Accord Coupe, front end conversion

[austriadude]

Hi guys, I'm new to this Forum but I've been watching H-T it for a while and found a lot of answers. Long story short, I've been reading through a lot of Build's and it's just awesome what people do to their cars. So I decided to post my first conversion. So the beginning of the story is: I got arrested on my CBR for running from Mass State Police a while back and they ended up pulling my plates and stamping my title so I wouldn't be able to register the bike in my name again! So I ended up trading the bike for a 97 Honda Accord EX coupe in very clean condition with low miles. So on the 20th day (the last day of the TEMP Tags) me and my wife decided to race with my brother in law (i was driving her 95 accord, my bro in law his civic and she was driving the accord Coupe). A girl pulls out in front of her and she ended up smashing into a UPS truck. Sad day in my live and i was pissed as all hell. on top of that it took me a day to customize the headlights (i didn't like'em tho) But thank god my wife was fine. The Air bag knocked her out for about 5 mins and she almost rolled the car. UPS truck only had a bend reinforcement but cost me $2800 (rip off) I will post more pics and info soon and sorry for different sizes, some are from the phone. Thanks for watching

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[GhostAccord]

Glad to hear that everyone was OK after a street racing related accident.... lucky it only cost you $2800. It's a $10,000 fine + jail time for idiot racing here in Canada.

With that out of the way, What exactly are you converting your front end too I see no pics big or small?

[P_Adams]

Originally Posted by GhostAccord

Glad to hear that everyone was OK after a street racing related accident.... lucky it only cost you $2800. It's a $10,000 fine + jail time for idiot racing here in Canada.

With that out of the way, What exactly are you converting your front end too I see no pics big or small?

Unless he's referring to hitting the UPS truck as his attempt to convert his front end...... (pause)

Again, thank god his wife made out ok; but I really cringe at threads like this.

"Hi, guys, I just got finished surviving something incredibly silly and I want to know how i can Fix my (............ insert car brand here............) to allow me to do even better, sillier things.

There's a Darwin Award for a reason I guess.

P

[austriadude]

Ok, let me get my story straight, my wife actually wasn't racing theoreticaly speaking (I don't know why i said she was included), me and my brother were and yes it was a big mistake and so was running from the cops. I learned my lesson the expensive way. from all the fines and fees i paid, I could have had a new car now!
But, all of us were young at one point and did somethings we shouldn't have done.
All this happened over 2 years ago and a lot has changed, including me.

About the pix, I apologize, I had the pictures set on privat.

[austriadude]

Originally Posted by P_Adams

Unless he's referring to hitting the UPS truck as his attempt to convert his front end...... (pause)

Again, thank god his wife made out ok; but I really cringe at threads like this.

"Hi, guys, I just got finished surviving something incredibly silly and I want to know how i can Fix my (............ insert car brand here............) to allow me to do even better, sillier things.

There's a Darwin Award for a reason I guess.

P

Unless he's referring to hitting the UPS truck as his attempt to convert his front end...... (pause)

LOL, that's funny, all my friends used to say that when I started the Conversion.

[austriadude]

As the conversion goes, I couldn't make up my mind for about a month.
I wanted to do a 98 accord coupe front end, then a 04 tl front end, but I could never find parts that would fit my budget.

Then one beautiful day I found a guy that was parting out a 2001 Prelude type S (or SH) turbo. I looked at the pix and the front end was mint except the hood. So i called couple of my friends (who know hondas in and out) asked them what they would thing.
Everybody (I mean everybody) except my wife was saying that i wouldn't be able to do it due to the fact that the Prelude nose is longer, wider, and shorter in height (I was worried about the hood hitting the valve cover)

So me my wife talked about it and decided will do the Prelude front since everyone doubted me.


The next morning I got right to work. This is what I saw when I opened the Hood.


I checked for Frame damage and the frame seemed to be fine. I lucked out becouse the
rear bumper of the UPS Truck slid right above the frame and left the frame unhurt.



So I immediately started taking things apart.


That same night, I went to go and pick the front end.
I paid $300 for 2 fenders, front bumper, brand new OEM prelude headlights and turnsignals. I was happy with that except that the kid promised he would take off the radiator support and I could have the next day. Well, that didn't happen.
So I searched through Junkyards and found one (the only one) about an hour away.
Went and picked it up for $95. Not happy
I was still missing the hood, looked every where and I wouldn't pay 150 for a new one.
Found one on Craigslist for $120 in Carbon fiber with holes cut out (and they were crooked too). Met up and bought for $80 Very happy

[philadd]

Wait, so you're going to try to put a Prelude front end on your Accord? This ought to be... interesting. *scratches head*

On a side note, $2800 to fix the UPS truck isn't bad. I know some guys that fix trucks like that for a living, and I've seen less damage cost more. There is no bonding or patchwork when it comes to fixing that kind of damage, but there is a crap load of welding involving. I'd consider yourself lucky that it didn't cost more.

[austriadude]

That's very true, I guess I'm just glad nobody got seriously hurt.

