Announcement

**SSMAccord** · 01-13-2020, 12:52 AM

Starting Over

During the process of getting rid of the old CB, I was also perusing Craigslist and came across this car listed for $750. The seller indicated that the vehicle was being sold because it needed a new clutch and he didn't have the means/desire to repair it, also his place of employment was threatening to have it towed away.

I went to see and decided that I wasn't really serious about a car that was in need of clutch and already had quarter panel rust in the early stages. I offered $450 so as not to be a complete waste of his time. He took me up on the offer and I would later have it towed to my home seeing as it needed a clutch...

**SSMAccord** · 01-13-2020, 12:57 AM

Heart Transplant pt.1

The plan is to take all of the parts from the old car and transfer them to this new car. This is why the primer car looked closer to stock when it went to salvage. Having 2 cars and a need to swap between the 2 was a bit of a challenge. The car being worked on in the garage is fine, but the driveway has a bit of a slope which led to a couple of interesting situations, one of which included an engine and hoist toppling into the lawn and the car being lifted off of its jackstands.

As I tore into these, the primer car was easy enough to get converted back to a stock-ish form. But as I worked on this new car the driver's side CV joint fell into 2 pieces, it dawned on me that a failed CV joint would present as a "bad clutch" to the uninitiated. But by the time I was taking these apart I wouldn't have been able to move the car as the engine was practically ready to be taken out. Other than those couple of headaches the swaps were pretty straight forward. I just took all of the parts and wiring from the 91 and put them into the 92.

I took the time to paint the valve cover and rebuild and paint a PS pump since they were out already off of the car. I also decided to delete the Cruise Control and ABS system, as well as organizing the left over wiring that went to both of those components. Since I was also at this level of disassembly I decided to replace the steering rack with a Detroit Axle rebuilt unit.

Mods:
H22A Euro-R Swap
Exedy Stage 1 Clutch
Stock Flywheel
70-68mm Blox Throttle Body
BB4 Prelude AEM Intake
4-2-1 PLM Header
Greddy Evo 2 Exhaust system
Wire management
ABS Delete
Cruise Control Delete
Steering Rack replacement

Engine Out 1

Engine Our 2

Valve Cover 1

Valve Cover 2

Valve Cover 3

PS Pump 1

PS Pump 2

Post Swap 1

Post Swap 2

The valve cover turned out ok. The "gold' paint used on the PS pump was not the color as intended, but better than old and grimy. I guess I also decided to paint those reservoir caps too.

**SSMAccord** · 01-13-2020, 12:58 AM

Heart Transplant pt.2

Well that turned out to be short lived. And so the engine came out again...

Turns out the rebuilt steering rack had a "skip" that randomly occurred when turning left or right. It was pronounced enough that the entire car would shudder and there was a corresponding shift in the steering wheel.

Additionally, the power steering hose leaked at the threaded connection to the rack. The fitting is kinda stripped and I wasn't able to run the system. Having driven the previous car without working power steering and without executing the manual steering rack mod, I was not keen on the high effort needed while also dealing with the skipping rack issue.

Since I needed to address these issues, I figured it was a good time to replace the timing belt, seals, add the balance seal retainer, swap out the steel Euro-R oil pan for the BB6 cast aluminum oil pan (the USDM exhaust angle causes the header to rest against the Euro-R oil pan. the cast unit resolved that issue), switch to a P13 driver's side mount bracket and swap the stock flywheel for a Streetlite ACT unit. I also rattle canned the engine bay since the engine was already out.

I replaced the ebay rack with a remanufactured unit from Majestic Honda, I also swapped out the bushings for HardRace units. (I did not use the sleeve as it was too small.) I painted the rack before I installed it.

To resolve the power steering issue, I decided to pursue an EHPS setup using a gen 3 MR-S power steering pump. One of the civic forums had a detailed thread on the conversion and one of the members there fabricated a mount bracket that seemed like it would also work in the CB chassis. The joke was on me as I needed the ABS fusebox to wire in the steering pump circuit and I had thrown mine out when I deleted the system previously.

