1996 Prelude Si h22a4 swap and cosmetic upgrades.

Yeah just playing the waiting game now.. Unfortunately if they don't call or email me within two hours, I won't know until 10 tonight because I'll be working.. but oh well. Guess I'll just wait and see.

Sounds like a good buy if you could get them to get back to you. Have you tried calling the shop? Also, check the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and enter their info. I would also check the carfax yourself, if you can get the VIN. The reason why i say that is because even a carfax can be forged. Here in Springfield, there was a guy who sold a 2006 Toyota Sequoia with about 130,000 miles on it. The lady who bought it had a friend who wanted to try a carfax to see how it was done and used her Toyota. Much to their surprise it had about 100,000 miles MORE than what was on the carfax that was handed to her at the dealership. Even the digital odometer was reading the lower mileage. Needless to say, don't rely on a carfax done at the dealer. Get the VIN and look it up yourself. Granted, it's about $40, but that could be all you end up paying if you find more problems with the car than what you're being told. The dealer that sold the Sequoia is under investigation by the State Attorney General's office and the lady got her money back.

well they never got back to me. I'm thinking the dealer saw my email and decided I wanted tooo much info on the car to be a possible buyer. My guess is something was wrong with the car and they're just waiting for a sucker to come in and buy it without putting any effort into finding out the vehicle's history. Me on the other hand, I'm a dealer's worst nightmare.. I'll pick and pry at everything on the car and demand full history reports and a new carfax at the time I go in, I make the dealer pay for the carfax and do it right in front of me, if they refuse, obviously they aren't a dealership you want to be doing business with.
So I'm just gonna wait it out, keep looking on S2kI and a couple other s2k forums until I find the perfect one, plus I'd rather buy from another enthusiast than a dealer anyways.

youll pay more with an enthusiast. can you at least get the VIN? 40 dollars isn't that bad. plus it's haggle room.

I got the vin. The one I was looking at was a salvaged title. And honestly s2k enthusiasts are a whole new breed of Honda fans, much more mature, respectful, and reasonable when it comes to pricing.
Dealers list clear title stock s2000s for around 13.
I can get a low mileage, clean title, s2000 with a Cusco roll bar, clean paint, a car I know has been taken Care of, often accompanied by receipts of service, likely an exhaust and intake mod, and 9 times outta ten they have volks, works, SSRs, or at least rpf1s on them, for the same price. So it really just depends. I've been extremely surprised at what I've seen so far.

So the car does have a salvaged title. Did you check the BBB on the dealer? Have they responded to you since you posted Friday morning? You do a ton of homework when it comes to a car. probably a little more than me, but if they hand me a carfax, i still check it myself. Dealers (I believe) can get carfaxes done on their cars cheap or even free. that's why i'd suggest doing the research yourself. I had all that done on my car before i bought it, even though i jumped in head first with it (luckily, no regrets)

I jumped into my car without any previous knowledge of history and have found so many problem that would have detoured me from buying but it has a very long lasting learning experience, lol. Did not know that my car had a swap or any of the issues it had when I got it, they just wanted it gone. I now know that i over paid for the car but in the condition it was in to find one for 3K in TX was really hard to do. Even with the issues that it had other cars that were around the same condition everyone wanted closer to 5K just because I lived out in the middle of nowhere. Had to drive about 300 miles to get this one.

Yeah I do a LOT of homework before buying a car. And like I said, in the end, I'll be much happier knowing that the car has a clean title and numerous service records to go along with it. Even if it takes me longer, I was even considering selling the prelude for a minute wtf was I thinking?

you were thinking about right. i've thought about selling the Eclipse for an Infiniti or Porsche 911 Carerra. But, Sarah knows i won't. Not even to get her one. lol

