Bagged B18 '88 DX Coupe Build!

[B0CKS]

So, the Accord hasn't been making much serious progress with my brother's Equinox in main project mode, but that doesn't mean I haven't had the itch in the meantime, so I've been distracted and venting that energy elsewhere!:

basically, I know there's only one complete 3gee 3D model floating around, and that's from Gran Turismo 4. But I've never seen only anyone rip it, so I figured it'd be fun to build myself and dust off some of the old Sketchup skills. And so it's getting there, this is only two days of work! I don't think it's going to be "fully detailed" or game ready or anything, but hey, at least it'll be a model of a 3gee, so that counts for something.

Neat.

[Fixedit]

That is so cool! I'd love to learn and build the skills necessary to design like that..

[B0CKS]

That is so cool! I'd love to learn and build the skills necessary to design like that..

Haha, thanks man! All it took for me was curiosity! I downloaded sketchup half on accident in Middle School and I've just been fascinated by it ever since! It's an absurdly easy program to pick up, and a great way to start learning how to design stuff!

P.S. I moved the 3D modelling thread here so that this thread doesn't get bogged down and (too) sidetracked!: https://www.3geez.com/forum/3geez-ac...6-3gee-3d.html

[B0CKS]

Gave myself a big early birthday present, and decided to get all the parts needed for tunes! I've already got a Kenwood stereo and an RF amp, so I decided to go through and upgrade the rest of the speakers themselves! And I have plans (as mentioned) to build a rear subwoofer box and custom center console setup for the 4" midrange and 10" subs, so that's where those are going! As for those four solo tweeters I'm planning on 3D printing bezels that will match the door handle closeout for those! I've got them designed, just gotta get stuff moving on fabrication! That said, here's everyone's favorite sight- boxes!!!


And all emptied out:


And so that's the plan for tunes! In other news the B-Cord got a good cleaning, welded an exhaust leak, fixed a headlight wiring issue and resolved the issues with the subwoofer, it was nice to give that some wrenching time! The DD is much happier!

[B0CKS]

Heyo! Check it out! The engine bay is getting close to its final look with this weekend getting almost all the hoses and tubes tightened into place, the the throttle linkage being hooked up, distributor being buttoned up, vacuum system getting built and clutch cable finding it's place home. Most of what's left at this point is taking care of the wiring harness (with a big thanks to Shane86 for making that whole experience look a whole let less intimidating with a few very helpful pointers!) some odds and ends, fluids and its go time! Cant wait to discover some rod knock!


(In this picture below, it's pretty easy to see the simple vacuum diagram; one solid larger line goes to the brake booster then on the passenger side there's a T inlet with one end going to the PCV hose, and the other to the distributor advance- leaving the retard just plugged for now, it's a super simple system, I hope it works!)

We'll do more engine bay cleanup (removing brackets, filling unused bolt holes) when we teardown the car again for its two stage paint, so I'm looking forward to that, but for now we just need to get it running!

And in other news, and after a brief measurement from my old car, I've found out that the Mitsubishi Starion/Chrysler Conquest shift boot fits the 3Gee pretty dang well! I just trapped the boot with the OEM screw in metal surround, and it looks all sorts of stock! Love it! The last touch is to get a DA integra shift knob, and then that'll be done!


We're getting there! Unfortunately there's going to be a bit of a hiatus here coming up, I've got a lot of booked weekends coming up! But- till next time!

[B0CKS]

Hey everyone, how’s it going? I got some more minor work done on the Accord, and I wanted to share it with you! It’s about cable management again, I wasn’t quiiiite happy with how the throttle cable was still pretty long when I realized I could just segment out the middle with a Dremel. I had my spare carb throttle linkage sitting around, so I chopped off the barrel then cut out the middle surround, exposing just wire.

Then I cut the end off the removed sheath, and then used an out piece of conduit (from the middle I just cut out) to join the now drastically shortened end and start of wire. The end of the linkage had sheathing running all the way up to the cut line, so I trimmed it back so the linking sheath could reinforce it.

And then I used electrical tape to hold the new joint together and blam! The “new” cable is more than half as short as it was.

And in all honesty, it’s a little too short! It currently covers up the cap of the brake booster/master cylinder, and so I’ll trim down the fuel injected linkage I have just a bit, and it should be perfect! Everything is easy!

