KnownAsNinja

Whats up guys, I'm Ninja. That nickname started in 7th grade and has followed me into adulthood. Its also my online gaming alias as well... if any of you guys follow the Call of Duty Youtube community, you might recognize my name from there. Anyway.
I'm brand new as you can see... to both this forum and some what to Hondas in general. So please be patient with my stupid "noobish" questions I hope to learn a lot from you guys! I can tell already this is going to be a long introduction.. if you're not a reader, sorry... Here's my story, my car, my plans...

Background/Location:

About 8 years ago or so, when I was in HS, I had a ZC swapped EF hatchback. Its a long story but I ended up having to sell it and that was the end of my Honda experience up until this point. I live in the top of the shithole of the United States, New Mexico. There's an extremely minimal import crowd here, so when I decided I wanted to do a Honda again I knew I'd have to look around to find my project and that I'd be relying a lot on online forums for advice and support.

The Car:

After a bit of searching I found a Prelude in Denver (8 hours from me) for a really good price. After to talking to the guy for a bit, I was convinced he was a good guy and honest. I rode up with some friends that evening, arriving about 4AM.. woke up, bought the car and drove it back down that day. Thank God he was, because in hindsight, buying a car off Craigslist and driving it home 8 hours through the mountains, was probably not the smartest idea.

First Impressions:



The person I bought the Lude from hadn't done any upgrades to the car. He basically maintained and serviced it... then ended up selling, so while he seemed like a thorough guy, the previous owner had done all of the work to the car... so I was wary of the quality of his work...
Immediately of course I noticed the exterior.

While 18's are not everyones cup of tea, I don't mind large rims on a daily. The front lip is drooping a bit and doesn't appear to fit exactly.. The fogs are ugly...UGLY. They'll be coming off very soon!

The paint job is poor in some spots... chipped off in some areas, large runs in others, I'm not a fan of the X1 or whatever, style fenders. And, there is closed fist sized rust spots over both rear fenders.



There are some small imperfections and dings, as you would expect with a 1993.

The interior is what really sold me... and the fact that I've wanted a Prelude since I was like 14. The interior is pretty minty though! The only real blemishes on the interior are the holes: one on the left of the steering wheel and two punched out from the middle console.



I looked over the car a bit more, there is a no name muffler welded on and a no name CAI, which I took down to a short, since this is a daily and its been raining. The lowering springs are some Ebay brand, 1.2" front, 1.0" rear. There are no name front and rear strut bars. Apparently the previous owner decided on the "cheaper is better" route... There are Sonar projectors, corners and altezzas in the rear...

Plans:

That all being said, I have big plans for this car!! I'm waiting on my E36 project to sell to fund some of this. I'm a college student and brand new daddy, so progress won't happen overnight but it will in time!

First off I attacked the audio and aftermarket wiring in the car. I pulled the seats, trim, console, etc to take a look at it all. Much like I expected, everything was done poorly. A lot of electrical tape and cheap additions... for example. The punched holes in the center console housed rockers an extra ciggarette outlet (soooo cool :/) and an iPod charger (wtf's your headunit for then?) and a valet switch for the cheap Audiovox alarm. Yeah.... the hole to the left of the steering wheel housed a rocker for those ugly fogs up front... there was a 4 channel amp slid under the front passenger seat that was only powering the front speakers... it was powered by a speaker wire that was spliced into the 8 ga. power wire running to the trunk... the list goes on.
I'm MECP certified, so that just couldn't fly. I hit up some Kicker Audio wiring products and went to work. I ran 4 ga. power back to the trunk. Along with 3 sets of RCAs. I replaced the no name headunit with a "budget friendly" 348U Kenwood. I ran 14 ga. speaker wire to Kenwood 6 1/2" components in the front and 5 1/4" 3-ways in the rear. Powering the front and rears is an Alpine 4 Channel, and to the sub is an ancient, but still beastly, Sony MonoBlock that pushes 900RMS @ 2ohms. I have a JL W6 on the way and I'm currently building a sealed (I listen to rock) box for it, with an amp rack... then I'll tuck all the wiring.



