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I love hard race, but I am really turned off by the large ball joint bolts that could make contact with the strut towers.
Yeah I am a big fan of their products (hence why nearly every bush on my car will be theirs). My view on that is I would much prefer the large bolt and washer holding my alignment in place vs the feeble allen head bolts most other camber arms use that are just about wide enough to fit the channels.
Progress has been pretty slow on the dc2 seeing as I had the week off work, but I've had loads of other things to do the week as well.
I decided to use ebay to get most of my supplies like sandpaper, wire wheels, panel wipe etc as it's just far easier than driving from shop to shop getting a few items from each. Main downside is I am now waiting for it all to be delivered. Ha
But I've managed to get a few bits and bobs done though. I'm 90% there with stripping down the running gear. It's fought me all the way, but doesn't help when tools keep breaking! Started off with the driveshaft nut, breaker bar sheared in half where the socket attaches to! In the end I went and bought a 1" breaker and used a huge piece of scaff pipe.
Then came onto the hubs, I ended up having 2 ball joint splitters break on me! 3rd one finally worked out and they are now all free. I only kept using the same one as the store didn't have any better alternatives and told me I could 1 for 1 it as many times as I needed.
The final hurdle was the driveshafts themselves. They've totally seized themselves in the hubs. I managed to get the drivers side out by whacking the driveshaft with a bit of wood between it and the hammer, so that side is finished and I'm now left with a totally bare wheel arch.
However the passenger side isn't having any of it. I've used the nut of the end of the driveshaft and a socket on it whilst hammering to no avail. A centre punch and hammer and it hasn't budged. I'm going to give it one last go tomorrow and if not I'll probably split the driveshaft at the half shaft, take the entire hub to a garage I use down the road and get them to press it out.
I'm currently left with the passenger side looking 90% done.
I've taken other bits off as well, my manifold has been removed (probably the only thing that was easy as nothing snapped or was seized!) Also took both of my torque mounts off, one came off fine. The passenger side came off in pieces. haha
Also took the door card off the drivers side to get at the wing mirror. Good news to report that there is next to no rust there either (still need to do the passenger side)
Lastly, away from stripping the car down, I treated myself in the Black Friday sales last week. I don't exactly needthese...but I I got them for a lot cheaper than at full price! Plus I had always planned to buy a set for the car at some point, so seemed silly not to (yes I could have probably invested my money more wisely on stuff the car actually needs lol)
I've got this weekend off as well, and hopefully all of my parts turn up by Saturday at the latest and I will then start the rust removal and treatment. Also going to clean up all of my arms, hubs and suspension forks (may bring those home to do in the warmth)
I think I've got my work cut out for me though, as after reading up about the Bilt Hamber products I am using I don't think many of them like working in cold temperatures. So not ideal having my car in a mostly empty unit, in winter ,with no heating. It will be trial and error to see if it works, if not I will just have to wait or invest in a heater that doesn't suck up too much electricity and is effective!
Sorry to hear you had a hard time with it. You've done a great job though. What size breaker bar did you snap?
Ah its all good! Always going to be these little things that slow us down! Was a 1/2" bar so should have been up to the job, 1" breezed it in the end.
I've spent a good few hours working on the car over the weekend. I've come to the realisation of how long this undersealing process is actually going to take me!
I just need to stay focused on it and methodically go through things one by one.
Anyway, moving onto the matter in hand. I decided to tackle the drivers side bonnet hinge area as this is probably the worst of the rust in all honesty.
I started by removing all the old seam sealer. I'm glad I did as well as there were a few areas underneath that had started to develop some surface rust, but nothing major.
To properly get at it I decided to remove the scuttle (breaking 90% of the clips haha). Also cleaned the drivers half of it out. All good under there, no rust to report of :D
I knew to treat it properly I was going to have to remove the bonnet, so got Mitch to give me a hand today to remove it. Also took the windscreen moulding off as well...breaking even more clips. (£70 a side new!)
I then pulled out the wire wheel and went at it removing all the remaining seam sealer and as much surface rust as possible.
Not bad, treated a few of the areas with Bilt Hamber's Deox gel. After the 1st application.
Applied a 2nd layer and left it for a little bit longer this time (freezing cold unit isnt exactly helping the situation) All good to go.
I then followed this up with a coat of Bilt Hamber's Hydrate 80, which is a sort of rust barrier/rust preventative.
After it had dried I realised I had applied it a little too thin. But you're meant to apply a 2nd coat afterwards anyway.
