Bagged B18 '88 DX Coupe Build!

[B0CKS]

Just for you!

https://www.3geez.com/forum/restorat...ml#post1218841

You're a legend Snooz!

[B0CKS]

This past Saturday was my birthday! And the theme this year was RIP AND TEAR.

My birthday wish was to get the B-Cord’s engine pulled as a big break in on parting the car out, and while it wasn’t my best time, pulling it in two hours wasn’t a bad run! It’s out, and that officially signifies the beginning of the end for this car. And will most likely the last A20 I handle for a good long time, with the A-Cord rather specifically built to be B-Series, and if my daily driver continues to be in decent health. I don’t want to tear down the B-Cord, but there’s no real market for this car around here, and the hardware and parts I can pull off it as I come to build the A-Cord are more useful than cash. So, here’s the last photos of this car in its near completed state, see you space cowboy…


Engine out!

And then got to work on shaving the engine bay of the A-Cord, marked out all the holes I don’t need, watched a few youtube clips about cleaning up engine bays to boost my confidence, tore off the space tape, and deleted the initial batch of useless brackets from charcoal canisters and vacuum boxes.

Then, got to buffing off paint and brought a good chunk of the holes out to bare metal, using many a grinding disc.

And after that, slagged a whole bunch of the smaller bolt sized holes full of weld yesterday, leaving most of the larger holes open, as the next step is to fab up closeouts for them!

So I’m pretty geeked! They’re going pretty well, I can’t say these are good welds by any means, but it feels nice to be doing this fairly proper.

Hopefully going to go and scavenge some new grinding discs and body filler and get back to it tonight! I’m really excited to see how this comes out!

[Fixedit]

Ooh, was b-cord an lxi? I’ve been looking for a downpipe from the 4-2-1 system, would you be willing to sell/ship it if you have it? Always sad to me to see a 3g parted out but eh what can you do, it’s worse to let them sit and rot right. 2 hours ain’t bad! Always nice to remove things without worrying about what hoses and wires go where. Looking good man, happy belated birthday hope it was a good one!

[B0CKS]

Ooh, was b-cord an lxi? I’ve been looking for a downpipe from the 4-2-1 system, would you be willing to sell/ship it if you have it? Always sad to me to see a 3g parted out but eh what can you do, it’s worse to let them sit and rot right. 2 hours ain’t bad! Always nice to remove things without worrying about what hoses and wires go where. Looking good man, happy belated birthday hope it was a good one!

Yo! It was great, thanks for the birthday wishes! And yeah man, just pulling stuff at speed is a blast. But I hear you, I'm not geeked to be sending it off like this, especially after putting in so many hours and memories into it across these past four years, but all that's worth saving from the car will be saved! Promise. And unfortunately- its a Carb'd DX, just like my other car! I honestly don't know the interchange on the exhaust setups, if it turns out they're the same, I'd happily ship it out! (and an OK Sticker! I haven't forgotten! )

[B0CKS]

Alright, I have no concept of time anymore, so I have no idea if it’s been a week, or like three days since I updated the thread. Quarantine is amazing.

Got more done in the engine bay, it’s looking plenty messy at the moment, but things are starting to smooth out, with a test run of bondo in a few spots! I’ve got most of the small holes cleared up, but still need to take on plugging the larger chunks; the AC hose locations, vacuum box loom location, then the big large cutouts for the forward loom entrances, and with my welding (lack of-) skill, it should be a nice, painless process!


And while that was going down, there ended up being some traffic in the barn sector, so this is what kinda bunches up around the barn if we’re not careful where we’re putting cars!

And speaking of traffic! I spent Sunday polishing out my Daily Driver Sonic after my Dad wheeled up his BMW, and since we liked how those came out, I decided to dust off my camera to try and see if I still knew how to take photos, and it looks like I’m doing decent, gotta have these the camera ability HONED before the main Accord is done! That’s why I bought the camera after all hahaha




Also! On yet another tangent- you guys might remember from like 6 pages back, I own a Honda Spree! And after doing a whole bunch of barn shuffling, I pulled it out of the mothballs and finally (FINALLY) got it to a shop, should be up and running before too long! I’m not familiar with 2 stroke stuff, had gas, air, spark, compression and everything it needed to run, but just never really wanted to, so I threw in the towel. But that should be back for too long, which I’m really looking forward to as the weather is getting nice again!

