express how much the support means to me. Really appreciate it!

How come this guy isn't plugging all of us on manual racks??
What is the difference with the reverse switches?
Also, nice danger sign for the battery.

I'll be honest- I have no idea how I won the crown to be gifted with such a gem as a manual rack- I mean this 100% that the guy came out of the wood work on one of my older facebook posts and says he enjoys the build and has a car that should have one. Sounds like one is all we got, and there's DEFINITELY people I'd assume he'd have gone to first!

To answer the question on reverse switches: Both the older DA integra and newer DC2 use the same two wires coming from the switch going into the trans. The only difference is the connector- the DA has two induvial circle connectors- one for each wire. A lot like those crimp on style ones you can get in off the shelf connector kits. The DC2 uses an actual injection molded plug to house both wires (and therefore, unique pins from the DA, so there's no moving the DC2 style plug onto the DA) and so does the Rywire harness. Since I have a cable trans, it came with the DA switch. Everything's a science!

And haaaa, thanks! Christmas gift I still need to find a home for. Definitely sticking there for now!

[zedries]

I don't know what year I commented last on this thread but I just came here to confirm that the awesomeness continues. Keep it up!

[conozo]

Please take a zillion pictures of the manual steering rack. I dont think one has ever been seen here.

[Dr_Snooz]

...gave me a lead on a manual steering rack!

Holy smoke! That unicorn does exist! I was sure it was an urban legend. Nice score!

[conozo]

Holy smoke! That unicorn does exist! I was sure it was an urban legend. Nice score!

Forget the JDM goodies, CDM is where its at.

[Fixedit]

I'm so happy you have the time for this project...I love seeing this. Every corner I go around you're like "Well I went ahead and did EVERYTHING" Lmao I love it. Exactly all the stuff I'd be telling myself "I should do it this way" but would end up going the "easy" route due to time/funds. So it's satisfying seeing one of these cars get SPOILED ROTTEN Lol you're on your way to stardom with this thing!

[B0CKS]

Heyo! Want to start this out with an apology for not logging on sooner, I caught the comments you guys made here and it REALLY means a lot. Each one brought a huge smile to my face, and seeing you guys light up about this car is something I don’t take for granted! I’ve got some updates that have been hopping in and out of my drafts folder for a hot minute now, and I think I’m finally at a good point to be caught up with both writing and changes that have been made to the car!

Let’s start with the good stuff, The main Accord has been moving steadily forward- I’ll be sure to show some photos, but the engine bay is now pretty well packed, the list of things it needs is getting pretty slim-the master cylinder, a radiator, a wiper motor and some headlight motors are most of what’s left. Definitely getting close to the final look for the car. The biggest part that was loaded into the car since last week was the wiring harness- and that wasn’t a simple plug and play like multiple other parts of the car- it needed a thorough once over upon installation, a good portion of the harness needed to be re-sheathed, wiring paths had to be decided, and there’s also other harnesses I need to integrate. But let’s just talk about the picture below. One thing I want to point out is the new path over the wheel arch- it’s been lifted up over the seam weld so that I know for a fact it won’t be in danger if (no wait, when) I bottom out the car. The pop-up foglight harness has also been integrated- fully re-wrapped and brought into the main looms. It’ll take a few P clips before it’s fully seated and at home, but it’s nice to have that inboard of the main loom and not just floating. Also, swapped on the correct distributor for coil on plug, so that’s good! Check it off. And, another thing to mention is the airbox. Been staring at it, and I think what we may ultimately do is 3D print it- frankly, it looks really clunky in the engine bay, and I having the design liberty to just make a streamlined shape that’s elegant and styled would really up the quality of the part, and while I was considering welded aluminum as a step up, a print would really be a quality move.

