98-0148 (From Rice to Nice)

[Dot_tom]

Glad to hear you kept the car! Looking forward to some updates.

[Vtecwreck]

HUGE UPDATE- 3 years worth lol!

Not much has happened in the last 3 years. Luckily I still own the car and although I never saw it coming, like many other members of this forum and many others; life got in the way! What was supposed to be a "winter rebuild" has now lapsed nearly 4 consecutive winters. Lots of new and exciting things have happened in the last couple years and I am finally able to get back to work on my dream caR! I have absolutely been doing work on the car or at least parts of the car; here is a list of the things I was able to complete on my time away:

Remainder of 2019:
The plan was to Swap in a B18c5 Engine and Transmission. Here is what actually happened;

- Drove a few hours and Picked up an Rdot B18c5 shortblock

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- Picked up a ported and polished ITR head with Cams, springs and retainers
- Remove Drivetrain to put into a "track Integra RS"

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2020:

- Sold the Frankenstein 5-lug

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- Moved to a new garage
- Drove a few hours and Picked up a legit 36mm 5-lug
- Finally got the car inside (no more weathering)
- Sold the "Track RS"

2021:
Decided to Rebuild the car from the ground(suspension) up

- Removed old under coating from front wheel wells and Re-coated them with 3M Professional Undercoating

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- Stripped the Engine bay and Painted it myself (Wrong shade of NH-0)

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- Began putting everything back in the engine bay
- Ordered a lot of $$ in misc. suspension and engine components both oem and aftermarket (complete suspension Overhaul and new hardware for the engine too! Powder coating done by Mike @ QuickStrip here in NJ)

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- Sold the Buddy Club Spec III Cams from the head to go with stock ITR Cams
- Got the shortblock back from the machine shop, new rings and bearings (absolutely hated that he spray painted the block)

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- Picked up a 98' Spec ITR trans and took it to the carwash for a nice wash

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- Moved out of the Garage to another one with my brother

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- Installed the head on the block (look at all that shiny new stuff... down to the cam gears! Post mount bolts were discontinued)

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2022:

- Realized how off the engine bay color was so I decided to take it all apart again and have it repainted professionally. Dropped the car off at AMS Autowerks here in NJ and they did a great job, had it back in exactly a week.

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- Picked up yet another project "Track RS"

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- Painted the engine bay myself, came out great!

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- Lots of personal things took priority for the remainder of the year so not much was done (all good things!)

Now that we are all caught up, This year (2023) I intend on having the car back up and running. I would absolutely love to have it up and running by the end of the year. Unfortunately, with all the moving the exterior of the car is not in great shape, but with the suspension and engine being sorted throughout the last few years, exterior is next on the list. I will absolutely try my best to update this thread as much as possible. Lastly, my brother and I, started a Youtube channel right before the pandemic, I am not sure if this car will make a cameo on there but if you would like to see what we have been upto over the last couple years you can tune in: AllPurposeBuildz.

[Vtecwreck]

...6 Months later...

Summer is nearly over and now I have the urge to get the car on the road to enjoy it before the roads are covered in snow and salt. Waiting for the perfect time has come and gone for a few years now.

First order of business is to get everything back in the engine bay. I have not worked on this car since it was painted over a year ago! Luckily, I am somewhat organized and sorted all the bolts, brackets and grommets in ziplock bags. (Supreme bags were a gag gift a few years ago, so I put them to good use!)

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Looking back at pictures from when I first disassembled the car, I then installed the ABS module as well as the hardlines. I also installed the clutch hardline, fuel lines and power steering lines. Can't forget about the booster and evap canister too! Onto the harness, this was when I realized I should've installed the harness first before anything else, because it is routed under the ABS module and the windshield wiper plug does not fit with the booster in. Took a bit of finesse but the harnesses are routed.. for the most part.

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Last thing I addressed before calling it a day was the brake fittings what had been damaged by brake fluid. In total there are three fittings that needed attention, the two on the brake master, and the one on the clutch master. These were my three options:
1. Wire wheel the fittings and coat it with Zinc coating and then try to color match it.
2. Clean off the fittings with a wire-wheel and clear coat them
3. Carefully cut off the flared-end of the brake lines, insert new fittings and re-flare the lines.

I figured I'd try out my first option on these two and go from there...