[B0CKS]

And since I ran out of welding wire on like Friday last week, I’ve decided to take a break from the engine bay for a minute and work on a yet another little upgrade to the interior! My sister very kindly bought the 15 dollar power strip I’ve been lusting for, I’m hoping to mount an inverter in the car at some point, since I don’t trust cigarette lighter USBs after they blew the alternator on the B-Cord. So after some thought on location, I figured the cassette deck holder wasn’t going to get much use since I no longer have a head unit that takes cassettes. So time to get chopping! After destroying an inexplicable number of Dremel discs, here’s the chunk I cut out of the bottom of the unit:

Then, busted out the CAD and made a mockup bracket in the loose shape I was looking for.

So you can see how the little power supply is going to end up here, the idea is that this is going to be a two piece installation. I made the backside bracket myself, but I’ll be mocking up a closeout plate for the front of this, with room for a switch on either side for an undisclosed option I’m toying about installing. But in short, this bracket is going to be hidden, so no worries how it comes out, the front side one will be lasercut and hide everything behind it!

So, hop skip and jump, here’s the powdercoated mounting bracket! It’s not going to win any beauty contests, but functionality first! You can see the dog ears on the outside edge are there to wrap outside the plastic so that when I tighten the hardware on it, it doesn’t crimp the plastic, but spreads it out over the metal! Not sure how necessary it is from a true engineering standpoint, but it makes me feel safer. I threw a few extra flanges on it to reinforce the main mounting surface since that's that'll be taking the brunt of the force, and I wouldn't want it to flex!


Then finally, here it is in location! Four M6 bolts and four flange nuts makes it a pretty easy installation, and felt strong and secure when I plugged a few cords into the socket.

Oh, and taking a note I stole from Chevrolet’s book (specifically, something my Sonic has coming from the glovebox) are two little notches in the closeout. Just to satisfy a simple craving to make the door flush and closed while running cords from it.


So, little afternoon project has step A completed, I’ve got an inverter picked out, so I’ll order that and take care of it once I’m less busy throwing all my cash at the engine!

[B0CKS]

And on the topic of throwing money at the engine, here’s an update from the trans shop! They’re darn close to having the thing good to go, I’m too geeked to have this coming back! Since I’m going to be owning this car for the rest of my life, I’m happy to know I’ll have a wonderfully reliable transmission to row through for years to come!







Edit, like a day after I made this post Just got some more photos from the shop, my transmission got a tattoo (which is dope! I'm for it) and were able to seal on the original barcode!

[Dr_Snooz]

So what I'm gathering here is that you haven't been sitting around binge-watching Netflix like the rest of us during this lockdown? Are you even sleeping? LOL. It's looking great as usual.

[Dr_Snooz]

Out of curiosity, what are you planning to power with the AC outlets? Or is it a surprise?

[B0CKS]

Out of curiosity, what are you planning to power with the AC outlets? Or is it a surprise?

No real surprise up the sleeve, I'm trying to just roadtrip-proof this car with what I can sort out, so charging a phone or a laptop on the road sure sounds like it could be a nice upgrade! And the only kicker I also want to throw in there is some heated seat switches- I'm planning on getting the seats re-upholstered, and while they're open to some modification, sounds like some butt warmers would be a nice thing to slide in there!

So what I'm gathering here is that you haven't been sitting around binge-watching Netflix like the rest of us during this lockdown? Are you even sleeping? LOL. It's looking great as usual.

Hahahaha, well I just finished watching all six hours of The Stand, so I'm certainly still working on my quarantine beer gut, but being back home 40 feet away from the barn instead of an hour away each way certainly has an effect on my work ethic! Thanks for stayin tuned Snooz!

[Dr_Snooz]

[B0CKS]

Update! It’s going to be a bit of a trip, so buckle up!

