25th June 2007
I guess I'd better do a proper update, rather than my quite brief and cryptic post of Friday night!
Basically,
the Prelude is back on the road!
However, that's not to say I didn't have some drama!
On Friday morning I got up early, and took the wheels & Toyo tyres to my dad's work, so the tyres could be fitted, and the wheels balanced.
I also had to go and pick up my front bumper, driver's wing mirror and driver's door handle from the bodyshop. Thankfully before I did this I checked the new insurance certificate for the Prelude (I'd done a change-of-car), and they had started the insurance on the Prelude from 00:01 on the Friday - rather than midday when I'd asked. They also wouldn't provide me any overlap between the two cars, without charging me £43 for the privilege of a week's overlap, hence why I asked for 12pm - so it gave me the morning to run around and pick up things like the bumper! Luckily I have Drive Other Cars cover - so I was able to borrow my dad's Shogun (which has wasn't too pleased about, but could hardly deny me!) to go and pick them up, and get a numberplate and load-balance resistor for the LED indicators, to stop them flashing too fast!
When I got back from the bodyshop with the bumper (which they carried out to and put in the Shogun), I took it out of the boot - but it was a bit light - they hadn't given me the metal support bar - which meant another 40 minute round-trip to get it.
Luckily, JohnnyB then turned up to lend a hand, as he'd booked Friday morning off work in case he needed it to do his clutch & flywheel, but he didn't, so he decided to give me a hand instead
As soon as he turned up, I turned him straight back around and he went to collect the bumper bar, and lunch!
He returned a little bit later, and then helped by attaching the front bumper to the car, cutting out my driver's door card for the puddle light, taping up the rest of the plastic in the doors, and refitting the door card. There were also other little odds and sods he did such as cleaning my leather seats (where they'd been sat in the garage for 7 months they'd got various paint overspray and dust all over them), and swapping the seat belt clips from the donor car's seats to mine, and then fitting the seats, passing me tools etc. All little bits that would have taken me an extra few hours to do, and would have probably made me too late for the MOT!! So, an extra special thanks to JohnnyB, as without his help on the Friday I wouldn't have been finished in time
As I mentioned before, I had a sticky brake caliper on the nearside rear, so this needed to come off. However, one of the bolts that held the handbrake cable to the caliper had seized up, and my attempts to remove it just ended up rounding the head of the bolt. So, I decided I'd just take the whole caliper and handbrake cable off, and use the cable from the donor. So, I did. I removed everything from both cars, poked the cable from the donor through into the inside of mine, ran it back to the rear wheel and attached the new caliper & handbrake cable, and then built up the rear end again. I then went inside the car to hook the cable to the handbrake lever. Only I failed to do so - because the cable was 4" too short. Oh dear...! The pre-facelift donor car has the handbrake further back than my facelift car... So, I had to remove the donor's handbrake cable again, then try to remove the bolt from the original caliper/cable. A combination of brute force with a slightly smaller impact socket, a hammer, and a bit of heat from a blow-torch, and my dad managed to get the bolt out, and the cable was reinstalled to the car! Not something I really wanted, as it took me lots of extra time in order to mess around with all this!
I also had to refit my cat, as I'd previously put a de-cat pipe in it's place.
My BMC CDA is rather larger than the ones other Prelude owners have, and they struggled to fit theirs, so I had to bodge my old eBay-special filter onto my OEM intake pipe - a little duck tape came in very handy then! Hopefully I can figure out some way of fitting my BMC CDA and improve the intake filter to one of the best available for a Prelude!
Once all the little bits were done, I was able to take it down for it's MOT. The emissions test was a little nerve-racking - the cat hadn't been used for nearly a year so took some time for it to warm up and decide to do what it's supposed to do, but it did come down. It did unfortunately fail it's MOT
The offside headlight aim was too high, and the nearside was aimed too high and too far to the right. This was fixed on site, aim re-tested and an MOT pass was issued!
JohnnyB then took me off to the nearest Post Office to get tax. I however was a muppet and forgot to get my V5C out of my bag, so we had to go back to my dad's to get it. Second time lucky, I managed to produce all the required documentation, and the road tax was purchased. Another £180 to line Gordon Brown's pockets (well, either him, or whoever is taking over his old job now he's about to become Prime Minister...!)
Once I'd got back, I started to re-fit some more of the interior trim, but it was then soon time to leave so I could get to my girlfriend's for us to start making our move towards Japshow
I put the car on the PreludeUK stand, and spent most of the weekend showing people my lights!
The members of PreludeUK voted mine as runner-up in the Best Modified Overall and Best In Show categories - greatly appreciated awards, as it was voted by over 30 Prelude owners and enthusiasts
Now, some piccies that I took of it on Friday, and some of my lights from the weekend
