'99 BB6 "nut and bolt" restoration.

[craig_jdm]

awesome work

[mart609]

Great work. Love these types of threads

[wurlycorner]

Great work, well done.

I'm amazed by the extent of the rust inside the front wings. Haven't seen a lude go like that over here (4th's).
Less under-seal in this area on 5th's? Or just those sold in the US maybe?

[NCCMUR]

Awesome
As already mentioned..its not vtecmec....its vtecmec's canadian cousin
A la topgear

[BlackShadow]

I was floored by the rust too. Our roads are heavily salted here, but throughout the winters it was driven in the snow, I sprayed out the wheel wells and the underside every week. During the summer months when I hose out the rear wheel wells I even run my fingers along the lip on the inside to make sure I get all the debris out. This rust though was up above the spash guard/fender liners. The point of entry seems to be the pushpin fastener at the 12 o clock position. The holes around those on both sides of the car were rusted badly. My guess is, salty water got up through the hole for those fasteners (even with them installed) and remained up in there for a while.

What I will do is neutralize the remaining rust and use a rust nuking primer on the entire area. In the wheel well, where I had to grind out the spot weld, seam sealer, and, the under coating, I will re-tack it with my mig welder, re-seal the seam (if I can find the proper sealant), and then apply fresh undercoating. I'm wondering, if I can't get my hands on some of that automotive seam sealer, would it be bad to mig weld that seam up. The only problem I could foresee with that is if the seam has to have some flex to it. I don't want to put a hard spot in the structure if it isn't meant to be there. Something I'll have to look in to I suppose.

Funny you should mention Top Gear; I'm known as the James May of my circle of friends.

[nucleustylzlude]

I'll just repeat the comments and sentiments so far. Great thread, great read and we all love attention to detail (I'm guilty of this too in my thread!). Great start to a thread, keep it up. Your hard work will pay off.

[wurlycorner]

Good question on the seam welding.
There was a lude race car build on PUK* where he stripped the chassis bare and seam welding it for extra strength, but he didn't fully seam weld, more stitch welded, because otherwise as you say, it gets too stiff and could crack.
Might be best leaving yours alone and just properly seam sealing and then under-sealing over?


*(by i-tuned - it was a great car, shame about the service some members have reportedly received from him...)

[BlackShadow]

Update:

I haven't touched the car in a few days now, but I have been busy on the "nuts and bolts" of the job. There's always something else you can be working on...

Recognize this thing?



Yes, it's one of the snap latches that holds the air box lid on. Obviously it's current condition wouldn't do.


I soaked it down with that Rust Check stuff, and when it had dried, I clipped the crusties away and found a nice silver surface below! After a light brushing with some fine sandpaper it looks pretty good in my opinion. It will be clear coated to stop the rust in the future.







In other news, I found a place that apparently sells automotive seam sealant, which is good news for me. I had been toying with the idea of mig welding that seam up, but then it occurred to me that welding that joint solid may cause problems in the form of a hard spot in the structure. that seam may have been designed to have a certain amount of flex or "give" and taking that away might screw some things up. I have decided to replace the spot weld I had to grind off, and replace the original sealant with the same rubberized caulking installed at the factory. This also means new undercoating in the wheel wells. ...which also means I have to restore the steering knuckles.

I have also elected to use the POR-15 rust converter and sealant/paint for the rusted areas. I may even do the entire front end in it. it is reasonably priced and everyone raves about it, including professional restorers, so I will be ordering that tomorrow...or today.

I have also sourced out a possible alternative to the overpriced and discontinued in Canada differential shims I *may* need for my LSD. I have found a place that sells precision shims in varying sizes and thicknesses, and, if need be, can custom fabricate a shim for me. Oddly enough, it is the same place that sells the undercoating and seam sealing products. Having the shim custom made probably won't be super cheap, but when you take into account the OEM shims from Honda are $3.50 a pop + shipping from the states + Bongo and reshipping, they can add up. Oh, and did I mention there are 28 of them? The money and the shipping times will add up. You may have noticed I put "may" in asterisks.. that is because I don't know for sure if I will in fact have to shim the differential. I am hoping I won't have to, but if I do, I want to know who I can go to, to help me out.

Now, it took me at least 10 hours of chasing down leads all over the internet and in person to find out about the shims, the sealant and the undercoating and where I can get it all IN Canada.

Some people would say I'm crazy, and wonder why I'm going to all the trouble I am going to. This is what you have to do when you are building a car. I don't mean walking into teknotik or j spec with $300, buying parts off the shelf and installing them because they look cool. That's building an image. Building a car is thinking long and hard what you want the car to be. Then sitting down and researching for hours, days, months, every part you are considering buying. Studying other people's builds. Comparing reviews. Comparing them to other parts. Then you have to find a supplier or vendor to deal with! It is a slow process, it's dry and boring, yes... but it pays off in the end. For me the researching isn't that bad, because I enjoy the learning, and the challenge of hunting down what I am looking for. To me it is satisfying to know every spec of each and every part I am putting on the car. I'll finish these thoughts later.. perhaps in a video..

Stay tuned!

[BlackShadow]

Hey all,

I drained the radiator, that went well. The coolant was still bright green, like NyQuil. It looked like it had a bit of an oily "surface" on it, like heavily diluted oil/gasoline on water. The lower rad hose, right where it connects to the radiator didn't look so good, so I'm glad I decided to do this work now, rather than later. The hose clamp was heavily corroded. In fact, it had no spring left to it. The upper hose looked great though. It's clamp was still nice and clean.

