Merlin's H22a8 '99 5th Gen

Post by **Merlin** » Fri Jul 07, 2023 9:49 am

The rear speakers are in. These 6x9's mounting holes are slightly more spaced out than the OEM speaker, so I managed to get the front two holes fastened with the OEM bolts, but I had to drill through the speaker shelf and put a nut & bolt on the rear holes. The speaker grilles needed to have the sealing ring chopped off so I could fit them.

They sound great with really punchy bass.

A teaser pic for what is coming next

89 UKDM BA4 4WS (resto job!) · Post by **wurlycorner** » Thu Jul 20, 2023 4:26 pm

That engine is amazingly quiet. Very impressive!

The calipers look super sweet. Lovely to see pistons surface coated like that. I'd be pretty uncomfortable about the pistons being opposite though (large leading on one side, small leading on the other). I'd have thought that would give uneven brake pull/wearing left-right???

Post by **Merlin** » Mon Jul 24, 2023 10:25 am

Yeah, she idles lovely now, not even any noise from the new belts.

I had the same thoughts when I discovered the differences in the calipers, but after driving the car I cannot feel anything wrong with the setup, but time may tell.

We previously noticed that both the radiator and the AC condenser were very much past their best and likely to fail soon in the future. I got the mobile AC dude to come round and suck out all my AC gas.

You can see how bad condition of the AC condenser was when compared to the new part I bought from https://www.autoairconparts.co.uk/conde ... -5265.html

Swapping the condensers over was very easy, two bolts holding it in and one bolt each for the two fittings.

While the radiator and the AC condenser were out, I took the time to take a wire brush to the bottom frame and give it all a coat of Nitromors anti-rust matt black.

No pic of the radiator, but it was in a similarly poor condition as the condenser. Instead of an OEM replacement, I went for a Mishimoto rad with fan shroud, hoses and new clips.

The new BB Alliance top radiator mounts that arrived this morning, so still need to fit them. The only issue is that they don't have the OEM bonnet stay holding clip.

Next up is new front and rear upper arms and front lower arms.

89 UKDM BA4 4WS (resto job!) · Post by **wurlycorner** » Mon Jul 24, 2023 10:33 am

Great work merlin and a nice find/solution for the rear torsion bars in case anyone else has a similar problem.

Were the autochanger and sub installed on the boot floor like that, or is that just where you placed them for the photo?

Post by **Merlin** » Mon Jul 24, 2023 10:52 am

The auto changer and sub were positioned like that, screwed through the carpet into the OEM board. I couldn't get any of it to work, so it all went in the bin.

89 UKDM BA4 4WS (resto job!) · Post by **wurlycorner** » Mon Jul 24, 2023 11:44 am

I have the official MCM Honda "In the bin" T-shirt

https://mightycarmods.com/collections/c ... -tee-shirt

I was just curious, because although that install must go back a long way, it won''t have been an oem install. Honda would never screw it to the floor and take up that much space. Not sure what the official set up for 5th gens was, but on the 4g, there's a cage that mounts to the underside of the parcel shelf and holds the autochanger?

Post by **Merlin** » Mon Jul 31, 2023 10:06 am

I just assumed it was a dealer installation.

More work on the car at the weekend. I am taking the opportunity to replace as much of the suspension as possible while I can.

New front lower control arm, top arm, and as many new nuts and bolts as I could get. The control arms are MEVOTECH ones from RockAuto, a bargain at £53 before shipping.

New rear upper arms, these were from RockAuto and way cheaper than anything we could find in the UK, even with the shipping.

89 UKDM BA4 4WS (resto job!) · Post by **wurlycorner** » Wed Aug 02, 2023 10:34 am

Nice.
One word of warning on those arms... I bought some and the ball joint boots are dogshit. They didn't last a year before they split down the centre.
I've gone back to re-using the original arms, replacing the boots over the ball joints with new oem ones and will just use the replacement inner bushes off new arms.

Post by **Merlin** » Thu Aug 31, 2023 8:53 am

Fitted the new front lower arms. Just as well as there were splits in the bushes on the old arm, but I'm not surprised considering how rusty the arm was. At the same time we took the anti-roll bar off and painted it, there was only a tiny bit of surface rust on it, and fitted new honda bushings and bushing holders, as well as a set of Blueprint drop links.

Post by **Merlin** » Mon Sep 04, 2023 11:05 am

I got my black insert headlights refurbed and fitted, as well as my clear indicators and JDM fogs.

Old in the middle, new on the outside

The car is booked in for its MOT and wheel alignment next Wednesday