My 86 Prelude Thread

[johng]

nice project keep us posted on updates

[Hazwan]

PICS!





Those stupid plug wires piss me off but oh well that can wait!

Oil after 20 mins run, mostly idle. I only did one flush after the second headgasket job and it stayed this cloudy so its definitely good now! I'm going to flush out the oil again and hopefully it would stay clear this time! Any tips/tricks to fully get the old white stuff out?



Also cleaned the sunroof tracks when I had the sunroof checked since it was leaking like mad. The glass doesn't sit flush with the roof. Ended up adding a couple of washers about 3-4mm thick ><

[Hazwan]

I went to the yard with a 5 speed 2g Prelude yesterday. Keep in mind that Preludes are really hard to come by here, let alone the older generations and they just happen to have 2 of them. One has been stripped with nothing good usable while the other one has its 5 speed components still intact.

Asked them how much would it cost to get all the 5 speed conversion parts.. They said....... US$1000. WAT.

Are you fucking kidding me? If the transmission is 100% new or at least has been rebuilt and came with brand new clutch/cables/bushes etc sure but $1k for something that you're not even sure if it still working? LOL fuck that.

Went to another yard that I regularly to and the guy whos friends with me told me that he might be able to help to find me the parts from other yards from other area/state and it would be sure as fuck be less than a grand hah! He also told me that he could get the transmission alone for around $300 which is fair. The other yard wanted $600 for the transmission alone. You nuts? People are selling modern VTEC manual conversion parts for a LOT less than that.

Oh well looks like the 5 speed conversion has to wait. Worst case I'll just grab the pedals and the gear linkage from that cut throat yard lol I could get the rest of the parts from that other yard for a LOT cheaper.

Bonus instagram pic:


Found this the other day









Looks like its been hit on the left/passenger's side quarter panel before. Theres a bunch of bondo on it and the crumpled sheet metal as seen in the pics made it clear. Oh well its not a huge deal for me its getting a ground up restoration soon

I also took the car for a test drive in the neighborhood. Drives fine, autotragic shifts fine, steering feels good, brakes are good which is surprising since the car has been sitting for at least a year. I need to flush the old fluid though but yeah the car is ready for the inspection and I can slowly start with other misc bits and pieces now

[Hazwan]

Done quite amount of work since last week. Decided to fix the quarter panel rust.

Stripped the 312321321 inches thick of filler






ooookay looks like they decided to add a bunch of filler to fill the line and made a new one out of.. filler. wtf really?

All gone


Etching primer

[Hazwan]

Added a bunch of filler. Not as thick as the old one though






It was a bitch to shape the wheel arch line though since the original line is non-existant. This is not the best way to do it but finding a replacement quarter panel is going to be.. impossible. The next best thing I could do is to weld new metal on, probably cut from front fender or something but then I have no welder

Passenger side has a bunch of filler on the rocker panel too -.-


Both quarter panels has been hit before. I'm guessing they sideswiped something on the right side since the fender and door came from a red car. Can't be sure about the left side though. Door is original, at least I thought it is but the quarter panel is trashed. I don't feel like doing that side yet.

[A18A]

yay for progress

[Hazwan]

I'm pretty much decided to go ahead with full respray instead of just patching rusted out panel(s) so I've stripped the passenger's side quarter panel too



Just. look. at. that


Seriously guys


All gone


Long tedious process of applying filler then sanding. Repeat.




At least I know the bare metal has been treated properly and shouldn't rust anytime soon. And only minimal amount of body filler used hah!

[Hazwan]

Let's see what do we have under the paint on the driver's side door..


Just. kill me.


Nope




I'm going to fucking kill somebody!


At least the roof is 99% filler free

[Dr_Snooz]

What is the red on that door?

[Hazwan]

Both driver's side door and fender used to be red which led me to believe that PO must have hit something pretty bad on that side basically messed the whole side up and they had both door and fender replaced and had to fix the quarter panel with 3321 inch thick bondo.

[Dr_Snooz]

Well heck, if you're going to re-sculpt the door out of Bondo, why not use the old one and save the money of buying a replacement panel? Lots of body work there, bud. I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with this build.

