On April 30, 2008, I sold my Evo. I had about $5000 leftover after the private party paid off my loan on the car. My intentions were to buy another daily driver to replace the 240sx, which I wanted to sell at the time.

4/30/08:


If my desires/needs necessitated, I would get another new-ish car with financing or something. Turns out, I really enjoyed not having a car payment, but I was still used to having 2 cars. Time to look for another car.

So I kind of started looking for cars when one of my GF's childhood friends (Ryan) told us he got a newish BMW 3 series. I suddenly asked "What did you do to your integra?!", and he said "I sold it, but its still at my house." Couple weeks go by, and I run into Ryan again, and ask "Is the teg still at your house?" and he goes "The buyer is laggin, you want to buy it?"

I say "I'll pick it up at your earliest convenience, I have the cash right now."

A few days later, I had a 1997 Acura Integra GS 5 Speed with about 162k miles on the odometer. Ryan sold the car to me for relatively cheap, not only because I'm a friend/family, but the car needed some much needed help. Also, the car had been in a couple of fender benders, but was not totalled/salvaged.

I really wish I took photos of the car in its original state in which I purchased it from Ryan, but I didnt have a camera on me and my phone was dead. The car had been sitting for a couple of months collected dirt and dust. I had to drive the car home, but I couldnt see through the windows so the first thing i did was rinse the car off with lots of water. Then I had to go to vegas the next day. so no pics.

Pic of virgin (to my hands/tools/cleaning supplies) engine bay. i think i may or may not have changed the battery at this point though.
I hadnt touched a thing on the car yet in this picture..stupid me didnt take pictures of the whole car.



Here's a few a couple days after one of its first car washes.





Once I settled back in after a crazy bachelor party weekend in Vegas, I was able to analyze the car a bit closer. All the functions of the car worked - windows rolled up and down, sunroof open/closed, power steering, abs, cruise control, and most importantly to me, AC was cold (for an integra at least). The replica ITR lip was held on by tap screws which had already ripped through the bumper, the front bumper corners werent held in place by anything. Various scratches and blemishes all over the car. most of the damage was to the front bumper though.

Things that had to be addressed immediately after I came back from Vegas:
Leaking Radiator, low tire pressures, dead battery, nasty exhaust leaks, grinding brakes, various fluids, abysmal interior condition, etc.

First things first (over the next few weeks of course):
Battery and Radiator - no pics of battery but who cares.
Here's the old radiator with patch fix



Ryan LOVED this car, but his 80-90 hour work week with a full time bank job and nighttime DJ at various popular LA clubs prevented him from being able to work on this car.

First Oil change:

You can see the completely torn CV boot. add another thing to address to the list of to-do's: Axles.

Brakes:


I dont think I pictured the rears, because they're just brakes, nothing special.

Thats it for part 1. I didnt realize making a build thread takes so much time. I'll post more really soon.

 

nice congrats..keep us posted..

 

not bad, i would love to have no car payments right now, only 2 years left, hoping to get ahead of myself and make double payments to finish it up by july, would be SOOO nice haha, financially,cant do it asof now, keep us posted on how it turns out, make that car scream

 

Thanks guys!

Making this thread now, I really wish I took more pictures, but its hard when you're in "Get this crap done now" mode. and I really dont want to bust out the SLR with dirty ass hands and what not, so please excuse the lack of composition and whatever else needed for fancy pictures.

I was at work when I did the first post...here's Part 2
I replaced the mickey mouse'd radiator with a factory Koyo replacement, using Honda Type 2 coolant of course. OEM fluids ftw.

New Brakes/Pads/Shims/Fluid front and rear:







All right, so I can drive the car without it potentially overheating and can actually safely stop the car. Two steps closer!

Heres a rear profile shot showing the Jose' exhaust which I really had to replace but for the time being I had a muffler shop weld up the resonator which had rusted itself loose which was caused a nasty leak and nasty rattling.


Now to attack the interior. Remember, time is a luxury Ryan doesnt have much of.




















The shift knob I swapped out because thats something of a "personal" touch on the car to me. I chose the weighted skunk2 knob. The GF should have that pic somewhere. Also, you can see the french fry in the shift boot. it was because of this french fry, I decided to name the car "French Fry".

EDIT: found pic on GF's computer


Objectives of that day/week were:
shampoo floormats/carpet to see what stains can be removed
take out obsolete stereo head unit and EQ
clean center console
remove pep boys pedals
remove shift light

 

Shit dude, good work so far. I love these projects... I hope to post a thread like this myself maybe by next summer

Nice wheels too

 

Looks like an easy enough project.. You could turn that car around in a week. As for the upholstery, I'd take it to an upholsterer and have them just re wrap in cloth. Shouldn't be more than 5-700 for both front and back.

PS.. I hope you feel special mang 'cause this is the first non basement post I've made in forever!

 

haha thanks, but technically they're not mine, and one of them is bent on the inner lip causing it to lose air. i've already replaced them with something...unexpected.

I've already addressed the interior...but will post pics sooon. yeah i do feel special! haha

 

ibspinners :rick:

 

crap, there goes my cover shhh spinnnaazzz

here goes the center console cleaning:
start by removing the parts...







Pretty dirty, huh?

Start cleaning..



A little type R action

Head unit plus wiring - replacing it with my old excelon unit that i had originally purchased for my first integra, then put in the evo, then the 240sx, then in this integra. the plan here was to remove all the wiring for the amps/subs. they sounded like they were probably blown. I didnt get pictures of it, but the wiring to the amps was pretty odd. i think they used household electrical wire (the stiff clothes hanger type wire).



no butt connectors here :happy:

 

You have disgusting friends! That car is a tragedy on the inside.

Why not look for some itr rears and rewrap the fronts?