HalFastTeg

iTrader: (1)

Hey man, big ups for diving into that fab work. Usually when I run out of gas I get porosity. Just knock them down with a grinder and v-groove them, turn up the heat and burn out any remaining porosity when you weld over it. The idea of changing the strut mounts to account for the change in suspension geometry is pretty slick. Seems pretty well thought out.

Blackhalo6

Ok, Im back to work. Got back home alot sooner than i expected, but the project has been a bit on the back burner. No pics, but so far ive decided to shorten the trailing arms and move them in one inch. shorten the lower control arm 1 and 1/4 inch. which then put the wheel inside the well and centered. it also caused a postive camber, which was interesting to see. I bought a set of adjustable upper links. BLOX was 80 bucks on sale @ horsepowerfreaks. Im satisfied with the construction and it pulled the wheels in good.

i dropped the car on the ground to have a look, and everything looks good except ive got some negative toe which is adjustable and a height issue. Its not really an issue, but something i didnt think about. So i used struts from a crx, but they are the stock ones, and because i had a lowering kit, it raised the *** end an inch or so. The rake kinda looks nice really, and with that the 17s fit nice so i think ill leave it the same. But either way, the car is gonna need an alignment.

Because of shortening the trailing arms, i had to move the crossmember up the same amount. which was an absolute nightmare, it didnt want to come off for anything. as shitty as the welds looked, they still kept it together with the last 1/8th inch left after i started cutting on it. And with moving the crossmember up, the driveshaft is now too long by the same amount. So its going to have to be shortened, and the diff mount is going to have to be changed. So for everyone out there who thought that 3/4 threaded rod would shear, be happy cuz its now gone.

My welding has significantly improved, and actually during normal welds, looks almost professional. still having trouble with sheet metal tho. also i have begun building the framework for the fuel cell. ive decided that the fuel cell should be encased inside a shell but still accessable from the trunk because of the filler neck. So i have build a box thats 33 3/4in by 16in by 11 1/4in to fit into the trunk so the cell is enveloped, with a lid thats hinged and can seal tight using studs and wing nuts. the filler neck itself will have its own door inside the overall lid. Im almost done, i put it in the trunk and it fits nicely between the frame rails. so all i gotta do now is add the sheet metal walls and then begin finishing the lid/attaching it to the car.

Also, brakes. I decided a long time ago that i would use the stock integra rear brakes, but using the crv trailing arms made it a really difficult reality. So the calipers only fit on the rear side of the arm, and this causes the e brake connection point to point directly at the arm. so after some deep thought, i realized that swapping the left with the right would allow for me to have a better angle for both the e brake and the fluid hose as well. And sure enough, with a little bit of cutting on the web of the trailing arm, the left caliper fits nicely on the right side, but theres no where to mount it. The gap between the caliper and the bearing is 1/4 inch, so 1/4 in plate steel should make a good mount for the caliper slide. I havent made it because im out of materials, but i know it will work and will be able to just bolt onto the place that the backplate for the drums did. im just not 100% sure that the 1/4 in steel will be able to hold the force of the brakes. In theory, it should, based on the actual force and direction applied to it.

Even with the checks i did, im not entirely confident in the wheel hubs i altered. They may be able to hold together, but im not sure they wont vibrate at top speed, so i have made alternate plans. The hubs in the front will fit the rears no problem, but the splines of the cv shaft and the hub are different. But problem solved, a friend of mine has his eyes set on a metal lathe, and im positive with that i can make a cv shaft from a older model AT integra fit between the diff and the hub, and with some alteration fit into the inner cup of the crv cv shaft. This would solve 2 problems. The home made hubs, and the small diameter of cv shaft.

I also filled in the hole made from having to cut to make the shifter fit. Its a pretty smooth transtition across the bottom of the car but did require a bit of a hump to clear all the moving parts.

Something that i noticed after the fact was that with the fuel cell shell installed, i didnt have much room for a muffler, so im wondering if placing it further back on the pipe will have any negative effect. I couldnt imagine that it would, but im not sure.

The project is coming to a head, and i feel like at this point i have all the details figured out, i just need to figure out the fine details. I cant wait to get this thing out on the road and test it till it breaks. Then i can adjust to prevent it from breaking until no matter how hard i push it it doesnt break, then hopefully by next racing season it will be ready. turbo and all.

KILLAB17VTEC

Any update? How it turn out?

Blackhalo6

Not quite done yet. Still gotta finish the trunk pan, brakes and exhaust. But its getting there.

Black R

In over head = good.

He'll have no trouble staying motivated and determined.

