97dssi

I bought this car for my hobby/car toy to enjoy cruise or car meets. After a year, looking for one on the craigslist to find a good deal for not so much rust because I always find rusted out del sols(Winter sucks in Chicago) for cheap. I wasn’t looking forward into rust repair so I kept looking around till I found this gem car for the low. I’m glad that I didn’t spent $5,000+ on a clean stock del sol.

In April, 2011, I purchased a 1997 Honda Del Sol Vtec Cypress green pearl off of the craigslist. It was completely bone stock with a non-original engine. After owning it for a month then I immediately put the parts I had in my room I been collect for Del Sol for a year before I bought her. Sadly, I didn’t take a lot of pictures for that stuff to show because I didn’t have a camera that time and too damn excited lol. Oh well. I got myself a GoPro hero 3 a few months ago so hopefully I will try my best to use the camera as much I can when update whatever I’m working on. Tryin to keep it simple and clean build though. I learned soo much information about eg/ek/dc/em from this site which is awesome! I love this site!

Btw it’s a fun car because I feel like I’m driving a go kart on the street/highway! Lol Okay, enough with talking haha.

Currently set up:

Engine:

• B16A3
• Password:JDM Carbon Fiber Cold Air Intake
• Ferrea valves replaced the old ones. (3 months old timing belt snapped at 5k RPM in second gear! Ouch!!)

Interior:

• Alpine CDA-105 Stereo
• Infiniti 6.5” front speaker
• Pioneer 6.5” rear speaker
• RE 3000.1D Mono Amplifier
• RE SSX 10” Subwoofer
• Polished Aluminum Targa Handles
• NRG Quick release steering system with lock hub
• Skunk2 Dual Bend Short Shifter
• Password:JDM 520 grams shift ****
• Red stitched shift boot
• Autometer Shift Light
• Wink Mirror with wood trim(want to cover the ugliness because I had to put 2 of L-brackets to prevent melting/bending if parked in the sun too long)
• BlendMount For Valentine One
• Valentine One Radar Detector hardwired
• 35% all round window tints
• LEDs in Cluster and Dome light

Exterior:

• EG6 Side Markers (got the parts but haven’t installed them. I’m hoping to install this winter when I have time and ***** to do it in the cold *** garage lol)
• Carbon Fiber Hood
• OEM Antenna block off plate(glad I got this before it disappeared for good unless one pops up random, cannot believe it’s harder to find now)

Wheels/Suspension System:

• 15” Rota Circuit 10s with Metallica Red powder coated
• Falken 615k Tires
• Function and Form Type I Coil overs
• Skunk2 Front and Rear Camber Kits
• ASR Sub brace
• ASR 24mm sway bar
• ASR End links
• Password:JDM 3 point strut bar

When I purchased the del sol and drove her home. That’s how she used to looks like.







That explained why I was too damn excited to install all of the parts before taking a few pictures of before and after install. Hahaha! I installed a steering wheel quick release for security purpose (Chicago infamous for Honda thieves), Alpine stereo with an amp power wiring, shift light, V1 blend mount on rear mirror custom made to be clean install, an extra cig plug to hardwire for GPS, and e-brake red- stitch boot. That carpet was bothering me for a while till I finally found a good shape carpet to replace that big freaking hole in driver side floor. That short shift is long gone!



This picture is umm… after installed the entire goodies picture. Sorry guys! I wish I can take a lot of pictures to take every detail on what I did that time but like I said, didn’t have a camera. I installed a good condition carpet to replaced old one and put new floor mats to prevent carpet from being fade out/wear out. You see that old shifter in previous picture, replaced with Skunk2 short dual bend shifter which feel so much better, added Password:JDM 530gram shift **** to help shift smoother, wink mirror, and replaced the oem targa handles to polished aluminum handles so the plastic won’t break on me.



Holy batman! Sooo much rust everywhere! That’s how Midwest cars get in the winter. This car will be never drive in winter no more. Only summer car!





Replaced with Function 7 LCA, Function and Form Type 1 coilovers, and ASR rear subframe brace







That’s how she sitting.



Installed Password:JDM intake and bolt boys spike nuts.



Loved this picture because I thought it was a bad *** to add the Jagermeister cap onto Vtec solenoid. That spike nut is gone because I learned my lesson that I didn’t read… Messed up the hood! Ouch! Oh well, I can deal with that for a while.



In September 2012, Went to local car meet for a while then it was time to leave, after 10 minutes driving and bam, got into car accident. Drove her home like that.



Torn her front end apart.



Thinking to throw this stuff out in the garbage. I realized I will still need the front bumper to save myself a couple hundred dollars because I was planning to rebuild bottom to top one day so maybe like 90% of parts will be all new. That beam bumper is no bueno and already replaced with new one.



Then I put her away for the winter. Cover her to prevent dust and look like she’s sleeping under that cover.



