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By ghskid06
#216458 Got a chance to lower the car today. Got some neuspeed lowering springs that i think are actually for an integra. They were suppose to be a 1.5 inch drop but it looks closer to 2 inches or 2.25 to me. The car actually lowered a little bit more after the after picture was taken.

Heres the springs on the struts off the other car. Im pretty sure the guy told me they came off a teg, but beyond that the shocks seem to be a little shorter than my eg ones. I swapped the springs onto my shocks because i know they are good.
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Before (and my cousin the the background with his fancy spring compressor).
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After
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Here she is the day after. Lowering the rear on tuesday. Will post pics of that also. (sorry the pic is kinda crappy)
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Ran into some problems, and i wasnt able to do the back yet. One problem is that we snapped the lower bolt on the driver side rear strut (no idea how to get it out as of now, if anyone has advise send it my way). And about the same time it started raining. So my rear is still at stock height...So much for thinking the rear would be easier than the front.


Overall i think it turned out nice. Working on getting some GSR blades for the car, trading the rims that are on it for em.

After i get the back lowered ill wash the car and take some pictures.
Future plans
-Body work/paint (black)
-Front lip
-new side skirts/replace the one that fell off
-gsr blades (this or next weekend)
-stock headlights (which are sitting in my back seat)
-I guess ill probably be going turbo in the spring as well.....
Annnd thats pretty much all i can think of right now..
Last edited by ghskid06 on Thu Oct 07, 2010 1:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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By ghskid06
#217122 Started body work last night. My camera died so i called it quits and will be posting the rest later tonight. Went out to the store and got myself a nice gravity feed. I dont have a whole lot of experience painting with one so its going to be interesting. I havent ordered my paint yet, just got some primer. Considering repainting the whole car jet black so that i dont have to try and paint match. Well see how things go.

Started out by sanding down any dents with 80 grit BEFORE i sanded the rest of the panels, that way i still knew where to bondo afterwards. I dunno about anyone else but once that clear is gone its hard for me to find any dents. Other sand paper used is 230 grit, which i used to clean up the edges of the bondo and for any sanding on an area that wasnt going to be filled. For anyone who doesnt have experience with sand paper, use 300 grit to finalize the bondo.

There were no major dents anywhere, just little dings here and there, you can see one high spot where the hood was dented out for some reason. (looks like a red target on a blue hood with a metal bullseye, lol)
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Another view, you can kinda tell where the dings are as the clearcoat hasnt been sanded out of the dips yet at this point.
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Here is the hood after body filler, before sanding. My method of body work is putting more on than needed. It takes less time to sand excess than it does to apply it 2-3 times. Of course if it wasnt my DD i would probably not do it this way. (and if i had a garage).
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Sanding all the badly done blue paint off the bumper because im worried if i paint over it itll flake off. But the inserts were a pain in the butt to sand down...had to do it by hand and was done after this photo. The quality of the paintjob on the blue panels is maaco or something. Luckily the rest of the car still has its factory paint.
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Heres the hood mostly sanded and wetted down for cleaning. The drivers fender hasnt been filled yet.
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Can really see were the dents are on the drivers fender, lol. Red on either side of each dent.
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And thats where my camera died. I know its not much yet, and it stinks that i can only do so much per day, but i always have to make sure my car will be drivable the next day for class, which i have 6 days a week. There is already more work done than this that i havent taken photo's of yet because i like documenting everything and didnt want to get to far ahead. More to come later this evening.
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By ghskid06
#217126 If anyone has any input feel free. Especially in reguards to paint. Clearcoat is something ive never done and am extreemely nervous about doing :o so tips would be appreciated.
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By RPGonzos_EJ
#217191 Be patient and use even light coats for color

of course your going to want to wetsand your primer before the color and wetsand the color directly before the clear with i think 800 grit (someone correct me if im wrong).

on the clear coat you want a broader MM (1.4-1.5) tip on the gun to lay the paint on fairly quickly and a little thicker than the base paint, don't over saturate one area cause IT WILL RUN and makes it a bit more tedious to get out.

wetsand again in stages 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000 this is basically smoothing the surface and taking out any small imperfections. Than we always buff the crap out of it with a buffer and buffing compound, but its not fool proof you can jack up the job with this.

My dad always told me to wait at least a month or two before trying to wash it at a car wash with high pressure nozzles or before even laying on some car wax so that everything is FOR SURE cured and can take it.

also we have always used 3 or more coats of clear on any paint job we have done, i learned from my dad who did ALOT of painting for a body shop "back in the day" as he would say and we still continue to paint our own stuff to this day.

Other than that you just have to "DO IT" lol and not freak out if anything goes wrong ... you can ALWAYS attempt it again (after alot of removal and cleaning).

Maybe if you have some spare body panels or a beater car you can practice on before laying it direct to your car.

Of course with this method it is TIME CONSUMING, not sure if it will work well with your busier schedule :-/ ... maybe someone else can chime in with a "faster method"
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By ghskid06
#217227 -RPGonzos---
thanks for the reply. im good with primer and paint; on the clear do i still do a light first coat or do i want it thick right away? My instincts would say thick, but i dont know how clear acts when its laid thick..whether i have to worry about bubbling or orange peel?




Did some more work today and got some stuff primered. I would have been able to do the rear bumper cover and the other fender today but i ran out of primer and NOBODY has the black primer ive been using, drove around for like 2.5 hours looking. So i have to wait for it to come back in stock.

