FatDave 2 wagons, need a couple more.
FatDave
Band Wagon
We bought our first wagon almost by accident, we were not really hunting for a vehicle but had gone 1 down - due to our 1990 Ford Ranger breaking it's timing chain at less than 50,000 miles.
My neighbor called up and said he knew a mechanic friend of his with a small car for sale. So we went and saw it made an offer and drove it home the following week. I kind of liked it from the first day we drove it. It's dash layout reminded me of a 78 Fiesta I had owned for a few years. (Sorry I sold that one, I t was a fun little car we used to drag race from light to light in my Hometown. I really like beating camaros with it, but anything over a city block and I was toast!)
This car 91RT4WD in Brown, was meant to be for the teenagers to get back and forth from school with. We bought it with something like 258,000 miles on the clock. The head had been replaced because someone neglected to change the timing belt in a prudent time frame. It will be turning 270,000 this month.
It is kind of a piece of meat to be sure, with a fair share of flaws, it's been hit fairly hard in the front end and repaired at some point. Doesn't really have a straight piece of sheet metal anywhere, but really no rust at all. Tailights leak and periodically fill halfway with rain water, but they always work. The front end has been in a need for rebuild for quite some time. The oldest boy decided to try and drift it in front of his High School buddies last winter, during our first really decent snow storm and hit a curb pretty hard right in front of the High School. (finished off a wheel and the rest of the front end.) So weve been limping by with it until we could take the time to fix it. We finally got together a parts list and a budget and found we would be paying nearly as much for parts to rebuild the front end, and brakes as we paid for the entire car.
That cost point gave me an idea, so I took a quick look at craigslist before our trip to the NAPA store to order the parts and found a 3 week old listing for a yard sale. I couldn't figure out why the yardsale add popped up when I had plugged in a search for a civic wagon. So I opened it after the third search finding the same add and read down through and there was a 1990 Honda civic wagon listed in the body of the yard sale stuff for sale.
After the NAPA trip we went to the address to see if the car was available and there it was, sitting on the side of the road with a for sale sign stating the motor was bad, but the car was for sale for 750. I went home and told the family about it, and we decided to buy and worry about the engine later - (maybe take the 91 engine out and shove it in the 90). The 1990 was a two-owner car and was really loved and pampered it's whole life. Spent most nights in the garage and the interior is in beautiful shape - get this - 216,000 miles, no rips anywhere - even in the drivers' seat. And it still smells decent inside! The air conditioning blows ice cold! Does have rust in the passenger left rear quarter - we'll have to deal with that.
The brown car has been a great bonding point for my oldest son and I. We purchased a Helm shop manual which I highly recommend. We plot what we need to fix next, and figure out how to get that done together. I have a neighbor "Bill" at the end of our block that happens to be the parts manager at out local Honda dealer so we have gotten to know him a little better and he recognizes us when we call needing some screw, or obtuse worn out part we need, so that's been fun. Bill has been a great resource and a really good guy to talk to. It seems like half the guys that work at the Honda dealer have owned this wagon in the past or know someone who has. Apparently it was once owned by a local weather girl who was sort of hot. I'll have to save up a few bucks and do a title search to see how many owners this thing has actually had.
This summer we have put more into the front end than I care to recall - repairing damage and taking care of some long needed repairs. It actually drives pretty decent now and with a second pair of new tires on the front it finally feels safe enough to drive.
We have met a few other Honda guys in the local area. One Russian guy named Mike who runs a honda only wrecking yard out of his back yard, and a guy named Jeremy at the local NAPA store who really clued us in to taking notice of the electronics side of the Honda. Jeremy has moved on to aircraft mechanics now, so we really miss his helpful input.
So now we have 2 - 1991 Brown RT4WD kinda beat but with a really decent front end chassis; and a 1990 Blue RT4WD with a hole in a piston (so the engine barely runs and throws oil every where in the engine compartment). Lot's of potential! Both cars are stick shifts.
Now we're looking for a third (daughter can't quite get the clutch thing down) so we need an automatic trans for her. also on the prowl for a decent d16a6 to stick in the 1990.
Happy wagoning!
