I added a new piece to the fleet over the weekend.. This RL popped up for sale at the end of my street on Friday morning..
I drove passed the car in the AM on my way to work and smashed the brakes to hold up and have a look at why the car might be on the side of the road..
There was no sign of the car being up for sale. As I rounded the car, Noticing front end damage and a South Carolina plate, I figuring the car had been put in a ditch somewhere near by. I looked for skid marks, None. At this point I remind myself I might be late for work. I leave assuming the car would be out of my price range, including the damage AND even if the owner was interested in selling.
Some hours later, I leave work for lunch. Drive down the street, the car's still there... This time with a piece of paper in the window.. In the scribble on it I could barely make out a what seemed to be a phone number and a price... $600. I thought it too good to be true, but dialed right away.. No answer. I left a message.
After a long day of wondering what the deal with the car was, I get a phone call. It's an old man.. (score!) I ask about "the old Acura" in the road. He says it's been sold. Some guys (family friends of his) would be there in the morning to haul it to the crusher after they nabbed the good bits off it. He tells me he gave it to his 16 yr. old son about 60 days ago. The kid put it in a ditch 3 nights prior. (I knew it) He tells me it's got a bent passenger LCA and bent tie rods.
Engine and Trans work great... Clean SC title.
In utter disbelief, I decided that I needed/ wanted the car.. I proceeded to give the old man a sap story about how much I would love to have a car like this one. And how it had taken me soo long to "save money like this".. hahaha After a lame and tiring phone call about 30 minutes long. I convince him to let his boys know that they wouldn't be scoring any Acura scrap metal this week, that I could make it road worthy once again.. That I'd bring him the money right away.
So here it is! My first Acura, My first V6 in almost 12 years... My first automatic in about 10 years.. My first car with leather seats, My first fully loaded ride.
Hell..... My first car simply for the sake of being a car... hahaha
A/C blows, it all works, Transmission shifts, What else could a guy ask for at that price point. If you haven't figured by now... I'm a sucker for starting out with sub $1,000 cars... haha Cheers!
It's a '97 Acura 3.5RL, 223,000, clean rig (to me). I've always wanted a big body Japanese sedan.
I've already cleaned the interior phat..
Fixed Door Locks
Went to Pull-A-Part and got the LCA
Tires are on the way
Fixed the yellow Honda "Small Lights"
Fixed Keyless Entry
Fixed trunk solenoid/ popper
Fixed trunk mounted CD changer (more problems to address)
Fixed a leaky trunk
Also got the in-dash navigation working like a top.
The seats being in the condition they are, a running engine and transmission basically sold me the car..
And I didn't know that these RL's have City Lights, that is awesome.
lols. how many cars do you have now? and how do you afford insurance on such a fleet????
HAHA The addition of the Acura brings me to 10 complete cars. Lucky me, Insurance is cheap here.. I'm old, I'm a male, my cars are all dirt cheap/ shitty/ safe/ base model shells. My driving record is clean to boot, I haven't caught so much as a speeding ticket in 8-10 years. Some of them are Race cars..
Another assisting factor might be that aside from my sedans, they are all CRXs and Wagons. Coppers in my area are too lazy to check.
Snagged some front '99 RL mudflaps. Took a little surgery to make them to fit right.
That front LCA has been swapped.
Got the rear sway bar hooked back up proper.
Ordered a bunch of crap.
Did a little revamp or mini resto for the wheels and center caps too.
I cleaned the trunk real good. I used the WD-40 trick under the interior panels in the spare tire compartment.
I also grabbed some random shots of the boot area.
Trunk mounted 6-disc changer
Trunk mounted Navigation Hard Disk
Tore the dash and cluster apart on Saturday. Quite the task.. But I'm pleased.
The cheap 88¢ bulbs caused some hotspotting... But at least now I know what types of speeds I am carrying..
Used these little guys. T6.5
Here are some pics from the job. Cool (or shitty) side fact, the headunit, navi, and climate control are like all one piece.
Double header update.
Tires are here, Inner tie rods swapped, Outer tie rods on order.
I had 4 broken wheel studs (2 of which I broke removing the wheel for the first time) on that same passenger front corner...
Smashed those out without pulling the spindle or hub by cutting away the heat shield and notching the hub/spindle a tiny bit itself.
I also notched the head of the studs before driving them in. This saved a ton of time.. I think I had 4 wheel studs replaced in 20-25 minutes with the help of an air hammer.
