Lude Generation

So this is Janey 2.2 . (BEFORE PIC)


She's my 3rd Honda Prelude over 13 years.I've had other cars in between but nothing beats a Lude.

I bought her in July this year with the aim to restore any neglected bits of the body/engine and add my own custom mods to give her a new lease of life.

It's not clear from this picture but there is bad rust spots on the sunroof , scratches all over the car and dents up the sides from car parks.The front right point of the wing has a deep scratch which has been left untreated and the paint is folding away.And there is another scratch on the other side.
Good news is I have since repaired the sunroof and stripped back the wings and sanded /resprayed the entire car.Need to give it a good coating of lacquer.I'll add the photo's of this over the weekend.


I won't be going through step by step but if anyone is interested I'll post a how to for some of the custom work I've carried out.Questions always welcome as I'm sure I'll need the same at some point ;-P

Job 1 : Install reversing camera /screen and auxiliary 7" Lcd for um ...well why not? huh ;-P




I mounted a black reversing camera on the rear bumper and ran all necessary power/signal wires to the front of the car.
For reference I decided to power the reverse camera lcd screen and the actual camera , by the reversing light 12v.
So the screen and camera will only come on when put in reverse.I don't want any drain on the battery other than when it is absolutely needed.

This is the reverse camera LCD I housed into my left speaker cover.
Screen bought on ebay , dismantled and cut away parts of speaker cover using a coping saw , some plyers and sheer determination.Secured by screws and foam pads for stability and potential shock.

Because Of the position of the screen , it is not visible from outside the car and in a perfect position for driver .Especially when looking over your shoulder.Makes good sense right ? ;-P



This is a bad pic of my right hand 7" screen which fits perfectly in that surround.I'll update this thread once I've finished.
This was before I mounted the screen to the plastic frame and added material to mask the gap.
Again cut away all un necassary plastics in there.
I don't want or need speakers in there so thought it was a good place to hide it.
Wiring is all in place and I've ran the switch to the 7" down to my center console so I can switch it on and off and plug an extra source in there if I want to.My dash needs a good dust off.lol



The cover attaches nicely over the front secured with low strength magnets.

I'll keep updating this thread as work goes on and I have extra photo's to share with you all.

Thanks for reading the story so far .

Excellent work so far bud, keep it up along with the process she's looking schweeeet!

What's the RH screen going to be for?

alinton wrote:What's the RH screen going to be for?

I'll be running a wire down from my dash cam to the screen as there is an output for a second lcd.In case I need to watch something back.Plus I have wired an input for any other device I choose to add such as in car pc/ second/third/fourth/fith camera . I just ordered a hondash connector for me ECU so I hope to display the GUI from that on the screen as well.
CHeck out Hondash here.It's awesome >> http://hondashapp.blogspot.co.uk/
I can add a switch to choose between sources.It will have many options and It looks STOCK when not in use

Very cool, nice flush fit..... Wouldn't be any good for me, my eyesight is terrible... I still want one tho..

That is a really good idea for where to put the screen tbh
Would work really well for while checking the mirror on that side etc.

Rudelude wrote:Very cool, nice flush fit..... Wouldn't be any good for me, my eyesight is terrible... I still want one tho..

I'll tell you mate ,I don't need a reversing camera for parking. The only reason I have one is in case some little kid ran out behind my car anytime.It can happen.Apart from that it looks awesome even if you can't see that far haha

wurlycorner wrote:That is a really good idea for where to put the screen tbh
Would work really well for while checking the mirror on that side etc.

Yeah I liked it so thought.fukit. let's start cutting stuff up lol.

In my last Prelude I mounted a small screen behind the dash visor .right of the clock.Worked quite well but ends up tinted by the visor , so difficult to see when it's sunny

It is a good place for a little screen; In mine I've fitted the iPhone holder there though, and the speaker for the car kit lives behind there with the tweeter.

Reversing cams are very handy - mine is mounted above the number plate, and displays on my Eonon head unit. I'm assisted by the rear parking sensors I also fitted into the rear bumper - just in case I really can't be bothered to turn around and look while reversing.

I like the idea of mounting a screen behind the smoked plastic - I believe there was a JDM option of a TV screen behind there - but when I've looked I can't see where one would go!

Onto Job 2: Install Vtec dash light into spare slot behind visor

This took me way longer than I wanted mainly because it got dark ;-P .Job time was 3 hrs with very little prep time.
Finished photo's will be uploaded tomorrow as I still need to put a few screws back and dust off ;-P


Parts needed
*A couple of meters of wire
*cutting blade
*Stubby philips screw driver
*Electric screw Driver
*Small bulb ...Ebay search for { BULB 12v 5w T10 } or smaller
*coloured plastic
*Vtec text on white paper

Remember to disconnect your battery ground cable before commencing...

Ok so the purpose of this light is to display a sweet little friendly blue Vtec symbol on the dash whenever the Vtec is engaged.There are tutorials out there so I'm going to skip through alot of the steps but have included some photo's for all you inquisitive ones out there .

I have a 4th gen dash with visor which I love to bits so I want it to look as STOCK as possible.


We're going to need to dismantle and remove the warning/dash light unit behind here ....Take care unplugging the green connectors.




Flip over this assembly and start removing all the visible screws to gain access to the light bulb chambers and display plastic/graphic. This would be a good time to put your new bulb in the chamber and run 2 X 1 meter lengths of wire from connectors on the bulb out through the whole.


I like to use a scalpol for this kind of job.I needed to roughly cut out one of the UNUSED blanks.It does'nt need to be perfect as the the edges will be hidden when you re assemble it .

Take a piece of coloured plastic ( this a4 binder was perfect to chop up .
You will need to also place a piece of white paper with your Vtec text BEHIND the plastic and add a couple of spots of glue to keep it in place .


After re assembly it looks like this ... For those wondering.. you could print your VTEC text if you have access to a printer.I chose to hand draw mine as I was poorly prepared for this job and running out of daylight ;-P


Well that was fun now for the 12v Vtec signal.

Under my passenger side carpet is my ECU. After unbolting the metal foot plate I could gain access to the wire loom

We'll be tapping into the green/yellow A4 wire

Handy wire diagram...





You will need to drop one of the bulb wires across the left of your dash and down behind the left hand speaker cover to splice with [ A4 ( Vtec Solanoid at ECU) .And the other bulb wire to a good ground .It did'nt seem to matter which wire I used but double check the bulb wiring with the one you buy.

I would strongly recommend testing your light with a 12v source BEFORE hooking to your ECU to a:Make sure your setup works and looks right & b: avoid accidental damage/fire/heart ache when you fry your ECU ;-P

Someone's been here before...


And here it is lit up.So much dust!! Starting to think my camera lens could do with a clean ;-P .

I've since taken it for a drive and light comes on when it should.
I might make another in the future with white lettering direct on the plastic to match the other warning lights. We'll see...

Any questions feel free to ask. This turned into more of a howto oops.Maybe if I took less pics I would have got the job finished before it got dark haha.