Bought her from a guy in VA back in June of this year. 130,7xx miles and he was the first owner and the car fax verified a clean history. She ran strong since the first day I got her. The car cosmetically was F-ing nasty! inside and out! The only reason I bought the car honestly, was because it was a 2001 GSR. To me a last model black GSR 4 door seemed awesome so I had to have it. Plus I like projects, this would be #6.

on the the pictures..

This was my car before I got the GSR.










and what the LS looked like when I first got it..





and then started doing stuff to it..



















damn, I got a bit carried away there... I guess I really miss my LS!

but yea... on to the GSR..

 

This is what she looked like the day I got her.. I remember I made sure to take plenty of pictures lol

























no windshield moldings..

 

The progress has been really slow with this car, I only owned the LS for 4 months and hooked it up pretty quick.. This car, not so quick..

I think the first thing I did was fix the trunk latch and started to prime and paint individual panels.. The whole car was pretty beat.



there was a real deep scratch on the trunk



primed and sanded the hood and took off the headlights to clean up a bit..







It was only this fresh for about a week...




and some jerk hit me when I was parked.. came back to the car to this big *** dent ..



While I had the front end off I decided to paint the bumper and the head light housings black.. Yes, I stuck them in the oven, that's really the only way to get that glue to budge..









The headlights were still pretty foggy so later on I ended up sanding them with 600 then 1000 then 1500 followed by 2000 grit and then PlastiX rubbing compound and they cleared up a whole lot more..






After I did the front end it inspired me to do some extra stuff...














well it's getting pretty late, that's just the first few weeks that I had the car and I have work in the morning which i'm lucky because 3 hours ago I was doomed and the car wouldn't start.. So now i've decided to share her story with HT. plenty more pictures to come..

 

At this point I just wanted to sell the car and buy something cheaper that I could jsut hook up fast... But everyone told me to keep it and fix it..

Then I started messing around with the back..

It hurt me so bad to do this..


The bracket that holds the bumper back there was bent and that's why it wasn't lining up straight.. guess there was a small accident...






Then I ended up going badgeless for a little and repainted the trunk..






and the steering wheel was gross, there was all this nasty **** that would come off on my hands while driving.. So I started removing the stitches and eventually took the whole cover off.. Now I have a super fresh steering wheel..


my boy Droopy's White Coupe, that **** is fast..


Why do people really change their tail lights to Rice?


finally ended up painting that quarter panel..

 

All the paint that I used is Gloss Black Rusto from Home Depot... I know It sucks, But I went To get an estimate on body work and a fresh coat of NHBP ... and I was looking at a little over $2000 ... So the $3 cans work fine for me just for now..

 

more to come...

 

Looks a lot better than before, keep it up man :D

 

Switch taillights w/ the red integra

No,but seriously good luck w/ build..I used to own a 96 db8 k-swapped

 

thanks! and it sure does lol i'm gonna post some more pictures..

 

hahah that's a good one! sounds tight! and K series is a little out of my budget right now but I know one day for sure I'd do it..

 

95 GSR and 01 GSR

and I guess the next thing to replace would be the dented and rough *** fenders..



ordered a pair from a parts store near by. $104 delivered to the door.









The car came with some brand new Eagle GTs on the front. I'm thinking about upgrading the back tires to these as well.. 3rd car i've had these and they are awesome in the rain..



SO I removed the whole interior and cleaned everything with something called "purple power" i think? lol .. Well teh seats came out great and I definitely saw a big difference in the freshness.. so after I cleaned the seat I had to remove the carpet, I didn't care If I didn't have a replacement, that **** was gross and smelled bad..



And for the torn rear seat... .I got one from an older teggy in VA for only $20! also got some speakers from the same guy for to replace the stock stuff..





No, I do not want black seat. I like the black on Tan combo. looks sweet to me.