LED interior lights installed. I didn't realize how many bulbs were burnt out, as I'm still used to this singular light in the cockpit for lighting.
I went with the warm white LEDs to try something different from the rest. The kelvin range is almost an exact match. Nice, subtle upgrade.
Most people might not even notice.. Dimmer/ Auto Dim works perfect with them too.. Very cool. Very modern with an old/ factory feel because of the color choice.
I also detailed the engine compartment a bit. Again using mainly WD-40.
These bulbs are soo much brighter too. I can't believe how much more light is in the trunk/ cargo area now...
Trunk compartment with factory incandescent bulbs. Shop lights on.
Trunk compartment with LED festoon. Shop lights on.
Here is a decent comparison..
Stock bulb, warm white festoon, and regular white festoon.
I did the super white LEDs in the more focused map lights.
Bling Bling! Turned out better than expected. I love when that happens.
Some new goodies are set to arrive later today. Should change the RL up a bit I think.
I also found that the steering rack bushings basically didn't exist.. Here is what was left, just 1 of the 4 of them...
New bushings on order from Honda.
These 90's Jaguar XJ6 folding seat trays came in last night. I feel these will bring a big change for the rear interior of the RL.
Shopped a bit for a nice set. Found these and couldn't pass up the seemingly insane deal. These aren't terribly common in the US with cup holder and chrome folding brackets... I'm pleased. Perfect fit. Interior colors look good together. Folds perfect. No modification needed. I'll use the factory Jaguar brackets.
Final fitment still to be determined.
I added this new Presidential grill badge to contribute to the RL's proud look.
Installed the New steering rack bushings and outer tie rods. The car is now safe to drive. Such a dreamy layout. I drove it home for the first time last night. :encouragement:
Door lights now have warm white LEDs
Those rear trays are so awesome! My mom had a Jaguar in the 90's that had them, always loved sitting in the back seat of that car, so luxurious.:encouragement:
Those rear trays are so awesome! My mom had a Jaguar in the 90's that had them, always loved sitting in the back seat of that car, so luxurious.:encouragement:
That is an awesome story. :cool: The trays are definitely gunna be a fun addition. You'll have to ride in this RL and reminisce.
Tag'd and Title'd the car yesterday at the DMV. Simply requires alignment so that it may become a "Real Luxury".
My impressions thus far find the car truly is "Road Luxury", as claimed by Acura.
Comments
That is the exact thing I've been struggling with for the past 10 or 12 days or so....
Make the Element an off road machine!
I drove passed the car in the AM on my way to work and smashed the brakes to hold up and have a look at why the car might be on the side of the road..
There was no sign of the car being up for sale. As I rounded the car, Noticing front end damage and a South Carolina plate, I figuring the car had been put in a ditch somewhere near by. I looked for skid marks, None. At this point I remind myself I might be late for work. I leave assuming the car would be out of my price range, including the damage AND even if the owner was interested in selling.
Some hours later, I leave work for lunch. Drive down the street, the car's still there... This time with a piece of paper in the window.. In the scribble on it I could barely make out a what seemed to be a phone number and a price... $600. I thought it too good to be true, but dialed right away.. No answer. I left a message.
After a long day of wondering what the deal with the car was, I get a phone call. It's an old man.. (score!) I ask about "the old Acura" in the road. He says it's been sold. Some guys (family friends of his) would be there in the morning to haul it to the crusher after they nabbed the good bits off it. He tells me he gave it to his 16 yr. old son about 60 days ago. The kid put it in a ditch 3 nights prior. (I knew it) He tells me it's got a bent passenger LCA and bent tie rods.
Engine and Trans work great... Clean SC title.
In utter disbelief, I decided that I needed/ wanted the car.. I proceeded to give the old man a sap story about how much I would love to have a car like this one. And how it had taken me soo long to "save money like this".. hahaha After a lame and tiring phone call about 30 minutes long. I convince him to let his boys know that they wouldn't be scoring any Acura scrap metal this week, that I could make it road worthy once again.. That I'd bring him the money right away.
So here it is! My first Acura, My first V6 in almost 12 years... My first automatic in about 10 years.. My first car with leather seats, My first fully loaded ride.
Hell..... My first car simply for the sake of being a car... hahaha
A/C blows, it all works, Transmission shifts, What else could a guy ask for at that price point. If you haven't figured by now... I'm a sucker for starting out with sub $1,000 cars... haha Cheers!
