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Confused's Prelude Rebuild Thread

Tell us about your old honda preludes that you used to own.
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Confused
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Post by Confused » Thu Apr 20, 2017 5:20 pm

18th June 2007

Spent a couple of days working on it at the end of last week, and have done the following:

All wiring sorted (had a fun issue with the SRS/main loom connections - they changed them between pre- and post-facelift, so the 8 pin plug on the facelift steering wheel/SRS loom didn't fit into the 4 pin connector on the pre-facelift loom!)
Alarm fully installed
Remote boot release installed
90% of interior in, just driver's door to finish building up
Front & Rear lights completed and glued back together
New windscreen installed
Rear window & quarter glass removed from donor, and cleaned up ready for tinting
Box sections in chassis cavity waxed
Wheels painted in gunmetal colour


Things still to do:

Rear glass (tinting and installation - tinting is done on Tue/Wed, installed Thu)
Front seats installed (leaving out until windows are in to aid their installation)
Front bumper (coming back from bodyshop this week)
Driver's door mirror, handle, and door card (mirror/handle in bodyshop)
Rrear fog light (connect power & earth cable)
Rear numberplate made up and installed
Tyres put back onto wheels (2 new ones being delivered this week)
Brake calipers (one of the rears is sticking - if I have time will clean up & paint all, and if so fit braided hoses if they're delivered)
Underseal wheel arches/undertray etc)
Wheel arch trims (installed once underseal has dried)
Insurance (certificate is in post)
MOT (once a lot of the above is completed)
Tax (once MOT'd)


Only a small list ;) but I'm hoping it'll be doable - got Friday off work so going to be working Thu night, all day Friday, and Friday evening if needed!


Oh, best end this long post with some pics ;)


Windows out and ready for tint
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Wheels painted - note where the paint reacted to the primer :(
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Headlights fitted
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And a quick vid of them in action:
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And finally, rear indicators and remote boot release:
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Post by Confused » Thu Apr 20, 2017 5:20 pm

19th June 2007

Just had the following delivered at work, so they'll hopefully be going on before the weekend (if I get time)


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Post by Confused » Thu Apr 20, 2017 5:21 pm

19th June 2007

W00t! More goodies!

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These are to replace the two "Marangoni" things that were on there before, one of which had developed a bulge in the sidewall!

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Post by Confused » Thu Apr 20, 2017 5:21 pm

20th June 2007

Just heard from my dad, everything's been undersealed, most of the plastic arch liners are back in, and the windows have been taken away to be tinted (too much dust in dad's garage for them to be done there), and will be back tomorrow :)

STILL not got my front lip made, so I'll either be on a standard bumper, or will have that other one as posted a few weeks back. :(

I've also just sprayed up the roof trims (that sit in the channel either side of the roof), as the old ones were a bit worse for wear - can't put anything half-assed back onto the car ;)

Am going over to my dad's straight after work tomorrow to do as much as possible - might not get a chance to update until Friday evening...! Keep your fingers crossed for me! ;)

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Post by Confused » Thu Apr 20, 2017 5:22 pm

21st June 2007

Quick update before I dive into bed for an early start tomorrow!


I now have a full compliment of glass! :D And, the rear windows are now tinted - something I'd been wanting to do since I got the car!

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Everything's been undersealed, and wheel arch liners/plastic undertrays are back on (although I may have said that in my last update, I can't remember!)

I've also started cleaning up my brake callipers for painting, as I need to definitely swap the nearside rear tomorrow. Muppet here left my Goodridge braided brake lines at home, so I can't fit them tomorrow :(

I do have 2 tyres on the rear wheels, and they're back on the car (although they're coming off to do the callipers again).

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Yes, I'm aware it's sitting high there, and I can fit a family of immigrants under there - but the car's only just been lowered back on the wheels - the suspension's not moved and settled yet!


Still got quite a few things to do tomorrow, so hopefully my next update will be more substantial! ;)

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Post by Confused » Thu Apr 20, 2017 5:22 pm

22nd June 2007

Quick update...

I gave Gordon Brown £180 today :D

Now I'm off to sleep - am knackered! ;)

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Post by Confused » Thu Apr 20, 2017 5:23 pm

25th June 2007

I guess I'd better do a proper update, rather than my quite brief and cryptic post of Friday night! ;)


Basically, the Prelude is back on the road!

However, that's not to say I didn't have some drama! ;)

On Friday morning I got up early, and took the wheels & Toyo tyres to my dad's work, so the tyres could be fitted, and the wheels balanced.

