Well, thought i'd go ahead and throw my DA up on here, was kinda inspired by ChaseIntegra's thread to do one. And I see a few people saying they wished they saw more DA threads on here, so I figured why not.

Quick background and plans for the car. Basically my brother-in-law bought the car back in like 01-02 and owned it up until last November when I bought it after Bambi's father decided to end his life in front of my 91 Prelude Si. Picked up the car for $800, it had been just sitting for at least a year, not being driven, occaisionally started. He was bummed to see it go, but at least it was going to stay in the family.

Anyway, I pretty much have just driven it the last year, not really doing any upgrades, just trying to get it back up to par. It's just rolled over to 217,xxx miles, 99% sure it's on the stock clutch and other than it squeeling like a pig when in gear and pushing the clutch in, it runs great. I had to put new rear pads, rotors and a LR caliper on it right after I got it. It had no rear seat or hatch cover, so picked those up real cheap. Front seats were toast so I picked up some out of a 92 Integra, the color matches well, but the pattern is different, but no biggie they'll be replaced someday anyway. As of now current mods are a warm air intake (just a short cheapo 90 degree tube with a filter on the end) and some no-name can. The stereo of course is the nicest thing on the car and it's not even THAT great, just an Alpine 101 headunit and Alpine Type S 6.5's all around.

Now on to my plans for it. I plan to pretty much redo everything I can on the car, but first and foremost I HAVE got to get a new engine and trans in it. Not how I wanted to go about it, but I dunno how much longer this B18A is gonna last (I will say for the mileage, getting 38hwy/31city i'm even more impressed with the non-vtec's). I plan to buy an HMO Obd1 B18B longblock in the spring and a throw a GSR transmission on the motor. I'll be picking up one of HushPerformance's new DA hydro kit's once they drop so I won't be dealing with any cable crap anymore. While I have the motor out, i'll paint the bay and maybe do a lil wire tucking and remove cruise control. I will eventually turbo the motor, but that'll have to wait until I get my EJ2 finished up as well.
Not sure what i'm going to do for suspension and brakes yet, but i'm not gonna cheap out on them, it's gonna be my dd for a while and I want it safe and somewhat comfy.
As for the exterior, i'm sure some might cry foul, but i'm just not digging the Jasper Green. My EJ2 is Paradise Blue-Green and even though the Jasper Green looks more teal/turquoise/weird blue than it does green, I want to do a full color change because I don't want 2 green cars. I had played with the idea of 3 different colors and tried them out on the hood just to see what they looked like. I had picked Lightning Blue, Captiva Blue and Long Beach Blue Pearl. The Lightning Blue looked too much like a lavender and the Captiva looked to much like a baby blue. So, I chose the LBBP, of course it had to be the most expensive of the 3 as well (it's the color closest to the windshield in the pics below). The other thing with the exterior is it has some nice rust spots on the quarters by the wheel well and on the wheel well itself. I don't have the tools nor knowlege to fix them properly, so i'm gonna be doing some shady stuff there, but I can't afford to spend $1000 per side to have them fixed the "best" way. As of right now it looks like butthole too, because when my bro-in-law repainted it, he tried some different techniques that were suggested and they worked out horribly. Basically to use rattle can primer instead of primer from a gun like he normally did and a lower air pressure and it orange peeled really bad. Those 2 things over the last year have made the paint flake like crazy and now it looks like crap.

Anyway, on to some pics. First few are when my brother-in-law owned it, primered it, painted it (it was his first full car paint job like 5 years ago, he's a million times better now) and after we tried out the 3 possible colors.

Sorry for the novel by the way.














I'll post up some current pics of the car tomorrow, as well as a few things i've picked up for it recently.

 

Ok here's some recent pics of the car. As you can see, that rattle can primer job did a real number on the paints ability to stick. Even just a light rain makes it peel off. Anyway, just washed her so it doesn't look so much like a bag of ***.







Now on to the problem areas. The rear quarters and well area are just rusted to heck. Had some bondo in there that had began to rust through and I sanded/removed it and as much rust as I could. I don't have a welder, nor the skills to even utilize one anyway. I know this is not the best way to fix this, obviously cutting and welding in patches or an entire new quarter per side is the best, but I have no way to do so. And as much as possible I do NOT want to pay somebody to do this, can't learn if you have somebody holding your hand through everything.








After I got the loose stuff outta the way I applied some Eastwood Rust Converter. It says I need to apply, let dry, apply again and let cure 48 hours. It turns black in the areas that are rust converted.




Once this has cured it's 48 hours, my next plan of attack is to take some fiberglass cloth and saturate it with silver POR-15 and then as advised on POR's site, apply filler while it's still tacky, hopefully this will work for the well area. I'm not sure if this is the correct or best way to do this, but again, if it works and lasts through the winter I think it'll be good enough to not rust through. As for the holes, i'll fill it with some long strand fiberglass filler and then once cured, fill lightly with some bondo.
I really hate to be doing it like this, I feel like i'm doing it the wrong way and the "lazy" way, but I don't know what else to do.

