Just got a new 240 pics!! Suggestions?

[vas13hatch]

Finally got another 240 after my last hatch died.
It's a 91 hatch SE w/ 160k
Plans are suspension, wheels/tires, I/H/E, maintenance and a thorough cleaning inside and out to start. Then build another KA to swap in later as well as a bunch of other stuff. Need some new interior pieces and parts but its an unmolestered car, I bought it from the second owner who had it for 16 years.
Any suggestions on CHEAP, but not sharty parts, are welcomed! Somewhere between ebay crap and top of the line, you know decent price and good performance... mostly lookin for coilovers and other susp parts
Body is pretty clean, except the hatch, only 2 small dents.
And check out my timing chain guide! I took the valve cover off and it was broke off chillin on the chain.
And now for some pics....







more here- http://s1343.beta.photobucket.com/user/ ... 1/library/

[Hijacker]

To post pics, take the the URL and place it in between image tags. We use the same standard every other forum uses [IMG] and {/IMG] (replace the { with a [ in the /IMG tag)

[OutToWinPAHC]

ehhh cheap parts well you get what you pay for. Save your pennies for better suspension parts, at least go middle of the road. The cheapest I go with is something like circuit sports. The big things overlooked are bushings and joints, I like the energy suspension kit for a budget kit.

For performance parts, ehh NA 2.4 theres a few things to do but good maintenace is best. GL-4 ONLY for the trans no GL-5. Plugs wires, gaskets, check the timing and TPS to the FSM, seafoam it, and address any known issues. I dont know what HP gains come from a header on these cars if any.

Cruise the "ultimate sticky" for good tips and how too's an welcome

[vas13hatch]

Alright thanks for the tips! Can't wait to get started building this thing up.

[mechanicalmoron]

Bush cheny, and "power of pride"? Is that some sort of white nationalist thing, or something?

Better get on that trunk, or it will ruin the trim below it, as well as rust out your tire well, while the trunk holes continue to grow. And they can grow very fast.

[vas13hatch]

Don't worry the stickers are off now lol. Yeah I know that hatch is F'ed in the A. Ima rig it till I find a decent hatch hopefully non SE. I hate the rear wiper.

[mechanicalmoron]

Well since you have to paint it anyway, you could just shave it, for essentially free, you'll get a lot more bondo than you'll use, for anything else on the car that needs it.

I, personally, just sanded the inside and JB welded (actually JB-kwick or whatever the fast one is, no I only had to hold it for 5 mins) aluminium scraps under the holes, and bondoed on top. Just make sure you have a big patch, on one of my curved holes I didn't have enough surface area and the patch made cracking noises when I touched it, later.... but it's still holding. I haven't tried punching it or anything, but the worst that could happen is I have to do it over, more carefully.

Or you could do it a little more "right" and still not actually weld, using fiberglass. Or brazing is super easy and doesn't take much heat, I don't know but I assume you can do it with any old propane torch, maybe even a heat gun or something. And it will be a legit steel patch, held on with metal. Just take out the brake light to prevent melting, sand underneath, preheat to take any remaining paint off, find something to hold your patch up from the bottom, and use capilary action to wick the braze inbetween the sheets from the top.

The worst that could happen isn't that bad, if you're going to ditch the whole hatch otherwise. You could always still do so, if you wanted. But it's really not hard to fix.

If you can't tell, I hate wasted body parts

[laxands13]

I used JB Kwick on my old one and it worked fine, too but never looked quite right. took it to Maaco to have the hatch painted before I sold it and they fixed it for pretty cheap and it looked good. don't know how well that will hold up but it's some food for thought.

[mechanicalmoron]

I used JB Kwick on my old one and it worked fine, too but never looked quite right. took it to Maaco to have the hatch painted before I sold it and they fixed it for pretty cheap and it looked good. don't know how well that will hold up but it's some food for thought.

One thing, that I didn't do quite right, is if you have frozen bolts that rip out the inside of the wing and just spin, and you have to pull/yank them out from the top, it will make little volcano shapes on the holes. You need to hammer them so they're slightly inset, so that you will be able to fill the hole with bondo. I though I had mine even, but they're not perfect...

As long as it's too low, bondo can fix it. If it's too high, the only option is a LOT of sanding, given that you'll be sanding down steel, or bashing out the patch and starting over again.

[vas13hatch]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, The car came with a small fiberglass patch kit (bondo brand) so I'm probably gonna try that first. I've got some scrap metal around so I'll pick up some jb weld to stick it on the underside. I don't know if I could but I'd like to try and layer it to make a slight spoiler lip, but I'll worry about that if I get it right the first time... First I gotta get rid of all the rust and spoiler bolts in the lid...

[mechanicalmoron]

I'm going to say, you probably don't want to make a lip that way.

Even if you just mean make the hatch overhang in a edge like half an inch or something, you don't want to be sculpting body filler. Maybe it could be done cleanly with fibreglass, I don't know.

But personally, I'd make it out of metal, or find something that would fit, rivet it on, and then mold around it with the bondo.

If you want to change the angle of the whole decklid area, you could easily just rivit sheetmetal on, I think.

[vas13hatch]

well I was thinking do it with fiberglass and possibly use aluminum flashing to mold it and give it a little strength I'd like to do it like a Miata trunk lid where it has a bit of a hump and overhang in the center then dissipates to nothing on the edges of the lid. Maybe I'm just shooting for the moon... Right now I'm probably just gonna make it look a little better than a large hole in the lid.