Got another coat of there before leaving and that will now fully cure for the next 24 hours or so.
That one tiny section has taken me what feels like forever! I am just thankful that I don't have any excessively rusty areas on the car, as the process would be even longer.
I need to order some products still namely seam sealer so I can re seal the areas where I remove it. I've noticed there are a lot of areas that are seam welded but have zero seam sealer on them. Once they are protected I may seam seal a lot of these areas up to protect them a little more ( as long as they aren't vital water drain routes etc)
Also some white epoxy mastic as I only have black currently.
So yeah not a lot of progress...but it's something
I dunno if you know but those windscreen scuttle panel clips can be had from this eBay lad in the UK https://www.ebay.ie/itm/10x-Windscre...cAAOSw2gxYtCd2 Under a fiver for ten of them. Which IIRC is what Honda want each. I think it's those I linked, but measure yourself and if not the chap definitely has the correct ones as that's where I got mine. He's great for all the other various placcy trim clips around the car too.
Progress has been pretty slow in all honesty, but then again I'm not exactly on a deadline so it doesn't matter too much.
Once I had finished with the bonnet hinge area I moved on to the arch. Few bit of surface rust were removed and treated. I then either made a sound decision...or a really stupid one that I didn't need to.
Where the car had been undersealed previously on the arch, it was beginning to dry up, and flake away in places. I thought the best idea would be to just get it all off and start again with fresh protection. (I thought it would all just come away from the paint with ease.)
Proceeded with using a scraper and removing the flaky scabby bits. Wasn't quite as easy as I hoped, and there was still a load stuck on the car.
I soon realised the under that flaky layer was a thick oily tar like protection. In the end I used about 2 bottles of tar and glue remover and too many hours of cleaning than I care to recall.
But I got there in the end, and more good news in that there is no corrosion under there either. I think it may have stained the seam sealer, or is it normally that colour?
Other than that I've just started on the front end bits before taking care of everything on the passenger side.
I'm playing a bit of a waiting game at the minute as I'm prepping all of these areas for undersealing, but the product I'll be using for protection (epoxy mastic) can't really be used under 10 degrees. There's no chance I can heat up the unit enough with the roof being so high.
However a mate of mine is going to be re painting the bonnet hinge areas champ white for me at some point, and he's offered me access to his lamp heaters over the festive period whilst he's not at work. So I think the best idea would be to utilise them and get as much finished as I can during that time frame.
Once he's back at work I think the best idea would be carry on prepping a part at a time and hope that when it comes to finishing off the job its heated up a bit!
Anyway away from that I finally went and got my manifold polished up. I couldn't be bothered with it in the end and wasn't getting the results I was after. Few days turnaround and I got a reasonable finish on it. It's not 100% but I guess it's probably not going to stay shiny for very long anyway lol
I love these kinda threads. Great work and dare I say it inspiring to follow. Now if I could only find a shed or garage... Oh and patience and a work ethic in the cold and damp. And why have my knuckles turned to hurty stone...
Christmas period over with and was back at it. Slightly annoyed how little time I got on the spend working over the 2 weeks of holiday I had, but hey ho.
Finally finished both wheel arches now, all ready to be undersealed and protected again. No nasties to report on again, nice and clean.
Was a bit frustrated with how long it was taking me...hence the picture.
Strut tower again was all good, just stained.
Ive taken the majority of the seam sealer around the passenger side bonnet hinge area as well, again same scenario as the drivers side with rust underneath it. So I'm glad I've gone to these lengths.
I'll be tackling this and a couple of tiny isolated areas of the passenger wing where there is a small amount of surface rust and then the entire front end is ready for underseal I have finished the slam panel as well, but didn't get any pictures.
Was browsing eBay last week (as you do) and stumbled across a pair of wheels. Original Kosei P1's (Budyclub's) in 16X7.5J ET32. So slightly more aggresive offset than the Advans. Will be using these on the fronts, but don't have any hubs on at the minute obviously so did a test fit on the rear. With a proper sized tyre and some camber they should fit easily up front. Absolute bargain at £180!! Couldn't pass them up as they were only 45 minutes up the road!
These were being used to roll a Toyota Chaser around, hence the chunky tyres.
Small update, the vast majority of the front end is fully rust treated and is ready for sealing.
Once I had finished both bonnet hinge areas, I primed them and tiger sealed them up. A mate of mine who paints for a living then came in and painted the scuttle and hinge areas.
