Ok, here goes it....

I bought this integra somewhat locally because i thought it was a killer deal. I had no experience whatsoever with body work, however I'd like to think I posess SOME common sense and problem solving skills. Id like to post up what I've done to fix the car and how this forum has helped me out (parts mainly).

The car runs!! very well to top it off. Has had timing belt and water pump replaced recently also. There was no damage to the quarter panels either which was a major selling point for me. Here are some before pics:







As you can see it doesn't look that bad. The only parts that needed replacing were the rear bumper(got for free), Keypanel($half of 75), rear bumper bracket(other half of 75). The hatch could probably have been fixed but i had no idea how to and decided to buy a used one off of dragva(all of $20!!).

Old Hatch



New hatch



No pics of the new bumper, but pics of the keypanel are below in preliminary fitting.

The tools I used were the various wrenches and screwdrivers to strip the rear of the car. Im not going to post pics of that part of it, mainly because I didn't take any, but also because its not very hard. Next were the most important items. Also note that when taking apart a car like this USE ZIPLOCK BAGS to put all the pieces in!!!! And label the bags accordingly. Also take you time....

Tools used to pull panel out:

Only thing I know to call it is....Lariot





Next is also a very important part of the puzzle, as it is on the other end of the rope attached to Mr. Lariot.

 

Here are some pictures of what the damage looked like underneath once I stripped the car.







Again, only the passenger side of the rear panel is hit and the hit took place within the right middle of it, no damage took place near the quarter panel.

Its hard to find alot of time to work on it during the day since the sun goes down so soon this time of year. But I have a few flood lights to help me out for a few hours when I get home. I've only worked on the car for 3 days so far, the first which was consumed by stripping the rear. It was my first time stripping out an integra so I tool the helms manual step by step for it.

Last night my neighbor and I decided that the panel had to be pulled.......sounds and looks obvious, but that bridge is alot harder to cross than you think. Trying to thing of way to do it we stumbled upon an idea. There was the hole for the bumper light almost right in the middle of the dent. So i used a HUGE lag bolt from a dog runner and the board you see above. He brought his truck and a rope.

First thing was to tie it all up securely! He used to be a rock climber so his knowledge of knots was beyond my comprehension, we also used some of his old 11mm climbing rope. That stuff is no ****, strong as a motha!. We proceeded to back the truck up just enough so that the rope was taut. then used a hammer the position the block. He would creep the truck back slowly a little to pull the dent out some, then stop so we could check out what was going on. By no means did we just yank the dent out. It was as slow and meticulous as we saw fit. Once the majority of the dent was pulled it was propane torch and deadblow hammer time. I am probably a little over half done completing the repairs on the car. Right now everything over all lines up fine. Its more down to tweeking all the different pieces into place so its all one nice package. If I had to bet, the part I'm at NOW is the part that ends up costing you the $$$$ at a body shop. Making everything line up perfect is taking forever.

Here are pics taken today of what ive accomplished so far. Sorry they are at night, about 3 hours ago actually. I tried to have as much lighting as possible to help make them detailed.







Please leave any comments you might have, and I would especially appreciate any tips from people that have experience in this field. Mainly help on how to tweak all the parts to line up properly(align). If anyone is nearby my area that has body work experience I would definately welcome your help if you wanted to come over!!!

-Brian

 

dude for about 200-250 any shop would have pulled that out for u. at my shop if u would have brought the car all ready striped ready to go thats what it would have cost u pulling out gaps like that could end up costing u lots of money in the end what happened if u would have pulled the whole rear of the car out of wack? take it to a shop have them pull it and paint the peices then u can install everything to save u some cash......some things are better left for professionals good try though

 

nice job!...

 

Looks like he did just fine without a shop. Good job!