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Finish looks just like gold spray paint and I hate it! So next time I am working on it, I will move onto option 2 and if that also fails I will have no option but to cut the line and just get new fittings.

[JDMJNKY]

Man legit updates! Can't wait to see how that CAD kit turns out.

[Vtecwreck]

Man legit updates! Can't wait to see how that CAD kit turns out.

Thanks! Unfortunately the CAD came out terrible. Essentially it’s just gold paint.

Update

There’s a HUGE part I’ve been leaving out and I think it’s time I let you all in on my secret… this is going to be long!

As you all know I went to great extents to piece together an RDOT engine and transmission for my car as I bought it as a shell. Well over the course of the last 6 years I’ve been in semi-constant communication with the seller of my car, basically keeping tabs on the original parts to my caR. He basically used the ITR as a parts car for his ‘99 Civic Hatch, taking the suspension, Drivetrain, steering column, Seats, Armrest with badge plate, and even my lock cylinders along with much more.

2017-2019: I bought some minor parts back from the seller and asked various times for the major parts but he always declined. This was all during the time I was putting the car together for the first time and then took it apart and was contemplating the next steps (selling or full blown restoration).

February 2020: He reaches out to me, he crashed the car and did not have the time to fix it. He traveled a lot for work, just had a baby and was expecting another. So this was my chance to buy all my pieces back, but he was not interested in selling the parts separately and was firm on selling it complete. He mentioned that he was only interested in selling me the car as the parts belonged to my caR. We negotiated for a couple of days but ultimately we were very far apart on prices. Mind you, this was during the spike in ITR prices so he was definitely trying to come up. I was also in the mist of building my newly acquired bottom end so I was not in a tight spot where I HAD no choice but to buy it.

2020 - November 2022: The seller and I lost contact. Throughout this time I did reach out a few times but we couldn’t come to an agreement. We last spoke on January 2021. Luckily, reached out exactly 5 years after I bought the shell from him. This time he was pressed to sell it, he was relocating out of state and was not interested in taking it with him. Surprisingly, his price had not changed at all, At this point I had already collected and assembled majority of the parts for my caR but I figured it was my last chance to get my original parts. We settled on a price and came to an agreement on when the car will be delivered.

January 2023: After yet another torturous encounter with transport companies, the car was delivered! I had officially taken ownership of the original parts for my car! I couldn’t have been happier. Although my car will never be classified as “all original” I think it’s such a great feat knowing I have as much as the original parts as I possibly can.

February 2023: I removed all the original parts that belonged to 98-0148 and parted out the rest of the civic. I got extremely lucky as I made back roughly $1500 off of a totaled shell! People bought everything, even the floor board. Whatever was left I junked.

Here are some pictures of the ‘99 Civic and all my parts:

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[Vtecwreck]

Had some time to finish the engine bay, so now it’s time to bring the engine and transmission over and put it back where it belongs!

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With the help of my brother, we were able to get it mounted into the car. With all the excitement of putting the original drivetrain back in the car, this is when we realized the post mount had been changed. So, I then had to remove everything off the side of the engine to replace the mount, which luckily I had on my Rdot block.

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In retrospect, this would’ve been a great time to replace the timing belt and water pump since everything was out of the way. However, I am on a tight timeline to have the car up and running by the end of the month to surprise my friends with it. They hate the fact that I put the car together and took it apart all in the span of 4-5 months and are always pushing for me to get it running again. We’re going to be spending a weekend up at the Poconos for my uncles birthday (also an ITR owner) and I figured this would be a nice surprise for them.

After putting it all back together, and tightening the mount. I was left with this:

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From here there’s a ton of small things that got taken care of:

Interior:

• Hvac Components
  Dashboard
  Cluster

Engine Bay:

• Clutch master cylinder
  Airbox and intake
  Routed and connected harnesses
  Axles
  Torque mounts
  Battery

Suspension/Brakes:

• Installed matching front Spindles w/ calipers
  Installed steel braided brake hoses to front hardlines
  Changed out rear coilovers to the upgraded KYB’s

