93 del Sol Si {Movin' On Up}

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iBoom

SiR Sol
Hola everyone. I've been lurking around HS for a long time, but never really posted anything. This is my del Sol progress thread. I posted this on a local Honda forum so don't mind the off track dates.

1993 Honda del Sol Si
D16Z6 w/ 5Spd manual tranny
Captiva Blue Pearl

This is my first time owning my own Honda. When I got my first job at UPS I had no transportation so my dad temporarily gave me his 89 EF Hatch. About 4 months later my mom bought me a 93 Tercel so I returned the hatch to my dad. The Tercel was my DD for about 1 month or so. I've always wanted a del Sol, so when I had a good amount of money saved up I went on Craigslist and found this del Sol selling for $1200. Visited the guy the next day and talked him down to $1000 cash.​

I currently go to Broward College and major in Automotive Service Management Technology, so I try to work on my car myself and learn more.

Feb 9, 2010

Finalized the deal and drove the Sol home for the first time. It was a complete bucket of crap. It was my first time ever driving a del Sol and I thought I just blew my money away.

  • Interior: Broken or loose compartments, dirty floor, broken drivers side door handle, broken drivers side targa handle, missing speaker covers, and a few other minor things.
  • Exterior: Surface rusted hood, 14" steelies, black altezza taillights, oversized wing, peeling tint, and dirty.
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Feb 10, 2010

So the very next day I got down to business. I started to clean up the interior since I would be daily driving this car within the next few days. I took out the rear compartments and the seats and did some cleaning. I found the two missing speaker covers under the seats and fixed all of the broken panels. The panels weren't actually broken, they were just missing a few screws or got loose from the hinges. I installed my JVC headunit and JVC 6.5 speakers in the front and rear. The previous owner had amp wires and extra speaker wires all over the place so I removed those since I'm not to fond of 300 lbs of stereo equiptment in a car.
When I was done this is how it looked.

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Feb 18, 2010

Finally my stock taillights arrived that I bought on eBay for $64.28 shipped. I took off the old Altezza's and went back to the stock look.

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Feb 19, 2010

My 15" rims finally arrived that I bought on eBay. They may not be some expensive brand, but they look pretty damn good. I belive the brand name is Jizo and I paid $334 shipped for them. Quite a few people gave me good compliments about how they look.

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Feb 20, 2010

Got some 195/50/15 tires from "Nicole's Tire Sales" for $180 and got them mounted and balanced at Hubcap Heaven for $45.

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Feb 23, 2010

While waiting for my lock lugnuts to come in the mail before I mounted my new rims, I decided to take the Boeing wing off the Sol. I temporarily put an old taillight gasket with screws to patch the hole up.

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Feb 24, 2010

My blue locking lutnuts came in the mail so I put the new rims on the Sol and snapped a few pics. As you can see it's starting to look much better than it did when I first got it.

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Mar 5, 2010

Sooo the FedEx guy stopped by and dropped off a little surprise. Yup my eBay black 1 piece headlights finally arrived ($114.99). At that time I did the Aux light mod so they would come on with or without the headlights on and I got some amber yellow bulbs for them.

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Mar 6, 2010

I got tired of driving around with this ugly ass rusted hood. Took a trip to Walmart and got the cheapest paint I could find lol. I bought 5 cans of Color-Place for $0.98 each. Then I went to Home Depot and bought a pack of 120 grit sandpaper for like $2.67. Went back home and took off the hood and took it around to the backyard where I sanded it and sprayed it black. It only took 2 1/2 cans of paint to get it glossy black. I let it dry for a few hours and watched my beauty shine. =)

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Mar 7, 2010

Since I had the Sol I never gave it a good washing so I pulled out the water hose and soap and started scrubbing. After about an hour or two it was squeaky clean!

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Mar 13, 2010

Since the hinge on my glovebox was broken, I decided to do a little DIY instead of trying to search the world for a 93 glovebox. I went to walmart and bought some Epoxy glue for $2.xx. I squeezed some out on a little piece of cardboard and mixed it around until it got almost hardened. Then I rubbed the expoy on the broken hinge and set it at an angle so it can stay in the same position and dry. In about 30 minutes it's dry and I installed it back into the car.

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Mar ??, 2010

I bought some red, blue, & amber colored leds to install in my gauge cluster and climate control. Pretty easy to install and looks nice. However, the screw that holds the climate control in place got stripped in the process since I got fustrated that I couldn't get it out. So I gave up on the climate control lights for now until I could decide what to do about it.

