wackjum

I wanted to update this thread with a quick bump. It took a long while, but I slowly restored this car and I've been driving it around for about a month now. It has a new paint job and the wheels have been changed to 5Zigen 18". The brake calipers were all rebuilt and powder-coated gold. The front calipers were changed to 2 piston Legend coupes. The car was also retinted.

I will be changing the spark plugs soon as I believe that has not been done yet, and changing the fluid to GM SynchroMesh Friction Modified.

The car needs a drop, but it will never get one. I'm just not going to spend any more money on this CL. And actually compared to my other CL, this one rides better on the stock suspension. My other CL has the Tein Street Basis and I find those to be a little bouncy.

AustinTaper

very nice, looks much better than when you got it

I'll show Sam the pics, I'm sure he will appreciate it.

o0o0o0

iTrader: (1)

if you don't mind, how much was the repairs?

The car looks amazing, nice work.

wackjum

Repairs and repaint was about $5,000. I bought the car for around $2,000 so all in, I have spent about $7,000. It is in line with the price of a clean 6 spd CL, and aside from the damage and paint, this one is in great condition.

The wheels I got pretty cheap off of somebody here on the forums. Since I was swapping out the brakes for remans anyway, they were off the car and powdercoating them would have been no big deal.

We waited a long time for parts to come up on the used/salvage market. I refused to buy new parts. So that helped with costs.

The car gets a lot of attention. I took my Nissan in for servicing and had my girlfriend pick me up instead of waiting. The service advisers all came out to look at the car and commented about what a great looking 2 door TL (). It looks brand new and so I guess people are surprised.

gnuts

iTrader: (1)

looks really clean! a small drop on stock shocks would be very comfortable....just putting it out there .

wackjum

What springs would I use? Can I expect reasonable life out of the stock shocks?

gnuts

iTrader: (1)

H&R OE, tein htech. I have stock shocks right now and it rides great. I'd like to get some koni's soon, but I have different goals than you with my car.
http://www.tein.com/price/acura.html
There's pics there too (bottom of page)

wackjum

Is there any of that issue where the front rides higher than the rear because of the lighter MT?

gnuts

iTrader: (1)

Yes, springs were designed around the Auto trans which are heavier up front as you know. I'd get springs that have a rake (drops more up front).

Tosh

Thanks for repairing it and keeping another 6spd on the road!

wackjum

Any recommendations? Did the ones you mentioned previously have a rake?

I remember when trying to find lowering options for my white CL, I dug through tens of threads but with no clear answer. So I just went with coilovers.

03 tls nc

iTrader: (6)

It turned out nice!!

gnuts

iTrader: (1)

the eibach springs have a slight rake 2" Front, 1.7" Rear. You could also keep an eye for some tein basis coilovers in the black market. Very comfortable and won't break the bank.

AustinTaper

don't do eibach, rake is bad enough to annoy you, see page 1 of my photo thread for examples of the rake. It was enough to bug and make me switch to coils.

Coils are a brutal ride though...look good but jaw breaking stiff, thus I have considered the H&R with Koni combo as an alternative to give a smoother ride since the Koni can be height adjustable, but I haven't decided whether or not to try that combo out, maybe this summer.

gnuts

iTrader: (1)

my old tein basic coilovers were just as comfortable as stock. But i had a mild one finger gap.
The koni's would be ideal, because you have a little height adjustment on the shocks, full dampening and lifetime warranty.

Marcelechka

I'm on Tein S.Techs with stock shocks and to be honest, aside from the car being lower, feels just as good as stock... Granted the rears were rubbing on slight aggressive turns and speed bumps; the fenders have since been rolled & tabs relocated.

Oldsman71

iTrader: (1)

Your car came out really nice! On the spring topic, I have H&R sport springs on my 6 speed car. Car sits almost level with a very slight rake toward the front. See my avatar for a pic. Ride is not as cushy as the stock suspension was. You notice the bumps a little more (similar to my wifes' '08 TL).

o0o0o0

iTrader: (1)

Very clean. Another 6 speed lives.

AnthraciteTypeS

Nice restore, did you ever ask the shop doing the work why the headlights and hood don't line up correctly? I have the same problem on one side and it drives me nuts

wackjum

No I didn't ask. The red one is better than my white one too. But I suspect the white one was hit in the front at some point.

wackjum

Well I said I wouldn't do it, but eventually I couldn't stand the jacked up 4x4 look.

The car has been lowered on H&R Springs and Bilstein shocks. I think the car is about done now with no further mods expected.





You can see my white one poking in from the side.

gnuts

iTrader: (1)

Looks 10000x better! Why do you 2? Is one the wife's?

wackjum

Actually the red one is her's. It is her first foray into a sporty MT car.

The white CL is my daily driver as I have a 370Z as my sporty car.

It is crazy how high the factory lift is when you compare pics side by side. The turning point for me was when she said the car is too high and looks dumb.

johndo18

Hey out of curiosity how much did you pay from the respray? Did it come out good minimal to no orange peel? I'm looking to get mine done eventually as the clear is failing...sucks

wackjum

I think the paint job came out pretty good. I have no complaints on it except on warm days, there is a paint odor in the car.

I can't really tell you the cost of the paint job alone because it was all a part of the total repair bill. I would guess it was $2k.

wackjum

Current issues:

• Hesitation after a few minutes when driving the car on cold mornings. Seems to happen on some kind of switchover as the engine warms up. Probably has to do with a valve clogging up. I will be looking into it when I get a chance.
• Vibration on acceleration. CV boots look ok still. It might be tires needing rotation. It has been a while.
• Rattle from the main center air vent. I'm going to wedge some felt into the gap.

Other than these issues, car is running strong!

HorizonCL-s6

Edit: Just realized this is an old post lol

wackjum

Yeah. I bumped my own thread to post a mileage update. I've been driving it for about 3 years now.

wackjum

Just wanted to drop by and say I still have this car and drive it almost every day.

I recently put my NSX in a photoshoot. But I thought it would be cool to pair the CL with its older brother.

Here are pics from that shoot: