5G Motegi Bought, Crashed, Fixed, Back on Road

mynameisowen · Post by **mynameisowen** » Mon Jul 28, 2014 2:46 pm

Hello all,

I've been on the board for about a year since I bought my 98 5G Motegi in Cypress Green with ivory interior.

Spec:
Stock 98 Motegi VTi

Been wanting a prelude for a long time, I rebuilt a H series engine at college and ever since then always wanted at 5G.

After searching for a while finally bought one one which was in good condition and relatively cheap.

Got addicted to it and had a great time.

Unfortunately this happened on the way to work in January 2013:

Car was wrapped round tree and driveshaft was pulled out along with the lower balljoint on the passenger side.

I had to get it towed home and after spending quite a bit of money on towing it to friends houses and back I finally found a barn where I could keep the car and get back on the road.

I'll post more pictures of the repair below.

This was the end result:

At the stage you can see above, the engine ran fine and the suspension was all back together.
The tracking was sent by I and the car was driveable.

After a dodgy drive from Oxford to Milton Keynes I had to sort the following:
-Passenger driveshaft boots were torn and one of the tripod bearings was lost. Causing really horrible vibrations at high load.
-Find a way of fixing the headlights (both of which had lost all of their mounting brackets during disassembly) so that the vehicle would pass MOT.
-Rebuild the front and rear brakes as the handbrake efficiency was appalling.
-Find the root cause of my rear left indicator not working
-Sort the SRS morning light (after both airbags had blown) and 4WS warning light.
-And a number of other small niggles one of which being the multicoloured panels.

I replaced the passenger driveshaft. Fixed the headlights with a combination of cable ties and Sikaflex (surprising how well they hold).
Rebuilt the front and rear brakes.
I ran a wire from the front left indicator all the way through the car to the rear left as there was no signal getting to the bulb at all. There must be some disconnected wire somewhere….
Fitted a SRS ECU from another vehicle (I can confirm that after airbags blowing you need to replace this box) and reset the 4WS.

Now the only thing outstanding is to get proper four-wheel alignment and decide how to get the car looking in good condition again.

Car now is fully road legal and drives really well, I was expecting a lot worse. I'm really happy with the results, once the car looks the part I will be over the moon to have saved it from the grave.

So I could do with some advice, do I:
a)Buy some Cypress Green panels and lip
b)paint my knackered silver ones
c)Vinyl wrap in colour of my choice

If anyone can help me with pricing the above I would be very grateful.

I also have some nice Motegi wheels to fit. Was thinking of getting them painted white.

Finally, thank you to everyone for your advice.

Post by **indigolemon** » Mon Jul 28, 2014 3:06 pm

That's dedication man! Hope you get these things sorted soon!

89 UKDM BA4 4WS (resto job!) · Post by **wurlycorner** » Mon Jul 28, 2014 3:07 pm

Holy crap, that was properly smashed up!
Well done for fixing that, great work and dedication!

farlow · Post by **farlow** » Mon Jul 28, 2014 3:11 pm

Yeah good work on the rebuild mate. Many others would have just scrapped it.

89 UKDM BA4 4WS (resto job!) · Post by **wurlycorner** » Mon Jul 28, 2014 3:30 pm

White wheels look great on a Cypress Green car.
I agree, you'll be hard pushed to track down some panels in that colour, better off getting some others sprayed.

Vinyl wrapping should be last resort really - especially after doing all the rest of that great work on it.

mercutio · Post by **mercutio** » Mon Jul 28, 2014 5:45 pm

mynameisowen wrote:Unfortunately this happened on the way to work in January 2013:

.

If that was your way to work you might need a 4x4 or a tank

seriously though as the others have said cypress green isn't a very common colour so you would be better painting if you want it wrapped (I take it you will be doing it yourself if your not get the bits painted) then go for it.

YouTube · Post by **Sailor** » Mon Jul 28, 2014 11:05 pm

Green over white wheels would be my choice.
Well done for saving the car.

nitin_s1 · Post by **nitin_s1** » Tue Jul 29, 2014 12:48 am

Wow. That's some dedication

The "S" express · Post by **honda-hardy** » Tue Jul 29, 2014 12:54 am

top marks, and yes paint not wrap in my opinion. a good friend of mine had his range rover wrapped, it was really good for about a year, then it all started to lift at edges and around windows. it looked rough.

Post by **Drax** » Tue Jul 29, 2014 8:43 am

for dedication there fair play!!!