[79cord]

Well it least you've seen & fixed worse, & I'm sure this should turn out nicer than that, though it is sad to have to clean up such messes.
Doesn't seem frighteningly rusty yet.

[Hazwan]

Well heck, if you're going to re-sculpt the door out of Bondo, why not use the old one and save the money of buying a replacement panel? Lots of body work there, bud. I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with this build.

My thoughts exactly.

Well it least you've seen & fixed worse, & I'm sure this should turn out nicer than that, though it is sad to have to clean up such messes.
Doesn't seem frighteningly rusty yet.

Yeah I can't complain much since the car is free haha. There are no major rust thankfully! But if I leave the small rust spots any much longer then it might spread and probably would rust through the metal. Gotta take care of them now!

Anyway so I found this





Seriously?

I'm beyond pissed. First they ruined the side molding beyond repair. Who the hell thought its a good idea to rivet through them and then put a bunch of bondo over it? You know there's a way to attach trim bits like this to the body even with broken clips that doesn't require 34242342 inch bondo.. Really dude why not create the molding with bondo from scratch instead?

[Dr_Snooz]

:ROFL: I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets worked up about sloppy work. Especially when I have to fix it.

[AccordB20A]

Damn that things got as much body filler shit in it as your gold car.

Wheres the B20A swap pics?!?!?!

[Hazwan]

Damn that things got as much body filler shit in it as your gold car.

Wheres the B20A swap pics?!?!?!

When you ship me yours dammit!!!!11

kso I've got the car covered in etching primer now. I actually stripped the whole car minus door jambs but I was distracted with some other work so I had to leave the car in bare metal for 2 days and it started to rust ahhhhh so I sanded every surface rust off and sprayed etching primer on. No pics because I was too busy not trying to stop my car from rotting lol





















All those red filler spots are basically what needed to fix the dent and dings -.-

I shaved the side molding holes because there is absolutely no way I'm going to reuse the one you see in the previous post hah!

Also somebody decided to remove the factory duckbill spoiler and welded the holes shut and managed to warp the hell out of the trunk lid in the process too. Idiots.

[79cord]

Glad to see you are able to get working upon it so quickly & enthusiastically. It won't have any secrets hidden from you!
Can't wait to see how you choose to paint & detail it .

[Hazwan]

I just happen to have a spare CB7 lip that I've got for free while back. It's in beat up condition but fixable. Obviously it didn't fit properly as its curved up front vs ludes bumper being pretty much square but some minor cutting, I've made it to work!







I gotta reshape that, no biggie but fitment is great. Same exact length too! No cutting required!






Looks like I need something to fill the gap here. I'll come up with something I'm sure :p


Some cutting needed to shape the lip to fit


It was broken here before, nothing that I can't fix anyway :p


Bonus Instagram pic from yesterday

[Dr_Snooz]

It has almost as much character as your gold car now! LOL

[Hazwan]

Well that CB7 part did not end there. I snagged a pair of side skirts out of a CB7 and obviously it won't fit without a lot of modding.

Main reason why I need them is to cover up a hack job done by the previous owner where they welded a replacement rocker panel wrong and crooked near the rear wheel and its pissing me off just to even look at it. I can't weld else I would replace them correctly instead but oh well these will do for now I guess.





Test fit


This is how much I needed to cut as it was too long


Trimmed so it would fit flush with the body










Now I gotta figure out how to mount them properly to the body. A lot of sanding/trimming needed still so it looks rough atm

[firefighterwhite89]

Well, oil in water is probably a cracked block. What happens is people get a blown headgasket, engine burns off the water in the cyclinder and gets hot and then block cracks and then they get water in the pan and blame the head gasket. Common mistake. Suck to hear that after all the work you put into it.

I wish i would have seen this earlier, by what you described with the radiator having that much pressure is sign that you still probably had a head gasket issue or cracked head.

The a-Series headgaskets may as well be made from egg shells. I've been through 3 in 7 years. Everytime the car overheats, you risk blowing a headgasket on these cars. Almost always seems to be between cyl #2 and #3 but once it got all 4 cylinders but that was when my water pump officially died. Try a HG. More than likely, that's your issue as that is a fairly common issue. ALSO, remember to tighten AND lossen your head bolts evenly in the recommended pattern. The block is Iron, and will take way more crap than any aluminum block. The head is another story. You'll warp or crack your head being aluminum before you'll blow your block unless you run the motor waaayyyy too low on oil. I've had oil in the coolant AND coolant in the oil before. Both were the HG. And another lesson i've learned...pick a fel-pro head gasket. Don't go cheap.