Let’s start off with the ADD powered sidetracking of what’s been falling out of my 3D printer. I’ve kinda come to learn that metal stamping is pretty easy, and it turns out standard 3D printing can make dies strong enough for a lot of the gauge metal we work with. So I got to work and designed my own Dimple die set, with an easy recipe to make up any size I need. I have a ½”, 5/8” and 1” produced right now, but will make more as needs vary! I honestly don’t have a use for them (yet) but I’m sure I’ll find a use as time goes on. Plus they’re just fun!

Check out these two (1/2” and 1”) doin stuff! Now I want to drill holes in everything.


And what’s also in that first image is a set of vice jaws- used to hold anything hexagon shaped in a vice without marring the surface. You can buy these for about 20-30 bucks off the internet, or I’ll print my own! These were created for the express purpose of tightening AN fittings, and looks like they’ll be up for the task!

And in other news, I’ve spend a good amount of time reinventing the spoiler and how it attaches. I’ve found a unique piece of hardware that seems to really solve my fastening concerns. It’s a rod with wood screw threads on one side, then a standard bolt thread on the other. So that means I can have a bolt thread solidly installed into my 3D prints, which makes for much stronger parts. So utilizing this screw and and bolt combo has made redesign the attachment scheme between the spoiler chunks. The new idea is that it’s still a male-female key, but there’s a hole bored out of the part that lets the bolt threads have an exposed thread in the back of the spoiler. So the new instructions would be to fill the key with epoxy, and then slide the bolt through to the access hole, and then use a nut and wrench through the window to fasten the two parts firmly together, giving them a strong chemical bond and clamping force on top of that. It makes sense to me at least, sorry if the words aren’t good!

Then I’ll also be using those same screws to bolt the spoiler to the trunk, I’m not sure if I mentioned this, but 3M tape was my first choice, but after laying some on and putting it through it’s paces, I’m a little hesitant to say it should be the only choice. So I’m going to add protection for the fasteners just to be safe!

Then, in the physical realm, a very kind belated birthday present arrived, a 3D printer tent! So in short, to print ABS, you need to slow down how fast it cools to prevent it from warping, so basically, it’s good to keep the air around it warmer, so the relative temperature drop isn’t as bad. Another step close to outdoor resistant 3D prints!

And also going in actual barn news, I’ve continuing to shave my engine bay! Got a few of the filler panels welded in, and most of the holes done, and I decided to attack some of the AC holes on the firewall, and found myself pretty full of adrenaline when I noticed a pretty decent fire starting to burn on the interior. I had a shield up and the insulation pulled away from the firewall, but some hot spark must’ve made its way into the insulation. And while it’s hard to measure, at it’s worst the fire was about a foot and a half square inside before I was able to snuff it out with my welding gloves! I must’ve cashed in all my luck, because fortunately, the only thing that was really affected was the insulation- the cabin harness and carpet are both fine! But I guess I’ll be pulling yet another odd part from the B-Cord!

Certainly made me sit back for a minute- nothing better than quick reminder about mortality.

[Dr_Snooz]

Yikes! Be careful please.

[Fixedit]

Dang dude! Glad you (and the car) are okay! Good thinking about the vice - I just got AN fittings for an oil catch-can (they're a little overkill for a ventilation system but hey it works) system and I definitely marred them with a wrench. Good thing they're hidden under the intake! Lol

[B0CKS]

Dang dude! Glad you (and the car) are okay! Good thinking about the vice - I just got AN fittings for an oil catch-can (they're a little overkill for a ventilation system but hey it works) system and I definitely marred them with a wrench. Good thing they're hidden under the intake! Lol

Oh snap! Been of two minds on a catch can, how's it worked for you? And hahaha, man I might just have to print a wrench too! The aluminum is soooo soft. And thanks! I was more worried about the car! But I learned my lesson, I'll be sure to proceed with slightly more caution.

[B0CKS]

Yikes! Be careful please.

That's good advice! I'll be taking it to heart, I'd rather not have to weld all these holes shut again on another engine bay!

Also Snooz, I haven't run into this before, is there an image cap to these threads? I can't really upload much of anything without hitting this error:

[Dr_Snooz]

Well that's not good. Let me look into it.

[B0CKS]

Well that's not good. Let me look into it.

