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SR Citizen

3rd Gen_ 
44K views 437 replies 29 participants last post by  Glenn 
#1 ·

I bought it November 8, 2014 with 177k km on it.

It appears to have been maintained quite well and I hope to continue that as much as possible, though it will be daily driven in all weather.

All the shiny bits will be coming off my old car. As of now, the car is completely stock except the wheels and the '90s vinyl graphic. Those are literally the only two things I've been able to find that are not OEM (or OEM style wear items).
I have it on winter tires already, and it will stay at stock height this winter. In spring it'll get new bushings and all the suspension parts I have on hand ready to transform it into a corner carver.

"SR" is a Canadian trim level that's pretty much the same as Si. This car has a B21A1, 5-speed, illuminated keyholes, AC, and power windows (but manual locks).
 
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#4 · (Edited)
That vinyl isn't going anywhere until I see how it looks when the car is lowered. I do like a clean car but who am I to remove 20-something-year-old graphics?

That being said, other stuff has started changing.
A last look at the stock interior.

Pulled the stereo and shifter out.

Stock shifter on left, Mustardcat short shifter on right.
Installed with Password JDM shift knob and boot, and a modern stereo.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Thanks ludeman. Hazwan, sorry for the reminder. :lol: I feel young because I don't really remember the time when these graphics were popular.

I had a Canadian Tire gift card, so I picked up some new headlights last night. On my other car, I was using Sylvania Silverstars, but they got fried when the voltage regulator died. I liked them, but decided to try GE Nighthawks instead this time around. They're rated for 150 hours instead of 100.

The output seems a bit more yellowish and possibly not quite as bright as the Silverstars. But hey, 50% more longevity.

Nighthawk (left), Whatever generic H6054 came with the car (right).
 
#8 ·
I've never seen such old stock speakers in such good shape.

Nevertheless they had to go.

I hope I can stay satisfied with this for a while. The bass is lacking but I'm thinking about selling my sub instead of installing it. So nice to have trunk space.
 
#9 ·
Today I swapped my brakes from the blue car over. I would have taken some more pictures, but it's winter and the weather was like this from about when I got the old brakes off to when I was done bleeding them.

The brakes are from a 4th gen VTEC with redrilled rotors. Techna-Fit stainless lines. Wagner Thermoquiet pads.
 
#11 ·
#13 ·
Today was -6 and windy, but sunny, and work on the blue car continued even though I couldn't feel my toes. Stock brakes and suspension are reinstalled now, so it's getting close to ready to sell. Since the rear windshield visor was still on it, so I pulled that off and stuck it on the white car.

Just a mock up since I didn't have any double sided tape on hand.

I also took the car in today for a coolant flush, since the coolant was brown. I wanted a proper flush rather than just draining the old and adding new.
 
#14 ·
Installed Cudaboy front STB and NGK plug wires.

And decided to run the LeBra for a while, because why not?
 
#16 ·
Yep! I can't imagine it will stay that clean with me driving 500-600km every week, but I'll try and keep it somewhat presentable.
 
#17 ·
yeah just noticed you have the factory battery tie down. Mine was missing when I got mine. Also valve cover and heat shield paint looks good if it is original that says a lot.
 
#18 ·
I'm quite sure it is original paint. The plastic routing clips for the spark plug cables were all intact! The clock cover is intact and there's even paint pen on the suspension nuts and bolts, which tells me it was maintained by someone careful.
 
#19 ·
paint pen was done when they were torqued at the factory in 91. I have them too. Remember my pink dots on the spark plug wires at the distributor? That meant someone checked to make sure they were installed correctly and all the way. I will have to look up the conversion. Too fried right now from hell of a commute took an hour in nonstop stop and go traffic creeping.

Mine had 144k miles when I bought it and it was one owner 12 years old. Since found out a month ago or so she had been hit in the same ds rear quarter corner where she was hit in '09 while parked. Should be able to patch a new quarter corner in this winter in the garage. I cut two corners of that corner with hacksaw at junkyard on two different ludes. I just hadn't got to doing the surgery on mine yet. That and the replacement hood were both a surprise as there was no insurance record of it being in a collision or whatever.
 
#20 ·
My plug wires had the dots too.

