Hmm I guess it is time for me to put up some pictures of what has been going on, I've been slacking lately and haven't done much. But today I got some work done. Pull the entire suspension off the drivers side front. Taking the lca in to work and pressing in my new bushings, putting the new sway bar bushings in, and also going to see if the ES upper control arm bushings will fit in my Blox arms, I'm assuming they will.

Here are some pics.

I start working on something then get bored or annoyed then start a different project somewhere else, which is why there's little clusters of all different things going on lol.


The motor still on the dolly. I need to still drill the broken bolt out. I don't want to take it apart really since I want to sell it. Everything was off it but I just reattached everything to make sure I had it all and knew where it went.


LCA off. Bushings could use a refresher. Came out easy though.


The rest of the suspension. Hopefully buying some ARP extended studds off a guy off HT and I'll throw those in. My car needed brakes so bad... the pads are splitting really bad, and I took a piece out of the rotor from hitting it with the hammer to get it loose. I doubt they are past the point of being able to salvage them on the brake lathe, oh well.


A whole lot of nothing here. That wiring on the side is so ugly... needs to be redone so bad.


And the bay as it sits.


And I know nobody will probably ever see it, but I like going the extra step and painting all the pieces. A $3 can of rust preventing paint from Wal Mart gets the job done, and even though it isn't seen I know it looks better than it did.


And my newest addition to my tool arsenal. A Milwaukee (representing ftw) 18v li-ion impact and drill. $200 on ebay and is AMAZING. Most people at work have the Makita version, but that is over $300. The impact is very strong, 1400 in lbs (over 100 ft/lbs) of torque, which is the same as the Makita. Only difference is Makita charges quicker and is much quieter. I used the drill today to drill out a bolt I snapped inside the car and it is boss aswell, really fast drill and worked really good. HIGHLY recommend these to everyone, best $200 I've spent in a while, battery life is awesome too.

 

Alright, first of all I am currently trying to sell my full y8 swap. I've got a guy with a b18 out of a 99 Integra, 120k on it, t belt and water pump done, crashed the Teg, has video of it running and turning the wheels, $400 for the engine no trans, I can probably talk him down a little bit. I really want this so hopefully the y8 goes.

I worked on the bushings in the front lca at work yesterday, TOTAL BITCH. I DON'T RECOMMEND DOING BUSHINGS UNLESS YOU NEED THEM OR PAY SOMEONE ELSE. I'm doing it myself so i I'll deal with it since it is free, but it is terrible. The big bushing that has a bracket go over it in the back of the lca is easy, just popped that right out. But the 2 bushings inside the lca are total ****. The rubber doesn't like to let go, and the outer metal shell gets corroded to the lca itself. To get the rubber out we had to oxy acetelene the lca til the rubber started to melt and push it out, which then left the stupid outer shell. So I heated the lca pretty much red hot again and barely got that out with the press. 1 of 2 were done... I pressed out the second bushing inside. But the second bushing has a stupid metal lip on one side, so you can't brace it well on the press. So for this one I had to resort to beat it out manually. I spent 45 minutes tonight just to get it out. I now know how to get it out a lot quicker, will be nice for the other side. Take a chisel to the lip on the one side to break it loose, then on the other side just get it to start folding in, then take a socket that fits inside (15/16" for me) and just pound that sob out. Took a while but I got it and put the poly bushings in. The lube energy provides is so insanely thick, gloves are a must, otherwise it'll take like 5 times washing your hands to get it off. All that is left on the lca is I have to clean up some threads and I am going to paint it. I'm glad I have my Matco punches and chisels, because I don't think cheap chisels and **** would have lasted with the pounding they took, all the tips are still pointy and sharp .

I also bought some ARP extended wheel studs off Honda Tech today, guy never used em, paid $25 for the 8. So these will hopefully get here early next week so I can press the hub out and put them in and put the suspension on this side back together.


1/2 of the lca


This is the stupid shell I had to pound out, you can see one side has a lip and the other doesn't.


And I had to pound that out of this hole.



The holes all sanded out and cleaned up.


And the new bushings are in!

 

is that the hand of a 12 year old girl holding that lca in the last picture? Lmao, just kidding. nice work man. sounds like it was a real PITA

 

Nice work man. Keep it up!