As soon as my E36 sells, I'll be purchasing some Tokicos and either springs or coils... I haven't decided yet. Then plan on replacing the trunk seals and all of the window moldings as they are showing their age. And having those two rust spots removed, shaving the front bumper license plate holes, emblems and the antenna. Then having the car sanded and repainted.

When spring comes and I can fund it (yay for college grants), I'll be swapping in an H22 and working on performance.

And there we go! Sorry for the book! Thanks for reading guys! Comments, messages, ideas, opinions.. all welcome and appreciated.
-Ninja

bigblockh22

Only the first picture showed up and it looks clean. Enjoy your Prelude and all your future plans with it.

KnownAsNinja

Thanks! There is now some working pictures.. I used Photobucket this time instead to upload.

Acidcrakker

Wow

KnownAsNinja

Yanked those ugly fogs, removed the front license plate holder and rebolted the front lip. New H4s.

adrinbonk

this last pic looks awsome

KnownAsNinja

Thanks, it was just a quick snap when I was leaving the college... I plan on some sweet night shoots though once I get a strobe and pack. If you live anywhere near me I'd be happy to take some shots of your ride!

94ludeking

I would talk about this and try to help, but I need to know some of the main plans as of right now. Performance or visual?

KnownAsNinja

That question right there's a huge toss up for me right now... I want to take care of the visual ASAP, but since this is my daily now, it seems to be a bad idea to: 1)Be without it for an extended period of time while its in the shop getting body work/paint done. 2)It's a daily at this point, brand new paint job+winter=bad idea.
I'd jump straight to performance, but there is zero point into putting money into the H23 that's going to be swapped out as soon as I can fund it. And ATM I can't afford to swap an H22. Since I want to do it smartly, completely and reliably. I could just buy an H22 for under a grand and toss it in, but I'd rather wait a bit, save and buy the H22 w/ LSD trans, tear it down when it first arrives and replace gaskets/seals/etc., do a little head work. Since its out, be able to afford a clutch/flywheel, and get the engine bay painted while I'm rebuilding the motor.
So really at this point, I'm left with saving and taking care of little things right now. So at this moment right now, the things I want to take care of over the winter:
-Suspension. It has cheap ebay drop springs on it right now from the previous owner. I'm leaning towards Tokicos and Tein springs, or Skunk2 coils. The coils would be nice since I'll take longer drives occasionally and being able to raise it up a bit would be nice. *Note: There's no way I can afford to drop a grand on full coils right now. -->Newborns cost a lot The car came with some no-name strut bars and a Progress sway.
-5th Gen sunroof swap. I think glass pieces look sooooo much better, so I'll be doing this pretty soon. I've read probably every write up and discussion on it, so I think it will go well and easily.
-Interior. The interior, like I stated above is pretty minty as is. Butttt, I deff want to go with some aftermarket buckets up front. I really hate how the Prelude seats make me feel like I'm going to pull a drive-by... I feel like I'm laying down. Other than that, I want to find a replacement center console, since there is holes punched in this one from the previous owner.
---Gauges. I was reading write ups on the electronic gauges (gas, temp, and icons) and moving them over to be able to place something in the middle. I deff. want to invest some time into doing that... I've been looking into it already and making plans :D
-Other than that, I'll probably go ahead and purchase a full catback now, since it will work with the swap.. and start replacing parts in the engine bay, to give it a clean, new, tucked look.. (also because the chassis has 200K so I assume most of the engine bay is right there too; motor was replaced) So half-radi, slim fan, new hoses, wire tuck some, etc.

nus_dogg

No engine bay shots?

Enjoy your new Lude BTW.

KnownAsNinja

Thanks! And yeah I'll try to get one up tomorrow. I need to pick up some shower caps so I can spray the engine bay down. Its nothing special at all: Semi-rebuilt H23 with about 100K original, and maybe 3K on it since the overhaul. The tranny was taken care of at that time too... resurfaced flywheel, new clutch, gaskets, seals, etc.. so it will be a good replacement for someone when I sell it after my swap. Other than that, engines bone stock other than a CAI (shortened for winter) and the valve cover is painted Red.. But I'll try to get one up tomorrow anyway.