My neighbor called up and said he knew a mechanic friend of his with a small car for sale. So we went and saw it made an offer and drove it home the following week. I kind of liked it from the first day we drove it. It's dash layout reminded me of a 78 Fiesta I had owned for a few years. (Sorry I sold that one, I t was a fun little car we used to drag race from light to light in my Hometown. I really like beating camaros with it, but anything over a city block and I was toast!)
This car 91RT4WD in Brown, was meant to be for the teenagers to get back and forth from school with. We bought it with something like 258,000 miles on the clock. The head had been replaced because someone neglected to change the timing belt in a prudent time frame. It will be turning 270,000 this month.
It is kind of a piece of meat to be sure, with a fair share of flaws, it's been hit fairly hard in the front end and repaired at some point. Doesn't really have a straight piece of sheet metal anywhere, but really no rust at all. Tailights leak and periodically fill halfway with rain water, but they always work. The front end has been in a need for rebuild for quite some time. The oldest boy decided to try and drift it in front of his High School buddies last winter, during our first really decent snow storm and hit a curb pretty hard right in front of the High School. (finished off a wheel and the rest of the front end.) So weve been limping by with it until we could take the time to fix it. We finally got together a parts list and a budget and found we would be paying nearly as much for parts to rebuild the front end, and brakes as we paid for the entire car.
That cost point gave me an idea, so I took a quick look at craigslist before our trip to the NAPA store to order the parts and found a 3 week old listing for a yard sale. I couldn't figure out why the yardsale add popped up when I had plugged in a search for a civic wagon. So I opened it after the third search finding the same add and read down through and there was a 1990 Honda civic wagon listed in the body of the yard sale stuff for sale.
After the NAPA trip we went to the address to see if the car was available and there it was, sitting on the side of the road with a for sale sign stating the motor was bad, but the car was for sale for 750. I went home and told the family about it, and we decided to buy and worry about the engine later - (maybe take the 91 engine out and shove it in the 90). The 1990 was a two-owner car and was really loved and pampered it's whole life. Spent most nights in the garage and the interior is in beautiful shape - get this - 216,000 miles, no rips anywhere - even in the drivers' seat. And it still smells decent inside! The air conditioning blows ice cold! Does have rust in the passenger left rear quarter - we'll have to deal with that.
The brown car has been a great bonding point for my oldest son and I. We purchased a Helm shop manual which I highly recommend. We plot what we need to fix next, and figure out how to get that done together. I have a neighbor "Bill" at the end of our block that happens to be the parts manager at out local Honda dealer so we have gotten to know him a little better and he recognizes us when we call needing some screw, or obtuse worn out part we need, so that's been fun. Bill has been a great resource and a really good guy to talk to. It seems like half the guys that work at the Honda dealer have owned this wagon in the past or know someone who has. Apparently it was once owned by a local weather girl who was sort of hot. I'll have to save up a few bucks and do a title search to see how many owners this thing has actually had.
This summer we have put more into the front end than I care to recall - repairing damage and taking care of some long needed repairs. It actually drives pretty decent now and with a second pair of new tires on the front it finally feels safe enough to drive.
We have met a few other Honda guys in the local area. One Russian guy named Mike who runs a honda only wrecking yard out of his back yard, and a guy named Jeremy at the local NAPA store who really clued us in to taking notice of the electronics side of the Honda. Jeremy has moved on to aircraft mechanics now, so we really miss his helpful input.
So now we have 2 - 1991 Brown RT4WD kinda beat but with a really decent front end chassis; and a 1990 Blue RT4WD with a hole in a piston (so the engine barely runs and throws oil every where in the engine compartment). Lot's of potential! Both cars are stick shifts.
Now we're looking for a third (daughter can't quite get the clutch thing down) so we need an automatic trans for her. also on the prowl for a decent d16a6 to stick in the 1990.
Happy wagoning!
Comments
i have been reading several of the forums, bambam's build thread on size matters is something else. Pretty awesome stuff he does. Way beyond my skill level. How cool to take the time to document it for readers to get an idea of what he went through to get it done. Pretty cool his Dad shows up to help out too!
I found civicwagon.com through doing a google search of wagon images and found "wagon of the month" photos. I think my favorite was bambam's color matched camper. I don't know if the build thread is here for that one or not but I'll be looking for it.
Better get some shut eye, early morning tomorrow.
Cheers