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Prelude Guy's SLOW 89 hatch rebuild thread

9K views 57 replies 30 participants last post by  Prelude Guy 
#1 ·
Hey all,

I figure since others have done it, so will I. :happyfing

Just as an FYI, I bought the car approx. 1.5 years ago. I bought it with engine issues. The body, interior, paint, etc were fine (AC even still works). Only the engine had issues. I bought it with the intent of swapping motors anyway, however, I decided to buy a new house so the swap was quickly put on hold.

Anyway, since I moved into that house, I have SLOWLY began the rebuild. First objective was to pull the engine since it barely ran anyway. Also, I wanted to have the parts I am not going to use on hand so I can sell them off. As I did with my Prelude, I plan to see how nicely I can build this car within a certain budget range. I have ALL the receipts for ALL the parts I bought and sold for my Prelude. I am doing the same with the 240. :thumbsup The goal is to build a respectable car within $5000. I think that budget is VERY reasonable.

The plans for the car are to do the opposite of what everyone else is doing/done (again, same thing I did with my Prelude:happyfing ). I am going to keep the car as close to stock-looking as possible, keep the interior COMPLETELY intact (clean it), keep the AC, and freshen up the car overall (fix rust, replace worn parts). It is going to be another rebuild where I make the car newer, yet tweak some things to make it more exciting. The exterior is going to remain clean with a FEW hints of upgrades, if the budget allows of course. The wheels will remain stock, however, I will eventually install a more aggressive suspension. It will not be "slammed".

Engine-wise, I am going to plan it out before I start modding. I am only going to put on mods that are essential to my goal (350-375whp) Nothing more, nothing less. The exhaust will be upgraded to 3", however, I am going to paint the canister so that it is not unsightly like most of the exhausts I see. As I said, "clean" is the theme of this car rebuild.:thumbsup I'm set on a black FMIC too. If it means sacraficing a few HP, I am willing to make the sacrafice.

Now that you all know my goals, I'll keep updating this thread with progress pic/write-ups.

Here are a few pics to start off with.

Here is me pulling the engine COMPLETELY by myself. I did not do this in one day. Rather, I worked on the car for 2-3 hours on consecutive days over a span of a few weeks.


Here was something I knew I was going to find, just hoped I wouldn't. Rusted radiator core support. :(


Here is the pic of after the engine came out. The engine bay is a little cleaner than it was before because I scrubbed it down on a nice day while the engine was still in the car.


I have pics of some of the other rust damage I have to get fixed before I move on with the project.

More pics to come. :)
 
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#4 ·
2Fass240us said:
Geez, finally! :D
Yeah, no kidding. :D

ASIA said:
Sweet, sleeper in the making. What engine are you going with?
Yeah, I have always loved sleepers. When a car looks fast and is fast, people still really aren't that impressed. However, when a car looks close to stock but is fast, it has more of a dramatic affect. Plus, I don't like attracting attention to myself. Only bad things happen when people do that.

I have a STRONG feeling the 240 is going to be the next Civic, even worse probably. Based on the pics I have seen posted on the 240 sites, seeing a nice clean 240 will be rare. I get so many compliments on my Prelude, and it looks stock, just lowered.

I am going to go with the SR20DET. It's the easiest swap. Seems like it will be the least expensive to do, too.

I'll update this thread as I make progress. :)
 
#5 ·
Prelude Guy said:
Yeah, no kidding. :D
I am going to go with the SR20DET. It's the easiest swap. Seems like it will be the least expensive to do, too.

I'll update this thread as I make progress. :)


Ya know a CA18DET is just as easy if not easier, and usually $1000+ cheaper too. :thumbsup

lookin good.
 
#7 ·
I'm glad i'm not the only person who took forever. It took me about 6 months to pull the engine get it rebuilt and put it back in. But it was my first time to do this and i am only in high school. After all the blood sweat and tears (literally) my car is now like a brother to me.
 
#8 ·
**********************UPDATE POST************************

Hey all,

Just a quick update. I have my cat-back exhaust and my SR20 swap. I actually have 2 SR swaps, but one is disassembled. I will most likely part that one out.

Anyway, here are some pics of the exhaust. As I mentioned, I am sticking with my "sleeper" theme. Always liked it that way, always will.:supercool

Here's a pic of the 3" Blitz Nur Spec R cat-back, freshly painted I might add.:1bowdown :embarasse

BEFORE:


AFTER:
Black canister, metal tip



I will post pics of the SR when I get them.

Stay tuned!!!:happyfing
 
#11 ·
Hey guys,

Here is a light update on my build:

I have my SR20 swap. Before I swap it in, I am going to clean it THOROUGHLY!! I am going to paint the accessory brackets and wire-wheel the PS pulley, alternator pulley, and crank pulley. Then I will paint them too.