Here it is this morning before class. The frameowrk guy never called me back when he was supposed to, i think he was mad that i did most of it myself after getting a quote from him initially.
(also learned my camera darkens up alot when its really bright out for some reason)
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First thing i did this afternoon was finish sanding everything down. Then i bondo'd my driver side fender as well as a couple other dents i seem to have missed before. Resanded and cleaned with soap water and then figured out how my new gun works. Filled her up and started priming.
Sorry a couple of the pics are so dark.
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can see one of the dnets i missed on the front side of the fender where the two red spots are and no filler between them.
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(dirty, didnt wash my hands)
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Last edited by ghskid06 on Thu Oct 07, 2010 1:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
By Tugboat
#217243 i wetsand with 2000 until smooth haze then polish with some pink polish then green swirl remover (briings back shine dont know the names xD), as for primer i go 400 dry but depends on your primer, if it gums up wet 800, all i have to say cause that large post above and yes just the stuff i do differently and yeah, wish i could paint my car at home, too cheap to buy supplys xD, also what kinda black primer is that cause the only stuff i can find is grey >.>
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By RPGonzos_EJ
#217245 It's going to go on thicker than say a aresole clear ... So yea I would say it's going to look thick ... But again it will run just as easy if you saturate to much ... I think that's why my dad always told me the bigger tip ... Helps spread the wealth a bit if you know what I mean.

So I guess in a simple response go as thick as you can before it starts running or Bubbling ... It it starts bubbling or messing up we usually go even heavier carefully of course to give some volume to be able to sand it smooth

If your good with paint ... I think you will be ok ... Just have fun :-) ... And don't freak out if something happens lol
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By ghskid06
#217312
also what kinda black primer is that cause the only stuff i can find is grey >.>


Yea i had a hard time finding black. I used dupli color sandable primer. Auto Zone is the only place ive been able to find that carries it in black. Even checked wal mart and meijer, lol. I like to do everything myself. I hate that i have to take the car to the frame shop to have them adjust what i couldnt. One 22 dollar quart painted about 3 panels, and paint and clear are same price per quart. So lets say you need 4 quarts per step...12 quarts are going to cost about 260 dollars, plus another lets say 40-50 in sandpaper. I would say that you could get a nice paintjob that you did yourself for a little more than the cost of those 300 dollar special paintjobs. Only you will actually do a better job! lol.

If your good with paint ... I think you will be ok ... Just have fun :-) ... And don't freak out if something happens lol


Thanks again for the help. Ill be ok, and make sure to take lots of pics. Doing things with my hands always turns out well for me. Im always doing something ive never done before, either with cars or with my gf's parents house :D
Last edited by ghskid06 on Sun Oct 10, 2010 3:43 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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By ghskid06
#217741 First id like to say that these neuspeed springs are amazing! I think my car rides smoother now than it did with the stock springs. To my amazement though they still handle great, almost no body roll on corners.

This is the first lowered car ive owned. I have also had a slammed s-10 and an s-10 blazer. My blazer was so low that my struts would scrape the ground if the road was too slanted, i mean that litteraly, if i saw a dip coming in the road i would have to speed up so that i would have enough momentum to slide across the dip, lol. I realize that is not good for the supension yes, but i was young and didnt care.

For those of you that cringed when reading that, no worries, im not going to do that to my honda, its staying at the current drop height. Although i do still plan on getting some smaller wheels eventually.

Here it is with the back dropped, the rear is sitting slightly lower because my trunk is full of....stuff. 8)
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As you may have read i didnt lower the back right away because my rear strut mount bolt snapped on the dirvers side. I know teal dx has done a thread about burning the rubber part of the mount out, that is really the only easy way to do it. As far as getting the snapped off bolt out, i used an angle grinder and cut the metal sleeve on each side of the control arm, and then ground away the nut on each side of the strut. After that if there is still a little bit of bolt left in your strut, dont drill it out, use the torch that you are going to have on hand for the rubber and heat them up. After they are pretty hot just dump some cool water on them and they should just push out or slide out easily with a hammer. I didnt even bother trying to loosen the bolt on my pass side, i just bought two new mounts and cut the pass one off right away.


Still waiting on some black primer to come in so i can continue painting my car :x

Also i plan on doing a write up on how to change wheel studs. Let me know if there is already a write up on doing it without a press and without taking your hub off.
By EG9-ish
#217742 I ride on a set of neuspeed springs as well. They're enjoyable and ride good.
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By ghskid06
#217761
EG9-ish wrote:I ride on a set of neuspeed springs as well. They're enjoyable and ride good.


I bet they are even more enjoyable with that b16 in there! lol.
By patlsherry
#218225
EG9-ish wrote:I ride on a set of neuspeed springs as well. They're enjoyable and ride good.



x3, rides good and a nice drop....
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By ghskid06
#218789 Some more weekend fun. This is the other b7 that is getting the full rebuild. Might as well keep posting the pictures. This is being done in a little unit that has pretty much been designated the engine unit.

Gaskets and seals, rings, bearings etc.
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My first hone job (the three cylinders on the left) the hone pads broke off while honing the other cylinder so it got some extra time with the new ones.
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Again, this isnt my engine. Well, not anymore, the bottom end actually came out of my old blue sedan with bad oil rings.
Last edited by ghskid06 on Sat Nov 13, 2010 10:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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By ghskid06
#219739 Got some new wheels. Dont know what they came off of, can anyone let me know? They are super light though its nice. I actually like the look better than the old wheels.

NEW!!
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New ride height!
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Ill get some more pics later with my gf's camera, mine just darkens pictures to much when its bright.

Other news, finaly got some more black primer and continued on the body work. Front clip is done, time to start moving back. Looks like ill have to replace the front doors since the bottom edge of each is rusted pretty good, you can see it in the ride height photo.