First of all, there is a plug on the driver's side of the fan shroud, at about the 4, or 8 o clock position (depending on which way you're facing). What A pain in the arse that was to get unhooked! It's so far down there, and it has the usual dickish electrical connector from hell setup that almost requires a 12 ton hydraulic press to pop, and two teams of wild horses to separate. Total pain in the ass. I don't know why Honda couldn't have given four inches of wire to get the connector up to a place where you wouldn't have to dismantle the whole car to get it apart...

Anyways...

The lower rad hose came off easy as pie with light pressure from channel locks. The upper rad hose didn't take much coaxing to get off by hand. In fact it popped right off...




I think I was more surprised by my reaction than I was at the fact that the radiator basically dissolved in my hand when I pulled the hose off of it. You'd probably expect a lot of swearing and violence.. instead it was a calm "Oh... okay." I think the violence of the reaction is proportional to the expense of the part you just broke. Above a certain price point, yelling just doesn't cut it. All you can do is shrug it off and carry on.



I think my subdued reaction can also (partially) be chalked up to relief that the radiator decided to check out while the car was on stands in the garage, rather than a week after I got the motor rebuilt and re installed.

As you can see in the picture above, the plastic was pretty rotten.


Where to from here?


Well, my budget has taken another hit because of this, so I'll have to cut back on something.. I'll reuse some gaskets, or use cooking spray instead of assembly lube... I kid, I kid... relax. I won't be skimping on essential components, or those that fall into the "while I'm here I should replace them because it's a PITA to replace them in the car" category.

I have my eye on a Mishimoto rad/shroud/fan set up now. I like the OEM look, but I am not paying $1380 (£880) for a new OEM rad. I'm not keen on a rad from a jobber either. I'm sure they're alright, but I don't want to trust my cooling system to a brand I've never heard of.
The Mishimoto seems alright, and it comes with a lifetime warranty. My only concern about it, which will sound silly to you guys is; it looks kind of blingy to me. It's so big and shiny. It looks like it should have its own wing or something. I suppose I'll get over it.

I'll be starting the undercoating/rust removal + repair this week, so stay tuned for that.

31 days till the first meet... will I be able to pull it off?

[BlackShadow]

Soapbox moment:

There are several reasons for me posting this thread...

(in no particular order)


1) Entertainment. I know I enjoy a good old fashioned build/restoration thread, and I know a lot of you do too.



2) Historical record.



3) To show you what an ordinary, average guy with a garage and some tools can do with a bit of imagination and research. I hope that after reading this tread some of you will be inspired to roll up your sleeves and take an active role in maintaining your cars. I don't mean for you to jump from hand waxing to what I am doing in this thread in one jump. I find a lot of people are intimidated by their cars. They wish they could do their own work, but they lack the confidence, or they feel they don't have the right tools.

You don't have to be a licensed technician, or have a $40k SnapOn set up to tackle most jobs, including the ones I'm doing in this thread!

Don't dive into this because I'm doing it. This is advanced work, but I started off somewhere. Oil changes, rad flushes, brake jobs in the driveway with the old man. I graduated from watching, to being in charge of placing the lug nuts in the hubcap, to actually doing some of the jobs myself. It's the best way to start. Change your wiper blades, rotate your tires, change your oil, change bulbs etc. Work your way up to more advanced tasks. Your confidence will grow, trust me!

I'd hope that some of you out there will read this thread and say to yourselves: "If that guy can restore an entire car with a 322 pc. socket set, two jacks, four stands, and a powerfist compressor... why can't I tackle my snow tires?" You can do it!

Start small. Build your skill and confidence.



4) Vehicle maintenance: I hope this thread will demonstrate to you, the need to be vigilant with your maintenance. You can't assume everything is okay because it looks alright.

For example, I thought I knew where all the rust on my car was. Boy was I wrong. I never would have found that had I not embarked on this adventure. Would that have been okay? No! That rust would have gotten worse and worse until my car would have folded in two like a cashew. On the surface, my car looked like an extremely clean and well-maintained vehicle. A spot of "normal" Honda rust here and there but nothing else. I hope that by seeing this thread, some of you will take the extra time to have a look around your car for anything that might be going on. Next time you check your tires, look up in the wheel wells. Run your fingers along the sills. Have a look around your engine bay for leaks. (Tip: your engine should be spotless. Any oil or grease on it indicates a leak somewhere. Today's engines are sealed and don't have oily grime on them as a norm, like in the old days).

The reason I keep my car so clean is not only because I am OCD... it I a maintenance item. My engine looks great because it is all polished up and spotless, yes... but the real reason I keep it that way is because if it sprung a leak, I would know right away, and I would know where it was coming from. It's easier to detect unwelcome changes when something is tidy.
Also, when I am cleaning, I am inspecting. I am looking for leaks, damage, wear (both normal and abnormal), rust/corrosion etc. While cleaning I may notice a wire showing signs of chafing. I can see why it is doing that, and rectify the problem before it becomes a drive-ability issue...before it becomes expensive.

My rusty wheel wells are a prime example. I caught them in the nick of time. Had that rust gone on unchecked for much longer, it could have cost me thousands of dollars to fix, IF I found it before the unibody failed. My radiator is an example of a lucky break (no pun intended). It looked okay, so I never gave it a second thought. How many of you do the same?

The next time you pop the hood, have a good look at your hoses and belts. Check the wiring for chafing and corroded connections. Chances are you will find something that surprises you. Take a snapshot in your mind of how everything looks, so that when you go back you will notice if something has changed. You don't have to know what everything does, but you can tell if something doesn't look right. If you're in doubt, that's what we're here for!
When you change your brakes or tires, pop out the clips that hold the fender liners in and have a look at the pinch weld. It takes two minutes (just be careful not to break the clip). You may find what I found, and you may just be lucky enough to be able to fix it yourself.

Never assume because it's clean and running right that a problem can't be brewing. Catch it before it catches you!