Saving the Goldfish IV

The continuing coverage of my build has begun.

This will be a lengthy post so please bear with me. The car is almost done so I’m trying to dump everything here as much as I can. 

Here’s a shot of the wheels and the tailights chilling at the back of the workhorse. 

I went to Honda and picked up all the factory goodies that i needed so that we could reinstall the windshield properly. It’s amazing that sometimes the dealership is now the one giving you great deals because everybody else is reselling parts for explicit markups. Shame. 

Visited the car and look at the color! Can’t say that this was the color I wanted because it is not. Let’s hope I come to the notion of liking this particular color. 

My friend from the Honda Club forums sourced out this EUDM rear foglamp. Very awesome. Puro rear foglamp na likod ko! Haha. 

Bought a box of vinyl dye spray. Will be using this somewhere. 😊

Here’s some of the stash that I have. 

Doors we got from an EG8. Too bad time was short and I had to complete the car as soon as possible.  We ended up stripping the door for parts to use on my existing door. 

More of the work being done. 

Look what I got. A pair of mismatched Brides! An Ergo and a Brix!  Period correct bitch. 😊 

They are gonna be a bitch to use, but I will make them work. 

Decided to clean the tailights while we were at a buddy’s place. 

The car is slowly taking shape! 

Some random stickers! 

Sample JDMU sticker! 

Had some dealership plate replicas made too! Do you know what the other stickers’ history came from? 

Since 1999. Our humble car crew.

PRS making quick work on my dashboard. It looks fucking fresh! 

Motor getting its electricals done. 

View of the shop. Powerhouse Race Specialists. Located in Antipolo. It is in Bankers Village 2. Bankers Village 1 was where the old H3autoworks stood until the passing of our friend. It has since been renamed as CH3autoworks Auto Detailing. 

Interior being worked on. Look at that raggedy ass long armrest. 

More care packages arrive! This time from our friends in Dynamics! Thanks GMs! 

Most of the interior pieces are back on with new door cards. 

Hard to find STR cam gears now, got this from the great Bong Hilario. 

Some bits and pieces being installed along with the coilovers and the camber kit. 

Got some meat from Federal care of D’Lucky M Tire Center! 

Shift plate from Circuit Hero

Pristine Auto Care hooked us up with their cleaning materials. Thank you sir! Can’t wait to use them! 

We just finished retrieving the 5Zigen exhaust from the metalworks shop nearby. So clean! 

That’s all for now. Will upload more in the coming days

Saving the Goldfish III

The one thing that is hard with doing paint jobs. Selecting the color you want. I discussed with my buddy and the paint provider that I wanted the car to stay gold. I pressed on that because every one and his mom wants red white blue yellow or gray. Let’s see how it turns out. 

Was able to snag a set discontinued clear Tail lights for the EG sedan.  They are extremely difficult to find now. 

I missed gathering parts like this. The convenience of gathering parts and dealing with various sources for these nowadays paint a very different picture now compared to how it was done back in the day. 

Everything gets snatched up by resellers leaving little for guys like me and you and of course the price shoots up.  I’m not complaining, I am only stating a fact. 

OEM parts hello!

Some small items I came across. 

Goodbye Neovas. You have served me well for almost 10 years. 

Got a good deal on these optional floormats from my friend Franklin Lu. 

Can’t believe these things cost a lot of money now. Oh well. 

Sneak peek on the wheel that’s going in the car. Let’s see if the “FORMULA” work, haha. 

Saving The Goldfish II

I’ve been saving these frames for a rainy day let’s see if i get the chance to use them. 

Was able to get the JDM climate control for the EG. As you can tell it has the AUTO function, something that was not released in the local market. You cannot get it to work if you do not have the complete wiring harness for it. Got it from GM Jay! Thanks master! 

Visited the shop and there’s where i stood so far, while the car was being worked on,  I was busy collecting parts for it. So far so good! 

Another shot from the front. 

Got some doors off of an EG8 to replace the rotting panels and interior pieces of the EG. Used everything but the door shell itself. 

Tailights are to be replaced as well since mine were already filled with mold and was destroyed by water. 

Cusco Zero2s lying lifeless on a table after 7 years of service. You will be missed. 

Yep. You will never understand it. 

Will post more in the coming days. 

Saving the Goldfish.

Tearing down the car was never a part of the original plan to refresh the car, I only wanted to refresh the engine and all moving parts and things that need replacing. If bad luck would have it, almost everything needed help.

The paint was still ok but the body needed work already, rust was clowly creeping through the bodywork. We now needed to include body repair into our laundry list of things to do. 

Did not really like to think about painting the car again because that means I needed to take extra care of the paint again! LOL. 

Will post more as I try to collect my thoughts. 

Endless projects.

While the car was in PRS got a chance to take a look at the neglect my car has gotten for almost 3 years. This is what happens when your passion gets diluted. My Momo Benetton has seen better days. Had it for almost 10 years. Way before everyone wanted one. 

