My Rust Bucket (AKA Gold Digger)

[Blurred Talon]

I bought the car about 2 years ago now and I said I wouldn't be modifing it, that lasted about a month before the car had an intake, turbo back exhaust and a slew of gauges.

One of the first major things I did with the car is repair the shock towers. Had a fellow DSMer back in Toronto do the work for me. This was early spring of last year.









That summer the gf and I decided to move across the country to NL. I had to do some maintenance before I moved though so I bought a bunch of parts: ACT 2600 w/street disc, Fidanza Flywheel, all OEM clutch parts (slave, master, TOB, fork, clip), Timing Belt kit, BSE Kit, New Lifters, 14B, eBay manifold (stocker was cracked), Link V3 Lite, ARP head studs, Prothane mounts, HKS 272 cams and a bunch of seals and gaskets.

AWDAuto on here (Ryan L) did the work for me because I had no garage.
Stock nastyness.


Engine bay cleaned and empty.


All the various emission crap was removed too.

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Engine ready to go back in.


Engine in.


So this is where the rust bucket part comes in. When pulling the motor the front rad support was so rusty that it tore apart where the motor mount bolts in. It's fine to drive but I couldn't beat on it, what do you think I did though? Beat it! The driver side motor mount bolts sheared off thus taking out a driver side axle shaft right as I was entering Nova Scotia. Thankfully someone stopped and hooked me up with a tow!

Once I got the car in NL I decided to strip it and find all the rust.






So I would have to replace the trunk floor, spare tire well (I'm just gonna delete it), lower rad spot and a small patch on the driver floor (the rest was surface rust and I sanded it all down and primed and painted it.

However it was fall and cold so I didn't work on the body work much. Instead, I dyed my interior black, I used all SEM products. Landau black is the color I used with low luster clear on top.




I also decided I wanted an S2000 cluster, this was a TON of work. I wanted to pull my hair out a couple of times.

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Here's the cluster in the car (ignore the none functioning gauges, I need new sender wires for the Pro Sports and the water temp gauge isn't connected).


All the electronics where the passenger air bag used to be.


Finally, spring time was here. I picked up a lower rad support off a member here.


And a new not quite as rusty as the hatch on my car hatch off a local. I'm shaving the wiper, wing and squiter off.


Loaded up the DD and headed out to the car (1.5 hour drive away).


Started tackling the rust.
Driver side rocker.







Trunk.

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Passenger side rocker, I didn't get progress pictures nor did I finish this patch. I'll do that in a couple of weeks.


I decided to chop the spare tire well out of my car. It was rusty and crappy so it was time to go. I replaced it with a sheet of 1/8" thick aluminum.


Old rusty wheel well.


New aluminum floor in place, it's held in with self taping screws and sealed with silicone. I still need to clean it up and finish under coating the bottom (ran out of under coating with a small section left to spray still). I'm likely going to leave the aluminum bare on top because I like the look.



Next part that I moved on to scared me the most simply because I viewed it as a tough job. I was scared I was going to screw up my car. However I took my time, made a plan of attack and I'm pleased with the how it turned out.
My rusty lower rad support.


Chopped out and on the ground, you can see why I had to replace it.



Then I started to fit in the new piece.



Then I welded it in. I added some 1/8" flat bar on top of the other welds to add some support and give a bit more strength to the repair.





I also finished the passenger side rocker. I still ran out of seam sealer and need a bit more to finish it all up. I'll do that next time and remount both side skirts.


Lastly, I put the new hatch on the car. I still need to do some filler work on it and the front bumper then paint them but the end is within sight.

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Had to replace the gasket on my Intake Manifold this weekend. This is simply the worst repair I've ever had to do, it's such a pain to get at the lower bolts with the huge hands I've got but luckily with a ratchet wrench, it's doable.
Starting the tear down, the night before. There's so much stuff to get out of the way first that I didn't finish it the first day.


Once I got everything out (power transistor, coil pack, fuel injectors and rail, throttle cable, etc). It was getting dark so I decided to stop working on the intake manifold for the day. I turned my attention to my throttle body. I wanted to block off my FIAV plus I plan to replace the TB shaft seals too and give it a good cleaning.


FIAV turned all the way in.


Freeze plug reinstalled and some vacuum caps on the unused ports.


Woke up this morning and after lots of fighting, off came the intake manifold.

I installed an EGR delete plate from RTM Racing.


New knock sensor.


Tapped the EGR port in the head and put in a 1/8NPT plug with lots of Lock Tite on it.


Slipped the new IM gasket on.


Then I started putting the manifold back on. My Dad came out and caught this picture of me working.


Finally done with the intake manifold and I hope I never have to touch the thing again.

