PROJECT PRELUDE
The One That Got Away
By Mike Earley
In 2001 I was an 18 year old kid working a summer job, building a apartment complex. We were putting the finishing touches on the exterior of the apartment and in the parking lot sat a red 1992 Honda Prelude car that had caught my attention over the past few days. It wasn’t in particularly nice shape, but a good daily driver. There was something about the body lines, frontend, and interior that drew me in. Oh did I mention that dash!
Fast forward 6 months, the 1988 Mazda B2200 pickup truck I was driving spun a rod bearing. I was now in the market for a new ride. I began looking for a car like the one that had caught my attention last summer. I was lucky enough to find a 1 owner Black 1992 Honda Prelude Si with only 92,000 miles on it. During the test drive we pulled up next to a Ford Probe GT at the stop light. He threw a few revs my way and I knew it was on! I Revved that DOHC 2.3 Liter up, the light turned green and I dumped the clutch. Spinning the tires through first gear and grabbing ahold of second gear we started pulling away from the Probe, all the while my dad sitting in shotgun yelling at me “Stop, Stop, Mike Stop it". It was at that point I knew this was My Car!
I daily drove the Prelude for about 3 years, and in that 3 years I learned a lot about wrenching on cars, tuning and trying to make more power. One thing I did learned for sure, was spraying a 55hp shot (nitrous) out of the whole on with a pair drag radials would butt hurt a lot of Fox body Mustangs in the early 2000’s. But with power adders there is a learning curve, I popped one motor on nitrous (75hp Shot) and grenaded 3 or 4 transmissions. During that steep "learning curve" I meet some of my best friends and had the time of my life.
Life Gets In The Way
But life gets in the way and I had to sell the Prelude to buy a work truck. Because a Prelude is not a very practical construction vehicle. So the car got sold and a truck was bought. I still look back on that day with regret for selling the “Nude Lude”. But just 2.5 years later (2007) I drove to Colorado and brought home a new to me 92 Prelude with a bad motor and the journey that is Project Prelude began.
My buddy AJ and I pulled the motor out, and replaced the bad head with a good head and a new timing set. We had her purring like a kitten in a few nights. But that was short lived because the motor spun a rod bearing just a few months later. Out came the motor and in went a short block I had laying around. But that too was short lived, because it also spun a rod bearing. By this point I was out of spare H23 parts and patience’s with this engine. So we turned our attention to stripping the car down and starting the body work. While I saved up the money to buy my dream motor a JDM H23 Blue top. We got the car stripped and in primer and into storage the Prelude went, for 12 years. In 2020 I started my YouTube Channel Full Throttle Performance Speed Shop and needed a project for the the channel so we drug the prelude home and started working on it. Over those 12 years she was in storage I had slowly gathered a large majority of the parts needed to finish the car.
Project Prelude stripped down and in primer before it went into storage
While the car was in storage I did a 5 lug conversion, using factory 5th gen Prelude parts, so we could install a set of RSX type S rims.
With the car back in the garage it was time to start tackling the body work, which included small rust repairs in both rear quarters, shaving the engine bay, and fixing dents through out the car. The body was pretty clean for its age with just the typical Honda rust areas starting to show.
We made a custom firewall panel to smooth out the firewall, and began the daunting process of stitch welding every lap joint in the engine bay and laying down a few coats of fiberglass filler over all the lap joints. Followed up by Evercoat Rage body filler and countless coats of Feather Fill polyester primer. We repeated this process on the rest of the body where needed and began block sanding the car.
With the car block sanded and sealed, its time for paint!
With all the body work done we sprayed the car with 3 coats of Starlight Black Mica and 5 coats of clear coat.
With the body and paint done, it was time to turn our attention to the motor. We stripped the factory wiring harness down and deleted all the unneeded sensors and wiring. We then routed each plug in the cleanest way possible and did a complete wire tuck in the engine bay. We mounted the under hood fuse block behind the glove box. Once the wiring was complete we began gutting the upper and lower intake and doing a knife edge port on the lower intake manifold. We also gutted 3 "flapper valve" plates and had them welded together to add some additional plenum volume. Can you say High Rise Intake on a Honda! Up next was installing new valve springs for the JDM H23 Blue Top that could handle the lift of the Crower stage 2 cam shafts along with adjustable came gear and Gates Racing timing belt. It was now time to mate the engine to the transmission, to do that we got a lightened flywheel and a ACT 6 puck clutch, and installed the motor.
A car is never complete but I have a running and driving 4th gen Prelude again! I have grown older and my taste in cars has changed, but this car still hits me right in the feelers every time I look at it. There is something about being young and wild and this car takes me back to the early 2000's every time. It makes me smile thinking of all the good times and memories!
I truly did build the car of my 21 year old dreams!
