There are two kinds of paint pens, regular and oil-based. The girl at Hobby Lobby told me that the oil-based ones are better for all weather situations and will probably last longer so I went with one of those in a medium point.
Thanks Gman, yeah I'm guessing I'll be watching the "Honda" slowly disappear from my front flaps. Sa'll good, it's a right of passage for lowered wagons. I had a lot of people tell me I should just cut my flaps but I refused for this reason...you gotta do it natural style and just wear em down asphalt style.
They've gotta have it at Hobby Lobby. If for some weird reason you can't find one just PM me your address and I'll send you the one I have. I don't really need it anymore, it did it's job. Oh, another place I saw one at was a hobby store...like RC car hobby store.
I love the build!! So clean and the color, same color as my first hatchback I bought when I was 16 my first car.
The story is awesome too, I bought my wagon from an old man for $2000 with a rack on it he was the original owner he told me so many stories in spanish how he traveled everywhere with it and the only reason he was selling it to me because his wife was making him.
Ok so I got the info about the actuators for ya. They are made by a company called DEI (Directed Electronics) and I guess you can buy them off of Amazon.com. Hope that helps!
Seen a few 4 door window and lock kits on ebay, but will contact DEI tomorrow to see if they have 4dr lock AND window kits. Hopefully, they have something. Worst case, Ill try out the ebay kit for $120ish shipped. and take my chances.
Thanks for the follow up. Gonna be hitting Big Lots tomorrow to try and pick up some brown non-slip mat too.
Charb / mosdefbee: I'm looking forward to seeing the paint on both of your guys' white wagons. It's gonna look sweet, I know it. I have such a soft spot for white wagons, I really want to paint mine one day. That being said the blue has kinda grown on me.
MyFirstWasAnEF9: Thanks man, I remember when I was in high school I wanted a 1991 Civic Hatchback Si so badly! I remember they used to come in this kinda crazy teal color. I checked on how much insurance would be for me at the time (I was 17) and it would have been $325/month!!! Can you believe that shit! Now I pay $60 for full coverage lol. Advantages of getting older I suppose.
Prennro: Let me know how that goes, I am especially interested in the power windows and how they hold up long term. I hope that my installer was wrong and that they last a long time.
Back with some more wagon love!!! Pretty excited about the recent changes I made. I finally found a lip at Pick N Pull that I liked off of a 1990 Volvo 740. It was a bit beat up, but that's ok cause I'll just try and refinish it. Cost me $28. Seems pretty expensive for a beat up piece of plastic, I remember buying new Euro lips for my VR6 for like $50 brand new.
Let me start by saying I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of the install itself. I hadn't charged my batteries and they were all dead at the time and I didn't want to wait to charge them to do the install.
I took some sandpaper to it when I got it home and tried to smooth out some of the rough spots and gauges. I need a powered sander to really do a good job. I should have waited but I was excited and hit it with some Duplicolor Bumper Paint which got it looking a lot better. I really wanted to try and get this lip on as flush as possible which takes a little work as the lip is a bit short. I got around this with a little bit of manhandling, a heat gun, some clamps and a 6 pack of Redhook. I started by lining the lip up to center and then bolting it down with 6 bolts/nuts/washers along the front. I then lined the front corner up and bolted at the exact point where I wanted the lip to start to bend out a bit to conform to the contour of the bumper so that it would act as an anchor point. I hit the lip with the heat gun on the bend to soften it up (melted my bumper paint from before which is why I should have held off). Once it was a bit more pliable I took the end of the lip (side end) and pushed it forward until the whole lip lined up perfectly around the corner with the bumper. I then used a pair of vice grips to clamp the lip to the bumper on the side end there to hold it in place. After that I proceeded to attached 5 nuts/bolts/washers to the corner to secure it down and snug it up. The plastic had kind of bent in the corner and was creating a little u shaped bend which I had to drill a hole through and bolt down. I will try and take pictures when I get my car back up on jacks sometime. From there it just took some final adjustments and things were looking pretty good. I was pretty stoked that I got the lip on as well as I did, and am very happy with the way it looks. I do need to recondition it still, but I need to do that to both my front and rear bumpers as well so I'll probably just do it all at the same time. It's definitely changing the way I drive a bit, it makes things a bit more of a pain but for now it's worth it as I just absolutely love the way the front end looks now. Fucking mean!!!