I suspect the suspension has been worked on because the paint pen looks messier than factory, and more importantly to me, the shock fork bolts are not seized. Do you know what color paint Honda used?
 
#21 · (Edited)
The spark plugs wires were a standard run of the mill pink. The suspension and brakes? was standard run of the mill bright yellow. At least that is what mine is and what I may have noticed once or so at the junkyard. There may be more colors and places but those were what I noticed. The cuda originally came with all kinds of paint colors all over the place for the same reason. Most weren't visible when I got it and at that point it wasn't real common knowledge for restoration. I had some pics but most I just had to go off references in magazines and books for accurate reproduction. This was compounded by me stripping the 'cuda down to suspension and unibody only and then having the whole thing sand blasted.

I think on my lude I may have noticed yellow on motor mount bolts and tranny mount bolts to and hard line brake fittings at the master cylinder maybe and the proportioning valve tree of brake fittings there on passenger engine side wall apron unibody at fittings. Tranny side. I will have to check to confirm in the future when I work on it again.
 
#22 ·
Wow, I bet mine's actually that original then. I have yellow paint on all the spots you mentioned. It's amazing the paint all still looks bright and even more amazing the LCA bolts are not seized. Im going to get some anti-seize on them, stat.
 
#23 ·
Little things...

I did an antenna delete but kept the antenna. It's tilted forward inside the fender. On my last car, I removed it for weight savings, but this way I can still listen to traffic updates while having a cleaner look.

If you do this, don't pay for an "antenna delete plug" on ebay, just buy Honda part #82871-671-000. It is a simple 25mm grommet.

I also put some Canadian Tire exhaust finishers on the muffler, since they were missing.
 
#24 ·
Installed a Whiteline rear sway bar tonight, with rev_rage endlinks.

It's nice to try it out on a stock setup for a change. Now I can agree with others who have said it's the single most effective suspension upgrade. I'm on my winter tires, so the car still doesn't have sharp reflexes, but I can feel less body roll and how the front end has more grip.

In less happy news, I took a closer look and there's definitely bondo on my passenger rear quarter (see the little rust spot in the picture above). I can't tell the exact extent of the rust that was there before, but I know it'll spread even faster with that bondo holding water.

I also checked and found out the rear LCA bolts are seized after all. It's a dumb design if you think about it, torque from the wrench has to go through the whole length of that bolt. I would rather be able to loosen the nut than have it welded to the shock.
 
#25 ·
Replaced the door speakers...
with a pair of Polk DB651s....

Which were my favorite Christmas gift this year! :xmas:

Hub-centric rings for my winter wheels, can't believe I went 2.5 seasons without. Totally worth the $8!
 
#26 ·
Looking ahead to summer, I spent some Christmas cash on a pair of tires, which came in from TireRack last week. My old car apparently had an alignment issue.

Since tires seem to be an underrated upgrade I thought I would give these a spot in my thread.

BF Goodrich G-Force Sport Comp-2 195/55r15

I've gone through a couple different tires on my Preludes in the past years and this is the one I've been most happy with. With a treadwear rating of 360, it still clings to the road hard enough to do stupid things. I can easily out-drive my line of sight in tight corners.

Pros:
•High lateral grip!
•Very responsive steering - lots of tactical feedback - not sloppy.
•Silica based compound grips very well in the wet
•Brakes well

Neutral:
•Doesn't squeal before it slides; sliding is just a dull grinding noise. You need to drive by feel. Maybe not a good tire for a newer car with numb electric steering?
•Despite awesome wet grip, it will hydroplane if you don't stay alert around standing water. The tread design isn't optimized for that.

Cons:
•Pretty easy to light up. I don't know how it grips so well under braking, but not acceleration. Kind of odd!
•Louder than some tires - very reasonable at first, but loud at end of life.
 
#27 ·
Tonight I got my rear windshield visor mounted, finally.

This car really needs to be lower! But not until after the ski season. :)

If you notice I have only one exhaust finisher, well I've lost two of them from the driver side of the muffler now. I think it's because of the way the tip is bent (by the p.o?). The finisher can only be clocked one way, and its set screws don't have much to hang onto. I'll just remove the second one and pretend it never happened. The exhaust system in general needs some TLC.
 
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