'Renee' the Type R (96 spec DC2 Integra Type R)

[flinch]

copy and pasted from my NZHondas build thread.

I started a build thread on my Prelude not too long ago, and that projected had early retirement. While I was still progressing, I couldn't help myself keep up with the market, and found a mint EK4 VTiR I wished to purchase. I put the prelude up for quick sale, and had an interested buyer, but he was from Wellington. I didn't know if he was wasting time or not, but I told him to come up with the money and come and view and if he's happy he can take it away. He sounded keen, but never knew until he made his way up to Auckland. The Civic I intended to purchase sold the night before, and the guy is texting me saying hes getting ready and packing for his trip up to Wellington. Next day, he drove up, (not flew..) with a bunch of his friends. Turns out the guy doesn't really know how to drive manual, but has been waiting for the 'right prelude' .. Ofcourse mine fit the bill perfectly fine. He came up with a friend of his who also had a BB1 or BB4 that was modified, and they ended up buying the car. Little did I know, the car didn't even make it to Wellington the next day, got impounded for speeding just outside of Hamilton. Got a copy of the notice as the vehicle was still under my name, but the guy changed the ownership soon after he got home. That was the end of that project.

I didn't really have 110% motivation to pursue the Prelude project. Deep down, I wanted to get another ITR. Ever since I purchased the rebirthed one, and having that seized, left an emptiness within me. I just had to get another, but soon found, finding a tidy one within the lower end of the market value bracket, was soon proving impossible. I soon got enough money together to look at purchasing one that was advertised on NZH, guy didn't want to budge on price, but it looked in the photos to be a mint looking one, with a few aftermarket goodies here and there. I went to view and as soon as I walked up to the car before the owner came to meet us at his car, I was already shocked and disappointed. Nearly every panel needed touching up or work, and for me, it was a real let down as I was hoping this was the one. Was ready to buy then and there. I test drove it, thinking maybe I'll still bite the bullet and take it on, if it drives exceptionally, it drove well, but it still got me coming back to the exterior. I just wasn't happy with the condition. I decided to pass, and put up a WTB ad on the facebook Honda buy and sell page. Got a few pm's coming through of ones I wasn't keen on ( not just ITR's, everything and anything, dohc vtec, manual, tidy condition, if it was an ITR, non ABS and no airbag model was the requirement along with it having to be fairly tidy. Budget of $6.5k. Which is where I got a message from a guy in South Auckland about the one I purchased.

Car is very tidy for the price, drives nicely, and no major imperfections or requires any major attention .. as far as I know so far ..
History of the vehicle:

Imported in 2004.
Engine rebuilt using OEM Honda parts and .25 oversize ITR pistons etc in 2005.
Clutch is OS Giken Super Single which was rebuilt back in 2007.
Receipts for HPC Coatings for a rocker cover paint and intake manifold paint.
Receipt for set of brand new Potenza G3's all around. Still have two on the rear.
The guy I purchased it from purchased some new Re002's on the front for last WOF.
Also replaced all cv boots and CV joints have been replaced as well.
chassis now done around 238ks, and engine estimated around 90ks according to what was advised through each owner since the rebuild, according to kms on chassis.
car has some kind of exhaust on it, which looks to me to be smaller than OEM ITR
car also has bilstein circlips as advised by prev owner but I havn't checked myself, seems to ride stiffer than OEM ITR.

[flinch]

here are some pics:







some minor damage on the tail light and rear filler panel


broken aerial



minor dents and stone chipping on bonnet


interior bit filthy, HKB boss kit, Sparco steering wheel, still has OEM ITR gearknob


Red Recaro SR3's - drivers side bolsters damaged, and minor rip, still feel good to sit in however.



OEM ITR rear strut bar (I was planning to get one of these, but it already has one - must be fate!)



engine bay, has a gay little catch can setup, which I will probably move or get rid of all together, fairly standard otherwise.


close up of the HPC job


HPC black'd the intake manifold


just the usual 3" intake pipe with V.stack and pod filter.


force feed intake duct


tidily cut out half the drivers side grill on the bumper to feed the air


as I had some time off today, Mondays being my day off .. I started the clean up.

