Civic Wagon Resurrection
ZCHondaCRX91
New Wagonist
I've owned alot of Honda's, probably over 15. All of them were projects, but I never did a build thread, why not start now? I got a 88 Civic Wagon from a kid down the street from me for $600. It ran great, but the transmission had some issues. The interior was pretty well stripped out with some Nissan seats that were half-ass bolted to the floor. The exterior was in decent shape, besides the fenders (see the pictures below). None the less a good deal for a running/driving mostly stock civic. First thing I did was pull the stock B2 and sell it; sold the whole swap w/ transmission for $250. Then went to the wrecking yard and picked up a B18A1 with transmission for about the same price. Then hunted down the axles and misc. swap parts.
Somebody really liked their bondo, it was like 1/4" thick in some spots! Time for some new fenders.
Then I stripped it down and got working on the wiring and putting the engine in (as a mock up).
Then I started on a wire tuck. I tucked the side wiring for headlights and whatnot. Pulled the wiring through the firewall and went out the OEM grommets on the side. I had to extend some most of the wires but wasn't a big deal. Then I pulled the main engine wire harness into the cabin and instead of cutting up all the wiring, I just wrapped relocated it so that the plugs would be inside the cabin, right above the ECU for easy access. That way if I or anyone else who owned this car in the future can put it back to OEM easily. I think most guys should do this, because even though I know how to solder and I'm pretty good at wiring this saves alot of time and headaches. Really cleaned up the engine bay with very little work. Also put the fuse box on the firewall also. Cleaned it up a little more before putting heater back in place.
Somebody really liked their bondo, it was like 1/4" thick in some spots! Time for some new fenders.
Then I stripped it down and got working on the wiring and putting the engine in (as a mock up).
Then I started on a wire tuck. I tucked the side wiring for headlights and whatnot. Pulled the wiring through the firewall and went out the OEM grommets on the side. I had to extend some most of the wires but wasn't a big deal. Then I pulled the main engine wire harness into the cabin and instead of cutting up all the wiring, I just wrapped relocated it so that the plugs would be inside the cabin, right above the ECU for easy access. That way if I or anyone else who owned this car in the future can put it back to OEM easily. I think most guys should do this, because even though I know how to solder and I'm pretty good at wiring this saves alot of time and headaches. Really cleaned up the engine bay with very little work. Also put the fuse box on the firewall also. Cleaned it up a little more before putting heater back in place.
Comments
I started the engine up last night with no exhaust or cooling system, just a quick start up to make sure the wiring was good and do a quick compression test. It started great (after getting the correct firing order) and had 150PSI compression all the way across (using 3 puff method on pretty cold engine). I'm happy with it. I will be pulling the engine and replacing some of the gaskets and other maintenence parts. Then while it's out, start doing some body work and paint it. Here are the rest of my plans:
-2.25" custom exhaust with glasspack and turbo muffler (I've used this exhaust before on other cars and sounds great without being too loud).
-Put on different coilovers (ebay sucks) and raise it up slightly.
-Paint the interior pieces
-Custom Intake (something simple)
-Battery relocated to the rear
-Possilbly some LS seats or keep the nissan seats and install them correctly.
-Just clean the whole car up, clean the engine with plenty of powdercoated parts (I powdercoat so it's cheap for me)
I got a clean passenger fender and did some work on the interior. I decided to change it up and paint the interior parts charcoal grey (slightly darker grey) and I like how they came out. Better than the crap faded brown or the half-ass black paint job by the previous owner. I will be getting some new vents and other trim on the dash and those will be black probably.
New coilovers are on the way, I only have 2 inches of ground clearance as of now. The exhaust that was on the car before was completely flat...I wonder why :TU:
Will be doing some bodywork this week and hopefully paint it next weekend. I'm thinking dark silver/grey or just white, haven't decided yet. I always see the OEM light blue or tan color, why do you guys think White or Dark silver/grey?
Yeah, I think I decided on Grey Metallic. It's alot darker than plain silver, but still has a grey color to it. I think it will look good with the black trim on the car. What do you guys use for the trim to paint? The last owner painted the trim flat black like the rest of the car and looks pretty crappy, should I just make them satin black or is there a special paint for trim that looks more OEM?
Thanks, she will look a hell of a lot better when I'm all done. Maybe someday I will build the engine some more and really have some fun with it.
It's been dented (anger lack-of-management), but it should be repairable if you have a hammer and dolly and some patience.
I have another I'll be installing and would likely just scrap this one.
He's just a high school kid, we all did stupid things when we were that age, lol.
You can see my CRX in the background, kills me to see it all dusty but it has a brother now.
Cleaned the wheel wells, you can also see the tucked washer lines.
Grey Metallic, it's a dark silver almost charcoal color. Should look really good.
In primer:
My custom sheet metal lip, made some relief cuts and bent to shape. Not bad for 10 minutes work.
Painted:
Yeah someday, the roof and hood. I got the engine bay and door jams painted good, so it won't be a big deal to paint those parts.
Here is my D-series alternator setup, you use the stock integra alternator bracket and just use some 1/2" spacers or some nuts. The D alternator I had was newer so I used it instead. I've done it on other LS engines before, because if you have the D alternator you don't have to put a dent in the frame rail to clear.
Interior mostly done, door panels are charcoal grey and top section is satin black.