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I then moved on to pulling my engine and front chassis harnesses from the car. This was actually pretty easy, I labelled everything I knew but some things will need to be researched before any work starts. Once I have everything labelled I can make a plan of attack.





Chassis harness.


No wiring.


Finally I got the bumper painted but ran out of time for clear coat, doesn't look half bad for a rattle can job though.


Over the past couple of days I removed all the loom and electrical tape from the OEM harness. This is a super messy job, went through a couple pairs of nitrile gloves.

First day, I got up to the DRL/High beam relay bracket done (that's what those relay rust things are). I'll likely be doing away with the bracket as it's pretty pointless and HUGE to mount two little things. I'm also looking into rewiring my DRLs.



Day 2, I got all the way up to the fuse box. You'll also see the pile of loom and tape that's come off so far.



Day 3 (today), I started by removing the bracket from the fuse box and then removing the bottom from it.


From there I finished up the forward chassis/fuse box harness.


Then I turned my attention to the engine harness, this one went by pretty quick in comparison. It's 95% done, I left the loom on somethings for now.


Pile of garbage.


Over the weekend I'm going to depin and remove the wires I no longer need. The list is:
Everything AC related.
Everything ABS related
Cruise Control
Fuel Pressure Solenoid
EGR Control Solenoid
Brake fluid level switch
Theft Alarm Horn
EVAP Solenoid
Front and rear O2 Sensors (I have a wideband and via ECM Link I can simulate narrow band functions)
Fog Lights
Oil Pressure Gauge (dash one, replaced by an aftermarket)
Hood Switch
MAF connector (leave the wires needed for IAT sensor for Speed Density)
Fuel Pump Check Connector
Engine Speed Detection Connector
Ignition Timing Check Connector

I'm also going to order the Deutsch HDT-48-00 crimper and some DT series connectors to start working on the harness itself. I'll be using a 12 pin connector to make a Fuel Injector harness, another connector will replace the wiper motor one, one of the fuse box (will be mounted where the passenger air bag was) and another to mount into the firewall.

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Did some more work on the harness over the weekend.
A set of picks works great for depinning the various connectors, these things only cost me $7 maybe.


I started by unpinning the Red/Blue wire and black wire from the MAF plug. These are for the MAFs IAT circuit, I will be using these for speed density. I still need to reroute it up around the injector harness.





I rerouted the Injector Resistor box connector to the interior.


Here's everything I removed; MAF connector, Fuel Pressure Solenoid, EGR Solenoid, Fuel Pump Check Connector, Ignition Timing Check Connector, Brake Fluid Switch, Theft Alarm Horn.


Made a big order from Wirecare.com last night;
Deustsch Connectors and Crimpers
Flexo F6 Braided Sleeving
Various sizes of 2:1 heat shrink
Various sizes of 3:1 adhesive walled heat shrink
Hot Knife!

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More updates, I've been slowly working on the harness over the past couple of days, I should have everything I want removed from all 3 harnesses (fuse box, engine and dash) by the end of this weekend.
From there I can plan out everything else, I want to have all my aftermarket accessories in the fuse box so I don't need the accessory fuse box anymore. I also need to figure out where to mount all the S2000 cluster stuff, I've got some ideas for that.

Anyhow, here's updates.
First, here's the wiring note book. I'm documenting everything.


Here's all the ABS junk, I can't believe how much wiring there was for it. One nice thing is it was all ran separate from the rest of the harness for the most part so it was pretty quick and easy to remove.


All the wiring that's been pulled so far.


Here's what I've pulled so far:
ABS
Fuel Pressure Solenoid
EGR Solenoid
Brake Level Switch
Theft Alarm Horn
EVAP Solenoid
Fuel Pump Check Connector
MAF Connector (let the IAT wires)
Ignition Timing Check Connector
O2 Sensors

What's left?
A/C
Cruise Control
Fog Lights
Oil Pressure Gauge
Hood Switch
ISC Motor
EGR Motor

Here's the fuse box so far. I've removed some of the relays (want to figure out how to get those to work for aftermarket stuff if possible), fusible links and fuses. Most of this stuff will be reused.


I've finally finished both engine and fuse box harnesses. Now, my tuck/rewire is a little different from other peoples. I pulled my Alternator plug out because I'll be doing the Saturn Alternator swap (and relocation) using the self exciting regulator that Motorcity Reman offers for the DSMs, this is a 1 wire hook up so I won't need any of the stock wiring. I've lost the battery light by doing this but I've got a volts gauge so it's not a big deal for me.
I'm also installing a Davies Craig Electric Water Pump (EWP115) and fan controller so all my OEM relays for the fans and the wiring has been removed.

Here's a comparison of how little wire is left after all this is remove. Bottom is the fuse box side of the plug, top is the engine harness side.


Chassis harness done (for now).