And in other news, I think I finally figured out the look I want for the Prelude seats, I want them to appear OEM, but be enough different from everything else that they’re just extra sharp. So the plan is to use a brown vinyl for the back of the seat (matching the DX) and then a brown cloth for the surround and headrest of the Prelude Seat (also probably matching a DX seat). Then the center being the most different, I’m hoping to find a very dark grey central cloth with repeating horizontal slightly less dark grey stripes, taking influence from EF9 Civic seats. Then I’ll get black floormats so that the floor and central black seat stripe run into each other for each seat. And if none of that made sense, here’s a quick sketch I made for my plans. The rears will obviously follow that same pattern, but the fronts are what’s most important to me!

Till next time!

[B0CKS]

The carbon fiber hood is here! @apache07x were finally able to wrangle Fastenal into shipping it, and now it's my problem to sort out!
It's certainly got some battle damage, but I paid-2-500 dollars less a new one, so it's what I expected! Plus I get to learn how to fix carbon fiber, and that just sounds cool. I like the look of it more than I should, and I'm debating on what I am/am not going to do about painting it. For now I'm going to be tackling making it smooth, shiny object again, and we'll play the rest by ear!

Here's how I got it:

And a quick wash to see what we have:

The worst of it is near the drivers headlight door where someone most likely took a DA and just ground through the clear and a ton of the fabric to try and get the dullness out, and went straight through everything. I'm seeing if it'll be worth it to try and patch, or just learn to accept some things are just the way they are! But that said, I couldn't express how cool it is to see this project with a hood, it's been so long since this vehicle had any sort of engine cover! I've already took down a lot of the grit with 400, and the damage seems pretty fixable if resin is as easy of material as I think it is!


So I'm geeked! I didn't realize how much I like the look of carbon fiber on these cars, but this is pretttty neat!

And in other news, a prominent member of the Facebook page kindly gave up his EQ bezel (for money!) for my antics about a custom speaker setup. My Dad- who knows all things- has been concerned about phase and just general oddness from twin 4" speakers next to eachother, so I might end up getting another subwoofer. But for now, it's good to know at least this plan could work!

[apache07x]

The carbon fiber hood is here! @apache07x were finally able to wrangle Fastenal into shipping it, and now it's my problem to sort out!
It's certainly got some battle damage, but I paid-2-500 dollars less a new one, so it's what I expected! Plus I get to learn how to fix carbon fiber, and that just sounds cool. I like the look of it more than I should, and I'm debating on what I am/am not going to do about painting it. For now I'm going to be tackling making it smooth, shiny object again, and we'll play the rest by ear!

Here's how I got it:

And a quick wash to see what we have:

The worst of it is near the drivers headlight door where someone most likely took a DA and just ground through the clear and a ton of the fabric to try and get the dullness out, and went straight through everything. I'm seeing if it'll be worth it to try and patch, or just learn to accept some things are just the way they are! But that said, I couldn't express how cool it is to see this project with a hood, it's been so long since this vehicle had any sort of engine cover! I've already took down a lot of the grit with 400, and the damage seems pretty fixable if resin is as easy of material as I think it is!


So I'm geeked! I didn't realize how much I like the look of carbon fiber on these cars, but this is pretttty neat!

And in other news, a prominent member of the Facebook page kindly gave up his EQ bezel (for money!) for my antics about a custom speaker setup. My Dad- who knows all things- has been concerned about phase and just general oddness from twin 4" speakers next to eachother, so I might end up getting another subwoofer. But for now, it's good to know at least this plan could work!

Man sorry that the hood got to you like that. You saw how I did have it packed up on a pallet. But I'd expect no less from Fastenal after the call asking for permission to ship it. SMH

[B0CKS]

Man sorry that the hood got to you like that. You saw how I did have it packed up on a pallet. But I'd expect no less from Fastenal after the call asking for permission to ship it. SMH

No worries man! Still excited for it, and happy to have one! Just like anything, it should be able to be fixed!

[Shane86]

That hood is dope sucks it got damaged during shipping

[Fixedit]

Duuude yes, hood is killer. I wouldn't paint it, looks too good haha. If you need another EQ bezel I have one for sale (with an EQ in it! But I can take that out and put it in the CD player if you ever need the bezel). It's coming together man! Love it

[B0CKS]

Duuude yes, hood is killer. I wouldn't paint it, looks too good haha. If you need another EQ bezel I have one for sale (with an EQ in it! But I can take that out and put it in the CD player if you ever need the bezel). It's coming together man! Love it

Haha, thanks man! I know! I'm super torn about the hood, I'd really like to start checking off some larger boxes on the car and didn't expect the hood to be another restoration project, but I do reaaaally like how it looks! You might convince me! And about the bezel- while I can't promise anything, I'll certainly keep your offer in mind! I sincerely appreciate you offering, especially when you've got such a cool pair of parts you'll be pulling apart! Thanks!