Hopefully I'll be able to borrow some power tools from my brother soon so I can try and refinish everything and then repaint it. I'm really liking this mod and what it adds to the wagon stylistically. I am getting closer and closer to what I had envisioned my wagon to be like in my head a few months ago. It feels really good. And not to be a douchebag, but this car gets more attention than any car I've ever driven in my life. It's really crazy the response I get from all kinds of people, it's a lot of fun. I did experience my first hater though the other day, a kid in a blacked out Mazda 3 speed up beside me, rolled his window down and gave me a big ol thumbs down. I was like...wtf was that for?? Then I just kinda laughed cause he was so serious about it and the whole thing just seemed silly. Haters gonna hate!
Eh fuck that hatin' ass fool. He can take his lame-o Mazda 3 somewhere else. Dude's got no room to speak, those cars are for kooks. Your wagon is super clean. Ladies and gents, take notes from Knottyy here.
Awesome! The lip looks good man, I'm gonna be hitting up a junkyard here soon to try and find me one. I need one bad. Your wagon looks awesome and don't let the haters get to you man.
Wagon keeps on getting better and better, really loving the lip I'm excited you got one, now I just got to try and find one for my little wagon, trying to find some more stuff to do to it
Thanks guys, I really appreciate it! And ledler now I feel bad man....that's not how I wanna make you feel! I know you'll get your wagon fixed soon, you have to so you can make the meet!
That lip is DOPE! Nice addition! Let the haters hate! You get more respect for taking a 20+ yr old vehicle, adding custom touches, using countless hours of your own unique ideas, blood, sweat and tears to make your own vision a reality! You cant just go down to the car lot and finance something like that! Keep inspiring and keep turnin heads!
Your car just keeps getting better, while mine just sits in my garage, LOL. At least i'm able to live vicariously through you for now. Keep up the good work, it's looking dope. Are you planning on doing anything else with the interior or motor?
flyinhwn808: For the interior I'd like to find a new OEM front seat. I may do a DA maplight install someday. I plan on getting a wood grain Nardi with the black stripe and a matching wood grain shift knob. Probably grab a new shift boot while I'm at it as well as make the Nardi detachable. Then I'll go about adding other small wooden accents to the interior to play off the wheel/shifter combo...probably try and hand carve some stuff. Tomorrow I will be getting a custom box installed to house my 12" sub, and it will also house my 6.5" rears facing upwards in the standard wagon pod mounting positions. The box will be between my rear strut bar and my rear seat so that I can still make good use of my trunk and put my dog there. The amp will go under my drivers seat. I'll document the whole thing. Should sound really clean. I honestly don't have any big plans for the interior besides what I just mentioned. I like it simple and clean. I don't really mind OEM almost everything as long as it's clean.
For the engine, I'm at 184k right now and it's running really strong. I am surprised by the amount of pep it has for only 90 HP. That being said I do find myself wishing for more power often, and I do plan on doing a motor swap and/or turbo in the future. I haven't made up my mind but I have thought about going either the D16/turbo or just going all motor with a B18/B20 swap. I'm would be looking for around 200-250 whp, nothing too crazy as I'd still like it to be my DD and get a respectable mpg. I've never owned a turbo'd car and I think I'd really get a kick out of it. I did used to drive a 280 hp Z28 Camaro that could chirp tires when shifting on the freeway and that was a lot of fun.
