The idea of this car was pretty simple. A clean, subtle color scheme on the outside, wide wheels and an outrageously awesome engine bay. This isn’t like all of the other build threads you see online, this car wasn’t built with the mindset of throwin’ dollar bills at it to have people drool over it. The wheels didn’t cost a million dollars and there aren’t any crazy-uber rare underground-one off JDM parts on it. Among the tens of thousands of nicely built Hondas it’s getting much harder to find one that stands out especially Del Sols.
To check out the build from the beginning Click Here.
This entry is dedicated to the art. The art of making a clean engine bay, the art of a clean swapping… the way it should be. I set out to find the right artist, someone who shares the vision and has an open mind to create something has never been published. Some people have called it graffiti but it’s more than that… it’s art. Marc Fresh was up to that task, a local street artist out of our hometown Baton Rouge, LA. Marc came by before the car went off the paint and we threw around some ideas, not many though. I was eager to get his artistic input on what we could do to make it stand out, he simply asked what type of colors we wanted to use. With everything in the air, Marc went on his way with the ideas brewing in his head.
A few weeks later, before the car came back from the paint shop, Marc showed up with some drawings, color schemes and patterns for us to review. After getting more ideas out, Marc left again to continue the brainstorming process. After a few delays, the car came back from paint a week or so behind schedule so Marc was notified the same day that the car came back. 2 hours after the car arrived, Marc showed up with his supplies ready to make some art.
The car rolled out of the trailer, on the lift ready to get going. When this picture was taken, we had 4 days to build the car in order to make it to a scheduled debut at Import Alliance 2009.
The original subframe was damage so along with all of the suspension, it was removed before the paint.
Sneak pic of the wheels on the car. The rear quarters we rolled and pulled to accommodate for the larger, wider wheel.
We covered the rest of the car so overspray wouldn't land ontop of the fresh paint.
I sat back and watched Marc do his thing. Here is how it went down:
After a minty green base, Marc started to add many other colors. It would have been simple to paint it all with a bunch of different colors and hit it with some clear, but Marc wanted to add another element to it, texture.
More colors…
We wanted something a little different on the firewall, so Marc sprayed a white base on it
More than 10 hours of time went in to the black detail. It was all done by hand with a paint brush.
The front subframe and suspension were getting assembled as Marc was painting away.
Plastic cups held mixtures of color that was used for the fine details.
Break time. I stuck the body panels on to get a feel for the whole project. The image I had in my head looked very similar to this.
This was the original design for the firewall. As nice as it looked, we decided to go with another design that Marc had in his book.
It was the little details that make all of Marc's work stand out. Our engine bay was no different.
2.5 hours spent on the original firewall artwork, 3 mins to cover it all up, and another 4 or so hours of hand finishes, the end result was worth it.
Most of the details have been finished up. The bay is almost finished.
Here are a few of the details:
Cesar from SIK Creations cleared the engine bay as soon as Marc was finished.
The pictures you just viewed were all taken within a 24hr time frame. The car rolled in Monday, July 20th around 4:30pm. Marc arrived around 5pm and got to work, he was finished 22 hours later. The clear dried throughout the following day and the rest of the car was put back together.
This car was put together (if you included the time on the engine bay) in four days. The brake line, fuel line, clutch line, and wire tuck were all done on Wednesday. The Interior, seats and body panels went in the car over the next two days. This car was loaded on the trailer Friday morning at 6am on its way to the debut at Import Alliance 2009 in Nashville, TN.
Import Alliance, Friday afternoon.
In the paddock at Nashville Speedway getting set up for Import Alliance 09.
We put our targa top out there for all to sign... it filled up quickly.
The hood was next. This was filled in one day.
In addition to the engine bay, Marc also painted a few other items to accent the car. The MOMO wheel, shift knob and the fuel pump cover got a little work.
Finished pictures. 
Thanks to Tim Shultz for these awesome pictures:
-DC