Project [!iN]tegra: Safety first

So I bought a 1994 Integra RS to replace my non-functioning 1993 Integra RS.

I was reassured when I bought the car the car needed nothing to be safetied it had only not been done because the seller had no time between posting the ad and my buying. So with that bit of confidence I bought the car. A few rust patches cosmetically, but it runs well and the interior is in good shape. It’s going to be a project car anyways so no worries about the rust.

Mr Teg 2.0

I brought the car Friday for its safety inspection so that I could get the sticker for my plates which currently hold a Temporary pass.
Unhappily the car failed the safety for a few reasons:
1. Right front wheel bearing needs to be replaced.
2. Licence Plate light must be mounted.
3. Rust in rear wheel well must be patched. Ministry says exhaust fumes can get into the cab from here.

Hole in rear wheel well

Un-mounted Licence Plate light

I was not too impressed with failing the safety. The shop will take care of the wheel bearing, but the other two jobs are up to me. So I took the chance and posted up for the first time as backyard mechanic.

Sunday 11am

I drove down to uncle gregs so I could use his grinder and sander on the rust spot. He pulled out the tools for me, set down a mat to lay on and I went to work. Having never used power tools, and having no confidence in using them I was a little worried I would mess up something. I peeled off the skirt moulding from the car so I could get to the side of the hole to make sure I had a complete patch… I found it was worse than expected. The rot out was carried back about a foot. I started sanding and some pieces fell away others crumbled and suddenly the hole was much bigger than anticipated.

The problem is bigger than expected

I spent almost an hour sanding with a bit inserted into the end of a drill. A small dremil bit, that worked…but worked slowly. By 12:30 I figured it was lunch time, having done a fairly thorough clean up job.

Lunch.

1:30pm

I got back to Uncle Gregs and set back to work. It was obvious I needed to do a little bit more and the Dremil wasn’t cutting it. So we hoisted the car up on the jack.

I decided to try my hand with the grinder to get the metal as clean as possible. Having never used a grinder I was a bit worried I might damage something, and so I’m glad Uncle Greg waited until after I was done with it to tell me horror stories of people getting injured with them.
I spent a short period of time grinding down the rust/metal until I saw silver. I wish I had used the grinder earlier as it was much quicker. A few more places had rust crumble out as I used it as well. It was decided that installing some new sheet metal into the areas that had been rotted out would be a much better idea than simply using bondo. So Uncle Greg measured and cut some pieces and I did the work of fitting them into the proper spaces.

Fresh sheet metal

Once we had the wheel well hole replaced as well as the rusted out area along the side of the rocker panel it all had to be grind down again in order to apply the fibreglass over so to completely cover up any possible holes.

Grindin'

Once that was all finished I was left to start mixing up the fibreglass resin and apply it. This stuff can be SERIOUSLY messy. I was lucky and had a pointer on a way of doing it much cleaner than how it is described in the instructions. They say to soak the fibreglass cloth in the resin. It works just as well and much cleaner to simply paint on some resin to the area, apply the cloth then paint a few more coats of resin on top taking the time to push the fibreglass into all the corners.

Fibreglass Resin Mix

Fibreglass applied

and the side

After applying the Fibreglass you have to let it cure and harden. It was cold today so this took quite a long time. Eventually I put a flood light on the area to bring some added heat to the area and speed up the process. While the fibreglass resin was hardening it was time to tackle the un-mounted light.

the Heat

3:30pm

I had no idea how to do this. I had a few ideas about mounting it but no idea if they would work. Especially since the screws from the OEM bracket were still rusted in place. Uncle Greg said maybe we could make something and to try drilling out the screws. So I took a drill to the screws not knowing what to expect.
3/4 of the screws came out from being attacked by the drill. Good enough.
Next a makeshift mount was created for the light… for which the housing is a little messed so I may be going to honda to get the part replaced.

the make-shift mount and light

I took this and mounted it into the rear bumper while Uncle Greg went to work on drilling some holes in the finally cured fibreglass so we could re-install the side-skirt.

The light finished.

4:30pm

I went through and sprayed the rocker panel and area with some rust inhibitor, making sure to stick it into the screw holes to get the inside metal as well before re-installing the side skirt. Everything looked good, holes were drilled. But initially we thought they didn’t line up, after playnig with it a minute we got it to fit perfectly.
Both jobs finished, wheel back on, jack down, clean up by 5:15pm.

All done and back together

I’m going to use my blog to track the goings on with Project [!iN]tegra as it evolves bit by bit. So stay up.