If it makes it through the winter, i'll probably hit it with some more bondo and/or filler primer, paint, clear and hope for the best. If it can last 2-4 years until I have the correct tools and skills to fix it properly, then I won't mind having to maybe paint the entire car again or at least part of it. It's not going to be a show stopper, but if I can maybe get lucky and have it look pretty damn good, i'll take that. And if it doesn't last long and looks like ***, I can at least chalk it up to learning experience and hopefully i'll have what I need to fix it correctly. If anyone has any suggestions that has auto body experience, I am always open to suggestions/opinions.

I'll update again once I move on to the next step. I'm also probably going to be pre-ordering my Hush Performance DA V2 cable to hydro conversion kit this week or next. I don't have a trans or motor yet, but I figured i'd go ahead and order now while it's $300 in case the price goes up shortly after it's released.

 

Finally was able to finish the rust converter, encapsulator and put on the silver POR15.







So i'll let it all dry real good and then fill in the big holes with the Dyna-hair and then any smaller holes and other areas with the Rage filler.


I'll let it sit a few days to allow for any shrinkage and then sand it as best I can and hit it with some primer and hopefully it'll be good til it's time for final sanding, primer and paint!

Hopefully soon i'll be getting my Hush Performance DA V2 cable to hydro setup. Should be shipping any time now, i'll post up pics once I get it.

 

finally did some filler for the first time and i suck at it. the dyna hair was a no go. that **** was too thick and hard to work with. i cleaned all that crap out of the hole on the passenger side and just started working with the Rage filler.
started out with this part and never could get it quite how i wanted it.

this is around the back part of the fenderwell close to the bumper. as can be seen i did a horrible job trying to fill the hole. i had spent so much time on the other part, the filler started to get hard and it was clumping.


finally just said screw it, packed in there best i could and let it all dry. sanded it a bit and hit it with some rattle can primer and flat black. decided i'm gonna redo it all, but i'm waitin on the POR-15 epoxy putty. gonna fill the holes with it as it's really good for going over the POR-15. i'll put enough in the holes to keep from having to use so much filler. and it's sandable so if it's not quite even before i put filler on top of it i can address that. it was my first time ever mixing and using filler and i can say i have much respect for people who do bodywork. not too disappointed with the part i did in the first pic, but the second was just **** work.

on a brighter note i got my RyWire OBD0-OBD1 conversion kit. Got the harness, distributor adapter and the 4-wire o2 sensor harness. looks like a very nicely made part and glad it will make stuff so much easier, it's money well spent.


still waiting on my HushPerformance DAV2 cable-hydro conversion. soon as i get it in i'll snap some pics of it. and when the putty gets here tomorrow (if it makes it here through the snowstorm), i'll start cleaning that mess up and try again. haven't touched the drivers side yet, once i feel i do the pass side as best i can, i'll move to the drivers side.

thanks to anyone who's reading this novel.

 

got my Hush Performance DAV2 cable to hydro kit in today. what a nice piece of work it is! nicely put together, everything looks great. can't wait to get my swap and put this in.

and got a few goodies as well.


also got the POR-15 epoxy putty in the mail, so i can fix the holes, put filler on top and be done with it. i have to remove the filler i put on anyway, as i totally forgot that there can be some shrinking and that you should wait a few days before priming and painting in case you need to add more filler. so, just gonna remove it all as best i can and start over again. trial and error i guess. once i get that done i'm off to Cali for some training for 3 weeks, so guess it'll give me time to save up more money for other odds and ends i need before i save for the motor swap.

 

Got as much of the old Rage filler removed from the passenger side as i could and scuffed up both sides a bit where the POR-15 is, as recommended. Then set out the epoxy putty.


Found the easiest way to mix it together was to just kind of roll it in your hands like playdough, fold it, roll it, ect,. When it's good and mixed it's a light greyish color. Then I started packing it in a bit at a time. Then as recommended I used water and smoothed it out as best I could.




It says it's ready to go in 1 hour in 70+ degree weather, but i'm going to let it do it's thing overnight since it's about 42 degrees in my garage. Then i'll try and sand it as best I can and then try using filler again.

Hoping while i'm gone to maybe buy new lug nuts as the one's on the car are open style (which I hate) and are starting to rust and causing the studs to rust. The car has OEM 92-95 Civic hatch wheels from what I can tell and i think these lugs may be acorn style, but i'm not 100% sure. They don't have any play when mounted, but no matter i'm replacing them. Saw a thread earlier and found these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/20-HONDA-BAL...item2a14cbb7bc

Not sure if they're worth a crap or not (maybe someone can chime in... somebody anybody), but as long as they're reliable enough to use until I get new wheels, they gotta be better than the cheap *** lugs on there now.

 

Thank you for sharing. Thank you for the kind words. Your swap and build looks promosing. Best wishes. If you have any questions please give us a call or email. 520 234 3383 hush22@***.net