Did I mention I am an expert at removing gauge clusters now? I think I have removed 10 or so between the Junkyard and my RX

 

I also rebuilt my drivers side axel, and by that I mean I replaced the inner boot. It had a small pin hole of a crack but that was enough to sling grease everywhere.

Let me tell you what - this was the first time I had just replaced a boot, and although it wasn't overly difficult, it was a fun learning experience. I believe these to be the original axels, despite not being green.

They have the exact ridges and 'cooling fins' as described in the factory manual, and I don't think that the replacements you can get these days have anything like that. So that increased the importance of replacing the boot to keep this one functioning.

 

Edited July 23, 20223 yr by 1980ea71Brat

I also had to replace the driver's side ball joint because I fucked it up when removing it. Nothing I could tried worked to remove it without destroying the boot, and it eventually had to be pickle forked apart. Was a waste of a perfectly good ball joint. 

Parts are hard to find for this car. I picked up some spare front calipers off a loyale, but finding rear calipers seems to be next to impossible. I have looked around on this site, and it looks like I might be able to adapt 1990-1993 honda accord rear disk brakes to it - another project for the future. 

For now, I literally just cleaned up the brakes and put it all back together. I usually splurge and buy all new parts but these brakes actually work, and I need to save cash at the moment.

I also have been working on some of the body work -

 

I'm basically a professional painter now:

 

It's not perfect, but it looks better and hopefully wont rust anymore. Oriley's couldnt mix a can of my exact paint but its pretty damn close. No clear coat since this was single stage from the factory. There's another really bad spot behind the passenger side rear trim - but I haven't taken any photos of that yet.

Other than all that - I fixed various pieces and lights in the interior, I replaced every single brake light bulb/running light. I fixed the passenger door window switch. I cleaned and wiped down all of the interior trip - and reinstalled all of the trim that was removed from the previous owner.

My next few to do items are:

Install more sound deadening in the rear of the car

Repair the rear carpet, and clean it as best as posible

Replace the particle board covers for the rear storage

WELD THE TORSION BAR (I have to learn this one, which will be difficult but I want to do it.)

Install the new interior once the upholstery guy is finished.

--------------------------------

Weld battery tray, fix small rust holes. and that's basically most of what I can think of off the top of my head. But I always find little things to keep my weekends occupied for sure.

Oh yeah, got the tires on, alignment, and cleaned up my hub caps. I am a huge sucker for 80's styling and this is definitely cherry in my book. Love it.

I am near my limit for photo's on this site, so I'll probably try to save some space for the end product. I actually busted out the welder and learned how to weld that torsion bar yesterday. It doesn't look pretty but it worked and I got it installed. First test drive at 60+ MPH and I am getting some fuel cut out problems. I think it could be the IAC? not sure yet

What torsion bar did you weld? There’s only front and rear sway bars on this, the rest of the suspension is coil on strut/shock. 

Cheers 

Bennie

Yeah I know what your're talking about - and that's not what I meant. It's whatever this motor mount is supposed to be called:

 

First thing I have ever welded so it definitely isn't pretty. But it worked - got both ends to go in correctly and torque down.

Ah the pitch stopper rod! That makes sense! 

So long as it works!

Cheers 

Bennie

Kind of late to the party here, but thanks for documenting all this for others to pick thru when they attempt a EJ swap. If I had seen this when you were working on it, I would have helped out. Kudos to Bennie for being here and helping you thru some rough spots. Real happy that you are willing to go hard on this and do as much possible to get it back on the road, not many of these left. Pretty sure my build is in here, but it was quite a while ago. I might do a update in the Members Ride section. Have a drool rag ready 

21 hours ago, Turbone said:

Have a drool rag ready 

I need one now! I love the L series coupe and it’s worse because we don’t get them here so getting me one is near impossible! 

Cheers 

Bennie

Thanks Turbone! Much appreciated, and yeah I used this forum for inspiration and I'd love to drool over what you did. I just got my new interior back the other day, so one final update should be coming. The car is ready for the road again after much trial and tribulations lol. After a year or so of enjoying it, I will probably try to save for a new EJ22 to drop in it and probably do brakes, etc.

Thanks for stopping by!

Been about 6 weeks since I have updated here. In that time, had a baby and really just wrapped up everything I wanted to get done to the car. In another forum I learned the hard way that some MAF sensors are bad straight out of the box, but now she's running pretty good for an old and tired EJ22.

Since my last update I:

Installed the rest of the interior, all the trim panels and the recovered seats. The seats have new vinyl front and back, but we kept the original checkered material from 1987. I love the look and I'm really glad we got to recycle them. The seats were in terrible shape but the guy fixed all the foam issues.

Also fixed the clutch problem. Not well documented on here, but the clutch was not properly adjusted, and it appears that the cable is a bit stretched out. Had a family member help me reset the clutch position which made a world of difference. 

 

Few things I still need to do - replace the front speakers, the current ones could be worse, but they sound pretty bad and my commute is about 20 minutes, I like to listen to the radio.

Also going to create new cubby covers for the trunk area - the old ones are water damaged and warped. Was going to trace them out on peg board and use that (not sure if there is a better material) but got a ways to go on that.

That's about it. Going to daily drive it this winter and see how it goes. She could use some new brakes but they work. Slight vibrations at 70 mph, but it has new balanced tires. Down the road when money starts flowing I will look into doing more body work, and doing a rebuild or buying a new EJ22. For now I'm just happy she's back together and running smooth.

Thanks all for tuning in and checking out the build. It wasn't anything too fancy but it's one less loyale chasis in the junkyard.

 

 

 

 

She isn't about to set some land speed records, especially by today's standards. but she at least gets out of her way. It'd be nice to get a turbo ej22 into it. Maybe one day - got many other projects to get started on around here.