After 2 years of being abused by the wife I've pulled the RL from her evil hands

Although regular maintenance has been given exterior, interior and suspension has taken a beating on this car. First signs of damage was the middle console vinyl or pleather not sure was bubbling up until it finally tore so I had it re wrapped locally and it came out great. The driver side arm rest is showing significant wear also so I've recently ordered it from oemacuraparts along with the rear vent which my daughter kicked in while having a tantrum.

Front and rear bumper have seen better days with scuffs and paint peel on several spots, and to top it off the afs light recently came on FML

I picked up a hardly used set of struts from a gentleman in new York who had them swapped out for the aspecs immediately upon purchasing the car which will be thrown on along with new bushings for some of the suspension components. I'm pondering about the stiffer stabilizer bar.

The last couple of mornings while driving the RL have made me realize what I have been missing by letting the wife have the good car lol.... I recorded some DTS-CD's and they sound amazing, I feel like the artist set up a studio in my car.

Well that's it for now let me know what u guys think I will be posting pictures soon both before and after of the work ahead.

 

so what were you driven before?

what is she driving now?

i've never recorded any of the higher end / digital audio type CDs.... they sound better than regular CDs? lately, I just stream pandora via my iPod adaptor.. love that thing audio info on the nav screen and charges my phone while i drive..

what year is your RL?

the rear sway bar is cheap. do it. it doesn't drastically change things..but it does help. for the relative low cost it's worth doing.

 

I've got the all too common 2005 celestial silver... Also I was driving a 2001 pearl white Honda prelude. I purchased a 2002 Acura TL type S for her to drive.

Yea the multi channel DTS sound from the CDs is amazing. I'm also gonna install the iPod adapter, USA Spec?

Gonna order that as soon as I get the chance.

 

Lol. I came from a white 98 Prelude Type-SH.

 

I still have it... Love that car too but I'm getting older and I'm liking the comfort and tech of the RL

 

OP - When you record your DTS CD's, what is your source? If it's just the original CD then you cannot improve on it unless you have audio sweetening equipment and reclocking to 48K and even then it's tough to improve on the original. If you appreciate the extra quality then you should invest in the DVDA disks, you will then never listen to crap MP3 (IPOD) again.

 

Please tell me more about the DTS DVD's!! What did you use to record them? Did you use regular DVD-R?

 

FYI -
CD Stereo is 16 bit words
DVDA {ie 5.1} is 24 bit words
MP3 {Mono} is 8 bit words

That is why they sound differ and MP3 is typicaly 1/10 the overall CD file size while DVDA is typically 10 times the size of stereo CD.
"Audio sweetning equipment" is re mixing tracks and its an art and science that really needs be done by pro studios like how the ELS demo disk was done on DVDA w 2 channel and 5 channel differences.

 

The RL will not play audio recorded on DVD-R disc. To be completely honest I went on a torrent site looking for DVD audio disc and found that they are extremely rare and the selection is horrible. Luckily for me there are pros that remaster lossless audio sources and apply channel separation to create a final product that sounds like I'm sitting in an orchestra listening to the artist. I'm not an audio engineer but I know the difference between regular cd quality audio and what I'm listening to and it's amazing what is possible.

Do a search for DTS under audio on your favorite torrent site and see if you can get a hold of some... Usually consist of a WAV and CUE file. Good luck

 

Even more FYI:
CD = 16 bits at 44.1Khz clock
considered adequate for the general listening public and cost effective given the technology available in its day.
DVD-A is a format that may be used to record up to 96Khz by 6 channels of 24 bit OR anything less than that. Just because it states DVD-A it could be a 16 bit recording of mono.
MP3 is a compression algorithm that may be used is several ways on several kinds of source formats. It is not necessarily mono or 8 bits.

 

Received some trim parts.


http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums/...t/b041c17f.jpg

http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums/...t/b1639fe0.jpg

http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums/...t/e3a4b960.jpg

 

First the rear center vents

Before
http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums/...t/67a28dd2.jpg

http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums/...t/32f0f15a.jpg

After
http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums/...t/11b8bebc.jpg

http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums/...t/efb62fdb.jpg

http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums/...t/41cb1973.jpg

 

How much did re-wrapping the seats cost you? Pics of before and after?

 

Didn't do the seats only the center arm rest... And replaced the drivers side door armrest.

 

Door armrest

Before
http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums/...t/de7691a9.jpg

http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums/...t/087edf65.jpg

http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums/...t/4ddc179d.jpg

Comparison
http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums/...t/cab4a0dc.jpg

After
http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums/...t/8d8b6e67.jpg

http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums/...t/4a0b1c88.jpg

 

Fixed.

Can you give a write up in another thread on how to get the panel off, please? Pics would help too, but an explanation at least.

 

Ok lemme write it up... At first I was scared to death of attempting it... I can honestly say that it wasn't all that bad, lots of screws and have your patience handy.

 

Oh hells yes... we need this write up.

Wanna donate your old one to me.

 

I got you guys tomorrow, i will even pull the panel again and take pics for you guys to see.

 

how did your armrest get so messed up??

my 06 Rl has just under 60,000 miles.. and my drivers armrest looks like your "after" picture.. mine is perfect.

was your car parked in the sun a lot? left with the windows down a lot? was it the kind of cleaner used on the material??? those armrests looked totally trashed... i was just curious how they got so messed up...

overall - your car is looking great!! were these parts expensive to buy?

 

Mine is like that because my knee rests on it.

 

Wow. Your wife is like mine. Car to her is an appliance to be torn up while going from a to b. She treats her car so badly.

Nice job doing the resto work.

 

Thanks... Parts weren't expensive considering the value it puts back into the car. If I were looking to buy an RL and saw the armrest and other parts of the vehicle in that condition I wouldn't even consider it unless the price was dramatically low. Thinking of it that way the $60 and $30 I paid for the armrest and vent were worth it for me.

Sometimes I'll have an admirer looking at the car and when I open the door and they see the interior i wasn't as proud. Now I can show it off, even though this car is close to a decade old it still has that appeal.

I don't know to be honest how it got that way but once it started it was a rapid decline... The material fell apart quickly.

 

Navigation was shipped to alpine for repair last week, waiting for that to come in. Also looking for a small shop to put in my struts in the north jersey area.

Gonna order the drivers side AFS stroke sensor see if that gets rid of that annoying AFS light.