Amount of wire removed! (still need to do the dash harness)


Dash flipped over and ready to be taken apart. You see why I want to redo the dash harness, it looks HORRIBLE!


Now I know what plug (plugs) I will be using on the fuse box itself so I will get those ordered up then I can crimp them on and mount the fuse box plus figure out how secure the air bag door back on (I think dzus fasteners are the ticket). I've also got a lot of planning left to do for all the other things I want to incorporate into the fuse box.

Dash harness is out and all the tape is off for the most part (I left the dash speakers alone for now). I wanted to do more but I haven't slept much the past couple of days so I did some of that early and I'm doing more after I post this.

Here's the dash harness out, you can see the piece of lexan I mounted all the stuff for the S2000 cluster on. I HATE this now so it had to go. All the S2000 cluster converter as going to be behind the dash bezel now so when I need to access it, I pop the bezel out and bam it's there. There's also a lot of wiring for gauges, shift light blah blah blah, that's all going.


Most of the excess wiring removed.


Electrical tape removed.


Close up of the S2000 cluster wiring, like I said I'll be redoing things. I'm not happy with it one bit.


Fog light wiring and cruise wiring will be removed tomorrow plus I'm gonna see if I can get my hands on the block off plates for where the switches use to be. I'm also starting to work on my HID retro again and my LED lighting conversions (all lights on the car will be LED).

Got my first order of Deutsch stuff today; Crimper and some connectors.


I tossed it into an organizer to keep everything well, organized :P


I also got some F6 braided sleeving, heat shrink, electrical tape, adhesive wall heat shrink (for any connections in the harness it self) and a cheapie hot knife for cutting the sleeving.


The F6 Sleeving is pretty damn cool I must say, it's split like split loom so it's very easy to install over the wire. Then you just put some heat shrink over the end, shrink it down and your done.



So I need to order more connectors now. For the fuse box harness and engine harness. Need to figure out/decide if I'm going to have a flange mount plug in the firewall or not.

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Well, I'm finally done removing all the wiring I don't need. Cruise and fog light switches came out today.


Here's all the wiring that's been removed.


Now I need more connectors and to get some time at the car so I can start shortening/lengthening the harness.

That gets you all caught up with where I am now. I'm waiting on another order of Deutsch connectors plus some other stuff. I'm also going to pick up an automatic wire stripper so I get nice clean, perfect strips on all the wires.

[8thWonder]

Wow. This is one of the most detailed, methodical workups I've ever seen. Also some of the worst rust I've ever seen. I'd like to see the end product. Nice.

[JTEVO2932]

wow thats a lot of work! is that a s2000 cluster? and cant wait to see to it all done

[Blurred Talon]

Wow. This is one of the most detailed, methodical workups I've ever seen. Also some of the worst rust I've ever seen. I'd like to see the end product. Nice.

Thanks, I've become fairly OCD with the car over the past bit. I can't wait to have it up and running.
Believe it or not I've actually seen worst rust then this!

wow thats a lot of work! is that a s2000 cluster? and cant wait to see to it all done

Thanks.
Yup, that's an S2000 cluster. I need a new plastic face plate for it as the one on it is a bit beaten up. Thankfully Honda sells it separate from the cluster. I also plan to have it reprogrammed to match the mileage on my car (even though the mileage on the car is high lol).

[JTEVO2932]

Yup, that's an S2000 cluster. I need a new plastic face plate for it as the one on it is a bit beaten up. Thankfully Honda sells it separate from the cluster. I also plan to have it reprogrammed to match the mileage on my car (even though the mileage on the car is high lol).[/QUOTE]

Thats cool man something different..good luck with your project

[SLO-EVO]

AMAZING work man. Came out looking good so far! Shaping up to be a beaut! Nice fab work BTW.

[blackout]

awsome thread man. Keep up the great work and updates!

[talondsp]

Looks good bud! Real nice work.

[Evilevo8]

HOLY CHRIST.. now thats what I call dedication to doing it right! Definitely a great job on all the work! Keep us updated I want to see how it turns out!

[Blurred Talon]

Thats cool man something different..good luck with your project

Thanks!

AMAZING work man. Came out looking good so far! Shaping up to be a beaut! Nice fab work BTW.

Thanks. I really want to pick up a TIG and start learning that but I need a garage first.

awsome thread man. Keep up the great work and updates!

Looks good bud! Real nice work.

HOLY CHRIST.. now thats what I call dedication to doing it right! Definitely a great job on all the work! Keep us updated I want to see how it turns out!

Thanks!
I'll keep the updates coming as they happen.

[mullen]

holy fuck! the harness job is badass, that car is a cancer bucket

[Blurred Talon]

holy fuck! the harness job is badass, that car is a cancer bucket

Thanks. I've got a mil spec fire wall plug on the way for the harness.
I plan to replace the shell one of these days.