503Wagovan's Build Thread

503Wagon

So my girlfriend and I have been looking for a wagovan for sometime now and finally found one. needs some TLC but were in luck and i happen to be a body/paint tech We are by no means new to the honda game. I owned an S2000 for a while and she has had her 2000 Civic Si for many years. She was featured in superstreet magazine a while back. Here is the link,


http://www.superstreetonline.com/featur ... index.html

Anyways. Were not totally sure what we want to do with it. The 4WD conversion has passed through our heads more than once believe me. Living in the Northwest of the United States, 4WD comes in handy.

Well its time for the work to begin. Actually I have already done a lot of work, this is just a catch up to my current state of rebuild/restore our wagovan. If you have any questions or suggestions feel free to post them up!

Once we got the car home. we tore it all apart and went to work. First and foremost..the most important tools for pulling a front end and getting it straight.

Slide hammer.


Bodywork kit. Hammer and Dollies.


Now it was time to pull out that munched side. Hook up the slide hammer to the munched side and start pulling.


once i got it pulled out...i found shittyness....Tear in the metal.


Welded it up. Took two welding sessions but i got it cleaned up and flat.


Added a little bit of body filler to make it smooth.


Sanded the front core support down really quickly and just shot some black paint on it to keep anything from rusting. When i finish building my other motor i'll paint the engine bay and make it clean.



Got the radiator installed and bolted in. Put the coolant in and started him up. NO OVER HEATING!!!!

503Wagon

Pulled the seats out.


then i pulled the carpet out so i can give the whole inside a full detail.



Check out my effed stereo wiring....FML



Gonna clean the seats and carpet tomorrow. Lets see how well it turns out.

503Wagon

cleaned up the interior panels and carpet. i'll be shampooing the seats tomorrow and seeing how clean i can get them.





carpet came out SUPER clean.


and here are the shots of the outside of the car...just a couple. The front end still doesn't fit quite right...little more tweeking to do but i needed to get it bolted up since i needed to drive the car lol.

503Wagon

update of this weekend. Erik3 (friend of mine) picked up a new stereo plug for me from the pick n pull. Then we went about wiring it up and testing to see if everything worked.




once we got the harness soldered and wrapped in tape, we started running wireing for the amp/sub. Ran the power wire through a plug in the firewall that was unused. Dont have a picture of this because it it literally buried down low on the firewall and up behind the heater-core under the dash lol. started running the rest of the wires up behind the glovebox and down the passenger side of the car and under the seat where the amp will be located.



Once we tested to make sure the amp had power and a solid ground (grounded it to one of the seat bolts) rant he wires back to the rear for the sub. The amp is a 450watt alpine amp. Borrowed the sub from starla (my girlfriend), 12" W6. once everything was wired up installed the head unit and turned it on.



Wagovan now has booms.

today i pulled down the drivers corner of the headliner and sealed up that corner of the windshield that kept leaking onto my leg while driving lol.



little bit of urethane and i hope its sealed up.


Hopefully this fixed my leak. im going to check around and make sure there are no others before i re-install my clean carpet.

BillBoard

clean snaps.

durty wagon.

i like where this is going...

MrLewayne

I DSLR

503Wagon

BillBoard wrote:

clean snaps.

durty wagon.

i like where this is going...

thanks. yeah the thing was pretty filthy and moldy when i got it...fun cleanup, not.

MrLewayne wrote:

I DSLR

Me too!!! i'll post up my flickr in my sig.

RiskEverything

You do realize this is a Wagon and not a Wagovan, right?

I'm looking for the OEM dash clock like yours, lucky!

503Wagon

RiskEverything wrote:

You do realize this is a Wagon and not a Wagovan, right?