[B0CKS]

That hood is dope sucks it got damaged during shipping

Stuff happens! Apache and I both realized we were dealing with a low quality service and so it's not too surprising! But it looks repairable, so I'm sure we'll be good down the road!

[Shane86]

Stuff happens! Apache and I both realized we were dealing with a low quality service and so it's not too surprising! But it looks repairable, so I'm sure we'll be good down the road!

Yea man it's all good you will have it looking good soon

[B0CKS]

Alright. It's been too long, and this thread has grown way too much rust, just look at the timestamps from here to now! Lots to catch up on! The Accord fell out of focus, but is now back in the scope, so it's time to get this blog back up and running! I'll start off with the Civic. This is going to be a few seemingly distracted posts, but I think this all comes together quite nicely, lets dig in!

The trip from California was amazing, totally incredible, lived up to every minute of the hype! 11 states, 3000 miles, and 0 mechanical issues from my bone stock Civic, my girlfriend and I could write a novel on it, but that's not quite for this forum, so I'll just show you some awesome bone-stock-Civic footage!
Here's leaving Vegas, day two! Awesome weather, and we were just learning that attacking mountains at 35 mph in third gear at 4000 RPM was as good as it would get!

Zion National Park was Amazing:

And I ran into the president of the company I work for on the road at Marble Canyon just outside the Grand Canyon:

And of course, Marble Canyon was so cool;

The million dollar highway in Colorado lived up to its name, (we made that D15 work HARD for it's way through there!)

But being limited to my picture limit and being worried about getting off track means that I'll just say everything past the great planes was... less overwhelming than the West Coast! So we got home A-Okay, unloaded the various rare 3G parts I had picked up along the way, and we enjoyed a nice evening finally stretching our legs! But bigger, much bigger plans were in the works, because by the next day, Skunk2 coilovers, Skunk2 Front and rear UCAs and a DA Integra lip, and those TE37s from so long ago had already found their way onto this car. Things were starting to get good!


But what comes next? Keep scrolling!

[B0CKS]

A painfully reliable D15B2 is cool, but knowing me, I suck at leaving Hondas intact and functional, and thats when a very, very good deal for 900 bucks showed up a mere two hours away, so we grabbed a trailer, and bought ourselves and engine.

Well. An engine isnt the right word for it. This 900 dollar deal happened to be a 1988 Civic Si with a JDM B16a swap LSD trans, and so many little things I had been looking for for my Civic, so I introduce you to my parts car. The frame was more than full of rust, but everything else? Pretty nice condition, and I knew that by removing the one rotten part on this car (the shell), I could help other people keep their cars on the road, and undo the damage I do to my wallet swapping my Civic.



And the real meat and potatoes of why I bought it, the B16A:

[Hash_man_Se_i]

I love your Accord build. Glad to see it still progressing.
Just curious, what is the thought behind the speakers in the center console? Why not focus on better door speakers and placement of tweeters etc.? The location of those will not be ideal for imaging of any sort.

Was following your Civic adventures on instagram/fb. That's a nice little hatch! I also can't blame you for picking the b16a donor up... for that price, how could you pass it up!

[B0CKS]

And so, lets just keep hitting fast forward here and wrap this up; so BOOM, engine restored and all necessary maintenance done, timing belt, clutch, etc etc, and brought back to looking great:

And as the car, to this day, selling parts off of it (I have some I'm still looking to sell), no engine and trans has given me back 1500 bucks, more than what I paid for it, but that's because we tore it DOWN:



(thanks, 30 bucks in scrap)
But anyways, back fast forwarding, the swap goes in, kicks tons of butt, has a great build list, D2 headers, HKS exhaust, Skunk2 for most of the suspension, Hasport mounts, tons of goodness. The Blue Civic took a few tries to get it all working, but made it RadWood Detroit and made a great impression.


The car rips, you gallop down highways, get sore legs from a stiff clutch, but I always left the car smiling, and found it a great experience in getting more comfortable with B-Series swaps, and how much fun a project can be with some careful planning and trying getting the right stuff. Even on a bit of budget, this car was everything and more I wished it was!

