gold_pwr_r4ng3r

Hey guys i finally found time to start a build thread for my Del Sol.

I bought the car the middle of my freshman year of high school. It was 3 different shades of red, needed some body work, had 151,xxx on it. I picked I up for $1900. I kinda wish i had taken more before pictures now because its changed a lot since the first day I fell in love with this car. It came with no name front and rear tower braces, no name cold air intake, an ebay "type r" shift ****, ugly altezza tail lights, and ghetto rigged blue street glow cluster gauges. Basically stock d15b7, 5 speed tranny, rear drum brakes, steelies with hubcaps and foggy headlights.






First 2 things i did was get rid of the altezza tails and bought a spoiler for it.


^above pic was taken after i got it painted

i picked up the tails for $50 and the spoiler for $27 from a local junk yard. the spoiler came off an Oldsmobile alero.

I then got it repainted Milano Red




Put some mesh in the grill to hide some extra fogs.





I later picked up some 14” del sol si fat fives for $50



Then the car sat for a year and a half while I got my learners permit and then my license (in that time I started it once or twice a week and let it run for about 30 mins an my dad also drove it if he needed to go somewhere close to the house). Once I got my license I drove it around for a while the way it was for about a year or so then I decided I wanted it to have a different sound but didn’t want a fart cannon like I see on most cars in my area so I bought a thrush turbo muffler and had it welded on with 2.25 pipe from the catalytic back.

After a while the blue street glow cluster stopped working so I took them out and left it with the stock black faced cluster.

Then I bought some black vinyl tail light tint off ebay for $15+shipping


^Ignore the stickers I used to race dirt bikes and they were my sponsors.

At one point, I’m sad to say, that I fell into the rice crowd and I did have LED underglow and LED Interior lights, I took them off towards the end of my senior year of high school.




Once again I drove it around for a few months and then got bored so I started doing more stuff.
I bought “JDM black” headlight housings and aux lights $115
Bought a polyurethane “type r” lip $75
Bought some 6k hids for $75 new


Bought no name front and rear tow hooks. (don’t hate I like how they look)






Bought some gauges, one for volts and one for oil pressure.


Changed the cluster lights to red LEDs I bought from superbrightleds.com


I grew tired of the d15 and I wanted something with a little more power but not enough to get me in too much trouble so I found an almost complete LS swap on craigslist and bought it. And I also purchased an obd1 gsr head.




And then the teardown process began.










Off to get bored and honed

Back from machine shop
Bored to 81.5 mm


Wiseco pistons on stock rods



Just about done just need some little things and it’ll be ready to drop in.

A few pics:





To fill my boredom while I search for the rest of what I needed for my swap I started looking for some jdm goodies that I could install on weekends or during the week when I get home from work. So after searching for jdm lower fogs and coming up with finds that were $400+ I decided to ditch the jdm route and go a different route. I bought some 99-00 ek fogs off eby for $40 with free shipping and installed them
Here’s the finished product:

I will be doing a write-up on this when I can.


I received my jdm map lights I got of ebay for 33 GBP ($55 USD I believe)

I made the rods necessary to install them and they work flawlessly!!


So that’s how she stands at this very moment, she is still un-named to this very day and I’m still searching for the perfect name for her. She still has the d15 in it but that’ll change very soon, my f1 racing stage 2 clutch arrived today and I’m one step closer to swapping my ls-vtec into her.

Near future additions/mods:
-wire tuck
-lower it on Blox Street series coilovers
-new 15” rims
-tanabe medalion touring cat back exhaust
-rear sway bar with rear subframe brace and new LCAs
-DC Sports front and rear tower braces
-new paint job (gunmetal gray, yellow, or maybe black I can’t decide yet some outside input would be nice)
-JDM del sol visors
-JDM del sol srs sir steering wheel or ITR srs steering wheel
-reupholster stock seats or get recaros or something similar

d15bvtechatch

iTrader: (2)

Make sure you store your cams/cam gears right side up sitting on the cam gear. I saw a pic where they are laying sideways... It's said that they can warp, it can matter when it comes to small clearances. I like how it looks, lower it a bit. In for some more updates!

civicjxxn

Gotta show love to a fellow red Del sol owner. Should be considerably quicker with the LS/VTEC!

jbpnoman

Love it! It looks like it was meant for the car, great find.

NVturbo

Should've left the exterior STOCK. Front mesh grille, neon lights, stickers all over, gauge pod in the pillar and 4x4 status....not cool. DEL RICE....indeed.

gold_pwr_r4ng3r

yeah the cams were only like that for a little while, i believe the pic youre talking about was the ones with the ls cams, i acually ended up getting another set of ls cams by mistake,
the guy i bought the gsr head from gave them to me instead of the gsr cams. that got straigtended out tho and he gave me a free set of gsr cams and
let me keep the ls cams.