Blackhalo6

Yea when I started this I knew I was in over my head, but you never learn anything if you stick only to the things you know. I've learned a lot, and I keep learning stuff. I feel like if I tried this again it would go a lot faster and smoother. With a lot less rework.

Blackhalo6

So I got the box for the fuel cell in the car. Fits like a glove. Just gotta finish up the sheet metal in the trunk and ill have a floor pan again. Kinda excited. Looks pretty good just gotta take a flapper wheel to it to smooth out the welds and hit it with some primer and undercoat. I also got 2 pieces of 6in by 4in by 1/4 in plate steel to make the caliper bracket. Fits perfect just gotta measure cut and drill. Then I just gotta shorten the driveshaft and put the exhaust together and she will roll. Still looking to swap out the hubs, just gotta find a cv shaft I can hybridize.

HalFastTeg

iTrader: (1)

Anxious to see some more pics!

3rdtimecharmer

yeah hes jumping into something this big and something he even admitted himself, being way over his head. he is learning as he goes but he is destroying a perfect chassis.

maybe he bit off more than he can chew. he said hes new and learning as he goes. but maybe he could have built up to something this big and did other projects. when the time comes, hes gonna get fed up and stop. OR he will finish it and it will run, but it WILL NOT BE PRETTY. and just be trashed anyhow.

idk, big ups to you trying but man... igotta say, seriously, good luck with this. your final picture is keeping you going, but idk if your going to get the final product u hope for. not trying to put u down or anything, but the project is already on the back burner. lets see what happens a year from now... i mean i have been following since day one, i remember telling myself when i saw the first post "hes crazy" but you keep coming with updates and it surprises me more and more.

if anything, this will just be a learning curve for u, trash it in the end and maybe give it another try so the 2nd time around things will be a lot "cleaner and smoother"


or you could have imported a DC1 AWD integra and work off of that :x haha

. if this comes out as plan, im gonna shut my mouth and u. but for now GOOD LUCK i guess.

and hey, if noone was around to try and smash your dreams, it wouldnt be as pleasing when its reached. right?

Blackhalo6

I agree. People thinking its gonna fail makes me want to finish even more. By the time I'm done it won't really look that bad. The car was in bad shape when I got it 9 years ago so its by no means a perfect chassis. Salvage title and all. But she's my baby and I have no intention of scrapping her. When I'm done the interior will look almost original and the biggest difference on the body on the outside is the box where the spare tire well hung down. Its on the backburner because I have a 92 which is my wife's with a bad alternator which I fixed and a bad tranny ( no reverse) and my 1g gsx has a tire that's going flat and the clutch has lost too much clamp force (slips at full boost sometimes) so money is kinda tight. But with the exception of the exhaust piping I have all I need to get her rolling again. Then ill probably swap rear hubs. Also as for the xsi, I was going to try and source parts to use for this but I couldn't find any. I even contacted parts sources in jp. The motor in that was a zc and I wanted to use my gsr motor I have built.In the end ittl all work out. Hopefully done a lot sooner than a year from now. I'm aiming for summer next year to have all the kinks worked out.And for pics, ill try to get some up soon but I have a friend who just bent a bunch of valves in his civic and he's not a real car guy.

Blackhalo6

So, I got the fuel cell box in, primered, and covered in undercoat. It hangs about 2-3 inches under the bumper but is still higher than the lca mount so not the lowest point. It looks good with the exception of one side panel that warped when I welded it to the frame.I also started building the frame for the lid.I used angle irons for the sides to give it a sealing lip. As for the new diff mount,I'm not finished with it, but I'm pretty happy with it so far. I used a 2 x 2 x 2 u shaped piece of steel and am mounting it to the frame via the old mounts bolts and to the diff by using a polyurethane sway bar kit. Its a pretty solid mount but gives it just a little flex. Ill try and get pics up tomorrow, Phone was dead today.

KILLAB17VTEC

Yo. Wuz good on the awd integra? Forget about what them peeps gotta say negative things about your project. Just make it accomplisment and be proud of it.

Blackhalo6

So I finished the mount for the diff, reinforced the crossbeams and started on the lid. The lid is going to have to have a hump for the fittings and a separate door on it to fill the fuel cell. But I've got a nice blank to start with. I still haven't moved on to the brakes yet, but I feel they deserve undivided attention. So ill probably wait until the trunk is sealed up. Here's some pics of what I've been talking about.

