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So, not a huge update, but this thread is a chronicle of the build, so I'm trying to make sure I get all the little details. Plus some of this stuff may be potentially helpful to others, but most likely boring to most (LOL).
The reason the major things haven't been getting done with the build, aside from my lack of time, is the lack of a proper facility unfortunately. I can use a friends lift when needed, but given my schedule and how I like to take my time, I'd rather not be pressed to hurry through a job as opposed to just leaving it unfinished on a lift until I get around to it. That being said I'm not trying to tie up a friend's lift, so me and a few other buddies have been actively searching for an industrial bay (1000+ sq ft. minimum) to both keep our cars as well as being able to work on them (keep tools there, install a lift etc). The issue we're running into around here in the Northeast is the lack of availability at a reasonable price, OR the biggest one, we need a business license. We found a really nice bay at a good price, but unfortunately they won't rent to private entities....So that was a big bummer as I was really gunning on getting into that bay. Right now we're looking into the specifics of what a "business" needs to be on paper and what kind of things we need in order to appear as such....I'm assuming it's as simple as making a phantom LLC or something, but we'll need to do more research.
TL;DR major progress is stalled for now until we can find a bay to turn into a shop. I've grown beyond putting my car on jackstands and rolling around under it....those years are behind me. Luckily in the meantime the car is drivable, so I can just enjoy it as it is for now until I can get into an ideal workspace.
In the meantime though, I managed to get a few small things done.....Primarily getting the Modifry GoPro mount installed so I can get some good supercharged canyon-carving footage when the time comes. I'm not going to bore with the specific details; I made a thread just for that lol. You can check out the full install and what I did with it here: https://www.s2ki.com/forums/s2000-el...mount-1195170/
Long story short if you don't have some kind of barrier between the metal plate and the plastic glovebox cover it will wear away at it. My solution was adhesive felt, cut to fit.
As you can see the layer of felt is pretty thin. I think it's just thick enough to do its job without being too obtrusive.
Here it is installed; second pic shows the barely visible layer of felt. Very happy with how it came out, however rudimentary it may be....it's the little details that cumulatively can make a big difference.
Really nice piece from Modifry, very happy with how it looks installed, even without a camera mounted it still looks like it has a place there. A suction cup on the windscreen probably would've worked just as well, but I like this better. And now I can rest easy knowing it won't mar my plastics.
The only other small tidbit I have to share is the picture I meant to post of the NSX Type-S / Zanardi knob installed. I actually waited to get the proper jam nut for it from Japan, haha....It came up as discontinued through US dealers, and luckily I had some parts I was ordering from Japan anyway, so I simply tossed it on the order. I'm sure I probably didn't need a jam nut at all, but regardless, it came on the cars equipped with it, and it was like an extra 50 cents, so I just let it fly. The jam nut for the OEM s2000 shift knob is much thicker, and given how tall the Zanardi knob is, it makes sense to have a thinner jam nut to bring the knob down as much as you can.
A couple of buddies mentioned to me I should look into getting a collar of some sort that brings the boot up flush to the bottom of the knob. I'm not against the idea, but currently I have it set up like it would be on the NSX....I kinda prefer it that way honestly, makes it not so busy, plus, I've never been a fan really of the knobs being directly connected to the shift boot.
That's it for now. Once we can get our shop situation locked down (hopefully soon) I'll start getting deep into the big stuff and have some good updates for this thread. I have a couple of other small things incoming in the meantime that I'll update with once I get the stuff and get around to it. Fingers crossed we can find a place soon, I'm itching to get some real work done and move forward with this build!
I saw that you don't want to be about that jack stand life but have you looked into the quickjacks? I just bought some from Costco for about $1100 and so far it's been great, it gets the car up in the air about 2ft all under 1 min.
I just use a creeper to slide underneath and do work.
Ironically one of the things holding me back from really getting the car out and driving was getting a battery.....I dragged ass on it for a long time, and was going to just run an OEM Honda battery, I just never felt like driving to the dealer to pick one up during the day as I was usually asleep (3rd shift life).
