here is my baby, a laurel-blue metallic 1990 accord 5-spd lx sedan when i first got her in august of 05:

she was bone stock bought from the first owner, a 60 year old woman, with 160k on it. soon after, i had the windows tinted, installed some red-tinted altezza taillights, and blew the engine up:




i swapped a reconditioned f22a1 into it 2 weeks before i headed off for college in 06 and while it was off polished the valve cover. i also made my own short-ram intake the ricer way and put some nasty blue wire loom in various parts of the engine bay:


over christmas break of 06, i built a fiberglass sub box that i am very happy with:

then, still over break, i hit a light pole in a church parking lot. i wasnt e-brake turning or anything, i just didnt see it. i dont have any pictures of it, but all it did was bend/break the passenger side front suspension (yes, virtually EVERY suspension piece was damaged!) and scrape a little bit along the passenger side of the car. the door mouldings took the majority of the damage.
i had the suspension replaced and put a strut-tower bar, clear corners, and clear bumper lights on it. in the summer of 06, i started getting faily heavily into modifying my car, so i made a short-throw shifter for it, put in some interior neon (i know most of you think its rice, but i really dont care. i love the way it looks), lowered it on kyb gr2's and sprint extreme springs, took the hub-caps off, modified the grill, and polished a few more things under the hood. i then joined a car club and entered my first car show:

i didnt win anything, but it was so much fun it encouraged me to continue down the modifying path. soon after the show, i got some 10th aniversary 6-spoke accord wheels and hand-polished them.



last winter and over spring break, i redid my interior trim. i painted the dash insert body color, dyed the door panels and interior trim black, installed blue 92 integra headrests, then upholstered the door inserts with blue ultrasuede and the headliner and pillar covers with black ultrasuede. that was one of my favorite mods to this point:
http://a845.ac-images.myspacec...c.jpg
around that same time, i made some tweeter pods for my cerwin-vega component system and an integrated guage pod for a voltage guage

while i had the bondo and paint out, i shaved my antenna and my trunk (not very well, but it works until i can weld them and do the rest of my bodywork), and made myself some fiberglass eyelids.


i then got some 17x7 motegi mr-8's and brand new kuhmo ecsta ast's. i know they are not the best wheels or tires, but i daily drive this car so i neither need nor can afford expensive wheels and r-compound tires. it doesnt hurt that i LOVE how they look with my car:



i then entered another show:


that brings us to just a few weeks ago, when i really started focusing on then engine bay and taking more detailed pictures.
i hate the look of the stock bolts in the engine bay, but i also hate the price companies were charging for aftermarket offerings ($18 for 5 bolts is freaking rediculous!) so i decided to do my own thing. i went to fastenal and bought a bunch of m6 hex-cap bolts and stainless steel washers and started installing them anywhere i could replace stock hardware in the engine bay.

 

i then bought a greddy evo1 cat-back made for a cd5 accord used from a friend. this was a cluster-f*k to install and eventually required a whole exhaust revamp. i had to buy a header (ebay special that i header-wrapped) and have a test-pipe made. next up was the battery. i have a friend who works at oreily's auto parts, so was able to get 25 feet of 0-guage wire for 2.25 a foot to relocate it to the trunk. i also had a jagermeister bottle sitting around (saved it from the 100th annual st pats in rolla, MO this year!) so i used it for a coolant-overflow tank.


with it like this, i was going to drive to arkansas to enter another show, but my car overheated on the way there. i filled it with water and two miles down the road, it was empty again. i put a ton of bars-leak in it and limped it home. to fix the leaking-coolant issue, i got bisi's thermal barrier intake manifold gasket, and also picked up an h23 manifold and short-ram intake from a friend. with my order, bisi also sent some stickers and a liscense plate surround.


first off, i flushed out all the nasty-*** bars-leak out of the radiator and the engine. when i went into "limp mode" to get it back from arkansas, i took out the thermostat, so that was as easy as taking the top and bottom radiator hoses off and running a garden hose through them. you can see the mess from the bars-leak spewing out of the rad-cap that was left loose so as to not build pressure.


i then pulled my car back into the shop and got to work cleaning up the new manifold. i used a few different wire-brush attachments on my drill, and got it shining on the outside:

the inside needed some work, though. a lot of carbon had built up over the years, and the former owner tried to bore it out a little bit with a dremel, so i did my best to smooth out the runners with the wire attachments, then i sprayed 2 cans of carb/choke cleaner in the runners and the EGR port (i chose not to drill/tap the runner ports because i am planning on blocking off EGR and some other unneeded accessories). here is the before:

and after:

 

i got all the pieces shiney, but i though i wasn't getting enough contrast on the piece, so i painted the butterfly plate (now sans butterflies) and the end plate for the fuel rail with red metalcast. i know you're thinking, "Red?" but i have been doing several little details, including my stainless washers in metalcast red, and i assure you it looks damn good :D

the plate, washers, and bolts drying after being painted:


the fuel rail end-plate:


and the IM mocked up back together:



with that all cleaned up, i decided to tear into the engine. first i took the plenum off (look at those tiny runners!)