Thanks! everyone i talk to that sees it asks if it the oem one because it fits so well with the car.


the mesh is coming off tomorrow, the neon is gone, the stickers on the window are gone. guage pod might come out because it gets in the way,
and 4x4 status should be gone within the next 2 or 3 weeks.
haha in knew someone would notice the DEL RICE plates those are gone too, i lost those when i got the car turned over to my name.

NVturbo

progress in the right direction....that's what I like to hear. Are you trying to go LS-V or something? I noticed the VTEC cylinder head in one of your pics.

gold_pwr_r4ng3r

yup, b18b1 bottom with a gsr head

Wrona

the 99-00 Foglights look dumb..
mesh grill looks like sh*t i know u said ur taking it off
the other foglights behind the grille are dumb

what are you going to rally this thing??

Hid's in ebay headlight housings.... hmmm

im sorry but the car doesn't look good at all from the pics

keep on at it though don't give up

gold_pwr_r4ng3r

i probably should've also mentioned before that the fogs behind the grill are coming out too. i put the ek fogs on because the stock aux lights dont do sh*t for fog theyre pretty much over glorified accent lights.once i get a different car for a dd I'm going to take the aux lights out and custom make a figerglass or carbon fiber ram air intake and route it to where the aux lights were. i still gotta figure out what im going to do about keeping water from getting in itill think of something.

delsolo95

should of done a write up on the jdm map install, especially how you made your own rods. iwould like to see that

gold_pwr_r4ng3r

can do . it was relativly simple. i actually stared at a pic of the rods for a few hours trying to see how to bend it. i used some house insulation wire, its whats used to hold fiberglass insulation up in ceilings before the sheet rock gets put up, however its not quite thick enough. i plan on going to home depot tonight and looking for some rod thats thick enough. ill do a write up once i find the correct thickness rod and compair the first ones i made to the new ones im going to make.

Wrona

why not do one of these







if i was you i'd do one of those conversions if u r not into fab just swap the front end from a newer delsol and get the OEM fogs they make a huge diffrance also if you would like to see better

i recommend doing a retrofit into your headlights and using 4300k HID (brightest light output of all)

and getting some fogs and aiming them right and you should be set

Red_Army

you un riced it to super re rice it then semi unriced it with a LS?

still super rice but fast.
nice build ugly body.

gold_pwr_r4ng3r

Im personally not a fan of front end swaps on del sols. i might do what you said and swap a 97 bumper on it or i might just shave the aux lights and reroute the power to the ek lights and have one less harness to deal with. now when you say retrofit do you mean retrofit projectors into the housings or do you mean just put 4300k hid bulbs in and call it a day?

gold_pwr_r4ng3r

everyone has their own opinion but thanks for the input.

henry9419

nice build, maybe i should look for a del-sol instead of a hatch...not sure, what bike did you race?

gold_pwr_r4ng3r

only downsides to owning a del sol is that theres no back seat and they're notorious for leaking. and i raced hare scrambles on an 02 yz125

henry9419

Ahhh never thought of the leaking...backsat idc about

I assume you were good riding? I ride dads wr250 all the time...

Red_Army

just meant the stickers/mesh/ extra fogs/ tow hooks/ and a wing from an olds. like you said different tastes. to me id hate driving it with that. but don't get me wrong if you tried to sell this car to me with the swap in it i'd be on it like flies on crap.

and like you said most of that will be gone. but still it could look much nicer.

as for the HIDs he means bake the lights open retrofit projectors in there and re seal them. HIDs in non projector lights are illegal. cops probably don't know this but it is.

roof leaks aren't too bad. just don't drive in down pours or buy new ones...which aren't cheap but 15+ years isn't bad.

gold_pwr_r4ng3r

youre right cops dont know but the state inspection stations in VA do, they told me to take them out because the balast didnt say "DOT" approved, i just swapped to normal bulbs for inspection then swapped back to the hids, about 85% of the time i drive on country roads and need the better lighting.

thats what i figured he meant. i have projectors already and i have another set of the same housings i picked up for $50 that i was going to use for the retro fit, i just need to find time to do it.

yeah i priced out all new seals from hall honda and they said it would be like $800 i havent checked majestic yet

StreetsideStig

Nice work!

gold_pwr_r4ng3r

Thanks!

Red_Army

majestic is around 670+ shipping. not cheap but worth it IMO if you have the extra cash.

really they checked out your headlights at the station?
so glad i don't live in an inspection state. as long as your not drunk they could care less.

gold_pwr_r4ng3r

hmm. i may have to hold off on the coilovers so i can get new seals...

yeah they do. its actually kind of good that they look everything over, they found out that my trailing arm bushings were just about shot, i wouldnt have known until its too late, im hardly ever under that part of the car.

here in va they look over every part of the car and they put it on a lift and check to make sure everything under the car is safe and in working order