The Only Good Toyota Guy Is An Ex-Toyota Guy - Especially When They Build A CB7 Accord As Ill As This One.
There's nothing better than when a die-hard enthusiast of some lesser manufacturer finally sees the light and finds himself in a Honda. Joey Lee is one of these turncoats. Lee grew up in a family full of Toyota drivers and when it was time for him to start modding a car, his choice was obvious.
His first real project car was a '90 Toyota Camry built to the limit. But while building the Camry, Lee decided that he needed a daily driver to beat on for everyday commutes. So his uncle, who may be the only guy in the family who's not a Toyota loyalist, sold him a '92 Accord EX for $4,000 and following that, Lee's outlook on the automotive world forever changed.
The stock F22 engine finally gave way after 240,000 miles, so Lee opted for an H22 swap with a Trust header and APEXi intake attached. Still, except for its daily commute, the Accord mostly stayed in the garage. But when Lee found himself the mint set the of Sprint Hart CP-R wheels he'd been lusting after for years, his plunge into the Honda world was complete.
"The driving motivation to build this car came [from] the Sprint Hart CP-Rs," Lee says simply. "With a really rare set of wheels on such an unsuspecting car, I began searching for parts that were super rare and hard to come by, to make the car stand out while maintaining its sleeper look."
After a set of Omni Power coilovers gave the Accord the aggressive stance Lee was looking for, the aesthetic transformation was on. First on was a pair of JDM back-housing headlights of the one-piece variety, an HMotorsports front lip and an extremely rare Chargespeed grille complete with attached eyeliners-the latter piece being Lee's favorite part on the whole car.
To complete the front end, Lee got his hands on a Carbon Fiber One hood and custom trunk lid to match. With a JDM CB3 front bumper, Euro-market rear foglight and a set of JDM Stanley sidemarkers in hand, Lee took the car down to Gold Crest Autobody in San Diego for a full coat of Lamborghini Mucielago Verde Hydra paint.
With the car in the body shop, Lee put in a call to Tee's Japan for a set of Bride Brix 1 seats. Three months later, the seats, a set of Bride's Super Low seat rails, a Nardi steering wheel and the harnesses arrived-just in time to install them in the freshly painted CB7.
But the Accord started running into electrical problems, prompting Lee to remove and rewire the engine harness. With the harness out, Lee had the engine bay re-sprayed to match the body color, and followed up with a wire tuck to clean things up. Lastly, Lee replaced the stock H22 ECU with a chipped P28 computer.
Not done quite yet, Lee sourced the gray interior from a '93 Accord EX to match the Bride seats.
Lee is eyeing a manual transmission swap and boost in the future. Another swap he's considering is a K series transplant, maybe a K24 from a TSX/current Accord. But first, on goes the RS-R Ex-Mag exhaust-received shortly after our photo shoot-to complement the Trust header. The last part on Lee's mod-list is a rarer than rare Chargespeed lip to match the grill.
Readers often ask us why we don't feature more Accords. Our new answer is "because none of them are THIS good." Accord owners, we await your angry and indignant responses. As for Lee's Toyota, it still sits in his garage, probably never to be touched again.
"I'm a Honda guy now," he says. "Yeah, totally a Honda guy."