So my AC has not worked well for a few years, it won't hold gas and the AC rad looks fubar (in the standard car)

So I came to pull the bumper off

Many of the under tray clips are rusted and fubar so will get new ones, car is SORN

The drivers side arch screw also seized. It goes into a plastic captive thing which is no longer captive and just spins

Need to drill it out I guess, unless I can get pliers on with the wheel off and arch liner down

So not much progress lol



It looks not too bad behind there rust wise despite its early life being my daily a long time ago. Will be treating bits anyway to tidy things and future proof it

 

Did you do the lights in the oven thing after painting the surroundings black? Looks like the paint is starting to go a bit fubar

 

No, those are OEM untouched... Hondas fault

 

That was half the problem with my 06 - rust. Although the brakes were easy to work on and probably the fasteners were correctly changed a few years ago. I hate rusty stuff - had to cut the drop links off the front with the trusty Dremel. I refused to remove the rear bumper as I knew exactly what that would present me with - then you're knee deep in it forced to repair, as it won't go back on.
It's the only put-off from spunking 7 or 8 large on another S2k to save that needs my time to put right.
For the record only my W reg 20 years ago had a working cold air con - and it was crap - always went foggy and often blew steam out the vents!

 

The V reg AC works great. It's corrosion of that front rad which kills it in many cases I guess

 

The bottom clips were awkward, I had to remove the bumper at the top to get mole grips on them

The drivers side arch clip I took the wheel off to remove

Overall though not too much rust



This might be my issue

 

Ordered some stainless M6 U bolts, will see how they fit. One side arch liner is damaged - no idea how that happened.

The bumper bar and light brackets I think I'll powder coat

 

Slow going. Parts are proving hard to come by though honda have some at £500

Hmm.

Anyway meantime all the bolt off stuff I am removing and will probably get powder coated

This looks worse than it is
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I'm bagging all the bits in labelled bags as it will be apart for some time I guess.. nothing to worry about in there except that condenser but the system has pressure still
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Mine was diagnosed as leak on the condenser (bottom left) and the pipe running from there up to the drier. Your condenser looks like mine, although he did comment the fins dropping just impacts effectiveness, not gas pressure. That's usually the o-rings / fittings.

Advised to change both the condenser and drier. Chap did comment that the pipes love to crack when removing them, so best to soak them some penetrating fluid for a while before removing them. (Ideally replace the pipe, but they are not cheap for what they are)

At least the OEM o-rings are only a £1 a pop.

 

The light brackets area right pita; I stripped, treated and painted mine recently only for the corresponding brackets on the bumper to scrape all the paint and treatment off as soon as I refitted the bumper.