TheFunk : 1991 Acura Legend

[TheFunk]

The new daily driver.
Always wanted one of these.

Drove it about an hour drive home without any issues, the car is so great on the highway.
It's an auto transmission and all black leather interior.
Going to be a little while before I'm driving it. Have a bike and work close to home now so I'll spend the first month getting it road-ready.

-ENGINE-
-C32 Type I (bone stock 3.2L V6)
-Auto trans

Plans: maintenance, port & polish, SRI, mild tuck


-EXTERIOR-
-Custom JDM dents
-Sun damaged paint

Plans: 17" rims, blackhoused JDM headlights, TSX projector retrofit, TSX or OEM foglights


-SUSPENSION-
-Stock

Plans: Koni reds and H&R springs


-INTERIOR-
-All black leather

Plans: woodgrain steering wheel, new seats (ideally black S2000 seats), fix glovebox


-AUDIO-
-OEM Bose stereo + OEM Alpine 6-CD changer

Plans: Subs



Not driving it until I replace the head gasket, radiator, timing belt, water pump, and clean the EGR.

[SEgirl]

Congrats on your new car. I've always loved this style of Legend, too, and in my favorite color. See mostly gold ones around here.

[TheFunk]

Congrats on your new car. I've always loved this style of Legend, too, and in my favorite color. See mostly gold ones around here.

Thanks. Yes I always wanted a black or silver one.


The good:



The bad:

[SEgirl]

Wow, it looks to be in really good shape overall. I love that it's all stock, including the old radio. I pulled a couple of those out of some Legends in the JY along with the amp thinking it would work in my SE, but they didn't. Think I still have them.

[TheFunk]

Wow, it looks to be in really good shape overall. I love that it's all stock, including the old radio. I pulled a couple of those out of some Legends in the JY along with the amp thinking it would work in my SE, but they didn't. Think I still have them.

Yeah I'm going to be sticking with the OEM Bose 6 CD changer until I can afford a fancy double din one.
Was surprised to find a 500w Rockford Fosgate amp all wired up and ready to go in the trunk when I got it home.

[cp[mike]]

very nice! these are beautiful cars. sounds like its in pretty solid shape, pop a new radiator in there (do not patch cracks!!) and do a tune up and that should take care of most of it.

You might want to look at Maaco or something for a fresh coat of paint? if you do, see what they say about that hood dent. It looks like if you pull the grille out, it should be a relatively easy area to work on. It might be able to be repaired pretty easily.

dont bother with the headgasket, maybe just timing belt and water pump and various tuneup (thermostat, etc). then pull that radio out and get the serial number from the bottom of it, and bring that (with your registration) to the dealership and they will give you the unlock code.

want me to keep an eye out for a black glovebox latch for you?

didnt you just move here?? enjoy your new car, and the new area.

[H311RA151N]

Dude, it's great to hear from you man. And it looks like your doing fucking awesome, got you a car, you seem to be happy, hell yeah man.

And I always wanted a Legend just one has never came my way. Rockauto has a radiator for $65 for that thing. Don't know what parts stores are wanting but that's the scoop on RockAuto.

Edit... you can rough up the plastic around the cracks with some sand paper then take some jb weld or jb quick to it. Make sure the area is dry and completely free of shavings. It will eventually crack again and thus is only a temp fix. But it will get you by for a while. But as with anything temporary, keep a damn close eye on it.

[TheFunk]

very nice! these are beautiful cars. sounds like its in pretty solid shape, pop a new radiator in there (do not patch cracks!!) and do a tune up and that should take care of most of it.

You might want to look at Maaco or something for a fresh coat of paint? if you do, see what they say about that hood dent. It looks like if you pull the grille out, it should be a relatively easy area to work on. It might be able to be repaired pretty easily.

dont bother with the headgasket, maybe just timing belt and water pump and various tuneup (thermostat, etc). then pull that radio out and get the serial number from the bottom of it, and bring that (with your registration) to the dealership and they will give you the unlock code.

want me to keep an eye out for a black glovebox latch for you?

didnt you just move here?? enjoy your new car, and the new area.

New paint is definitely a plan, hoping to make friends with some painters around here or something for a good budget respray. Going to see what I can do about that dent, I like the OEM hood bra for Legends so worst case scenario I could just hide it if I can't pull it out right.

I'm digging through Acura-Legend.com forums right now and I'm seeing that patching it is a lost cause. I'll JB weld it for now just so I can get the air out of the system (I hear it's an easy way to test for head gasket issues at the same time). I will replace the radiator before I start driving it around though.