I'm looking for the OEM dash clock like yours, lucky!

whats the difference if i might ask? didnt realize there was.

sethwalters

Your wiring was pretty f'd up for your stereo. I did the same thing bro. I went out and got a virgin stereo harness out of a ef sedan, and cut all the wires with the plug off. Then I came home, cut all my crap out, clipped everything off the original harness, then soldered my virgin plug in. Took a while, but now I have practically a virgin OEM harness. I shrink wrapped the solder points, electrical taped it, then put the extra black plastic loom back over it. Now it's clean, done right, and looks stock and minty fresh. I then went to walmart and picked up a stock honda harness to new stereo conversion plug. It came with two plugs (for our old cars and new hondas) for about 8 bucks total. I cut off the extra plug and then soldered it into my new stereo harness. Boy does it look ALOT better.

Great job on your car so far btw. Glad you sorted out your stereo stuff too.

503Wagon

yeah. im no wireing guru by any means at all but i got it figured out. took like an hour to match the plugs and everything. Now i just need to get something made up to be able to have rear speakers. i think im going to build a cover to cover the cargo area in the back and mount them in the back. that way my sub is covered to the outside view and i have rear speakers.

91_wago

503Wagovan wrote:

RiskEverything wrote:

You do realize this is a Wagon and not a Wagovan, right?

I'm looking for the OEM dash clock like yours, lucky!

whats the difference if i might ask? didnt realize there was.

if you know ef's the its the usual stuff thats different from 88-89's and 90-91's they just didnt call the 90-91's wagovans. an oem dash clock isnt that rare is it?

503Wagon

91_wago wrote:

if you know ef's the its the usual stuff thats different from 88-89's and 90-91's they just didnt call the 90-91's wagovans. an oem dash clock isnt that rare is it?

i dont know about the dash clock, it was in there when we got it. As for the wagovan/wagon comment. Everybody i've ever known in the honda game calls them a wagovan. No matter the year? maybe were all wrong? i have no idea to be honest. i've been reading up and researching all day long on this forum since i have zero experience with EF anything lol. Hopefully i learn fast and if infact i am wrong and its not really a wagovan, i'll get my name changed and edit the posts!

stampern

The wagovan is actually the trim level. Wagovan is the lower end model, the RT4WD is the higher. Also the dash clock isn't too rare, all of the 4th gen civics are the same, so came with them, some didn't. Any 4th gen clock should screw right into the back of the center vent.

503Wagon

so then technically it is a wagovan regardless? damn EF's are already being a pain in my ass lol.

drag4life723

Looking great! What other plans do you have?

stampern

Wagovan is basically the same as a DX, the RT4WD is equal to the EX model

So the RT4WD isn't a Wagovan and vice versa - two different models

Honda Civic Wagovan
Honda Civic RT4WD
Honda Civic DX
Honda Civic LX
Honda Civic EX

They are all different trims (or models) - the Wagovan name is actually the model, so the RT4WD isn't a wagovan.

503Wagon

drag4life723 wrote:

Looking great! What other plans do you have?

really have not decided what we want to do with it yet. I've got a D15block and a Z6 head that i had plans of doing a minime build with, may just slam it in the wagovan and go with it. Also had thoughts of doing the 4WD swap and playing off-road with it. honestly its really in the planning stages.

thanks for the explanations on the naming..i think im still gonna call it a wagovan.

RiskEverything

Wagovans actually say "Wagovan" on the back of them. They have vinyl seats and the rear bench is one-piece instead of split. The door panels do not have fabric. There are cargo bars to protect the rear windows.





It's like knowing these are actually EEs and not EFs- you'd have to own one to know the difference.

Justin-xxx

I can't wait for more updates

503Wagon

RiskEverything wrote:

Wagovans actually say "Wagovan" on the back of them. They have vinyl seats and the rear bench is one-piece instead of split. The door panels do not have fabric. There are cargo bars to protect the rear windows.

It's like knowing these are actually EEs and not EFs- you'd have to own one to know the difference.

Thanks for the final clarification. I appreciate the details!