You can see here the tiger seal I've put on. It isnt the best job, I tired my hardest to copy the oem lines and thickness but applied a bit more sealant in the areas that were missed from the factory. It doesn't overly matter too much though as once the scuttle is on and the wings, you can't see any of it anyway!
Took all the plastic sheeting off once the lacquer has been sprayed and waited for it to fully dry.
My mate has been kind enough to loan me his heat lamps during the weekends so I can start cracking on with the undersealing, as the products I'm using really don't react well with cold temperatures.
I'm going to do it in 3 stages, 1 arch, front slam panel then passenger arch. So made a start on the drivers side front arch today. Primed with Bilt Hamber's Electrolux, really strange texture primer but easy enough to use.
Needs to be left for 3 days apparently before overcoating with high solvency top coats. So come the weekend I will be putting down the underseal.
Got a massive order of Hardrace bushes in place that should be here next week. Also going to get my arms shot blasted once I get paid, then they can get some epoxy mastic before being put back on the car.
Everything is slowly coming along. I'll see how I'm getting on for time but I may leave doing the back end of the car until winter 2018.
Got home from work during the week to a big delivery of Hardrace parts. I used a company called RHD Performance for the 1st time, think they maybe a new company as I couldn't find out an awful lot of information on them, but really good experience.
Beat all the other main competitor prices by a nice chunk (Including "Hardrace UK" ironically). Free shipping for all this lot and great communication. I'll be using them again for sure.
Their website is here: https://www.rhdperformance.co.uk/ They can get the entire catalogue of Hardrace (amongst other brands), but haven't got around to listing everything they sell.
But that's basically everything for the front end that I require to build the car back up with new suspension parts. I'll list it all once it's on the car.
Dropped by a local powder coaters to me and decided to get my suspension arms shot blasted. I decided not to take my knuckled in as they still have the wheel bearings in and didn't want them getting grit in the bearing...or is this being overly cautious?
But 45 minutes later and £30 I'm glad I didn't waste my time with wire wheels. lol
I decided not to underseal that 1 arch I did last weekend, but instead chose to get the whole front end primed up. Was going well until I ran out of paint.
But I got the slam panel finished with 2 coats and the passenger arch is half done on it's 1st coat. lol
Final part I picked up was a new CV joint for the passenger drive shaft. I now found I can use a EP3 outer CV joint on 98 Spec hubs, so that's nice and easy to get hold of if I need some in the future.
Cut the boot off and tried hammering the joint off, but will need to use a vice really as it's not budging. The CV grease has also turned a delightful green colour.
Got a big order of OEM parts on the way including windscreen mouldings amongst other bits.
Simon and Tom B: I'll be in the UK in October for a wedding / vacation. Will drop you guys a line and see if we can meet for a pint and possible get to see an R or two!
My neighbor here is also Honda nut as owns a daily '10 GD Fit Sport, a teal green EF Si hatch restored and an 05 EP3 SiR formerly owned by Richmond BC Police to stop street racing. We never go the that generation as a Type R in Canada.
Doing good restoration work here as the cars start to age. Keep it up!
Long weekend at it but I feel I've made a lot of progress
Basically I have the majority of the front end undersealed now, the exception being the underside of the slam panel (where you jack the car up) and a couple of areas just between the wheel wells and subframe.
The epoxy mastic stuff from Bilt Hamber is easy enough to use, mix it up and brush it on. But the consistency is really weird, it's really tacky and as such trying to get a nice smooth finish I found quite difficult. The black version I've used on the wheel wells went on easy enough, only needed 2 coats and it covered up the primer and has a nice finish to it.
I'm not too sure on the white in all honesty. It looks better in the pictures than it actually does in person. I applied it quite thinly, but it took about 4 coats of the stuff to cover up the primer and be solid white (there are areas where it still looks a little patchy that will need a touch up).
I really can't make my mind on wether I like the white, but I can't particularly be bothered on changing the colour of it now, but what do you guys think? Keep the contrast of the black and white? Or paint everything not on show black. I keep telling myself the overall finish of the product it's massively important as it's not on show....but it will just bug me lol
Anyway, I will put some pics
So from here I've got a few more jobs to do before the rebuilding of the front end starts. Front bumper support and crash bar are away for shot blasting and powder coating. I still need to sort my CV joint and get the bushes in my LCA pressed in. A quick wire wheel of my hubs and a lick of paint and some stone chip to go over the high impact areas on the arches and then I'm ready.