I plan on getting a wood grain Nardi with the black stripe and a matching wood grain shift knob. Probably grab a new shift boot while I'm at it as well as make the Nardi detachable. Then I'll go about adding other small wooden accents to the interior to play off the wheel/shifter combo...probably try and hand carve some stuff. Tomorrow I will be getting a custom box installed to house my 12" sub, and it will also house my 6.5" rears facing upwards in the standard wagon pod mounting positions. The box will be between my rear strut bar and my rear seat so that I can still make good use of my trunk and put my dog there. The amp will go under my drivers seat. I'll document the whole thing. Should sound really clean. I honestly don't have any big plans for the interior besides what I just mentioned. I like it simple and clean. I don't really mind OEM almost everything as long as it's clean.
For the engine, I'm at 184k right now and it's running really strong. I am surprised by the amount of pep it has for only 90 HP. That being said I do find myself wishing for more power often, and I do plan on doing a motor swap and/or turbo in the future. I haven't made up my mind but I have thought about going either the D16/turbo or just going all motor with a B18/B20 swap. I'm would be looking for around 200-250 whp, nothing too crazy as I'd still like it to be my DD and get a respectable mpg. I've never owned a turbo'd car and I think I'd really get a kick out of it. I did used to drive a 280 hp Z28 Camaro that could chirp tires when shifting on the freeway and that was a lot of fun.
I swear we could be brothas from anotha motha! I have been planning on some custom wood inserts and thinking about eventual motor upgrades myself. Its crazy the similar tastes we have in common. I had thought about a NA bseries swap of some kind, only because I have a rare jdm spec tranny gem with 4.7 final drive in my workbench cabinet waiting on a mate. Used it on my eg build before supercharging it. Perfect for NA motors! However, the short gear ratio combined with a s/cg'd bseries = hella wheel spin 1-3 gears!
That being said, a build with some performance on the cheap (comparatively), may i reccomend a d series with a jackson scgr.... will damn sure get your attention and be fun as hell to drive daily! I know, Ive done it!
Ha ha, wagon fam!! I was reading through that thread with the Jackson Racing supercharger on the stock D16 with 235k miles pushing up to about 130 horsies. That's definitely an option as well. I like that you can work with your stock engine. Actually the more I think about it, I don't even really need 250 hp. 200 would be plenty I'm sure. Have any idea how much a JR Supercharge setup would cost for a D15? I remember reading a long time ago that superchargers were better for daily driven cars as opposed to turbos, but I have no idea if that is true or not. I should do some more reading.
Do a simple swap for the same price as a blower. And retain Honda reliability.
I know it's hip to stay D series these days. But coming from someone that prefers to drive their car as apposed to working on it, I say stay all motor!
That's some solid advise. And being that I'd have to have someone help me do everything it's suck to continually have to keep working on it as I'd always be at the mercy of someone else's schedule. Would you suggest the B18C, B18B1 or something else? Even having 150 all motor horsies would be fun as hell I bet! I know that when I get done tinkering with all the little stuff, I'll get bored and start to turn my attention to performance. I'm sure that's when things will get really fun and pricey.
Ok, so I'm back with another simple modification that makes a nice difference in my wagon's appearance, especially at night. When I had my alarm installed the guy mentioned that neither of my front corner lights were working. It had been that way since I bought the car a couple months ago and I guess I never even noticed that they weren't coming on. Bought some replacement 164 LED bulbs in Super White for $7 each from autolumination.com (better quality than eBay). Had a little difficulty getting my front corners out, they were stuck in there really good. My worthless Hanes manual didn't cover how to get them out so I had to ask Pavementwago how to do it. For anyone wanting to know, just remove the two screws (88-89 only) on the face of the corners and then simply slide the corner towards the front of the car. There are two little black plastic tabs that slide into little channels and those got gunked up and are what made mine hard to remove. Just try and put even pressure on the light from both sides and keep wiggling and it'll come loose sooner or later. Wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle....yeah.