[G-Mac22]

i dont know how this kid thinks of this stuff but he is very smart in his custom fabs. i smashed my civic and he ended up helping me out with it before i knew it i hard and intivic integra+civic deff came out very good supprized on how go it went


KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK HOMIE CANT WAIT FOR THE TWIN TO COME ALIVE

[G-Mac22]

SASCHA YOU NEED TO PUT UP THE FINISHED PROJECTS

[austriadude]

Originally Posted by G-Mac22

SASCHA YOU NEED TO PUT UP THE FINISHED PROJECTS

Sasquatch, you need to stop stalking me and giving away my little secrets!
And Sascha is not my name, Gregory!

[austriadude]

Just figured I"m gonna post a pic of my wifee's accord and my other wagon.


...and sorry for the pix being so craptastic!

[austriadude]

I took the radiator support off (pain in the ass), radiator, AC stuff, and started working on the Wrinkle in the Pass Side.

Got the Prelude Radiator Support sitting right in front of it.

Grinding down the spot welds and more fixing of the dent


Grinding down the Drivers Side

[austriadude]

Welded the Radiator Support! What a pain in the Sack to fit that Support.
Fixed the corner after a lot of banging and rolling metal. ...And Primered.


I had to use about 10 Lockgrips and had to put the fenders on and off at least 20 times.
In the Red Marked Area I had to cut the Prelude (shorten it about 2 inches) which made me worry that the hood will hit the Valve cover. If I wouldn't have cut it, the Fenders wouldn't have fit properly. Also the Yellow ring shows where i had to weld an adotper piece to extend the RS because the Prelude one is about 1" short on each side.
But after Lots of thinking and lots of putting stuff on/off, I got it.

[GhostAccord]

Subscribed! Now that I know what it is that you are doing

No need to be all cryptic and shyte. You could have come out and said that you are doing a lude front clip swap on your 5th gen Accord.

Looking forward to more fab shots

Question about the Civic - integra clip. Where you able to get the hood lined up properly?

[austriadude]

Started painting the RS.


After a couple coats of paint, baking the paint with a propane (turbine style) space heater, mounting the Prelude Radiator, I couldn't wait to test fit the bumper, Headlights and fenders.

Just beautiful. All that taking on/off stuff really worked out in the long run.
I just had to finely adjust some brackets and that was about it.

Now the shitty part was the Fenders. They were about 4-5 inches longer then the accord ones (on the door side, not the front). Which is gonna suck because that means that i have to trim the hood about that much. Only good thing is that I got a CF-Hood.

Either way lets just get to the Fenders. I was debating for about half a day what my best solution would be. So I came to the conclusion that I'm gonna make one fender out of two. I ended up mounting the Accord fender and cutting it right at the beginning of the Wheelwell. Then I took the Prelude Fender, ended up cutting it about 1/2 inch past the wheelwell (closer to the door) and tucking it under the Accord Fender.
Turned out to be a good decision.
Next Issue, the body lines and the overlap.


So I took a pair of Vizegrips and ended up pulling on the accord fender as hard as i could and clamping the bottom of both fenders together. Then took a flattop hammer and adjust the seam a little. Came out nice.

[austriadude]

Originally Posted by GhostAccord

Subscribed! Now that I know what it is that you are doing

No need to be all cryptic and shyte. You could have come out and said that you are doing a lude front clip swap on your 5th gen Accord.

Looking forward to more fab shots

Question about the Civic - integra clip. Where you able to get the hood lined up properly?

Sorry about cryptic and shyte.
Yes afterwards, that just was a picture right after we put it together. The hood deff was a pain to align because I had to bend it slightly and I didn't want to kink it. The bumper on that pic wasn't even bolted on yet.
If I had to do another Integra on a Civic Conversion, I would do a little different.
On top of that, he was selling the car and we were in rush so we only had two days to rip the smashed civic front off, fixing whatever was wrong and putting new front on and spray bomb the front (except the hood).

[GhostAccord]

Sucks not having the time to do it right eh! Looks like your taking the proper amount of time to get your Accord done right. Doesn't look like it will take too much to get those body lines on the fenders to line up. Top line to the A pillar looks like it might take a little persuasion ... Nice work

[austriadude]

Thank you and you are right about the time management. The problem i had then with the accord was, I signed up with the military and I was leaving for bootcamp one month after I figured out the fender issue. Still, one month was plenty of time to get it done.

[19Accord97]

That is awesome! I like the prelude orange!


subscribed so be sure to update~

[ej8ster96]

i want to see this when its done, keep up the good work!!

[bsivoljr]

Looks like progress bro

[austriadude]

Thanks guys, more pix will come. I'm just at work and i was working on my Accord Wagon thread. Check it out if interested!
http://www.honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=2676309

[FunnyVictor86]

i like what i see so far ... can't wait for more updates

[austriadude]

Originally Posted by FunnyVictor86

i like what i see so far ... can't wait for more updates

Well thank you, Soon!