Camurai : 1993 Accord EX

[Camurai]

Yeah, but I don't think this one would have been tearing my car apart with a 9mm slug in his brain pan.

=o]

"That was AWESOME!!!"

[Camurai]

I finally got around to daring to open the hood today to assess the extent of the damage. I've been afraid to open it for fear of not being able to close it again. I heaved a small sigh of relief, although it's still not great. It's pretty much what I expected. The hood and radiator core support are hosed, and the brand new radiator will have to be replaced as well. The brand new grille is also in about 8 pieces. Even though it's not leaking, the radiator is pretty severely bent, and a new one is cheap enough that replacing it is sort of a no-brainer. I can get one in either standard copper or aluminum core for about $60 shipped. As for the hood and core support, I've got a lead on possibly getting those parts locally from a donor car.

I should also be picking up a set of wheels & tires pretty cheap from a coworker. He's got a set of Konig Rated R's in 17x7 with 225/45R17 Michelin Pilot HX MXM's for $200. One of the tires got chewed up on the shoulder because somebody mounted them on a car that they DEFINITELY didn't fit. They've also got a bit of curb rash, but I figure with some sanding and polishing along with 1 new tire will get me about $1500 worth of wheels & tires for about $400. What a bah-gen!!

[aRaKNiD]

that would solve all your problems

x2...actually exactly what I was thinking...only might want to extend the height of it so it doesn't throw the deer on top of the hood, or thru the windshield. Geez...and I thought >>I<< had bad luck.

[Camurai]

Just picked up a replacement core support center section, and I'm getting a G Square copy from somebody locally within the week. Aluminum stock replacement radiator should be ordered soon, but I'm weighing my options for a hood. I'm trying to decide whether to pick up a stock replacement hood from a JY and buy a new laptop, or say screw it and get a carbon fiber hood. Unfortunately, I can't afford both.

[Camurai]

Parts are starting to roll in, so I'm finally beginning to get to work on rebuilding my front end. Again.

The first part I wanted to get done was the center section of the radiator core support. I picked one up from a local bone yard for $15 from an Arcadia Green sedan with a totaled rear end. It was fairly well covered with the beginnings of serious rust, so I took it to work and blasted it right down to bare metal rather than pick and choose a spot here and a spot there. I saved myself a couple of hours worth of work this way.



I didn't have anything to wrap it with when I brought it home, so unfortunately it got oils from my hands and water from rain on it, so my first order of business was a quick wipedown with naval jelly to get rid of anything that might promote oxidation before priming it.



After that, I primed it with 2 coats of Duplicolor primer, waiting about 30 minutes between coats to let it set.




Today, the plan is to hit it with a couple of coats of Duplicolor Rosewood Brown, and hit the paint store to pick up some sandpaper. (Didn't realize I was out.)



I'll lay down a few coats of color, making sure to sand a bit between coats so it doesn't look TOO horrible, then follow that up with about 3-4 coats of clear.



I know it's not going to be show-quality (it IS a bit banged up, after all), but with a little work it should fairly easily pass a 10-foot test.

[accordtypeR]

Damn im sorry to hear what happened..youll bounce back..

[accordtypeR]

Lol that shits so funny..

[hs06]

wow thats fuked man 2 accidents dam call insurance see wat they say and nice shhots on the car wat cam is that

[Camurai]

Minolta Maxxum 5D digital SLR with a Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX and a Maxxum 50mm f/1.4.

[hs06]

Minolta Maxxum 5D digital SLR with a Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX and a Maxxum 50mm f/1.4.

thats fukn crazy man looks good and clean

[Camurai]

Swapped out my pedals and air filter today. I couldn't stand either one another moment. The pedals were from Netami. They looked alright, but there were 2 problems with them. 1) They had about the same amount of traction as a cookie sheet, and since I live in Maine, water and slush on shoes is almost a matter of course. 2) The attachment mechanism must have been designed by a 3 year old. These pedals couldn't stay on for more than a week at a time, if I was lucky. Not to mention, the gas pedal wouldn't attach completely to begin with. I could only screw down 3 out of 4 corners. The new Ractive pedals have a MUCH better attachment design and they also have rubber traction tabs on their faces.

