Ideas for thought...
I had some ideas I came up with for projects for anyone who has a 91 accord or some model close to that. I hate just buying crap and bolting it, anyone can do that. They may be in this forum, I don't know. I'm just putting them out there for anyone to chew on it:
1. The '92 acura vigor is basically a luxury version of the accord, there are a lot of interchangeable parts. Not all of them, but with some. When I wrecked mine I used the front bumper, It sits lower eliminating the need for a cheesy body kit that scrapes and it looks a lot better to me. Since you're using the bumper you can also use the headlights, they are basically the same, but they're more like the headlights on the earlier integras, they have the yellow fog lights on the inside.
2. Led tail lights. Buy some led trailer brake lights that are no taller than 3 inches and are less than an inch thick. I usually purchase from a store in ebay called "closer to wholesale." Do not buy cheap LEDs from hong kong or any places like that. You will get what you paid for. LEDs should not be cheaper than filament bulbs. Anyways, you can actually fit the led brake lights inside the housing of the stock brake lights and find a clear adhesive to make them touch the outside glass. You do have to use a load resistor when you wire them but if you do it properly they will look good. Also, if you want to get creative you can also wire some flexible led strips on the inside of the housing and shape them any way you want.
3. LED mirrors. You can get the amber strips and stick them on stock mirrors I guess. I just hate those gay "M3 style carbon fiber LED mirrors" they sell for accords. They're cheap, they're too small, and they're too...ricer-ish. Get creative with some bondo and make them blend in if you want.
4. With my acura bumper I had room to mount some slim 6 inch Navigator halogen driving lights on the bottom. Navigator makes the round lights that are exactly like the hellas but a tiny fraction of the price. The way the bumper is designed, you can tuck them right in after making some cuts with a hand saw. I always loved the subarus and the old audis that had those big round rally style lights. I'm going for function here, not looks. Honda headlights don't cut it for me. Just keep the bulbs at 55 watts and they're street legal...well, at least for Georgia.
5. Go to a hardware store(Lowe's is cheapest here) and get some aluminum mesh material. I think it's meant for keeping leaves out of the gutters but it's usually $2 for a curved piece that's 12 inches long. Advance sells this same stuff for 30 bucks and makes the package look all fancy. Use the honda grill as a frame, cut out all the little plasic pieces on the inside of the chrome frame and put this mesh material in between. You could even stick the honda logo back on it.
6. Smoked lights. Use grey metal cast paint from advance auto or auto zone. The metal cast is a clear grey paint so you can basically just paint whatever light you want to darken. Don't get carried away, one or two light coats are fine. If you mess up, just dab some paint remover on a shop towel and wipe it off.
7. LED back up lights. Those tiny lights honda uses don't cut it for me. Remember those led trailer lights I told you about? Find ones that are narrow and can fit on either side of your license plate. Wire them up into your back up lights with a load resistor and you're good to go.
Bear in mind I'm no professional but I like to be creative and I usually learn as I go. These ideas may not be "safe" or whatever, but I haven't had any problems yet. The LEDs I used are DOT approved and do not strobe. Hopefully this inspired someone to do something different rather than building yet another ricer that sounds like me after taco bell's bean burritos. If you need pictures let me know.
1. The '92 acura vigor is basically a luxury version of the accord, there are a lot of interchangeable parts. Not all of them, but with some. When I wrecked mine I used the front bumper, It sits lower eliminating the need for a cheesy body kit that scrapes and it looks a lot better to me. Since you're using the bumper you can also use the headlights, they are basically the same, but they're more like the headlights on the earlier integras, they have the yellow fog lights on the inside.
2. Led tail lights. Buy some led trailer brake lights that are no taller than 3 inches and are less than an inch thick. I usually purchase from a store in ebay called "closer to wholesale." Do not buy cheap LEDs from hong kong or any places like that. You will get what you paid for. LEDs should not be cheaper than filament bulbs. Anyways, you can actually fit the led brake lights inside the housing of the stock brake lights and find a clear adhesive to make them touch the outside glass. You do have to use a load resistor when you wire them but if you do it properly they will look good. Also, if you want to get creative you can also wire some flexible led strips on the inside of the housing and shape them any way you want.