Here's a lame pic of me cleaning the SR. lol



I had a friend come over to help repair some rust damage. The rust damage on the driver's side frame rail from the brake master cylinder leaking was 3x the size I originally thought. We cut the rust out and welded in replacement metal. I have pics of that. I will post them when I get home.

Here are some pics of me test fitting the painted exhaust. What do you all think? Should I paint the tip black too?





Let me know what you all think so far. :)
 
#12 · (Edited)
Another update.

Here are the rust before and after pics.

What I thought wasn't going to be too bad:


After we started grinding it down:


Repairing:


Welded:


The welding still needs to be completed, as well as painted. In due time. :)

Here's some of the rice I needed to fix:

Before:


Hot pipes. Both metal pipes were painted this color.:crazyrant


After: Coldpipe: Wrinkle painted it. It turned out very nicely IMO


The hotpipes were painted high temp black.

My I.C.E install. :D

I had to cut the speaker mounting supports to fit properly. VERY easy job with a dremel!!



Since the door panels were off I cleaned the carpeted part.


I am almost complete cleaning the SR longblock and tranny. I will post pics when I am done. I installed a new OEM shift boot too. I'll post pics of it soon too.
 
#15 ·
loki said:
Wow you got that carpet clean! Im guessing the prevoius owners weren't smokers or retarded lol
It's funny. It only took me 5 minutes for each panel to get them that clean. As soon as I put clean water on them, you could see the dirt come right up. Then I used laundry detergent and it came out like it is brand new. I was SHOCKED!!! I am going to try the same on the interior carpet. It is in better shape than the door panel carpet, so I hope it has the same result.

ladiesman8527 said:
noice! i thought about painting my exhaust like that too. i have the same system.
Yeah, I actually PM'ed you asking for a pic before I bought it. You sent me the pic. I didn't like the way it looks all stainless steel so I HAD to paint it. Most 240 exhausts look too gawdy. I wanted to make it as sleek as possible. I think it painted looks presentable. I wish the tip was nicer though. :(

Here are some more pics I took:

Here's the car after I pulled the black strip:


Here's a pic of the old shift boot:


New one installed (not in car though) with Honda shift knob:


Pics of the hotpipes, cold pipe, and turbo outlet attached to downpipe. All except the downpipe were painted that ugly azz blue!!!


Here's a pic of the SMIC. This is after I spent MANY hours trying to get that, yet again, that UGLY azz blue paint off!!! GRRRRR
 
#16 ·
May I ask where you got the shift boot from? Btw, nice project, I hope to do something similar with mine :yummy .
 
#18 ·
Hey guys,

For those who are interested, here's a quick updated: I ended up gutting the car, cleaning the floor, washed the carpet, cleaned the seats, painted the seat rails, and continued on with the rust repair.

Here are some pics:
This is right after I got the interior out:




I found this mess under the carpet:


It was wiring for an alarm that was pulled out.

Seat rail-Before:


After:


Brackets primed:


Painted:


Now here's the part that took A LOT of time.

Look at the pic in the first post. You can see the rust in that pic. Here's where I started stripping it.



After my fingers souldn't take any more sanding. Primed:


You guys know what most battery trays look like. Unfortunately, I didn't take a pic of mine. Mine was bad, just not as bad as most



Here's the finished product. You can still see some pitting from the rust. I tried my best to get it as smooth as possible. Oh well. I gotta draw the line somewhere:




Now, I have to put the engine back together. The intake manifold is off for cleaning. I need a new intake manifold gasket before I can put the engine back together. I am going to buy Nissan OEM paint to finish off the engine bay. I will do as much of it as possible, but I have to draw the line somewhere again. This project has taken too long as it is. :(

Next step is to clean up all the panels and put all of the interior back in. After that, I will pull the car into the garage and start putting the engine in.

Remaining issues with the engine:
-Install IM
-Get DOHC PS lines
-Get a replacement driveshaft. I accidentally gave away part of it by accident. :(
-Get intake filter
-Get radiator and hoses. I am going with the Volvo radiator

Once I get more progress done, I will post back.
 
#23 ·
Thanks! It's coming along. I have been able to make some progress on the car. It's going slowly but surely.

Here's what I was able to accompolish today.

Before:


Rust grinded down:


Primered:


I was able to clean the carpet, too:

Before:


After:


Seat:

Before:


After:


I can now put all of the interior back in. :dancingna

Now I need to finalize the engine bay. I need to paint it all one color. That's the main objective right now.
 
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