Roodoo2 1986 LX Metamorphosis project

[apache07x]

NO, I am not using ac, although it is still intact.
If I did use it, I would use a solenoid idle stepper.

Two months and I have not touched the car other than driving it and swapping the cd out of the civic. I have some 15 inch saturn ion steelies I think I am going to put on until I get the suspension right. The offset on the mesh wheels is causing some tire contact in the rear.
Hopefully this weekend will be cleared up so I can get the front of the motor stuff installed and tune it to colder weather.

roodoo I just charged my ac and it works great. Feel like an idiot though been driving it for almost 2 year without and all it needed apparently was freon. Although I'm sure it has a leak somewhere? Anyways with my Holley it dropped it from about 700 RPMs in gear to 600 and still idles well there. My point being that if you have your car tuned right I'm not sure you necessarily need to have a solenoid to step it up? Now if I can find the ^#&*$(#)! exhaust rattling noise I'll be happy. Fixed one exhaust rattling noise and now have one 10 times worse grrrrr. Spoiler looks good on your car looks similar to the Fiero one I put on mine.

[apache07x]

Another spoiler option y'all might wanna consider would be a Pontiac Fiero wing. It mounts up well to a flat deck, it's straight across the back edge, and deep looking.

I was seriously considering one myself but didn't wanna have to modify one to make it look factory-ish.

Some example pics

I did a Fiero wing on mine Bones. Did no mods to it just lined it up where I liked it drilled the holes and it looks good to me? I got some pics on here somewhere but won't I hijack my buddy Roodoos thread to show them.

[ThePhantum]

Good Looking Sedan!!

[2oodoor]

Furthur upgrade progress undrway again. Pics to come.
Stripping out interior today and got the new rear seat in, changed seat belts to dark grey ones. Need to take the new front seats back out tommorrow and swap the carpet.
I guess ill hit the paint store to get some of the new color for trimming out the jams and some dye for the door panels.

[2ndGenGuy]

Ah yes, PICS necessary! Glad to hear there is more good progress though!

[Civic Accord Honda]

Fully agree with 2ndgenguy . but . NEED MORE PICS

[2oodoor]

OK, got the carpet swapped out. Re-dyed the faded parts of the seats I got from Military Mase, the console and a few trim parts.
Swapped out the seat belts in the front with some charcoal colored ones.

I have some decent medium brown carpet and all the trim if anybody wants it!


The SEM upholstry coloring works amazingly well, it really surprized me on the seats.

[2oodoor]

You're pretty much commited to a paint job when you DA the whole car LoL

[oldschool3g]

You're pretty much commited to a paint job when you DA the whole car LoL

nice work on restoring the seats man looks better. And i feel u on the paintjob man lol..once i DA sanded a piece of my roof when i got started..i stopped for a moment and thought "THA F**** AM I DOING" LOL. But a few weeks later after having no fingerprints from sanding and burning eyez from the paint fumes you will be like...

[2oodoor]

^^thanks!

Im going to be looking out for what color to go with, the girl at the paint store gave me a Standox chip book (imports 06 thru 08). I don't know if I want to try to do a metalic or much pearl if im spraying it in the driveway though.
I primed those ventshades with good elastomeric hi build but it crazed so I have to strip thos again and find something they like. I really didnt wet those too bad but I guess that stuff swells.

[2ndGenGuy]

Yeah man those look pretty sharp! Your car is going to look great after the repaint too! Need to pick me up some of that Color Coat and paint some of the panels in my car that are faded and peely!

[Civic Accord Honda]

The interior looks great man! and i love watching cars in the progress of body work so be sure to keep up with the pics

[oldschool3g]

^^thanks!

Im going to be looking out for what color to go with, the girl at the paint store gave me a Standox chip book (imports 06 thru 08). I don't know if I want to try to do a metalic or much pearl if im spraying it in the driveway though.
I primed those ventshades with good elastomeric hi build but it crazed so I have to strip thos again and find something they like. I really didnt wet those too bad but I guess that stuff swells.

Is it your first time spraying a car? i went with a pearl for the hatch my first time and it was a pain in the ass to spray..came out with a few imperfections where i didnt keep it even and my gun started acting up. i think it wouldve been easier with metalic..but i could be wrong im no pro lol

[2oodoor]

I used to do paint and bodywork for a living until I hired on at a Dodge dealer in the service dept. to wait on the opening in the body shop. From there I wound up an ASE cert. technician. Many moons ago....

I ordered a hood scoop from amazon today... need to cut a big hole in my hood for clearance so may as well. It looks like a WRX so I hope it doesn't look too if it does I saw another one that was like a mini cowl induction hood.