Out with the old...



In with the new...



The air filter was the same el cheapo one that came with my eBay special A-Spec short ram intake. I swapped that out for a Spectre Power Adder filter. I'm not a fan of Spectre's intakes, but their filters are actually pretty nice.



I've also begun the search for an H23 plenum/TB combo. I figure it's a good next step on my upgrade path.

[Camurai]

So over the course of the last couple of days, I finally got around to finishing up the paint on my core support. I know, I know - I'm a lazy bastard! Anyway, I figured I'd post up photos of the finished product for your viewing pleasure. When last I left off, I had already primed both pieces. Shortly after that, I painted them, but before I could clear them, I saw the paint bubbling up in a few spaces. Apparently, I didn't clean off the naval jelly well enough. I had to sand the piece down in those spots and start over again.

With that done, I primed (3 coats) then began to apply color. I was sort of in a hurry, so I only applied 3 coats of color. Pretty sure I should have done 4. I wet sanded the second coat, then used the third mainly as a filler for the spots I burned through to the primer. With that complete, I moved on to the clear coat. Again, I was in a hurry, so I only applied 2 coats of clear. I wet sanded the last coat, then polished the finished piece with Meguiar's Mag & Aluminum polish. Is it a professional quality paint job? Not by a long shot! Still, it'll pass a 5-foot test by anyone except those who know what they're looking at, and I think it's certainly acceptable for a 15 year old daily driver. It's also plenty good enough to last me until I get the car recolored, most likely this year. I'm trying to decide between Candy Red (been done a few times...) or a Candy Purple, and a 2-tone black/burgundy interior. Enough! Quit yo' jibbah-jabbah! On to the pics!

The whole piece:


Closeup:


And this is the front...you can see a few of the flaws here:


Not too bad for a basement rattle can paint job by somebody with no idea what they're doing!

[samuri88]

Thanks guys! It's not perfect, but it's pretty close. Believe it or not, the interior's kind of dirty. Besides the pack of chewing gum, the two Hall's cough drops and the sunglasses, there's a coffee cup stain on the console under the cupholder and a bunch of dirt in the driver's footwell. (I have a dirt driveway...sigh...) There are also minor dents on the leading edge of each front fenderwell just above the bumper, a couple of waves in the hood, some scratches on the rear bumper and the driver's rear quarter has a wavy section and a small spot of rust bubbling up the paint that'll have to be taken care of soon. I also have a windshield washer reservoir on order, since it was apparently cracked in the accident. In addition, a few of the bulbs on the dash have burnt out. (One of the speedo backlights, the bulbs that illuminate the gauge needles and the Cruise button bulb.) All pretty minor concerns, overall. Oh, and the driver's door glass buzzes, and rattles pretty badly when I shut the door if it's down.



The upper molding actually follows the bottom of the rear quarter panels. I thought it looked kind of odd myself. I assumed it was an EX only trim of some kind, but after looking all over the forum, I'll be damned if I can find another one. Anybody have any ideas?

dude if you dont say that clean something is wrong with you ........jokin
but nice ride

but i note that your camera setup is different......did you bring extra lightin for camera.....but it looks nice

[Camurai]

dude if you dont say that clean something is wrong with you ........jokin
but nice ride

but i note that your camera setup is different......did you bring extra lightin for camera.....but it looks nice

Yeah, I've got a pretty decent portable pro studio lighting setup. Two Alien Bees 320 W/s strobes, one White Lightning 640 W/s strobe, portable power supply, remote triggers and enough stands, umbrellas, softboxes and accessories to choke a T-Rex!

BTW, I say it's not clean because I'm a nitpicky, perfectionist bastard, especially when it comes to my own stuff.

[Camurai]

So I received my "front upper strut bar" today and ripped open the package, excited to have another part to install! Lo and behold, what I actually received was a REAR upper strut bar! Fucking donkeys!