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Mar 22, 2010

I attempted to take out the dash in order to get out the climate control, but I failed miserably and gave up.
:FFUU:

Mar 26, 2010

I went on eBay and purchased a universal power lock kit a few days back and it arrived in the mail today. I only paid $29.99 shipped for it.

Mar 27, 2010

If at first you don't succeed, try again!
I successfully removed my dashboard and was able to get the climate control out much easier and replace the stripped screw as well as the 2 blown led bulbs. It took me a while to figure out how to remove it, but I finally got it and it took less than 20 minutes to put it back in.

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Mar 30, 2010

I installed the keyless entry kit I bought on eBay. It works good so far and was pretty easy to install. It was originally wired up for a 4 door car, but I did a little wire cutting & extending, and soldering and now it's perfect. I mounted the reciever under the center console since there's a nice big spot underneath it. There was previously some sort of alarm that didn't even work so I unwired it and kept the switch so I can use it to lock & unlock the door from the inside. It's mounted below the steering wheel near to the fuse panel. It's easy to reach and not out in the open. Actuator was pretty simple and easy to install. There was already 2 holes in the door so I just screwed it on to those and it fit perfectly.

I have a detailed write-up on TeamCrxSolFla

teamcrxsolfl.com - View topic - Power Door Lock Installation

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Apr 1, 2010

No more 4x4 for the del Sol. Like most curious people I bought some cheap eBay coilovers for $49.99. The ride quality isn't the best but it gets the job done. I'm not sure how much inches I lowered it, but it looks damn near good. My driveway is on a mini incline, but the Sol makes it out by a hair with no rubbing or scraping. I don't plan on keeping these cheap coilovers for long so why not blow the shocks out in style :tongue3: lol.

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Apr 8, 2010

These are the most current pictures of my del Sol.

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Apr 9, 2010

Well I like the all black interior of the 96-97 del Sol's so I decided to paint the few gray interior pieces black. I'm trying to get a little theme going on so tomorrow I'm going to buy some fabric so I can rewrap the gray speaker, center, and door panels. Since I don't have Motegi interior, I might as well make me own :)

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___________________

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The only gray pieces I'll have left is the door handles and sun visors. Since the OEM black door handles aren't hard to find I'll pick up a set of those instead of painting them, plus the drivers side handle is broken anyway.

I'll have interior shots tomorrow after the panels are wrapped.
 
Apr 10, 2010

So today I went out and bought some simple blue colored fabric. Only paid $9 for 2 yards which is more than enough. I think I did a good job with the targa top but the side panels were a PITA. The fabric I had didn't consist of a stretchy material so I wasn't able to make the side panels nice, smooth, and flush. For now I'll let it slide but I'm positive I'm going to redo them very soon since the Sol can't settle for imperfection.

This is my first time doing my own lil reupholestry so it was a good experience, but I need a little bit more practice.

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Apr 12, 2010 Part 1

So I stayed up till 1:30am last night finishing up my door panels. I went to bed like at 1:45am then woke up at 3:30am to go to work so I was pretty tired. Anyways the door panels came out pretty good and I even made the shift boot and ebrake boot myself when I came home from work this morning. It was actually pretty easy, I went online and found a few tutorials about how to make your own shiftboot so I tried and it was a success!!

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Apr 12, 2010 Part 2

Door panels are back on and look nice as hell:smile: I got some polish out and started to clean off the panels so I can snap some good pics. I even painted my rear Honda emblem black and took off the blue & black steering wheel cover. In all this total DIY took me about 3-4 days and it was worth it. I love my new interior :smile:

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Apr 13, 2010

Nice sunny day so I found something to do on the Sol. The front passenger side coilover was uneven so I adjusted it. I also tried to yank the back down about an inch, but it wont go any lower. The trunk is pretty light so I need license plate sign that says "Fat Chicks Allowed" lol. :D:

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My lazy dog even came outside to watch :tongue3:
 
Apr 15, 2010

Went to Walmart today to pick up a few things and I passed by some cheap floor mats for $9.xx. For the price it looked like it was worth it, and I can use them as a replacement for the shitty blue ones I have now because whenever it rains my foot just slips & slides on it. I also put on my FHC sticker :D:

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Apr 21, 2010

Power steering and radiator fan issue fixed!

One of the clamps on the power steering fluid reservoir wasn't on properly so I adjusted it and used 2 bottles to fill up the reservoir and wala! Nice easy turning.

And the radiator fan was working all along. I'm assuming that the previous owner thought that if the fan was constantly on the air from it would blow in the intake and make more power? Idk but dumb idea so I put it back in the stock harness and removed the mad scientist wires running around the engine bay.

I think I'm gonna paint my valve cover when I change my headgasket :smile:.

