I am now an intergenerational Luder.

[Doggo]

That was my reaction... 91 Octane? I know it must be tuned for it, but body lemonade water! The poor car!

[jjmartin349571]

And to think I felt bad putting 95 RON in my Civic last night rather than the 98 I usually use

Nice work on the Type-S intake btw, looks

[BlackShadow]

These just arrived ten minutes ago, courtesy of Bartosz.




Very nice looking, and well made.



Whats wrong with 91? In the Toronto area all we have is 87, and, 91 for the most part, with some stations here and there offering 92. There used to be a chain that sold 94, but they're gone now.

[Donald]

95 is the min. here, with up to 99 readily available.

[BlackShadow]

Things have been pretty quiet with this car lately. Apart from driving it, I haven't had much to do, since I have been waiting for a couple parts.

I picked up a JDM half mast antenna from eBay. There were some problems with it. The guy was selling two of them with switches, but discovered that only one worked. So my shipment was delayed a week while he went back to get the other antenna, which turned out to be the functioning one. The only problem was, he forgot to send me the switch.

I was given a choice; have the switch shipped out, or have it shipped with something else. I looked through his other items, and found a couple interesting parts, but nothing that I couldn't get cheaper elsewhere. The only other thing was...





Yes, it's complete.


Oh and, this was in the box too:

[Fons[DutchGuy]]

You've been pretty busy on that car! I wonder how the polshing worked out on that foam filler
JK when are you planning to fix that? Couse the rest is comming to getter nicely

[wurlycorner]

Wow, well done on the full climate kit - that's impressive work if you get all that fitted!

[BlackShadow]

I finally have all the parts to install my radio.

- Head unit
- OEM wiring harness from a VTEC (7 speaker set up)
- OEM sub bracket + sub
- 6x9 sub
- JDM half mast antenna + switch

I'm no stereo installer so I thought I would make a start on the antenna. The old one was ripped off (this car shows signs of past baby-mama-drama), and that should have been a heads up to what I would find later on.

Rant: I love the 4th gen Prelude. I love ho wit looks, the interior, and how it drives. I hate working on them. Trying to get to one item on a 4th gen is like replacing one strand of a wicker loveseat. Everything is so tightly woven in. In order to take one part off, you have to take half the car apart.

I pulled the trunk liner(s) aside and found that the antenna that was installed was a low grade, generic piece of garbage. You know the crap you can buy from a flea market, that practically dissolves in your hands? It wasn't so much wired in as it was stuck together with masking tape. I hate when ghetto drokks mess with cars.

I wrestle the antenna unit free from the car (it had corroded to the bracket that holds it in the car). I slap in the JDM half mast and find, the chrome antenna nut doesn't fit the JDM antenna. Great. So I swap the old one back in just to plug the hole. I start doing some measurements to see if I can file the hole in the nut larger so the "nub" on top of the antenna will fit through it. It will, but then I notice the thread pitch. No dice.




So after all that, the antenna was put back in its box until I get my hands on an OEM antenna nut, which is discontinued. Thanks Honda!


My climate control had been stuck half way between hot and cold, so I opened up the dash. I have to say, I love the 94-96 console, and I love where the parking brake handle is, but it makes it a royal pain in the ass to get the front part of the console off.
I figured the cable was just kinked a bit, and after looking at the quality of workmanship that was done to this car before I bough it, I thought it was more than likely. Once I get the dash apart, I find the "frame" that the radio sits in is completely crushed, as though someone had taken a hammer to it. It was a mess under there. It was as though someone had taken it and just rammed it in. I found the climate control cable was mis-routed and was being pinched by the clip that holds it under the dash. Unfortunately for me the plastic covering it has all been stripped, and the cable will not stay in place. drokk! I had to use videgrips to hold the cable and clip together so I can have a little control over the temperature. Now I have to find another cable, which I'm sure is discontinued.

Looking at the radio harness, I can see at some point in the past, someone had chopped the plug off, and then reattached it... by twisting the exposed ends and wrapping it with electrical tape (weeps). I plugged in the stock radio that I was given, and it powers up after the code is entered. It lights up with the dash lights, it changes stations and keeps presets. Its great! Except there is no sound. drokk.


So to recap:

JDM half mast antenna installation: FAILED due to a missing antenna nut.

Climate control fix: FAILED due to ghetto drokk previous owner being too broke to have the stereo system he could have done without properly installed.

OEM radio test/installation: FAILED due to no sound from the speakers.


All in all, the day was a total washout.


But thats not all! Its not all doom and gloom.


These beauties arrived, courtesy of n0rmal:




All I need are brakcets, or to fab up some brackets.





I can't wait to get those hooked up.

[wurlycorner]

Antenna nut discontinued? That's a bummer. I've had 2 in the last 2 years! (maybe I bought the last one?)

[BlackShadow]

This is a long update with a few detours along the way. There is non-Prelude content, and rants.


Well it's been a while since I have updated this thread... and the other one. Don't worry, I am still working on the cars, but work has slowed to a crawl. I was laid off from my job, so money is a bit tight as I search for another one.



Anyhoo..

I installed my half mast antenna. It works like a charm. A bit noisy but I think a little lubrication might sort that out. For the first time since I bought the car in August, I have radio! I had installed the factory tape deck and was listening to mix tapes I made back in the late 90s. How ****ing hipster is that? It was really trippy. Sitting in a very 90's car, listening to a tape made in the 90's of 90's music. All I needed was a teal suit, Doc Martens and a tube of hair gel and you'd swear that I had just 88 mile-per-houred it to 2013.