Thanks Snooz, add another I owe you to my tab please lmao

Been doing some troubleshooting on this, seems like any computer I use to try to upload images has the same error, and it's the same on any thread. I basically have some image cap tied to my profile, and I guess I've hit it? I'm tempted to make a 2.0 version of this account and just work around it.

Edit- I guess I was right- after poking around under settings, I found this useful statistic (pardon the image quality, I guess I literally cant have a bigger image )


And after poking around some more, they do have a 100mb image cap if you go pro, so that's a route. Kinda forgot about this side of the ole' proto internet!

[ShiRen]

So, I can answer this for you. You are attaching images directly through the forum, it looks like it is giving 50Mb per user for this. This is probably a configurable limit, but it has to be taken into consideration that the same limit is applied to everyone and there is only a certain amount of space rented from the server this forum is running on. Snooz probably knows how much space we have and how much is available, and more can probably be rented, but the cost and capacity are both factors in how long this forum stays living, that has to be a happy medium.

The workaround and probably the better option than uploading to the forum would be using an image hosting site. I have been using imgur because they haven't had a mass wipe like imageshack and its easy to grab the BB Code link. I am a little skeptical about choosing an image host, but rest assured imgur is a mass data mine and doesn't seem to delete photos. Still I have been trying to find a good long term host, I thought you could turn a dropbox link into a BB Code link, that would probably be a good host long term, there is just no resources on how to do that and I need to play with it... its been a hot minute since I have been active on the forums

Anyway, your build looks pretty sweet, I love to work that's going into it. I have been meaning to go through this thread, but once you whip out the CAD and 3d printed parts you've got my attention

[B0CKS]

So, I can answer this for you. You are attaching images directly through the forum, it looks like it is giving 50Mb per user for this. This is probably a configurable limit, but it has to be taken into consideration that the same limit is applied to everyone and there is only a certain amount of space rented from the server this forum is running on. Snooz probably knows how much space we have and how much is available, and more can probably be rented, but the cost and capacity are both factors in how long this forum stays living, that has to be a happy medium.

The workaround and probably the better option than uploading to the forum would be using an image hosting site. I have been using imgur because they haven't had a mass wipe like imageshack and its easy to grab the BB Code link. I am a little skeptical about choosing an image host, but rest assured imgur is a mass data mine and doesn't seem to delete photos. Still I have been trying to find a good long term host, I thought you could turn a dropbox link into a BB Code link, that would probably be a good host long term, there is just no resources on how to do that and I need to play with it... its been a hot minute since I have been active on the forums

Anyway, your build looks pretty sweet, I love to work that's going into it. I have been meaning to go through this thread, but once you whip out the CAD and 3d printed parts you've got my attention

Thanks a ton! There's plenty of dead ends and tangents in here, so no worries if don't trawl through the whole the thread! But I am proud to be bringing in some 3D to our community, I really enjoy opportunities current tech provide for those of us in the hobby, so I'm glad to find someone else who appreciates it!

Ahhhhhhh- that's enlightening! I guess I just found that I could upload images when I first got on here and have just always gone with that, I never pursued linking images, that's a great point. And yeah- I suppose it does make sense that the next question would be finding a reliable image hosting site that should last some time before falling into obscurity. Imgur is a great answer, that makes a ton of sense.

You're spot on! They have a subscription that gives you 100MB for 30 years, for the hefty sum of 35 bucks. Considering the amount of lacquer thinner I've huffed while working on this car, I doubt I'll have to pay the price twice lmao, plus it'd be kinda nice to give back to the guys who've let me learn so much over the past couple years. And I hear you, 50mb doesn't sound like a bunch, but multiply it by 20,000 of us or whatever, and there's some significant reasons to put a cap on space. Just wasn't an issue I had given thought to I suppose.

But thanks for chiming in, the hive mind knowledge on and of this site always boggles my bean. Greatly appreciated!

[ShiRen]

Well holy cow my guy, I just got through looking through this thread. You are going to be really bad for my wallet, I might have to go beg for a raise. I am going to steal a lot so much of this lol, but I at least plan to body swap into a lude at some point and I am very set on a fast, dailyable, carbed engine with air conditioning. Looks like I need to budget that 400x400mm+ printer I've wanted for so long lol.