If those were metal sleeves the bushings were encased in, I can imagine how much a PITA it was. When I did my rear LCAs, I burned/ripped out the rubber, then cut the metal sleeve with a saw-zall carefully and the metal sleeve came out easily. Then pressed new bushings in.

 

Yea I hacksawed a slit in the outter metal shell but once it was out I saw I didn't cut all the way through like I thought.

Just waiting on my wheel studs to come and then I'll be done with this 1/4 of my suspension. Once everything goes back in I'll put the new polyurethane tie rod and ball joint boots on and the sway bar bushing, then all it will need are brakes.

 

Took some measurements and it looks like the Energy poly bushings will fit in the Blox arms fine, so I'm going to press them out at work this week, maybe tomorrow since I'm there all day or Saturday, my boss isn't always happy when I'm on the clock and working on my own suspension parts lol. When I burned/press/hammered out my bushings last week I was doing it at work while on the clock, was the best hour I got paid for haha.

Also, give me your opinions people!!!
https://www.hondacivicforum.com/foru...605#post748605

 

Based off the votes it is between gold and purple. Picking up some purple paint (same I used on my valve cover last time) and going to paint a section of the bay to see if I like it.

I'm waiting for my extended studs to get here, then I can put all my suspension back on, and start working on the bay. I need it to have a wheel on it again so I can roll it in the middle of the garage on dollies to do some welding.

I've got the lca painted, looks new again lol. Tomorrow I'm going to paint the wheel well black and I need to weld a patch over a hole I cut in the subframe. I'll probably bolt the lca in right away and get that bitch ready to have everything else in and preloaded. Have to take my uca in to work one of these days and press the bushings out/in too...

 

Well my attempt to press the bushings out of the Blox upper contral arms utterly failed. The metal sleeve is supposed to stay, and the poly bushings go in it. Well, the whole sleeve decided to come out. And the rubber doesn't want to come out at all, so I gave up. The bushings are fine so for now I'm not going to worry about it... just don't tell anyone that I kept rubber bushings on the car :P.

Here's the sleeve that came completely out.

And where the sleeve came out of.


And I put the suspension pieces back in, bolts are only hand tight, waiting to be preloaded. Waiting on my extended studs... I will be pressing my hub out at work tomorrow. With the suspension pieces painted black it looks so new a fresh... I wish.

And you can see the hole in the last picture that I had to cut out. The torque mount nuts that are welded inside the subframe broke free of their welds on me so I had to cut a hole so I could get a wrench in there and hold them while undoing them. So I tack welded a piece of metal over the hole and spray painted it black, problem solved.


I welded up a few holes yesterday. I did a few on the upper radiator support. It was really annoying filling in the holes when there is no nut or anything to really build a weld up on so I got smart. I took some roofing nails we had and fed it up through the hole and tack welded it in place. I then cut the nail pat of the nail off, and filled in the weld around. That way I have the head of the nail to use as a base to weld on, making it 1000000000x easier to build the weld on. It can be done without it obviously, I did one that way and it just takes longer since you have to build around the hole, let it cool, build more, let it cool, and so on. Can't stay in the same place very long, the thin metal warps easily.


And I changed my mind on color choice again. I bought purple yesterday, and you are supposed to use the glitteryish silver base primer that you buy, which I've always thought looked sweet. If you saw my poll thread, it is the same silver that was on that valve cover. So I think I might go with that, since it has the little specks of sparkly **** in it, it would look really especially in sun light.

 

Alright got my extended studs today! Pressed the hub out at work and put the studs in.

Here's the new ARP's in their package.

And the ARP extended stud vs the normal length oem stud.

All the studs in the hub.

Wheel bearing all lubed up. The inner race stayed on the hub, so hopefully my wheel bearing will be okay. Either it will be fine and not have an issue or the bearing will take a dump on me within a matter of monthes.

And with it all put together.

My ghetto rigged open end lugs. Took the cheap lugs I had and drilled the tops out on them so they can go all the way down on the studs.

And with the wheel mounted. They don't look as long as they are because these wheels have center caps to go over the studs, so on rims like I plan on getting it'll show their length a lot better.

AndI'm not sure if I ever put up pics of my intake. Had my friend run it through the hot parts washer at his dealership for me. Cleaned it up pretty well, his only sprays hot solvent, not tank, so it isn't super shiney. But definitely looks better.

And you can really see how clean it is inside, the plenums are spotless.

 

Id be careful with those drilled out lugs, couldn't they crack? keep an eye on them.