As we hear from readers everywhere, body shops are notorious for taking on too much work and thus not having a fast turnaround time. Justin was stuck in this very predicament with the clock ticking away as the date of the car show quickly approached. Justin made the decision to yank his Prelude out of one shop and stick it into another body shop, Tri-Star of Huntington Beach, Calif. He first towed the vehicle to Church Automotive where they helped him dyno tune his new turbo. Now before you go and label this car a show ho, let haters beware that this Prelude puts down 365 horsepower to the wheels and 255 lb-ft of torque. Take that! After Church's, Tri-Star completed the custom brackets and fiberglass fabricating as well as repainting the Prelude custom NSX Long Beach blue pearl with added pearls. Setting off the body kit is a carbon-fiber double deck wing, custom two-piece, carbon-fiber splitters, and carbon-fiber hood. Peering out from under the hood are one-piece JDM black housing headlights with an HID lighting system.
In a nail-biting ending, the Prelude came out of the body shop a day before the car show and Justin still needed to install everything in the car. This is when it's handy to have friends around. Justin and his crew pulled an all-nighter and installed the new audio system, cleaned the engine bay, redid the complete interior, including installing new brackets for the Cobra Suzuka race seats, Schroth racing seatbelt harnesses and a new Momo steering wheel. The white roof and door panels were completed by California Upholstery of Soute Gate, Calif. WestCoast Audio of Mission Viejo, Calif., did the sound system which included a Pioneer 7-in in-dash LCD and Pioneer DEH8400MP head unit, Boston Acoustic front speakers, 300 watt Kenwood amp and 800 watt 20ch Precision amp and Infinity 10-in Perfect subwoofers. Entertainment includes a 5-in LCD screen and a PS2 system. Finally, the collection of gauges included an array of A'PEXi finery including an A'PEXi autotimer, AVC-R, meter control unit, EL II boost gauge, EGT gauge, oil pressure and oil temp gauge.
Justin had a goal for the car show and, la Junkyard Wars, twelve hard hours later the car was 85-percent complete. Justin was not only able to make it to this intended show, but his Prelude also did time at the Southern Cali Import Showoff, Hot Import Nights, Import Xtreme Showdown and Extreme Autofest this past year.
As Justin puts it, "Money was draining like no other." In just six months, he had invested over $10,000. Mind you, that brings the grand total for the car to $40,000 in aftermarket parts. It begs the question, was it worth it? This satisfied Prelude owner says in some cases it was: "If I help inspire car enthusiasts and show them anything is possible and that the car is actually daily driven." Well we would concur that this daily driver is surely an inspiration to other Honda owners out there and credit him with his hard work on the car.
As we found from Justin's experiences with his Prelude, life can throw various upsets at you, but things always seem to work out. Let's just hope for the rest of you that it won't take getting busted and having your car impounded for you to appreciate your ride's potential. It takes dedication to make it into an award-winning show car!