These shots are kinda crappy, sorry about that. I'll try and redo some better ones soon. They really aren't as bright as they seem in the picture. I didn't want it to be annoying to anyone. It basically just matches the color spectrum of my 5K HID headlights....the bulbs I purchased were 6K so it's close. I had used some LEDs that I got from eBay before and had lying around from my dash conversion but they had a slightly blue/purple tint to them that I didn't care for. In real life it just looks nice and clean, not too bright.
While I was at it I also did my license plate bulbs so that my color temps are matching all the way around (Sorry Haydz)
Converting to MPFI from your dual point is a good start. You could convert the motor you have for $150 (guesstimate). I personally have given away D16A6's for free before. So you could probably find a whole motor for just a few hundred bucks. I think I believe Foreign Engines (we have one here, and I know they come from their warehouse over there) sells them for around $400 and you get a receipt
My first swap was a DOHC ZC that I did into my first RT many years ago. I know they go for about $800 from FE now. You could have a nice swap for around $1g. Sometimes you can find them from other distributors with the fancy JDM trannys for around $1g too. But you could still retain your tranny should you find just a long block. Only wiring that would be needed is the previously mentioned MPFI swap, plus a re-pin of your cam angle sensor and distributor. We have a thread here about this swap.
I personally will always be a fan of the B-series. There's a million ways to do them up. You can spend a little or a lot. Just depends on how willing you are to shop then spend. At this point you'll be getting deeper into wiring depending on which motor you go with. But still way easier than trying to efficiently run forced induction (tuning). And again, you'll retain Honda reliability.
This is all my opinion. Forced induction is something I look forward to someday on a vehicle I don't daily drive. But having lived in Ballard and worked in Bellevue, that commute is not something I would have ever considered in something like a turbo or supercharger that constantly needs tweeking. My constant 32+ (documented!) miles per gallon out of a wicked strong B16 and Honda reliability was a no brainer. Again, just my opinion
That's awesome info right there, thank you for that. Dependability is super important to me as I don't have another car to fall back on and drive. Yeah Foreign Engines Inc is right down the street from me, I always see them posting to craigslist. I will go and do a bunch of reading on DPFI to MPFI swap to try and figure out the advantages, cost and difficulty level...try and edumacate myself a bit.
So since I got my rear Venetian metal blinds I have been thinking about material that I could make another set of blinds out of. The original metal blinds are quite heavy, at least 10 pounds and they rattle quite a bit if not set up perfectly. If you have a subwoofer in your car it's rattle city! Super annoying. So I headed out to Hobby Lobby to see what I could see. Ended up finding a big ol piece of white foam board for $7. Took it home, measured it out and cut it into strips. This time I cut the ends at an angle to conform to the curvature of the rear window.
The foam blinds were just a bit too thick for the slats which was perfect as I simply forced them in and which created grooves and held the blinds in place.
Here's they are finished
Even though the new foamcore blinds are super light and don't make any noise at all, I don't think I'll stay with them as it's just not as tidy as I'd like it to look and it's also not strong enough to be durable. It's hard to cut and get perfectly smooth edges. One of my blinds has already folded on the end and is now just kinda hanging/flopping. I think I will try and redo them out of a thin sheet of wood that I found at an RC car hobby store. I think it'll last longer, and when I get a Nardi wood grain wheel and shift knob I might just build a new set of wooden blinds all lacquered up to match. For now I'll probably just paint them white. The sheet of wood is thicker than the metal blinds, but that's good because I'll just use a router to make grooves in the wooden blinds so they will slide and lock right into the slats. My brother is a finish carpenter so I'll have him try and help me knock it out.