I've already cleaned the interior phat..
Fixed Door Locks
Went to Pull-A-Part and got the LCA
Tires are on the way
Fixed the yellow Honda "Small Lights"
Fixed Keyless Entry
Fixed trunk solenoid/ popper
Fixed trunk mounted CD changer (more problems to address)
Fixed a leaky trunk
Also got the in-dash navigation working like a top.
The seats being in the condition they are, a running engine and transmission basically sold me the car..
And I didn't know that these RL's have City Lights, that is awesome.
HAHA The addition of the Acura brings me to 10 complete cars. Lucky me, Insurance is cheap here.. I'm old, I'm a male, my cars are all dirt cheap/ shitty/ safe/ base model shells. My driving record is clean to boot, I haven't caught so much as a speeding ticket in 8-10 years. Some of them are Race cars..
Another assisting factor might be that aside from my sedans, they are all CRXs and Wagons. Coppers in my area are too lazy to check.
Snagged some front '99 RL mudflaps. Took a little surgery to make them to fit right.
Got the rear sway bar hooked back up proper.
Ordered a bunch of crap.
Did a little revamp or mini resto for the wheels and center caps too.
I also grabbed some random shots of the boot area.
Trunk mounted 6-disc changer
Trunk mounted Navigation Hard Disk
Yes sir, WD-40 works as a fantastic cleaner/ degreaser. :encouragement:
It was a mess in there before.
Wheels are finished. With half ass resto.
Gotta love the old man, clean record, NC insurance! :encouragement:
Yeah, I love the automotive legalities in this state... sooo lenient.
New badges came in. She needed these. They were all torn off or missing.
Cluster lights are burned out. I ordered all new LEDs.
The cheap 88¢ bulbs caused some hotspotting... But at least now I know what types of speeds I am carrying..
Used these little guys. T6.5
Here are some pics from the job. Cool (or shitty) side fact, the headunit, navi, and climate control are like all one piece.
Tires are here, Inner tie rods swapped, Outer tie rods on order.
I had 4 broken wheel studs (2 of which I broke removing the wheel for the first time) on that same passenger front corner...
Smashed those out without pulling the spindle or hub by cutting away the heat shield and notching the hub/spindle a tiny bit itself.
I also notched the head of the studs before driving them in. This saved a ton of time.. I think I had 4 wheel studs replaced in 20-25 minutes with the help of an air hammer.
She's happy to be back on the floor.
[h=1]
I went with the warm white LEDs to try something different from the rest. The kelvin range is almost an exact match. Nice, subtle upgrade.
Most people might not even notice.. Dimmer/ Auto Dim works perfect with them too.. Very cool. Very modern with an old/ factory feel because of the color choice.
I also detailed the engine compartment a bit. Again using mainly WD-40.
These bulbs are soo much brighter too. I can't believe how much more light is in the trunk/ cargo area now...
Trunk compartment with factory incandescent bulbs. Shop lights on.
Trunk compartment with LED festoon. Shop lights on.
Here is a decent comparison..
Stock bulb, warm white festoon, and regular white festoon.
I did the super white LEDs in the more focused map lights.
Some new goodies are set to arrive later today. Should change the RL up a bit I think.
I also found that the steering rack bushings basically didn't exist.. Here is what was left, just 1 of the 4 of them...
New bushings on order from Honda.
Retrofitted those '99 RL flaps too.
New BMW style shark fin is here.
Been working on this XR600 a bit lately too. Thing's a beast.
Shopped a bit for a nice set. Found these and couldn't pass up the seemingly insane deal. These aren't terribly common in the US with cup holder and chrome folding brackets... I'm pleased. Perfect fit. Interior colors look good together. Folds perfect. No modification needed. I'll use the factory Jaguar brackets.
Final fitment still to be determined.
Installed the New steering rack bushings and outer tie rods. The car is now safe to drive. Such a dreamy layout. I drove it home for the first time last night. :encouragement:
Door lights now have warm white LEDs
That is an awesome story. :cool: The trays are definitely gunna be a fun addition. You'll have to ride in this RL and reminisce.
Tag'd and Title'd the car yesterday at the DMV. Simply requires alignment so that it may become a "Real Luxury".
My impressions thus far find the car truly is "Road Luxury", as claimed by Acura.
lol at me and my 'RL' puns..