Anyways one of the Kinetic Custom Machine battery brackets for the Shorai lithium iron battery popped up for sale; in black nonetheless, which I prefer, so I had to snag it. Also grabbed the appropriate Shorai LFX36L3-BS12 battery and the BMS-01 charger/tender. Also grabbed the Odyssey SAE terminal kit so I had some battery posts. Used the supplied "Z" brackets that came with the Shorai battery to elevate the Odyssey posts so the battery terminals would clear and sit like a factory battery - above it. Also swapped in a fresh AP2 valve cover for the time being....Unfortunately I ordered the 04-05 cover by mistake, so I'm just going to run that for now while my car is stock. I needed to get the 06+ for my KPro conversion. That's currently on order...dumb mistake but whatever, fresh valve covers look so nice.
Really loving the look of the battery and bracket. The battery itself only weighs 4.83 pounds, adding the weight savings with my URGE header as well it'll do a decent job at saving weight on the front end of the car; perfect for offsetting the additional weight I'll be adding with the supercharger, to a degree. Regardless, I'm happy with the setup, and so long as you just leave the battery disconnected if you won't be driving the car for a while (my unit doesn't have power) it should hold a charge no problem. And when you do drive the battery recharges incredibly quick.
So I finally got the car out of it's long slumber. I had taken it for some short trips here and there a few times this spring/summer (stole the battery from my civic when I wanted to take it out, lol). Anyways now that it has its own dedicated battery it will be seeing a lot more use.
I finally found enough time and motivation and got the arrangements in place to really start getting some work done on this thing. The first thing I'm going to do to really start off the actual build of this car will be the clutch. I find it to be one of the more tedious and difficult jobs, so I'd like to get that out of the way first, get some miles on the clutch, and then go from there.
Brought to the car to the shop I'll be working at. A co-worker owns it as a side gig and he recently had arm surgery, so I have the shop to myself for the next 6 weeks. The plan is for me to do a little bit each day in the morning right after work. It's been brutally hot and humid these past few weeks, so its a safe bet that I'll probably have around 3 or so hours in the morning to work on it before it starts to get to be too much. Perhaps I'll take a night off of work and burn the midnight oil.
Underside of the car is pretty clean as far as any rust is concerned. The only thing that really shows surface rust is the axles and a few other things; other than that most of the bolts and fasteners look like new minus the exhaust bolts and such. Not bad for a 54k mile/18 year old car. It could use a good power washing underneath I think, but other than that it's very clean.
Yes, I know my tires are toast. My stock AP1 wheels and tires are essentially winter bitch storage duty parts; I just let the car sit on those in my unit. And luckily the shop wasn't too far away, so driving there on them wasn't too big of a concern. If anything I've got some nice slicks for a hot ass day....
Now that the ball is rolling the updates will come in much quicker succession, finally...
Not much can really be said about this one...The people that know, know. Clutch jobs suck. Even with proper tools it's never smooth sailing for your first time. I didn't run into any issues, just the typical annoyances with the top starter bolt. Some of the bolts at the top of the trans were pretty difficult to remove too. I ended up breaking a few extensions trying to get the top 3 bellhousing bolts off. Quick trip to Harbor Freight generally solves all problems when it comes to hand tools.
OEM disk, OEM throwout bearing, OEM pilot bearing, ACT Prolite flywheel (8.1 lbs) and the ACT HD PP installed. Your common cookie cutter setup around here for moderate power. As it is now I have most of the trans bolted back up, put the slave back on just to test out the clutch; feels good. Not as hard as people made it out to be, still very minimal pedal effort. I'll probably get it back together some time this week for a test drive. Hardest part is over now...finally. Hopefully I won't need to do this job again for a long time.
One big job, if not the biggest job done! Once you start driving around and wearing that new clutch in let me know how it feels. I'm looking forward to getting that ACT HD PP for my AP1. How's the engine response with that 8.1 lbs FW?
Last edited by RolanTHUNDER; 08-05-2019 at 11:26 PM.
Getting exciting! Are you starting on the supercharger now?
I wish! Lol! I still have to get Kpro installed. Ideally I'd like to do my suspension first as well. Car is up and driving and the clutch works great! So just putting some miles on it for now.
07-01-2019, 09:33 PM
