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Hey guys, I have always been a lurker on the ITR Forum but never posted. Well, I finally picked up a 01 NHBP R. Unfortunately, somewhere along her hard life, someone took the badge so I am SOL as far as finding out her badge number. VIN on the car is JH4DC23131S000216, if anyone has any information it would be greatly appreciated. I do have a badge that came on the car, it is 98- 0604. I checked the registry and found no information on that vehicle. If you know the owner, have them contact me with proof of previous ownership and I will ship them their badge.
I picked the car up from a young army kid in Cincinnati earlier this month. The car is R title from flood damage but I didn't mind for the price and condition. I made the 10 hour drive from NY to Cincy to look at her. Upon inspection I found the car was swapped with a JDM B18C, had Tokico adjustable struts and Eibach springs, a BLOX 4-1 header, shitty A'PEXi N1 catback, and some BS "chipped" ECU. She ran like garbage, but ran, and everything was all there. She just seriously needed some love by someone who knew these cars. I have built quite a few by now so I felt confident I could bring her back to life. I paid the kid $200 below our agree'd on price because he failed to mention the motor mounts were shot and I made my way back to NY. The ride went well with no issues, a true testament to Honda engineering. I made it back safely; exhausted, tired, but with a Type R.
First things first, she needed detailing... badly. It looked like the car sat for a very long time. The paint was checked and non original, but again, for the price it was OK by my book. I took a day off work to clean her as I lost my voice after the trip. (I had slept for a total of 3 hours in a 61 hour period, perhaps it wasn't the best idea to go to a rave the night before the trip but I'm on this Earth to live, not be a bitch). 8 hours of buffing and waxing later including a full disinfecting of the disgusting interior, she was beautiful. A couple dings, a couple scratches, but overall a nice car. Surprisingly, all the VINs on the car one could physically see were there, and matching... for the exception of the full 98+ JDM R swap. I have not pulled the front or rear bumpers to verify matching VINs yet, but will do in the near future.
After the detail, I began the process of evaluating the damage. The seats were nasty. NASTY. I didn't even bother cleaning them. I pulled them out and put them in storage for the time being. I had a set of very clean DB8 ITR seats in my 99 MR EM1. As she is not on the road right now, I yanked them out and put them in the R. A- OK with me. I could really use a set of rears as well but for now, that can wait. I drove the car all the way back to NY gingerly, but somewhere in PA I started to get a little ballsy (and impatient) and started to open her up a little. I had noticed in Cincy that VTEC would not roll over, but found out in PA that redline seemed like it was limited to 7K. She was also running super rich, to the point where I would put the pedal to the floor and I would get big plumes of black, fuel rich smoke. I pulled the ECU and found it was a OBD I P30 USDM ECU.. I popped it open and found an aftermarket chip, but no information on the internals. I decided at that point to find a new ECU. I scoured the local CL and found that a fellow HT member had a Hondata S300 and a super clean set of ITR fronts for sale. Funny I found his post on CL and not HT but is what it is. We met up, I paid $750 for everything, and I installed the ECU. Sure enough that was my issue. First time I let VTEC engage, a big plume of **** came out of the exhaust. Only happened once. I like to think that this car has not been running right for years and that was the first time she had really been opened up in quite some time. The car runs nice, but I am going to clean out some of the sensors/actuators/valves because of a slight idle surge.
That's all for now, I will keep everyone posted on my progress. Thanks for reading.
From CL ad-
Pics of the ratty seats that came out of it-
HDR pic after 8 hours of detailing.
Last edited by JDM EJ2; 10-19-2016 at 03:39 PM.
Reason: Info
Nice! Congrats. Very nice of you to offer up the badge. Don't think I will ever find mine.
Just trying to keep the Karma correct. You can always use your old VIN to get a replacement badge from Acura, it wont have your badge number but still..
Still, fair play Sir. Great to see another one in the right hands too.
Thank you, I really want to do this thing justice.
Originally Posted by porofek
Congrats and very nice pick-up! Preferred NHB over PY. Keep us posted on your mods and restoration efforts.
Thank you man. I always wanted a PY or CW, found a PY one a few years back with 31K, original owner, I still kick myself for picking up a S2000 instead. But I will definitely keep the updates coming as I fix the little issues with it.
Originally Posted by DC2-ProdUcTiOnS
Nice pickup where are you in NY?
Im an hour North of NYC. Lmk if you near by.
Good luck with heR. Seems you have already caught a bit of the bug!