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Then it was time to start! With barely any of the 4 year old gas left in the tank I put the key in and gave it a crank…NOTHING, no lights on the dash, no beeping from the ignition, NADA. Checked the fuse box to find out we removed the 100amp battery fuse from the fuse box. Why we started removing parts from this car, I don’t know but I was glad it was that simple. Now with the battery fuse on, and everything was going off! The headlight switch was on, the blower motor was roaring and the fuel pump was priming! I turned the key and it began cranking, over the cranking I was heading a squirting sound. Turns out I didn’t tighten the hardline that goes into the fuel filter. After tightening it up and wiping everything down, it was time to give it another crank… it STARTED! Wish there was a way to upload a video on here so I can share with you all. I’ve got to say, it’s one thing owning your dream car but it’s a different feeling when you’ve devoted hundreds of hours, thousands of dollars and tons of sweat, blood and tears into making your dream car something you’ve always dreamt of. Yes I know it’s a stock car

Here’s a still from the start-up video:

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It’s crunch time! More updates to come!

[Vtecwreck]

Now that we’ve got it running it’s time to button it all up! Although getting it started was a huge milestone, there’s so much more to do, being that at this point we are less than a week away from the trip.

The steering rack on the car came off a ‘00 GSR, which I didn’t know had a different head that goes into the pump… long story short, I removed the steering pump and then had to reinstall it once I had the correct hose available.

I also ran into an issue with bleeding the brakes. I was under the impression the sequence to bleeding the brakes was LR,RR,FR,FL but per the manual it says it start with the front wheels. However, after bleeding all 4 corners, we noticed the pedal lost pressure unless pumped.

Besides this, everything went well. Bled the clutch and adjusted the pedal, bled the coolant, bled the power steering system, aligned the car as best as possible, installed exhaust gaskets and autozone spring loaded catalytic converter bolts (they’re too long, found the right ones - will replace later).

We did all this at my brothers job so, when it was time to go, I let my cousin Gary (he’s been a BIG help throughout this surprise) load it onto the trailer and as he was driving it on the ramps he go scared and popped the clutch and then the car wouldn’t move anymore. Clutch engaged, transmission shifted so the only thing I could think of was an axle popping out… and that’s exactly what happened. So we push the car onto the trailer and I finally get it home.

Sorry there’s not many pictures of this whole update, I’m really working hard to meet this deadline. Only 2 days left! I was able to snap this when we stopped at the parts store.

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[Vtecwreck]

With the caR at home I had access to work on it with any free time I had. My cousins came over and we were able to appropriately bleed the brakes. Per the manual on a car with ABS you should start at the front wheels to release most of the air out of the lines. we also kept the car on and it worked out great. We continued tackling the list of things to do until I was left with buttoning the car up.

After 2 late nights, the car was ready for the road. So it was time to reinstall the body panels. Only problem here was that I lost one of the headlights and I put my stock ITR spoiler on another project which has since been sold, the only other spoiler I had was a Mugen Gen II that I’ve been hoarding onto. So I made the executive decision to put it on the car, and I couldn’t have been happier with the outcome!

Mandatory gas station photo shoot lol:

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It was a great feeling, filling the car up after 4 years! I drove the car around town, and got on it a bit and boy does this thing rip!

The next day, my cousin Erick was taking the car to work with him to charge the A/C system, do a bolt check and a few other things. Being that he was going to re-do the alignment (machine at my brothers job was grossly out of wack), I felt it was a good excuse to install the wheels I’ve been hoarding. They need to be cleaned up but I still went forward with putting them on the car:

16x7 +43 Volk Se37k
BFgoodridge G-Forces
F: 225/45
R: 205/45

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Here are some pictures my cousin sent me:

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Once I got it back, I installed the headlight that was missing and gave it the wash it desperately needed. The car was done and ready for the trip! My family took very well to the “surprise” and my uncle who is also an ITR owner was super happy the car was back on the road. The trip was over 100 miles each way and the car did great! It almost went without any problems until I got pulled over on our way home. The State Trooper was a cool younger guy and let me take a picture of the car after giving me the ticket (he gave me a “break”). Here’s some pictures from the trip:

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[00DC2R]

Love the wheels! I miss the OG offsets. Car looks great with the Mugen wing. Congrats on all of the progress .

[JDMJNKY]

YEEEEEEEE! It's on the road, up and running again.

I'm not sure why looking at these past few updates gave me an overwhelming feeling to keep my ITR. The gift and the curse checking progress anyway, congrats to you ninja!!