John's 1991 R-72P Integra restoration thread

91ls5speed

New Member
I have been driving my DA regularly for about 3 months, and just keeping it as a winter beater will not satisfy me since this car deserves to be brought back to its original glory.
I always loved the DA ever since my friend had one back in high school that was lowered with a set of polished Si's, I knew I would eventually have to have one for myself.

Found one that seemed to cheap to be anything decent, but went and looked at it anways...and im sure glad I did.








filthy filthy inside, dirtier than my 1971 impala was when I bought it back in high school...anyways the usual dents and dings, quarter rust was the least I had seen in a car that spent its whole life in massachusetts. So I bought it, and the affair began.

took the interior apart because the heater controls...speed and direction... didnt work at all... soldered the heater circut board back together, and replaced the B.M.Resistor. Also took the panels inside and cleaned them intensively.


The car was idling horribly and leaking coolant from somewhere, and i could tell by the radiator that the p.o had just been topping it off with water. so i cleaned the iac and the fitv and traced the leak the the hoses going to the fitv. replaced the hoses and did a coolant flush


The spark plugs i was sure that they were trashed, low and behold i am correct.


car now leaks no coolant, and stays at a very nice temp at all times once warmed up,(i know because the place I got an inspection from let it idle for a good 25 minutes while they did the inspection. also stays at what I would consider a perfect idle speed.


the frayed and torn seat was driving me crazy, and I cant seem the find the correct seats for this interior and I dont want to change the entire seat design.


so i hemmed the seat and then added in a new piece of fabric that doesnt even come close to matching but its better than 20 year old exposed seat foam



the hatch was beyond repair, the rot had gotten to the insides and the rubber hatch bumpers were pushed in through the rust.


so picked up this hatch off a gs in the salv yard. nooooo rust!!!



its rio red but oh well im getting the DA resprayed in the spring.
 
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91ls5speed

New Member
scrubbed the interior, scrubbed the door panels clean


cleaned the rear deck cover and repainted the speaker grills


started removing the a/c lines. comp, cond, evap, will come out in spring or so.



changed the oil today with some high milege 5W-30 and also added a can of engine restore.

the 5 next things up on the list are

complete bushing kit
rear radius arm bushings
clean up all the headlight mounts and fastners
replace hatch shocks
get 2 factory style chrome exhaust tips
 

91ls5speed

New Member
next, i wanted to take out the air silencer, so pulled the fender liner out and did it. then i was thinking that i dont want to go the route of C.A.I and that I wanted to retain the factory airbox.

so I left the lower part of the box that faces the engine side in tact, and modified the 2 inlets that were already there, and also added another inlet to draw air in through the other side of the lower box.




then added this....K&N filter..


and there you have it, with a factory look kept intact, and definently a noticable difference in low end, and also on the highway in 5th.
and of course the great throttle growl.

 

91ls5speed

New Member
parts to the breaking system are starting to come in.



got some front calipers, with rayb pro pads. and nice looking brake hoses.

gonna clean them up and paint them high temp color prob just do aluminum flavor.

took a scrub brush and some light degreaser to the inner metal and firewall.. i want to wait untill i put a new gasket on the vc before i pressure wash the bay...







removed the ac fan and the manifold guard as it was pretty rusted at the lower mounting point and rattled.

then i also got some tips just to clean the small standard tailpipe


alright now to finish saving up for a total bushing kit and an energy trailing arm bushing kit.
prob throw some cheap coilies on there while i have it all apart.
 


91ls5speed

New Member
the headlight mounting brackets in the car are in very bad shape.also picked up a flush mount kit for the engine bay, as I will be seriously detailing the engine bay starting in the spring. also i need to get a new pass fender first.



also scored something that i am really excited about, gives me motivation to finish this project.


E30 bmw wheels, i will be fully polishing these and probably running a 195 60 14 tires on them. also got 5 of them so i will be doing a custom trunk setup with a flush mount wheel in the factory location.


(the tire is for my a6 quattro, i needed one tire and found the exact one i needed. and it wasnt 130 bucks, yokos are so damn expensive!)
 

91ls5speed

New Member
wanted to see what kind of paint and primer im workin with here. ohh yaaa ill def be going the polished route with these. picking up some aircraft strip tomoro and i already ordered my dremel sanding and polishing kit.

 

91ls5speed

New Member
this was the 5th wheel the guy sold me...looks like its never had a tire mounted on it, but the valve stem says it has.. haha.


i like these rims more every time i think of them FULLY polished and on the da.

and finally!!!!
got a cig lighter element
ash tray




no more holes in the dash!!!

also If you have been reading this booring ass thread, you would have read me mention that i wanted to re-do my headlight mouting brackets...
this is why



yikes.

oh well problem solved!



flush mount bolt and washer placed on just because.

Now to get crackin on this damn suspension!

catch ya later!
 


dlo253

Active Member
Right on man, ill stay tuned. Always love seeing a DA get brought back to its beautiful side Haha.
 

91ls5speed

New Member
Where and how much did you pay for the dress up kit?
i bid on it on ebay as the seller doesnt have any listed as buy it now. i won it for 20$ with free shipping and its 40 bolts and 40 flush washers just search "integra dress up"

thanks for the comments everyone, no one around where i live appreciate the DA, so its nice to hear haha.

i am planning to aircraft strip the e30 wheels once the weather gets above freezing, then to start the process of sanding and wetsanding and dremel polishing and mothers polishing.....which im sure will be a blood-soaked, night-marish, hell-scape. BUT i have yet to see a mirror finish on these wheels, the only ones ive seen have been painted.

well thats all i can think of at the moment time to go mix 2 scoops of musclemilk and 2mg of creatine mono!
oh and also....COME ON CELTICS!!!!!
 

91ls5speed

New Member
Awesome job so far! Keep drilling every detail like that and she'll be amazing. :)
thanks! thats what im hoping for, i want to take this project and plan it out completely before I just go buying intake manifolds and injectors. ive owned 5.0 fox bodys in the past and I never finished them the way I had wanted to because I got to caught up with the go fast part of it.

pic of said fox body.

i had always wanted to finish the interior off with 91' lx seats with saleen halo headrests, but sold the car before I got the chance. I always regretted it.

but I will finish this DA for sure. once I get the suspension sorted out, Im sure this will be the funnest car ive ever owned.....it pretty much already is haha!



I'm pretty sure your car is exactly the same as mine =D
http://www.clubintegra.com/board/showthread.php?t=74852

Hey man when U do your bushings can u please take heaps of photos, I really want to change mine but I'm a bit nervous about doing it and pics would help
for sure man, I did the whole suspension over in my a6 in a thread, so I plan on making this a picture heavy thread as well....

i guess i could have waited longer... haha nope

funny thing.....the rear of the a6 uses a "gr2" style strut like the DA.....

8 control arms in the front suspension haha.


well it snowed today, pretty much for the first time all winter.....so the brakes will have to wait. i guess this gives me more time to clean, prep and paint the calipers and rotor hubs.....

later!
 
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