The De-Rice project

[BobSassafrass]

How did you repair the places where the sticker took off paint? I'm guessing alot of coats from a spray can and some good sanding? I'm especially interested in the black part with the door lock.

[Gargola]

How did you repair the places where the sticker took off paint? I'm guessing alot of coats from a spray can and some good sanding? I'm especially interested in the black part with the door lock.

I wish I was that good.... what you see in the pics is actually left over adhesive, I was able to remove it with Goo Gone.

lol its a street on the side of the homestead speedway hm theres never any cars there AT ALL and the place where the wheels go is rusted but the trunk isent bad at all and bottom of the car isent either which is funny cause wen i baught the car the gas tank was full , i was happy at first untill i found out it was water lmao

I have been down that way... isn't there a few pineapple farms out by there?

It's been about year and half since I have been away from South Florida, but I spent about 3 years in that area... I lived in Miami for a few months then I moved to Pembroke Pines.

My friend had a car that was "totaled" becuase he had it parked on a street that was flooded in the Cutler Ridge area...hopefully that fuel system doesn't give you any problems down the line.

[ep3drc]

oh so u been down here before cool , oh wen i first got the car it wouldent go into gear i think the clutch was badly rusted but we kept tryin and i guess it grinded the rust away but i think im in need of a new clutch wen i shift to second it dosent chirp like it used to , it goes bak down to 5k rpms then it starts goin from there up instead of staying in high rpms wen i shift idk if that is exactly the clutch but i dont kno wat else it can be other that that the car hasent really give me any problems except for i cant turn on my ac cause wen i take my foot off the gas the car turns off the rpms just drop below 1 and it turns off i think it has something to do wit the computer not stabilizing the rpms as it needs to be a little higher for the ac no biggy but florida gets really hot sometimes lol

[magmagik 1]

Hey thats not too bad, gl with it.

[Gargola]

oh so u been down here before cool , oh wen i first got the car it wouldent go into gear i think the clutch was badly rusted but we kept tryin and i guess it grinded the rust away but i think im in need of a new clutch wen i shift to second it dosent chirp like it used to , it goes bak down to 5k rpms then it starts goin from there up instead of staying in high rpms wen i shift idk if that is exactly the clutch but i dont kno wat else it can be other that that the car hasent really give me any problems except for i cant turn on my ac cause wen i take my foot off the gas the car turns off the rpms just drop below 1 and it turns off i think it has something to do wit the computer not stabilizing the rpms as it needs to be a little higher for the ac no biggy but florida gets really hot sometimes lol

Not sure about your other problems ,but I had a similar problem related to the idle with my 98 accord, those problems can be tricky to diagnose, but mine ended up being a bad Mass airflow sensor. Good luck

Hey thats not too bad, gl with it.

Thanks!


********

I have been busy for the last few days messing around with my car....

On Friday, Solelive met up with me so we can drop my tranny and put in the six speed.


In retrospect, I think my biggest mistake was trying to follow the instruction in the Honda Service Manual step by step, there was some detail that I expected that wasn't there, and for some other parts, it had me do things I could have avoided.

Something else we discovered was that you can never have enough jack stands, they make lowering the sub-frame all that much safer.

Here are the chain of events:
-We started removing all the components as per the Honda service manual, everything went relatively smooth until we got the the removing the lower control arm ball joints.
After repeated attempts at removing the ball joints ( Passenger and drivers side) Solelive and I were defeated on Friday by them, we gave up on it close to 2am and started up again later in the day. ( We weren't able to lower the sub-frame)

On Saturday we renewed our efforts with more tools and energy...

-I purchased a pitman puller that ended being too small ( FAILED AGAIN)
-I bought a 5 foot fencing pipe to leverage the ball joint separator fork ( Failed again, the tube actual bent after constant attempts by Solelive)
-I "rented" a cheapo front end service kit from Advance Auto Parts with a ball joint separator that "looks" like the one Honda recommends. ( Failed again, the threads stripped on the tool after placing some serious amount of pressure on it.)

Finally we gave up on it.( This is where we left off)




Sunday
I decided to call some of the "mobile" mechanics that advertise on craigslist to see if they can come out and remove both ball joints.

Wasn't able to find someone to come out... still feeling defeated!

Monday
Found a mechanic to come out.

The funny thing is that I told the mechanic who accepted the job what I had tried, and he just brushed it off as me being inexperienced....

Well he showed up with the same tool I tried before (Cheapo Front end service kit), and ended up breaking the tool. I couldn't help but laugh in his face for being so cocky...

Mobile Mechanic's tool with a broken bolt




I ended up paying him $20 for coming out and doing nothing, but he was experienced with RSX's and EP3's and told me I never even had to remove the ball joints, all I had to do was remove the lower control arms bolts and swing it out of the way.... THANKS HONDA! and fuck me for not realizing that before hand.

Monday Night...

I felt energized with the information I received and decided to tackle it on my own.

I removed the lower control arms, lowered the subframe and called it a night.