[B0CKS]

Well holy cow my guy, I just got through looking through this thread. You are going to be really bad for my wallet, I might have to go beg for a raise. I am going to steal a lot so much of this lol, but I at least plan to body swap into a lude at some point and I am very set on a fast, dailyable, carbed engine with air conditioning. Looks like I need to budget that 400x400mm+ printer I've wanted for so long lol.

Aw snap! I'm always happy to condone some bad decisions! I got my Creality CR10 S-5 in the ballpark of 600 bucks, which was all but less than half of what I paid for my Makerbot Replicator a few years ago! I've been pretty content with it, its a big clunky item, but it's a pretty solid workhorse!

And hahahaha, I'm flattered! Stockholm Syndrome from this car has its grip plenty tight! Any time I have an hour to kill I'm plotting out some way to make another task I have to model out.

[B0CKS]

Well I’ll be danged. I owe someone, somewhere, something- I just went back and checked my upload cap, and it’s been extended another 25MB! Thank you Anonymous Internet Diety! I think for now I’m going to not learn my lesson and use up that space, then resort to Imgur!

So back on track, let’s use up this precious data with some overdue UPDAAAATES!

How about some awesome stuff that has come through the fantastic postal delivery system! Big Object A being the transmission! It arrived in stellar condition, and it’s killing me that its storage for the moment, as I absolutely cannot wait to put this in the car and churn some gears!


Then, a bit of story on this, but the ITR head that came with my B18C had cracks in the main casting, so I’ve been on the hunt for that. Found a shop on ebay selling a rebuilt head (1100 bucks for a casting, cams, and valves) so I jumped on that, and then get the word that they found a crack near one of the exhaust valves, and that it’ll take a new core for them to get me one. Unfortunately, this project is kind of hinging on the engine being done, so I didn’t want to spend too much time tapping my foot, so I go back and start shopping around. I stumble across a guy with the same name as me one state over selling an ITR head, and was able to score a great deal! For 1200 dollars, shipped to my door was a: Brand new powder coated Valve cover, as far as I can prove genuine Mugen Oil Cap, ITR Manifold, Distributor, intake manifold gasket, and of course complete fresh head from an importer. I was stunned! The dude did a killer job packaging it, and the parts are FREEESH and clean! It was absolutely nuts unpacking it, it was a transcendent moment owning one ITR head, but having TWO in my possession was pure euphoria! I cannot express how excited I am for all this to come together!


So here it is, ready to go find a lower chunk to attach to!

DOS.

And to wrap this up, here’s an image of the block from the shop, look how clean it is!!!! Massive improvements!

Then, I’ve finally got a chance to talk with Turkey about getting new foam surrounds for the Carrozzerias! I know how much you were all wondering about it. That project has been on hold due a few reasons, that being the biggest one! So geeked to have that roadblock hopped, now to just sit and wait three months for the planet to open up and let them ship over here!

[B0CKS]

And for what else is going on, here’s an unexpected turn!

Like any good car enthusiast, I was browsing through Facebook Marketplace at 4am on Saturday night two weeks ago, when a 2G Prelude pops up for sale, 250 miles away from where I live. Here’s the seller’s photo. And if you’re truly an eagle eye’d nerd like I am (and you haven’t scrolled down another half inch) you’ll see what I did.

That’s right, there’s a liiiiiittle box catching light from under the bumper. So I shoot him a message at 4am insisting that I wanted to buy the car. It was a grand, I said “Hey, this is going to be a 12 hour day for me to come pick this car up!” And offered him 900 bucks, which I was lucky that he accepted! Why? Because those are ULTRA RARE POP UP FOGLIGHTS. No way was I going to let those slip through my fingers! Plan A is buy the car, pull the fogs, clean it up, and flip it for a profit, it was clean enough! No problem! So I chat with him throughout the day and confirm that yes, it does indeed have what I was hoping for, and that they’re both there. Sunday night comes along, and I get the message that he sold the car to his neighbor- boom, ship sunk. So I sulk for a night, then get the bright idea that I’ll just figure out who lives next to the dude. He kindly gives me his name, and so I’m off to pester that dude. I knew I couldn’t just ask for the car, so hit him with a 400 dollar offer that he can’t refuse (he paid 1000 dollars, no way he could turn it down!) And so we talk, plan a date, and I get to learn a bit more about the parts, as I really didn’t have a lot to go on. Turns out, they’ve been pretty neglected by the years in Ohio, the glass from one is totally destroyed along with the light housing, and the other is pretty rusty, and neither plastic case is in great shape. We negotiate a bit with this new information, and land on 200 bucks for them and the harness. So it was set! I spent last Sunday cruising past ~15 cop cars (there was SO MANY) to a bit South of Columbus, and pulled them myself! BIG SUCCESS.