The driver’s side harness is so much less to manage, and received the same lift around the arch, so I’ll use this photo to show off the front crash bar and fog light brackets (which admittedly are super hard to see at this point) but I gotta say, fresh powdercoat sure rubs me the right way, really geeked to see it in place. You can also see both fog lights pointing down from the their zip-tied positions on the mounting brackets, definitely useful for keeping them where I want them. The headlight buckets are going to be out of the car for quite some time, shop has the main connecting brackets to paint white, so no eyeballs until the shop gets to it.

Okay so this picture shows you nothing with the black floormats there, SO, I’ll use my words to explain as much as I can. The body harness obviously connects across the firewall, and thanks to a pretty tremendous effort by a friend of mine, it is now full wrapped in loom, and can be edited as necessary. If that sounds minor; poke your head under your dash and look behind your fusebox- yeah- that ball of yarn? That’s been all cleaned up thanks to him. I appreciate it immensely. I’ve also started the integration of four more looms- the air ride harness needs to be integrated as necessary, same with the cockpit, inverter and subwoofer setup. Also hard to see, but the cockpit harness was de-pinned and fed up the A-pillar after being sheathed (that is a TIGHT environment, and running just wiring up there would have it get shredded nearly immediately), you can see it hanging from the ceiling on the passenger side (still wrapped in duct tape with the guiding wire I used to pull it up the A-Pillar)- I’m planning on cutting two holes on each side of the rear view mirror allowing the antennae and main harness poke through to the cockpit. Fingers crossed it works well.

Looking rearward, there’s a new harness in town, and that’s the combination of the subwoofer and air ride harness! You’d have to go way back in this thread to see the bundle of wires that lived there originally, but let’s just say it was a bit of a mess getting the air ride harness to package proper, like it fit the space, just looked awful. But now, after rewrapping everything, that harness fits the place perfectly, the relays in each corner of the wheel liner stamping fit well, and the main bundle tucks between the brake line and seat support perfect! Very clean and tidy, just how I like it! There’s still a couple sub-harness’ left I still need to sort, but that was a big one!

I’ve also been re-developing my foglight bracket, and to do that, I need a bumper on the car, so that was clipped into place using a (now) spare bumper and the older adapter plate I made. I’m still pretty geeked with how well it hangs obviously the corners sag without the fifth/sixth reinforcement point, but it’s all good) And I was able to drastically tighten up the fitment of the foglight into the bumper. If you look at this photo vs my first fog light brackets, there’s a HUGE difference in fitment. So I’ve ordered the final versions of those, along with a lasercut radiator lower support (as opposed to my crappy fab’d part from years back), and some freshly designed front tow hooks to make up for the lack thereof from the cheddas traction bar. So those will be arriving soon, and I’m excited to get them bent, coated, and on the car!

Now, if you can tell what you’re looking at in this photo at a glance, holy cow, NERD. If you can’t, that’s fine! After much staring, we’ve started in on the brakeline tuck! Step one was rebuild the prop valve, so it’s now much cleaner, the factory bracket has been flattened and powdercoated, and new fittings are loaded into place to ensure a solid seal. I also added spare nuts onto the retainer bolts that hold the two sides together, there were a lot of metal shavings from when I took the two halves apart, and just to be safe, I added some extra security. This is the factory prop valve, and I’ve rotated it to live up under the top left corner of the dash, utilizing the un-used power antennae motor mount. I’m going back and rebending every line needed to make this thing fit (although we spliced the rear lines in half, saving me a lot of material, and bending hours since those work already!). I’ve still got a handful of lines to bend, and re-bend to make sure I’m happy with them, but as much as I’ve been dreading this, it’s been going fairly well.