Also, the pump I bought showed up without the plugs that were listed in the ebay ad so I had to source new parts and assemble them for my purposes. The high pressure hose is a unit from Karcepts. Since Toyota no longer supplies fluid for the system and standard Honda PS fluid is too viscous for the pump, I am running Nissan EHPS fluid.

I also tried to prevent future debris from ending up in the blower motor:

Reassembled:

EHPS Diagram:

**SSMAccord** · 01-13-2020, 12:59 AM

Chassis #1

The chassis mods are taken directly from the car that I discarded and likely will see an overhaul in short order. When I was transferring the 5 lug from the old car, I encountered the common seized bolts in the rear LCA/subframe which required me to remove the assembly and have them torched off. I replaced the LCA's with OEM parts I had purchased a long while ago.

*I also reside on a dirt road so the underbody and suspension components are difficult to keep clean.

For now the setup is:

Chassis:
5 Lug Swap (odyssey front/ prelude hub rear)
BC BR Coilovers
SPC Balljoint Camber Kit (front)
Hardrace Radius Rod bushings
Refreshed LCA's Front and Rear (I bought them ages ago and had them laying round when I was swapping the parts over from the old car)
New aftermarket Tie Rods

Brakes:
ABS Delete
Goodridge G-Stop Stainless Braided Lines
2001-2006 DC5 11.8" Slotted Front Brake rotors
DC5/AP1 Front Calipers
DC2 10.2" Rear brake rotor (cross-drilled and slotted)
Hawk HPS brake pads front/rear

Old (tired KYB AGX and coilover kit):

Yikes, those were well past their prime!!!

Replacements: BC BR Coilover

Front Brake/Coilover:

Rear Brake/Coilover:

Hardrace Radius Rod Bushing Install:

Rear Subframe / LCA:

**SSMAccord** · 01-13-2020, 01:00 AM

Interior Tear Down

Being a 92 Seattle Silver CB meant that it left the factory with the Vintage Red interior. While it was in pretty good condition, it didn't quite align with my vision so I initially swapped over the instrument panel, carpet, and seats.

Tear Down 1

Tear Down 2

Tear Down 3

I wanted to try and install my 91 armrest in this car, luckily it had threaded holes to kinda position in the center. There are not holes in the tunnel for the 91 armrest. It didnt work out as planned and I decided to go a different route with a 92 option armrest. The carpet is also from the old car, it is ACC Mats carpet that is almost too dark of a black to match the Graphite Black that Honda uses.

Seats Mounted/IP installed 1

Seats Mounted/IP installed 2

The 91 and 92 IPs are slightly different around the steering column, so I couldnt use the close out panel without modifying the SRS bracket on the steering column.

Using the BB6 cluster that had been swapped into the previous car proved to be a mild inconvenience. There is a fair bit of difference between the cluster wiring between 91 and 92.

**SSMAccord** · 01-13-2020, 01:01 AM

Interior 1

The old car had the beige interior which allowed it to have a black IP. At that time I decided to create a matching black interior using paint and retail suede. It turned out ok, however the suede would be discolored from sun exposure in less than 18 months...

Since I didn't really love how the execution aged, I decided to try again with a different approach. I hadn't yet stumbled upon an SE black interior in salvage, but I could find clapped out SE Ivory interiors so I snagged the leather inserts out of one of those. I tore apart my door panels and drilled holes for the SE tabs so that I would be able to mount the SE inserts properly. The dark areas are the original color of the suede.

Instead of repainting the doors, I figured I would vinyl wrap them. Doing a bit of research I was able to find a decent black vinyl that would withstand the solar load unlike the previous suede. For the inserts I tried the same technique. Stripped away the leather insert, applied 5 mil foam and then wrapped a different suede onto the insert. The map pockets went the same with foam and suede. I also sanded off the graining on those parts and painted them. The armrests would also get leather wrapped instead of the previous paint as well.

Reassembled Door Panels

Since that 90-91 armrest wouldn't properly mount to the 92 center tunnel, I had to acquire a 92-93 armrest instead (thanks Sikz6). Like the doors, I tore it apart, primed it, painted it, and reupholstered the armrest itself.

The 91 A/B/C pillars and headliner had been wrapped in a grey suede.

