mazdeuce - Seth said:In reply to Woody :
Yup. Just needs power. The issue (for me) is that Liftmaster door and gate openers built after 2011 won't work with homelink without a $30 translater. Which I know now.
I have at least one of those NIB in my garage. Let me figure out if I need it or not.
Actually, now that I think about it, I bought those translators for my 2003 Accord and 2006 Cayman S, neither of which I currently own.
In reply to Woody :
I would much rather send you money for something you don't need than buy one new. Mrs. Deuce has already pointed out that I can just buy another opener for less than the translator thingy.
In reply to sleepyhead :
No hurry. I think it will work no matter what, I just want to gather data so I can justify blowing apart shocks in the junkyard.
I also spent a bunch of time looking at rear disks. You need to swap the whole hub and the parking brake cables. Not a huge deal, but it was wet enough yesterday that I didn't want to crawl under the car to detach everything. It's cool junkyard hunting cars that have a TON of parts donors. Usually I go because one of something showed up on the list.
Never thought i would see a track car accord.
But, i like your approach to this one.
In reply to Dusterbd13 :
There is a high likelihood that I'll end up with stupid high $ suspension at some point, but I can't see a good reason not to experiment with cheaper alternatives in the mean time, especially since I need it to remain fairly close to stock height for rallycross.
I have a vision of a competent comfortable track car for One Lap. Human speed, reliable, fun. Quiet enough to do 8k miles without noise canceling headphones, comfortable enough drivers seat, passenger seat that can recline for sleep, common enough brake parts that emergencies can be dealt with without having to worry about sourcing custom bits in the middle of nowhere. AC, radio, cruise, that sort of thing. Mostly I want to enjoy it. Enjoy driving in on the street, enjoy driving on track. I haven't had that in anything I've owned yet. So far I really like it on the street, so I feel like I'm half way there.
Sidebar:
A similar looking Accord Coupe rolled up next to me at a light this morning. I didn't notice the wheels, but as it rolled away, I spotted the twin tail pipes and a red V6 badge. I learned from Erich's sedan thread that the red badge on a 2006-7 sedan means a six speed manual. I suspect that it may have the same significance on a V6 coupe of similar vintage.
Following with interest. I have a 2005 sedan with the 4 cylinder and its an automatic. I really disliked the car when we first got it because it came across as an appliance, and I treated it as such. We traded an Audi A3 for it - 3 kids in boosters/car seats wouldn't fit. I tried autocrossing it multiple times, and it is an understeering nightmare, especially on 400 tw all seasons. However, taken on some back roads, it's not bad. The auto trans can be run through like a clutchless manual and manual downshifts are possible. Between gears 2 and 3, it's fun. Took it on Tail of the Dragon once, not bad. Tires do make a difference. I have found the car easy to work on, parts are inexpensive, and it is ok with some lax maintenance. Ours has 165k, so we've put about 100k on it and the only time it's been in shop for significant repair was for a cam sensor I couldn't figure out. Oil, brakes, tires,accessory belts and a water pump o-ring otherwise.
Lately I've been looking for a daily/autox replacement and was looking at Civics, among others. If the dimensions are really that close with the Accord Coupe, I may have to add them to the list.
In reply to Woody :
There was one in the yard that I was at just like that.
In reply to chrispy :
I think there is a host of things keeping them from being fun right out of the box, but I rode in that TL on track, and it's essentially the same car, and it didn't suck, so I know the potential is there.
The 17mm sway bar is swapped over. I needed new end links when it was all said and done. The allen wrench spot in the end of the bolt is weaker than the corrosion on the bolts. Sway bar was $35 with good bushings and the ends were $40. I should have gone back to the junkyard and grabbed any of the 1000 ends that were on the Accords/TLs.
Anyway, took it on the local handling loop and it's better. Both ends participate in 40mph sweepers. The front still scrubs first (which is good since my kids will be driving this) but it's a LOT closer to neutral. The big deal right now is brake dive. Attempting to brake into a corner isn't very pleasant. I'm going to try and use LFB at the autocross and see if I can smooth out the transitions, but even at rational street speeds it's an issue. Springs/shocks are at the top of the list.
I also got the battery secured. This is the wrong part, but it works for now. When they cut the batteries out at the yard they must throw the tie downs into a pile somewhere, because this was the ONLY one in an of the 10 or so Hondas I looked at, and no factory J bolts anywhere. I want to move to a smaller battery anyway, so not a big deal. This will let me autocross this weekend.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
You have mail.
