DIY _ ` airfilter box yO (carbon fibre!)
hey you.. yeah you.. tired of getting ur ass busted for a pod filter?
well with a couple hours of work and some paitance
and u'll have urself nice box..
depending on how much you spend, u'll get that back with the box.
here are some pics:
http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/9802/boxae5.jpg
http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/5391/img2413zr1.jpg
Step 1
the honda civic has an airbox that comprises of two parts, the chamber in the engine bay and a resonator that resides in the wheel well. The resonator's role is to dampen the induction noise, bust obviously this becomes redundant when fitting a pod filter. the easiest way to remove the resonator is to pull back plastic guard liner and have a feel around for the bolts holding the resonator in place. Once you've undone the bolts, jack the car up to give u move space to drop the resonator out from underneath.
Step 2
with the resonator removed we were able to use the 75mm wide hole to run a cold air feed to the front of the bumper, you can buy either a heat resistand duct from autobarn or super cheap.
the duct can either be placed behind the front bumper or you can cut a hole out to expose it directly
to the outside. i cut the hole outta my front bar and put the intake pipe straight thru to the pod filter CAI.
Step 3
before you start working on ur box i suggest u take ur time to think what materials u would want to use, I used aluminum sheeting and pop rivets, allan keys and some carbon fibre film, i would of went with the real carbon fibre but i had no dosh, so the film will do, theres nothing stopping you from using fibreglass,perspex or carbon fibre.
Using some scrap cardboardm design up a template with which to cut the aluminum(or whatever ur using)sheets , a quick tip is to use small pieces of cardboard and use masking tape to join them, this makes tracing a lot easier.
Once you have the template for the top piece, u will need to make up templates for the sides. the sidepieces need to be at right angles to the top piece. ensure that the airbox wont rub against anything like hoses or engine mounts etc you can also lay rubber at the tips of the aluminum so they dont rattle.
With all the templates complete, join them together and trail fit it, dont forget to close the bonnet with the template in.
if no trimming is required, dissemble the top and side pieces and trace them onto the aluminum/carb sheets with a marker or pen. the best way to cut is with an airsaw(make sure if u use carbon fibre be careful not to shatter the thing!)
from here u need to drill holes through the aluminum/carb sheets and the brackets and attach them with either screws or pop rivets to make it appear a bit neater, i chose to use rounded hex bolts to give u that race feel =)
After you have joined the first sidepiece to the top piece, perform another trail fit to ensure that it fits and doesnt rub against anything.
you now need to join the two side pieces together. since the angle between the two pieces is greater than 90º i used a flexable aluminum piece.
Step 4
Now that the box is assembled, have a look at where u can mount the brackets to hold the box in place. the three areas chosen were the fender, headlight & strut tower. since the fender had two predrilled holes, all that was necessary was to put in two screws to hold the box.
Step 5
With the air box completed and installed, do a final check to make sure that the bonnet closes and that the air-box isn't fouling against anything. as u can see the pod is completley covered! no more defects!!
enjoy this yO
;)