First up, changing the steering wheel to my Momo wheel I've had lying around. No horn button as my momo horn button I have spare, doesn't work as I only found out today and the ring that keeps it tight in the steering wheel doesn't work with the HKB Boss kit, think I need a momo one.


swapped out my ITR knob for DC5/EP3 style 5 speed knob. I don't really like the shape of the oem ITR knobs.




ripped the front seats out and vaccumed the carpet, carpet not in bad condition actually.


it was pretty dark when I got to this stage, so lighting on the pics are pretty shit.


there were some About Streeter Corporation stickers, and some NZDM group stickers on these quarter windows, all removed now..


the DOHC VTEC stickers were crusty as, so removed that as well, LSD one still intact, but might replace all those later.


Jesse Streeter and NZDM stickers gone from drivers side too


drivers side floor


heres a set shot of the ITR mats that came in this car. Drivers side very worn, even has a hole through it where your heel would rest for the clutch.


I washed the car also, and stuck my plates on it, however I ran out of light just after vaccuming the interior, so pics will have to wait until possibly sometime this week.

I've now picked up a replacement bonnet, filler panel, a parcel tray with clips in tact as the one in the car is mint other than the clips being ripped out. - Thanks to 'K-Swap' a.k.a Andy.
Also picked up a header back exhaust, and spoon style plastic mirrors, along with a replacement aerial from 'toda' a.k.a Colin.
Also picked up a Spoon ECU off trademe, which I believe use to belong to 'OPTIONed' a.k.a Justin and also came from 'necis' a.k.a Rob.

Plans for the future.
Slowly take on the things that need attention on the car.
Replace the mats (mats already sorted, just haven't picked them up from Justin yet)
Sort out that catch can
look at restoring the headlights, possibly retrofit some HID's.
Will plan to do full LED lighting fit out on this as well.
Full Service.
Header - either something JDM or OEM 4-1 98 spec.
Full Stereo/Sounds install.
Try the Spoon ECU out - will prob opt to do OBD1 convert and get chip and tune later
Look at changing up the suspension possibly coilovers
Prelude brake upgrade up front
then possibly start hitting the track occasionally

[flinch]

bit of a shitty update.
I had my digital camera stolen when my ITR got broken in to about a month back so haven't been motivated to update.
I've now purchased a replacement camera so back on board, but with winter and shitty weather, lack of motivation and not having full access to garage to work on the car, its been slow.

Had Justin come around and help me swap my bonnet over, I ended up just buying a replacement bonnet in tidier condition than mine, for less than it was going to cost to repaint my one, so swapped them over and removed the badges to swap those over too.

removed the pwjdm bonnet raisers as well


old bonnet minus badge (you can see slight stone chips etc in and paint imperfections if you look closely in the badge area)


replacement bonnet on the car (only has one little chip next to badge area)


badge on the right I will be using which is off my bonnet, and one on left is the one that came on the replacement.


one sunny ish sunday, so I decided to give some elbow grease to my muffler I plan to put on.








gave it a wetsand and a light polish with the SOL, but it needs more love, plan on just taking it to prof to get it polished up like mega BLING!
it is a jasma stamped FGK rear muffler, came complete with header back (is a old school Japanese system rest of the system, has a few hory welds that need some love which I will deal with when I get it all fitted up, and the rear muffler isn't one destined for a DC2, this will get some love to tidy it up a bit as well) the b pipe section has a test pipe welded to it, hence now being a header back system. Rumour has it, it is resembles old school HKS style system, but manufacture of b pipe not 100%.

You can also see a sneak peak of some new wheels that I will do a refurb project on for the ITR under the muffler.

I've also picked up a 98 spec rear bumper with some fibreglass endcaps. I've decided to flag the idea of getting OEM access side skirts and rear end caps as I've decided against this look now.
So the rear bumper is due to be repainted this weekend hopefully, will throw that on, along with the replacement rear filler panel I've got waiting. Will also seal up the tail lights properly and also install my soon to arrive NZDM/UKDM tail lights I've finally found!

- - - Updated - - -

close up of the muffler and its years of damage ..







I also noticed that my rear Bridgestone G3's which were purchased approximately 6-7 years ago, when a full set was chucked on for a warrant, were wearing a bit badly on the camber side, one in particular was real bad. The car had some RE002's fitted at the last wof up front, so was looking for 2 replacements, but wasn't keen to purchase new as I'm on a bit of a budget at the moment. I ended up buying a set of four Toyo T1R in 205/50/15 (didn't want to change the size), and got those fitted up. Needs an alignment for good measure though, which will get done in the next few weeks hopefully. Trying to smash out as much as I can, as I'm going to have to put a stop on spending on the car end of August so I can start putting some money away for spending on my holiday back home in December.

- - - Updated - - -


I also noticed that my rear Bridgestone G3's which were purchased approximately 6-7 years ago, when a full set was chucked on for a warrant, were wearing a bit badly on the camber side, one in particular was real bad. The car had some RE002's fitted at the last wof up front, so was looking for 2 replacements, but wasn't keen to purchase new as I'm on a bit of a budget at the moment. I ended up buying a set of four Toyo T1R in 205/50/15 (didn't want to change the size), and got those fitted up. Needs an alignment for good measure though, which will get done in the next few weeks hopefully. Trying to smash out as much as I can, as I'm going to have to put a stop on spending on the car end of August so I can start putting some money away for spending on my holiday back home in December.

[Setanta]

Nice looking beastie - I keep getting tempted to fit a JDM nose and then chicken out.

[flinch]

Yeah, well bugeye NZDM ITR's are rare as here in NZ. So when we do see the real deal, which isn't common, it looks bad ass! Would love a facelift bugeye front end on mine, but would have to be with genuine ITR lip complete!

Mate of mine has a JDM 98 spec PY ITR here in NZ, only one in the country that we know of that is originally PY. Was rough when he purchased it, but now its such a pearler! Know a few peeps with NZDM bugeye ITR's in red, yellow and Black as well (that's nearly the countrys complete count haha)

[flinch]

Small update.

So 'Renee' came fitted with Bilstein circlip adjustable shocks all around matched to some RS*R Ti2000 springs. Drives so mint, and handles like a dream. Quite hard and stiff, but I like that. I was planning to match to some neuspeeds to get some more drop, as the Ti2000's aren't much of a 'drop' spring. I found some Neuspeed Race DC2 springs on some OEM shocks and purchased them to mix and match a little later.
As I had some spare time, pulled the Bilstein setup out, and chucked the Neuspeeds in. The Bilsteins have about 2 more lower grooves on the back, and no grooves at all on the front.

One thing I noticed however is, the rear has a lot of shock body for 'regrooving' but on the front, the bottom of the platform where it sits now, and where I would be machining new grooves, seems like there isn't much more room at all for 'new grooves'. Has my bilsteins already been shortened? It is quite a close gap to where the brake hose holder sits and essentially the bottom of the shock where it goes in to the front forks? .. .. any info or advice would be appreciated?

Heres some pics:

Front Shock .. Notice the gap where new grooves would go, between bottom of platform, then essentially where the brake hose holder is?


Genuine RS*R Ti2000 (highly rate these, bloody good functional performance orinented springs)


Front shock comparison to OEM DC ? shock with neuspeed spring..


part numbers for these Neuspeed Race are destined for DC2 Integra


rear shock oem/neuspeed compared to the bilstein/rsr combo - see how these have a bit of grooving room to go below the lowest groove?


One new thing I noticed while doing the suspension swap was another surprise.. .. car has D2 adjustable rear camber arms installed! (bonus!)



thought it might be a good chance to take a quick snap of my exhaust setup at the moment as well (will be up for sale in future when my new exhaust is ready to go)
As far as I can see, it is a stock ITR b pipe, had the rear ITR muffler replaced with some aftermarket replacement, with a small pipe coming out the back. Muffler is tucked up nice and high close to rear chassis and looks very stock, well pee-shooter ish.





Car hasn't been washed through this shitty winter weather for a bout a month now, was so hard to give even just a proper wash! but had to be done, my wheels were literally black.
The morning after the bath.





A nice shot of my painted spoon mirrors




shot of the ass - now rockin a asslift .. 98 spec rear bumper freshly painted by 'HEZAT8'






replaced the filler panel with a tidier one with no marks on it.




- - - Updated - - -

[felixR]

Much better with the 98 bumper!