Superhatch's 1991 CRX build
superhatch
Moderator
It's...been a while.
My last wagon:
went through a huge build, then basically got returned to stock and sold to a great owner in Chicago.
I briefly owned a 60k EG Si, which honestly I should have kept after cleaning it up (basically a barn find), getting some correct new hubs, redoing the whole suspension, etc. But selling it:
allowed me to buy a dream car from Sacramento:
Which I was lucky enough to own for a few years until it got rod knock (had 220k on it!) and I had to decide to either have the motor rebuilt for 8-10k (just in parts!) or pass it on to someone else in the community. I decided to sell it knowing the market probably wouldn't allow me to own another one again. It was a bit soul crushing, but that's how it is sometimes.
In the meantime I had an EK I got from Oregon:
A great little car. Threw in a rebuilt Y7 and an EX 5 speed, and did some OEM+ mods, but I needed something a little nicer after selling the NSX to use as a daily.
Back to Cali and I picked up a car that's been on my list for a while but never had a chance to own:
Now with TL-S brakes and TL wheels, it's my daily and I love it. Such a great car. Some tasteful CTR mods and It's pretty much done for now although maybe a K24 swap in the future.
After driving the FA5 for a while I needed another project. I really wanted an EF chassis again, but after 3 wagons in a row I wanted something a little different. I thought about an Si hatch, but I've had a lot of those, most recently this one from LA (I think this was in-between wagons 1 and 2):
So taking a break from wagons, owning 4-5 hatches in my past, not really being a sedan guy generally, it only left me one option, and something I've never owned before:
Comments
Search.
I spent about a month looking for the right CRX. I set my budget at about 9k and was on every site I could think of to find one. They seemed to either be 15k and in amazing shape, or 4k and had serious issues. I finally found 3 out on the east coast that looked promising. I like to get a cluster of cars to go see with the intention of buying one, especially if I'm flying across the country to get something.
The first car on my list was a 91Si with a B16B swap, Mugen wheels, and a terrible wings west wing (to each their own, but not for me). I showed up and it was kinda rough, but for the price (8500) I didn't care what condition the body was in as the wheels and motor were worth that much.
Unfortunately the motor was in as good of shape as the car. On my drive it wouldn't rev past 7k and struggled to even get up there. The alignment was terrible, the wheel was sloppy, and overall seemed like it needed a LOT of work.
I thanked the owner and he was nice enough to give me a ride back to the airport about 20m away, I rented a car and headed up to car #2 about 4h away in VA.
I arrived and the owner took the car out of the garage and I knew immediately I was going to buy it.
It wasn't perfect, but it was a good deal for the price.
History.
The car was bought in 1991 by a woman who basically drove it back and forth from AL to VA to visit her kids, and later her grandkids. It had 320K miles on it, and the 5th gear synchro was dusted so I bought the story and mileage. It was repainted in 2010 after getting some scratch damage from a tree branch during an F5 tornado, and was otherwise stock except for the wing. She drove it until 2020 when she gave it to her son and he parked it in his driveway for 3 years.
The second owner bought it for him and his wife to drive, and after 3 months they realized he was too tall for the car and it was too small/low and their back's hurt after driving it for too long. He was a Jeep guy and had a great collection of old CJs and so she was going to use one of those for her summer run-about and they put it up for sale.
As found pics:
The owner was happy to drive me back to the local rental place to drop off my car and then come back and pick up the CRX.
I drove about 45m after a long day and found a hotel for the night with a great parking spot:
The next day I drove home about 12h (probably the shortest road trip I've had buying a car) and got to working on it right away.
Work.
Step 1 was cleaning 3 years of gunk out of all the jams. It basically sat under a tree and while overall it looked ok, every crevice was filled with gunk.
Step 2.
Replace the dry rotted tires I should not have driven 12h on.
Step 3.
Inspection
Step 4.
Parts
That was the initial buy to basically replace the entire suspension and brakes. I've still got a few more bushings to replace, ground control coilovers arrived after 4 weeks, and I've got a couple other pieces to get installed before the alignment.
Step 5
Might as well pull the engine.
This thing leaks so bad. So bad. I removed the valve cover and the gasket was split in 3 different places. That's probably the majority but the entire engine bay is covered in oil gunk. I got a spare A6 for a gasket/belt/pump rebuild and I need to rebuild the trans too.
This is how it currently sits as I've had a super busy weekend. More work the week of Aug 5 and I'll have updates after that.
Goodies coming include: mudflaps, OEM radio, working clock, Skunk2 short shifter, shifter poly bushings, RSX base shifter (metal 5 speed), HKS exhaust and other stuff. I've got another pile of parts to get on the car once the motor/trans are out and back in.
Put it to work since you picked it up, 12hr trip back home and started working on it right away. This Cr-x went to a great home can’t wait for updates and hopefully see it in person when I’m done with my wagon
Engine is out.
Tomorrow is engine bay cleaning, new steering rack, new clutch cable and see what else was hiding in the dirty engine bay. I'm leaning towards maybe replacing the brake MC while I'm in there?
New steering rack, who dis?
Tomorrow night is transmission rebuild. My first one, so we'll see how that goes.
Ok, so there is this one part called a friction damper, which I guess you can't get for the EF transmission anymore, so that sucks. I've ordered one from an EG Si and we'll see if I can make that work. Should be here on Wed, fingers crossed.
So I did a little motor cleaning, ordered new mounts all around, ground control upper shock mounts, and took off the pressure plate, clutch and flywheel. Good stuff there. The flywheel bolts were ALL stripped. Luckily I had the right socket and they all came out pretty easy, but I was really worried at first. Obviously the FW was changed at some point and someone used a 6 sided socket to put it on. Thanks bro. Oil pan looks in good shape and all the nuts and bolts came off super easy, but the oil pan gasket was super brittle. Lots of places for leaks in this motor.
Bell housing is nasty, need to power wash that tomorrow.
Before
After a power wash, still more cleaning left.
Awesome! The body and engine bay looks super clean (you mentioned it was re-painted, but still). Look forward to seeing it all back together and in tip top shape!