Thanks and yeah I caught the R bug well before I bought this lol, opportunity just presented itself now to finally get one at the right price. I'm also an hour north of the city, Newburgh side of the river.
My job is pretty cool, we get days off during the week because we work Saturdays which IMO isn't a bad deal. So after detailing a 640i M series in the morning then running errands that can only be run during business hours, I was left with a little time on my hands. I went ahead and performed the full Woolite cleaning process on the ratchet seats that came in the car as well as the super minty set of ITR fronts I picked up last week. I only took pics of the bad ones as they are for sale, the mint ones will be locked away in the same place as the Ark of the Covenant in Indiana Jones. Happy Saturday
I spent my Sunday at my family's repair business near Middletown NY and gave the R some attention. I'll work on cars all day over watching football. Don't get me wrong, I like the game but this is definitely more rewarding.
First order of business was to punch out the broken front strut bar studs. When I got the car it was loosely fitted with 3 broken studs. Not sure what the previous owner thought it was doing but it needed fixing, and I was the man for the job lol. I just ran some 8mm bolts from the top with lock washers and nuts on the bottom, function over form here, especially since this is a R-title car, not going to kill myself trying to make an imperfect car like it rolled off the factory floor. Notice the freshly painted VC that I fu*ked up getting overzealous with the wiz wheel. I think I'm going to do a different color, maybe a matte tan...? Give homage to the previous owner and his army experience.. Not sure yet. I also painted the chrome intake arm flat black. I don't like chrome except my chrome NSX wheels which are locked away with the minty ITR's lol.
Next project was to remove the shitty, chipping red caliper paint that one of the previous owners decided was nicer than the OEM bronze. I used aerosol aircraft grade aluminum stripper. It took everything off, including the bronze.. Whatever, the silver looks a lot better. Maybe when I do brakes I'll paint everything nicey nice.
After stripping off the paint, I lifted her to the sky and degreased and hand washed the entire under carriage. Lots of crap came off, I was surprised at how clean this thing was for having close to 160K on the chassis.
While the undercarriage was drying off, I rolled the wheels outside and scrubbed them with engine degreaser as they were destroyed. I had planned on removing the Dupli-Color rattle can paint off them until I noticed one of the wheels looks like it is Championship White underneath. As for now, they're going to stay the way they are..
Note: I put 2 tires I had laying around on the wheels for the time being as 2 of them were dangerous, dangerous slicks that had cracks running down what used to be the grooves of the tires. Death trap no more...
That was it for yesterday, here are a couple of progress pictures after I got her back together. I left the car at the shop for the time being because of some physical work she requires.
I saw this one for sale for quite a while. Had I been in OH still I would have picked her up and brought her back to life. Shipping on that condition was just not a reasonable thing for me.
Glad she went to someone who is putting in the work to get her back to life.
Guys, I'm kicking around the idea of maybe starting a GoFundMe to return the vehicle after its completed to the kid I bought it from. He is in the Army and obviously could not afford to keep it as he had a second child on the way. I'd be hoping to raise $9,000 to get the car back to him.. Its just a thought but what do you guys think?
Guys, I'm kicking around the idea of maybe starting a GoFundMe to return the vehicle after its completed to the kid I bought it from. He is in the Army and obviously could not afford to keep it as he had a second child on the way. I'd be hoping to raise $9,000 to get the car back to him.. Its just a thought but what do you guys think?
That is admirable - but I wouldn't donate to your cause.
nice work on the R sir! that cleaning sure did help it a lot. congrats on the pickup and the continued build.
Thank you! I will be heading out to my shop this weekend to continue the build. I'm going to change some fluids and start performing some adjustments on her. I'm ordering some torque mounts and window motors / regulators today
Looks like the car had went into possibly good hands. But being a fellow R owner myself and knowing about this car also.. you might want to disclose the rear end damage as well. It was salvaged due to flood but it has also been wrecked in the rear as well - as stated by the previous owner. Cluster is NOT original to the chassis as he told me as well. It's a solid car and worth the $5,300 you paid but to not disclose the FULL information on the car is just wrong. I know everyone is out to make a quick buck especially now that Type-R'/ are gaining value and becoming more of a "hype" but to take it back and detail it and try to make a quick $3700 sale.. lol that's low. At least fix some of the things wrong with the car to get a better sales pitch. But what do I know 🙄
Location: Howcome we park on driveways, and drive on parkways?
