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CCColtsicehockey build thread - The Rebirth

36K views 115 replies 49 participants last post by  tr3flip 
#1 ·
This has been a long time coming and many have been asking recently and I have finally gotten this all finished and documented.

So as some of you might have seen in November 2010 my long standing continuous project, my Acura TSX met a terrible fate, I hit a dear at 70mph on the interstate. You can see the carnage from it below.



If you haven’t seen it or read about it you can read more and see pictures of what happened in this link.

http://www.tsxclub.com/forums/tsx-build-threads/48592-amazing-sunday-afternoon-pictures-updated-9-27-a.html

After the accident it was about a month and a half till I had time to move the car from NC to PA so I could begin tearing it down to see the extent of the damage and what parts would be needed for the repair. It also took a while to get things coordinated with the insurance company since I was working in NC and they wanted me in PA when they had the adjuster look at the car so I could explain things about all the parts and what not to them. Below are some pictures from the tear down process.







I am always planning to do new things to the car and one thing I had wanted to do for a while was either RHD conversion or a 6MT swap along with increased boost with the supercharger setup. In this case I thought the 6MT swap was the more cost effective route. Since I wanted to do an 6MT swap I began looking for a wrecked 6MT specifically with NAV from 2004 or 2005 as I didn’t like the changes to the gauges in 2006+. Now if any of you know a lot of details about the TSX there were not a lot of 6MT sold to begin with and were even fewer sold with NAV and 6MT. So with all that being said I was not up for an easy task of finding a semi local (or even continental US) wrecked car with little to no front end damage.

After a few months with no success finding a donor car I decided to at least order the replacement parts that would be needed in March 2011 as they would take a while to arrive. It had taken a while for me to get around to ordering the parts after still being bummed about the whole incident in the first place so I was already getting a late start on things.

I continued searching for donor cars while also finalizing the plan for other upgrades I was planning to do during the rebuild. I didn’t really just want to buy parts to do the 6MT swap as I am a bit OCD and wanted everything about the swap to look factory perfect so a donor car was the only way to not have to buy any little missing piece constantly from the dealer.

After having looking for a car for about 9 months I was really beginning to get irritated. I had found a few but lost the insurance auctions for the cars cause of either loosing internet connection at work at the last second or just feeling that the cars were bid higher than they were actually worth. About this time my dad also mentioned he was looking for a good commuter car that got good mileage, comfortable to drive, and pretty cheap to maintain. I told him that the TSX would fit all those need and I had torn mine apart so many times I could do most of the service on it for him. He wasn’t opposed to the idea so I started searching for a good condition 6MT with NAV that I could have torn apart. After finding a few higher priced ones we found a few good candidates and went to test drive them. We ended up purchasing one in October so I finally had the donor car for the swap. The other car would be converted to an AT using the parts from my car. Below are pictures of the donor car.





Just after this I began receiving my various shipments of parts from Japan in November I was finally able to start to get everything together for the rebuild to start. At this point I began coordinating with the shops I had chosen for a rough timeline of how things would go from one shop to the next.

At this time I unfortunately got busy with things on a personal level with the holidays and also with work so unfortunately things didn’t get underway then until March 2012. Below are some pictures of the new parts that came in. I made sure to replace parts that were damaged or destroyed even if I was not going to replace them right away. I also picked up some parts I was not sure I was going to use right away as they flowed with the theme of the car of mostly J’s Racing parts.

J's Racing Temperature Switch







J's Racing Fan Switch







J's Racing Radiator Cap & Oil Cap







J's Racing Samco Blue Radiator Hoses (Discontinued)



J's Racing Upper Control Arms





J's Racing Rear Upper Camber Arms





J's Racing Rear Lower Camber Arms





J's Racing Header


 
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24
#2 ·
J's Racing 70RR Exhaust







J's Racing Bumper









J's Racing Double Sided Carbon Fiber Hood (Only one that has been made)








The top is absolutely perfect






The underside isn't perfect but it is a race hood







Spoon Bumper











JDM OEM Bumper Support





Also have a replacement J's Racing Strut bar to replaced a cosmetically damaged one an a new J's Racing Intake as well but still are not unboxed yet. Unfortunately it turned out that I would not be able to use the J's Racing intake.
 
#3 ·
The car started at the body shop first getting a new a whole new rad support , two new fenders, and new front wiring harness. Also at the same time more damage was found on the car regarding the supercharger setup as well.











