Mercer's Intro/Build Log

GENERAL General G2/G2IC Discussion
1

Hey G2IC

I’ve been around a while lurking mostly, since late '05 actually when I picked up my first integra. I’m on my second account so I think it’s about time I make an intro thread.

Back in 2005 I knew very little about cars, but I had my sights set on an AE92 Corolla GT-S with the peppy Toyota 4A-GE engine. Totally dug the wedge shape and oem aero kit, so much so that I had been obsessively checking Seattle and Portland craigslist ads for months. I got almost nothing for my efforts, seemed pretty rare. Because of this (and luckily I might add), I ended up test driving an extremely clean horizon gray 93 Integra LS down in Oregon. Completely stock too, bonus! After some successful haggling it was a done deal.

I regret not taking too many pictures for the past 7 years, but I suppose that’s what I get for sitting on my camera and refusing to buy a new one.

The earliest digital pic I have of my car. With new window tint.

Engine bay after having it steam cleaned at the local gm dealer. Late model OBX carbon fiber wrapped intake and Neuspeed strut bar, sweet mods!

Tragedy strikes! Jeep wrangler stops for no imports when backing up at a stop light. Can you believe State Farm totaled the car for this? Lucky me, received a grand more than I paid for it AND kept the car. It was a great day when I cashed that check :).

$200 dollars later…

Picked up some used 16" rims from craigslist. Rally mode activated! Fortunately I installed some Koni shocks and H&R race springs soon afterward. The exhaust pictured here started out as a Columbia River mandrel bent 2.5" kit, but after installation cost, the Magnaflow muffler and later, resonator, and a high flow cat the total cost ended up around $670. Sometimes it doesn’t pay to build it.

I’m skipping a few years and a bunch of little mods here and there, but without pics it’d be boring to list everything. So barring that, this brings me to about 2 months ago when I decided to have a close encounter with a curb at speed. Passenger wheel was pushed back into the wheel well. Gotta love having AAA though.

What you don’t see here is the right LCA which acquired the shape of a banana. The left LCA had a slight bend in it too I’m guessing from the previous owner. At this point I figure I’ll redo all the front suspension bushings while I have everything out. And paint stuff, why not. Brake pads… might as well order new rotors. Upper ball joints. Rebuild oem axle. What am I forgetting hahaha.

A little elbow grease and what have you. Its good to have clean parts.

So I went from this:


to this:

Not bad.jpg.

Today I finally got her off jack stands and on the road for the first time in almost 2 months (what a trip that was). Even tried the string method alignment after following the instructions found in this video. The ride is great, front end feels much tighter and more responsive. Looking forward to replacing the LCA/bushings/rear trailing arm on the back end sometime and finishing up the suspension.


This is how the exterior looks today.

One thing: I’m very DIY oriented, so I decided to jump on the cheap roll-on paint job bandwagon that was going around at the time. It looked decent at first, not good but decent from 15 ft. The problem was that the paint quickly turned to shit. Word to the wise, if you’re going to do a roll-on paint job, use polyurethane based boat-paint. Not Rustoleum. It just doesn’t stand up to UV exposure or weather in general. Professional paint job is on the list of things to do.

The engine bay as it looks today. Done a few things here and there to get ready for a turbo. My goal is 300hp. The build will be completed sometime this next spring/summer. I’ll keep you guys updated here as things progress.

2

i wish i could have a nuespeed strut bar…also my car was totalled for a very similar accident…couldnt beleive they totalled it over such small damage

3

If you can’t find one used, you might be interested in one of these. I have the rear strut bar made by explicitspeed, nice construction and much better finish than my Neuspeed bar.

4

ima have to stay on the hunt for the neuspeed, i like the way it looks lol…although i think when i go down the traction bar lane im gonna get explicitspeed…

5

When you think about it, our cars are worth 2k max… and that’s in tip-top shape. Virtually ANY rear quarter panel damage or radiator support damage will total our cars. Doesn’t take much when a vehicle is 20 years old.

That suspension work looks great… makes me want to put some work into mine (wheel wells and re-spraying suspension components, etc)

Thumbs up sir… Keep us updated!

6

Thanks man.

Small update: I’ve always thought the placement of the accelerator pedal in the integra was ill-conceived. Not only is it too far from the brake pedal, but its not even the same height. Definitely not ideal for heal-toe technique. After wrestling with several pedal covers over the years, I decided to rectify this situation once and for all.


Bent the pedal linkage to my will with a vice and a propane torch. Several test fits were required to make sure it was in the right position before hitting it with some rust-proofing enamel and reinstalling.


Very happy with the result, pedals are exactly where I want them now.

Received my starter solenoid rebuild kit from ebay today. Hopefully it’ll clear up the starting hesitation issue once and for all. Also, got a custom delete project in works right now. It should be interesting to see what you guys think as it is not a very mainstream mod. That’ll be up in a day or two. More to come!