I’ll admit it, 200 bucks might still be overpaying, considering the work I’m going to have to go through restoring these, but the hardest part about this project was actually finding a complete setup. I can vapor blast the plastic housings clean, JB weld and reinforce any cracks, powder coat all the metal bracketry to look like new, and clean up the wiring pretty easy. Next, hardest steps will be sorting out whether or not the motors work (didn’t get to test them before I pulled them, it turned out they were unplugged, which is why they didn’t work on the Prelude) and then, trying to find a replacement lens for the passenger side massacre. But I HAVE THEM. That’s what’s crazy!

Here's the (extremely) destroyed lens:

And so, what my current hope is, is not just that what I just bought from freaking Latvia not only makes it here, but that Honda was kind enough to use the same glass as the pop up fog light as the normal low hanging one, because I was able to grab this OEM, new in box part for a surprisingly good deal, I feel bad buying a nice part to gut it, but I promise the rest of it will be up for sale if it works!

I think I’m hitting my image count, so I’ll write about it. As far as the actual interior fog light button goes, the Prelude switch DOES NOT plug into the Accord dash anywhere, and after talking to a buddy from the Facebook side of 3geez, I have been informed that a Cruise control switch has a proper pinning for what we need. Thus, found one that I pulled who knows how long ago and started poking with it, and was able to pop out the little plate that says “Cruise Control”, then scan it, and then redesign a new plate to be laser cut with the Foglight logo in it, so now I have a plan to get that looking like another little OEM detail!

This is gonna be another project that takes me forever to finish, but another thing that I can’t believe I’m fortunate enough to be working on!

Oh! And I powder coated more stuff. Alternator brackets, window tracks, tow hooks, and one of headlight inner brackets, which are all looking great! Good stuff on that front!

OH, AND The Spree is “done!” it has come to the point of running well, and reliably! So I’ve been zipping around on that and also getting the dopamine through that path too! Genuinely a ton of fun.


WOO

[B0CKS]

Ayooo! It’s been like two weeks or something!

So let’s start off with the good news- the Spree exploded! It did a great job eating it’s own ring. So I got a replacement for that one evening, since it can't just be free from its mortal coil yet, but I still gotta’ see if that fixed it. And in other good news, I swapped apartments! Got my own one bedroom that I’m rocking for the next year, and it’s huge, with way too much room to score car parts, which is sweet!

But lets talk about actual build updates! Enough about life about life events! Tore down the other headlight bracket, got everything sandblasted, cleaned and powdercoated, these two chunks are officially ready to find their home in a complete car when the time comes! Check those off!

And, been working on the engine bay some more, I’m starting to learn how to better at things the more I do it, as all the big patches are filled, but there’s definitely going to be a bunch of bondo work in the near future, followed by about a month of sanding lmao. Really want to get this part over with!

Then, got some Over Night Parts from… Latvia? As mentioned a few posts back, I was able to score that OEM Fog Light in attempts to get my other pop-up fog restored. But man, for a 30 year old part, its SOOOO new. NOS! Crazy to find such a thing. It looks like it’s 95% a good fit, I feel bad for parting out such a quality part, but I promise that the housing, bracketry and everything will find a different, better home and not go to waste!



But that’s most of it! I know this isn’t news, but it seems like the whole planet is disintegrating, so it’s been really nice to be able to keep the old cranium clear with this project. I took a few last Saturday and got to soak up the cool breeze, nice weather, and project car outside of the normal clutter its always surrounded by, and it really did a number for helping me empty out the noggin and think about the good things that are all happening. Hope you guys are all okay.