Cut a hole in the chassis, like the instructions say. Before you mount cables, we gotta make sure the hole is the right size. Spoiler alert, it won't be.
Looking at the next two pictures, you can see where I had to enlarge the hole. Use the aforementioned Makita electric die-grinder with sanding wheel and you will get nice smooth results.
Now bolt the shift box to the brackets and add the shift cables. Cut off the factory RSX/Japan Integra frame grommet.
Before you attach the bracket/box to the tunnel, you need to route the cables (they're not flexible enough to route after you mount the box). Initially, I lowered the swaybar and routed the cables between the subframe and firewall. The cables were about 4" too long this way, so I routed under the swaybar, under the subframe, in front of the steering rack, and then up to the transmission selector mechanism.
This is the most-wrong way to route. Right off the transmission, the cables need to take too sharp a bend downward, and under the car, there's still a lot of slack. Operating the shifter, you can feel the extra resistance of the sharp bends.
So go back between the subframe and firewall.
From the engine room, it's clean if you route the cables in the rear engine mount area.
Operate the shifter, grabbing all 6 forward gears and reverse. Better yet, change gears while making vtec sounds. The movement is nice. Now the test fit is complete.
Take it all back out again.
Mask and paint the tunnel in the areas you exposed bare metal. Whether or not you plan to drive in the snow and salt, this is good practice.
It's too cold for me to finish painting and installing, but I just need one day of 40-degree temperatures and it'll be done.
Pull out the credit card and order more parts.
-kwan
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