But, I'm sure you've noticed I'm talking in the past-sense. Its December now, and I'm about two weeks Civicless. That's right. Sold it! I got the car working great, sincerely enjoyed it, but then it came to me, I had finished building it! I like to wrench on stuff, I'm not much of driver to be honest, and I realized my Accord had been gathering dust all this time. The Civic was ultimately a distraction, and I had to get my head on straight. So I did.


The car sold for $4000. As soon as I listed it, it practically sold itself, but that transaction led me to entertain an Idea I hadn't expected to ever come true. The guy who bought the car included a very special something in the trade I would've never expected, but am very excited to announce...

[B0CKS]

That I am going to be building, from bottom up, a Type R engine for my Accord!

The Civic left me with a pretty decent fistfull of cash, and a block to spend that cash on. Now, this has a ton of connotations, the first FAQ to be answered is- yes. My B18B1 with twin Webers is unfortunately going to be pulled, and up for sale soon. It's a bit of a kick in the teeth to see a lot of money spent, and getting so close, being so patient, only to pull that block. I love how it looks, but I'm driven for my car to be the coolest thing I can make, and the thought of putting what is most likely Honda's greatest engine into my car is something I simply can't walk away from. This obviously throws my completion date another year down the road, but that's fine by me, I'm nothing but excited! The block will be restored to as stock as possible, 190hp is more than enough than the 92 I'm used to, and as for the big aesthetic choices? OEM (Powdercoated) wrinkle Red Valve Coated, and I've sadly decided to lose the gold firewall in exchange- it would just be too much at once unfortunately. But this is the next chapter of this never ending project, so lets go!


And so, with the big news out of the way, and stay tuned placed- It's time to migrate to some of the smaller details I've been working on in the meantime!

[B0CKS]

I love your Accord build. Glad to see it still progressing.
Just curious, what is the thought behind the speakers in the center console? Why not focus on better door speakers and placement of tweeters etc.? The location of those will not be ideal for imaging of any sort.

Was following your Civic adventures on instagram/fb. That's a nice little hatch! I also can't blame you for picking the b16a donor up... for that price, how could you pass it up!

Thanks man! Been too long since I've been around! It was a sweet hatch! Just sold it, and hadn't gotten the word out on social media yet, but dude it was such a fun build!

Haha, I have good news then! The center speaker idea has been scrapped since! After actually thinking about, you're quite right, center midranges would just wash out stereo, and in hindsight not that great of an idea haha, but as you can probably tell from this ADD powered thread, I just enjoy taking an afternoon to design a thing or too, and only after making it I learn I might not be on the right path! And since you follow my instagram page, I think you might already know what other thing I'll be adding to this thread in a second!

[B0CKS]

So one of the coolest things that happened during September of this year is that I finally found out the name of my favorite eclectic speaker model. I had first seen it on the 3geez Facebook page, someone had spotted a sedan with a set of these, and after doing an impressive amount of googling and asking, I had finally found them, and with an accidental winning bid of 37 dollars on Buyee with half the words on the webpage in Japanese, I won a set of of JDM Carrozzeria TSR-800 Cross Axial Four way speakers. The coolest, weirdest, pair of "package shelf speakers" I could have imagined, and I'm in love.
Check it out, you'll think the same.




And only 170 dollars later in shipping, they showed up at my door. See? Cool as it gets. Literally the greatest thing to happen to my package shelf. Now there's a few hiccups to address, and I've been making progress on a few issues. Number one being that the angle of the package shelf really makes the speakers point down. So, easy enough, tear down the speaker, scan the base, take some measurements of where we want it sit, and design it in 3D, then print a wedge to fit. Then, once mocked up, make a few tweaks to make it happier, address the design flaw of how large that plane on the front face is, then print out the pair, and get them prepped for paint.




Now that wasn't too hard, was it? Just taking care of it as it goes. The next issue is that the subwoofer surrounds are shot. As in dust. So after hunting the world (literally called Turkey, India, Japan, and America) trying to find replacement speakers, I... well there's probably other approaches to this, but I just bought another set from the same site a few days ago. New surrounds, and they're much nicer. And they're 200 bucks, with free shipping, so that's kinda a fun twist. They'll be here soon, so I'll rebuild the set I have, then list them for sale for someone who knows how to source subwoofer surrounds!