I didn’t want to give the body shop the new carbon hood so I gave them the original factory hood to put back on the car for the time being so they could align the fenders properly. There is no bumper on the car yet because I had only just received the new bumpers and had not yet decided on which one of the two I was going to get painted to put on the car.





After the body shop the car was transported to Innovative Motorworks to have the transmission swap and supercharger upgrade done. These guys were real troopers as the process would end up taking much longer than anticipated as I was having two cars swapped together. It would end up with this not being the best option to go with money wise but I am rather anal for attention to detail and wanted everything to appear stock as far as wiring and bolts and what not in the engine bay and interior.

Being that I did not do the work on the car I do not have many pictures of these stages of work and those that I do are from a camera phones and were sent via MMS message to me. I am trying to get the originals emailed to me at least so they may be a little bit better quality down the road.

The swap was not easy to begin with and only got harder down the road as it was figured out since I was doing a swap from an AT non-navi car to a MT navi car that every wiring harness in the car except the trunk lighting harness would need to be swapped out. I wanted this done without breaking clips so it added quite a bit of labor to the project that was not expected unfortunately. However, at this point I was too far in and I was not about to turn back on the project. I had planned on doing the navi swap myself, not only to save labor but also because I like to work on the car myself as it is one of the most enjoyable parts of owning a modified car in my opinion. Unfortunately, it all needed to be done at once for the car to be able to run correctly.

The beginning of the swap




The motor was pulled from both cars and the sub frames were dropped and swapped to the opposite car as it made the MT/ AT swap much easier. While the motor was out the 06 camshaft, larger crankshaft pulley, 50 degree VTC gear with 45 degree limit, 1,000cc injectors, Competition 1620 clutch and flywheel, and MFactory Helical LSD were all installed on the engine.



It had already been known that the blower would need to be sent out for repairs but once the blower was removed and the manifold was removed it was found the manifold was cracked as well. Luckily the manifold was able to be welded and a new one was not needed. The blower repair though was one of the large setbacks of the project. It needed to have the actuator for the pressure release valve replaced as it was bent. The blower was sent out to Magnuson for repair. Nothing was heard back from them for basically a month.

About this time I received the two bumpers I had painted back from the body shop. I was unable to decide which bumper to go with when selecting parts for the rebuild so I ended up getting both and figured I would decide when I was putting the car together.

Bumpers finally painted






During the wait for the supercharger the engines and dashes had been put back in the cars and the donor car that was now an AT was done for the most part and put on the back burner until the other one would be finished. The new J’s Racing header and J’s Racing 70RR exhaust were installed on the car. The exhaust note should be loud but sound amazing as I have never heard a car with a 70RR exhaust not sound good.









After constant attempts to contact Magnuson they got back to the shop with a response to let them know that the blower was not repaired but rather just what all needed to be replaced. They also needed full payment before they would start the repair. So after payment was taken care of it still took them another two weeks to repair and another week for it to arrive back in PA from CA. This made it evident to me that my first hopeful completion date of the end of July would be missed with all that still needed to be done. I wasn’t worried though as there were still two events at the end of August I wouldn’t mind debuting the car at either.

Meanwhile the Innovative Motorsports Technologies Stage II aftercooler kit arrived at the beginning of August and was installed on the car. This quality of work these guys put into making these kits is amazing. Once the kit was installed the car sat for a while as they were still waiting on the supercharger. The kit would provide the necessary cooling needed for running the 3in pulley I would be running on the supercharger. Even if the blower had gotten in at this point a second problem had come up. I would be running a TL-SH AWD throttle body as it is 74mm instead of 60mm as the stock TSX throttle body is. The issue is I needed a special inlet for the supercharger so it would connect. I was getting one from IMT but they had become popular and were on a 5 week backorder at the time.

Innovative Motorsport Technologies Stage II Aftercooler Kit






Bumper installed after aftercooler put on to test clearance


Both cars in the shop showroom while partially back together




 
#4 · (Edited)
Well the blower finally arrived at the very end of August and so I missed the next chance of debut for the car. At this point I no longer was really concerned much with when it was finished as I did not have anything in particular I was looking to get the car to anymore. We also still were waiting on the new supercharger inlet.





The inlet finally arrived about two weeks into September. Now everything was on hand finally to complete the car once and for all. Unfortunately now though I had other things planned for the next two weekends and would not be able to get home to pick up the car anyways so I planned for October 4th as the day to be completed. The car still needed a custom intake as my J’s Racing intake would no longer be able to fit due to the new position of the throttle body so a custom 3.5in intake was built instead. Also the car would need to be tuned as well.