[Hazwan]

Project is on hold, at least I until I can finish a customer's car paintjob by the end of this week. That means I'm gonna get paid! Bad news is I already spent that much money I made this month on the lude hahah!

Now. Been thinking about this for a while. My stock carbs never ran right. One of my floats is leaking and I had it fixed with epoxy and who knows how long that would hold and it would suck if it starts leaking again while I'm in the middle of nowhere. And I can never tune them properly - it would never idle under 900rpm without stalling in D and idle is pretty rough in N and under 900rpm. Doesn't matter if the chokes are open or closed.

So now decisions: rebuild stock twin Keihins and spending a fortune with rebuild kits, new floats etc (importing from teh USDM or JDM land since I can't find shit locally) and pray that the 27 year old carbs would last and run good for a while or spend a little bit more on bike carbs and pray that I can actually tune and make them work? I mean I can't even tune 2 carbs properly, let alone 4 of them? I have fairly basic experience with carbs just never dealt with anything performance related. Never rejetted a carb before so I'm not sure what I'm expecting from this.

Fabrication wise, I can get the manifold made for cheap so thats not gonna be a problem.

Hows the fuel economy with 4 bike carbs anyway? I'm shooting anywhere between 25-30mpg city driving. Not even sure if thats possible with the stock shitty tuned carbs hah!

[apache07x]

Project is on hold, at least I until I can finish a customer's car paintjob by the end of this week. That means I'm gonna get paid! Bad news is I already spent that much money I made this month on the lude hahah!

Now. Been thinking about this for a while. My stock carbs never ran right. One of my floats is leaking and I had it fixed with epoxy and who knows how long that would hold and it would suck if it starts leaking again while I'm in the middle of nowhere. And I can never tune them properly - it would never idle under 900rpm without stalling in D and idle is pretty rough in N and under 900rpm. Doesn't matter if the chokes are open or closed.

So now decisions: rebuild stock twin Keihins and spending a fortune with rebuild kits, new floats etc (importing from teh USDM or JDM land since I can't find shit locally) and pray that the 27 year old carbs would last and run good for a while or spend a little bit more on bike carbs and pray that I can actually tune and make them work? I mean I can't even tune 2 carbs properly, let alone 4 of them? I have fairly basic experience with carbs just never dealt with anything performance related. Never rejetted a carb before so I'm not sure what I'm expecting from this.

Fabrication wise, I can get the manifold made for cheap so thats not gonna be a problem.

Hows the fuel economy with 4 bike carbs anyway? I'm shooting anywhere between 25-30mpg city driving. Not even sure if thats possible with the stock shitty tuned carbs hah!

Will an intake off of an Accord fit? If it's an A series and it will fit why not an Accord intake with a Weber on it? I get around 22 -23 in town with an auto sedan and 29 -30 on the highway. Probably get better with a lighter car especially if it's a 5 spd.

[knifemind]

Will an intake off of an Accord fit? If it's an A series and it will fit why not an Accord intake with a Weber on it? I get around 22 -23 in town with an auto sedan and 29 -30 on the highway. Probably get better with a lighter car especially if it's a 5 spd.

He would have to swap an A20 head to use an A20 intake mani. Also, I don't believe a weber + filter would clear the hood. However since he states manifold can be made, maybe make a weber mani for the prelude head...it could be designed to sit low enough to clear I'm sure.

Anyway, love the progress. Hope for more updates soon.

[2oodoor]

I think I would stick with twin carbs, you can do some easy fabricating and use Delorto carbs, they make thes for air cooled vw that are super reasonable cost.
The mc carbs would be fine but if you want the most mpg and power you'd need megajolt or some way to tune tbe advance.
To use an a20 head and intake, hood clearance no doubt would be an issue but thats what hood scoops are for lol... i think. Those the dg style webers need a spacer to run great, nobody uses them here except A20A1 ( member) the floor of the manifold is just too close to get great atomization before hitting the runners.