94ludeking

For a lot of replacement things,especially glass top, check a junkyard, here 5th gen glass tops are $40 for everything, install is easy as well.

KnownAsNinja

Yeah, unfortunately I live in a shitty little town where Chevy's and Ford run rampant... meaning pretty much zero junkyard supply. But I plan on trying to source when from a junkyard, next time I take a trip somewhere. Thanks.

94ludeking

Damn, that blows, there's not many imports here, but enough to say you get them. Idk if you plan on the cars intent to just be point A to point B, I wouldn't bother with it. If you have something going for it follow through, with time that is. Like for my car, I'm going to restore paint and interior to the VTEC model. With maybe some performance, Then get a crx for track.

KnownAsNinja

Quick shot of the engine bay:



Like I said above, there's no point in performance work on this H23 since I plan to swap it anyway. But in the meantime I'll work on cleaning up the bay with a minor tuck.. though I'll be keeping PS and AC since its a daily. And I'll aim to replace bits here and there that will stay after the swap... hoses, radi, fan's, etc.

soslowEH2

looks clean.. good luck

Cannon Man

Not bad at all. Just a little TLC and she'll be looking good

KnownAsNinja

Upon further inspection, it appears the rust has spread farther than I expected on the passenger side rear quarter panel. There are two tiny spots where it appears that rust is starting to bubble up under the paint... so tiny you can't see it in pictures or on a quick look over, but I circled the areas where its appearing.
I had a feeling that this might be the case... looks like I'll be replacing them

Hawkze_2.3

Yeah, those rubber trim pieces on the wheel arch are just rust magnets....I have no idea why Honda even included those.

I think you will have easier job if you weld in patches at those areas, rather than doing the whole quarters.

KnownAsNinja

Yeah that's what I've been being told. I'll look into doing that. In other news, I sold my E36 project today. Most of the cash from it is already accounted for, but I have a bit spare to play with

KnownAsNinja

10/18: Oooo a package came today. What could this be?



Oh, this is what that was!





JL 12w6! Super stolked!!

Eventually I'll have a custom box made, matching JL's air space spec's but for the moment I'm just rocking a generic vented.

Mounted, tuned the gain, subsonic and low-pass filters, brought the bass boost up anddddd, blew the power fuse at half way.

I'll need to run 0 or 2 ga power, 4 ga ground's and get a cap, but for now I'm fine half-cranked. Its pretty loud as is. This is my
first JL sub and I have to say I'm very impressed. Even in a vented box tight bass sounds pretty punchy and precise... throw in
Jezzy and crank up the boost a notch and it'll re-comb your hair for you.



JL 12w6 and wire clean up. (Custom box, amp rack and complete wire tuck at some point but for now, I'm finished with Audio.)

I also finally went and picked up some vacuum caps to cap off where I removed the intake solenoid line. And maybe somebody
here can readily identify these guys. A pair of Sustec Pros that came boxed in the trunk when I bought the car. A paper with
them is an email log between JDMDepot (ebay company?) and the previous owner, states they were pulled from a JDM Prelude
and are supposed to fit the 4th Gen, but the previous owner was telling them they didn't match up and he wanted to ship them
back... obviously he didn't since they were still in the trunk.. not sure of their specs/application/worth. Enlighten me

AWDManiac

welcome, I live in Albuquerque as I am sure you do. Nice o see someone from here

Ludachris203

I'm diggin that like a miner! The Lude is such a sweet car. My first car was a 93 si and I miss it greatly. Your plans for the car are very modest. I like that! I can't wait to see this page in the future. If your ever in Roswell hit me up. I have a stage 2 ACT clutch that would go great for this car, I also have the original Si wheels. PM me if your interested.

KnownAsNinja

Do you? Hmmm, I will PM you.

Thanks! Unfortunately I'm not :/ I live at the top of the state in Farmington. After I finish my two year here though I'll be coming to Alb or going to Denver to continue my education.

AWDManiac

I pass through farmington to Durango in the winter for snowboarding