Snow didn’t come yet so I still have time to install a few things. See anything different? Hope you can find it… Haha



Yup I installed ASR 24mm sway bar and ASR endlinks. Man, the wheels set up are still ugly! Yuck!

A week or 2, installed LEDs in cluster and climate control to make it brighter in the dark. See the difference between the cluster and climate control which have still stock light bulbs. Then I bought a new alarm to install. Alarm is a MUST for Honda, right?



Installed a second set of Alarm... Yep you heard that second... Shorted out the first one after a stupid move. Hahaha lesson learned. If something isn't right when you put the panels back on and it pitched the wires.



Snow came so it’s time to get camber front and rear kits to be ready for alignment in the spring when its ready to put new wheel set up. My front tires on steelies worn out after driving 3-4 months down to bare metal.





In spring 2012, finally got rims to get red Metallica powder coated and mounted Falken 615k then got her alignment close to zero for toe and camber for now and drove to my friend’s house to chill for a bit.



Went to different local car meet.



I know that front license plate is ugly but I had to unbend it back to where its original form because I got pulled over for that. Lucky, I put it back where it used to be and he excused that till he told me he thinks my car was stolen so he asked for my car register and ****. Turned out it was the integra, same color as mine. I told him what make you think it’s stolen? He said because you got all of the parts on the car. So it’s all cool and no tickets hahaha. I felt proud because it’s all neck breakers.



A good buddy of mine who own a sol joined me.



A month later, went to a big local car meet, FNL(Friday Night Light made by JDMchicago) in Scion/Toyota dealership where the owner lets JDMchicago host the event. It was amazing night!







What’s that? Oh sweet, new carbon fiber hood to replace ugly stock with 3 dents from spike nuts! Lol.







In November 2012, got window tints 35% all round and added the Domo sticker to make it look like Hi RaceHubChicago! Lmao





Went to photoshoot with friends before car meet.



In beginning of 2013, I replaced both of axles because the old ones had boots torn which I drove with for 2 years no problem. Then build started slow down cause Im running out of idea what to install. But problems beginning appear like every 2 weeks. The new passenger axle got mess up because being too low? Anyway, replaced that and took her to cruise to downtown to test it out. On the way back home, bam, same problem, kept driving her to home and parked in the garage. I saw smoke was pouring out of the passenger front wheel side, I immediately jacked it up and inspected to find out that one day old axle boot torn and ran out of grease… Wow! Second set ruined already. I decided to raised it back up a bit then replaced the both axles to be safe than sorry.

The next day, I took her out for a spin again to test new axles again. After 5 minutes, something happened at high rpm in second gear on small highway. Engine turned off out of the blue. Couldn’t turn it back on and popped the hood and overlooked then decided to tow it back home.



Popped the hood again, guess what I found… my heart sank because I replaced new one 3 months before that happened. I made sure everything is tight up. All from that damn one bolt from engine mount to block which shredded new one.



Slapped a new timing belt and hoped it will run again. Nope, never happen so time to tear the head out to inspect the valves. Found out 4 valves bent. Shoot me!





So much stuff on the floor lol





Took the head to local performance shop to replace the valves to get it back on the road before the winter come. Waiting time… Lalala



About time! I got the head back. Shiny but not all of them and it won’t bother me anyway. Just want it back on the road in no time. Replaced driver side and torque mounts since old one is no bueno.





I got it back together in one piece till I turned the engine for the first time ever and that happened! Crap! Turned out error head gasket install…
Definitely learned my lesson to not rush! Torn the head out and flipped the gasket but of course, I cleaned all of the oil out of bay. It sucks! All of that happened in only 8 hours job… so hot and tired but it’s all paid off! Whew!

97dssi

Hey moderators, can you please move this thread to Appearance Build Threads? Thanks! If not, oh well lol. Winter is coming up soon and I’m getting less driving this baby. I can’t wait for spring to come already!

Holy crap! 1 week after car wash and she's dirty already! It’s all from the hay for my Mo (Siberian husky) to lay/sleep on it to keep warm for the winter. We just adopted him a few months ago.



Lol he's so curious about the water coming out of hose to drain the water filled in the covered pool.



I got a black 3 point Password:JDM strut bar and installed it. Feel a bit different when driving. I wish I got the bronze instead. Don't mind that upper radiator hose... I need to replace that and burp the coolant system soon.



I remember that I gotta to check out my headlights because another night I was driving and I kept seeing something shaking inside where the lights flare off of. There you go… Need a new set of headlights. Maybe same kind but with the black housing or custom projector headlights. I don’t know yet.

Marvin1985

iTrader: (5)

Where did you get the spike nuts? Looking for some myself

97dssi

Got them from Downstarinc, here's the site.

http://downstarinc.com/Shop/index.ph...&product_id=52