My 500$ wonder (July 25th, MBC and 42#injectors )

[BLUNT]

that looks great charlie mac in sacramento, are the front pods just mdf cut round and covered in fabric? nice job

[Pinepig]

Exactly Mr Blunt.

I cut them out for the size of the actual speaker and then marked em for the cover and added 1/8 inch. The covering material can be had at damn near any car audio place and is used to cover subwoofer boxes. It's real easy to use and will go around compound curves like butter.

[jerry]

you have one nice looking car. is that fjord blue? one of my favorites. my daily driver was originally fjord blue until a PO changed it to Maaco dark metallic blue....

someday...

i like the removal of the lower trim. cleaner appearance and less chance for corrosion at the holes. your stereo looks like it should overpower any wind noise. i've been driving mine without a radio of any sort for over a year now. just haven't gotten around to it i suppose.

[Pinepig]

you have one nice looking car. is that fjord blue? one of my favorites. my daily driver was originally fjord blue until a PO changed it to Maaco dark metallic blue....

someday...

i like the removal of the lower trim. cleaner appearance and less chance for corrosion at the holes. your stereo looks like it should overpower any wind noise. i've been driving mine without a radio of any sort for over a year now. just haven't gotten around to it i suppose.

It was fjord originally, now it's a little lighter on the bottom half.

Yes the stereo overpowers wind noise, well past 80 :-), It also helps when there is some annoying kid blasting crappy sounding rap next to me, A quick change to a Ramstien or Megadeath CD and a short shot of stink eye from me usually does the trick.

[TMK-001]

DU HAST!

[Pinepig]

Well it's a been a while since I've made any changes or done anything to the car, happy to report that in the month I've been using it as a daily it hasn't let me down yet.

That being said I have sitting in front of me a complete urethane suspension bushing set, new ball joints, new strut bearings and a set of Ebay 94-97 Honda slip on coil overs. This Saturday I'll finally break down and do the damn suspention. I'll definitely take pics of the coil over mods to make them work.

I plan on slotting the shock towers to put some much needed negative camber in the fronts. I'll have to use the old math ( .017 of an inch for one deg at a 1 inch radius ) to figure how much camber. I'm going to shoot for a degree and a half.

[Pinepig]

Well got it all done today and took some pics, I'm happy to report that all my rattles and shimmies are now gone and it rides pretty good ( def stiffer ). I'm tired as hell ( took 10 hours, bet I could do it in under 4 now ) and will get to posting up the pics and description Sunday night ( gotta get a student ready for his check ride on Monday so I'll be at the airport damn near all day tomorrow )

On a bright note I found out the shocks and struts in my car were the sports and not just the HDs. Weeeeee.

[Pinepig]

OK guys ( and gals, all 3 of you )

This is how my day went on Saturday.

Started with a pile of parts and put er on the lift. I started on the rear bushings and it was fairly straight forward. A hint for you guys. You can do the bushings with the trailing arms IN THE CAR. Yes you read that right. Pull the brakes to undo the emergency brake cable and the control arm will come down plenty to get the bushings out. I used a small 2 jaw gear puller with a washer on it. Just hit it with the impact and you'll have a bushing in your had in seconds.

Next I moved to the front I knew this was gonna take a little more thought since I was going to modify a 94-97 Honda Accord Ebay Coil over kit ( hey buy it now for 10$ LOL ) for the fronts. Pretty straight forward actually.

Some highlights,

The hat on the kit I bought was urethane, there is no way that will hold so I used the stock top spring hat and cut it down with the plasma cutter real quick and used that to help support the useless hat in the kit.

The threaded collars are way to long, no problem, a quick measurement and 2 min with a sawzall fixed that.

The kit I had came with a longer than standard coilover spring ( 9" instead of the standard 7 1/2" ) for the rears, I wasn't sure which to use so we threw the long one in just in case ( the front spring was a standard 7 1/2" ), wrong choice and I also put the spacer that normally goes on top of the strut bearing on the strut shaft under the strut bearing accidentally. More about that later.

I used the plasma to hack the bottom spring perch off the stock strut.

Bolted it all in and did the other side too, while I was at it I had my buddy AJ press the new bushings in the lower arm.

Some pictures and an after shot, it's about the same height it was before, I could go down another 1/2 but I see no reason to do so.

Rides pretty harsh, but not so bad that I can't live with it. Drove the car about 100 miles today and even a trip on the nastiest ( read potholed piece of shit ) twisty road I know around here. It works well as is, the cornering and predictability are light years ahead of what it was before with the worn out bushings and cut stock springs ( which I still have in the rear ).

Back to the long spring and spacer on the wrong side of the strut bearing, When we let it down it stopped lowering with I swear a 6" gap between the fender and the top of the front tire. I was tempted to adjust the headlights and drive it to the VW GTG that night for laughs but I just couldn't bring myself into letting the 2002 be ridiculed by VW owners so.... Back up she want and it only took about 15 min to swap to the shorter spring, spin the adjusters down and make sure the spacer was on the correct side.

Next up TURBO, mwwwhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaa

More pics next post ( there is a limit? )

[Pinepig]

The first three pics for the above post.

[horizon2002]

Next I moved to the front I knew this was gonna take a little more thought since I was going to modify a 94-97 Honda Accord Ebay Coil over kit ( hey buy it now for 10$ LOL ) for the fronts. Pretty straight forward actually.

Hello guys

where did you buy it ?

[maikelm11]

That's a pretty cheap kit!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/S-94-95-96-97-HONDA-ACCORD-COILOVER-COIL-OVER-SPRINGS_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33582QQihZ019QQitemZ290050969142QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

Project looks great! Keep up the good work

[Pinepig]

That is the exact kit that I bought.

Once again you'll have to modify your original top spring hat to support the urethane hat that comes with that kit. You may also have to modify the urethane hat itself depending on the strut you have ( easy ).

[maikelm11]

Hi,

@ Pinepig Did you pick them up local? I just informed for shipping and it's $$$

Maikel

[Pinepig]

Nope I had to pay the crappy shipping charge. On the plus side it was here in 4 days. It's still the cheapest one I could find.

[boxy02]

Pinepig,

I don't understand the bodywork and the nail thing. To fill in the trim holes, did you weld the nails into the holes? I'm at this point now in my track car project and I'm curious as to how you did this. Can you give details?

Your car looks great!

Thanks,

Mike