I don’t like the stuff if I’m honest with you because it doesn’t look original.
Is it really needed? This is a weekend car right?
I’m a purist so I like a factory finish - primer, base, clear. It doesn’t need to be anymore complicated than that on a car that’s mostly driven in dry weather.
Id just replicate the factory finish in those areas. Example, behind the wings is mostly primer.
For the arches UB seems like a good option and S-50 for the inner arches, box sections etc.
I don’t like the stuff if I’m honest with you because it doesn’t look original.
Is it really needed? This is a weekend car right?
I’m a purist so I like a factory finish - primer, base, clear. It doesn’t need to be anymore complicated than that on a car that’s mostly driven in dry weather.
Id just replicate the factory finish in those areas. Example, behind the wings is mostly primer.
For the arches UB seems like a good option and S-50 for the inner arches, box sections etc.
It's weird as the black tin mixed up went on quite nicely, and had a nice finish to it.
I mixed the white one up exactly the same as before but it seems to have a lot of transparency before it starts to look solid white.
Too late now really, as I'm not taking it all off and starting again (not even sure how you could take that stuff off its solid!) No one's ever going to see it, and if they did it looks a damn sight better than rust and a thin coat of primer in my eyes.
It's not a daily car atm but never know what might happen in the future. I'm not likely to have this unit forever and I dont have a garage anymore so I would rather be OTT with it just in case. I've already applied S50 to all the box sections on the front end, probably use UC on the suspension components.
Had a bit of leave from work to use up that I've not been able to use until now, so booked off 2 weeks starting at the beginning of this week. Plan was to smash out the re assembly of the DC2 and get it back on the road for the upcoming spring and summer. Managed until Tuesday when I got the dreaded call...long story short I've been "emergency deployed" to Bahrain for 3 months. With 10 days notice. Joys of the armed forces...
So after much swearing and moaning I set to work getting the DC2 back into a state where it could easily be moved around the unit as Mitch will be needing to get his CRX in and out whilst I am away, so mines getting tucked up in the corner.
Car looked like this with the crash bar and bumper support being the only bits I had put back on the car when I received the phone call.
Fast forward onto Wednesday and I had all the new suspension bolted on, torqued down, exhaust manifold on, shift linkage back on and the car back on all 4 wheels in about 5 hours (quite good going for me as I don't like rushing things)
Hooked up the battery today and turned over the engine, fired up straight away on the button after standing for 4 months
I really wanted to roll it out the unit and just take it for a quick spin up and down the path to the unit (yes with no body panels lol). Opened the door and was greeted with 2 inches of snow! Great. I'll have to leave that till next week before I fly out.
I should be home early June, and my plan is to get all the panels back on the car in time for Players Classic at Goodwood on the 24th June as I've been accepted into the show, and it's one of my favourites and local.
After that I will spend some time getting on the small stockpile of mods I have for the car.
Mega disappointed about going away as I had loads of plans for trackdays this year as I haven't been able to do any since my 1st in June 2016 (due to being away with work again). A few mates have the Nurburgring booked in July, so I may tag along if I can afford it once I get back.
Biggest bonus of this time away is that they are giving me a temporary promotion = more money.
Until that time, this is likely to be the last update from me, will update you when I get back to working on the car again in T-minus 97 days...
Big update from me. (Picture heavy)
I've neglected this site a bit since I got back to the UK, as I've discovered the wonders of Instagram. lol
I was eventually persuaded to open an account by my mates after years of insisting that I don't take good enough quality photos for it.
I'm glad I use it now as a lot of builds are no longer on the likes of these forums anymore to follow But I thought I should carry it on here, as this has been a source of such good information over the years
So got back from my deployment in the middle east pretty much to the exact day I was expecting (quite surprised) and wasted no time at all in getting the DC2 back together. I had a 2 week window prior to the first show I had booked to attend, Players Classic at Goodwood.
Last few jobs were,
All 5 engine mounts replaced (what a pig of a job the rear one is!)
Rear coilovers and camber arms installed
Defi gauges wired up
All the body panels put back on
Rear engine mount had seen better days;
Replaced all round with Hardrace ones:
Coilovers and carmber arms are so easy to install on these cars:
How the car was looking after day 1:
Defi gauges are literally the easiest thing ever to wire up.
I think it took about 1 week and the car was up and running with another years MOT put on her followed by an alignment
Got a quick picture on the Friday night when it was all complete alongside my mates JDM EP3.