So something much simpler that’s been moving along is the shift linkage, which caught a massive upgrade due to the generosity from my Dad over Christmas. For those of you who don’t know- this is a Dyno Designs Tyrannosaur Tightener (which I think is a very weird motif to have for your company, but who I am I to judge), a moderately expensive- but HIGHLY worthwhile mod. This removes the part commonly known as the bitch pin and replaces it with an easy to use coder pin, along with a milled aluminum housing over the factory casting, with improved bushings. We also did this upgrade to the 87 Civic a while back- and turned the car from nearly literally undrivable to an absolute pleasure! I’ve gone through and rebuilt the main ball of the shifter, along with new rubber bushings front and rear, and the shift rods have just finished absorbing a simple coat of black paint and clear- while it’s not the same powdercoated perfection that most of the other parts received, the linkage was in good shape, the original coating solid, but just kinda scuffed up. But- between new paint, some cad plated hardware, fresh bushings, new shift linkage connector, intact boots, and that quality teg shift knob, I’d say this is pretty much a sorted part!

Okay, before we move on, I have a very silly idea I need you guys to sanity check for me, because I’m on a perfect 50/50 split, I think I really like this, but this may also just be a little too much. I’ve kinda wanted to do this for an eon, but never quite found the right moment to leap on it, but this is my window, right now. The idea is this. Rear sun visors. Feel free to spit out your drink. I don’t need to explain it much, but basically, for no reason in particular, I just like the idea. I think there’s this super period feeling to it that would just kinda make sense for the time, an option that’s just a little out in left field, but not too far out to be obscene. I own, like at least, six sun visors. I have plenty, and the idea would just be to take two more front ones and mount them in the rear upper corners of the C-Pillar, as seen below. I wouldn’t be using them too much, if it all, so function isn’t the priority here, but I just think it’d be a fun quirk to add to the bizarre list of features (that was for you, Mr. Demoru) this vehicle has been riddled with. I wouldn’t rate it as eye-catching or anything of the sort, but just an added easter egg for those who spend a longer time staring the car down. Also, since they’re just fronts, there’s still a gap for the rear-view mirror, which means I could still use my mirror if they were both flipped straight back.


EDIT: Sorry again for the flipped over images! I have a theory on what's up with it, just need to put it in practice!

[B0CKS]

After much thought, I think I’m going to do this; I’ll drill a bunch of holes in my car (the photos below are evidence), throw in the four M4 rivnuts needed to hold the visors, drill the main hole to fit the retention spring on each side, and then bolt two sun visors to the car as is. So far, none of that has cost me a single extra dime. If I wake up tomorrow to a hyper compelling argument to why they absolutely can’t go there, I’ll simply install the headliner, and there won’t be any evidence that they were ever there. No harm, no foul. If end up leaning towards the thought that they’re silly enough to be fun, and I’d like to keep ‘em around, then sure! Everything’s ready to go. I dunno’- you tell me. Bridge too far? Or does it fit in with the weird Carrozzerias, Cockpit, and other oddities of the inside of this car?

Oh! And another thing! Tires are back on the Manarays! They’ll be staying in storage until the car is fully painted, but they’re ready to go, and look STELLAR.


That's all I've got on the A-Cord! In other news, out of the woodwork, someone is very interested in the Z-Cord! Which means I need to get on it ASAP to do the work it takes to get it done. A while back I sorted out a deal for a spare transmission from another (local!) member of the group that I was hoping to use to one of the primary issues with the car. I recently got to go over to the dude’s place and hang out, and it was really cool to spend an evening nerding out with someone who’s as passionate as I am about our platform. But, these projects take time, and it will admittedly be quite some time before he’s able to pull his, so I’ve started poking around on other routes. Another state-local member is parting out her auto, carbd sedan with a motor and trans that’s barely crossed 75k. I’d like to just grab the entire drivetrain as the Z-Cord has a comfortable 175, and make for a very reliable driving experience for the next guy. While compression is solid on the current motor, it does leak oil, and we’re pretty sure the alternator is dead, and frankly, it’ll be more of a hassle to swap transmissions over entire engines. So hopefully that pans out, we’ll see! But, with getting the car ready to go, I swapped the steelies that the car came with back onto the body (not letting go of my Prelude hubcaps yet!) as well as the factory console and gave it a wash that’s been a bit overdue. And, there’s only one thing you can do when a car is clean, and that’s grab the camera for a couple shots! So, here’s a few quick angles!




