New Old Member from the NorthEast

[HenRoc]

looks great! any other plans for it? I assume you work for a bodyshop?

[Vermonter]

looks great! any other plans for it? I assume you work for a bodyshop?

As much fun as that would be, I do not work for a body shop. I restored the headlights and bumper lights, removed all the parts I wanted painted, sanded, and taped off the parts. My buddy who owns the shop laid the filler in the bumper where it was damaged, and painted.
Other plans include installing the side markers I have, properly fixing and painting the rear quarters, fixing and painting the trunk, installing my gold VIGOR lettering and gold H badge, and finding more JDM parts (or Honda counter parts).
I am buying a minty Honda radio this week from a 90's accord, which is the same exact radio as I have, but the tape deck flap says "Honda", instead of "Acura". I am having a ton of trouble finding a proper Honda steering wheel. I thought I found one in New Zealand, but it wasn't the right color. I'm still unsure if that hemisphere ever had the same color interior that I have, which I believe was a one-year-only interior color?
I'm also throwing around the idea of lowering it, but I'm not sure if I am that ambitious with this car. After lowering all my previous cars, I think I've just gotten tired of the constant maintenance it requires. I'm probably kidding myself, it'll be lowered if I find a good deal on cb7 springs or coilovers.
I've been eye-balling a set of aluminum Acura wheels in really nice shape that are about 2 hours away. I might pick those up for summer wheels.
I also need a resonator to get rid of this drone that I'm getting from the Megan muffler
I definitely need new speakers all the way around. I will probably end up getting Alpines or OEM Bose from a newer Acura. I will have to follow up with some Dynamat to rid myself of these damned rattles that the Megan muffler has brought out.
Oh and I also have polyurethane radius rod bushings I want to install, but the bolts are rusted right in place, so I'm putting that at the back of my to-do list until I find myself somewhere close to a torch.
Might look into a roof rack so I can haul more stuff. (I used to have an Element, and I'm not used to being this limited by space). I might even try to find a tow hitch so I can haul my Goldwing.
I'm sure I have plans I forgot about...

[Vermonter]

I'm having one heck of a time finding the CB7/Vigor Intersection lights!
Ebay has a set of used lights right now but the price is right up there and there's no wiring included. I think eBay sellers are convinced they are made of gold.

[oni_cb7]

I'm having one heck of a time finding the CB7/Vigor Intersection lights!
Ebay has a set of used lights right now but the price is right up there and there's no wiring included. I think eBay sellers are convinced they are made of gold.

Why does it have to be cb7/vigor?

I understand the want to have it be OEM, but sometimes the price just isn't worth it.

I know there are a ton of other cars that use intersection lights and they aren't expensive. A few Hondas would be Prelude/Civic (these can be found for $40-50). I know some cadillacs came from the factory with them. Really cheap and easy to find in a junkyard.

[Accrdwgnguy]

Yea those are a tough find. I have a set on my CB9 and it was $300 back in the day...2010ish. That was complete in good shape with OEM harness. I did buy a pair of CD5 intersection lights on Ebay a year ago for cheap, just the lights with brackets and sockets, no wiring. Easy enough to build a wiring harness and use a Maxima relay.

[Vermonter]

Yeah I'm dead set on having the correct items on my car. I've never taken on a "JDM" project before and I have the time and commitment to do it right. The way I see it, if I spend $300 on intersection lights then they aren't going to go down in value if I ever have to part the car out. My insurance allows me to add things like this to my coverage, so if I get in a wreck then I know I will at least get the money back. Ultimately I'm not too concerned about it. I just have to be patient like I was with the headlights.

[Vermonter]

I spent some time at the junkyard yesterday and found a couple things. I found a Honda tape deck so I took the tape deck flap and swapped out my Acura flap. I know it's insane, but hey...details. I might be a little obsessive, I never claimed I wasn't!



I also found a couple Bose door speakers in perfect condition out of an older TL, so I grabbed those and swapped them out last night. As you can see, my OEM speakers were incredibly worn out. You can almost hear how bad they are through the picture. Old on top, new on bottom.



Other than those, I found a roof garnish piece to replace the one on my wife's CRV. It seems like my wife goes through a windshield every couple years, and every time someone replaces it they break everything trying to get the window out. All of these items came to a total of $20. Not bad.

[HenRoc]

I just picked up a set for my car, right price and they had been up for sale for awhile. I hope you find them in your search as they are very hard to find nowadays.

I lucked out and I have a set with the OE harness intact.

[Vermonter]

In the process of purchasing a NOS set of OEM CB7 Intersection lights complete with Harness. SCORE.

[Granite CB7]

^winning! Lovin' the progress as always. Absolutely dig the new front lights, great great work

[Vermonter]

^winning! Lovin' the progress as always. Absolutely dig the new front lights, great great work

Thanks I appreciate it! I'm probably being irresponsible with my money but I guess it's better than spending it on worse things. I like the new front end, but at the same time, I really like the glass headlights and for this color vehicle, the chrome headlights just looked more at home. Oh well, It can't be a project if I'm not making changes.

[Vermonter]

Payment has been sent for the Intersection lights. Pretty sure the seller is a member on here.
If anyone has a lead on an OEM Vigor cup holder, I'd appreciate the tip.

[Vermonter]

The weather gave me a break today and I was able to get a couple things done.
I received my new JDM cornering lights in the mail so I immediately checked to see if everything was as I thought, and so far so good. The harness plugs directly into my fuse box, which is a good thing. My only concern is whether or not the lights themselves are the "correct" lights for my car. I can't find a decent picture online to compare these to, so I will have to wait until my bumper is off and check the cutout markings to see if they are the exact shape for these lights. There's no telling with the bumper mounted. I'm also trying to decipher Japanese instructions.

Harness plugged into fuse box:




I also had some time to fix a rust spot near my gas filler tube.






Makeshift curing lamp haha

[Vermonter]

I also got a little more time into another rust repair I've been slowly progressing on. I know it's not being done the right way, but I had to weigh my options and I can't justify spending big bucks to have a shop fix the rust properly when I know it would just come back after one winter anyway. So this is where I am at right now. I am grinding out as much rust as I possibly can, cleaning the bare metal with acetone, fiberglass, primer, paint. It'll buy me some time until I can find a clean Vigor shell with a 5spd. The rocker panels were bad, so I decided to fill them in with spray foam to keep moisture and salt from the winter roads out. It also give me a backing for the fiberglass to bond to. This is not my idea of fun.



And this is the front, which I've deemed "good enough", since it is about 95% underneath the side skirt and can't be seen. All my finished work that will be underneath the side skirts are getting coating with bedliner, as seen here.



That's it for today. I will hopefully get some time to finish the driver side rocker tomorrow. (If the rain holds out)

[Vermonter]

Well, I didn't get too much done on the rust repairs this weekend. This is as far as I got, It still needs a lot of sanding but It's getting closer.