Rain Rain Go Away..

It feels like it’s been raining for the past month straight, holy! I received my A-Spec rear lip and SPC rear upper control arms from Heeltoe Auto earlier this week. I installed the rear lip as soon as I got it. There was one bolt for the SPC rear control arms that was hard to get to so I just asked Jackie at Balance Auto Garage to do it for me as well as an alignment. The guys there got me in quickly and did a great job!

I’ve been driving the car around the last couple of days and theres a really subtle clunk in the front end over any bumps. I took a look and it seems like the bottom of the Skunk2 front upper camber arms are hitting the top of the arm of the knuckle. I’ll either have to add some positive camber to the front or shave a little off the arm. I’ll have to take a better look next time and make sure that’s the problem.

As soon as it stopped raining and we got some sun, I rinsed the car down and took a few pictures. After I rinsed the car I noticed I lost 3 Rays stickers on my TE37! I bought two extra packs of stickers a while ago incase anything happens.. I still need one more now, I should’ve bought a full set FML haha!

RIP Rays stickers.

 

A-Spec Side Skirts

I picked up A-Spec side skirts from Northwest Acura a couple weeks ago. The guys there are awesome! I finally got around to installing it today. Unfortunately all the A-Spec rear lips in CGP are sold out in Canada so I ordered it from Heeltoe Auto and that should be here later this week.

The car has been on jack stands for so long now it seems.

Side skirts on! I’m still playing around with the height of the car, but I think this is gonna be how it sits.

I love the way the reverse staggered wheels look.

Still waiting on the UPS man with my last couple of parts! I’ll be impatiently looking at tracking info and out my window for the next couple of days..

Skunk2 Pro Series Front Camber kit with the “Hellaflush” Mod

I ordered the Skunk2 Pro Series Front Camber kit for my CL9 TSX from HeelToe Automotive. They have the optional “Hellaflush” mod for maximum negative camber which is about $85 extra (Canadian Dollars). I’ve done tons of research on this mod and thought I’d give it a go. Many people complain that with the ordinary Skunk2 arms you won’t be able to achieve that +/- 3 degrees of camber as advertised and only end up with roughly the same camber as what you get with stock arms. Hearing this, I thought the best choice was to get the Skunk2 arms with the optional “Hellaflush” mod. If you’re running Tein Street Flex coilovers or any other coilover that runs wide diameter adjustment collars DO NOT get the Skunk2 arms with the “Hellaflush” mod. They will not fit. You will be just fine without the mod and plus you will save a little money. As there are people that find the mod useful for their application, I for one cannot. I have nothing against HeelToe Auto and Marcus has been nothing but helpful with the mishap. Unfortunately I’m just one of the few who ran into this issue first.. Learn from my mistake.

Here’s a quick unboxing first:

Even came with cotter pins!

Install was very easy and straight forward. Only annoying thing was removing the paint off these threads for the ABS sensor. Not hard to do, just tedious. Skunk2 if you’re reading this, mask the threads off when you’re powder coating the arms please!

This is how the arms come out of the box with the “Hellaflush” mod. Ball joint is flipped and a section of the arm is cut for more clearance.
The cut is very clean and very well done. If you do need the “Hellaflush” mod for your application, you do get what you pay for.

This is with the ball joint in the correct position as Skunk2 intended it to be. Although now I have a chunk missing in my arm. I hope the structural integrity is not compromised too much.

I’ve installed my arms in this position. Ball joint facing the correct position with maxed out negative camber.

Arms are in with the ball joint in the correct position. No problems here.

The problem I was having was with the coilover to knuckle clearance. With the Skunk2 arms maxed out with the ball joint in the correct position, I had very little space between the collar of the coilover and the knuckle as you can see, about 3mm. When the ball joint was flipped for the “Hellaflush” mod with even more camber than the picture above, there was no chance of installing everything back together. Even in the most positive camber position possible. No dice. The coilover was hitting the knuckle even before I could finish putting the rest of the bolts in for the install. The mod is useless to me.

Fortunately the Skunk2 arms provide a sufficient amount of negative camber for what I had intended with no modification needed.

Conclusion: Do not order the Skunk2 front camber kit WITH the “Hellaflush” mod for the CL9 TSX if you’re running coilovers with a wide diameter adjustment collar. They will not fit and the mod is useless to you, unless you’re willing to do more customization.

However, the Skunk2 Pro Series Front Camber kit for the TSX is a great pair of arms. I’m super happy with them. I only wish I ordered them without the mod.. Learn from my mistake.

