Rusty and Trusty - car chemo/build

As with older cars many have rust. People are terrified of it, it spreads, it is hard to contain, and it makes cars look like crap.
So instead of waiting an eternity for a clean RT, I bought the first one to appear on craigs list.

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You can use a cheap ass welder from harbor freight...but their chinese flux wire is straight doo doo and is hard to work with for the inexperienced (me) but the whole purpose of buying this car was to learn how to weld sheet metal and do body work.

She was rusty in the usual places, rear fenders...
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Gotta get some of these...
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So first thing is first, rear bumper and tail light removal....
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Rear window rust hole...removed trim piece and filled with flux core wire
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It's important to knock down all the high spots with a grinder, then go over it once with bondo, then prime, then a clear coat helps if you're in a humid climate and have no inclination of repainting the car in a hurry.

Had some of this...
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And this...this was my old rear drain...it was custom made courtesy of the great white north where this car came from...
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So ya gotta get the scalpel..
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It's important to buy good flux core wire (Lincoln at Home Depot) or your welds look like mine...who cares, that's what the grinder is for, and of course bondo...
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This is the passenger side after...
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Now the driver side...looks like baghdad
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So I did a little more of this...
www.civicwagon.com

Made it look like this...
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You can see I'm only 1/4 way done...the front side of the rear fenders are eaten up as well as the rocker panels...but I cut those out from Iboyma's wrecked wagon...

This is next...I may do a build thread, but I doubt anyone gives a F about a mini-me anymore...i didn't...but now I kinda need to...
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I hear there's not much you can do with these heads, but a little port matching never hurt...
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But this might be good for mpg, probably nothing else...we'll see...
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Comments

  • simplyhondasimplyhonda Council Member
    Welcome! Looks like you're off to a good start! Mad props for going at this and learning as you go! Can't wait to see more.
  • Thanks!
    I've been here a while, just trying to figure out what I wanted to do with it...
  • CharbCharb Administrator
    Welcome! Looks like you're off to a good start! Mad props for going at this and learning as you go! Can't wait to see more.


    x2

    Definitely start another thread for your motor build. Still lots of people doing it...
  • JayTeeJayTee Wagonist
    Be careful welding close to glass, you can easily ruin it from slag. From the photo it looks like you may already have.

    Good start though.
  • The slag certainly etched itself into the glass. I did cover it after I realized that.
    Window was already scratched to hell, so I'm not concerned.
    Its hard to screw this up when it already looks like this, so there is nothing that can't be ground on or melted on.

    The motor is in pieces (obviously) I have rod bearing and main bearing measurements I pulled from the rod and bearing identification chart from my Haynes manual. Getting those from Honda, as soon as my parts guy gets back to me. Also need to order timing belt and tensioner.
    And a set of ARP head bolts from Iboyma...
  • def do a motor built i got hooked up with a y8 head and mani for basically free and i have a spare a6 i wanna build or just do something with
  • iboymaiboyma Wagonist
    And a set of ARP head bolts from Iboyma...
    ...
    www.civicwagon.com
    I miss that wagon </3
  • Alright, so it's been a while but here are some more pictures...
    Iboyma's lights on my car, next to his car....
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    Had to cut more, figured it'd be easier to just cut the whole section, which I eventually did
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    Test fit
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    Permanent fit
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    www.civicwagon.com

    After a few taps on the rocker cover, and seeing the rust, I was prepared for what I found....sort of...
    www.civicwagon.com

    Thanks to iboyma and Beatrice
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    Thought this was funny
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  • bam-bambam-bam Council Member
    Good work!
  • Mad props, I know the feeling...
  • Damn that looks like a lot of work, how much did you end up paying for the wagon?
  • Thanks yall, it was more trouble than it's worth...but there aren't too many RT's down here, so I had to take what I could get, and I do not regret a damn bit of it.

    This car is actually the reason I had to learn to weld (always wanted to), so it was really worth the $1250 I paid for it.
  • iboymaiboyma Wagonist
    I still say don't ground down the welds, and use some rhino liner = Beast Mode!!
  • xeroxxerox Band Wagon
    She was rusty in the usual places, rear fenders...
    www.civicwagon.com

    HOLY ROOF RACK!!

    What was the previous owner hauling? sheet rock?

    Seriously, props for learning as you go. As for the mini-me, go for it. that is what I am doing. I bought mine as an alternative transportation to my Ram, so economy is the name of the game ya know
  • luis808luis808 Wagonist
    Like the progress. If you an find it, trying using some "weld through primer" to help the rust from coming back. You can normally pick it up from a welding store.
  • Xerox, the extra rack was for the observation deck, aka drunk deck, for the Rolex 24 at daytona and the 12 hours at Sebring...
    here we are wasting time at turn 7 (the hairpin)
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    Luis, I will certainly look into it
  • plamenmm74plamenmm74 Band Wagon
    Hi, perfect work!
    One question, where you found those rear fender sections? I'm looking for them everywhere but cant find...
  • BillBoardBillBoard council member
    observations deck is awesome!!!!! super rad idea....
  • plamenmm74 wrote:
    Hi, perfect work!
    One question, where you found those rear fender sections? I'm looking for them everywhere but cant find...

    You are going to have to get them from another wagon.
  • Ya plamenmm it took a while to cut them from iboyma's old wagon after a motorcycle didn't look twice
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    you gotta cut with fine tooth reciprocating saw and jig saw at times....or hack it up like me...
    cutting from the donor car took a while too.
  • psud3itypsud3ity New Wagonist
    This thread has told me exactly what I need to do on my wagon. Now I just need to find a shell with decent quarterpanels. Tough to find up north I'm afraid. Either way, excellent work. We have the same harbor freight jack btw lol
  • Good luck man, it's not easy, but if it was, women and children would be doing it

    Harbor freight welder too!
  • okay so my wagon has rust in the quarters panel like most that come from the north. i dont under stand what this flux stuff does if it just a wire. How do you fix the rust? totalty weld a new piece with sheet metal or what?
  • the flux stuff you are talking about, could you mean the flux core wire that you use to weld it?
    If so, then it's something for you to google, but in a nutshell it's what you use when you don't have a mig welder with the inert shielding gas.

    The less bondo you use (cutting holes and welding in new metal) the better. If you do everything right, the rust won't come back.

    You have to weld new sheet metal, that's what this thread is all about butch!
  • This is what I had..[IMG][/img]IMG_1347.jpg
    This is what I had to do...it's like cancer surgery, gotta get all the bad stuff out and clean it up
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    some more dry fitment, using self tapping sheet metal screws is a good idea to hold it in place. if you can use a drill like a man[IMG][/img]IMG_1361.jpg
    Welded and ground down
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    I didn't take too many pictures of this side, because welding while laying down facing up sucks and I was in no mood for pictures, it was hot and I wanted to get it over with.[IMG][/img]IMG_1359.jpg
    But seriously guys and girls, I taught myself how to do this. Anybody can do this with the right amount of patience and time.
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