Players Classic was a bit of a hit and miss show for me this year, 2 day event that didn't seem to bring in the volume of people compared to previous years. I might give it a miss next year.
After that way Summer Action day at Castle Combe. I decided to have a couple of 15 minute stints on track as a taster for the DC2. Not a great decision in hindsight as it was way too busy on track, plus thousands of people watching lol
Basically understeered onto the grass on my 1st lap due to forgetting about cold tyres Then spun out on Quarry corner (worst corner there) due to lift off oversteer
Was eventful to say the least, but the car and I came away unharmed and I learnt a thing or two about how the DC2 handles on track. lol
Decided to play it safe with the rear wheels as I wasn't sure if the Advans were going to rub so opted to run the OEM's on the rear for peace of mind.
On the subject of wheels I did a bit of a trade with someone local to me and swapped my Buddyclub P1's in 7.5J for a pair of his 7J's.
He also had a pair of TE37's for sale as well, which I couldn't resist at the price he wanted
P1's will be going on the rear (16X7 +43)
The TE37s on the other hand, maybe a bit of an ask to fit. (16X7 ET25) with -2 degrees of camber:
We had a pretty cool collection of wheels going on between the 2 cars.
I took the balloon tyres off the Volks and tried on a 215/45/16...
Still a bit too much poke. Im going to try a 205 tyre out and see if it fits, I also have -2.5 degrees of camber now since that last trial fit.
The last show really for me of 2018 was Simply Japanese at Beaulieu. Unfortunately after all the wall to wall sunshine the UK had been experiencing for the past month came to a halt and it decided to hammer it down all day.
Still my mate Mark and I braved it as its only 30 minutes down the road.
Following on with a more recent update, I finally got my summer leave off work confirmed just in time to be able to tag along with a few mates on a trip to the Nurburgring!
My 'Ring prep' consisted of an oil and filter chnage along with a brand new Fujitsubo RM01A exhaust as my existing one was way too loud for me and a 1000 mile round trip was the perfect opportunity to upgrade
What an experience that place is! Even the surrounding roads are insanely fun let alone the track! I didn't go too hard on track as it costs a fortune if you have an accident and its quite a challenge to try and remember every corner.
In the group we had a DC5, EP3, JDM EP3 and Audi S3 (He owned 3 Integras over the course of 8 years previosly so we will let him off lol)
Pulled over for a quick picture at one of the viewing car parks:
Of course, going to the Ring, you have to take the picture outside the sign.
One of all the cream cars lined up:
Also got one with just the Integra's:
The trip wasn't all sunshine and roses unfortunately. On the 2nd day on his 2nd lap my mate had an accident in his EP3. Cost him a pretty penny not only for the crash, but also recovery to the UK.
Engine mount had snapped clean off the driver side, rad leaked out all of its coolant and the chassis leg had twisted on the passenger side.
Luckily for us we had the Audi to tow it back to the hotel.
Once the car is back and broken with all the parts sold, he should see a bit of profit in the end.
He's got the right mentality though and aims to get an EK9 and k swap it using the engine and box from the EP
Of course, we couldn't have a group picture without all the cars there, so as we towed the civic back we stopped off for a picture outside the sign. (The skyline at the back wouldn't move out of the picture )
Anyway, we met up with another group of lads who were also over for the week. One of them who is a photographer kindly took some pics of all the cars together. Really nice quality!
After the track session that evening we went and grabbed some food with them and got a cool picture of the train of cars coming down the forest roads.
Final 2 pictures from the trip, of my mate and I going round the karussel, these were paid pictures from some of the many photographers based over there.
All the cars performed faultlessly! Not one hiccup and we even had a few days in Amsterdam after the ring. 1200 miles covered in total.
Only thing it highlighted to me was my oil temperatures are getting way too hot on track. 35degree celcius ambient temperature at 6pm with a track temp of 49 didn't help!
But after a bit of advise I'm swapping out to 10W50 oil and also will be investing in an oil cooler in the near future.
I also tried to have the car mapped earlier this month and annoyingly the 2nd hand P28 ecu I bought was faulty and means I need to buy a new one.
Other than that I would ideally like to have the box refreshed and try out a 4.9 final drive with 96 spec 4th & 5th gears. But all in due course.
11-30-2017, 12:38 PM
Re: Uk Member - 98 Spec JDM DC2
:D
Now if I could only find a shed or garage... 
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Re: Uk Member - 98 Spec JDM DC2
