So apparently UPS/FedEx thought my birthday was today instead of yesterday, cuz they all dropped some things i need off today to restore Claudia back to full health. Since everything came at once, i got inspired to just go at it and try my luck, so thats what i did lol. I documented it with my MDA's camera.

FINALLY, this stuff comes in!


sized up the damaged fender


and the robbed gastank cover


out with the old


in with the new!


my niece comes out to help lol


my dad takes a look while my lil helper watches


my front yard quickly turned into a warzone...


got the old fender off after removing the sideskirt and whatnot


testfitting



checking out the damage underneath...it was worse than i thought, the edge of the frame seems to be bent and my headlight was truly trashed



shattered headlight


I feel like BlackAck, my whole front end is pretty much off lol. Im only 1/2 done, i gotta go buy a new headlight tomorrow @ the stealership cuz this last one cant be saved. I dont see why so many people have trouble taking off the front bumper, i was able to remove mine pretty easily. I thought the gas door would be tricky, but its just 2 bolts that i have to take out to install the new 1, which is fortunately already painted black and in good shape. I still have alot of work ahead to do though, im gonna try to fix up the bent edge of the frame and install the new fender which will take a lil bit of tricky angling to get it past the mount that hold the hood struts up, and gonna align everything to the best of my ability (which should be pretty good, cuz im anal about that stuff lol) before sending her off to the bodyshop that will fix the bumper and paint her. Im glad its finally in the works now atleast. I'll update tomorrow since im gonna try to tackle the tasks as soon as i wake up.

 

god damn dood!

i like the pic of u holding the fender like "Where the fuck does this go?"


holy shit.. i just realized what happened to the other rim!

 

LOL i just wasnt expecting the pic, my dad caught me off guard. And yea, my old rim was damn near shattered

 

that smashed headlight is perfect for someone who wants to figure out a projector retro but has no clue on how the CL headlight is put together.

 

yeah, i figured id save it and maybe give it a try one day since i pretty much cant fuck em up any worse lol.

 

you should get depo lights instead of oem's from the dealership, they're about half the price too.

 

i dont think the quality will match up to OEM. Plus i need it tomorrow pretty much.



On another note, the Axis rims weigh 22 pounds each! Damn, i never knew they were that heavy till i saw the weight on the packaging.

 

Hah, lookin' good. I love the rims!

 

Pssssssshhh!

just duct tape some flashlites on ur hood and ull be good to go! LOL

 

Projectors...

 

That's what I did

 

lol i dont think duct taped flashlights are the look im going for

 

haha thats ghetto, flashlights...wow. im sure its been done before though.

And DaInfammus, so is your car just sittin outside on stands? i would never let my car outside like that. wow. well im glad you're stuff came in, good luck on getting it back together!!

 

thats great man! glad to see that she is getting better.

 

i have 1 depo headlight, i didnt even notice until i looked at the dot specs on the front and it said depo on it.

 

depo?

 

Nah, it wasnt sitting on stands. This is Queens NY bro, you cant just leave ur stuff out like that lol , you already saw what happened with my gastank! I put the spare back on and drove it into my backyard n covered, and put the parts in my locked garage it till i pulled it out again today. I went on the headlight hunt today, $215, and gettin the tire put onto the new rim in a lil bit too. So the work continues fellas!

aznx tl, i think ill b joining you with the depo headlight, i havent picked it up yet but i think itll probably be that. Oh well, as long as shes up n running and back to her gorgeous self right?

 

ayo, you need a headlight? I have a pass. side headlight for sale if you want.

PM me.

 

pm sent bro

 

yep, oem replica headlights made from the company depo. i wish they made ones with projectors though

 

good news! i was talking to my cousing from florida, and i forgot he works for acura. i told him a/b my project and he's like "i got 2 new 99 CL headlights sittin in my shop and some other stuff, you want em?". I was like "HELL YEAH!" So thats $215 back in my pocket Also apparently 1 of his boys is building a 98 CL turbo down there, ill b sure to take pics of it and my cousins porsche when i get down there

 

thats pretty sick^^

 

Good shit, that def saved you some dough, oem headlights are expensive, believe me I know first hand

 

good shit infamus.

 

u should post some pics of the progress!

 

I got a couple of todays work on my T-Mobile MDA, ill post em up as soon as i upload em.

 

MDA ftw, I LOVE my MDA

 

Yeah me too! Idk how i got along w/o this thing before i had it haha

 

Heres some of today's tasks that i took care of.

Time to change up the fuel door. New vs. Old:

If u look close u can see the old 1 is bent upwards from the douchebag that pried it off my car.

Its on! Back to lookin good..on this end atleast lol.


That was pretty simple. Now for the hard labor, messing w/the frame:

Took this mangled bracket off to straighten it, looking at the other side of the car under the fender as a template.


Dad giving it a few good hits:


Took the battery and air filter out to get a better angle on the walls of the frame and kept going to town on it, its almost straight:


Almost perfect, just a lil more tinkering:


Puttin some screws back in so i dont lose them later:


Side view. Heres how it started when i took the fender off:



Its pretty much as straight as its gonna get for now. Its almost back to stock form, besides a few dents and some rust which I'll sand down and repaint black.


A few more taps here and there...(told y'all i was kinda anal a/b it haha)


Glad to have the hard part down!


All in all i'd say a good days work. I could've paid a bodyshop to do this, but i get more satisfaction outta doing it myself, plus i think i did a pretty solid job. I made ure that when i could, i used a plank of wood on top of the metal so that i didnt have to hit the metal directly, helping it spread the pressure more evenly and not putting any holes in the metal. When the headlight comes in i'll mold the metal a lil better to the form of that and where i have to connect the fender.

And yes, i was working w/no shoes on, and no, its not cuz im 1/2 dominican/haitian lol

Another thing that i was confused about, when i took out my battery, my alarm system still worked perfectly fine. Unlocked/locked doors, opened my trunk and everything. Didnt have to put the security code back in my radio or anything, it was fine. On all my other cars, if i disconnected the battery nothing else worked and the car's computer was reset along w/my radio. Any idea of why this car is different?

 

the car probably held a charge after you disconnected it, i believe it drains itself out after 10mins or so.

 

thats a pretty strong charge, the battery was out for atleast 40 mins!

 

 

you would need a big fat capacitor for this to include alarm and locks.

 

how many bolts is on the fender and do you have to take the front bumper off to take out the fender???because funny thing is i gotta change me fender to on the same side as yours.

 

technically you dont have to take out the front bumper, but i wanted to make sure that when i realigned everything it was just right. The bumper connects to the fender using 2 screws and 2 brackets. The fender itself is also connected to your headlight, so be care ful with that. And you have to remove your sideskirt too to get to a couple bolts on the bottom of the fender. I'll take a couple more pics to show u the contact points.

 

so do u think theres a capacitor in the car that i dont know about or something that kept everything running?

 

The car is almost done! i just need a couple more things, and then a couple surprises that i got for you guys. Its not on BlackAcks scale w/the projectors or Cocoa's w/the motor n flares, but its a lil somethin different lol

 

Get ya weight up youngin..

 

get her back together son, I'm doin the same

 

lookin good..nice work

so your gettin two brand new headlights from your cousin or just the 1? either way that's sick