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Re: hmmm
Originally Posted by My95DB8
Looks like the car had went into possibly good hands. But being a fellow R owner myself and knowing about this car also.. you might want to disclose the rear end damage as well. It was salvaged due to flood but it has also been wrecked in the rear as well - as stated by the previous owner. Cluster is NOT original to the chassis as he told me as well. It's a solid car and worth the $5,300 you paid but to not disclose the FULL information on the car is just wrong. I know everyone is out to make a quick buck especially now that Type-R'/ are gaining value and becoming more of a "hype" but to take it back and detail it and try to make a quick $3700 sale.. lol that's low. At least fix some of the things wrong with the car to get a better sales pitch. But what do I know 🙄
just doing what any real enthusiast should do.. just looking out for my fellow itR owners! Not trying to steer any potential buyers away but he should disclose ALL info and not just what he thinks should be disclosed.
The core support had a piece of metal wire holding it together on each end the day I went and looked at it. Not sure why it was there but It was.The car was clean underneath. When I looked at the car it had s300 already so my guess would be that the owner kept it - or just another piece that isn't being disclosed to make it seem like he is spending money on the car to "fix" it. I drove it, got hight into the rpm's and it didn't smoke - not even a puff.
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Re: hmmm
Originally Posted by My95DB8
just doing what any real enthusiast should do.. just looking out for my fellow itR owners! Not trying to steer any potential buyers away but he should disclose ALL info and not just what he thinks should be disclosed.
The core support had a piece of metal wire holding it together on each end the day I went and looked at it. Not sure why it was there but It was.The car was clean underneath. When I looked at the car it had s300 already so my guess would be that the owner kept it - or just another piece that isn't being disclosed to make it seem like he is spending money on the car to "fix" it. I drove it, got hight into the rpm's and it didn't smoke - not even a puff.
Oh i hear you 100% i was just O_O bc of it being brought up. My offer just went from 7 to 6.
Looks like the car had went into possibly good hands. But being a fellow R owner myself and knowing about this car also.. you might want to disclose the rear end damage as well. It was salvaged due to flood but it has also been wrecked in the rear as well - as stated by the previous owner. Cluster is NOT original to the chassis as he told me as well. It's a solid car and worth the $5,300 you paid but to not disclose the FULL information on the car is just wrong. I know everyone is out to make a quick buck especially now that Type-R'/ are gaining value and becoming more of a "hype" but to take it back and detail it and try to make a quick $3700 sale.. lol that's low. At least fix some of the things wrong with the car to get a better sales pitch. But what do I know 🙄
I wasn't made aware of the rear end damage by the previous owner. Torque mounts are bad and I tried to be as honest as possible on this ad. Old owner must've switched the ECU out on my because I drove it home from Ohio and had to buy a new ECU and new seats. I have been brutally honest this entire time with the car and got into unforeseen financial difficulties cutting this build short of where I wanted it to go. I failed to mention the cluster, I forgot to be honest. I'll edit the Craigslist post ASAP. I posted it on Craigslist for $9000 with full understanding of how CL works. It isn't uncommon to have someone hit you with 3g's below asking price. Welcome to the internet. Regardless the car looks good and I have people interested. I performed the diag on the car which apparently has no value to you and performed an extensive detailing that few will compete with. I'm proud of where I took this car from and I'm sure the new owner will be happy. Powertrain is solid and the chassis is all there, and it has all visible VIN numbers there. I don't feel bad at all and wish I could afford to finish it the way I had planned. Oh and the VIN is clearly posted here on the forums and will be provided to any serious buyers from CL. Any interested people in the car please PM me. I'd be happy to answer any question I can. I also am accepting trades plus cash for any cool JDM parts, EM1 stuff, etc. Thanks everyone
Literally had everything on order. Had to cancel the order because of what happened to me this week. I wanted to finish it. I can't afford it. I don't expect to get 9 for the car. Never did, just prepared myself for the NY CL low ballers. I disclosed a ton more info regarding the car than what I was handed and have figured out the car's problems and given an itemized list with prices. Trying to be transparent here. In addition I switched out the torn rear motor mount with a spare fixing the motor rock when shifting, just didn't buy the billet torque mounts. Can't believe I'm getting flamed over this, thought I was being fair with the asking price considering what the market has been and how nice the car was down at the core. Maybe someone passed on this car who shouldn't have, IDK, but not everyone can swing 15k for a 110k+ mile "perfect" R and this is the car for them. Again. I'm accepting offers, I accept trades for cool parts plus cash. Thanks
09-14-2016, 10:35 AM
Finally got my R..
Whatever, the silver looks a lot better. Maybe when I do brakes I'll paint everything nicey nice.
Re: Finally got my R..
hmmm