360wagon-kinda

Just wait Justin, I got some goodies for his car waiting to be installed in my car. Ohh, I'm his friend btw.

wagodizzle

stampern wrote:

Wagovan is basically the same as a DX, the RT4WD is equal to the EX model

So the RT4WD isn't a Wagovan and vice versa - two different models

Honda Civic Wagovan
Honda Civic RT4WD
Honda Civic DX
Honda Civic LX
Honda Civic EX

They are all different trims (or models) - the Wagovan name is actually the model, so the RT4WD isn't a wagovan.

eh, sorta true..

Wagovan = BASE, i believe no clock, vinyl seats, no split rear bench, etc.. 4th gen models only made from 88-89

DX (or, sometimes referred to as simply "CIVIC WAGON" in the manual)= "deluxe", cloth seats, split bench, basically everything that was available (besides dealer installed access, of course) funny thing is the DX WAGON had more features then the DX sedan and hatchback, for example, a Tach (Wagovan also had a Tach)

RT4WD= same comfort features as DX, except with 4WD of course and all things pertaining to that. added features were power steering, rear mudflaps, and body colored bumpers. 89-91 also had the larger white wheels. some rumors state they also had larger brake calipers.

LX, only for a sedan and had power everything.
EX, same as LX except with more powerful engine, bigger brakes, bigger wheels.

hope this clears things up.

overall, WAGON models were quite different in their "features" distribution when compared with the hatchback or sedan.

when people refer to all wagons as "Wagovan" they are indeed politically incorrect, ha, however it seems to be more of just a nickname that stuck to all models.



threadjacking finished.
this build looks awesome! like to see where this is headed.
any S2000 pics?

503Wagon

Lol no worries on the thread jack. I appreciate the info. I and everyone I know, had always refered to any "Honda civic wagon" as a "Wagovan".

I didnt really do much to the S2000. Just a mugen front splitter/lip. Had plans for lowering and some gold wheels but ended up getting in trouble in the car and sold it. Oops. Was white with black/read interior. I'm actually pretty sure my gf was more pissed that I sold it than me. Is wake up in the am to the S2000 gone and her keys on the stairs.

Anyways. Back to the build. Were focusing mostly on interior and general maintenance as I drive the car everyday. Should get more work done on it this week. I'll be sure to photog everything as well as update anytime we get something done.

503Wagon

Minor update today. i have been SLAMMED at work the last week and have not been able to do anything to the wago. Its been lame but with the hollidays coming the money will be nice.

Got my HID's in the mail friday night. Of course i went right to the garage to do the install. Did them by myself so there is a lack of photos but i did what i could when i remembered lol.

i picked up 3000k for the Lows and 10,000k for the highs.



Pulled the front bumper off and had to figure out where to mount the ballast....decided on here.



If i was smart i would have done this install when erik3 brought me my new frame ends/bumper mounts...but im not cuz its a new part and of course it must be installed now!

then on the passengers side i ended up removing a chunk of the stock intake...useless plastic.



now i have an empty space to mount the ballasts on this side too.



now i have TWO ballasts to mount so i ended up just tying the second ballast to the back of the first so they are both in the same spot. seemed to work perfectly. forgot to take a picture of them all mounted up so i'll do that when i do the frame ends/bumper mounts. No pictures of the lights on yet. havn't had time to snap any with the D300s..and iphone pix wont live up to my D300s only photos for my build thread lol. I'll get some ASAP....im gonna need to pick up some fog lights to set off the headlights as well.

eggspeed

i like wherre this is going

503Wagon

eggspeed wrote:

i like wherre this is going

Me too! Also just bout some blue speaker pods for my rear speakers. Picked them up from...damn Fogot his name here I'll edit with his name when I get home.

Aaron

Clean pictures always mean its going to be a clean build

503Wagon

Aaron wrote:

Clean pictures always mean its going to be a clean build

thats what I'm shooting for. kind of working from the inside out for starters. Seeing as its a daily driver i'd like to get the inside nice and comfy before i start any serious bodywork.

asnamasn

where in the 503 do you live?

well i just read your 2000 si article and you live in the hillsboro area? so do I haha. sick.
What do you live by?

503Wagon

We actually live out near oregon city now. like this side of town way better, less traffic lol.