so this is my 3rd FD in 4 years. not sure whats wrong with me but here it is. the goal with this car is just to own it, maintain it and basically clean it up. its a diamond that needs some polishing and i am looking to do just that. i will not be keeping this car for very long and i will be selling it so this thread will also be a good way to document everything for the new owner.

long story short, this car was owned by a few amazing people that did great things with it. well the PO got it and kept to that trend but then proceeded to part it out. it was saved as a shell from the person i got it from and he brought it back from the brink of death. i now own it and am going to to finish what he started with bringing back this beautiful 99 to its original glory.

i just picked up the car a couple days ago and it is without "jci" or "shaken". its just a 2 year safety inspection basically. since the car has been deregeistered the current jci that was on became void. the first thing i need to do is get the jci done before i can proceed with anything. but this is how it looks as i bought it. the interior still needs to be assembled and i can get a few pictures of that later.

enjoy..........

 

This will be a fun one to watch!

Is the car an automatic? I see the resistor pack by the fan relays.

Dale

 

it was an automatic. it was converted by the last last last owner.

 

And to think, the little **** head who put that car in it's sorry state in the first place still has the nerve to come here and slang parts.

 

Its insulting....... but life has its way of regulating. I dont let it bother me. Im just going to pick up the pieces and move on. The next owner will take care of this car.

 

So ive got all the parts needed for jci and will start putting the car back together tomorrow. Im hoping to get this car plated next week. I'll have more pictures and updates tomorrow.

 

so i started putting the car back together to get it inspection ready...
i had to swap a headlight and install a headlight. i put this nice set in




i got the engine bay back together a little bit. its actually complete now. the only thing left mechanically is figuring out why i cant shift when the car is on. when looking through the inspection hole i can see the fork moving as the pedal is pressed but the end of the fork is somehow....... gone. not entirely sure if thats the reason why but i will be troubleshooting. if i cant figure it out then i have a spare transmission to swap in.


i got the tail light thing off. the exhaust has been swapped to a more "stock" set up but i havent got a picture of that. more to come later. i actually got a lot done that i havent taken pictures of. i'll have more pictures and stuff this weekend.

 

so the car is pretty much done and ready for inspection... there are a couple super minor things left. tuesday is the day that it will go through the line and im hoping to pass on my second try. im expecting to fail for something stupid. im replacing that tail light set up with some normal 99s. im really not a fan of these big cover things.

 

Nice

 

Sup gay boy.

Sup other black gay boy

 

so i ran the car through inspection and super failed as expected. the biggest thing i was hit on was the AT to MT swap not being documented. well in order to pass i need to get that done and its a 3 week process. in that time, i will be fixing all the things they failed me for with the biggest being emissions. the interior is back together, not entirely how i want it but it is back together. i was borrowing that nice blitz smic for inspection and had to give it back.

 

a nice set of Sakebomb HID's will round out that cars lighting!

def needs a good wet sand and polish.

 

well i plan on getting the whole car touched up at the body shop. the paint on this car used to be what dreams were made of. its been sitting in the sun and unwashed for quite some time so the paint has suffered. as far as lighting goes, i most likely will get something to put on here. maybe some HWL or EVO-R. if not, then a projector retrofit. since this car is destined to be sold, i have to be careful how much i put into it.

 

Makes sense. some DEPO's or other aftermarket housings should suffice then.

 

that was the plan lol

 

She's coming back together nicely mike, you can build them from the ground up by now right lol

 

Thanks man. I really think if i had a shell i could put the entire car together. It would probably take a long *** time but i think i could do it. There aren't very many parts to these cars.

 

Good luck! Looking forward to updates on this car as well.

 

did some jci stuff today. im gonna check on the kaizo stuff next week to see where its at.
replaced the uca boots and put on stock suspension. the car is sitting sky high right now. absolutely obnoxious... more on that tomorrow. i got a late start today and ran into a couple issues putting the suspension on. ive never installed stock suspension on an fd before. getting the control arms and everything to extend down low enough to fit that SUPER long shock in there was difficult. so many parts had to be removed...

 

got more today and the car is basically ready to go back through the line... the only thing left is a tie rod boot that i just noticed and an exhaust gasket. i got a intercooler duct and shroud to complete the engine bay. the bur9 plugs are out and the bur7 are in. the reverse lights work now thanks to will.

i feel kind of stupid for this but if you look at the past pictures i posted of the engine bay, i had the air pump routed mega wrong. well i fixed that along with the other hose from the split air pipe. a bike shop had 2 of these breather filters that i was able to mod to fit. i also found 3 slow leaks: oil filter pedestal, the crush washers from the oil line coming from the oil pedestal and the oil return for the turbo on both ends. all easy to fix.

 

soooo..... kaizo stuff is done and over with. the car ran through the line again and failed..... again. they only got me for emissions and my headlight brightness this time. those leaks are taken care of and in the course of fixing them another was found. the power steering reservoir is leaking from somewhere. no idea where. im guessing the thing has a crack in it somewhere. not to worried about it since its so minor and leaks so little. so for this emissions thing, its sitting at 7.xx on their sniffer and i need to be between 1 and 3 from what they told me. i went ahead and got z from japans wideband set up and i have the datalogit and all that installed and ive been tinkering with the fuel map. ive been reading my *** off so i dont blow my **** up and im pretty sure i have the idle thing figured out. JUST idle.

im able to get the afr to go rich and lean as i please. at idle it literally sits in 1 cell and doesnt move. the map tracer is almost dead still. ive been messing with that cell and was able to richen/lean the afr. no idea if this is going to help but i dont see why it wouldnt. since im at this point i may as well go ahead and learn how to do this. from what i am reading so far when tuning for driveabitlity and safety, i should just be messing with fuel to get it where it should be. the issue now is i have no idea where that is. how do i figure out what the afr should be for xyz? how would i figure out what my target afr is for idle/cruising/boost/normal driving? is it just shooting for the lowest knock reading or what?

as things are going though, the car will be passed this week. theres a few things im going to try for this headlight nonsense but in the grand scheme of things, its petty and should be pretty simple to get to pass.

 

I like builds like this. Bringing it back from the brink of death isn't easy, I couldn't imagine having to worry about emissions on top of everything else. Keep fighting the good fight.

PS I'd check out the little rubber 90 on the bottom of the power steering reservoir.

 

Looks like a good project, and we're sure you'll give this car a good home

 

just for some closure.... this car was parted out and the chassis junked. the motor blew and due to certain circumstances this was the only possible outcome.... it was i who took it apart. i ended up selling the car before i left japan and ~year later the motor blew with the new owner. i bought it back and when i went to visit recently i parted it out and kept all the parts then the shell met its fate. its depressing but....... this is how things are in okinawa.

 

R.i.p.