Dumb, Stubborn, and bound to end up penniless…….

[coolhandluke]

Does the estimate also include reinstalling side glass, moldings, etc? I understand the range for the rear quarter. I appreciate the extra two week bake process and stripping the car down to metal.

[aklackner]

The estimate doesn't include any window removal\install or moldings.

Over the years I've seen too many issues with body shop assembly work, even from highly reputable shops. Look closely\underneath and It's very common to see: Moldings that are damaged or aren't aligned to lay properly, Broken, non-functional, incorrect, missing clips, Glass installed too close\low to the body, Incorrect or out right inappropriate fasteners used, Polish\compound in every body gap. In fact, whoever did prior repairs on my shell basically ticked off all of these and then some.

It's rarely that they aren't experienced or that they don't care but I've never seen a body shop working from the Helms manual. They common sense and problem solve their way though it to get it together and they have to move quickly because it's our wallets right. They make their own judgement call on what's acceptable and in most cases you'll never notice, know, or care.

On this project I'd much rather let the paint and body guy focus on just that, and work directly with specialty shops for what I can't to do myself, like the glass. Bonus is I get to know the car better this way too and have direct contacts if anything has an issue.

On Parts:
Some items I'm reusing original parts that were in good shape from either the ITR or from my '97 LS shell, many others I ordered as soon as I identified them and have stored (in every nook and cranny of my garage and house)waiting for assembly. I still expect there will be multiple Honda orders of clips, fasteners, seals, and other odds and ends, and that will run costs up quickly but in a perverse way it's easier since it's not directly on the "paint\body" bill.

[Dc2-ProductionS]

Some items I'm reusing original parts that were in good shape from either the ITR or from my '97 LS shell, many others I ordered as soon as I identified them and have stored (in every nook and cranny of my garage and house)waiting for assembly. I still expect there will be multiple Honda orders of clips, fasteners, seals, and other odds and ends, and that will run costs up quickly but in a perverse way it's easier since it's not directly on the "paint\body" bill.

This. this. this. My house and garage are littered with parts. LOL. And like you said, there are going to be multiple orders of clips, fasteners, and all the little dumb sh!t that we have broken or misplaced. I'm not looking forward to those bills and parts orders. I feel like I may keep trying to tackle as much as I can in all different places so I can get as big of an order together at one time as I can.

I hear you about body shop cutting corners. It can happen. And lots of body shop guys are older, muscle scene type guys who just "have another 4 cylinder" in the shop. It sucks that even though sometimes we stress the importance of a project, it can go overlooked.

[aklackner]

lots of body shop guys are older, muscle scene type guys who just "have another 4 cylinder" in the shop

LOL, yeah I feel like I've lived that one. Actually though some of my worst experiences were with import car specialists and a couple different shops. Those guys, straight didn't care or ran things so upside down they couldn't afford too. They were all fiberglass and, yes, drywall screws. They knew they were working on lower cost cars and mainly for people who didn't know any better as long as it was custom, flashy, and loud. Blocking or baking a car wasn't even considered. Don't get me wrong they'd do some crazy show stuff, but not anything I'd recommend planning to drive for any length of time.

My experience with rod type shops has changed over the years, I've worked with a couple "pin-stripe, airbrush, trucks, choppers, and muscle car" type shops in the import show days. You really had to work on them to get them interested, but once you established a bit of a relationship you could do ok. It was always an investment in time (and beer) to show them you respected what they did and to stay on top of a project, geeking out over one of their projects always helped too. Even then it depended how well the shop was doing when things are tight at a body shop all sorts of bad decisions happen. I think a lot of the smaller mom and pop type shops have been killed off, insurance work all goes to fast collision shops and labor is so expensive few customers have the interest or money to pay for custom. Now generally it seems like rod shops are less all about the muscle and happy to work on Euros or imports as long as it's a $100,000+ project or they aren't interested regardless of what you're bringing in.

Just a couple weeks ago I actually reached out and got an initial quote on the ITR from a rod shop in Anaheim, very cool, well put-together family shop. I was really excited about working with them until the quote came back at $14,000-25,000. Granted they were ready to draw up an entire project plan, total different level of service than I know I'll get from a shop primarily doing collision work and I have no doubt they would be more prepared to do any custom work I wanted no questions but I had to tell them it just wasn't what I was interested in spending for body work for this project.

In the little exposure I've had, mainly chatting them up at shows, classics shops have always required much deeper pockets than mine, pricing on those projects start towards 7 figures these days regardless of who they will or won't take work from.

[DC231]

it cost me roughly $3000-3500 for all the seals,weatherstrips,clips,trim including cowl and rear quarter glass,fasteners,emblems,and a bunch of random bolts. fun days ahead!!

[aklackner]

That’s why I don’t keep a running total and never think of my projects as investments.

My, currently less than organized, thoughts on assembly are something like:

I don’t think I’ll be that bad off for seals and clips. With the 2 cars to pull from and what I’ve already picked up I’m basically covered for seals and moldings.

I’m picky about using appropriate parts but really not 100% OEM committed, so clips and fasteners will be a bit easier/cheaper.

Most fasteners will come from the LS as all suspension/brake/subframe/engine/transmission/PS fasteners were new OEM/ARP/ or appropriate class 10.9+ and rust isn’t an issue on other original hardware.