I also had to go and pick up my front bumper, driver's wing mirror and driver's door handle from the bodyshop. Thankfully before I did this I checked the new insurance certificate for the Prelude (I'd done a change-of-car), and they had started the insurance on the Prelude from 00:01 on the Friday - rather than midday when I'd asked. They also wouldn't provide me any overlap between the two cars, without charging me £43 for the privilege of a week's overlap, hence why I asked for 12pm - so it gave me the morning to run around and pick up things like the bumper! Luckily I have Drive Other Cars cover - so I was able to borrow my dad's Shogun (which has wasn't too pleased about, but could hardly deny me!) to go and pick them up, and get a numberplate and load-balance resistor for the LED indicators, to stop them flashing too fast!

When I got back from the bodyshop with the bumper (which they carried out to and put in the Shogun), I took it out of the boot - but it was a bit light - they hadn't given me the metal support bar - which meant another 40 minute round-trip to get it. :(

Luckily, JohnnyB then turned up to lend a hand, as he'd booked Friday morning off work in case he needed it to do his clutch & flywheel, but he didn't, so he decided to give me a hand instead :) As soon as he turned up, I turned him straight back around and he went to collect the bumper bar, and lunch! ;) He returned a little bit later, and then helped by attaching the front bumper to the car, cutting out my driver's door card for the puddle light, taping up the rest of the plastic in the doors, and refitting the door card. There were also other little odds and sods he did such as cleaning my leather seats (where they'd been sat in the garage for 7 months they'd got various paint overspray and dust all over them), and swapping the seat belt clips from the donor car's seats to mine, and then fitting the seats, passing me tools etc. All little bits that would have taken me an extra few hours to do, and would have probably made me too late for the MOT!! So, an extra special thanks to JohnnyB, as without his help on the Friday I wouldn't have been finished in time :D


As I mentioned before, I had a sticky brake caliper on the nearside rear, so this needed to come off. However, one of the bolts that held the handbrake cable to the caliper had seized up, and my attempts to remove it just ended up rounding the head of the bolt. So, I decided I'd just take the whole caliper and handbrake cable off, and use the cable from the donor. So, I did. I removed everything from both cars, poked the cable from the donor through into the inside of mine, ran it back to the rear wheel and attached the new caliper & handbrake cable, and then built up the rear end again. I then went inside the car to hook the cable to the handbrake lever. Only I failed to do so - because the cable was 4" too short. Oh dear...! The pre-facelift donor car has the handbrake further back than my facelift car... So, I had to remove the donor's handbrake cable again, then try to remove the bolt from the original caliper/cable. A combination of brute force with a slightly smaller impact socket, a hammer, and a bit of heat from a blow-torch, and my dad managed to get the bolt out, and the cable was reinstalled to the car! Not something I really wanted, as it took me lots of extra time in order to mess around with all this!

I also had to refit my cat, as I'd previously put a de-cat pipe in it's place.

My BMC CDA is rather larger than the ones other Prelude owners have, and they struggled to fit theirs, so I had to bodge my old eBay-special filter onto my OEM intake pipe - a little duck tape came in very handy then! Hopefully I can figure out some way of fitting my BMC CDA and improve the intake filter to one of the best available for a Prelude!


Once all the little bits were done, I was able to take it down for it's MOT. The emissions test was a little nerve-racking - the cat hadn't been used for nearly a year so took some time for it to warm up and decide to do what it's supposed to do, but it did come down. It did unfortunately fail it's MOT :( The offside headlight aim was too high, and the nearside was aimed too high and too far to the right. This was fixed on site, aim re-tested and an MOT pass was issued! :D


JohnnyB then took me off to the nearest Post Office to get tax. I however was a muppet and forgot to get my V5C out of my bag, so we had to go back to my dad's to get it. Second time lucky, I managed to produce all the required documentation, and the road tax was purchased. Another £180 to line Gordon Brown's pockets (well, either him, or whoever is taking over his old job now he's about to become Prime Minister...!)


Once I'd got back, I started to re-fit some more of the interior trim, but it was then soon time to leave so I could get to my girlfriend's for us to start making our move towards Japshow :)


I put the car on the PreludeUK stand, and spent most of the weekend showing people my lights! ;) The members of PreludeUK voted mine as runner-up in the Best Modified Overall and Best In Show categories - greatly appreciated awards, as it was voted by over 30 Prelude owners and enthusiasts :D


Now, some piccies that I took of it on Friday, and some of my lights from the weekend :)


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Post by Confused » Thu Apr 20, 2017 5:24 pm

1st July 2007

Spent Saturday sorting out a few little issues and putting a few little odds and sods in.

Fitted the rear "Prelude" light, and put my GPS receiver in it too (hopefully will be a good place to pick up a good signal!), put the "4th pedal"/footrest in, a few more interior trim bits.