It all depends on all the things he mentioned, what your goal is and of course the HP to $ bang for your buck and also what becomes available. I will say I have been very pleased with my Jackson on my GSR motor, but as Charb said boost=$ and decreased gas mileage for obvious reasons. I think researching it all in the meantime is a no-brainer. I think looking at MPFI (which I will begin to do myself) and doing that initially until you want something more. Then for the $ and availabilty, look for a b series and/or a jackson for d series. I have a close friend that drove an eg SI with a jackson on D15 and the kit came with all the basic upgrades to run with stock components and ECU for $1500, but that was 10 years ago. You still get good gas mileage with regular driving, but all that decreases everytime you put your foot in it. If you havent experienced it, you will love the instant power a scgr gives you
As Charb, Im a big fan of the B-series motors. I know the H and K series make more power, but the B is so interchangeable but also has proven reliabiltiy and tons of how-tos out there. So you instantly get good HP to $ to reliabilty ratios out the gate.
All that being said, I will initially look for doing the MPFI swap all while keeping my eye open for a deal on a B-series to cross my path.
As for the blinds, I think your lightweight plywood will work. Make sure you cut that stuff with a high tooth sawblade as it splinters like a mofo if you dont! Good luck!
Comments
There are two kinds of paint pens, regular and oil-based. The girl at Hobby Lobby told me that the oil-based ones are better for all weather situations and will probably last longer so I went with one of those in a medium point.
Definitely stands out and its awesome. You guys and your "creativity"
Edit: just went to Michael's and a local store that I thought might have them. Struck out at both places. Hit up Hobby Lobby tomorrow...
They've gotta have it at Hobby Lobby. If for some weird reason you can't find one just PM me your address and I'll send you the one I have. I don't really need it anymore, it did it's job. Oh, another place I saw one at was a hobby store...like RC car hobby store.
I did find an art supply store that had them though. Unfortunately no time before work to to do them. Hopefully late tonight or tomorrow...
The story is awesome too, I bought my wagon from an old man for $2000 with a rack on it he was the original owner he told me so many stories in spanish how he traveled everywhere with it and the only reason he was selling it to me because his wife was making him.
Great find, keep up the good work.
Seen a few 4 door window and lock kits on ebay, but will contact DEI tomorrow to see if they have 4dr lock AND window kits. Hopefully, they have something. Worst case, Ill try out the ebay kit for $120ish shipped. and take my chances.
Thanks for the follow up. Gonna be hitting Big Lots tomorrow to try and pick up some brown non-slip mat too.
MyFirstWasAnEF9: Thanks man, I remember when I was in high school I wanted a 1991 Civic Hatchback Si so badly! I remember they used to come in this kinda crazy teal color. I checked on how much insurance would be for me at the time (I was 17) and it would have been $325/month!!! Can you believe that shit! Now I pay $60 for full coverage lol. Advantages of getting older I suppose.
Prennro: Let me know how that goes, I am especially interested in the power windows and how they hold up long term. I hope that my installer was wrong and that they last a long time.
Let me start by saying I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of the install itself. I hadn't charged my batteries and they were all dead at the time and I didn't want to wait to charge them to do the install.
I took some sandpaper to it when I got it home and tried to smooth out some of the rough spots and gauges. I need a powered sander to really do a good job. I should have waited but I was excited and hit it with some Duplicolor Bumper Paint which got it looking a lot better. I really wanted to try and get this lip on as flush as possible which takes a little work as the lip is a bit short. I got around this with a little bit of manhandling, a heat gun, some clamps and a 6 pack of Redhook. I started by lining the lip up to center and then bolting it down with 6 bolts/nuts/washers along the front. I then lined the front corner up and bolted at the exact point where I wanted the lip to start to bend out a bit to conform to the contour of the bumper so that it would act as an anchor point. I hit the lip with the heat gun on the bend to soften it up (melted my bumper paint from before which is why I should have held off). Once it was a bit more pliable I took the end of the lip (side end) and pushed it forward until the whole lip lined up perfectly around the corner with the bumper. I then used a pair of vice grips to clamp the lip to the bumper on the side end there to hold it in place. After that I proceeded to attached 5 nuts/bolts/washers to the corner to secure it down and snug it up. The plastic had kind of bent in the corner and was creating a little u shaped bend which I had to drill a hole through and bolt down. I will try and take pictures when I get my car back up on jacks sometime. From there it just took some final adjustments and things were looking pretty good. I was pretty stoked that I got the lip on as well as I did, and am very happy with the way it looks. I do need to recondition it still, but I need to do that to both my front and rear bumpers as well so I'll probably just do it all at the same time. It's definitely changing the way I drive a bit, it makes things a bit more of a pain but for now it's worth it as I just absolutely love the way the front end looks now. Fucking mean!!!