I had no plans of radically changing my interior since budget was limited. A lot of what you see here stays like the steering wheel and the Vertex shift knob. The Del Sol seats however, need to go. Any one want it? 

Stay tuned! 

Cory Restomod Project

This restoration began as a simple attempt to revive my Honda and put it to good use again but that has clearly snowballed out of proportions. 

Surveying the car before towing it back to PRS, I like saying PRS more because Powerhouse Race Specialists is quite a mouthful to say. 

Powerhouse began work by dismantling the engine and did a rebuild while the body has began to receive prep work. 

This restomod project was not in a hurry because budget was controlled and I am not a fan of flash builds where they try to finish a project right away with fucking short deadlines. 

This was not an all out no expense spared kind of build we are so used to see in fancy automotive blogs. This was a simple restomod being done with a purpose, budget was tight but of course we try to get the best parts so long as they serve a purpose. 

Will keep you posted. I am actually just talking to myself since no one really knows about this blog. Haha. 

Hi there.

I’ve been out for several years being busy trying to live a life and guess what I completely forgot about this blog. 

I will try to bring you up to speed now that I have the app on my phone again, sorry about that since I switched phones several times and I completely forgot to get the app back when I changed my phone for the last time. 

I am currently in the middle of rebuilding the car and hopefully in a couple of weeks it will be done. 

It’s at my friend’s place right now. 

If you guys want to check it out, the shop is Powerhouse Race Specialists. They are based in Antipolo. Might want to give them a visit. 

Here’s a peek when i dropped the car at the shop last December 2015.

Too bad  I should have documented the build earlier well I suppose this will do. 

I will try to post more in the coming days. 

See you! Stay tuned! 

Farewell old friend

The first time I met this man was way back when I was in college at that time internet car forums were all the rage back then and there was no facebook yet. A friend of mine asked me if I wanted to tag along and go with her to a shop in Antipolo because her boyfriend was going to get his car fixed, I agreed to go with them since I was not doing anything. 

I heard about a shop in Antipolo that does great work with Hondas thru local car forums,  I was just getting into cars at that time and was curious as hell as to what the shop looks like. When we reached the shop it was nondescript and very unassuming to look save for the cars inside mainly EK9s and Civic SiRs that were parked inside giving me a hint that “Wow!  this guy must be doing something great to these cars.” I saw a man inside who was very busy checking on various works being done there and he looked serious.  We proceeded inside and my friend introduced herself and her boyfriend back then and then turned to me. “Ako si Bong paps” he said while giving a smile. That was how I first met Bong Hilario and I never assumed that I will become friends with someone as down to earth and as crazy as bum when it comes to bringing out crazy tuned Hondas and insane racecars.

Last December 3, 2014 someone took him away from us. He was gunned down in his shop, H3autoworks and news spread like wildfire and almost immediately, messages of sympathy and cries for justice filled up my news feed and it struck me. My dear friend is gone, and we can’t do anything to bring him back..  I could go on and talk about the anger we have for the anguish the family was going through right now but I would rather write about how he made a big impact to the local motorsports scene.

His name always comes up when you talk about people who makes and build fast Hondas and his builds were ahead of its time at least in the Philippines when parts were hard to come by.  The craftmanship that his builds have is just ridiculous and to put it bluntly,  it was radical.  That’s how Bong does the cars that he tunes. The cars that come out of his shop made their way into the street racing scene and we’re feared by many.  That was the era of the Libis,  White Plains and Sta. Rosa drags.

I am just thankful that I got to know him.  Bong was truly a generous guy.  He values family so much and is a very religious man.  I will miss the days that we just go to the shop just to pester him and just chill there and he would jokingly tell us to go away and stop bothering him but we still stayed there anyway.

Paps maraming salamat sa lahat, utang ko sayo lahat ng natutunan ko sa kotse. Hinding-hindi kita makakalimutan. I will always remember the times we have spent with you. See you when you get there Bong. Paalam.

Morning Run

I will try to catch up on all the posts i was not able to do, starting with the morning run we organized.

I know no one is reading this shit but I do apologize for the lack of updates.

It was a great turn out! We were able to reach the resort at around 9am.

Hopefully next time we get more non-Hondas. 🙂

Meanwhile in the mountains of Antipolo..

The rainy season just flashed the finger on the racing scene here in the Philippines as we are being creamed by consecutive typhoons, but that did not hinder the developments at the H3autoworks camp.

southice just released 2 videos showcasing some crazy handiwork and engineering prowess of chief tuner Bong Hilario with his turbo Project FD2R and some nice number coming from the Rurex x H3autoworks Integra which just entered the mid-low 9’s barrier.

Crazy. Fucking crazy. That’s what it is.

Enough talk. watch the videos.

There you go. And thats the latest right now. I shall keep you guys updated. OK?