After the car was tuned the final numbers it made were 348whp and 254ftlbs at 10.2psi. Unfortunately those graphs didn’t get saved but the graphs from the tuning day show 343whp and 254ftlbs so they are pretty much the same. My favorite part is the lack of torque curve really as it is pretty much just constant consistent torque across the board.



To monitor the new setup I went with an AEM Failsafe Gauge which will prevent anything terrible happening to the engine should something malfunction.


I had previously cut my wheel studs to run bolt on spacers before. However, with the new power I did not feel this was safe. I decided to then have the studs changed out for ARP extended studs and will now run slip on spacers instead when I need them but I have a set of track wheels I hope to be able to fit without spacers as they have 265 wide tires on them.



There are still other areas of the car that are not completed yet to my final desire that I plan to work on through the winter. I plan to do a small wire tuck in the engine bay to at least hide the power wires a little bit and the amp wiring completely. The battery will still stay in the bay for the time being. I plan to try and relocate the overflow tank for the IMT Aftercooler up between the fuse box and valve cover. The bolts in the engine bay will all be replaced with chromed stainless steel hardware everywhere that is possible while keeping the proper grade bolts in place. Also, the supercharger, inlet, throttle body, and power steering pump I plan to have mirror polished this winter to help dress up the engine bay as well. Lastly, the stereo amp rack needs to be rebuild as the force of the impact caused the bolts holding it to the false floor to fully rip out and no longer be usable.

I was finally able to pick up the car on October 5th.



This allowed me one weekend to work on the car as much as I could before I would take it back to NC. I got the one off double sided carbon hood and the new 04/05 JDM headlights installed. They were one of the last sets obtained before Honda stopped making the headlights. Also included are a few pics of the ender panel mounting of the J’s Racing bumper as well as the hood vent grills I would need to recreate from the original hood.

New J's Racing radiator cap and oil cap installed





Some pics of the underside panel and mounting of the J's Racing bumper





New JDM OEM Headlights unboxed and installed











Canards finally installed



Underside of the hood after install




The new hood did not come with mesh over the vents. Apparently this costs extra. Luckily I still have the old damaged hood as I eventually plan to hang it in my garage when I get a house so I was able to pull the mesh grills off of it. They were held on with some rather strong adhesive. I am not sure what route I will go to attach them to the new hood since it is double sided carbon.


At this point I also installed my old center console video screen that is used to display my Brockway Engineering video gauge display which I use to monitor accurate engine temp, oil pressure, and intake air temp.



Everything all buttoned up ready to leave the next day.


 
#5 · (Edited)
After this it was finally time to load the car up for transport with help of my gf who thankfully almost always helps me load the car on the trailer which makes the process go smoother.





After finally making the trip to NC it was time to unload the car. I had a little incident getting the car on the trailer in PA so that needed to be repaired in NC as well once the car was unloaded. The new straight pipe titanium exhaust to race muffler was a slip fit exhaust held together by wire. I replaced the wire with springs as many other slip fit exhausts are held together.















The last two difficulties I have had with the car on getting it completely back to normal is the stereo install was destroyed by the impact as the bolts ripped out of the false floor and using larger bolts did not fix the problem so it will need to be redesigned. Also the shifter cable guide broke. I have temporarily fixed it and I am awaiting a upgraded solution hopefully from Hytech or KTuned so as to have almost a direct fixed shift linkage system in place.

My crazy shifter cable repair for now



Ok so enough typing now on for the completed pictures.



























Updated list of modifications:
(New parts in italics)

COMING SOON!!!
 
#19 ·
Thanks :thumbsup:

Awesome Jason!!! Love everything about the rebuild!! Specially the Spoon & J's Bumper :tu2:
Thanks Jay

This is all awesome sauce Jason! Glad to see her finally back together again! Crazy journey it's been through, but it's seems like it was all worth it. :tu:
Yeah it definitely has been a crazy one but I love the end result. It is a blast to drive. Hit me up sometime I have some parts to sell you.

Thank you. It was a long time coming, and i know your patience were tested but it looks great and has paid off. Hope you enjoy it even more than you did before!
Yeah definitely was stressful at times and some points didn't know if it was worth it anymore. In the end it paid off and I am really happy with it.

