Project Winter Beater
NobiZero
New Wagonist
Hello everyone. Here's my almost 300k 1991 RT I bought for $850 to use as my winter car. My primary ride is a 2004 GTO, and even with snow tires, it's a scary thing to drive in the snow. Plus as expected, it's not exactly frugal at the pump either. I was looking for something small, economical, yet all wheel drive and had lots of storage room inside. Not sure if any of you are familiar with the GTO, but it's trunk is useless, and it's seats don't go forward enough to make the back seat a useful hauling space. I work at a Honda dealership, which is how I heard about the RT. I started searching Craigslist and found this one in Connecticut. A phone call, 3 hour trip with the supportive girlfriend, and $850 later, it's mine. It's got the usual New England Honda rust, which I plan on patching at some point. Right now I'm trying to get it mechanically sound, and eventually I plan on lifting it. Enough talking, on to the pictures. I'll chronicle the build up/repair work here and on my Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100163306764225.1073741826.49406744&type=1
Here she is when I picked her up. Drove her 3 hours on the highway including the Mass Pike, and she ran like a dream. Rode really stiff, and had some clunking in the front end, but that's nothing I can't take care of.
Now the scary stuff.
I drove for 3 hours on this
and this. The guy that sold it to me said the driver's caliper sticks sometimes. He bought a new one and gave it to me saying he never had the time to put it in. A slide pin on the passenger one was frozen too, so I basically drove all that way with nearly no brakes at all. Yikes.
Got those all sorted, and adjusted the rear drums up. Stops as it should now.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100163306764225.1073741826.49406744&type=1
Here she is when I picked her up. Drove her 3 hours on the highway including the Mass Pike, and she ran like a dream. Rode really stiff, and had some clunking in the front end, but that's nothing I can't take care of.
Now the scary stuff.
I drove for 3 hours on this
and this. The guy that sold it to me said the driver's caliper sticks sometimes. He bought a new one and gave it to me saying he never had the time to put it in. A slide pin on the passenger one was frozen too, so I basically drove all that way with nearly no brakes at all. Yikes.
Got those all sorted, and adjusted the rear drums up. Stops as it should now.
Comments
Sorry for the blurry pic and messy tool box.
Completely wiped out.
Back to it's 4wd glory.
And then, there was this. All I could hear on my way back from CT on the highway was air blasting me in the left ear. I can only imagine how fun the bug problem would be too seeing as I live kind of in the woods.
Sorry for cheesing for the camera.;)
Once that was done, I felt like giving the outside a little something all my friends and coworkers get a huge kick out of:
Snagged some '01 Civic seats from Craigslist. Don't care that it's not the same color. The small armrests and better support will be more than welcomed.
Will do. I figure worst case scenario, I've got a buddy that knows metal fabrication, I'll let him get creative with it. I think I'm going to try drilling holes in the 91's seat frames, and bolting the '01's seat bottoms to those. Today when I get home from work (sneaking on the work computer now) once I vaccuum all the dog hair off the driver's seat, I'll see what all has to be done.
Apologies for the blurry pic. I took the track off the '91's seat to compare it to the '01's seat track.
Hard to see, but the right hand side track matches up perfectly!
The other side is close, but...
...the rear mounting point is vertical instead of horizontal. Nothing some BFH action won't fix though. Once bent down, the bolt holes will line up.
All I have to do then is use the existing hole for a seat belt, and drill a hole in the frame in this conveniently bulked up spot to mount the '91's seat belt buckle, bolt it up, and I'll be all set. So if any of you want seat mounted armrests and lumbar in your wagon, look for some '01 seats. With very little modification, they'll go right in. I'll do all the bull work tomorrow and post my progress on it then.