I plan to keep the rear hatch, quarter, and door glass from the ITR shell (dark tint will be replaced with a very light ceramic to help with heat and UV but maximize visibility and eliminate the need to repaint the upper rear hatch glass).

Front (cheap aftermarket) windshield will be replaced with quality Pilkington glass.

I have all new oem window seals (front and rear) need a front lower dam yet.

I’m toying with the idea of replacing the OEM cowl with a FRP/Carbon, one which closes the air vents but retains wipers, so fresh air is drawn from under fenders not from the engine bay. Otherwise I’ll probably reuse one of the originals, whichever cleans up better. (I already have a new rear hood/cowl seal)

ITR door sills were peeling and in bad shape but the ones on the LS look good, so I’ll use those or buy the new oem (that seem to be a slight mismatch from one of the threads here?)

I have new OEM spoiler seals and aftermarket taillight seals (in case I can’t make a good complete Oem set from originals).

Between the LS and ITR I have complete good condition sets of door and door window seals and guides.

I had replaced the hatch seal on the LS before it was hit but have yet to break the hatch open to see if it survived or if I’ll need another new one.

Still debating if I’ll pay for new inner door liners (plastic sheets) or skip them. Historically I’ve never run these. Moisture isn’t a big issue in SoCal for it to be a significant issue.

I have (front and rear) fender liners from both cars and I believe the front bumper seals(to fenders) from the LS are in good shape.

I already have a full set of new OEM AC seals and drier.

PS System in the LS is all new OEM ITR ‘98-‘01 parts.

I have new oem front brake hardlines. Lines from MC to ABS look fine as do lines from ABS to Prop valve. At this point the plan is to have new custom lines made from the old underbody lines (<$1000? Will start to run this down once the shell is off for body work)

Clutch plumbing will come over from the LS (ITR plumbing was passed on to a ‘97 ITR) or if I face issues will go to complete braided stainless line.

Most chassis/engine harnesses came with the ITR but the cabin harness needs some repair, looks like front impact sensor connector was cut. (Have cabin and floor harnesses from ‘98 GSR so can use connectors from that to repair). Engine harness appears to be 00-01 GSR so has an extra IAB connector but shouldn’t be an issue.

....

[9701TypeR]

Happy to hear it’s headed to the body shop. I know the anticipation will be a killer but once you get it back you’ll be highly motivated to heR together!! Keep us updated

[aklackner]

The rain has been keeping me from getting too anxious about getting the car off to the shop.

I ended up removing all the glass myself.
Broke the windshield and driver side quarter glass during removal.

Planned to replace the low quality windshield anyway and will either buy new quarter glass or replace with the one from the LS.

Upside is the shell is all ready to go to the body shop as soon as they are ready for it.

Today was the last day of rain in the forecast for a while, so I’ll follow up with the body shop tomorrow for an update on timing.

I’ve also been spending time cleaning up the JRSC kit and completing parts for the custom coilovers. Got upper and lower torsion sheets, 9”x 2.25” 350lbs/in springs for the front (based on the math I did I don’t think the progressive ones would have ever unloaded to transition in the front), speedthane type bump stops (the idea is to build a multistage suspension that actually relies on the bump stops to stiffen the suspension when heavily loaded to cut body roll), and the last two upper mounts I needed from Karcepts (seems their new bearings are tighter than the first set I tested with so will put them on the front shocks). I also replaced the tensioner pulley for the JRSC kit since the one that came with it was loose and wobbled. The idler pulley was still tight and looked like it hadn’t seen any mileage since it had last been replaced.

I had planned to send the blower out for rebuild to be safe but after reading up and talking to a shop near me I can tell the coupler, bearings, rotors, and seals are all in great shape, even the rotor coating looks great. So I’ll flush some supercharger oil through the nose then refill to spec. and should be pretty well set on the JRSC kit.

Once the ITR shell is out of my garage it’s going to be time to do some major cleaning and organization!

[I am the Liquor]

Great Progress. It sounds like you got a fair quote for the body work needed, everyone I had got quotes from wanted at least double for less work. Can I ask what the issue is for the rear brake lines? Make custom ones out of old lines? I mightve missed it but are you relocating the MC or PV? 1000$ is more than enough to buy quality tools and materials necessary to do it yourself. It would be especially easy with nothing on the car. From the amount of work youve done so far, ive no doubt you could make quality lines with quality tools.

[aklackner]

The shell saw about 180k mi. of the east coast before I brought it out to SoCal.
There was rust on most of the hard lines running under the body so my plan is to replace them all while I can easily.
Unfortunately the lines are specific to 00-01 since they switched to a larger fuel vapor return line.

The OEM hardlines aren't available any more for the Integra and while the EM1 vapor line is still available and was nearly identical it's a little longer then the Integra.
I reached out to a couple parts yards and even a few people around me who were parting out cars to see if I would be able to pull an oem set but didn't get a useful response from anyone.

Odds are I could make a functional set and have done some some work doing flares for small copper lines but with brake and fuel lines (that also aren't easy to get in\out later) I'd rather have the piece of mind that it's done by an experienced professional on truly profession equipment. The $1000 price was really just picked out of the air to budget for all 5 lines with a lot of bends (to replicate the OEM closely).