7

maybe yours was bent? i heel toe alot on hills and shit without a problem…crappy thing for me is ur last pic reminded me my dead pedal is missing…let the hunt begin lol

8

[QUOTE=Mercer;2276417]… its not even the same height… [/QUOTE]That is common. My friends in Germany call that the “Opa” (Opa = grandpa) pedal setting. On some cars there is an adjustable stop.
The thinking is that the different heights make it less likely that one will hit the gas pedal instead of the brake.
Nice job on the pedals!

9

[QUOTE=PMI;2276447]That is common. My friends in Germany call that the “Opa” (Opa = grandpa) pedal setting. On some cars there is an adjustable stop.
The thinking is that the different heights make it less likely that one will hit the gas pedal instead of the brake.
Nice job on the pedals![/QUOTE]

Thanks. Haha Opa pedal setting, I like that.

Finished refurbishing the starter solenoid last night. Only time will tell if the fix worked, but after starting it a couple times there was zero delay. Awesome. I’ve had hesitating starting problems for a long time now so I’m happy that it is finally resolved.

Quick tip: I bought a solenoid rebuild kit for about $13 from ebay. It wasn’t necessary. Unless you notice heavy pitting on the copper contact surfaces in question, don’t bother with the kit. The solenoid plunger that came in my kit was about 1.5" too short compared to the original denso part so I ended up cleaning and reusing it anyway. All you really need is a small wire wheel to clean the contact surfaces FYI.

10

Ya fix one thing and another thing breaks. After a short test drive, popping the hood for an inspection revealed areas of coolant covering the front crossbeam and hood above the radiator. The original mishimoto radiator cap was toast after less than 8,000 miles. Easy fix though.

On the subject of ebay parts, I needed some plastic screws to replace those that either got lost or damaged to mount the engine splash guards so I ended up getting these:

They worked well and the ebay vendor didn’t require a minimum $11+ dollars for shipping that ALL online dealerships do.

So onto the more interesting stuff; I decided to delete my side-view mirrors. I got the idea from some of the posts at ecomodder.com. Weighed the pros and cons and decided it would be a cool mod to try, and if they didn’t work out for whatever reason I’d bolt the originals back on. Basically, the benefits break down to an average gain of around 1 to 1.5 mpg when traveling at highway speeds due to reduced drag/frontal area, decreased cabin noise from eliminating the turbulence that comes from the mirrors, and a narrower profile to fit into tight spaces/garage. The cons would be a reduction in the ability to check blind spots and non-compliance with state law. These problems are both solved by mounting convex mirrors on the interior close to the glass (yes its legal too, at least in WA, as long as the driver can see in the mirror behind him for at least 200 ft). That said, here’s a few pictures from the build:

Picked up some used mirrors for a good deal. No going back now!

Kind of a pain in the ass getting to this point, but the metal had to go.

This is after fibeglassing and bondo. Needs more bondo and sanding, I learned that later.

Painted and mounted! Convex mirrors are on the way from amazon at less than $5 a pop. That’s all for now.

11

I had a “well duh” moment the other day when I was poking around the engine bay. I mean it should have been obvious when I had to slot my passenger radius rod and front engine mount in order to bolt everything back together. Turns out that my LCA, radius rod, and subframe weren’t the only parts sacrificed to god of twisted metal, my front cross-member also had joined that club and I just failed to notice that it was slightly bent out of shape! Oh well, that just cements my plans for an explicit speed traction bar. Until then I will be taking it easy as the passenger tire rubs on the fender-liner under hard cornering.

So the convex mirrors arrived. Fashioned some brackets from some scrap metal and got them installed in no time.

I have to say, they work well, no more blind-spots on either side. What do you think? Snapped a couple more pics of the whole car too.

New slimmer profile.

Winter is coming :P.

12

Its been a while since my last update. Winter has moved in and work on the car has virtually come to a stop, but I do have a few things I’d like to share.

First up, passed my emission test Monday! It may be my last required test too since the car will be 21 years old in 2014. Coolio. What’s more it passed despite the deletion of the emission/evap system and a hollowed-out magnaflow high-flow cat, which by the way, are total pieces of shit. The cat lasted only a few months before a huge part of the interior honey-comb section broke and began rattling around incessantly (the reason I scooped it all out). So yeah, passed with plenty of room to spare… kudos honda engineers, kudos.

Recently got around to fixing the third brake light too. Some of you are probably very familiar with the cover’s plastic mounting piece, and what an utter piece of garbage it is. Anyway I tried electrical tape for a while before giving up on the cover and unplugging the lights altogether. No longer; removed it and drilled some mounting holes along the small edges for screws to hold it up. Also found one of the bulbs burned out, so I replaced them with leds. Check it out.


Not sure when or why the original bulb burned like that.


Try and fall off now fucker!


And we have light, again :slight_smile:

The leds came from superbrightleds.com, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to order all new leds for the gauge cluster and climate controls. So that will be a future update.

PS: New forged wheels should be here tomorrow - Christmas is coming early this year :excite: