I joined this site back in 06, and ive always come here for ideas, and made a few posts too, but nothing major. Now is time for me to share my project. I started having thoughts of selling my da in the beginning of this year. The biggest reason was that i never saved enough money to get the rust fixed, so the condition of the car kept getting worse. I came on a crossroad of spend more than 2000 dollars and take care of the rust or just buy another da, or just leave the DA scene, and buy my brothers oem 95 gsr. I decided to just keep looking at white DC2s, but they were so much money and after looking and looking, i was lucky enough to find a 92 DB2 with some goodies. Here is a background of my da9, which i bought back in 03 bone stock. The car meant alot to me and i learned how to work on cars, because of this car…so there was a lot of trial and errors on this…
Full aero oem kit
JDM gsr w/ jdm itr trans
custom turbo kit
dyno tuned 7psi@ 235
skunk 2 manifold w/70mm TB port matched
avid traction bars (i hate them)
full ES bushing upgrade
kyb/agx on ground controls
its a rough looking turbo set up, but ive seen worse
and the reason why i got rid of the shell…LOTS of rust
bye bye turbo goodness
after searching on craigslist i was able to find this db2, and within i week i went and took an hour drive and drove it home
and here they are side by side
it had a few issues like bad axles, squeaking cluster, reverse lights do not work, high beam light on cluster always stays on, the hood was dented badly and the front bumper wont align properly, and some rust but none as bad as my da9, and hey i was lucky enough to find a white db2, so its as if i never got rid of my da. Plus when you find a db2 you have to jump on it.
The car has been having idle issues, it idles high 2500 on cold start then when it warms up, it hunts for an idle at 1000, so I cleaned the iac and the fast idle, now on cold start it goes to 1500 which seems fine to me, and then drops to 850 + or - 50 so it’s still hunting …I changed the spark plug wires and the cap but nothing…next is to bleed the coolant do hopefully that will help…anyone experienced this prob and if so how did you resolve the situation
Sounds like a typical Honda/Acura. My 90 DB1 does the same. my buddies GS-R powered eg did that until he replaced the iacv, but that’s close to $300. I’m gonna live with erratic idle for a while longer! lol
i would live with the hunting idle too, but it sounds rough when its fully warmed up. I really need to take care of this though, because i need the car to pass smog. In the mean time i decided to continue this DB2 project to get it running right and looking good, until next season when i go back to boost. My plan is to upgrade my turbo set up…but thatll have to wait. So i decided to paint the grill and do the license plate relocator
and i also put on the amber turn signals, lmk what you guys think
Yea man i couldnt stand the all white bumper…on another note I haven’t driven the car much, but when I have …I’m not too impressed with the b17, it’s got nothing on low end and the vtec at the end makes it ok. I’ve never driven or been in a b16 DA before, but I guess I know how they feel now. Anyways to any db2 or b16 swapped DAs…what are your thoughts on the power u were expecting when you bought, or swapped ur da/db2?
A question for people with abs, if you did not do an abs delete, and got traction bars, what did you do to the unit that’s resting on the crossmember. Im going to get a different kind of traction bar in the future, because I’m disgusted with avid traction bars, they were nothing but problems. My da was a LS model so I didn’t have the abs stuff to deal with
well i decided to get rid of the stupid intake and go for the OEM air box. i went to the junk yard and found the oem intake. I cleaned it up and put it on.
and here is the new look
I also tried to be cheap and decided to fix some rust to get me through the winter…it doesnt look bad…but i think im going to take it to the body shop soon. I will post pics of my super nOOb attempt at body work
Seems fine for a temporary repair, but this is a trouble area on any car with this kind of shell, so for long term, u really have to go after the rust hard.
On this type of fender, you are actually better off stripping an extra bit of the paint with something like Aircraft paint stripper, so u can see around the repair area (there may be rust working its way out from the inside).
Then, open up the rust spots a little to get access to the inside (there will be rust inside the lip of the fender), and get as much rust converter (rust-fix or whatever) on the inside. Then, brush and sand the outside to get most of the rust off, then more rust converter if there is any surface rust left.
Push some fiberglass inside the open slots/holes to encapsulate the rust converter that is now covering the rust on the inside.
More fiberglass over that (to close up the holes), sand again, bondo or skim coat over that, then paint.
Its the inside rust that kills these fenders and quarter panels, not the rust u can see on the outside.
I have no clue what the wing is. I was lucky enough to buy the DA with the oem kit and that wing that fits the car as if it was oem. I think that it is a generic wing, because I’ve seen it on rare occasions on a Camry and corolla. When I take the DB2 to the body shop, that wing will be on the car.
I remember your DA from back in the day, I think its the OE kit you get to rock very nice pick up with the db2, glad to see that right off the bat you painted that grill.
As far as the abs and a traction bar goes. you gonna have to modify some kind of bracket that strong enough to support the weight of the pressurized spear. It would be easier to just delete the abs if you ask me.
Finally!!! lots of progress on my build. I lost interest on in the car for about a year because i couldnt pass smog. I finally stopped BSing around and decided that enough was enough and time to drive the db2 with a goal to have it ready for honda day. Im on track to make it and here is the progress so far
-90-91 rear bumper installed with OEM lip
-stupid ebay headlights GONE!! found oem so when its at the shop they can align the front
-side marker holes made
-exhaust fixed
-FINALLY dusted off the rest of the OEM kit to take it to the body shop
-keeping the 92-93 front bumper, because i bought a carbon lip for it…I will install it once its out the body shop
-rear fenders rolled…the stance bug hit me…nothing hella flush but the goal is a nice stance
I’m curious, why do you dislike the AVID traction bar so much? Was fitment bad or does it make noise or something? I have a brand new one I’m looking forward to installing but I havent heard any negative feedback on them (or much of any for that matter) so I’m curious what you didn’t like about it.
Glad to see you fixed that bumper paint, was the first think I noticed on the DB pics… Good find too, would love a white GS-R
very nice pick up with the db2, glad to see that right off the bat you painted that grill.
