CyborgGT : 1993 Accord EX wagon

[CyborgGT]

Good god, I hope this is the last time I touch a rattle can on this build. (*ED. - nope, still have the custom intake)

I love polished tips, but I don't like it when the body of a muffler is super visible, so I scuffed it up with 600# and sprayed it with VHT low gloss black engine enamel. Made sure to leave part of the inlet pipe bare for the welder, of course. That's just the reflection where the tips expand, by the way. I'm very meticulous with my masking, which is immediately after the welds.

[CyborgGT]

I do want the emblems done in metal at some point (probably when the car's painted). Need to find a place that can do it, though. Masking off the emblem ring is what I did, it's just that the existing chrome was in pretty bad shape, so I stripped and painted. A new upper grille piece will mean pristine chrome, though.

[SSMAccord]

This looks good. Have you considered having the Aero R badge metallized? You could have that done and then paint or mask/paint the R red.

On the new grille part you could also mask that bezel on the front logo to preserve the chrome and then paint the rest.

[CyborgGT]

Nah. Haha, I get parts of the car dirty while I'm working around it, and then put in a good effort to clean it, just for it to get dirty again from either more work or how naturally dusty that garage gets. A good detail will definitely be in order once I'm actually driving it.

[Raf99]

Sooo you going to clean that rear bumper ?

Kidding... looks good!

[CyborgGT]

Grille is finished... I guess. It still needs a black mesh backing, which I do have, but I was having the worst luck with getting this thing painted, and finally threw in the towel after the third attempt. There are still some small imperfections, but overall I'm happy. The rattle can chrome for the ring around the H isn't horrible, but I definitely need more practice with the stuff before I spray the Aero R emblems - and for that, I bought three more cans of the stuff (they're only 3.5oz each!) to experiment different techniques with. It's meant for RC car bodies, which come clear and are therefore painted from the inside, so any external surface you apply it to has to be flawlessly smooth for the chrome effect to be convincing; and on top of that, it's not very durable at all, and clear coats are said to dull the finish... lots of experimenting to do. But for the front, I found a brand new OEM upper chrome piece on eBay that I'll be ordering soon to sit in wait until I feel like stripping and painting Seattle Silver to get that H looking perfect. I'm liking this overall, though:




The '98 Accord rear emblem ended up going on, as well. When I removed the Honda World dealership emblem (it's metal!), the 27 year old adhesive wasn't kind to the clear coat underneath, so I used the Accord emblem to cover up most of the damage.

[CyborgGT]

Good updates. The grille looks like a really fresh take on the CB design.

While l like the 3 badges on the rear, I think I am partial to just the "H" and the Aero R badge.

That is actually my second consideration, still removing the Honda World emblem, for cleanliness's sake. I haven't committed yet.

Has no one cut out the middle fin in the grille before? I would have thought this a somewhat common mod back in the day. I did it the same way as on my sedan that's still in my sig; it'll be backed with black mesh.

[Raf99]

ya i like the door trim pieces better........

[SSMAccord]

Good updates. The grille looks like a really fresh take on the CB design.

While l like the 3 badges on the rear, I think I am partial to just the "H" and the Aero R badge.

[CyborgGT]

Had time today, so I went down to sand the filler after it cured overnight. Scuffed up the rest of the surfaces that I'll be respraying, so Saturday I'll be able to get right to it.

[CyborgGT]

Ah, so I'm old-fashioned cool. Like an automotive hipster. Greeaat. There are so many 3-letter brand names out there now, I wonder if any of them actually stand for anything.


Anyway, I got the car mostly back together this weekend. First, I stuck a cheap turn-down exhaust tip on so I can finally get it back on the ground again.




The hub centric rings that Discount Tire provided don't reach the hubs on the car to be able to actually center the wheel, so I have some others on order that don't have such a deep chamfer, hoping for better luck. Until they arrive, I'm relying on the lug nuts for a sorta-centered install. At least I'm not driving on them.




I spot-sanded and resprayed the door molding, then let them 'bake' in the hot sun for a while. No photos, but I used Dupli-Color filler primer on the side window verticals and grille pieces. The verticals were top-coated in Rustoleum semi-gloss black - I was very careful to spray very light coats this time, holding the can further away, and they turned out well enough. I chose semi-gloss to better suit the eventually-tinted windows, and Rustoleum was the only brand I was finding with that color.




For the horizontal grille pieces, I used Spectral Paints' Seattle Silver and clear. Maybe it's just the characteristics of metallic paint not being compatible with rattle cans, but just like with Automotive Touch-Up's cans, Spectral's kept spitting out solid droplets. These pieces now have faint freckling, but I can live with it. They look great otherwise, and after mocking them up in place under the hood line, going with body-color was definitely the right move. This grille is going to be a really nice piece when finished, but that will have to wait, since there was some pitting in the body of the grille that I missed. I laid some new filler on it, and will try to finish it up next weekend.




Wiper arms are finished and re-installed. Also coated in semi-gloss.






They may not be JDM slim, but USDM sedan moldings are definitely a step up from what came on the wagon.










I also mounted the rear red 'H' and messed around with emblem arrangement to see what made sense. I eventually settled on this, but it's going to mean removing that cool "Honda World" emblem. The "Aero R," by the way, is too long to fit on the panel that the LX/EX is fitted stock, or I'd have done that.






This was a possibility, but it's too many emblems. I'm half-tempted to leave the "Accord" emblem off as well, and just rock the "Aero R" by itself.




The car badly needs to be lowered with those wheels on, but damn it's starting to look good... if you don't look too closely, that is. There were so many times where I just stopped and stared at the car, thinking about what it's going to be very soon. I might need to request some vacation time from work once the engine's back from the machine shops and really put the hammer down.

[HenRoc]

Id still rock Rotas. Seems like everyone flocked to JNCs and STRs. Lol

[CyborgGT]

Hard to go wrong with bronze, imo. It goes well with pretty much any body color.

[SSMAccord]

Good choice on the wheels. Bronze will look nice on the wagon.

[CyborgGT]

Alright, here's where I lose everyone's interest...






Excuses come pre-prepared:

1) The car's going 5-lug at some point, so it's hard to want to spend much money on wheels right now.

2) The H22 demands more rubber on the ground pronto. The long-term goal is for 8, maybe 9" wide wheels. I've been thinking about how to pull off a subtle all-metal wide-body as well.


I went to Discount to get them mounted and balanced, but the wait time was too long for today. But does anyone know why tire shops charge different rates depending on wheel size? Sounds like a corporate rip-off, considering it's the same exact work on the same machines that practically do the work for you. It really enforces how glad I am that I don't need to take my car to a shop for pretty much anything else.