And, since no update that I write can just make sense and be about one topic, here’s some pretty sweet results from another project that I’ve been chipping away at since the dawn of time- the tweeter project! Very, very excited to be sharing this, for some reason, playing with this 3D print in person has just been super cool. Let’s start talking details, how this works, and what I still need to change. Now, obviously, the point of this part it tuck away the tweeters from a component speaker, and I really didn’t want to have the ever-obvious holes drilled into a panel, it’d just look too cheap, so here’s the waaaaay too complex solution I’ve been poking at, I know I shared a few images of the data forever ago, so you long time listeners will recognize this. Here’s the part loosely placed on one of the doors from the B-cord, you do need to cut out a section of the panel to make it flush, but perspective tricks are enough for now! Here’s how it looks with the rest of the door- I think the theme works well with the rest of the door, for being a retro-active fix, I think it’ll blend nicely to not call too much attention to itself.

Now, Plan A was to have the grille wrapped in the factory speaker cloth, but upon 2 seconds of trying to make that work, there’s no way that’s going to happen. I didn’t intend for the grille pattern to be visible (and I know a lot of people like the circular holes), but- if I’m not going to be using cloth, I want to redesign the grille to speak to the rest of the car better- most likely taking cues from the AC vents it lives near? But that’s TBD, I need to sketch on it!

One of the features I’m excited to be integrating is a way to illuminate the door handle, I’m always worried that lighting can be corny, but I think this is a pretty subtle way to bring make the interior a bit fancier without being too much. I’ve designed these bezels to fit two grain of wheat bulbs which gives it a nice calm glow, but these are rated for 1.5v, and would get incinerated at a steady 12v output, and simplicity is key, I really don’t want to have to add a whole chip, or row of capacitors to try and stunt power. So plan B is grab an LED and center it in the handle. Since it’s much brighter I’m going to be reducing the size of the slit for light to leak through, physically restricting the amount of light that comes through the handle.

[B0CKS]

And pardon the potato grade photo, low-light doesn’t play well with my camera, but here’s the jist of the lighting with the twin halogen setup. The LED is a much cooler light, but I think won’t oversaturate the space if I control the slit properly.

I have more photos I can share, but I’m going to make a series of changes first before this part is seen again, so stay tuned on that front!

Also, I hate mission creep! This is how it always goes. I’ve had this little murmer of a thought that’ll pass through my head some 10:30 odd time at night, it’ll rattle around for MONTHS until I somehow find an odd evening to flesh it out a little, and then the next few weeks I’ll be absolutely consumed figuring out how to make whatever part or concept I have come to fruition. And now normally, that’s a good thing! That’s what’s been my driving force for the tweeter project, and so many other odd parts on this vehicle (another example is clear turn signals for the Prelude bumper- it’s lead me down to learning a LOT about mold making and casting, as well as a bunch about resin 3D printing, at the expense of many hours of sleep. But more on that much later). But what if that same process happens on… well- not a bad idea, but something that really should not be a priority at the moment? Like, maybe over-fenders for example? That’s right. I’m not sure when or why I wanted to do this, but I’ve always liked the look of E30’s, or E36’s and some simple overfenders to fit some more tread. So- call it an hour of clicking later to come up with the idea, and MAN- I am ENRAPTURED.

They wouldn’t be much, just two flares over the belt line on the car, keep it simple. But then, after doodling it, the more I thought about it, I could TOTALLY do that. I could 100% do that. (Not on the A-Cord, that car is far too nice to be chopping out the quarters, and I like the Manarays too much.) But, listen- I have EXACTLY what I’d need for it- I’d need to get a car 3D scanned-specifically a quarter panel and fender, and guess what I have sitting behind a barn, the answer is about halfway up this very forum post. I have the chunks of the B-Cord, a perfect buck to form panels onto. Jeez, lighting strike! There’s two ways I could go about this, I could hand form the kit in foam and have that scanned, or just scan the blank body and build something strictly in data and save myself the mess of foam. THEN, once I’ve got data made, I could probably call up my college and since they’ve got huge mills for milling students car designs, I could probably sneak a way into there and make bucks, then it’s just a problem of laying fiberglass! SEE. This is what happens, brain just starts spooling up and now I want to do this.

So should this ever become a reality? Nah. But who knows. I could keep it in the back of my mind. If I were to pursue it, I think the build would go like this- I’d love to find an LX-I coupe (probably just a decent shell), cut out the rust, find a pre-built B20 (probably with a turbo), drop that in, gut the interior and just put some MEAT on the wheels. I could let myself cut a lot of corners, and also use a lot of parts I have sitting around to spice it up (carbon fiber hood, Prelude bumpers, spare 3D printed spoiler, you name it!) to make it sweet, and have something I’d be less worried about whipping on a track, and with a decent amount of power. That said, I’m plenty thin on cash, and more than drenched in terms of projects.

So anyways, fun mind games- who knows what will or wont come to fruition.

Oh and one more thing! Another project washed up on our shores, we just picked up this 2006 BMW 530 IX from a friend of my Dad’s for FREE! Long story short, Dealership wanted like 8k to do some suspension work to the car and fix other minutia, and the guy who owned the car said even fixing it all then listing it wouldn’t make him any money, and he was already moving onto a new car, so somehow- it ended up in our hands! We’re going to be tearing through the maintenance checklist and most likely flipping it for cash towards our 68 Lemans. So if you see it floating around in the background, that’s the story.


Double also, still in contact with the manual steering rack guy. It’s Canada, in winter, and he says it’s going to be under 15 feet of snow for quite some time. Still biting at that lead though! Photos WILL come once I have them!

I gotta’ say, I know I’ve been kinda slipping with updates, they come in bursts lately, over the steady Monday posts that I had going for a minute, and that’s because DANG, if I slip at all, this becomes like a two or three hour long exercise! I’m not the fastest writer and it is SO easy to get distracted by stuff, so I apologize if I leave any comments hanging or update infrequently! I read and adore each one and this forum is constantly on my mind. Appreciate you guys, I swear I’m around!

[Dr_Snooz]

Wide body kit for a 3g Accord? Hmmmmm......

PS: not really feeling the rear visors. But it's not my car so do what you think is best.

[B0CKS]

Wide body kit for a 3g Accord? Hmmmmm......

PS: not really feeling the rear visors. But it's not my car so do what you think is best.

Nah, I hear you there, in and out of love with them every other day.

Maybe in some distant different future! Been shopping around a bit, and it'd be really nice to pack some 15x10.5"s wrapped in some 275/35/r15s around a CA, and finally have enough grip for all that A20 power!

[B0CKS]

Alright! Trying to stay up to date on this! Haven’t been near the car much this past week and am only writing short sentences, so forgive the lack of hard and fast “progress”. But, still wanna make a post so I can get a lead on it for next week!

Fact is, I’ve been crunching numbers and just saving about as much as I can, making as much as I do in a year- I’ll be able to get the car back to the bodyshop in ~September in more or the less the state that it’s in right now to get the rest of the paint finished. Which basically means I have months and months to do a relatively short list of projects, so I’m gonna be pretty spaced out on progress. So expect a lot of digital updates- I’ll have good amounts of time to model stuff, print and reprint, and hopefully square up side projects.