Hopefully I'll be able to borrow some power tools from my brother soon so I can try and refinish everything and then repaint it. I'm really liking this mod and what it adds to the wagon stylistically. I am getting closer and closer to what I had envisioned my wagon to be like in my head a few months ago. It feels really good. And not to be a douchebag, but this car gets more attention than any car I've ever driven in my life. It's really crazy the response I get from all kinds of people, it's a lot of fun. I did experience my first hater though the other day, a kid in a blacked out Mazda 3 speed up beside me, rolled his window down and gave me a big ol thumbs down. I was like...wtf was that for?? Then I just kinda laughed cause he was so serious about it and the whole thing just seemed silly. Haters gonna hate!
flyinhwn808: For the interior I'd like to find a new OEM front seat. I may do a DA maplight install someday. I plan on getting a wood grain Nardi with the black stripe and a matching wood grain shift knob. Probably grab a new shift boot while I'm at it as well as make the Nardi detachable. Then I'll go about adding other small wooden accents to the interior to play off the wheel/shifter combo...probably try and hand carve some stuff. Tomorrow I will be getting a custom box installed to house my 12" sub, and it will also house my 6.5" rears facing upwards in the standard wagon pod mounting positions. The box will be between my rear strut bar and my rear seat so that I can still make good use of my trunk and put my dog there. The amp will go under my drivers seat. I'll document the whole thing. Should sound really clean. I honestly don't have any big plans for the interior besides what I just mentioned. I like it simple and clean. I don't really mind OEM almost everything as long as it's clean.
For the engine, I'm at 184k right now and it's running really strong. I am surprised by the amount of pep it has for only 90 HP. That being said I do find myself wishing for more power often, and I do plan on doing a motor swap and/or turbo in the future. I haven't made up my mind but I have thought about going either the D16/turbo or just going all motor with a B18/B20 swap. I'm would be looking for around 200-250 whp, nothing too crazy as I'd still like it to be my DD and get a respectable mpg. I've never owned a turbo'd car and I think I'd really get a kick out of it. I did used to drive a 280 hp Z28 Camaro that could chirp tires when shifting on the freeway and that was a lot of fun.
I swear we could be brothas from anotha motha! I have been planning on some custom wood inserts and thinking about eventual motor upgrades myself. Its crazy the similar tastes we have in common. I had thought about a NA bseries swap of some kind, only because I have a rare jdm spec tranny gem with 4.7 final drive in my workbench cabinet waiting on a mate. Used it on my eg build before supercharging it. Perfect for NA motors! However, the short gear ratio combined with a s/cg'd bseries = hella wheel spin 1-3 gears!
That being said, a build with some performance on the cheap (comparatively), may i reccomend a d series with a jackson scgr.... will damn sure get your attention and be fun as hell to drive daily! I know, Ive done it!
I know it's hip to stay D series these days. But coming from someone that prefers to drive their car as apposed to working on it, I say stay all motor!
These shots are kinda crappy, sorry about that. I'll try and redo some better ones soon. They really aren't as bright as they seem in the picture. I didn't want it to be annoying to anyone. It basically just matches the color spectrum of my 5K HID headlights....the bulbs I purchased were 6K so it's close. I had used some LEDs that I got from eBay before and had lying around from my dash conversion but they had a slightly blue/purple tint to them that I didn't care for. In real life it just looks nice and clean, not too bright.
