Preludeking's 1995 NSX-R styled conversion -www.teknotik.com CANADA

**preludeking** · 11-01-2012, 09:15

Like most people, a NSX is not exactly a car many people just stumble upon but more lust and dream over for many years before an actual purchase. The same holds true for me and my eventual path to NSX ownership. Its only a select group of people who will pay the price to own a 15-20 year old car when that same amount of money can get you "more" by today's standards.

To know how I got there to my eventual purchase, here is some background.

I'm a Honda die hard. My list of Honda's encompasses almost every Honda model. I grew up surrounded by cows, tractors and trucks. The true story of how I got into Honda’s I’ll never really be able to explain. By Nature I should have been driving a Mustang or F150 but instead I fell in love with Prelude’s (88-91) and their pop up headlights, bought my first Honda Prelude and never looked back.

The Integra Type R is my true love, but I have had a crush on owning an NSX since the beginning. Several times I came close to owing one and debated the purchase, but finally took the jump in 2011.

The car I ended up with and I have a history. Four years ago I almost purchased it on a trade deal + cash for an S2000 I had at the time. The S2000 sold fairly quickly and I moved on. In 2011 while browsing the net I stumbled across the same car for sale. Same owner, approx same mileage, same condition. After getting tired of dealing with flakers on the internet by the time I called the car was sitting waiting to go on the auction block. Almost committing to the car blind, the owner pulled the listing and I immediately made the trip to go inspect the car right in the auction yard.

Nothing much has changed. The car was a near stock Red NSX Targa on brown interior. While being clean title, the car was far from perfect. The front and rear bumper had some light scuffs, the interior was in old weathered shape, and much of the trim has cracking and fading. The odd chip and scratch here and there on the body didn't help the car look any better.

We struck a deal, and I finally became and NSX owner.

I spent the rest of the year just driving the car, enjoying it, not worrying about stone chips or bug splatter. I put quite a bit of milage on it going on full day drives and putting the car through its paces. Knowing the car was going to get a make over and enjoying it that much i drove it right up untill the last minute I could of the season.

I had these Volk TE37 for a while..just waiting for a car to put them on.

And so with the car going away into storage it was going to be a few months until I'd pull it out and start getting ready for the transformation.

I towed it back to my shop and started the tear down for paint and interior.

Off with the front end...

Out with the interior...

Out with the old...

Off to the body shop

At the body shop they continued with dismantling the car

**preludeking** · 11-01-2012, 09:25

The new parts from Honda start to roll in...

The notorious trunk and hatch struts..

All the headlight clips and seals for NA2 lights...

New NA2 Tail lights, center section, gaskets, and trim

OEM Acura rear lip, foams, bumper braces, front lip and my lights.

The very difficult challenge of sourcing out a full black interior from Ebay, Prime and OEM...

New fender liners... one missing on backorder

Had the NA2 Wheels sent out to powdercoat

The paintwork on the body itself starts. I chose Championship White in NSXR style...

Panel by panel the car starts to come together

**preludeking** · 11-01-2012, 09:34

Test fitting and preparation of all the panels.

I was going to use the Stacy sides first...but then changed my mind.

We are a Canadian Downforce Distributor and got a shipment of Downforce parts in. A set of the OEM Sides were for my own car.

Call us for yoru NSX Downforce parts in Canada!

Painting on the lips starts

Reassembly begins of all the body panels

New Trims, door handels being installed

**sduffass** · 11-01-2012, 09:46

Good work so far.

**warrenw** · 11-01-2012, 09:47

I like the black roof. NSX-R look (classic)

The project looks great. Keep us posted.

**preludeking** · 11-01-2012, 09:57

Preparation, fixing, and touch us on the jacksports front bumper

(For future I'd recommend using OEM or Downforce)

New Tail lights being installed, not sure what exhaust to go with? Suggestions?

Car is almost done... Needs door inserts installed and I sold my factory hinge on my OEM hood...and new from honda went on backorder!