Which leads me perfectly to the first project, the (like…fifth) redesign of the airbox, this time as a 3D print! I think I already wrote this, but in short, current airbox is suuuuper clunky looking, a print gives me acres more design freedom, thus- it’s going for a redesign! I’ve got the math started on it, and looking from the rear view forward, here’s about the jist of the shape. Biggest change from “box” I want to make is adding chamfers around both edges, and then adding a large strip of foam to the top of the box. I think the thin tape of weatherstripping I had didn’t include enough jounce for my motor mounts (and the LUDICRIS AMOUNTS OF POWER) so I’m going the old school route and just added a fro to the top of the box. Taking notes from muscle cars, like shaker hoods, or classic Ram Air air cleaners. (my hood included for fun):

Then as for the front- I’d like to utilize that design freedom to do SOMETHING with, rather than just a blank wall. I’ve been trying to look at factory airboxes, intake tubes, and the VTEC Valve Cover for inspiration, and would like to do something that at least fakes the look of a believable “factory” part. I don’t think I’ve found THE theme for it yet, so I need to put some more sketches together, but here’s a first barrage into what I’m thinking.

Pointing out my favorites here, seems like first pick (a bit of a crowd favorite, according to friends and family) is this here- the side cover still needs to be removable, and while we considered factory A20 air cleaner retainers, alans, the idea with this is that it uses a bit of a rail system and a key, so all you need to do is pluck the little red guy out of the front, and the side slides forward and off to access the filter. No tools necessary! I like the simplicity, and spark of red would be a cool touch (or maybe yellow or something???)

Second theme that I’m kinda digging is the waffle design, very much a factory look. And while its not perfectly “clean” I think you at a glance it has the right look to it, and I could probably go further to add texture to wrap the side as well. A few of these have blocks of text on them, and I’ve been getting into building models lately, and want to put decals on everything, so HYA. That said- having Honda on the airbox is kinda redundant since the valve cover says it better, and I don’t think being repetitive with it will do much good, so that detail will probably be nixed, but I do like the look for the sake of sketches.

In third place, I was toying with the idea of putting like trans-tunnel wrap over the face to give the airbox a sorta functional pop. I like it in my mind’s eye, but it definitely goes a bit too far into showcar/racecar territory for my liking, although it’d look at home in like a SEMA booth or something. Maybe I’ll print 2 lmao.

So I’m still I’m sketching on it, and will probably have more work to show as we go, but in the meantime- what do you guys like? Any of these stand out?

Also got some digital work in the mail, a fresh shipment from sendcutsend! Got my final fog brackets, inner radiator support, and front tow hooks! I need to bend and powdercoat all of these, but getting them is half the fun. I cut the tow hooks out of AR500 and plan to use our hydraulic press as a ghetto break to give the part a rounded bend that doesn’t stress the metal, we’ll see how it goes! All the mild stuff I can just bend with the regular press break, as we normally do!

Since I haven’t been near the actual Accord, I’ve been in my apartment, which is were the Gord is stored, and well, I’ve decided I want to figure why it isn’t starting. In short, turn the key, and every system works, except the starter. Doesn’t even make a click. I bump started the car and drove it once, but since then it’s just sat. So, I’m on a rampage to get that sorted! I’ve been poking around to find issues with the circuit, and I think I found my culprit- this relay! Bench tested it over the weekend- and as far as we can tell- it’s toast. I ordered a new one, and need to check continuity from the relay wiring to the starter as the final leg of the journey, but I’ve got my fingers crossed that I’ve found the source.

That’s most of it! Long term updates- the A-Cord is mostly stuck in the water while I wait for Canada to thaw so we can work with the manual rack, hopefully going to pull the powertrain out of Misty’s sedan this Saturday for the Zord, and as for widebodies, I found a guy who’s willing to scan a car, make molds and lay carbon if I provide the data to him for about 1.5-2k! Let’s me do what I know, and then takes the part I know nothing about and put it in a pros hands! In the meantime, while waiting for all this to come together, I’ve been a bit in the dumps as I haven’t been making proper progress on the car- so, I did what any sane guy would do, and took an older picture of the B-Cord and (very crudely) shopped it have the basic look of the completed car. And you know what? It worked wonderfully, I am once again motivated.

Till next time!

[Jinnai]

It looks pretty much like a Prelude

[B0CKS]

It looks pretty much like a Prelude

It pretty much is