Great to see the finished result of the repair!

Love the J's theme through the whole car.

Do you have any pics of the subframe mods for the J's headers?

It must feel great to have it back on the road after so long without it.
Thanks. Definitely feels great to have it back on the road. I do not have any pics right now but I will try and grab some next time I have it jacked up.

this post made my morning train commute much more enjoyabLe.! gLad to see youre back.! definateLy a project car with history. one of a kind with top quaLity parts done right.! much props to you sir.




Sent from my iPhone using Autoguide.
Thank you. Glad to be able to help out :thumbsup: Yeah there is a lot of history. I have actually kept a private write up on everything. It is just over 15 pages long now single spaced. I want to try and get in contact with a magazine to see if they want to feature it along with the history of the car.

Damn really nice rebuild. I loved the car before. And love it even more now. So much J's haha. Just curious. What's you end up doing with the spoon bumper?
Thank you. *I love both fronts. *Spoon is the front I have wanted ever since it came out. *I still plan to try it on the car but waiting to get a custom front splitter made for it first. *Also a bit put off by the fact there are not fake Spoon style bumpers out there which is why I went with the J's first. *

Man you came back hard
Haha thanks. I only know one way to go and that is hard all the time. Go hard or go home :)
 
#14 ·
It was a long time coming, and i know your patience were tested but it looks great and has paid off. Hope you enjoy it even more than you did before!
 
#15 ·
Great to see the finished result of the repair!

Love the J's theme through the whole car.

Do you have any pics of the subframe mods for the J's headers?

It must feel great to have it back on the road after so long without it.
 
#18 ·
Man you came back hard
 
#49 ·
Thank you. Glad to be back.

Looking amazing! welcome back!
Thanks. I am glad to be back.

Really awesome colt. I joined and got my tsx after your accident but always looked at your old threads. Nice to see you're back.
Glad to hear my old threads have still served well for people. I have a couple new DIY write ups I plan to create in the coming months for various parts as well.

Love the rebuild and everything about it, always envied your car. Glad you stuck through with it!
Thanks. Yeah I had to much time and dedication to the car to just give up.

great to see an OG still in the game!
Yeah we are a dwindling number but I am here for the long hall. She is long paid off and pretty sure I will never part with her after this rebuild. I would have to be hurting really bad for money to let her go.

:goldcup: :goldcup: :goldcup:

I read the whole thing during lunch.... my food got cold. :laugh:

U sir define what it means to be a true TSX enthusiast!! To the bone!! Most would've thrown in the towel a long time ago, collected the insurance, and called it a day.

If there was a TSX of the Millennium, Universe, Galaxy... u'd get my vote.
Eff it... I hereby appoint u the TSX of the M.U.G. :goldcup:

Epic build and comeback!!!

We'll done. Now I can eat my cold food. :)
Thank you very much. Sorry for making your lunch cold :rofl: but glad to hear you enjoyed the read.

WOW it looks great. One of the most complete tsx here and all with only quality parts. Hats off to you sir!
Thank you very much. Do it right the first time is something I live by.

The amount of work put into this car is stunning, worthy of another TOTM
Thank you. Maybe I will run against once I get a few more things buttoned up.

Now thats what you call dedication and sentimental valuefor your vehicle.
There is definitely a sentimental value to the car for sure. I just couldn't let it go. I have had to many good memories with the car.

+1 to what everyone else have said.

Car looks amazing! Didn't expect anything less.
Welcome back and great job! Love the new wheels!
Thanks. Glad you like the wheels. I had some people tell me I need to change them since they were technically on the car for the accident even if they had only been on for 10 days before it. If you count the downtime it is the longest time any set has ever been on the car.

Amazing !
glad to see your going keep the tsx running
Thanks Jeff. Good to see yours keep going as well. The fact you have kept yours running so long shows just how well these cars are made.

Daammnnn bro, I just dk what to say!! Awesome build, pure J's racing bred.... That was a strong comeback!! :)
I love J's Racing parts. There have great quality and are one of the few brands that really strongly focuses on all areas of our car.

Very nice TSX! And SuperJDMness! :tu:
I've had the dash out of my car too. Not a fun job at all.
I'm curious, does the JDM bumper beam weigh less than the US one?
Yeah the dash out is not an easy task at all. I have done it once before as well when I swapped from grey to black interior a few years back.

I believe it is lighter but I do not have specs to back it up. I can say for sure that I am pretty positive the US one could take more of an impact without buckling the way my JDM one did.