[mechanicalmoron]

You'd need to seriously change the shape of the back of the car, to make it look good I think.

You could make a wing that sits on top, like the stock wing but designed to actually work, and so it looks crisper and less like a blob.

Or, for a functional and neat looking wing, this guys one is genius, in my opinion.

http://zilvia.net/f/builds-builds-only/ ... ada-2.html

And yes, I totally changed this post up on you. As for the brake light, i thought you meanta wing that's flush with the decklid, but overhangs, which could pose a problem with it.

[vas13hatch]

well my brake lite is part of the hatch so I don't have to worry about that... honestly I wish I could get rid of it. But I hear ya about it being a fine line, I haven't really seen any aftermarket spoilers that I really like so I may as well try and put what I see in my head on metal. I have done a little fiberglass work on some skiffs but that was minor stuff. I just got a new camera so I'll take lots of pics and if it turns out nice I may do a write up thing if anyone likes the style of it.

[vas13hatch]

http://zilvia.net/f/builds-builds-only/ ... ada-2.html
This thing is bad a**, and the wings cool too. It's not quite my style though.
I guess I could make it removable but I really think that an integrated wing in the lid could be pretty cool.

I was thinking this type of shape and style just more subtle...

[mechanicalmoron]

Ahh, okay.

Well if you look at that trunk, I think it shows what I mean, you'll have to build up the rear surface a lot, or it will look funky, because the 240 one actually leans forward at a reasonable angle. You might have to hood the brakelight, with the wing at least molded around it. And you'd need to change it's angle, becaune it points up.

I honestly just think the hatch is actually very nicely designed, there's nothing civic-ey about it, it's mature looking. I like that guy's wing on the ls1 build because it's clean, simple and sexy, without changing the original shape of the trunk, and because it will actually produce downforce.

You'll also have to change the corners of the unibody if you want it to look good, which will be challanging, because they, like the hatch top, are already quite carefully sculpted, and all designed to work together.

[vas13hatch]

I'm thinking something kinda like this, this ghetto photo edit doesn't do it justice, trust me it looks awesome in my head lol. I know it'll take a LOT of molding to make it look good but it would definitely be unique

[mechanicalmoron]

Well, I do look forward to seeing it.

[vas13hatch]

Alright I plan on getting some fiberglass mat and res this week and I'll start bangin this thing out.

[simmode1]

[mechanicalmoron]

Rocket bunny=cartoon. Not in a bad way, but still. Cartooney.

I think OP wants something subtle, so he can't just have it end at the edges like that. I also get the idea it's more a slight cosmetic thing he wants, than a functional more upright lip, like that, or the one I linked.

[simmode1]

Yeah, The one you linked was cool and innovative. But it's inherent unfinished nature just gets to me. I can agree that the total Rocket Bunny aero package is over the top, but the spoiler still looks good even on a stockish body...

[OutToWinPAHC]

This thread is spinning in all the wrong directions.... That hatch.... unless your welding grinding, welding grinding and skim coating, it's gonna look like crap. That hole is way to bad, and these JB weld, Bondo, fiberglass flashing methods all suck. If you can weld it, do it, but time VS money spent you should find a new hatch. As for the rocket bunny wing, they can look good on certain cars, I dunno but I think it's more or a haggard, look at my rivets, I wanna be a sick a** drifter and have a street car thing. I think Kouki areo looks much better.

[vas13hatch]

Yeah I was looking at the hatch again today and it's got some structural rust damage on the inside too. It's pretty damn rough I think I'm just gonna rig it to not leak and look a lil less s*** then it does now while I look for a new one... I still want to do something custom on the hatch tho maybe this...

lol nah I'm kidding this thing looks ridiculous. I got that damn flu so maybe the fever's affecting my judgement but I would like to do something custom with my new one.

[mechanicalmoron]

As for the structure, hit it with sandpaper and spraypaint. It shouldn't particularly matter.

But seriously, how are you going to make it NOT look like that? If you try to be subtle, it will just look funny. I think the rocketbunny may actually be the best looking thing that's similar to what you want. And it really can look good. But it is totally a "look at my rivets" thing.

What's wrong with JB-kwick? It takes a few minutes, and then bondo cure time, sand, do it again, paint, done. Most people buy a different hatch and spend a bunch of money on that, and shipping, and it's still a pain. The worst that can happen is that he still needs a new hatch. And again, he could probably braze it for super cheap and easy, too, just dremel the edge and drill a few holes around it for the braze to adrehe to. Would take a few minutes. I think you can even solder steel, though I could be wrong, and it couldn't hurt to try.

You could also dremel it out so there's radial cuts that allow you to fold the edges down a bit (so the patch is a bit sunken, to allow for bondo), drill it, and rivet a metal patch in. Then you could still perminantly seal it with metal by brazing or soldering, or just a ring of jb weld and then bondo.

I'm just saying, there's a billion and a half ways to fix it, and not have to buy a new one. As long as it doesn't leak or fall off, and you can't see it from the outside, it doesn't matter what you use, one bit.

Now that I've considered it, if my biggest sketchyest patch ever has a problem, that's what I'll do: knock it out, rivet it, braze it, and then bondo it.

And brazing is tons of fun, and useful on just about anything that breaks, ever.

[SoCal-S13]

I dunno but I think it's more of a haggard, look at my rivets, I wanna be a sick a** drifter and have a street car thing.

lol pops hood...stock ka.

[SoCal-S13]

Bush cheny, and "power of pride"? Is that some sort of white nationalist thing, or something?