I took a video of the epicity of the retroness:
trimyrcGzR_zpsb544e1b6.mp4 Video by SilverFox81 | Photobucket


After I got the antenna installed, the weather turned bad, and I didn't have any wire to hook up the switch, so I retreated indoors, contented with a half mast antenna that goes all the way top for the time being.



December 26, 7:00AM, it is snowing like crazy outside. I couldn't settle at all that night, so I was half awake. My cell phone started ringing. My heart stopped. I knew it was bad news coming. Caller I.D. shows it is Stancie, my someday-to-be wife. I pick it up and say:

"You wrecked your car. Where are you? Are you hurt? How bad is the car?"

She replies, as though leaving a voicemail:

"Hi, it's Connie, I was in an accident on the 115. I am going to the hospital now..."

When I heard the phone ring, I knew what I was going to hear, but hearing it from her made my blood run cold. My protective side kicked in, and I proceeded to chew her out for driving in such a remote area in a white out.

I spent the rest of that day on the phone with the police, tow truck drivers, impound lots, her parents etc.. The story is she had gone to her parents for Christmas, and took our two cats with her. They were left in the car after she was taken to the hospital. I was worried they were forgotten and would freeze to death in the car. I had to track them down and meet up with the tow truck driver who had thankfully taken them out of the car and kept them with him.

Throughout the day I was getting updates from her while at the hospital. X-rays, CT scans, bumps on the head... plus I had to be ready to go pick her up..all this after not feeling well the night before and not sleeping. My stress level went into uncharted territory. At one point I sat down and chewed (yes chewed) an aspirin, because I thought I was having a heart attack.

The day rounded out with picking her up from the hospital, and going to look at the damage. She told me she spun out hit a guardrail, and then ended up in a snowbank facing the opposite direction. I was expecting damage on at least three sides of the car, and because of its age, I anticipated a write off. This made me sad. I love her car, and we went through hell to get it.

Now before you all laugh at me for being upset about this car, and allowing it to preempt work on my Preludes, I just want to say, I friggin love this car. It isn't overly fast, it only has one cam, everything about it is grey, but it is a hell of a lot of fun to drive...

Ready for the heartbreaking carnage?








Me: "Stancie.. what the hell did you do to this car?"

Her:

Me: "No really... aside from a missing side skirt and a cracked bumper, there isn't a scratch on it. I was pumped to do a 99-00 front end conversion on it, and paint it phoenix yellow for you like you wanted... but.. I can't. It isn't broken enough to justify doing all that work right now. What a let down!"

Her:


There won't be a front end conversion on it for a while, but she has bumped up the schedule on the rest of the build for that car. Three projects on the go! CTR red/black interior build on the way!

She admitted to me afterwards that the medics and her mother were laughing at her because she was so afraid to call me and tell me she had been in an accident. She thought I would have yelled at her (which I did), and she thought I would have cried over the car, (I held it together, just one tear). We got the word yesterday that the insurance company will fix it.


Since the weather has been nasty lately, ice storms, heavy snowfalls, and now incredible windchills, I have been working on some odds and ends inside. Since I have most of the interior apart, I have brought the pieces inside and set to restoring them. Keep in mind, the purpose of this car is not to make it mint right now. The majority of the work I am doing on it is to make it more functional and livable. This car is also my lab rat, and I am experimenting with different techniques and products without worrying about messing up parts of my primary project.

I noticed that some of my interior plastics were looking really poor. They were blotchy and had a chalky looking build up on them. Cleaning the parts seemed to make them worse. Putting Meguiars ultimate protectant didn't help either. I faced my options:

1) Replace the console (94-96, hard to find around here, plus I'm cheap)
2) Refinish the console with SEM landau black paint.
3) Use what I have on hand and go for broke.

Before:





The problem:

The plastic is textured and is supposed to have a satin finish. How do you refinish that surface without losing the texture and the appearance?

I had a bottle of Mothers plastic polish laying around so I set to work with a bit of that on the tip of my finger. I didn't want to use a cloth as this would heat the plastic too much and eventually buff it to a high gloss shine. After a couple of minutes, the white stuff started to fade out but I found that even without a cloth, the raised bits were becoming too shiny, while the indents were staying white and chalky. To fix this, I decided to try a toothbrush with some plastic polish on it. After working the plastic polish in a circluar pattern, I wiped off the residue, and found a perfectly restored surface. The toothbrush allowed me to get the plastic polish into all of the grooves, but without applying a lot of pressure to the surface and polishing the surface too much.

After:
Bare plastic (restored)/Meguiars ultimate protectant



[imghttp://i796.photobucket.com/albums/yy243/SilverFox81/BB2/DSCN0383_zps95fa3952.jpg~original[/img]





As you can see from the pictures, the plastic came up great. I'm happy with it.

The switches are all recent purchases. I picked up the ultra rare heated seat switches from a local TPC member. After studying the wiring diagram in the service manual, I think I'll have a go at making my own harness, so I can use the switches and the heated leathers I have installed.

I also picked up a fog light switch. It fits the 94-96 switch blank perfectly! Rather than fork out a bundle for an overpriced, used 94-96 switch, I bought a brand new 97-01 USDM fog light switch. It is a perfect fit, and the socket on the back is identical to the plug in the 94-96. The only difference is the orientation of the icon on the button, but for %35 and brand new, who cares?

The empty switch hole between the seat and antenna switches is for a rear fog light switch that is on its way. I am not installing a rear fog light in the bumper (I think they are HIDEOUS), I will be doing something creative.


This is what I have been up to lately. More updates (on both cars) soon hopefully.