I got a friend with the Autozone hook up so I also got new pads and rotors all around since the brakes started to scrape.. temp fix until I figure out what I want to upgrade to.. should last me at least a year or so..

 

After getting a few eye sores out of the way I decided to finally get to the engine.. being my first GSR, I don't want to mess her up like I have some single cams in the past doing dumb stuff...or from lack of knowledge.. So I read up and did research before I did anything on the car..

I had a minor leak coming from behind the vtec selenoid and I read somewhere that I was the Cam Plug seal..



I figured since I was going to removed the valve cover and do some slight surgery, I might as well change the fluids and freshen her up..





I figured it would be pretty easy.. it took about an hour and the plug only cost me a 2 hour drive back and forth to Inline Pro and $10 for each plug. (got one for my friend's car that was leaking from the same place)



my ghetto dust cover...










the one that was on the car looks like a cheap aftermarket! i'm glad I got the OEM plug, looks promising. plus I read that even people who turbo their engines don't use aftermarket plugs.. I was going to get a skunk2 one.. but why spend $30 and wait a week for shipping?









and then everything back together..

cleaned the bay a little bit.. everything looks so cluttered..

 

So I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do about the height because the suspension was very mushy and soggy... turns were wobbly and didn't feel too safe..

I saw an Ad on craigslist from the closest JDM shop we have, NaganoUSA and they were letting go of some Type R suspension (not 5 lug, just the actual shocks and springs and control arms) and I read up on it and some people said it lowered their car up to 3/4 of an inch and since i'm trying to keep her a sleeper, I decided to go with a stock look that performs better.

picked everything up for $120 . sweetest deal I got so far..









I had only one problem doing the suspension swap.. the bolt on the lower control arm broke and I had to disconnect my whole ABS sensors on the rear.. crucial amount of time..




I took a picture of the before and after for the side that looked the highest on the car, the front passenger side..

before:


after:


So it definitely dropped some and it feels a whole bunch better.. feels more responsive and safe! next day I went straight to get an alignment.. I told them to set the specs for a Type R hehe..







I learned how to set the rear toe, never knew that bolt existed..



And then a few days later I ended up getting some HIDs.. I was tired of the dull *** yellow stock bulbs...

$60 form a local shop called Sonic Tuning
8k





I love my OEM black housings..

 

Next I change the PVC valve and fuel filter because some days when she starts up.. she kind of just sputters for a second or 2 then runs normally.. I read somewhere that it could be the fuel filter so I changed it... then I decided to do a compression test to see how healthy this motor actually was...

When I removed the first spark plug...



So I thought I had a blown head gasket but it turned out to be just the Tube seals on the valve cover, so I replaced then and no more leaks..

This was my set up since I was solo that day..





Coronas >>

Here's the results for the cylinders.. not bad at all










After the compression test, the car wouldn't start..
I was pretty upset and know it was something spark related..

I took the whole dizzy out because I knew the problem was in there..



After placing a thread here on HT , someone told me my compression was a FAIL because I didnt disconnect the Dizzy plug and fried my Coil ...

spent some time going at it with the multimeter ..


I had 2 single cam dizzys in the shed so I took on of the coils out and put it in the GSR dizzy after hours of sadness and hopelessness ...





I learned a fair amount about dizzys from the single cams so I was pretty comfortable taking it off and messing with it..



and then I got a check engine light for " ECT sensor" ...

So I read up on it and found that there's 3 sensors for the cooling system..

first I went and bought this guy..





and still had the check engine light..

then I went and bought the one on the thermostat housing and reset the ECU and no more CEL...



Not sure how you can tell if they are bad or not.. but they did look pretty corroded ...

My HID cut out...

 

I saw a few articles or painting and dying carpet so I figure i'd wash it and turn it black since there was a million stains on it lol plus the whole no carpet thing was getting pretty annoying with wires all over the place and what not..

 

That's no longer my shift **** either, I went back to the Type R shifter. looks cleaner and smoother..

