watties progress thread (evolution of my 4th gen)

[watties]

so i had a thread about the progress of my 4th gen in the old section, but I think it mustve got deleted when the forums got updated,

so here it is again from the start:

bought the car stock as a rock from a dealer. Id been burned before, so this time I wanted some sort of warranty, as well as service history etc. Unfortunately this limited my options a fair bit, so had to settle for an S rather than a more desirable vtir (or even Si). oh well, it had 2 previous owners, both mature aged females, as company cars.
we all know what a stock 4th gen looks like, but heres a pic from when i bought it home:



first thing I did was the stereo as I had a few things left over from my previous car. I ended up getting mostly new components anyway though, lol. I bought the pioneer mp3 deck with ipod input that had just been released, some soundstream 6.5” splits, I already had some old alpine 6x9s and I put in a pioneer 12” sub off a US audio 2 channel amp.

the tyres on the stock rims were a bit bald, so I bought the rims and tyres Vu had just bought for his 4th gen before he sold it. 16" Lenso widetrack's that really suit the car.



i also bought his accord front lip (via Lawson) which was conveniently already colour coded. While i had the front lip off to fit the lip i also decided to remove the hideous black numberplate box from the front. As a spur of the moment thing i also decided to hack out the middle section (bars etc) from the bumper, and mesh the gap. finally i sprayed the nostrils chrome, and put it all back together. I was fairly happy with how it looked, but didnt like the holes left by the #plate box, so i made up a bracket, side mounted the plate, and filled the holes. it then looked like this:



after that i got over the chrome nostrils, so sprayed them red. i also didnt like the orange indicators, so i bought clear side repeaters, and blacked out the 4 piece bumper lights with nightshades:


i then didnt do much for a while, sprayed the mesh black to match the bumper lights, colour coded the stock sideskirts, played around with a few different colour combos on the nostrils, fitted a K&N pod etc.
Then i decided to enter Small Car Sunday with some of the PASA crew. Thats when i started to do a few more things, as it gave me an event to have to car looking nice by.

I had bought a spare set of tail lights from a member ready to clear out the indicators, so finally did that. Instead of fitting the rippled plastic that most people do, I wanted them to look a little different. I used Perspex for the inserts, and sanded it all back so it was frosted, then tinted it very lightly (took me a few goes to get it right) so it was a lightly smoked grey. I didn’t want them black (for legal reasons) and this way the lights still showed through, but you couldn’t see the bulbs (which I swapped to LEDs) I think they look good (much better than cheap ‘tezzas lol), and its surprising how a DIY mod like this can really transform the rear end.



I had previously bought and fitted an axle back exhaust/cannon from another member, and although it sounded nice, looked too big for the rear bar (due to no cut out). I couldn’t find an accord rear lip, so decided to custom make some rear pods. I got an old plastic bonnet protector I found in the shed (from an unknown car) and cut a piece off each end. I then heated it in the oven till it was pliable (figured this out while I was opening up the tail lights) and moulded them round the bottom of the rear bumper to make them the right shape (had to reheat them a few times to get it right). Then I drew out the shape on them and cut an sanded them till both sides were the same. After that I bolted some small L brackets on the top to mount them under the bumper. Then I put a few layers of fibreglass on to thicken an strengthen them, an then some body filler to smooth them out for paint (unfortunately it was my first time using all this, so I didn’t sand the fibreglass properly, and then the bog was too thick an didn’t smooth out enough) so I was left with lumpy pods, but it was the day before the show an I didn’t have time to redo them, so I sprayed an fitted them anyway, and haven’t been bothered fixing them, lol


(you can kinda see then here)



Also to continue with the red/black theme I decided to tint some headlight covers black for the show. I got a set off a member (which were unfortunately broken) an decided to do something a little different. I put them on, and drew a thin line across the top and shaped it like an eyelid. When both sides were even I cut that part off, an colour matched it. These are now eyelids, which stay on the car all the time. I then tinted the bottom part black to just clip on for shows/pics.

Small Car Sunday went well, and it was a different experience preparing your car to be on display for the public, an nice to hear some positive comments.







The latest thing Ive done is repair (he hit a fox at 120kph) and fit the topstage lip I got off Daimonson1024. it was almost in 2 pieces when I got it, but a bit of fibreglass and its holding together nicely. I colour coded it for a change from all the black ones. I cant believe how different the lude looks with the topstage, compared to the accord lip, much more aggressive which I like
I also painted the suare around the H on the badges black






Not many future plans tryin not to spend much on it, lol
I had lowered springs to fit, but desided not to worry (dont want the hassle of scraping etc as it needs to be easily drivable), so I sold them. Also had some yellow Jdm fogs, but sold them off aswell.

Obviously not worries about power as it’s an S, but dynoed it at the PASA dyno day recently an it got 77.6fwkw which I guess is ok.



So yeah here it is, hope you enjoy. Comment away

[Connections]

like what you have done man but deffiantly needs a drop and not really feeling the headlight covers looks more sexy with the stock ones heheh but overall nice progress, maby some JDM style ones will do the job?

[eccentriq]

looks like a batmobile the front (mean, angry whatever words go with hate)

[VCobra]

Coming along mate, now to fix up that door

[IainLovesHisLude]

Good work watties, you've really put some effort in there and it's good it's all worked out.

[brash]

Looking good Matt. You planning on fixing the pods up on the back sometime soon?

[GreekStyle]

so youre the lucky owner of the topstage lip? a quick history on it

first purchased by vu phan in 2004, he enjoyed it to death till selling it to nick kamouzis(me) in mid 2006, i then snapped the thing in half. i then fixed it with fibreglass and resprayed it gloss black, then last year selling it to daimon who what i hear snapped it again, this thing has had more rotations than a 20dollar bill

ps: i was the one who sold u that muffler(my god it was big) lol

[watties]

^hehe, I know. My car is such a parts whore, lol. its good though, i like dealing with the people on PA.

oh an here is a pic for all those who dislike the tinted headlight covers.


this is what it looks like most of the time

[eccentriq]

^ sweeet dude that looks better =D

[Warren]

now thats a mean looking lude

[Luder88]

Daaaaamn that's a big ass lip! The eye lids makes it look sleepy but overall it looks mean as man.

[watties]

*update*

I know most of you guys wont like this, but meh.
put some decals on the sides. went with red so its a little more subtle

[Ashwee]

I like em, they blend in, not screaming out HEY I HAS DECALS. The design is sweet too

[brash]

Agreed. Good choice on the style too. Where'd you get them from? And are you coming to the show this weekend?

[rez]

woo colour coded topstage ftw

I like the Lenso's... personally I think I'd like them in 17", but the 16's still look great!