New Owner of a 97 Spa Yellow from STL, MO!

[Akomix]

Hey all!

Just picked up my, new to me, 1997 Spa Yellow NSX.

A little about me - I come from the Rotary world, having been involved in it for over 10 years. I've previously built a super nice 2nd Generation RX-7 and a 3rd Generation RX-7. I'll post the build threads below to those. Although they are RX-7s I still think they are really good reads! I was pretty heavily into the community aspect. I scanned, defect corrected, and digitized tons of catalogs, magazines, and brochures and offered them free to the community on a website I started - RX7 Central. I started AI upscaling VHS and DVDs as well, but eventually lost motivation as it was all time consuming.

A little about the car - I knew I needed a yellow NSX after mostly transitioning to the Honda crowd with my 2000 Civic and my Wife's 2021 CTR LE. I'm only getting older and had lost all my motivation for my two RX-7s. I parted out my 2nd generation and traded in my third generation on the NSX I have now. I'm still digging into it. It has quite a few cosmetic blemishes - quite a bit of touch of paint has been sued on the car lol (in places it probably shouldn't). I'm planning to have front and rear bumpers, side air ducts, and the headlight covers resprayed to resolve this. So far I've found that it has an old comptech exhaust, blistein struts, and the SoS NSX-R braces. It also needs all major maintenance done - I'm currently rounding up all the parts to knock out everything. I've never done a timing belt job on an engine like this before so I'm recruiting some of my Honda friends to help me out in that department.

The rest of my plans are just refinement with a no drilling sort of strategy (maybe I'll overlook this for nice OEM pedal covers though). I already have some things on the way - a Type S steering wheel and JDM tails. I may start a build thread just to document what all I do to the car as it's really nice to look back over the years at all the effort.

I'm really happy to be a part of this community. I've joined the Facebook Groups and NSXCA. I'm overwhelmed at how awesome this community is already in comparison to the Rotary communities. In truth, the community on the other side is one of the reasons I wanted out.

Here are the links to my RX-7 build threads (if you have time they are good reads I promise)
2nd Generation Build Thread
3rd Generation Build Thread

Here is one of the banners I made of a lot of the materials I had done at the time for the community


I had to take some pictures of the car for Insurance so I'll drop those below for now

 

[ih8ricerz]

Welcome to Prime!!! Awesome find and pick up! Love the garage full of yellow Honda's too!!!

 

[Heineken]

Lovely color - the red NSX is the only non-yellow car in my family

Standard reminder from the electronics guy - all capacitor leakage related CCUs checked/rebuilt?

• Amplifiers
• CCU
• Radio
• Cluster
• Airbag

 

[Akomix]

Lovely color - the red NSX is the only non-yellow car in my family

Standard reminder from the electronics guy - all capacitor leakage related CCUs checked/rebuilt?

• Amplifiers
• CCU
• Radio
• Cluster
• Airbag

Thanks for this. I'll make a note to check into these.

Only thing not functional I've noticed at the moment is the Antenna Mast raise/lower. I plan on replacing with a stubby antenna anyway though.

 

[Honcho]

Welcome to NSX Prime! You have indeed joined the best (IMO) car community in the world. Congrats on picking up your NSX- Spa Yellow is such a wonderful color for the car. I love how the pearl just glows in the sunlight. You also obtained what many consider to be the "god-spec" NSX: a 3.2L 6-speed with pop-up headlights.

You have the right mindset for the build. These cars are now classic cars, which means that although they are Hondas and quite reliable, they are old LOL. And old cars need stuff to be replaced and fixed, otherwise they break down. As Lars noted, the capacitors are a key item here- cars have been lost to fire from the gauge cluster. I would also check engine mounts and rubber suspension bushings- they tend to be dead after 15-20 years. Changing them will transform the car and restore the new-car feeling to your driving experience. Also, the targa seals are a big deal on the NSX and I recommend grabbing a set to keep on your shelf for when they eventually go bad. Not cheap, but worth having in reserve since who knows how much longer Honda will be making them!

If the car is due for its major service, I recommend the full engine refresh plan, but keep the heads on. This is a lot more parts than the standard TB/WP job Acura would do. Also, if you have never done a NSX timing belt before, I recommend removing the engine from the car. Access is SO much easier and you can check the belt tension easily, which is 1000% critical based on our car's design. I would also suggest you reference my build thread for tips on the process: https://www.nsxprime.com/threads/honchos-long-road-to-imola-type-s-zero.207052/page-34#post-2041100

 

[Akomix]

Welcome to NSX Prime! You have indeed joined the best (IMO) car community in the world. Congrats on picking up your NSX- Spa Yellow is such a wonderful color for the car. I love how the pearl just glows in the sunlight. You also obtained what many consider to be the "god-spec" NSX: a 3.2L 6-speed with pop-up headlights....

Thanks for all the tips! I'll take a look at all the bushings and mounts. I have a press so should be able to knock all those out myself. Good call on the Targa seals - I'll get those added to the, now, never ending buy list.

Really appreciate the link (and directly to the specific post) to your build thread. Will give it a read. I wasn't planning on dropping the engine since my lift is a 4 post, but that may be lesser of two evils path lol