For the 92 I wanted to go with black suede uppers and a black headliner. So I stripped the grey suede a rewrapped them with black suede.

**SSMAccord** · 01-13-2020, 01:03 AM

Interior 2

Getting the sunvisors to match the headliner was a bit of a project. (Shoutout to that time I made a Prince Halloween costume.) I used some scrap material to make the pattern that I would use to wrap the visors. The front edge of the visor would be a join sew and the rear edge would use adhesive. The selvage would be trimmed to make a finished edge.

The grab handles also needed to match the headliner. Initially I wrapped the CB handles but I wasn't completely happy with the result because the CB handles aren't tapered. The result is that they did operate as they should. I decided to go the RL route which worked better, they are meant to be wrapped and thus are slimmer in design and have tapered profile. I stripped the PVC off of these and rewrapped them with a smoother grain leather.

Making a template for the RL part

Since I had already torn apart the interior, I also swapped out the CB steering column for a CD steering column in preparation for a newer steering wheel. I went for a CL1 Euro-R Wheel as it is generally cheaper and less sought after then the red label DC or EK part.

When I changed over from the old car I also swapped over the P-Spec short shifter and added an FFC shifter bushing.

I came across the TLX frameless rearview mirror. I liked the aesthetic of the mirror and it also has a auto-dimming function with reverse gear circuit interrupt. The mod was pretty simple, I cut open a CB mirror and opened the TLX mirror to remove its ball/socket arm. I used a Dremel create a pocket that fit the CB ball/socket. Epoxy and a couple of screws join the CB part to the TLX mirror internals. Modded the TLX back cover and it just needs 12V ignition based power, ground, and reverse signal wires routed.

**SSMAccord** · 01-13-2020, 01:04 AM

Interior 3 / Legend ACC / Current Status

Like that leaky powersteering hose situation, this is likely an example of taking a simple problem and solving it by making it needlessly more complicated and likely to cause larger headaches in the future. But, oh well I suppose.

The issue was that it seemed like every time I went to change the temp in the CB I would hear that "cracking" noise followed by a temp knob that would just spin place and no longer function. The simple solution would be to go to salvage or online and get new knobs and be done with it. I decided to go the auto climate route. The JDM digital climate control mod is a known quantity these days, but can be pricey to acquire due to its relative rarity and JDMness. What is much more readily available stateside with the same basic functionality are 91-95 KA Legends. They have a manual HVAC unit with 2 knobs in lower trim levels and the higher trim levels had a single knob Auto Climate Control.

Sizing up the 2 units, the Legend part is a lot deeper compared to the CB unit which means that the rear of the unit crashes into the upper outlets on the distribution box. That requires a notch be taken out of the flange and modifications of the outboard ducts.

Like the process to convert to the JDM CB DCC unit, the Air Mix Control Motor (AMCM) needs to be mounted where the passenger footwell air outlet is on the distribution box. Unlike the the CB7 DCC mod, the Legend system uses a mechanical setup that works in a similar manner that of the stock CB system. Using the Legend part requires some modification to the arms on the AMCM as it also controls the doors to the heater core when its in the Legend system. The CB uses rods connected to the temp cable to do the same function. Some of the common elements shared with the CB DCC swap are the placement of the Heater Core temperature sensor, the Evaporator Core temp sensor and the outside temperature sensor. The locations are the same.

Modded distribution box

Mix control motor bracket

Here is the full Legend HVAC assembly with its harnesses and sensors, my thought was to just mount this in the CB. What a fool I was lol.

The AMCM also has an interesting range of travel, from 63°-90° on the Legend unit translates to a consistent movement interval on the AMCM, but 62°-58°/LO is a large non-linear jump in movement that exceeds the CB mechanisms range of travel. Taking that into account, I decided to restrict the systems ability to only 63°-90° using a piece of plexi mounted in the path of the knob to prevent it from being able to move lower than 63° and not affect light output of that area of the knob.

