Five years and counting: my low budget Integra build
12-08-2017, 12:15 PM
#652
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Re: Five years and counting: my low budget Integra build
Wow haven't been on here in a while but loving the updates Phunhaus!!
12-22-2017, 07:54 AM
#653
Honda-Tech Member
Re: Five years and counting: my low budget Integra build
Just spent the last week and a half reading and drooling over this entire build. Great work man! Love the detail work, I wish I had the wiring skills you do and more importantly the patience. Keep up the great work!
08-15-2018, 08:32 AM
#654
Honda-Tech Member
Re: Five years and counting: my low budget Integra build
I just found this build after all these years! What a amazing job you have done, jesus.
Any updates after all these years?
Any updates after all these years?
10-23-2021, 07:49 AM
#656
Honda-Tech Member
Thread Starter
Re: Five years and counting: my low budget Integra build
So it’s been a while (three years) since the last update on the Integra. Anyone still reading this might or might not be surprised that the car is still around. I have been enjoying driving it as much as I can given Chicago weather and have racked up 15k miles on the car since its last exposure to Honda-Tech.
I guess it’s time to wrap up the last item that was scheduled to go on the car which is a rear sway bar. Originally I was considering Swift sway bars front and rear since they offer(ed) upgraded EK9 sway bars but decided to go with a rebranded Eibach rear bar only. This one is sold though ASR as “their” sway bar but I was disappointed to find an off-the-shelf Eibach unit in the box. I didn’t go with the Swift bars only because I wasn’t 100% sure I would even run the front bar. Since I am running EM1/EK9 front lower control arms I built the front to accommodate any EK9 upgraded bars but wanted to see if that would be “necessary” given the feel with just a rear bar. I like it well enough so I’m going to save the weight of the front bar and leave it alone for now.
After driving and driving and driving the car Ktuned released their version 2 billet thermostat housing which finally gave me the opportunity to keep it more “streetable” and run a thermostat bypass hose to help keep the coolant temps under better control. I upgraded to the version 2 and relocated the radiator fan switch to the lower housing from the upper housing as the original location was now the port for the bypass hose. Everything worked out perfectly.
Anyone who knows me off the forums will know that washing a car really isn’t my thing. In my 10+ years of ownership the car has officially been washed twice but only once by me. This picture shows the real state of the car at all times and isn’t a glamour picture after hours in a detailing bay. Luckily everything stays clean despite my massive neglect.
The reason for the post was work is finally going on again with the Integra. First, my friend Matt wanted to upgrade the door locks and alarm system to an aftermarket unit and get away from the factory controller. There have been a lot of advancements in electronics as you can imagine so he wanted to keep the car progressing with the times (where appropriate).
This gave me the opportunity to get a crappy picture of the car out in the wild and not in the garage. It gets driven, sometimes hard, but it still looks respectable. The funniest thing to me is the amount of attention it DOESN’T get while I’m out in it. Either people don’t car about old crappy Hondas anymore or the color of this thing is so muted that it’s invisible to most people. Either way, I still like it!
One recent development was finally finding an Azect front grille for the car. I have been casually searching for one for a while always having that on my list of “I would like to have but don’t need to have” parts. Well, I found one that needed work so Matt is in the beginning stages of bringing that up to snuff.
Which has led to more weekends that I would like to admit of getting the spare bumper into a more presentable shape. When this was down at Jesse’s all those years ago he didn’t do any work to it because it was beyond saving. I though, how could that be? Well, he wasn’t wrong.
Whoever drove this thing around Japan put enough gashes, cracks, rash and repair in it that it looked like Frankenstein’s monster from the back side. It’ was held together with fiberglass on the back and Bondo on the front. You can even see the quality of the multiple paint jobs on the front and the lack of care in taping off edges. This was on a true daily driver with zero care given.
But nevertheless we plodded forward with our limited skills to get the bumper into a condition that would be “street” presentable. I also wanted to shave the front plate bracket on the spare bumper to give the front a cleaner and more aggressive appearance. The idea will be to have a Dr. Jekyll /
Mr. Hyde personality to the front end. The OEM front with the OEM grille, bumper, lip and mirrors will be one look with the opportunity to change out everything for the Azect grills, modified/shaved bumper, Dogfightpro lip and MRacing mirrors. I mean, it’s been over ten years that I’ve had the mirrors and lip painted so I might as well use them!
