Fallacy's '99 Premium Pearl White progression thread

[xxfallacyxx]

Purchased September '08 w/160,000 miles on it.

When I bought it, it was a Sport Shift auto. I should have avoided it like the plague really. I quickly found out just how bad that transmission was, it needed to be rebuilt about 6 times in one year. Moral of that story: always find a shop that warranties their work. If they aren't willing to stand by their work, why should you?



Not long after I got her. Scuffed blade rims, nice scratch in the front bumper. On the upside though the car was owned by two girls before me, the interior was remarkably clean and well maintained. It wasn't perfect by any means, but it was in good shape and more importantly it is mine.




So the very first thing I did to her was a good clean of the paint, as best I could at the time. Wash, clay bar, wax, polish. Repeat once a month. It was amazing how many little particles had been embedded in the paint.



^Both of those were taken in the day time, the shine of the paint was so bright the camera had to reduce the brightness to the point where the sky was dark.


^That was taken later that night, showing just how clear the paint on the hood was. I was and still am in love.

I had lost my job not six months after I got her, so there wasn't much I did for some time. The transmission shop I originally brought it to for the auto transmission finally got tired of rebuilding it, so they offered to switch it to manual and be done with it. What a stroke of luck! I had a good friend with a 92 Prelude Si 5 speed manual, and it was in such bad shape he decided out of extreme kindness to help me. He donated everything I needed to do the 5 speed swap on my own car, and I promptly got it back to the shop where they completed the swap in a week.

It was a whole different animal. Having a transmission with 5 gears was so much better. The acceleration, top speed, and reliability all improved drastically. I was excited to say the least. I don't think the smile left my face for a week. The car was that much better off.


^Note the manual shifter, but still has the auto gauges. The little 'R' still lights up on my dashboard when I shift into reverse.

Time for some paint.



I painted the spark plug cover and exhaust cover. Looked a lot better, but look at that chipping paint all over the VC. Disgusting.



Much better, pardon the over spray onto the exhaust cover. It needs to be redone now anyway, the heat has turned the paint a sort of tan-white.

So I finally had a job again, but unfortunately all I could get was part-time at minimum wage. Paying off bills I had did not allow me to buy any after market parts, but I did get a few necessities. I replaced the oil-cooler o-ring (see write-up), and upgraded the front brake pads to ceramic (what a difference!)

Sometime that year we had some serious flooding locally. It was all over the news, a lot of the East coast got hit by tons of rain. IIRC it was actually about as much rain in one month as we would get in half a year. I had to snap a pic that I thought would be pretty unique.



^Dirty rim on the second one I know. Those first ceramic brake pads I went with made a LOT of dust. I like the reflection on the second on better though, the wind had died down that day so the water wasn't as choppy as the first pic.

Finally! I got a new job! Better pay, more hours! To celebrate, I bought something for the Prelude.


^Purchased some Type SH rims off a fellow luder from Ohio, 5spd5gen/Alex. Even worked out to have them painted by him (which he did an excellent job), and mounted on some Yokohoma S.Drives. Beautiful new rims with tires stickier than what it had before, she did nothing but heighten the joy of driving I already had.

Not too long after those were installed, I took some time off work and went down to the ECPM'10 @ Nags Head, NC/OBX




^Mike checking out Kerri's ass LOL


^Alex and me going for a quick ride to pick up some party supplies.

^Me doing what I do in traffic: Look unhappy.

^The camp site we stayed at. Overcast the first day, but beautiful the entire time I was there. My lude is the white one in the back, parked in front of the grey 4th gen.


^Datoneguy, shirtless in my car. Need to replace that seat haha



So again I go back to just working. On the way back from NC, a fifteen hour drive btw, Datoneguy and I diagnose that my passenger side front wheel bearing needs to be replaced, so that's next up on the list. I decide to just have both fronts replaced, as the car is around 180,000 miles now. The benefit is my job is at a car dealership, so discounted labor rates = win. I didn't have a press to use to do the bearings myself, so I opted to have it done by the techs I've gotten to know at work.

And of course, fix one thing and something else goes bad. After fixing the front wheel bearings one of my rears decides it's time to quit. I replace that one myself, as well as the rear brake discs as they had seen enough in their lifetime. There's a write-up on how I did it of course.

Alright, those all set I get back to working, living, paying bills etc.