[2oodoor]

springs are a lot shorter than stock, not what I expected exactly but....

I have a solution prepared just in case...

[2ndGenGuy]

Those springs may be shorter, but I bet they're stiffer. They probably won't compress as much under the initial load of the car. What kind of drop are they supposed to give you? Also, awesome work on those tophats!

[2oodoor]

They were supposed to be like 1-1.5 but no guarantee, they were slightly used.
I am panicking about how low it may go (steep driveway) , and I won't know until everything else is done and I take the car off stands. I may have to go get some oem tophats but no biggie since I could sell these once finished
I gave up yesterday after wrestling the new ST front bar and it still wouldn't lay down for me, I was tired I reckon. I got the ingals camber kits in, Prothane radius bushings, restored UCA's.
One of the old struts had the end stripped out so that was one of those things that supposed to take 5 min took 2 hours.
Trying to keep momemtum on this project, so far more has been done to it in one week than has been in four years since the engine swap.

[2ndGenGuy]

I dunno, the drop on my 2g was supposed to be 1.3 inches. I think it was not really that drastic of a drop at all. I wouldn't worry too much about ground clearance until you get down to at least a 3 inch drop. What's the stock ground clearance on a 3g anyways? Gotta be at least 6 inches... I have a car with 5 inches of ground clearance, and everybody freaks out and thinks it's really low and must scrape on things all the time. I've only scraped the front end once.

While those may look drastically lower, they probably won't compress as much when the car is sitting on them. Just do eeeeet!

[obdriver6]

Springs don't look too short but you wont know until the car is on the floor and is that a 3g hatchback I see?

[2oodoor]

I finally found some info on the springs yesterday in an archived Nopi catalog.
The only Number One, yellow springs for 86-89 Accords I saw were 2.25 drop.
I haven't found any negative feedback on them other than typical spring snob chatter lol.

I went ahead and got another tophat from the yard and put it all back together with oem tophats for now, still haven't got the units installed though. The one I made won't fit in the hole without cutting out some of the fender tower. The pipe I used fit so well, I think I will have a do over and let the pipe extend down into the tophat around .25" so I can weld it underneath. It will make a much neater looking piece and have less build up to have to fit inside the fender tower.

I also got a new outside door handle and a complete vinyl headliner with visors. I am going to try to dye the dash in the car, using some manilla file folders for masking off the windshield. Those should be manageable enough to get in there really tight. Im going to two tone it like some of the oem ones are but it will be dark graphite upper and satin black lower. I will do the same color break throughout the car, A B and C pillar mouldings dark graphite along with the headliner. Everything below is satin black.

I think Im going back to the yard to find grey door panels which will be much easier to dye the cloth part than this beige brown, in case I can't find a match for the seat material.

My brake caliper is froze on it's pivot pin pretty good. Im worried if I beat on it much more it will be out of tolerance (forever squeaky brakes) so Im going to look for a low mileage car to get the whole knuckle from the lower ball joint up.
That's about it for updates, been sick since the weekend.

obdriver6, yes that is the hatch in that shot

[2ndGenGuy]

Well, if you're swapping knuckles, you might as well put the later LXI brakes on.

Can't wait to see how your interior comes out. You're using more of that SEM Color Coat? It sounds like it's going to look great!

[obdriver6]

Thats the problem with those top hats. Another member did them like that and cut the whole bigger to fit the hot hat. I was planning on doing that but I couldn't find it in my heart to make the whole bigger so I went another route and BTW I'm jelly of your hatch with louvers.

[2oodoor]

Welding the tube in underneath the tophat plate came out much much neater and easier to finish.
I am wondering though since you can't use the dust cover (which has the bumpstop plate made on to it) should I use a bump stop plate (washer).
The taper on the shock shaft should stop at the upper shock mount bushing sleeve anyway so does the plate need to be there at all?

[2oodoor]

I am concerned about how much I had to compress the spring to get the nut on the shock. Big difference than when I used just the stock tophat.
Nice travel on the shock though! Now the tophat seems to be crooked, I know I didn't get the tophat absolutely perfect but it isn't nearly as bad as this makes it look! I think it will move into place once it is mounted in the car. I will leave the nut slightly loose so the spring will center itself, then tighten.
I reset the spring in the perch since the picture. Opinions welcome...

[2oodoor]

Ah, no worries... I was looking at some rc car coilovers and they were kinda like this, and also on the rear spring I was able to push it down enough to get the nut on then it was wobbly up top to but fine. Once bolted down on both ends it will be good.