wagovan II, this time with A/C
WonderWagon
Band Wagon
i got a free RT from a guy who had it laying around. it was a giant rust bucket, and was rotting out before my eyes. but it has a 5 speed awd transmission, and i decided i wanted to build one with a better body, and when i get around to it, convert it to 4wd. in the mean time, i picked up an auto 2wd which had been seriously, massively overheated. it got so hot the spark plug boots melted. fact. anyway, i ddnt wanna chance replacing the head gasket, only to have a bearing go on it, or something, so i sourced another motor, since the one on the rt had sat up a while, and proceeded to swap in the new engine. never did an engine swap before, so it turned out well, all things considered. most of the work escaped the camera lens, but we did capture some of the shenanigans. most of the work was done at night, to avoid the face melting heat. we lost alot of small sockets. 
there's still a few issues, like the wheel bearing that i discovered was bad, or the battery that was too big for the spot that honda generously gave me to cram an odd sized battery in. also, the a/c is working, but i needs a vac and recharge, to be at it's coldest. oh and the muffler is kindof hanging off, and rattling alot. -_- but i slapped a kickin roof basket on it, found a cool smelling air freshener to put on it (which i already broke ) and managed to drive around the bock a few times after we fixed it up. it's pretty sweet, compared to the 83 wagovan i owned, since it has more power, and handles way better. now that i fixed it up, my girl wants one too. 
anyway here's a mess of pictures to sift through. i have a 5 speed trans, a 4wd 5speed trans, and 2 other engines now, which ddnt get a whole lot of photo love, but i'll cover those in another post, maybe call it "stuff i want to jam into my car, volume 3" but i digress, pictures:
the rust bucket 
getting the "car" off the trailer with a yamaha blaster. fun!
proper wagon on the trailer
test fitting mad sweet roof basket. i like it!
i'll take a second here since my image host thing was closed by accident and im having to upload them again.
it was tough working on this car at first, because im kinda of a subaru nerd and working on them is REALLY easy. it wasnt so bad once i understood the honda methodology of putting cars together, but untill i had a handle on it, this car was a serious pain. i had alot of help form some better mechanics than myself, and it was very rewarding to finally see it running. anywho on to the pics again
here's us getting the toaster pastry engine out of the car. it looked so good, but it didn't start at all. ever. we used a kickin tarp strapped to the glorious roof rack, and then hooked onto the porch railing, for a happy shady place, away from the mind bendingly hot sun. i am certain our heads would have exploded if the sun were directly on us, on the few occasions we did work in the day time.
i call this one the greatest hole a honda ever had.
one of the mechanics who helped on this hondalicious journey to running-dom
ahh the new engine. "new" anyway. i wrote some encouraging words on it, to make it feel more powerful. i figured the type r would add a million horse power, so i added some extra r's, to be sure i had my bases covered. it says b18 despite appearing to say b15. i read somewhere that b18's were better than gold plated diamond ice cream, so i wrote that on there. im sure no one can tell the difference. what with the gold paint an all.
here's the flywheel, for no real reason, we ditched that. sadly. i still have it, but i only had time and $ to do the engine swap. i ddnt want to start a 5speed swap and do it badly.
engine in!
the war zone
all in.
this is a toddler made representation of the wagon. i'd say its pretty spot on.
this is the power steering pulley i has to swap over, since the donor engine had no ps.
boredom breeds painting fords with rattle cans, as shown here
all together, running driving. roof rack is crooked
and one parting shot of the circus tent that was my home for a hot molten day in the doom pit.
so that's that. it's not great, show worthy, cool, or interesting, but it's mine, it handles like a go kart, and i think it's farmer's market fresh!
thanks for checking it out
plans for the future:
coilovers
fix the exhaust
get the proper battery
clean up my spare valve cover, and repaint in factory crinkle black
take the dents out and repaint it the factory color
swap over the RT bumpers, mud flaps, drive train, various interior bits, and moldings
toss on some flush 15's
install a decent cd player and a nice pair of door speakers.
other than just cleaning it up visually, and making it better to drive, i'd like to pretty much leave it alone. 
honda did a good job making this car a blast to drive, stock, why mess with a good thing?
there's still a few issues, like the wheel bearing that i discovered was bad, or the battery that was too big for the spot that honda generously gave me to cram an odd sized battery in. also, the a/c is working, but i needs a vac and recharge, to be at it's coldest. oh and the muffler is kindof hanging off, and rattling alot. -_- but i slapped a kickin roof basket on it, found a cool smelling air freshener to put on it (which i already broke ) and managed to drive around the bock a few times after we fixed it up. it's pretty sweet, compared to the 83 wagovan i owned, since it has more power, and handles way better. now that i fixed it up, my girl wants one too. anyway here's a mess of pictures to sift through. i have a 5 speed trans, a 4wd 5speed trans, and 2 other engines now, which ddnt get a whole lot of photo love, but i'll cover those in another post, maybe call it "stuff i want to jam into my car, volume 3" but i digress, pictures:
the rust bucket 
getting the "car" off the trailer with a yamaha blaster. fun!
proper wagon on the trailer
test fitting mad sweet roof basket. i like it!
i'll take a second here since my image host thing was closed by accident and im having to upload them again.
it was tough working on this car at first, because im kinda of a subaru nerd and working on them is REALLY easy. it wasnt so bad once i understood the honda methodology of putting cars together, but untill i had a handle on it, this car was a serious pain. i had alot of help form some better mechanics than myself, and it was very rewarding to finally see it running. anywho on to the pics again
here's us getting the toaster pastry engine out of the car. it looked so good, but it didn't start at all. ever. we used a kickin tarp strapped to the glorious roof rack, and then hooked onto the porch railing, for a happy shady place, away from the mind bendingly hot sun. i am certain our heads would have exploded if the sun were directly on us, on the few occasions we did work in the day time.
i call this one the greatest hole a honda ever had.
one of the mechanics who helped on this hondalicious journey to running-dom
ahh the new engine. "new" anyway. i wrote some encouraging words on it, to make it feel more powerful. i figured the type r would add a million horse power, so i added some extra r's, to be sure i had my bases covered. it says b18 despite appearing to say b15. i read somewhere that b18's were better than gold plated diamond ice cream, so i wrote that on there. im sure no one can tell the difference. what with the gold paint an all.
here's the flywheel, for no real reason, we ditched that. sadly. i still have it, but i only had time and $ to do the engine swap. i ddnt want to start a 5speed swap and do it badly.
engine in!
the war zone
all in.
this is a toddler made representation of the wagon. i'd say its pretty spot on.
this is the power steering pulley i has to swap over, since the donor engine had no ps.
boredom breeds painting fords with rattle cans, as shown here
all together, running driving. roof rack is crooked
and one parting shot of the circus tent that was my home for a hot molten day in the doom pit.
so that's that. it's not great, show worthy, cool, or interesting, but it's mine, it handles like a go kart, and i think it's farmer's market fresh!
thanks for checking it out
plans for the future:
coilovers
fix the exhaust
get the proper battery
clean up my spare valve cover, and repaint in factory crinkle black
take the dents out and repaint it the factory color
swap over the RT bumpers, mud flaps, drive train, various interior bits, and moldings
toss on some flush 15's
install a decent cd player and a nice pair of door speakers.
other than just cleaning it up visually, and making it better to drive, i'd like to pretty much leave it alone.
honda did a good job making this car a blast to drive, stock, why mess with a good thing?
Comments
time will tell.
this week im re-replacing the oil pan, since the one that's on it has a pin hole leak from a rust patch. i wire wheeled the rust off, but it was too late for it.