[B0CKS]

And since I mentioned 3D printing, I should probably talk about that! While it's hard to print in massive quantities, I'll be using my 500 cubic millimeters of 3D printing that I have to try and make the 3Gee world a better place! The first "product" I've made, as I made aware in older posts is something quaint, and not for sale (yet) since I'm building a fleet of them first. But that is most of the 3Gee lineup, in hotwheel scale! I've been busy modelling, and getting a little inventory started! I had first planned to just model my coupe;

but after sharing with the rest of the community, a huge positive reaction led me to making another vehicle or two;


And so I've got around 21 at the moment, but was to print more and more, I'm expecting to sell about 50 as soon as they launch! (probably going to be ~$10 USD + S&H)

And then I've also designed something a little special for my car that I'll be planning on selling as well, a 3D printed cup holder insert for the factory armrest!



This one is designed specifically for me, and the subwoofer controller I'm using in my car, the "mass production" one will have opposing coin trays since that's a more universal feature! (probably going to be ~$40 USD + S&H)


Expect a lot more 3d Printed stuff to show up, or send ideas my way to print! I'd love to do what I can to help!

[B0CKS]

So wrapping up this distraction driven update to a single close, there's a few miscellaneous details I wanna throw in, then it'll probably be engine build updates for a few months! The odds and ends include (what I think) is a clever, subtle way to set this car just a little apart from everyone. I was tempted to buy a set of those super cool DOHC VTEC stickers you see on the sides of Civics for the Accord, but here's the idea that I had instead;

The DA Integra comes with DOHC in the front fender trim, and so I'll be borrowing (well, I mean hacking) them and then reinstalling one in each side of my fender trim,

And while this photo is simply it mocked it place, I've since JB welded it in place, and after a few coats of primer and plenty of sanding, it's starting to look like a factory fit. once finished I plan on filling the letters with the same deep red I used in the "S" on my wheels, and will also call to the Red on the Type R Valve cover. I hope it's not overstated!

And I'm also reworking my approach to the engine bay as I prepare for this swap, and reworking my fusebox location. I had made some brackets to move it to where the battery tray sat, but I think I can make it cleaner yet, and so after breaking out some CAD (cardboard aided design) I've found out I can hang it under the dash, specifically behind the glove box. My car doesn't have AC, and thus has a large blank space (the image below is an AC car, the box on the left isn't there, and so I'll be utilizing it's space, and bolt hole locations!)


And so, after scanning it and rebuilding the cardboard piece in Illustrator, I'm sending it off to be lasercut in Stainless Steel, then we'll be putting it in location hopefully before years end! So excited!


Alright! I promise I'll be back to updating this thread frequently again soon!

[Hash_man_Se_i]

From our instagram conversation you know you can put me down for one of those armrest cupholders ahaha!
I've always wondered what those carozzeria speakers sound like, though I don't even run rear speakers, so that would be weird lol. I like what you did with the base mounts for them.

Any 3d printed sedan models??

That I am going to be building, from bottom up, the very First Type R powered Honda Accord.

I don't mean to crush any dreams, but I believe wickedaccord had the first one back in the day. That being said it was probably years before you were on the forum, and does not take away ANYTHING from how cool a type R swap is.
If I could afforded it when I initially did my b-swap that would have been the choice for sure!

[B0CKS]

From our instagram conversation you know you can put me down for one of those armrest cupholders ahaha!
I've always wondered what those carozzeria speakers sound like, though I don't even run rear speakers, so that would be weird lol. I like what you did with the base mounts for them.

Any 3d printed sedan models??



I don't mean to crush any dreams, but I believe wickedaccord had the first one back in the day. That being said it was probably years before you were on the forum, and does not take away ANYTHING from how cool a type R swap is.
If I could afforded it when I initially did my b-swap that would have been the choice for sure!

Ah snap! No worries, that is the glory of these forums, there's always the info out there, just tucked in a dark corner I haven't seen yet haha, I'll go make an edit, any chance you could point me to his thread? I'd love to take notes!

No sedans yet! I've had a couple people ask, but so many of my days are booked, that a somewhat larger modelling project is hard to fit in! I'd like to make one yet!

Haha, rear speakers were a welcome upgrade to my other DX, so anything is better than zilch IMO! But me too, I can't wait to get a battery back in the car and see what they sound like (and how nicely they light up), doors on or not lmao!

And you bet! Just gotta find a second to get those dimensions!