While I was at it I also did my license plate bulbs so that my color temps are matching all the way around (Sorry Haydz)
Converting to MPFI from your dual point is a good start. You could convert the motor you have for $150 (guesstimate). I personally have given away D16A6's for free before. So you could probably find a whole motor for just a few hundred bucks. I think I believe Foreign Engines (we have one here, and I know they come from their warehouse over there) sells them for around $400 and you get a receipt
My first swap was a DOHC ZC that I did into my first RT many years ago. I know they go for about $800 from FE now. You could have a nice swap for around $1g. Sometimes you can find them from other distributors with the fancy JDM trannys for around $1g too. But you could still retain your tranny should you find just a long block. Only wiring that would be needed is the previously mentioned MPFI swap, plus a re-pin of your cam angle sensor and distributor. We have a thread here about this swap.
I personally will always be a fan of the B-series. There's a million ways to do them up. You can spend a little or a lot. Just depends on how willing you are to shop then spend. At this point you'll be getting deeper into wiring depending on which motor you go with. But still way easier than trying to efficiently run forced induction (tuning). And again, you'll retain Honda reliability.
This is all my opinion. Forced induction is something I look forward to someday on a vehicle I don't daily drive. But having lived in Ballard and worked in Bellevue, that commute is not something I would have ever considered in something like a turbo or supercharger that constantly needs tweeking. My constant 32+ (documented!) miles per gallon out of a wicked strong B16 and Honda reliability was a no brainer. Again, just my opinion
The foam blinds were just a bit too thick for the slats which was perfect as I simply forced them in and which created grooves and held the blinds in place.
Here's they are finished
Even though the new foamcore blinds are super light and don't make any noise at all, I don't think I'll stay with them as it's just not as tidy as I'd like it to look and it's also not strong enough to be durable. It's hard to cut and get perfectly smooth edges. One of my blinds has already folded on the end and is now just kinda hanging/flopping. I think I will try and redo them out of a thin sheet of wood that I found at an RC car hobby store. I think it'll last longer, and when I get a Nardi wood grain wheel and shift knob I might just build a new set of wooden blinds all lacquered up to match. For now I'll probably just paint them white. The sheet of wood is thicker than the metal blinds, but that's good because I'll just use a router to make grooves in the wooden blinds so they will slide and lock right into the slats. My brother is a finish carpenter so I'll have him try and help me knock it out.
It all depends on all the things he mentioned, what your goal is and of course the HP to $ bang for your buck and also what becomes available. I will say I have been very pleased with my Jackson on my GSR motor, but as Charb said boost=$ and decreased gas mileage for obvious reasons. I think researching it all in the meantime is a no-brainer. I think looking at MPFI (which I will begin to do myself) and doing that initially until you want something more. Then for the $ and availabilty, look for a b series and/or a jackson for d series. I have a close friend that drove an eg SI with a jackson on D15 and the kit came with all the basic upgrades to run with stock components and ECU for $1500, but that was 10 years ago. You still get good gas mileage with regular driving, but all that decreases everytime you put your foot in it. If you havent experienced it, you will love the instant power a scgr gives you
As Charb, Im a big fan of the B-series motors. I know the H and K series make more power, but the B is so interchangeable but also has proven reliabiltiy and tons of how-tos out there. So you instantly get good HP to $ to reliabilty ratios out the gate.
All that being said, I will initially look for doing the MPFI swap all while keeping my eye open for a deal on a B-series to cross my path.
As for the blinds, I think your lightweight plywood will work. Make sure you cut that stuff with a high tooth sawblade as it splinters like a mofo if you dont! Good luck!
man i raped this wagon at pull a part, i got all the rt stuff and chadcouch got the engine for one of his wagon lol