I also had an ABS/TCS error, which was being identified as a 4-1 - front-right wheel sensor. So, I changed this with the one from the donor, which sorted out the 4-1. I'm still however getting a 1 error from the ABS - which is the pump over-running, running for 20 seconds when starting up - could be that it needs to be bled, as it had been taken out of the car. Need the special T-piece tool to do that I thinks!

I also attempted to fit my BMC CDA, as my ebay special which I'd duck-taped to the OEM inlet pipe kept unsticking itself, and I was running without a proper air filter :oops:

Now my BMC CDA is a lot larger than others I've seen squeezed into Preludes - and I struggled to find a way to fit it previously.

However, with a rather large shoe-horn, I finally managed to squeeze it in, and connect it up!

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I had to move the ABS connector bracket out of the way, and the filter is almost touching the strut brace, gearbox mount, HT leads and inner wing!

I'm quite surprised at how much difference to the noise the BMC makes - it has quietened it down a lot at idle and under little load, but it's still got a nice deep rumble under load, like the ebay-special did :) It should make it much nicer to drive on motorways now (which is ~60% of my driving anyway!). Not sure if it's made any difference to power - but it does still pull nicely, and I think it might even be smoother - even though I've not yet done a proper cold air feed :)

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Post by Confused » Thu Apr 20, 2017 5:24 pm

28th August 2007

OK, just a few little updates, may as well keep this thread current, no point in letting it slide just because the car's on the road!


Firstly, I installed a Parrot CK3200 (this is a copy/paste from a seperate thread I made...)


After trying rather unsuccessfully over the course of the last couple of years to get my CarPC to work properly and reliably as a bluetooth headset for my mobile phones, I finally decided to bite the bullet and get a dedicated hands free kit.

My dad has the Parrot CK3100-LCD, and he cannot fault the Parrot unit, so, I decided to follow his lead and get a Parrot. However, the CK3100-LCD was a little too bland for me - I've already got a pair of full-colour TFT screens in the dash, so didn't want a standard back-lit monochrome LCD. I then saw that Parrot now makes a kit which has a colour TFT - perfect!


So, once the kit was delivered today, I started work. The newer Parrot kits combine the main control unit and mute box into one device :) Basically, it comes with a male and female ISO connectors, and it simply sits inline with your existing car stereo. The standard audio passes through the Parrot mute box, and when you receive a call, it cuts the output from the stereo, and switches in your call to the car speakers. This control unit and associated wiring were plugged in, bundled up, and stuffed behind my lower 7" touchscreen :) I utilised my existing wiring when I installed my CarPC, so the Parrot mute kit could work correctly and effectively.

I then had to decide where I was going to put the screen, and finally decided on the driver's side tweeter cover (kawa's GPS unit was the inspiration for this idea)

So, here's the unit in the rough place it will be sitting:

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Close up...

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And from roughly the position of my head - perfectly visible :)

As you can see - you can send pictures to it to use as a background, and also contact pictures, so you can see a photo of who's calling you!

Now that the position was confirmed as being a good one, I brought the screen and the tweeter cover indoors, and started work

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Take one tweeter cover...

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Take it apart...

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Measure around the screen, and start cutting it out...

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Make a hole in it...

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Make sure the screen fits snugly

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Very carefully cut out the front bit, trying to keep it neat, glue the fabric down neatly, start to get woozy on the fumes from the superglue...

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Fitted back in the car:
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And the jumble of wiring, including ISO->Honda adapter cables:
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Post by Confused » Thu Apr 20, 2017 5:25 pm

28th August 2007

I then started to get annoyed with the crackling and general crap sound from the now 11 year old Honda OEM speakers, especially with having a nice set of B&W speakers at home! Why should my car, where I spend most of the time actually listening to music, have bad speakers!

So, I traipsed down to the local car audio shop (which is run by a friend of my dad's, so I get a reasonable deal ;)), and picked up a set of Alpine SPS-171A 6.5" components after having a listen to them in the shop, and being suitably impressed with them for the money.

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However - they're a bit too deep for the standard OEM speaker surrounds:

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So I decided to make up some MDF rings to mount them:

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Which were then held up to the doors:

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And then the speaker mounted:

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Tweeters were mounted in the same place as the existing ones - just unscrewed the OEM tweeters and used the same screws to attach new ones! A 30 second job to fit the tweeters! A 15 minute job to run the cables through the dash to the centre console!

The crossovers were installed behind the CarPC screen, and were placed after the Parrot kit - so the output from the amp goes through the Parrot so it mutes it when I receive a call. No piccies of this unfortunately :(


They sound SO much better than the OEM speakers, and really brings the audio/CarPC to life!

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