I havent checked out any of the local junkyards yet but I hear there are some good ones. I saw one of these being parted out on my local CL so I may jump on that when I have the cash to spare.

Dude, it's great to hear from you man. And it looks like your doing fucking awesome, got you a car, you seem to be happy, hell yeah man.

And I always wanted a Legend just one has never came my way. Rockauto has a radiator for $65 for that thing. Don't know what parts stores are wanting but that's the scoop on RockAuto.

Edit... you can rough up the plastic around the cracks with some sand paper then take some jb weld or jb quick to it. Make sure the area is dry and completely free of shavings. It will eventually crack again and thus is only a temp fix. But it will get you by for a while. But as with anything temporary, keep a damn close eye on it.

$65 is not bad at all, I'm still looking into my best replacement options with that... I hear mixed opinions on aluminum but only having to replace it once would be nice.

Yes! Missoula has been great to me so far.

[SEgirl]

I still have my old Bose radio in my SE along with a Bose amp and the 6 disc changer. They're not the original that came with the car as those went out a few years ago. I can't remember what happened to the original disc changer, but we did put an old Acura one in there a few years ago and it's still working.

For some reason I didn't think you could change anything out of the Bose system without it being a headache, plus there were no double dins back then and I wasn't interested in a single. So, I started stock piling old Bose (Acura and Honda) double din radios and amps, and have a couple of NIB Acura 6 disc changers (made for the Integra) tucked away in a closet. Of course, now there are nice aftermarket double dins and thanks to this board, I learned you're not stuck with the old Bose system.

Yeah I'm going to be sticking with the OEM Bose 6 CD changer until I can afford a fancy double din one.
Was surprised to find a 500w Rockford Fosgate amp all wired up and ready to go in the trunk when I got it home.

[TheFunk]

Shipped my tools when I moved. Still waiting for them.
Also has my extension cords in with them, so I can't work on anything or even vacuum it out at the moment. It's driving me nuts!

Removed all of the duct tape and residue from interior.
Washed it and drenched everything in Armor All. It was all so dry, I feel like I was the first person to ever use a something like Armor All on the leather or vinyl.

[TheFunk]

Got my tools today! Finally can start turning wrenches on it.
Realizing now just how many things I left behind because I couldnt take them all.
No hammer and no dent puller

Got the grille straight and worked most of that dent out.


Was the biggest eyesore on the exterior of the car.
There is still a small indent, going to see if I can bump it out with a hammer when I get a new one. If that doesnt work it needs paint anyways so I will sand it down and add some body filler to the small indent.

Just noticed I'm missing an A/C belt. Luckily I found a brand new one in the package under the spare tire in trunk.


Got my stereo out (so much easier than on an Accord). Called Acura and got my radio code. Havent tested yet but I look forward to hearing if the aftermarket speakers in it are any good.

Filed the radiator cracks down and applied JB weld over the cracked area. Will be going over it again once the first application is dry.

I don't expect it to hold up for long but it will be enough to get the air out of the cooling system tomorrow.

Had a nice little gash in the front bumper. Glued it down for the moment.
Once that dries I will be using a soldering iron to bond the plastic then coating it with some JB weld and sanding it back smooth. Sounds weird I know, but I saw a member on here fix the same type of damage like this and it came out nicely.


Its not too important at the moment but seeing all the sun damage to the paint is really bothering me.


Anyone have recommendations for making it look better? New paint is the plan but I will likely wait until next summer on that.

Would wet sanding and/or polishing do any good or is the damage too severe to hide like that?

[sonikaccord]

I would imagine wet sanding would make it worse, by chipping the rest of the clear coat off. Unless you take all of the clear coat off and have a matte like finish.

[H311RA151N]

Nice to see the progress! Pretty nifty looking JB weld job. Hope that holds long enough for ya.

Buffing/wet sanding, really anything is just going to make it worse. I'd just leave it.

[TheFunk]

Pretty nifty looking JB weld job.

Haha yeah yeah I know. Hard spot to apply it but not hard enough to justify taking the whole thing out just yet. It'll be replaced as soon as I have some cash.

Good to know about the paint though, didn't think anything could be done... just sad to see it like that.

[H311RA151N]

Haha yeah yeah I know. Hard spot to apply it but not hard enough to justify taking the whole thing out just yet. It'll be replaced as soon as I have some cash.

Good to know about the paint though, didn't think anything could be done... just sad to see it like that.

When I was 17 I had a '90 Cb7 sedan and was broke as could be. The JB weld patch on the radiator held for around 2 months and I drove it a lot.

I don't think the paint looks so bad myself. Still looks like a decent car IMO.