 

put the hatch, valance, bumper and cover on. hopfully the gaps will be nice and even if not pull her *** again

 

looks like the shop did it..........hopefully everything goes back

 

looks like the shop did it..........hopefully everything goes back together

 

Everything lines up pretty well down low. Biggest problem is with the hatch actually. Its from a new model and So far I have had to swap the latch on the hatch cuz the ont on the new one was 1/4 inch longer than the old one. It also happens that the gap between the hatch and the valence is about that long even after the hardware swap. The kicker though is that the hatch closes tightly and securely. Is it possible that the model number has changed on hatches after some year and is actually different in some way than a 94?? How else could you explain the longer bracket from the newer hatch??

 

different style lock. if iam correct the 99's and up have a sliding latch on the rear u can open the hatch from the out side of the car and the 94-98's u have to pull the lever from inside the car. so that might be why the latch is longer...

 

hmmm, your on to something. The hatch does have a sliding thing on it. Does this mean it wont fit then?? Or would I need the losk from that year also?

 

naw just put orginal harware on the the deck lid and it should work fine.

 

your actually wrong there. The hatch will shut but the latch is so long that it sticks up even higher. At least that is what seems to be happening to me so far

 

even when u put the dented latch on the new deck lid?

 

I took the latch off of the old hatch and put it on the new one. It closes but there is still a gap about 1/4" and the hatch actually sits out about 1/8-1/4 from the valence. Its across the whole back however, not just the right side where the impact was.

 

nice job.......

 

awesome stuff

 

sound like the rear body panel may be high! it sound sas if it need to be pulled down a bit more. soory just trying to help, take a pic w/ the hatch closed then post i will for sure tell ya what is wrong w/ it then. good luck pm me if ya need any other info thanks joe

 

Im not sure about the panel being too high, but then again im not a "professional" either. I kept thinking the it was too low. Anywho, I got off work early today cuz I was sick *cough* *bullshit* *cough*. I did a little more pounding with my new beauty Mrs. Deadblow and then proceeded to start fitting parts.

Here are some pics of what it looks like with a loose fit.







I have a few more fittment pictures if youd like to see them. Same stuff but different angles. It looks really good for the most part. Bumper needs a little heat gun action. Its a little bowed out on the right side from not being on a car for a while. And there also needs to be a TADDDDDD little bit pulled right under the the right taillight, right where the bottome right of the hatch is. Other than that Id say everything is pretty kosher.

Comments/Praise/Flames are welcome

 

looks good, now paint the whole thing Viper GTS Blue

 

WOW, I'm really impressed. I think you did a great job so far. I don't think I'd be able to do that. Saved lots of $$$ Are you gonna keep it the stock BG33P (paradise blue-green pearl) or are you going another color? Do you plan on painting it yourself?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by furious94ls &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">WOW, I'm really impressed. I think you did a great job so far. I don't think I'd be able to do that. Saved lots of $$$ Are you gonna keep it the stock BG33P (paradise blue-green pearl) or are you going another color? Do you plan on painting it yourself? </TD></TR></TABLE>

Werd! Great job man, that takes some guts to do that yourself. Dont forget to go wingless, and shave the holes before you paint it.

 

gosh thats a lookin daaamn good
keep up the good work

 

Thanks for the support guys. Ive been in the garage for a while cleaning the interior parts that i removed(inside and out). Cars gonna smell brand new when im done. Im getting ready to go back outside to clean the enginebay with some strong degreaser. Also, does anyone know of a really good way to clean upolstery and carpet. Id like to buy gsr front and rears and carpet in black but its not in the budget right now so ill have to stick with gray. Id really like to clean it well however. Any tips on this matter?? That foam stuff with the pad on it just doesnt make sense to me, seems like your only pushing the dirt back down into the fabric(temp fix)......maybe ill rent a steam cleaner from foodlion.

-brian

 

oh ya, i think im going to keep it paradise blue-green pearl too, and im just gonna save to get the pieces painted and a new clear coat on the car. Its been repainted before, there is a little overspray on the headlights.....