Once we see progress from the body shop in paint matching the bumper and I source another OEM grille base to use with the Azect grille I’ll see about swapping the parts and seeing if someone can take better pictures than me.
Thanks to anyone still reading this and sorry for not keeping it more current. The car is still a blast to drive!
I guess it’s time to wrap up the last item that was scheduled to go on the car which is a rear sway bar. Originally I was considering Swift sway bars front and rear since they offer(ed) upgraded EK9 sway bars but decided to go with a rebranded Eibach rear bar only. This one is sold though ASR as “their” sway bar but I was disappointed to find an off-the-shelf Eibach unit in the box. I didn’t go with the Swift bars only because I wasn’t 100% sure I would even run the front bar. Since I am running EM1/EK9 front lower control arms I built the front to accommodate any EK9 upgraded bars but wanted to see if that would be “necessary” given the feel with just a rear bar. I like it well enough so I’m going to save the weight of the front bar and leave it alone for now.
After driving and driving and driving the car Ktuned released their version 2 billet thermostat housing which finally gave me the opportunity to keep it more “streetable” and run a thermostat bypass hose to help keep the coolant temps under better control. I upgraded to the version 2 and relocated the radiator fan switch to the lower housing from the upper housing as the original location was now the port for the bypass hose. Everything worked out perfectly.
Anyone who knows me off the forums will know that washing a car really isn’t my thing. In my 10+ years of ownership the car has officially been washed twice but only once by me. This picture shows the real state of the car at all times and isn’t a glamour picture after hours in a detailing bay. Luckily everything stays clean despite my massive neglect.
The reason for the post was work is finally going on again with the Integra. First, my friend Matt wanted to upgrade the door locks and alarm system to an aftermarket unit and get away from the factory controller. There have been a lot of advancements in electronics as you can imagine so he wanted to keep the car progressing with the times (where appropriate).
This gave me the opportunity to get a crappy picture of the car out in the wild and not in the garage. It gets driven, sometimes hard, but it still looks respectable. The funniest thing to me is the amount of attention it DOESN’T get while I’m out in it. Either people don’t car about old crappy Hondas anymore or the color of this thing is so muted that it’s invisible to most people. Either way, I still like it!
One recent development was finally finding an Azect front grille for the car. I have been casually searching for one for a while always having that on my list of “I would like to have but don’t need to have” parts. Well, I found one that needed work so Matt is in the beginning stages of bringing that up to snuff.
Which has led to more weekends that I would like to admit of getting the spare bumper into a more presentable shape. When this was down at Jesse’s all those years ago he didn’t do any work to it because it was beyond saving. I though, how could that be? Well, he wasn’t wrong.
Whoever drove this thing around Japan put enough gashes, cracks, rash and repair in it that it looked like Frankenstein’s monster from the back side. It’ was held together with fiberglass on the back and Bondo on the front. You can even see the quality of the multiple paint jobs on the front and the lack of care in taping off edges. This was on a true daily driver with zero care given.
But nevertheless we plodded forward with our limited skills to get the bumper into a condition that would be “street” presentable. I also wanted to shave the front plate bracket on the spare bumper to give the front a cleaner and more aggressive appearance. The idea will be to have a Dr. Jekyll /
Mr. Hyde personality to the front end. The OEM front with the OEM grille, bumper, lip and mirrors will be one look with the opportunity to change out everything for the Azect grills, modified/shaved bumper, Dogfightpro lip and MRacing mirrors. I mean, it’s been over ten years that I’ve had the mirrors and lip painted so I might as well use them!
Once we see progress from the body shop in paint matching the bumper and I source another OEM grille base to use with the Azect grille I’ll see about swapping the parts and seeing if someone can take better pictures than me.
Thanks to anyone still reading this and sorry for not keeping it more current. The car is still a blast to drive!
The following 4 users liked this post by phunhaus:
10-23-2021, 11:10 PM
#657
Honda-Tech Member
Re: Five years and counting: my low budget Integra build
car is nice man I'm having coolant issues myself and was going to ask but after reading saw you have ktuned v2 thermostat
I'm going to make the switch for my Integra to see what happens. hope mine once painted and I find itr front end is as clean someday
I'm going to make the switch for my Integra to see what happens. hope mine once painted and I find itr front end is as clean someday
10-26-2021, 06:23 AM
#658
Re: Five years and counting: my low budget Integra build
I’ve been following since the original post. Glad to see it coming along! Looking great and excited to see the Mr. Hyde front end 👌🏼
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