[DaRk_MauL]

should i risk it to tap the turbine housing?
I dont realy know how thick walls are for tapping, or tap IC piping just behind the comp house. what would be best or doesnt make a difference. I have read people saying it runs fine!

lucky you on the nippel

[speedfoos]

Tap away man, those walls are 3-4mm thick so no worries there!


Not much of an update tonight. Just spent a little over an hour in the garage doing the finished welds on the exhaust DP-to-axle pieces. Also finished up my drop-in/out cat pieces. One is for fighting, one is for fun...





Tomorrow I'll install the radiator cradle and futz with all that. I don't want to do the axle back until this weekend when I can have the garage door up during the day while I mess with getting the muffler and tailpipe orientation right. Too damn cold to do it at night during the week!

[speedfoos]

I bump my own threads.

Starting tacking up the cradle tonight. It was actually pretty easy even though it messed up the paint job in the bay. Oh well. Paint is cheap. Gotta hold it in place with C-clamps and vise grips like so....




Make some tack welds like so....




Tacks....




Double-check to make sure the fenders are still lining up. Oh, and for those of you purists who only want super dooper OEM parts on your cars, don't get the PasswordJDM ones, because they come from the same place my $50 hood came from. Same packaging and everything.




And voila!! Instant 04-05 front end!







It was actually pretty easy to get the alignment right, but it turns out that they sent me the wrong bumper filler for the passenger headlight, so I've got to order a new one of those tonight. I must say though, I reaalllly like that 04-05 front end on Sugar!

[BJanzen]

God you do amazing work...A friend of mine took who knows how much longer doing the front cradle on a mazda...Nice work man, love the new front end

[sicma99ot]

nice, nice. sick work! when are you ganna be painting?

[ampong]

oh lala! That was a great work. Superb work!

[sniperscout]

eh its not half bad for a soldier

[joe6680]

Jesus F-ing Christ that is amazing work. I wish I had half the skill that you do. This should totally be added to the most unique mods list. I also like the fuzzy dice on the side view mirror I bet that is pretty unique as well. Anyway keep up the good work I am curious too see what it looks like when its painted.

[speedfoos]

Originally Posted by BJanzen

God you do amazing work...A friend of mine took who knows how much longer doing the front cradle on a mazda...Nice work man, love the new front end

I can't speak to the difference between Mazdas and Hondas, but yeah, once the car was apart, we're talking like two hours from removal to re-installation.

Originally Posted by sicma99ot

nice, nice. sick work! when are you ganna be painting?

I'm looking to start the bodywork around 1 Dec (ish). I'll have it all back together by the end of the weekend and then it's off for inspection, title and registration, then back to the garage for the next complete teardown for the bodywork and re-wiring/de-wiring for kpro.

Originally Posted by ampong

oh lala! That was a great work. Superb work!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by sniperscout

eh its not half bad for a soldier

Cough.......JARHEAD......cough.

Originally Posted by joe6680

Jesus F-ing Christ that is amazing work. I wish I had half the skill that you do. This should totally be added to the most unique mods list. I also like the fuzzy dice on the side view mirror I bet that is pretty unique as well. Anyway keep up the good work I am curious too see what it looks like when its painted.

LOL - thanks, but I'm not the first to do an 04-05 front end conversion. A couple other folks have done them. As far as paint goes, I'm thinking about the Blue Pearl that Eastwood sells. It's close enough to the IS-F color that I want, and I don't want to pay for a custom mix.

[TemjinX2]

nice work on the 04-05 conversion..why not do a hid retrofit while your at it?

[speedfoos]

Too many projects. I'll be adding HIDs to the current housings, but not a full retrofit with different projector housings.

[joe6680]

So when it comes time to sell this car will you sell it as an 04-05 haha. I am sure you can fabricate a vin number.

[speedfoos]

I really don't know that I will ever sell this car. More than likely if it ever comes down to it, it will be a part-out, cut-up and crush. I've modified too many things on the car to ever get any money out of it.

[Maple50175]

hey get any body parts from certi fit. everything is super cheap. I got a front bumper for 40 bucks brand new.

everything is cheap there and lines up great

[Christian Calim]

i like turtles