[SamsXE]

It has been about a month since I bought my X and decided it would be a good time to document my experiences with it.

My goal was to have a rig that would easily, and efficiently get me to work on the daily commute and still have the capability to take plenty of gear, friends, and myself on camping, climbing, and biking trips on the weekends.

Since i am a college post-grad (Ohio State 2011), and student loans have me by the balls, modifications would be mostly done by me and overall low budget. From my experiences with my 1990 Prelude in high school, i have become a pretty good mechanic and know how to work on vehicles aside from major engine and drivetrain work.

Items I wanted from the get go:
Intake, Exhaust, Exterior Light Upgrades

Items I want:
Some sort of recovery methods be it winch or tow points and straps...

Here it is home from the dealership:

My other toy 2005 Honda XR250

More to Come...

 

[SamsXE]

My first item of business was addressing the need for some intake modification. I had installed an intake on my old Prelude and my brothers Dodge Dakota and was familiar with the gains they provided. Now, the Dakota had a full K&N setup from summit racing which was nice and installed like butter however it cost some dollars. The prelude consisted of a generic K&N Cylinder-Style Filter connected to a piece of scrap 3" pipe I got from the muffler shop for free. Both outcomes were to my liking and legit overall.

Obviously the X has 2 routes...DIY intake or Aftermarket. After looking at the intakes I was convinced the filter surface areas of the plate versus the cone were similar and there would be little difference in the two aside from dollars out of pocket. I had a coupon for advance auto parts and was able to get the filter for $30 and the plugs for $10 total from Lowes.

The Filter In Place

The plugs ended up being pretty trick little pieces and I was way happy with them!

Removing the baffles was easy, even the one under the fender. I DID NOT CUT MY STOCK INTAKE! and both plugs fit very securely, I still check them every time i get gas and neither has moved.

If you have the cash and plan on getting a snorkel or something then get an aftermarket otherwise I would reccomend this method.

I Used the DIY writeup and it helped me tremendously!

More to come!

 

[SamsXE]

Rear End Work

So i drove my X to my parents farm for the weekend to show off my new purchase and help my old man with some work around the property. The very first thing he points out was the rust on my rear bumper! (being the crotchety old man he is!) Immediately I knew i needed to take care of it...

I bought my old honda with very small rust spots and within 2 years had huge holes in the quarter and rocker panels.

Anyway, i set to looking into options to abate my rust issue. A new bumper, although nice, was out of the question simply due to price. A coating was a great idea but I knew I would have to spray something to make the rust paintable.

I used a wire bristle attachment on a power drill to remove the flakes and get down to fresh metal as best I could. I did not want to take too much material off.

Removing the bumper bolt set meant backing out the hitch reciever bolts

The X Sans-Bumper

My brother helping remove the plastic top

Fresh rust converter

The coatings

While I had the wheel down I figured it could use a coat of bedliner also

Both Items Bedlined

Since I was doing all that, I did the hitch reciever also..

Im really pleased with the results! So far the coatings are holding up and it looks way better than that ugly stained grey it came with!

 

[SamsXE]

Hella Bright Lights!

I wired up a set of Hella 500FFs over the weekend (06/08). Took a few hours but I wanted to make sure I did it right. Heres the result...

Even tho they are 55w, I am still pleased because they arent so bright that every reflective sign I pass wont render me blind. I just mounted them to the front plastic piece. I replaced the crappy plastic fasteners which allowed it to wobble with zipties and mounted the lights on rubber discs so they have some movement if they get bumped.

 

[SamsXE]

Rear Glass Blown Out in Storm!

So we had some real bad storms roll through central Ohio over the past weekend and left half a million people withotu power...and me with a broken rear window.

I was leaving work on friday hoping to beat the storm home. I was stopped at a red light when all the traffic signals went dark, the wind picked up and I felt my X start shaking and I actually had to push a little harder on the brakes to stop from rolling forward. I heard debris slamming into the rear of the car and I looked back to see this...

(I pulled into a loading dock behind a building to block some of the wind and rain while I assessed the damage)


When I got home the whole thing had almost fallen in...

I called my insurance agent and bungeed a tarp over the back of the X overnight.

Safelite came out the next morning and put a new glass on...didnt cost me a dime! (geico)

I was suprised it broke so easily! I wonder if there is a way to swap the glass for Lexan...make it removable or something like that!

 

[djpc]

Very nice.

 

[Revu]

Man what kind of debris was it? I would have thought too that it'd take something pretty heavy to break through the window... but I think I remember hearing about that storm back in July from my boyfriend's family who lives there in Columbus.

Looking good on your X though, hope you're keeping it up! :biggrin:

 

[Han44]

Hi Veteran!
Your post is awesome.

 

[xearth]

good progress! The X is coming along fine

 

[SamsXE]

Update.

GG holding up well have made a few changes since the last post. THis includes:

New Cooper Discoverer in 265/75 -16 size. No trimming, very pleased.

The Hellas are still burning on original bulbs...impressed with their durability given what i paid for them. I have however relocated them as the plastic they were in made them too bouncy.

Moved them down under the grille. Yes im worried about rocks and if i potentially hit something at least one will get smashed. But their pretty cheap...so Id rather have them a little exposed if they dont flop around.

At approx 112k with no other real mech issues. WIll be due for timing belt around 120k and possibly the PS accessory belt.

Also the skid plate is only holding on with 2 screws at this point. Others were sheared off when I got the truck. Ive just been careful with the 2. Night try grinding them and drilling new holes with some proper hardware. Dont own a tap set though...

Looking for ideas on a small trailer to use on an upcoming move. Possibly a 4x8 nothing huge. Harbor freight type...

thanks for looking.