I hate how inconsistant I'm being and how many times my plans have changed, life keeps throwing things in my face that dwindle the car savings each month and it seems like it's never going stop. Decided to wait on the s2k.. I'll just watch my stocks and see what they do, hopefully by the time I'm done with building the lude, I'll be able to afford one without creating stress on my entire life.
As of now, I'm sticking with the lude. Just ordered a harness bar for my 5 point harnesses, ordering new seats today, ordering a set of 16x7 enkei RPF-1s in the next two weeks, my buddy bought a parts prelude solely for the motor that was in it, perfect h22a from Japan, just needs a water pump, which I happened to have a spare JDM h22 water Pump in my parts graveyard, he was originally going to pull the motor, locate a type-r tranny, And go h2b in an eg hatch, but his truck just blew its motor so he picked up a turbo mkIII Supra for his new daily/project and wont be needing the h22a anymore, did i mention he bought the complete, running prelude for 190 bucks? Hahahah.
so on top of the h22a4 I'll be using for my h23vtec Frankenstein build, I've got a spare, complete, JDM h22a to use while I'm building the h23 block. So, some parts will be arriving soon, along with a new motor. I'm also taking all of the interior out of my buddies parts lude, so I can have different color schemes whenever I want. So far I'm working on red suede on the door inserts, a new shift boot, black headliner and pillars, and redoing the carpet once I get the new seats. Updates to follow.

dang thats a deal for a running lude....keep bringing updates want to see the lude with the rpf-1s

Yes pics are always appreciated lol. Love the RPF1's think thy look amazing.

Yeah man, post pics.

Ordered two red suede racing seats, they'll be here Monday, also got
The harness bar ordered and it should be here tomorrow or
Monday as well. Got the front driver and passenger side door inserts off my spare doors reupholstered with red suede, just need to finish the rear inserts now. I'll be buyin some black suede for the headliner and pillars tomorrow. Debating on using the remaining red suede I've got to reupholster the rear seats since they're so Small, but Im not the greatest with a needle and
Thread so we'll see. I'll post pics Monday of the interior
And the seats. The rpf-1s might have to wait a month, with the money I just dropped
On the seats and rest of the interior, 1300 bucks for wheels and
Tires isn't really plausible at the moment.
Buddy's havin second thoughts on giving me the JDM h22a now, but if he does, my plans for this
Car will change, yet AGAIN.
Stay tuned.
-Jay

Harness bar came in yesterday, it's pretty heavy duty, and I got it for 50% off, not too bad. Seats will be here tomorrow, still need to finish upholstering the rear inserts, then my interior will be done for a while. Pics tomorrow.

Very exciting looking forward to seeing some progress on someones car, lol.

Lookin forward to actually gettin something done haha. Thinkin about selling my quad to fund the RPF-1s.. Cuz that'll leave me around 800 bucks for internals for the h22a. Buut that leaves me without a toy to play in the sand with.. So I'm kinda torn on that.. We'll see.

no need for a quad when you have a nice Honda to drive? right? lol

I dunno about that... My first love before Hondas was Yamaha four-wheelers. Got 12 grand into a banshee built for flat track racing.
I was raised on the dunes so that's a big part of my childhood, dunno if a set of wheels is worth that.. I dunno, like I said, I'm torn on it. Oh well, I'll figure it out.
Seats will be here sometime today, finished the rear inserts, and dug the harnesses out of the closet. Looks like I'm doin a full interior revamp today. Pics to follow!!

Did you get everything installed?

Got the inserts installed and one seat installed, ended up
Having to make my own brackets to mate to
The sliders so I probably won't have the other one in until
Sunday, my next day off. I'll put the harness bar and harnesses in on Sunday too.
Pretty pleased with the seats, for how cheap They were, they're pretty good quality.

I'll just leave this here..

Door insert


sorry about the clutter in this last one.

Damn that looks pretty slick. I can't wait to get the new engine for my car and start on the interior. Definitely looking for good, cheap racing buckets. lol

Looking very cool love the color matching on the doors and seats. Would love to have a nice set of seats but will be waiting till I can afford the carbon fiber Bride seats I want lol, only like $1,100 a piece.