 

and after a few months riding around all primered out... I figure i'd say F it and just paint the rest of the car... as long as it wasn't all 2 tone anymore...



I painted the hood with Chalkboard paint ... looked like a cool idea that I saw some people trying out...





some people didn't know it was chalk so I had to spell it out for them lol..







I threw that stupid rack on there but took it off a few days later...makes a lot of noise while driving..

then I received this bad boy in the mail...
23mm Type R rear Sway bar..






I really like the black housing look...

 

While I was getting an alignment I saw that my RTA bushings were totally fuked! completely torn and obviously the reason why my rear end was sagging on turns..

got these on ebay for $85



I went to work on her the very next day, I couldn't wait to finally tweek my suspension some more..

since I didn't have that special tool, I said *** it and took off both of the RTAs and just hammered off the old bushings..










I went with the hardrace bushings because I read a lot about the ES ones and It seemed like too much trouble to burn off all the rubber and the hardrace already came ready to put on.. the dealer was asking $80 for each one... seemed like a nobrainer to me...

I didn't get any pictures of the new bushings in because after an hour of trying to hammer the new ones in, I gave up and took both the arms to a gas station to have them press in the new bushings..

the first 2 gas stations told me they didn't have a press and the 3rd one was trying to charge me $45 a side but i talked him down to $60 for both, he did them in about 20 minutes.. so by the time I got back home I just wanted to put them on already and didn't snap any pics..



I threw some %20 tints on her, I did the front 4 for $30 with an Autozone kit lol and got a shop near by to do the rear window for $40... sounded like a great price since another shop was charging $85 ...
total cost of tint's all around.. $70



Then I decided to finally get rid of the exhaust leak I had and went to a local muffler shop..


I decided to slap a Magnaflow on there as well and they deleted the resonator since it was cracked and put on a straight pipe.. $300 for everything ... kinda pricey but I love the sound of the car now..



and then I finished off the rear when my package came for the rear sway bar bracket and bushings..



I called my boy rick to come help me out cuz I Was having some trouble getting the brackets to line up at the stock mounting points.. I inverted the brackets from left to right and cut a piece off the edges like I seen on this site http://hybrid.honda-perf.org/tech/ITRon5G.html

I needed some new bolts thou because the stock bolts would hit the brackets and not line up straight so I got some allen key head bolts from home depot and it worked perfectly..







sits flush on the mounting bracket


after the hardrace bushings the car handles WAYY better. very responsive and stiff, no under or over steer except on REALLY hard turn due to the lack of a LSD trans..

 

A few shots of the DB8 and Ricks Built GSR EG ...













... this is what my dream Hatch would look like if I had the money for all these goodies lol ..





#chessinthehood

 

sorry for so many pictures... I bet it takes long as **** to load if you have a slow computer..

 

And this brings me to her current state pretty much.. only other thing I did was a minor wire tuck to relocate some ABS wires and the engine harness tower plugs ..

before and after..



then I went to the junkyard and found a new washer fluid cap because mine is obviously broken lol ...

also got some windshield moldings and all the clips...
out of every 4 that i broke, I got 1 good clip lol



and the wires hidden..

 

My next goal is to fix the Oil dipstick that keeps coming out when I try to check my oil, and maybe i'll put the Cruise control box in the fender as well along with the washer fluid hose and the headlight harness.. I do want to keep my AC and power steering and all the good stuff but I want the bay to look nice.. next is also a valve cover paint job...

 

good stuff man. looks promising

 

Looking good man. That is a lot of progress. I used to live in Silver Spring too, off of Dennis avenue. Rep Mo County

 

nice progresss

i HOPE HOPE you will buy a brace for that rear sway bar....you will eventually tear your subframe. a cheap brace is the BSQ kit. ASR is a solid proven brace. There is also BEAKS and a lot of ASR wanna be braces. Those allen bolts do not look wide enough to securely mount the bracket.