Mix Control Motor Range of Motion

\

One of the elements that is different from the CB swap and also different from the manual Legend HVAC unit is the Mode Control motor. The ACC Legend motor uses a different potentiometer style input, instead of each mode having its own sensor wire, it uses only 2 wires and gets a unique signal from the control unit. The part mounts to the CB distribution box in the same manner as the CB part, but its range of motion is slightly less than the CB part. The result is the either the defrost function or the footwell location will always be slightly open. The HVAC system relies on an amount of pressure to effectively cool the cabin and having either of these surfaces not sealed will have an impact. I decided to leave the foot well area slightly open, but added foam seals to the flapper door and the mating surface on the unit to provide the missing seal. I did not photograph this

.

The interior temperature sensor is integrated into the ACC unit and also adds to its physical footprint. It pushes into the passenger side duct and requires a little fabrication to the duct to fit properly. The Legend mounting tabs have to be removed for optimal fitment in the CB.

Legend Interior Temperature Sensor and Fan

The sunlight sensor is unique to this system as near as I can tell. I tried to use the smaller square units used in other Honda systems and they did not allow the system to operate properly. Comparing the wiring, the smaller sensor is wired to the system and to a ground where the Legend unit is connected to the control unit with both of it wires. The Legend sensor is also a bit larger and taller, I had to solder directly to the prongs to get it fit flush in the CB instrument panel.

Legend Sunlight Sensor

The intent of the mod was to keep most of the stock Legend wiring and only cut the wires that were needed to operate from the CB wiring (power, ground, a/c switch, fresh/recirculate function, dimmer circuit). The blower motor also has to undergo the same conversion as the CB7 DCC conversion with the blower motor transistor located in the blower motor housing. The Legend pig tail is mostly unmodified and I used a female connector (possibly from an old gauge cluster) to make a jumper harness to the stock CB hvac connector.

The Legend has an integrated clock and Hazard switch. These just pop out and cut off the mounting areas to make the unit slimmer in profile. Getting the Legend unit to mount into the CB required a donor CB HVAC unit. I had a few lying around and decided to use the modified Legend unit as a template to make the CB housing a shell to epoxy the Legend unit into. After that it was simply a process of bondo, primer, masking and painting the unit to match the rest of the controls. I actually did this part twice, initially I mounted the unit using the CB mounting tabs. But at that angle the sight line to the display is difficult to see from the drivers seat. I went back made a second unit using metal tabs that tilt the unit up a few degrees making the display much more visible while driving. This also had the benefit of making the rear of the unit much lower and help ease fitment against the ducts and distribution box.

Stock Legend Automatic Climate Control Unit

Modded Legend ACC Unit

Template / CB HVAC Unit

Modded CB HVAC Control

Body Filler Combined Unit

Primered HVAC Unit

Completed Unit

Version 2 and Version 1

As I was working through a bunch of projects it occurred to me that the interior in black is very dark, I wanted to try to "brighten" some of the elements. I mocked up a CB hvac toggle with thin chrome tape, the result was less than ideal. But wandering through the salvage yard, I came across a couple of potential solutions. I took chrome accented HVAC toggles from a CM Accord, mid 2000s Audi A6 and 4G Lexus ES. Both the Accord and the Audi parts were too big to fit between the CB vanes, but the ES part would fit. I removed the CB toggle and modded the ES parts with slot and epoxied them to the CB mounting location.

HVAC Toggle Mock Up/ Comparison

I had been using the spray painted rear seat that came with the old car when I bought it, but I did finally find a 91 SE interior in salvage that I could harvest most of the interior. That allowed me to change to the SE leather seat for the rear seat. I also sewed up a perforated e-brake cover to try to match the look of the Euro-R wheel. The body of the e-brake had to also be leather wrapped to match the additional thickness that the wrapped e-brake handle added. For the shifter I acquired an OEM titanium Honda knob. I also took the tweeters that had been previously mounted near the sunvisors and modded them into the mirror panels.

Tweeter Mod

Most of the lighting has been converted to white LEDs, but the Legend unit is still a bit of a different hue. The display for the Legend is not quite white and if you remove the filter it is actually 90s Honda teal. So I left it the kinda off whitish color. I may revisit the LEDs I used for the Legend unit, but I think these are the whitest color temp offered by Superbrightleds in the correct neowedge size. The white leds are also used for footwell, window switches and ambient door lighting. The Legend HVAC also ties in with Legend stalk boots and the CD intermittent wiper mod.