 

DIY: Cutting Bolts for 38725 Ingalls Rear Camber/Toe Kit

I got the Ingall’s rear camber kit thinking the install would be straight forward and easy to do, and it was.. Until I found out one bolt on each side of the car was completely seized. Some may encounter this problem and some might not. CL9s are getting quite old now so I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority of us run into this problem. I searched on forums and a lot of people ran into seized bolts while installing this kit. Most of them brought their cars into shops to have the bolts removed. Nobody has thoroughly explained how they got the bolt out though. The bolt is not seized into the nut, the bushing of the arm is completely seized around the bolt itself. You may be able to break the bolt loose from the nut, but you’ll notice that the bolt will turn back itself to the original position as the bushing of the arm is seized around the bolt. The only way to get that bolt out is cutting it out. Here is how I did it and you can to.

I used the install tips provided by Heeltoe Auto here: https://www.heeltoeauto.com/tech-articles/ingalls-38725-38720-rear-camber-kit-install-tips.html

I also used this diagram I found on TSXClub.com to put the arms together, easy enough.

My set up.

The toe arm was really easy for me, no seized bolts here!

Top view of the seized bolt

Bottom view of the seized bolt

The struggle was with the camber arm here with the bolt closest to the middle of the car. Make sure to break the bolt loose now if you can, I assume it would make it easier to remove the end of the bolt after making all your cuts. But if not, you should still be okay. Note that the nut is welded to the subframe.

My weapon of choice was this Makita reciprocating saw with 6″ Lenox blades, which are far superior to the other longer blades I was using. I went through about 4 blades. The area is quite tight so there isn’t much room to work with.

 

You will have to make two cuts on each bolt, one on the left side of the arm and one on the right side of the arm. I found it easiest to start your cuts from the bottom and work all the way to the top since there isn’t much room.

Important:

On the side closest to the head of the bolt (right side in the picture above), try cutting furthest away from the arm. It will be a lot easier to remove the head of the bolt that way.

On the side closest to the nut (left side in the picture above), make sure you cut closest to the arm as possible. You will see in the next picture why. 

Once you’ve made your cuts and removed the arm, the head of the bolt (right side) will come out easily if you cut as much of the bushing off as possible. On the side of the nut (the nut is welded to the subframe), hopefully you cut closest to the arm as possible so you end up with a little stub of the bolt. Use some pliers to spin the rest of the bolt out.

Bolt completely removed.

This is the aftermath.

Once the arm is removed, simply install the rest of the Ingall’s kit. I reused all my bolts and nuts except the one I cut. The part number for the one I cut is: 90173-S84-A00. Make sure you look up which bolt you need. All bolts on each arm are different.

Volk TE37s Mounted

 

I got some Yokohama S. Drives installed on the TEs (205/40/18 on the 18×8.5 +22 and 215/40/18 on the 18×9.5 +22). I had to roll my fenders all around to get them to fit. I still need to do some trimming on the rear bumper tab and relocate the mounting screw further back. I had to raise the car up quite a bit after this so I could just cruise around without any rubbing. I also ordered quite a bit of parts from Acura and Heeltoe Auto including camber kits all around and a full lip kit. I can’t wait till everything is installed and aligned properly! Here’s a teaser pic that my buddy Shawn took. Didn’t get a chance to take many pictures yet.

Quick Test Fit

I had to do a quick test fit ASAP once I got the TE37s. I’m still debating on whether I want to run reverse stagger or just slam it and stance it out. Either or, I think it’s gonna look damn good when it’s all set and done.

Ugh.. that concave!

18×8.5 +22 up front and 18×9.5 +22 in the rear

Needs more low, but DAMN!!

The End of Phase 1

Prepping for the season. Shawn in the back with his slammed 350z on Work Meisters.

I guess this will be phase 1 of my car. I added a CT Engineering Ice box, 06-08 A-Spec front lip, EuroR front grill, rear Honda badge, Mugen visors, RAYS Volk Racing SE37k (17×8.5 +30, 17×7.5 +30) and Work RS-R lug nuts.

CL7 Euro-R Front Grill

One of my favourite purchases to date has to be this front grill. I never really liked the all chrome grills that come with most Acuras nowadays.

I’m still debating on putting the Euro-R emblem or not. My car is not a true Euro-R so I feel like I shouldn’t, but I’ll still hold on to it.

For more Euro-R porn, click here: https://flic.kr/s/aHskyARr3e

 

The Introduction..

Since I have a lot more free time now (and a little motivation from the GF), I’ve decided to finally put together a blog about cars, my car and whatever else I find interesting.. I’ll start this thing by introducing my car.

I picked up a 2006 Acura TSX 6MT with Navi in Carbon Grey Pearl. I was initially looking for a PWP but unfortunately just couldn’t find one and ended up with my close but second choice.. CGP. It took me about a year to find a TSX in good shape and low km. It had about 80,xxxkm and a couple door dings was the only thing wrong with it.

Not too long after I installed Tein Street Flex coilovers, added an A-Spec front lip, fully detailed the car with the help of some friends and also got a few dents out via PDR:

I never really took many pictures in the early stages of the car, but I will for sure try taking more pictures as I continue with this slow build. Thanks for stopping by!