Blackhalo6

So I'm running out of gas, so I decided I could bend all the sheet metal I needed to fill the trunk and tack it into place. I ended up staying out here longer than I wanted but in the end it was worth it. There's a few more edges I gotta fit and tack up but its mostly done. I decided instead of just sealing it up, I would make use of the space between the crossmembers and the frame. So I ended up with 2 trays. One I can use for some tools to carry and the other for the battery and maybe a power inverter.I found that bending instead of cutting and welding looked nicer used less gas and just felt more solid. I even made some tools to make bending the sheet metal easier. Once the trunk pan is in, ill knock down the welds smooth and primer and undercoat all of it.

HalFastTeg

iTrader: (1)

So is the box towards the rear the fuel cell you fabbed? My last job was welding fuel tanks and they leak really easily so jw how that's gonna work out. Might pay to leak test it first is what I'm getting at

Blackhalo6

Oh no, lol I don't in any way think that I can make a fuel tank. The well in the back is to hold the fuel cell I bought. Its an RCI fuel cell. I thought I had pics of it on here but maybe not. The rear part is just an isolated portion of the trunk in case it leaks or gets ruptured.

Blackhalo6

So I finished tacking up the trunk. I got a few holes to fill and I have to seal it all up but its pretty much done. I actually ran out of gas and wire so I'm done till next weekend. As for the brakes, I decided that if I was going to swap hubs, I should wait until I do because of the difference in offset may make the bracket not fit. I think I found the right donor based on a few things but without having the part in hand its just an educated guess. The 94 accord used a front wheel bearing with a 43mm id and the rear crv hub was 43 as well. Also the accord used a long drivers side cv shaft instead of a half shaft. So its possible I may be able to use the axle as well, but again not positive. Luckily I know where one is in a junk yard. Its the same car I pulled the shifter out of. When I get a chance, ill pull it and try it out. Here's a pick of the trunk tacked up and one with the fuel cell setting in its well so you can see what I was talking about. But looks like I'm done till this weekend.

HalFastTeg

iTrader: (1)

There you go. If you plan on doing a lot of fab work I find a Starrett combination machinist square/level comes in really handy for setting things plumb and square. Good progress man keep it up.

Blackhalo6

I had one, but the level part broke. For making angles, I have a welders magnet, its more or less just a bunch of magnetic angles. Unfortunately no matter how hard I try the metal starts to bow the more I weld on it. I found that if I throw a wet rag on it immediately after, it cuts it down a lot. But when I was making the trunk trays, it was difficult because the subframe isn't symmetrical some places on one side have a different shape or different thickness. I don't know if anyone else has cut into their trunk like this but the whole damn thing is made up of tons of plates that are overlapped and filled with body filler that is extremely flammable, smokes like crazy, and is sometimes hard to see. Anyways I know its not perfectly squared up, but I just don't have the tools to make it perfect. All that was done with a ball peen hammer and tin snips. If I was going to do it all again and I had the money I would love to have a plasma cutter and an english wheel.

Blackhalo6

Matter of fact if anyone else trys something like this, I highly recommend them.

HalFastTeg

iTrader: (1)

I kinda figured that and wasn't being critical by any means. This thin stuff does warp like mad. I made the mistake of plug welding my molding holes and it took hundred of hours getting it straight again. Next time I'll use duraglass.. but yeah, this all gets covered anyways.

Blackhalo6

So I was planning on doing the same to my molding holes. Did you try and use a piece of sheet metal to fill or did you just try to weld it up?

HalFastTeg

iTrader: (1)

I used a small square of sheetmetal and a magnet but it took forever to get the body straight after putting that much heat into the panels. Next time I do it I think I'll try to not put any heat in the doors. Just used panel bonding adhesive to glue the backing steel, then duraglas over top and block them out. Check out my build thread page one you'll see what I'm talking about.

Blackhalo6

So I've been doing a lot of research online and a lot of measurements seem to be a bit off for the parts for the rear hubs. It really seems that its going to be a shot in the dark for mix-matching parts.the hubs are pretty straight forward, but being able to hybrid a outer cup that fits a hub and a bar that fits that cup and is the right length and fits an inner cup that fits the dif, is going to be a nightmare. But at this point all I can do is search, buy, and test. At the end of this I think ill have a pile of random Honda parts and some good info for anyone who needs it.

Blackhalo6

So I did some man shopping today. Picked up more gas and wire. And more paint and undercoat. I also pulled the front knuckle off that accord that I got the shifter off of. It was only 50 bucks so wth. Anyways the hub will fit. No problem. Just a little shaving required. The problems I see with it so far is that its 4x113 instead of 100 but for the wheels that doesn't matter they are uni 4 lugs. But the issue is brakes. I need to find 4x113 rear rotors that will go on the outside. These bolted to the inside which is nice cuz it gives the hub more clearance, but inside rotors will not work for this setup. Anyone know of a Honda with 4x113 that have outside rotors?