When I got the interior back together, the pedal box seemed a little tight and my right foot would rub into the center tunnel. I installed a stainless steel carpet protector to help protect the carpet and because it's rigid, it pulled the carpet away from the pedals and gave me more foot space. I need to photograph to explain, but I have not as of yet.

Current status as of fall 2019:

**SSMAccord** · 01-13-2020, 01:07 AM

Exterior 1

Managed to find a fender in the same color and replaced the damaged fender that came on the car. That was fairly straight forward. The color match was ok. Transferred over the TSX wheels, headlamps, and taillamps. The window graphics and stickers were removed. The rear bumper and antenna would also need to be replaced as they were both damaged.

------

I knew going in that the rust on the quarter panels would have to be addressed sooner or later, but I had been putting that off. The past couple of summers had been spent doing all of the previous projects and by 2018 it was time to look into getting the body work done to at least stop the rust from getting worse.

Driver's Side Rust

Passenger's Side Rust

After setting a budget and making a document to define the scope of the repair, I went to get estimates for the work. I came across a bunch of places that wouldn't tackle a rust repair, which is fine. I did finally find a place to get the rust repaired. Instead of doing full quarter panel replacements, the shop left most of the original metal in place and welded in small patch panels. Surprisingly, there was no rust hiding behind the side skirts on the rocker panels.

After the repair

The result was a little rough looking, but it also totaled 1/2 of the estimated cost. Before getting to the rust repair I had walked through the intent for the exterior bodywork with the shop and knew that the rust repair was part of a larger bodywork job that would finesse the rust repair areas. To stay on budget, the rust repair was the first step in the process; it was to be followed by a full repaint at a later date.

Following the rust repair, I gave the car a once over and discovered that it was also having some severe rust on the fender that I had previously installed that couldn't be seen with the inner fender installed. So I spent the rest of the summer trying to locate a rust-free OEM fender in the rustbelt. A fool's errand in hindsight.

Fender off, trying to locate a replacement

After striking out a few times, I decided to pull the trigger on an aftermarket part and just deal with the odd fitment that could entail.

Since the rust had been repaired, it seemed like it was time to attempt to roll the rear fenders to prevent tire rubbing if a wider tire ever got fitted to the rear.

Fender rolling

By that time it was already late fall in Michigan and I figured I would just have the car painted in the spring of 2019. To save a bit of money I did the bulk of the disassembly of the trim and easily removed parts so the bodyshop wouldn't have to.

Disassembled Front End

Since I was trying to save money, I tried my hand at plastic welding the license plate holes in the front bumper to keep the shop from having to do it. (Thanks to Bodevision for doing a DIY on his youtube channel)

Bumper with filled holes

After that it was a matter of getting all of the parts labeled and placed into the car and then dropping it off at the shop.

Drop off 1

Drop off 2

Drop off 3

**SSMAccord** · 01-13-2020, 01:08 AM

Exterior 2

Well...that would not go exactly as planned. The shop and I had come up with a plan for all of the rust repair, body work and paint previously. After the drop-off somehow that all went out of the window and the updated estimate of the service ballooned to $15k. (.__. ) Well that wouldn't work. Not only is $15k an enormous amount of money, it also would probably not be the most fiscally responsible thing to spend it on my project car that I bought for $450.

Far be it for me to haggle about the price of someone else's labor, so I had to regroup a little bit. Considering what I wanted, dents and dings repaired, antenna hole filled/blended, color change with jambs painted I figured that perhaps Maaco might be able to execute this. And off we went. This would also not go as expected, Maaco declined to even quote the job as it seemed like a job too large for them.

By that time I had already discussed with myself that I might have to paint this car myself. Have I ever painted a car? Well no, I did paint scale models in undergrad though. Do you have the equipment to paint a car? Nope. Do you have a spray booth to paint in? Also nope.

And so it began...

Sanding/blending the rust repair on the rear quarters

Sanding the body and dent repair

I overlooked this damage somehow. Apparently in a previous life the driver's door mechanism failed and someone did a choice maneuver to free the door and left the jamb looking like swiss cheese.

