So It's been a while since I updated my build thread, but I've got quite a bit done in my 2 weeks off between spring and summer semester.

It all started when I was packing up my dorm room to move home, and I realized I had more unfinished project parts for the prelude than clothes. So I made a game plan.


It was time to attack my ridiculously over priced JDM headlights and shove some projectors in them. I started out by baking them to remove the lense.


Then I started getting a game plan together. I decided I didn't want a lot of gaudy chrome, so the reflector bowls and projector shrouds were all painted black with high temp paint.




While they were drying, I called up a good friend and fellow prelude enthusiast, Jim aka uho, to help me clean up my lenses. We started by wet sanding with 600,1000,1500,2000 and 3000. We then finished them up with some rubbing compound.

Before:

After:


They still need to be cleaned up some more, which I didn't realize until after I put everything back together, but they are definitely better than they were.

Oh, and maybe a little inspiration for a couple people. I know this isn't crazy fab work or anything, but it's a big project to a hand full of people. I just wanted to point out that you don't need a big shop or fancy tools to do this stuff. I do 90% of my work in my basement (among all my parts, stuff from college, and sister's doll houses) with a dremel, heat gun, drill, and basic hand tools. No shop air, no specialty tools.







Next I mocked everything up to see how it would fit together, and to see how much I needed to cut. I ended up cutting a good bit of the shrouds so they would fit into the reflector bowls snug.


I then bolted everything together and figured out the mounting situation. I drilled 2 holes in the reflector housing, and used 2 long bolts to hold the projectors in place. the shrouds had centric rings, so they just snapped into place. Also, I used the mini H1 Bixenon projectors from theretrofitsource.com , so I wired up the connectors for the high beam shutter.





The most stressful part of the project was aligning the cut off right. Here's a few progressive shots of what I was working with:




Apparently, I didn't take any pictures of the final result, but they're similar to " __--__-- " if that makes sense, lol.

I removed the headlights from the car and attached the lenses with clear silicone. Before reinstalling them, I tucked the headlight harness and a few other small things. I've got some pretty creative ideas for the engine bay coming later this year, especially when compared to most of the prelude community. More of that later, but just know, I won't be sacrificing comforts, yet I'll have a very clean bay.




After about 10 hours of work, they're done.

Next was to get some lift time in at my uncle's shop so I could fix a few exhaust leaks I've been neglecting. Up until this point, I've been running a recirculated waste gate. While this is great for keeping a quieter exhaust, it puts a lot of stress on the piping. So after welding and rewelding my old down pipe, I decided I wanted to change to an open waste gate dump. I also upgraded from a 2.25" down pipe, to a 2.5" and a 1.5" waste gate dump. I tried 3" but even with a little persuasion, it wouldn't clear between the block and the cross member. Eventually, when I switch to a traction bar set up, I'll fab up a 3" pipe, but for now, it gets the job done.








It was really hard to get a picture of the finished result, but you get the idea. It's 2 pipe, 1 medium, 1 small.

Oh also, I sold Jim my old exhaust set up, so we put and on his car, along with his RS*R header.

After 3 days of work (that can be summed up in a few pictures and a couple paragraphs, apparently...) Jim and I decided to cruise around, get some food, and take a few cell phone pictures along the way. So I'll leave you with a montage of 2 preludes, in the works.