then the runners. looks like i found the problem!


the intake manifold had cracked on each side and the corners had fallen off, including about half of the two coolant lines on the passenger side of the IM!

since i do not have an h23 throttle body, (and need to find one, anyone have one i could buy?) i decided to take my time and clean up a bunch of stuff under the hood. i started with wire-wheeling the doohickey that attaches to the fuel rail (return line?):

then i pulled the clutch reservoir bracket and the hood latch off because they were filthy:



in that last picture, you can kind-of make out the painted hex-cap bolts and stainless washers. the bolts, especially the ones holding the fenders on, were rusting terribly, so i hit the bolts with satin-black rustoleum, and the washers with red metalcast. i think the look turned out awesome :bouncy:

 

monday night i went to guy's house to pick up a spare head (advertised for $25, couldnt pass it up!) and some new plug wires, and he ended up being a guy who used to drag race a civic with h/f engines. it also turns out, that he didnt have a honda anymore, so his stockpile of old engines and parts was just taking up space. he sells me the head and plug wires, then gives me almost the entire stockpile for free! i ended up getting an h23a1 short block, a bare h22a head with most of the internals either new or bagged up, spare cams for the h22 head, h22 intake manifold, an f22a1 head, a custom-welded aluminum short-ram with an aerospeed filter, a complete accord engine harness, a set of jdm h22a pistons and rods, DSM injectors, 2 distributers, a transmission scatter shield for an h23 tranny, and some other little stuff! i filled my parent's camry front seat and back with engine stuff, all for the $30 i gave him for the head and wires. i am still amazed at this guy's generosity.

here's the haul:


now, onto the update. i finished cleaning off/wire-wheeling the clutch resevoir and replaced the three bolts on it with my painted stainless washers and hex-cap bolts.

cleaned up,

installed,

and DOMO!

i did the same treatment to the hood latch. wire wheeled it, replaced the bolts, and painted the plastic cover satin black.



the cover needs some work, but i am very happy with how the latch turned out.

i finally got the throttle body i was needing and cleaned it up inside and out. no before pictures, but it was FILTHY!
here it is after:

it doesnt show very well, but the throttle wheel was wire-wheeled also.


inside

IM-side

mocked up with the IM.

got all of the block-off plates fabricated and bolted on and they look great!

 

Keep it a sleeper. Could use some more TLC. Make sure you paint stuff correctly. I'm sure you could find a couple of write up if you search. Good luck.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by KingKnight &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Keep it a sleeper. Could use some more TLC. Make sure you paint stuff correctly. I'm sure you could find a couple of write up if you search. Good luck. </TD></TR></TABLE>
what do you mean by painting things correctly? metalcast is very tempermental, i had to paint things the way i did to keep it from clouding up. i know it needs more TLC, i try to do everything i can to keep it clean and nice, but its my only car, and i have to drive close to 500 miles a week.

 

metal cast paint works better if you use a silver base coat or polish it before paint...... also to keep from clouding you should try to use a blow dryer or heat gun for a few seconds while the paint is wet this prevents the paint from looking cloudy

 

What dude you got one hell of a steal with all those parts for $30! By the way nice job on cleaning and painting on all those intake parts ect. I dont know what everyone was talking about with the paint not coming out right. From a foot away it would look perfect. The accord is coming along pretty well too- it just takes time... i know that very well (my sign in name says it all lol). Good luck with your car!

 

ok, i kinda let this go for a while, so i am going to update it with copy/paste updates from my members ride thread on cb7tuner.com

ok, update time!

i have been stripping just about everything i can out of my engine bay, and now that i finally have internet access i can show you guys some pics of the process!

stripped out

passenger side starting the wire tuck

driver side; chassis harness removed, power steering lines, pump, and resevoir deleted, etc.

most everything removed even though it doesnt look like it!

and a goofy picture my mom wanted to take

 

i did quite a bit more work last night, pulled out just about everything that i didnt the night before. im jsut about ready to pull the motor and start the tuck in earnest.




firewall cleaned off, started cleaning some of the grime out of the engine bay. simple green is some awesome ****!


a couple carts of parts taken off, most of which wont go back on. the rest will all be cleaned up or replaced.

at least my bumper and hood are getting some use of my sectional couch :D

more parts piled up, again most will not be back on the car


started stripping out the nasty sealant stuff.


this is just about all i got done on two half-charged batteries. this is going to take a while!

i'm doing more work tonight, pulling the dash and working on some wiring. stay tuned...

 

ok, update time again!

due to having lost my camera cable until today, here is an update of the last several days, which has mainly been welding, grinding, grinding, and welding :D

first up, yanking the motor:



i got everything un-bolted and ready for the pull (i thought), then found the 3 or 4 things i didnt realize were attached to the block ops:

well, 2 hours later, here she is swinging free:




after that, i set the engine down, moved the hoist out of the way and grabbed my chemical stripper and wire-wheel.
(no good picture of this process)

when i got most of the paint and nasty-*** yellow sealant out of the way, i started to weld everything up. did i mention that i have never mig-welded before ops:

oh well, it seemed to turn out well so far.

here are a few progress pics of the welding in no particular order. so far i have over 60 holes welded up and about 20 of those ground down flush as well as quite a bit of stitch-welding done to the seams.




