ChineseSpoon's 98 LX Coupe

ChineseSpoon

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Hello everyone I am back, some of you might remember me from a few months ago when I posted in the Introduce Yourself forum. I have been working on and learning from this car since high school.
Been busy working on the car the past few months but never got the chance to post up on here about it so I'd thought I'd make a new thread.

Be prepared for an image dump of progress over the past 4 or so months, but first specs.

1998 Honda Accord LX coupe 5MT in Flamenco Black Pearl



These Pics were taken Fall 2016.

Engine/Transmission
Original F23A1 and trans with 164k miles on it
eBay Short Ram Intake

Exterior
eBay OEM style blacked out headlights
8000k 35w HID kit
Blacked out window trim with plasti dip
hood and trunk wrapped with 3M carbon fiber vinyl wrap (Done by previous owner but I kept it on as it looks better than the failed clear coat over these areas)
eBay "JDM" mesh grille
BaysonR OEM replica full lip kit (Painted on 2/4/17)

Suspension/wheels/Brakes
Manzo lowering springs on factory struts (Very cheap, do not recommend. Had them for about 25-30k miles now. The ride is okay and the car is lowered about 2 inches but does not sit level.)
XXR 527s in Chromium Black 17x8.25 +25 on 205/50r17 tires
Muteki SR48 lug nuts
Legend GS Caliper swap (finished 3/17/17)
Rear drum to disc brake swap (3/17/17)
Goodridge stainless steel lines all around (3/17/17)

Interior/electronics
Tomei 70mm shift knob
Rockford Fosgate 6.5" door speakers and 6x9s for the rear
10" JBL sub in a ported box
"2400w" acoustic audio mono block amp
some pioneer head unit from the early 2000s
Cloth to leather full interior swap (1/2/17)

Future plans
-new motor (Piston rings are gone, insane smoke in the higher RPMs. Haven't been driving it much due to this. The weather over here is finally decent enough to work on things, so this will be happening in the next couple weeks or so)
-Clutch kit (Replacing with an Exedy OE replacement clutch kit with a Fidanza lightweight flywheel)
-Function and Form type 1 Coilovers (a proper setup that will replace what I have now, seems to be pretty popular and I hear good things about them)
-Morimoto H1 projector retrofit for my OEM headlights
-Repaint the whole car
-Short shifter (leaning on the JTC customs Short Shifter Ultimate Kit, if anyone could chime in on some cheaper alternatives it would be appreciated.)
-exhaust system
-Possibly new wheels, depends on if I stay 4 lug or not
-rebuild and turbo the current motor (For sure wont be any time soon, still have a lot to research and save for.)

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Leather interior swap (1/2/17)
Was out at the local Pick-n-Pull late December with a friend when I noticed a Black v6 coupe that just came on the lot a couple days before. The leather interior was in great condition and in the spur of the moment we picked it up.
I also pulled the front bumper cover to replace mine as it was the same color and in better condition.
For around $200, (cant remember exactly what I paid, it was a few months ago) I scored leather front and rear seats, door panels, arm rest, rear side panels, and a front bumper cover.

All interior pieces shown, other than the door panels and arm rest. Only major wear was on the driver's seat.
I sewed together the separated part from the bottom of the seat cushion with fishing line so it looks better. Only other issue is with the chunk of fabric missing from the seat cover.
Doesn't really bother me much so I left it but i might find time to go sew in a patch of leather that matches over the spot.



Also swapped the driver side seat rail from automatic to manual (thanks to a guide from Alpha_Onion!)




Here's everything fully installed:




--------------------------------------------------------------------

Lip Kit Painting (2/4/17)
Painted my lip kit on this day. Got tired of having the unpainted look so I picked up a couple cans of Duplicolor Nighthawk Black Pearl
and sprayed it on with clear. It came out pretty bad as it was cold out (Midwest February) and I got impatient. It looks fine to me
as the NHBP matches my factory paint close enough. (keep in mind that I am by no means skilled in painting haha)

Disassembly



Cleaned and sanded



Painting



I couldn't find any pics of the finished results from when I reinstalled the kit, but Ill take some photos later and upload them.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Brake system overhaul (3/17/17)
So towards the end of last year, I noticed that my brakes were squeaking when I came up to red lights and such.
Narrowed it down to the rear shoes being glazed over with very little braking material left on them. Rather than replace the ugly drum brakes,I thought that I should upgrade to a rear disc setup.
With the info I gathered from the super helpful 5 lug and rear disc swap guide by BlkCurrantKord, I began ordering parts.

The knuckles I initially wanted to get from a junkyard locally but everything here in the Midwest has been exposed to so much salt so all my choices were rusted.
I ended up ordering from a salvage parts seller on eBay from Central California. Calipers, rotors, pads, e-brake cables, and brake lines I also ordered online so basically everything was new.


For piece of mind I thought I should replace the fronts too, so I ended up upgrading to the Legend GS dual piston calipers. Got drilled/slotted rotors and pads all around from Powerstop mainly for looks.



Install pics (more on my Photo Bucket):






Before/After shots:








Overall very happy with this upgrade, the difference between my old and new brake set up is night and day but its hard to tell what upgrade did the most as I did everything at once. Most importantly I got rid of the issue with my brakes squealing at stop lights!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Engine swap (month of April and probably continuing onto May 2017)
Been preparing to get a new motor for the Accord to fix this ridiculous smoking issue from the piston rings.
I plan on getting an F23A motor that has been imported from Japan, but am still deciding on who to order from. I also might run Innovative Mounts on this car
but I have not decided if I really want to due to the fact that the mounts I have currently show no real signs of cracking/age/deterioration.
Here is what I have purchased so far, mainly from Rock Auto and eBay:



Thanks for reading, stay tuned for more updates!
 

604ACCORD

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Wow lots of progress man car looks good. I'll be ordering a jdm F23 soon (well once I blow mine up) I found a sister company to LA JDM motors, they are in Montreal they quoted me 800 CAD shipped to my door which I think is a pretty descent price.
 

dawg316

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love your taste. car looks like its done right and not over the top
 

Rusty Accord

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Looks good. I like seeing F23 mods. The disc conversion looks good too. :)
 

Blazinqwickly

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I am with Rusty on this one, converting to disk is always nice, glad it's getting some maintenance attention .
 

penielsalazar

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It looks nice . Is coming along pretty good .
Guys I have a question I have been searching for days now , can the Rl caliper swap be done in 4 lugs ? The Gl swap looks good but the Rl with the bigger caliper and acura logo it look sweet...
Canada here
 

capsidx

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I'm not sure why but I love this coupe almost as much as redryders lol. The wheels look great with the setup and almost look like Honda should have made similar OEM wheels. Nice job. Looking forward to the updates man.

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