Thanks Ryan! How’s Enron coming along? Good to see you’re still around!
Sean- Thanks for the advice on the core support removal. I pulled one from a junkyard a long time ago as a jig for headlights when I was really into retrofitting. It wasn’t the cleanest but then again I wasn’t really trying to save anything other than the top section. I’ll definitely take my time and be careful this go round!
I’m trying to speed the updates up not slow them down! I want to drive this car again some day… Lol. Why can’t you work on yours anytime soon?
Colin- Thanks for the links to the loom! I had found some online previously too but I can’t remember what the price was in comparison to those. I should have just ordered it then, I could probably be done by now. I was counting on getting it locally to avoid the shipping delay but it seems I’ve only delayed myself more. Oh well, I have plenty of other things to keep me busy for the time being.
I got my Function 7 LCAs and firewall plate today. Unfortunately the plate isn’t going to work (at least without modifying it) for me due to the size of the opening. It’s probably only about half the size I need. Time to by a drill press… Haha
I got the radiator support out today. Went pretty smooth actually. I went all the way through on two of the spot welds but all the others came out with the original material in tact. Shouldn’t be too difficult to reinstall
Started with the bottom section because a few welds for the sides are underneath the bottom brace.
ever thought of removing the gas gauge within the cluster and replacing it with a gauge that’s more desirable? I saw it done on the boards a while ago but cant remember where.
you can always go old school and put gas in the tank, write it down, drive for a bit (maybe 100 miles or so) and fill back up. this will give you your mileage. then just keep an eye on your mileage making sure you don’t run out of gas. As long as it works you can keep your low gas idiot light working in the cluster too as a secondary “just in case” precaution. Just a suggestion.
I remember when mine sat with no radiator support. must have been like that for a year or so. I commend the work going into this.
what are you going to do with the seams now that the sealer is gone? you welding it all together or leaving it with that clean break look?
Sean- Thanks! If I had more free time I’d be farther along. A couple hours here and there are getting me somewhere though!
Colin- Yep the whole thing. I probably could have saved the top piece but I’d rather just replace it all with straight new parts.
Rob- Thats a good idea! I may look into that. Idk how I feel about “bastardizing” my db2 cluster like that though…
I’m planning to weld and smooth them out so you would never have known they were there. I need to get my welder switched over to gas and start joining some metal!
I was just looking and the individual pieces are all listed as discontinued, but the ‘kit’ has no notation… I kinda want to replace mine now as mine looks like the previous owner used the lower as a jackpoint.
I haven’t bought it yet. I should be soon. Last time I price checked it I remember it being about $350+shipping. I don’t think I looked up each piece though, just the whole kit.
Yea if you could just pack up those Gale center caps and send them my, that’d be great. Thanks. LOL. What is it, and you people in Cali hoarding all the nice sets of Gales. Makes me want to break mine out for a refurb and rock’em. Don’t think I’ll ever find a set of center caps though
Cool to see you plugging away on the project though, keep it up! Always gets me in the mood to wrench after checking out build threads.
What’s the plan after you get all the seam sealer out? Stitch welding or smoothing them out?
Also. That welder isn’t set up for MIG already? You shouldn’t have to switch polarity if it’s already running solid wire. And from what I understand about that Astropower, it should be a solid wire only machine
Haha, I wanted to buy your gales and I believe you were hoarding them… There was a guy in Louisiana selling a set of gales and he had a spare set of caps. That was a while back though. They are out there though, eventually you’ll get a set.
The plan for the seams is to stich weld them and then use that self leveling and sandable seam sealer to make them unnoticeable. Some of them are pretty thick though, and I’m a bit leary of adding too much material to the bay. The last thing I want is cracks later on down the line. I just need to experiment with an area and see how invisible I can get them.
There isn’t too much info on this specific welder online. It doesn’t have the necessary connections for reversing polarity so I’ve been trying to find an answer for whether it was designed for gas shielded welding or flux core. I believe all the gas provisions are original and the wire feed roller is smooth unlike the ones for flux core, buuut the fact that when I bought it the guy had flux core wire in it made me wonder if it wasn’t possibly designed for flux core and someone attempted to convert it over. I just need to throw some regular wire in it and see how it performs. That should give me a better answer than scouring the internet for 10+ year old conversations about it.
I was actually hoping you’d chime in. You have far more experience/knowledge in the area of welding than I do.
If you buy the whole radiator support “kit” does it come welded together or in pieces? Hopefully it’s still available, cause I know I bought the last lower piece left in the country about 2yrs ago.
It’s sad how quickly parts for these cars are going, so much stuff is discontinued now I ordered from AcuraAutomotiveparts and the lower support piece arrived with some dings/dents in it due to their shitty packaging. I tried to get a replacement but they said they couldn’t because there weren’t any left in the warehouses. If the “kit” is a separate part number and isn’t just pieced together from individual parts then hopefully it’s still available.
Ugh, now you have me concerned. I don’t know if the kit comes prewelded together but if it doesn’t I guess I can safely say its discontinued. I guess I’m going to give our sponsor Dennis a call tomorrow on my lunch break and see of he can help me out.
The guy I’m going to have paint the car said he would recommend ordering an aftermarket one since they’re less than half the cost. I told him at the time that it was out of the question and I’d be ordering OEM, hopefully I don’t have to go with aftermarket pieces for something as critical as this. My front end would never line up right…
Hopefully you guys don’t mind if I chime in to help answer some questions…
Yes, the whole front radiator support (aka the Bulkhead, FR) comes pre-welded together. I ordered one last December, so unfortunately I can’t speak on it’s current availability.
The front radiator support “kit” does contain a separate part number from the rest of the smaller pieces, so I would assume that they have some of these “kits” set aside, while the other pieces have sold “quicker” throughout the years…
I placed my order through OEMAcuraParts, this site’s parts sponsor (like you mentioned), and as of last year they still had some. But like Colin mentioned, parts are being discontinued for our cars at such an alarming rate. What’s listed today may be gone in a month or a week.
[QUOTE=rollinmyda;2304754]Hmm “may be discontinued”.
Yep I’m calling Dennis tomorrow[/QUOTE]
What you’re seeing that’s discontinued are the smaller, separate pieces such as the crossmember and R/L panels. The Bulkhead, which I ordered, is still showing that it’s available for purchase. Definitely give Dennis a call to see if he has one in stock. Online parts sites can often be misleading, showing they have something “in stock” when in reality they just haven’t updated the site.
Here are some pictures from when I ordered my new front radiator support. Hopefully they can help you out…