Door Jamb

Fast forward 2 months: Body prepped, fenders, bumpers, doors and hood removed

Vent screen doing its job apparently

In the mean time I acquired A Devilbiss paint gun setup, air compressor, sanding devices and lots of plastic sheeting. For the corrosion resistance part of the paint job I went with Eastwood Epoxy primer.

Epoxy Primer

After that part of the process it was time to move on to the urethane primer stage of the process. The local paint supply place that I utilized for this uses Axalta refinish systems, to minimize the likelihood incompatible paint components I used Nason Select-Prime 2k Urethane primer. All of the parts would be getting this primer so they all had to be cleaned and prepped.

Since this was an ongoing project, gaps of time would pass before the next step could be tackled. One of those was the time between epoxy primer application and urethane primer application. As a result the epoxy primer needed to be lightly sanded before it could urethane primed.

Urethane Primer Prep

Urethane Prime 1

Urethane Prime 2

Urethane Prime 3

Urethane Prime 4

Urethane Prime 5

Urethane Prime 6

After that was another bit of sanding, actually this would turn out to be the low point of an entire experience of low points. Sanding the insides of doors and all of the B-surfaces that have corrugation and engineered provisions for clips and bolts is a tedious nightmare. *sigh

It was also about this time that I had to buy paint. I did a bit of research into the Machine Grey Mazda finish only to find out that this would also be an ordeal in itself. Turns out the production version of this is elaborate and that translates to the refinish application as well. I had already done the research into this, but the paint guy definitely knew and warned me that the process would be labor intensive.

Machine Gray Diagram

The refinish process outlines this procedure:
-Primer
-sand to P600/P800
-Apply Black basecoat
-allow to cure
--sand to P1500, wet sand to P3000
-Apply translucent metallic layer
-Apply final clearcoat

Paint acquired it was time to start the color application process. Seeing as the some parts insides of the doors and trunk would be virtually unseen after the car was reassembled I decided to paint those first in case there was a severe learning curve to spray the material. As these surfaces are not as critical (and also because they are a nightmare to sand) I decided to forgo the sanding process on the door jambs, inside of the trunk/hood/doors, and the lower rear panels behind the bumper.

Painted Jambs 1

Painted Jambs 2

Painted Jambs 3

Painted Jambs 4

I had not performed the final sanding of the urethane primered surfaces intentionally. I wanted to wait until after the jambs were painted and then sand away the overspray and do the final sanding at the same time. So once the jambs had cured it was time to reattach the doors and fenders. Putting the doors back on properly was not particularly fun. But after those parts were installed, the final sanding commenced.

Door Inner

Doors installed, Sanding in process

**SSMAccord** · 01-13-2020, 01:09 AM

Exterior 3

With the fenders, doors and hood reinstalled it was time to apply the black basecoat and first clearcoat. It was pretty uneventful, somehow I ended painting well into the 3am hour this night. Yikes.

Basecoat 1

Basecoat 2

Basecoat 3

After the finish was cured it was time to wetsand the finish with P1500 and P3000. Other than being kinda mindless, it wasn't too difficult considering some of the other tasks I had already endured.

Wetsand 1

Wetsand 2

Wetsand 3

Wetsand 4
]

With that bit of tedium over with application of the aluminum layer and clearcoat. This had a little bit of a learning curve, despite using the various reducers and activators to match the ambient temperature the clearcoat wouldn't always lay flat and ended up with a rougher than orange peel texture. That clearly was not the intent, but it wasn't a terrible inconvenience as I planned to flow coat the entire thing. But I also needed to make sure that the finish looked even before that happened. The passenger side of the vehicle had some mottled areas and needed to be addressed.

Initial Color Coat 1

Initial Color Coat 2

After the application of a few more layers of clearcoat there was enough of a surface that would allow for sufficient wetsanding. I had to let the finish cure for a few weeks and then descended into color sanding the entire car again.

P1000

P1500

P3000

P5000

Once the car was at P5000 it was starting to take on the glossy appearance I had hoped for. From there I decided to use the 3M Correct-It system to polish the finish.

Cut 1

Cut 2

Cut 3

The main body components color sanded. I still had to do the same to all of the plastic components before they would be permanently reinstalled.