3. LED mirrors. You can get the amber strips and stick them on stock mirrors I guess. I just hate those gay "M3 style carbon fiber LED mirrors" they sell for accords. They're cheap, they're too small, and they're too...ricer-ish. Get creative with some bondo and make them blend in if you want.
4. With my acura bumper I had room to mount some slim 6 inch Navigator halogen driving lights on the bottom. Navigator makes the round lights that are exactly like the hellas but a tiny fraction of the price. The way the bumper is designed, you can tuck them right in after making some cuts with a hand saw. I always loved the subarus and the old audis that had those big round rally style lights. I'm going for function here, not looks. Honda headlights don't cut it for me. Just keep the bulbs at 55 watts and they're street legal...well, at least for Georgia.
5. Go to a hardware store(Lowe's is cheapest here) and get some aluminum mesh material. I think it's meant for keeping leaves out of the gutters but it's usually $2 for a curved piece that's 12 inches long. Advance sells this same stuff for 30 bucks and makes the package look all fancy. Use the honda grill as a frame, cut out all the little plasic pieces on the inside of the chrome frame and put this mesh material in between. You could even stick the honda logo back on it.
6. Smoked lights. Use grey metal cast paint from advance auto or auto zone. The metal cast is a clear grey paint so you can basically just paint whatever light you want to darken. Don't get carried away, one or two light coats are fine. If you mess up, just dab some paint remover on a shop towel and wipe it off.
7. LED back up lights. Those tiny lights honda uses don't cut it for me. Remember those led trailer lights I told you about? Find ones that are narrow and can fit on either side of your license plate. Wire them up into your back up lights with a load resistor and you're good to go.
Bear in mind I'm no professional but I like to be creative and I usually learn as I go. These ideas may not be "safe" or whatever, but I haven't had any problems yet. The LEDs I used are DOT approved and do not strobe. Hopefully this inspired someone to do something different rather than building yet another ricer that sounds like me after taco bell's bean burritos. If you need pictures let me know.
Did you take any pics of the process? Or any write-ups for how to get this stuff done? If not you could post up some pics of the finished products so people can see what it is that your talking about and maybe do it as well.
So basically this is ghetto cheap DIY stuff?
Some notes I found:
1) LED's SHOULD be cheap, they're cheap as **** in fact, you can pay less than a penny for them.
2) All these points seem to just be putting LEDs in places they weren't before - turn signals, back up lights, tail lights, etc but it's nothing new and they actually make replacement LED bulbs so you're not hacking up your OEM parts.
Some notes I found:
1) LED's SHOULD be cheap, they're cheap as **** in fact, you can pay less than a penny for them.
2) All these points seem to just be putting LEDs in places they weren't before - turn signals, back up lights, tail lights, etc but it's nothing new and they actually make replacement LED bulbs so you're not hacking up your OEM parts.
I've had experience with cheap LEDs and nothing good has come out of it. They manufacture those in Asia somewhere so you can in fact buy them cheap, but with a low price tag comes low quality. That doesn't imply higher priced ones are better, but USA made generally does better.
You are right you can buy replacement LED bulbs anywhere, but if you can recall at the beginning of my post I said I didn't like just buying stuff and that you can bolt on. I wanted to speak to those who think the same way.
Numbers 1, 4, 5, and 6 have nothing to do with LEDs. I think my ideas include a little more than just putting LEDs in places...
You are right you can buy replacement LED bulbs anywhere, but if you can recall at the beginning of my post I said I didn't like just buying stuff and that you can bolt on. I wanted to speak to those who think the same way.
Numbers 1, 4, 5, and 6 have nothing to do with LEDs. I think my ideas include a little more than just putting LEDs in places...
Last edited by bcrapps; Jan 4, 2009 at 04:41 PM.
i really like the idea of the acura vigor bumper on that year accord, i think it would look clean. not to keen on the l.e.d's tho, just not a fan of l.e.d lights all over my car
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5G_Vtec
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