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And I cleaned these suckers off today :)

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And a cellphone pic while I was at my favorite take out joint Captain Max

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Apr 26, 2010

Got my timing belt today. I'm waiting for the set of gaskets to come in the mail on Wednesday so I can start & finish this job by the weekend.

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Apr 28, 2010

Gaskets came in the mail today :smile:

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Apr 30, 2010

After I got off work, I went to this place down the street to remove the tint off my windows :smile:.

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When I stepped out the car I didn't even notice that there was a del Sol right across from me. I walked over to it and took a picture since I rarely see del Sol's around often.

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It's a nice and stock Sol.

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Anyways a tintless Sol is sexayy! :D:

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Apr 30, 2010 Part 2

Took a friend somewhere and cruised the city in the process.

On the way back I stopped at the RaceTrac Gas Station :D:

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Also I was sitting in the car and noticed this reflecting off the windshield onto the seat :smile:

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May 1, 2010

Replaced the gasket today. Fairly easy but a long process. Didn't take much pics since my hands were real dirty and greasy.

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May 2, 2010

So after changing my headgasket yesterday I encountered some problems today :scared:

My car would idle rough and struggle to stay alive and I got a CEL.

I jumped the ECU connector with a wire and turned the car to the ON position and the CEL flashed 1 time for 1/2 second which turned out to be the O2 sensor #1.

Well I checked the Exhaust Manifold and the O2 sensor was plugged in and connected right. So I started searching around the engine and I found this plug with 1 wire hanging on for its dear life (uh oh :huh2:)

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So I pulled the wires off and tried to figure how to reconnect the wires since they tore off from the base of the plug. I had to use a really small flathead to dig out the inside so I could push 2 new wires through it.

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Then I connected new wires to old wire and wala :D:

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Then I turned the car on again and the CEL was off so problem #1 was solved, but the engine was still idling rough and struggling to stay alive.

Called a friend for some advice and he said check the timing again. So I pulled off the valve cover off again just to reveal the top part of the timing belt. Well it turns out that my timing was off by a hair so I adjusted it and car runs perfectly now.

No bent valves FTW! :soulja:

May 3, 2010

Surprise from the mail lady :D: She dropped these off today.

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I broke off the old emblems while trying to put them back on, so I'll just throw these on there. It has the two little pins and self adhesive tape on the back so it'll stay on firmly.
 
great thread dude. way to come up on the car. how much do you have invested so far?

edit: you should paint the valve cover while it's off.
 
great thread dude. way to come up on the car. how much do you have invested so far?

edit: you should paint the valve cover while it's off.

I haven't really add up all of the stuff I bought, but everything that has been done was by me so I saved alot of money.

But thanks for mentioning that. I'll add up everything I bought and see how much I've spent so far.

I forgot to buy the paint for the valve cover the day I changed my headgasket so I'll do that another time.
 
To anyone else that views this thread sorry for the picture galore lol. I love taking pictures of my progress so yeah. Anyways here are a few details I left out.

I do all the labor when it comes to working on my Sol. Occasionally a friend will stick around and help.

Bodywork and paint is the only thing I'll actually pay to get done since I suck at that lol. The Sol has a couple dings and holes on the body and the paint is chippy. But no worries, all of that will be taken care of before the month is over :) I give it about 3 weeks.

As for the engine it's stock right now except for a CAI that was on the car when I got it. The fact that the D16Z6 has no torque is a real bummer :( so that's getting swapped with a beastly B20Vtec :D

Just a reminder that I have no previous experience working on a Honda or pretty much any car so everything I learn involves researching, advice from other people/friends, and trail & error :thumbsup:
 
don't apologize for too many pictures, there is no such thing. the more the better. excellent thread.

the d16 is a good engine to turbo. if you decide you dont' have the budget for the b20, the turbo would be great.

and invest in a good alarm and full coverage. it would be heartbreaking to put in all that work and have it get in an accident, or ever worse, stolen.
 
don't apologize for too many pictures, there is no such thing. the more the better. excellent thread.

the d16 is a good engine to turbo. if you decide you dont' have the budget for the b20, the turbo would be great.

and invest in a good alarm and full coverage. it would be heartbreaking to put in all that work and have it get in an accident, or ever worse, stolen.

I'll have enough money for the B20 over the summer, but don't worry the D16 isn't getting junked ;)

I want to fully rebuild it and in fact throw a nice little turbo on it. Won't be going in the Sol though. I'm thinking of buying a CRX shell since I was always a fan of the old skool Honda's.
 
awesome thread.. glad to see you are resurrecting that sol :thumbsup:

+rep to you sir
 
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