Color Sanded 1

Color Sanded 2

Color Sanded 3

Color Sanded 4

Color Sanded 5

Color Sanded 6

Color Sanded 7 (I decided to not sand the surfaces that wouldn't be seen once assembled. You can see the contrast between the initial finish and the color sanded finish)

---

Color sanding continued on the bumper and all of the parts that have to assembled onto the car. I only documented the bumper, but all of the others parts would have to follow suite.

Bumper 1

At some point after the old car got decommissioned I picked up JDM/EDM Thin Side Moldings for a deal on Ebay. I also refinished those and color sanded these prior to reassembly. I did not use mounting tape when I reinstalled these which I may go back and do.

Side Moldings

I also managed to acquire a EDM License Plate Trim Insert. I painted both as I may swap them back and forth until I settle on one.

License Plate Trim

And this is my moment of rice. I had the thought one night after being behind a CB that the lighting execution of the running lights at night looked a little dated. So I wanted to modify the lighting to make them look a little more modern. I decided to execute a indirect LED running light and separate that function from the brake light function. After a bit of tinkering and bunch of arts and crafts I ended up with something I am content with. Using what was available and mostly fit the bill for what I intended, the lid from storage container is just about the profile of a CB7 light and paired with commonly available LED strips would likely create the effect I wanted.

Plastic Lid

Lighting 1

Lighting 2

Lighting 3

Lighting 4

Lit Mock-Up

To complete the idea I replaced the stock incandescent bulbs with Sylvania LED bulb and modified an Nissan/Infiniti LED CHMSL into the CB7 housing. For the license plate lights I thought to use LED modules from the last gen Ford Focus as they are plentiful in the salvage yards around here.

CHMSL

As this project had already consumed 10ish months of 2019 I had to just start putting parts back on the car in preparation for winter to arrive in Michigan and the temperature to start falling. Seeing as the garage is not heated, car projects go on the back burner until it's warm enough to feel like being outside again. So I got most of it put back together as best as I could remember. There are some seals, splash guards and grommets that need to be installed. When I was doing the reassembly I noticed that most of the stainless window trim is in need of replacement, so I will need to replace those. I haven't even fully installed the rear window trim as getting it off was a pain and I don't really want to break the new clips trying to change out the trim. It is also probably time to look for new wheels, I've had the TSX wheels for a long while and they are worse for wear and covered in painting dust.

Reassembled 1

Reassembled 2

Reassembled 3

Reassembled 4

Reassembled 5

Reassembled 6

Reassembled Dusk 1

Reassembled Dusk 2

Reassembled Dusk 3 *nightsight is doing whatever it wants with lighting*

Reassembled Dusk 4 *nightsight is doing whatever it wants with lighting*

And we are all up to date. There was a plan for 2020, but 2020 is 2020ing. The intent was to execute a bunch of chassis mods and have a pretty decent recreational track day season, but that all seem to be up in the air given our current situation.

**Grumpys93** · 01-13-2020, 01:19 AM

Glad to see your back in the game. Did he let you keep the change?

**CyborgGT** · 01-13-2020, 01:40 AM

I scrolled to post the same thing. Looks like he threw in a cheap lunch!

A clutch job in these cars isn't bad, though. And the front end looks straight, which is worth a decent amount, in my opinion. Does the rust look shallow enough to sand down and give a chemical treatment & shot of primer for now?

**SSMAccord** · 01-14-2020, 01:28 AM

Originally posted by Grumpys93 View Post

Glad to see your back in the game. Did he let you keep the change?

Oddly there were lots of random things left in the car. Change, an old slave cylinder, miscellaneous wrenches, a 3/8 ratchet, sounds system cabling, microfiber towels, pants, a hoodie, lots of bootleg CDs... I kept the useful items.

The rust isn't terrible it is limited to that small area on the quarter panel. Considering this is the salt belt, it should be a lot more severe. The plan involves repairing the rust eventually.

Also, complete transparency, these post are not in real time. They are from a while ago and will be catching up to current day.

Announcement

SSMAccord : 1992 Accord EX

SSMAccord : 1992 Accord EX

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