(sorry for the sideways pic)


me having fun!

when i borrowed the welder, it had about 1/2 of a 2lb spool left, and last night i used the last of it, so i need to buy another spool so i can get some more work done on it today. that's it for this update, i should have another up in a day or so.

 

update time again, this time with pictures!

first up, when i had the welder i shaved the core support:



here is my engine bay in the first coat of self-etching primer. i put this down after I wire-wheeled the surface rust that was starting to form off. a LOT more grinding is going to need to be done before i am ready for the last of the self-etching primer. here are some in-primer pictures, which give you a good idea of about what it's going to look like when it's all painted and such. also notice the shaved and smoothed headlight supports:








here is a picture of the dash and some of the air/heat components out :


and some shots of the wiring to give you an idea of what is going to happen. not one wire has been cut yet, just kindof in the planning stages. my focus is on the bodywork in the engine bay right now, so the wiring is going to come later.








stay tuned! im going to be working on it off-and-on all weekend, then really hit it hard again as soon as i can for as long as i can. i am aiming for completion by a show at the end of may that is about 100 miles away, so i want some testing and tuning time before then!

 

well update time again, i havent really done a whole lot, but it looks like ive done a ****-load. i ground down the welds on the passenger side, primed everything with self-etching primer, then started bondo-ing everything. nothing has been sanded with higher than 60 grit, but it already looks a LOT better than it did.

unfortunately i found a couple small cracks in the driver side around the engine mount, so i need to borrow the welder again before i do any more work on that side. until then, the passenger side and the firewall are going to get all of the attention!

pics:




the smoothed out headlight support and a sneak peek at the (sorta) smoothed out core support




not quite smooth yet, but its getting there :D


all the **** that still has to come out before paint!

 

ok, enough of the catch-up. from now on, i will be updating as i go.

 

no-pic update (pics tomorrow maybe)

i haven't been hitting this as hard as i probably could have been but im getting damn tired of sanding! lol

toysruskid came over and helped me yank out the rest of the stuff in my engine bay. my car no longer has ANYTHING forward of the doors bolted to it! all the front brake lines, brake master cylinder, prop valve, both cross-members, all front suspension pieces, and anything else that happened to be bolted to the car is now gone! (well, on a shelf, lol)

i also started shaving the firewall, three small holes for the a/c have been deleted, i'm just trying to figure out how i want to do it before i shave the two big holes on the passenger side that used to hold wiring and a/c lines.

further forward, i shaved the two large holes on the driver side of the engine bay using various large washers and a lot of grinding.

bodywork on the passenger side is almost finished and it looks ****ing sick! i would estimate that i'm about 75% done with all of the bodywork, and have talked to a friend about spraying it for me (although i may just spray it myself to say i did it all).

many suspension parts and various brackets are getting prepped then powder-coated gloss black and every other part i put in will either be painted, polished, wire-brushed, or brand new.

i talked to another friend and he is going to let me use his metal lathe to make a bunch of new aluminum fender washers just to give it a litte extra touch. while i'm making those, im probably going to make some aluminum shifter assembly bushings just to get some sloppyness out of the shifting. to add to all of that, im going to try my hand at anodizing (if i can convince my mom that having a 5 gallon bucket of sulfuric acid is not a bad thing) and all of my washers and bushings will be anodized dark red.

so yeah, a lot going on!

 

here are some updated pictures of my slow-*** build-up of my cb7. the car is now ready to be sent to the bodyman for some final sanding, primer, and paint. i have finished shaving a lot more stuff and sheetmetal-ed the firewall.



the firewall's all finished up

she looks sad just sitting there...

and here's a shot of the shop. its really not as messy as it looks, i've just shoved a bunch of my stuff over to the side so my parents can use more of the shop when i'm not home

 

i've also picked up a few parts for the car:

personal boat wheel

megan racing rear lower control arms

TCS carbon fiber mirrors (not positive if i'm going to use them, if you want them let me know and i'll sell them to you)
i dont have pictures, but i also have a bunch of h22 parts (just waiting on cash to buy the motor itself), a Suspension Techniques front swaybar, an energy suspension bushing kit, i've bought all the a/n fittings i need to delete power steering, re-do the fuel line, and tuck my brake lines, and i have a bisimoto header on the way.

 

just received the heat shrink and braided sleeving to make my engine harness. i went in with 2 other guys to get a small local group buy price.

 

The sounds systems look very nice..

 

hey thanks man, im actually getting rid of it though. i have some other plans for the trunk area and i'm trading the box and subs (plus some cash) for a jdm h22

 

Good job man !!
I love CB7

That it is brand of your steering wheel?

 

its an old school personal steering wheel.

 

working on getting a full 5-lug swap setup within the next week or 2...

 

wtf you started this in 09???!!!!

 

haha yeah, 3/4 of the year i'm 100 miles away from my car and cant work on it. i'm also learning as i go and have on several occasions ground old bondo off because i realized i did something wrong.