Tuesday

Again feeling energized, I decided to attempt to drop the tranny myself ( Called the wifey in case the dam thing fell on me).

REMOVED THE TRANNY!!!!! DAM that thing was heavy..




I going to have to put this project on pause until I return from a last minute business trip, so the poor ep3 is going to be on jack stands for awhile.


Here is a pic of the 5 speed tranny I removed




Notice the broken shift fork bearing tab... I couldn't find the broken off piece, I wonder if it's on the other side of the pressure plate...




BTW>>>> I still haven't removed those dam ball joints. ( I ordered a higher quality tool and boots, but that is going to have to wait until I return.)

[kingphoenix07]

Shit's comming along...slow...but along all the same. Juggling work family and the project has to b tough.

Btw...i would have laughed in the mech's face too...maybe even pointed at him while i laughed.

[Amoney47]

hey man i had the same problem put the nut on loosley and get a air chisell and hit the bolt it pops right out and then just loosten the nut an the threads will be saved

[Gargola]

Shit's comming along...slow...but along all the same. Juggling work family and the project has to b tough.

Btw...i would have laughed in the mech's face too...maybe even pointed at him while i laughed.

I AM DONE!!!!!!!!!!!! :) (Well Almost)
In between traveling for work, and other obligations, I was finally able to put together my car this Monday.

hey man i had the same problem put the nut on loosley and get a air chisell and hit the bolt it pops right out and then just loosten the nut an the threads will be saved

I just took off the lower control arms, I will tackle the ball joint boots on another occasion ( Don't have air tools)

[Mr_Safeway]

I think I would've quit a long time ago. Nice determination man...

[mustclime]

Get this tool for the balljoint......

http://www.nextag.com/norob/PtitleSe...itle=610646661

It is forged while all the copies are cast....It is way stronger....I have pulled at least 12 lca's with this tool.....there is a trick for using it to on really stuck ball joints.....you put a couple good turns on it, the smack the arm with out the bolt....this takes a constant load and ups it by a huge amount....I remain undefeted with this tool.

[Bificus]

Good work man! Getting closer to total dericing

[socal_brandon2]

Looks more beat up than ricer to me (though I'm not terribly fond of the BC kit)!

Definitely a handful of work you've taken on, good luck with her!

[Tortoise]

Nice looks like your about done on your derice project! Im jus about done my 03 too. Jus gotta put on my stock tails and wait for my slips to get here!

[Gargola]

I think I would've quit a long time ago. Nice determination man...

Once I realized that the Ep3 wasn't going to be finished anytime soon, it got easier as I didn't feel the pressure of having to have the car running by a certain day.

Get this tool for the balljoint......

http://www.nextag.com/norob/PtitleSe...itle=610646661

It is forged while all the copies are cast....It is way stronger....I have pulled at least 12 lca's with this tool.....there is a trick for using it to on really stuck ball joints.....you put a couple good turns on it, the smack the arm with out the bolt....this takes a constant load and ups it by a huge amount....I remain undefeted with this tool.

I bought the tool.. but I haven't had time to test it out yet, truthfully I am in no hurry.

Good work man! Getting closer to total dericing

Yes I am... very little left a this point.

Looks more beat up than ricer to me (though I'm not terribly fond of the BC kit)!


Definitely a handful of work you've taken on, good luck with her!

It's both... but it's getting to point where I am happy with it.

Nice looks like your about done on your derice project! Im jus about done my 03 too. Jus gotta put on my stock tails and wait for my slips to get here!

The further I get into the project, the more I notice the little details that are so time consuming.

[Gargola]

Progress has stalled as work has been kicking my ass lately, but hopefully I will get a little more me time coming soon.

Update:
As I have mentioned in my thread, the ball joints have kicked my ass... after reading around in this website, I have seen a lot of suggestions.

I thought I would save someone some trouble by posting some pic's and comparisons between the tools....

This is the Discount Auto "loaner" front end service kit, the ball joint tool tore into pieces $99.00, and all the other tools didn't fit.( The craigslist mechanic showed up with this same kit with the same results.)




It's my opinion that they loan you this crap so when it breaks on you, you are stuck having to buy it...

This is the tool I bought based on recommendations


It's significantly more substantial than the cheapo tool I got from discount, it has yet to be tested, but I have no doubt it will do it's job.






Take it from me, you don't want you weekend taken up by your effort in taking about your ball joints, spend the money up front.


On another note... I know it's been said that you don't have to modify the shifter on 02-03 in order to get reverse, but I had to modify mine.

There is probably a easier of doing this, but I couldn't figure out a easy way to remove the shifter without taking apart my whole dash area ( I had about an hour to do this before I had to move on and wait a few more days to work on the car again). I took a short-cut as I had an extra shifter if I happened to mess the one up.


I couldn't fit my dremel in there without getting into something else so I took hack saw blade, bent it a 90 angle, heated it up with a mini-torch, and used it to "melt cut" and remove the area below the red line. ( My cut is probably just a crooked as that line, but it worked and I had reverse gear)



This is a pic of my extra shifter.