In reply to Woody :
Answered, thanks man.
Just a quick measurement with the wheels off today. Front spring is 13.47mm wire thickness with 7 free coils at full droop. Rear is 12.18mm also with about 7 free coils. Honda parts numbers are all over the place for the different Accords and the regular vs. TL-S. That doesn't mean that they're much different as the shock numbers change too but all the aftermarket shocks are the same for all the Accords and TL's of the era. I think another junkyard trip to measure is the hot ticket.
TL springs are:
Front 14.46mm Rear 12.65mm
I wasn't able to count coils. In a related note... what's the GRM method to handle a battery post being too small? Looks like the positive terminal on my new battery is 1.3mm too small?
In reply to sleepyhead :
hammer and pliers?
Cut a soda can into a long strip. Add wraps of aluminium until clamp is tight.
Gimme your intended battery size and I can whip up a decent looking hold down for you.
In reply to sleepyhead :
That's all I needed to know. Time to go spring hunting!
In reply to Crackers :
That's a moving target right now. I probably want to grab another tiny LiFe battery like I ran in the Mazda2 at some point. I appreciate the offer, but I'd hate to have you make something pretty just to have me change my mind.
Pfft.. if you were expecting something pretty, it was moot anyway. 
mazdeuce - Seth said:In reply to sleepyhead :
That's all I needed to know. Time to go spring hunting!
Remember, spring rate is a function of wire diameter, number of coils, and coil diameter.
That is, springs can have the same wire size and length, but if they're different overall diameters, the rate will be different.
In reply to collinskl1 :
Which is why I'm focusing on the TL. The suspension is identical and everything interchanges. The TL is a restyled Accord, just 600 lbs heavier or so. Logically they would have used different springs for applications that were so different in weight, but you never know until you start measuring. Sleepyhead confirming that the wire is different is enough of a difference that it's worth me checking. This might lead nowhere, but it's fun to experiment rather than just buy something.
Woody said:
While I'm interested to see where Seth goes with this car, I think I'd be willing to carry the extra weight for the added torque and an extra 80 hp from the factory with the V6.
This popped up on my FB feed this morning, reconfirming that I are an idiot:
"Adding power makes you faster on the straights; subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere"
Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman, CBE (19 May 1928 – 16 December 1982)"
In reply to Woody :
It would be more fun day to day with the torque if that's what you're in to, especially if you don't plan to change much about the engine. The 2007 version (the most powerful) of the car made 266hp. Squeezing that out of a K24 isn't trivial. However, the internet says that the lightest V6 accord coupe from the factory was something like 3265, so 271lbs heavier than the base 2.4 coupe. Not all of that is V6 weight, the V6 cars were automatically optioned up if I remember correctly. If we assume The numbers are real, then the 2.4 car is 91.7% the weight of the V6 car, so it would only need to make 244hp, and then you're still lighter for turning and brakes. I suspect you'd be on equal ground at an ever lower power than that, but that's all speculation. I do love speculation though. 
I'm signed up for autocross. This is the most excited that I've been in a while even though I'm going to get my butt handed to me in STS. I'm still HS legal, but there is only one other car registered in HS, and there were two in STS. Getting beaten by two cars is more fun than getting beaten by one. The only other zero money thing I can do is an alignment, and since the only thing that can be aligned on this car is toe, that's what I'll check!
I bought two new tape measures, these have fancy fractions marked on them which means less line counting. I like that.
The goal was to adjust things to get 1/16 to 1/8 toe out in front and neutral to slightly toe out in the rear. A couple of four foot levels, a couple of bungee cords, my new tape measures and...... front is 1/8 out. Already. Weird. Check the rear. Zero. So it's basically already set to a fairly aggressive alignment. Way more so than you'd normally see on a street car. Again, there is no sign AT ALL that there had been a wrench anywhere on the suspension. What the hell has this car been up to?
Well, there goes my day of messing with alignment. I guess I could just clean the house?
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
Wow, I'd never even considered using bungee cords or two tape measures. Did you pick all that up at Harbor Freight?
I have that same caster/camber gauge!
In reply to Pete Gossett :
That level came with the house. The other level is my "good" level. Bungee cords were a Christmas present, tape measures were $2.48 each at WalMart. Budget alignment.
In reply to Crackers :
The big issue is that my floor isn't flat. I can go through the effort of getting tiles laid down under the wheels to get it pretty close when I want to spend the time, but I mostly use it to "eyeball" things and make sure they are about what I think they are. Turns out they are, so that's good.
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