How to tell your GF is a keeper:


^She actually listened and payed attention to me talk about my car. Probably one of the best Christmas gifts I've gotten in a while, the much talked about JDM cupholder.

Not long after, I buy my car a Christmas present too.

^Not real JDM, my pockets aren't that deep. The V2 Replicas. The quality of these lights is amazing, I'm willing to bet on par with the OEM/JDM ones. There are small differences, but I won't ever complain about them.

Picked up a pair of headlights off CL from a former Prelude owner(he wants to get another lol)

Spent a weekend hanging out with Darthanis, who was a huge help in both being kind enough to let me use his garage and his experience on adjusting the valve lash.

^Almost 200,000 miles worth of oil deposits. Dirty

Also took a trip with him to a junkyard which had a 5th gen in hopes of getting some decent parts. Not too much luck, the thing was already almost completely stripped. I went home with a few things: an H22 valve cover, the gauge cluster plastic cover and black background, and some clear side markers taken off a riced accord that was in the junk yard lol.


^Fog lights and clear sides installed later that day.

^Look at them illuminate!

^Fogs+Headlights, pardon the salt covered headlight lenses. I've got something planned for the headlights anyway.



^That's the condition of those headlights I picked up off ebay. Both were like that. Recently had time, so I set about restoring the lenses before my projector retros went into them.


^That's after I got done restoring. I think I spent about an hour on the one headlight.

Wet sanded every grit, starting from 500.
Went through 500, 800, 1000, 2000, 3000.
The 3000 came from a 3M headlight restoration kit, which also included the final step of my restoration: 3M rubbing compound. As you can see, it worked.


^Comparison of before and after condition. What a difference.

So my current project: Headlight retros.



^I hope that when I turn my headlights on it will smell like mom's cooking

Using some of my nephews long abandoned toys to hold the housing apart lol

^You've actually got to work pretty quickly, as the sealant cools off it stretches much less.


The next morning:


Dremeled out the housing so the back of the projector would fit through.

So the flash was really bright, but you can somewhat make out the projector housing through the light housing. You can also see the wires for the bi-xenon hookup.

Shot from the front.

Shroud trimmed. I trimmed less than Shimee did for his retro, but there was still plenty of space.

Checking the shroud for any fitment issues.

Shimee also made note in his write-up that one of the tabs on the inside of the shroud needs to be broken off. I found that if you align the tabs on the shroud with these tabs on the plastic lens holder of the projector, putting the shroud on and taking it off becomes much easier.

Waiting for the oven to heat up...

Still waiting...

Finished. Believe it or this is exactly how the picture came out on my phone.

3-15-11
Alrighty, I've been looking at parts now for far too long. I know what I'll need to make this J-swap work, and it's high time I start ordering.

I'm lucky enough to have some Type-S J32's local, and at a more than reasonable price. The engine will most likely come from a 2002-2003 Acura CL Type-S, and the transmission will come from a 2004 Acura TL Type-S. The ECU will be from a 02/03 CL Type-S. Engine mounts are going to have to be custom, and that's being worked on. The engine harness is a big question for me, as well as keeping the functionality of all my electronics inside the car. I'd like to do an engine bay tuck while I have the H22 out.

When it comes to suspension, I'm not entirely sure on what I want to do. The J is probably going to be around 100lbs heavier than the H as far as I can tell. To me, this is the equivalent of say a turbo setup, and I'm not sure if it requires a suspension upgrade. I do want one, but it may have to wait until I find a steal.

Exhaust is another unknown. I feel I'm going to end up with a k-teller 3" SS piping kit, magna-flow 3" hi-flow cat, 3" resonator, and finally because I want the car to have a surprisingly low tone for a Honda, I think I'm going to go with an Edelbrock SDT single 3" in dual 3" out muffler.

Fuel delivery and braking I'm going to try and keep stock, while possibly re-routing the lines for a cleaner engine bay. I will be relocating my battery to the trunk.

I do have a very opportunistic project, but it's looking like it may cost upwards of $600 for the part I want. It's the PS pump from a Toyota MR-2, and it's completely electric. This means I could mount possibly where the battery used to be, though that would be a lot of extra PS hose to have made and run. I'm not entirely sure of where I'd locate it right now.

Plans: 3" SS exhaust, w/resonators and muffler. No rattle-can w/bees for me. I need a nice smooth sound with a good tone.
New suspension. Almost 200k miles on the factory suspension. Honda does things right the first time IMO.
New, even grippier tires
J swap. Looks like I'll be going with a J32 from a CL-S or an early model TL-S Either way the huge boost in torque coupled with a 6spd w/LSD is going to be fun. Eventually plan to work my way up to a J35A8. 285hp, 256tq on a Honda/Acura factory motor? Yes please!
Even more absurd, complicated, unheard of things.

[Tim1137]

Pete you should let me wrinkle coat red your valve cover

[xxfallacyxx]

But it's not a H23VTEC

I actually like the glossy black.

I do have another VC though... need to clean it and prep it. Could paint that one glossy black the proper way, and then wrinkle red the one on my car after a swap.

[Tim1137]

let me know! wrinkle red always looks best!

[Guest]

coming along nice.

[jd]

Nice work Pete, in for updates

[xxfallacyxx]

Well, currently baking up some headlights here

[xxfallacyxx]

bump for small update!

[Wing]

What tires are you looking into?


If you HAPPEN to be ordering tires near a meet that will bring us anywhere near eachother - i get them directly from tire rack

[xxfallacyxx]

No idea yet because of the J swap actually. That's going to take precedence, and then I want to get wider tires for added traction.

[BilliamII]

i have ridden in this car...be jealous

[jd]

^I am

Lights look good Pete

[Press10]

when can we expect to see the retros on?

[xxfallacyxx]

....soon as it stops snowing? I should be able to finish the other headlight this weekend. Maybe I can get some time in the garage here at work if they have a spare bay. Tough thing is the service manager is not the friendliest man in the world, and I don't think he likes me much LOL

[zedries]

I like... Can't wait for the J Swap to happen.. This year some time?

[xxfallacyxx]

Planning for this summer. My next purchase is actually going to be engine then transmission in that order... unless I can get a decent price on a secret goody

[xxfallacyxx]

Well, it's Friday. Payday, I was parts shopping. Found a 79k miles J32A2 for $275. Junkyard says it still runs. I'm going to look at it tomorrow!!!!!!

[aznjap808]

oOo a jseries motor? Sounds like you got a lot of work ahead of you haha. Can't wait to see you build this man

[xxfallacyxx]

Update: The things I've been thinking over.


3-15-11
Alrighty, I've been looking at parts now for far too long. I know what I'll need to make this J-swap work, and it's high time I start ordering.

I'm lucky enough to have some Type-S J32's local, and at a more than reasonable price. The engine will most likely come from a 2002-2003 Acura CL Type-S, and the transmission will come from a 2004 Acura TL Type-S. The ECU will be from a 02/03 CL Type-S. Engine mounts are going to have to be custom, and that's being worked on. The engine harness is a big question for me, as well as keeping the functionality of all my electronics inside the car. I'd like to do an engine bay tuck while I have the H22 out.

When it comes to suspension, I'm not entirely sure on what I want to do. The J is probably going to be around 100lbs heavier than the H as far as I can tell. To me, this is the equivalent of say a turbo setup, and I'm not sure if it requires a suspension upgrade. I do want one, but it may have to wait until I find a steal.

Exhaust is another unknown. I feel I'm going to end up with a k-teller 3" SS piping kit, magna-flow 3" hi-flow cat, 3" resonator, and finally because I want the car to have a surprisingly low tone for a Honda, I think I'm going to go with an Edelbrock SDT single 3" in dual 3" out muffler.

Fuel delivery and braking I'm going to try and keep stock, while possibly re-routing the lines for a cleaner engine bay. I will be relocating my battery to the trunk.

I do have a very opportunistic project, but it's looking like it may cost upwards of $600 for the part I want. It's the PS pump from a Toyota MR-2, and it's completely electric. This means I could mount possibly where the battery used to be, though that would be a lot of extra PS hose to have made and run. I'm not entirely sure of where I'd locate it right now.

All of the above was added to the first post as well.

I just really can't wait to have my car back on the road. Also, I know I've left out a thing or two for the swap, minor things(AFAIC) like the shift linkage and shifter box.

I've also got to finish up my retro headlights, and hopefully this weekend weather permitting I'll be cleaning out a space in my basement and storing my front bumper, lights, and fenders there for safety.

[xxfallacyxx]

Of course if a junkyard happens to have a CL-S 6spd manual with all the parts I may buy the car and part it out if it's cheaper.

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