I ended up switching front lips and going with OEM

Next problem:

Without thinking I purchased a set of Headlights that had already been opened and painted. What i failed to put consider is that the majority of people that have done this have a OEM Grand Prix White NSX's. With painting mine Championship white you can see how different those two whites are. With the lights already installed, I had a 3M light smoke film applied until I take them out and have them redone in the matching white to the car.

**preludeking** · 11-01-2012, 10:35

Now that the car was back at my shop I went back to work in began installing the black interior that I had sourced.

DC5 RSX-R Reacro Seats for a custom project

OEM Seats....well whats left of them.

Fabbing Up the NSX Power Sliders on the Recaro seats

Powers sliders retained!

New Axle after finding a tear in the boot

New Stoptech Rotor installed with Hawk Pads

**type-j** · 11-01-2012, 10:45

Awesome job!

**preludeking** · 11-01-2012, 10:56

Car is almost ready to drive.... minus a few touch ups

NSX-R Shift Boot comes in

Along with long awaited Horn

Test Fitting a TE37...

Finally completed

Long awaited first real drive of the year (1200km)

Proudly Canadian Shop!

Proudly Canadian Honda owner!

A few customers getting setup for a show

Getting our Booth Set Up

Before the snow comes...

Off to Toronto Motorsports Park for some lapping

The Hawk HP+ Brake pads and these white wheels make a bad mix

**preludeking** · 11-01-2012, 10:58

A photoshoot of the completion to date

Transformation

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**PhAnToM** · 11-01-2012, 11:02

"The new parts from Honda start to roll in..."

I started drooling right about here. lol

**docjohn** · 11-01-2012, 11:12

I have to say this was a very well done post,from start to finish..... no waiting

Just the right amount of pics and text...ect ...nice job.

**jcbadcura** · 11-01-2012, 11:30

That was a very enjoyable write up, thank you for doing that. I, as well as many of us on prime share the same passion for these superb cars from Honda....Beautiful work paying homage to a legend...

Oh and nice job on the OEM seat sliders!

**1fastx** · 11-01-2012, 11:34

As I was scrolling down, I was hoping I wont have to wait to see the end results. Good thing I didnt have to, thanks for sharing!

**sliqq** · 11-01-2012, 11:35

Bad ass car!

Our NSXs are gonna be twins come next season, unless you do some drastic changes that is.

**preludeking** · 11-01-2012, 13:18

Originally Posted by PhAnToM

"The new parts from Honda start to roll in..."

I started drooling right about here. lol

You can never go wrong with OEM!

Originally Posted by 1fastx

As I was scrolling down, I was hoping I wont have to wait to see the end results. Good thing I didnt have to, thanks for sharing!

Originally Posted by docjohn

I have to say this was a very well done post,from start to finish..... no waiting

Just the right amount of pics and text...ect ...nice job.

Thanks! Hopefully this build can help inspire some others to take the plunge like so many other build threads on here inspired me. I've prob clicked on Frank Spano's build thread 200 times and serialNSXer's 500.

Originally Posted by jcbadcura

That was a very enjoyable write up, thank you for doing that. I, as well as many of us on prime share the same passion for these superb cars from Honda....Beautiful work paying homage to a legend...

Oh and nice job on the OEM seat sliders!

I'm going to get a video up of them in action next time its nice out and i drive it. It works well, but I'm short so the seat does sit on the high side and it works for me but might not if you are taller.

Originally Posted by sliqq

Bad ass car!

Our NSXs are gonna be twins come next season, unless you do some drastic changes that is.

Can't wait! I'm excited to watch your progress!

**06_typeS** · 11-01-2012, 15:47

Great looking transformation. I'll def be inquiring for some downforce parts in the future. Im in NB.

**Caroline-NSX** · 11-01-2012, 16:12

Nice transformation

!

**myw** · 11-01-2012, 20:45

great thread eric!

congrats on the awesome work on the car thus far; love that you kept the oem sliders intact!

**myw** · 11-02-2012, 09:55

how come in one of hte pictures there are 2 2002+ front bumpers? is one of them a duraflex one that has the lip molded on??

i think a pride v1/v2 with dual dtm style tips would be good value/look badass but thats imho.