11 weeks to receive it. What did you do have it shipped on the slow boat from China??

 

Yes I know, a very long wait and only shipped from California to Maine.
Actually once they finally got the rails manufactured, it only took a week for shipping.

The rails are heavy duty and the fabrication looks very professional.
I'm so glad to finally have gotten these rails. I was really suffering on long trips with the lack of leg room on the stock Accord passenger seat. These extendmyseat rails added more than 4 " of additional leg room, what a difference.

 

So I just spent $1,200 on my 00 Accord 2.3l. Starter went out, fuel pump went out.....both original equipment so I wasn't even mad. Then I decided to have the timing belt replaced, had 120k on it......got lucky, only to find out that the original water pump was still installed as well. Had the valve cover gasket replaced as well as seals on the distributor with new cap and rotor. No more oil leaks, still runs smooth from the new transmission installed with 221k, and has ice cold AC for these hot southwest summers. Thanks Honda for building a very reliable vehicle!

 

Another year, another wheel build in the books. They are Racing Hart Type Cs, the sister wheel to the Tracer Type Cs I built last year. Got these for a whopping $150. The previous owner spray painted the lips, and random stuff black. Don't ask lol.




Anyways, because they were so cheap, I originally planned on doing a little restoration myself and dailying them. Once thing led to another, and I ended up doing a ground up wheel build, and a lot of money spent.

The catalyst for going all out was the center caps. Without them, the wheels are worth maybe $600 at most. With them, $2k. I scoured the internet high and low, and after multiple transactions on Yahoo Japan ended up with a complete set plus extras. This was also the single most expensive part of the build....I spent about $500 on the caps. Crazy, but worth every penny.


Next up, was sourcing new lips. The wheels were originally 17x8 +30 front (1in lip), and 17x9 +34 rear (2in lip). The lips were trashed, and not worth saving. Plus I wanted to go wider....ended up lucking out and found pairs of 1.5" and 2.5" lips for about $150 total. Killer deal, and even though they were used, they were in MINT condition minus a few scuffs.


Then it was on to the faces. New powdercoat was a must, and I wanted something very close to the original silver, with a little twist. Went to the powdercoater and after explaining what I wanted, he had the perfect match. Color is Mirror silver, with a gloss clear top coat. In direct light the color is VERY silver and the metallic pops. In lower light, it darkens to almost a gunmetal. And the clear coat gives it amazing depth. I also had the inner barrels coated in the same color for easy cleaning. and to match.




And to finish off the build and make things REALLY pop, I decided to chrome the lips, along with the center cap dishes, and buy all new hardware. At this point it would have been wrong not to. A little teaser when I got everything back.




Then off to the wheel builder they went, and 2 weeks later I had them back.....






Bought some tires and got them all fitted up.






Overall, it was an awesome experience doing a rebuild of this caliber. The challenge of finding parts just made me realize how much I love building wheels.


And last week I sold them
Part of the reason I went all out on the rebuild was for resale value. I recently had an H22 engine pretty much drop into my lap, and I've been dead set on swapping it and giving my car a mechanical refresh. So going the extra mile with the wheels only helped the resale value. I pretty much broke even when all was said and done. The money should pay for all of the labor costs associated with the swap, and 80% of the parts I still need. Gonna smog the car one last time this fall, then I have 2 years to get the swap 100% sorted and legal (yes, I plan on getting the car BAR legal, already have the correct ECU and right year engine).

 

^ That is a nice set of wheels you put together

Dang all I've done lately is half of the job of replacing the rear blower motor in the '07 Pilot.....I don't ride back there and no one really ever does anymore since we have the new Pilot for road trips and around town trips with friends and that.

Anyway a few weeks ago I noticed there was no or VERY little air coming out the read vents when I reached into the back seat at a light for "something", can't remember what it even was. I thought it was the "intake" screen had gotten clogged up, the rear blower on the 07 Pilot has this kind of strange set up with a "screen" in the center console. They do collect dust and will get clogged. Anyway, pulled the cover on the console and it was clogged, however after cleaning it I could see the "wheel" on the motor wasn't spinning. Pulled the pass side cover to get to the connector on the blower and it was getting voltage so I knew the motor had given out. Pulled it and confirmed the motor is dead.......stopped there. So I have the pass side cover and the motor laying in the floor on the pass side for about two weeks now. I guess I need to get a new one and finish the job

 

WOW those wheels look absolutely beautiful, ans seeing them on a 93 to 97 body style car makes them look even better.
But like poorman, I really haven't been doing much to my Accord, other than driving it. I did however notice that it had been getting louder every time I drove it, so I did a little digging, and found that the muffler was about to fall off, and where the muffler shop added new hangers was also rusted thru in a few spots. Needless to say, I ordered up a cat back system from Rock Auto, and got it installed today. What should have been a straight shot job turned into a mini nightmare, when I realised that the muffler shop cut off the flange on the catalitic converter, and welded the pipe on to it. So, I had to fab up a flange, and add a little pipe to complete the job. Took about 3 hours between removing the old system, and bolting on the new system. Much quieter now, and my wife is going to have to "re-learn" the sound of my car. All in all, a good day.

 

Does cleaning mine count, that's all I've done.

 

This is off topic and "what did you do today" so almost anything goes

Me, I'd like to circle back to my rear blower issue. I learned something new. When testing I had pulled the connector from the blower and was able to get battery voltage on the two pins....so I assumed the motor was bad.

Got the new one, plugged it in, turn the key to on and it would spind for 1/2 a second and stop.....humm. Did this a few times trying to figure it out. Then I left the connector on the motor and tested for voltage on the pins. What I found was as soon as there was a load on the circuit the ground would "drop"......connector unplugged, 12v across the two pins....plug it in and test and would only have ground for 1/2 second......so that meant the transistor was dropping ground under load. So now a ~$80 resistor and a ~$110 new blower....I have air flow to the rear. And still no one rides back there

So, when checking these, my lesson learned is test for power and ground "WITH" the connectors connected, as I learned the ground/transistor was failing under load.

 

Guess who finally did their timing belt!?

 

Ok, I give up, who?

Oh, do you want to come do the one my 07 Pilot for me . Dang WP is leaking - guessing through the weep hole. I used a Gates "kit" ~55K miles ago so I'm not real happy about this....plus it is cold this time of year......could it have waited until spring....PLEASE.