Wow, Build-of-the-year! I've been waiting for this ever since that "poor" bambee passed away! :)

And what a committed family you have for support! Thumbs up for the family! Congratz on bringing the TSX swag back!
Yeah it has been a long time coming. Definitely took the support of family and friends to not get discouraged over the long process to get it back on the road.

You know I cant read silly..
:laugh: was just giving you a hard time

totally jizzed in my pants!! very nice indeed!!
:laugh: Thanks man. You TSX isn't to bad either but I think you know that :p

With the tsxs you got, I doubt you jizzed. Probably just a boner :rofl:
Defintely laughed pretty hard at these last two comments.

Wow, what a journey your car's been on. I still can't believe you didn't just swap your charger and everything else over to the new 6MT with navi and just fix up the old 5AT for your dad.

I wish I had your resources. Sometimes I'll day dream about what I'd do to my TSX if I won the lottery, and it's like you get to live out your dreams.

Glad to hear you're still in the family.

Did you have any clearance issues with IMT's aftercooler kit, with either your hood or the front of the engine bay? I heard it adds an inch or two to the height of the charger.
Thanks definitely has been a crazy journey. It was an attachment to the car. I have had it since the day it rolled off the lot. It isn't something I could just give up. Also things like the doors have been modified to fit larger speakers as well and isn't something I could just easily swap back to stock.

I am definitely fortunate to have the resources I have available to me. It would not have been possible without some great help from family and friends.

I have no clearance issues with the IMT aftercooler kit at all. It does add that much height to the civic kits as they use a different manifold than the TSX does and it is much more shallow. The TSX manifold is deep and you only need a 1/4 spacer to make the stage II kit fit and no spacer is needed for the stage I kit.

wowwowow...super awesome!
I have two Qs.
1.how much for J's header and do you order directly with them from JP?
2.where did you buy the rear spoiler/deck lip? it looks so nice and wider than what I usually see on frds' cars. It is very similiar with TLs lip, and I really want to buy this one!
thx
1. I don't know what the J's header runs normally as I bought it second hand from a member on this forum. I wish I had a connection to order direct from J's. I actually purchased all my J's parts from either member on the forum or Marcus of HeelToeAutomotive.
2. The spoiler is made by Spoon. I believe you can purchase it from HeelToe.

The car is such an icon. Great to see it up and running.
Ive been lurking these forums for a while now, but i always felt the guys like colts, bigben, 06tsx and inkedup were the originals and pioneers of our cars. Just glad u decided to stay around...
Hows it feel compared to the isf?

Very nice come back!
Thank You

No surprise...J's parts for J's car :thumbsup:.

As always, you never fail to impress. I applaud your vision and your patience. Fantastic new build on an already iconic TSX.

Glad IMW did you right. D-Rob is the man and can tune the hell out of a K-series motor.

We should get together and do a photoshoot at some point...
:laugh: J's parts for J's car

Thanks. I always have to go stronger every time I bring it back. D-Rob is awesome have known him for a little while now. He definitely can tune the hell out of the K-series that is for sure.

Definitely would like to get together for a shoot sometime. Unfortunately I won't have the car back in town till May next year for the Carlisle show. Hopefully you will still have yours then and we can get that setup.

You my man just killed it congrats on getting the car backi kno u been waiting for a while but good things happen to those who wait.. I knew you weren't gonna let us down ��
Thanks man. Been waiting a long time but hey I guess all good things take time.
You haven't been disappointing either so keep it up. We need to get the cars together for a shoot as well sometime.




Ok I don't think I missed anyone at all and if I did it wasn't on purpose. Thanks for all the comments everyone. :)
 
#23 ·
Love the rebuild and everything about it, always envied your car. Glad you stuck through with it!
 
#25 ·
:goldcup: :goldcup: :goldcup:

I read the whole thing during lunch.... my food got cold. :laugh:

U sir define what it means to be a true TSX enthusiast!! To the bone!! Most would've thrown in the towel a long time ago, collected the insurance, and called it a day.

If there was a TSX of the Millennium, Universe, Galaxy... u'd get my vote.
Eff it... I hereby appoint u the TSX of the M.U.G. :goldcup:

Epic build and comeback!!!

We'll done. Now I can eat my cold food. :)
 
#27 ·
WOW it looks great. One of the most complete tsx here and all with only quality parts. Hats off to you sir!
 
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