2001 Honda Oddity...err...Odyssey

[Aero]

Hey everyone, hope you all are enjoying the holiday season.

This year for gifts I asked my parental units for some cash to upgrade my 2001 Honda Odyssey...and they agreed! Hence the following bits of mechanical mischief.

First let me explain. My previously owned cars list is short but well rounded. At 16 I owned a 2001 Firebird (V6, Auto), sold that to get a truck that I loved dearly, my 1991 Ford Bronco (351 W, Auto), and when that literally fell apart a month after I bought it I got whatever my parents dared give me. Which for the next year was a Honda Accord.

Now I drove the sports car like a truck going through corn fields and mud, drove the truck like a sports car racing everything in sight, and the accord like a soap box derby car because after the truck it felt like a go cart. Then as I was ready to go of to college, I was given the Odyssey when we realized there was to force on earth that could put all my crap into the Accord.

Enter my van.

I drove it out to Arizona where I used it to go offroading, camping and fishing. It has been through sand, mud, dust, snow, corn, and up to 14 inches of water. Needless to say I treat it like a low to the ground SUV. And as such I want people to know that it is more to me than a soccer mom mobile.

So after a few hours of work last year I worked up these bad boys:

I became the only minivan to have tail-light guards. They actually saved my lights from a box spring that fell off the roof, as well as countless basketballs and tree branches.

But alas, like all modders, I was left wanting more.

Now, I do have some limitations because my van is in fact a van. The first, is that a suspension lift is out of the question. Coil overs are a pain in the rump to deal with, especially the way the stick out over the tire on the van. However, I do have extra room for some bigger tires which I will be getting to next week.

Second, I want to preserve my gas milage as much as I can, so any roof rack must be fairly low profile compared to what you normally see. Beyond that, I must take into account I do have around 197,000 miles on her, so I shouldn't stress the engine TOO much.

That being said, here is the list of things I want to do.

1) Finish light guards to wrap around the side ($)
2) Paint Front and Rear Bumpers ($$)
3) Low Profile Roof Rack ($$)
4) Offroad Driving Lights ($$)
5) Fog Lights ($)
6) CB Radio ($$)

I have some other ideas using a small computer screen and a few cameras for IR nightvision and such, but due to funds that will have to wait (sadly). I have been looking into making my own off-road light bar with high output LED's. They sell some for about $400, when I'm pretty sure I could build one for about $80-$100.

Right now I'm working on the rear bumper, already gave it a few coats of black bumper paint and it looks wicked. I'll try to get some pics up ASAP. Also discovered some rust that needs to be fixed so thats another $70 I wasn't expecting. Not sure how much I will be able to do, but either way I should have the most badass minivan around.

[TheGreatSatan]

Neat!

[CorsePerVita]

sweet!

[d_stilgar]

You should just go all out and make it a zombie survival machine.

[blueonblack]

You should just go all out and make it a zombie survival machine.

Sounds like you have an excellent start!

[altec]

Bigger tires? How much bigger? Since larger tires are going to lower your gear reduction, you may run into problems here. A already low power engine with high miles isn't exactly the quickest thing around. Plus, I know the transmissions in these aren't exactly a rockcrusher. Adding extra weight of larger tires, and the lowered final gear is going to be hell on it. If I was you I'd get the most aggressive tire you can in the stock size, and pack a set of chains.

Better yet, see if they offered a posi for it. That'll help you a ton!

Gotta go now... Be back later!

[Aero]

Haha thanks guys. This thing may just become some sort of zombie survival machine. Personally I'm shoot for the "mobile command center" look and feel, which is oddly close to zombie survival machine with less weapons.


And Altec, your right. I didn't want anything too big that would mess with the power alot, just one or two sizes up, but turns out I'm going with the stock size after all. I looked into alot of different tires, and got some help from the local shop here. We tried mounting a 225-70R16 on it but it rubbed on the coil-overs. The had some BF Goodrich all terrains in 215-70R16, but they were $159 per tire and that was too costly for me. So I'm sticking to the stock 215-65R16, but I was able to order General Grabber AT^2. So its a pretty darn aggressive tread.

Had to special order them because I was asking for an unusual size (go figure), so I should have them Thursday.

I also did remove the back bumper and painted it. I did the back first because I heard reports of other people having issues with the rear bumper rusting. Sure enough here is what I found.

The entire bottom of the "rear bumper reinforcement" was gone. I'll be ordering a new one of them to the tune of $70 next month when I get my loan money from school.

As for the bumper I couldn't be happier. I painted it in my little home-made paint room. Its about twice the size now because I needed to work around the whole bumper so I needed extra room. This is why you should measure things before you start a project :-P

I had to put it on so I can drive around because I think theres more salt in Chicago at this moment than in the states of Utah and Nevada combined, and I want to keep salt off the rusting metal while I drive around. That being said, this thing looks bitchin

[altec]

Those General's are good. I've got a set like them on my Dad's Dodge (Granted, they were larger lol). I drove his truck last winter plowing snow, and they worked good. Put weight in the bed, and I never even had to air down.

[raistnox]

you should totaly change the badges on the van to read oddity instead of odyssey lol

[Lothair]

Planning for the inevitable Zombie Apocalypse. Nice.

Any plans for changing the color? Perhaps black? Then you could get those cool looking black taillights and headlights. It would really look badass then.