I went to a little 1stgencivic.com meet this past Saturday and had a chance to finally clean up my wagon - been >4 months since it's last wash! It's nice and shiny now. I did the following: wash, clay bar, wash, klasse AIO, klasse HGSG and Pinnacle Souveran liquid wax. It looks better in person. I forgot to reset the camera for better resolution. Enjoy!
And yes, it's original paint..about 28 years old!!! 8)
Wow, it's been over 4 years since I've posted anything about my wagon. The last couple years of my life have been crazy and I had to move to the Philippines for 2 years. I've relocated my family to British Columbia, Canada for now and living with great friends! Some of you may know him by Old Skool on the forum. I've done a little updating and small mods to my '78 wagon so I figured I'd keep this thread going instead of starting new. I tried to remember which pictures I posted previously and fixed some of the links. Now onto the stuff I did this summer.
I swapped out my dash for one that was in much better condition. I proceeded to install some CVCC deluxe center gauge pod and instrument cluster. My good friend Old Skool is a car audio guru so he installed a killer stealth stereo into my wagon with a custom amp rack in the upper rear seat cushion and a 12" sub in each rear quarter panel. I got some kind of Alpine audio controller with inputs hidden in my left fresh air vent. Attached to it are a 6 disc Alpine MP3/wma CD Changer under the driver seat and an old Blaupunkt am/fm cassette deck with rotary knobs to keep the dash stock looking. He also wired in a 3.5mm input jack and USB charger into the dash for iPods/phones. We installed 6.5 components in custom front kickpanels. The sound is great and more than enough for me. I'm not into huge bass and the small airspace in the rear sub enclosures are perfect. It's got good clean sound. I don't have pics of it all but I'll upload them when I do.
I also re-did my front crossmember to clear my header and to use factory radius arms again. I didn't like my old setup. I swapped out my inner and outer tie rods and lower control arms/ball joints with pieces with didn't have any play in them. It drives so much better now and the steering is tighter. I had to swap in the stock suspension so I could get passed BC's provincial inspection so I could insure the car here. I partially redid my exhaust. It was too loud. I installed a flange near the engine (it was welded solid before), welded in a 18" or 24" (can't remember haha) cherry bomb for a resonator and fixed the exhaust hangers at the rear muffler. I painted the stainless magnaflow muffler black lol. I think it looks better. Cut off the big 4" tip and used a 2.5" stainless exhaust pipe, slash cut it, and welded it on as a tip.
I ripped out the interior and put in some much better (although used) black carpet. I found some '90-93 Integra seats and modified the stock civic rails to bolt onto them. I also grabbed the matching rears seats from the Integra and had the upholstering shop use that material to re-wrap my stock rear seats. I also found some kind of blue aluminum short shifter from an '94+ Integra and modded it to fit my 1st gen. I topped it off with a re-tapped CL Type S automatic shift knob. My friend also gave me an old Civic wagon chrome roof rack that I mounted. I installed some H4 Hi/Lo HID kit also. Then I installed 4 power door lock actuators and one actuator to release the rear tailgate. To make sure my wagon stays mine, my friend hooked it up with a Compustar 2-way remote start/security system. And last but not least, I yanked out my engine and dash wiring and redid the entire thing. I moved the battery back into the engine bay and fit a modded battery tray. I also re-did two of my engine mounts. Here's the funny thing, the wiring was the main reason I started working on it again. There was nothing wrong with it, I just felt like making it look a little nicer. LOL. I still got plenty of things to do though. This September, I drove down with Old Skool to the Japanese Classic Car Show in Long Beach, CA. I visited family in NorCal and drove back with my daughter. It was roughly 2600 miles round trip and the ZC wagon made it without a glitch and a booming sound system to keep me awake
Pics after dinner, it's Thanksgiving in Canada eh!!
This wagon should be included in some of the "which wagons do you think are the best" threads. All generations of wagons need representation and it is good to see some of the old school guys still hanging around and doing it right!
Thanks...and I have mentioned to my wife I wouldn't mind being buried in my car. Burials are too expensive though, so I think it'd be a better idea to just light me and my car on fire!
This wagon should be included in some of the "which wagons do you think are the best" threads. All generations of wagons need representation and it is good to see some of the old school guys still hanging around and doing it right!
Old Skool is the one you got me hooked on 1st gen Civics. It's funny how his red wagon is pretty much what started the interest for me. And now here I am; I get to see it everyday (although it's in pieces currently). We'll always be around with our wagons.
What can I say? That car is so sick! Its really cool that you've kept at it after your relocations. Very cool
Thanks man. Times were rough and I did kind of suggested I was interested in selling it a couple years ago when all the crap in my life went downhill. No one made me an offer. They probably knew I loved my car and didn't want to take advantage of me In the past few years I haven't been able to do much, but I'm trying to stabilize my life and the bug is kicking back in. I bought a '90 Wagovan also for a winter beater and trying to keep myself from modifying it
Comments
And yes, it's original paint..about 28 years old!!! 8)
I guess I shouldn't complain bout my paint then
I think I can send someone else over this way..he has a really clean original '79 wagon. It's white also.
Thanks!
I swapped out my dash for one that was in much better condition. I proceeded to install some CVCC deluxe center gauge pod and instrument cluster. My good friend Old Skool is a car audio guru so he installed a killer stealth stereo into my wagon with a custom amp rack in the upper rear seat cushion and a 12" sub in each rear quarter panel. I got some kind of Alpine audio controller with inputs hidden in my left fresh air vent. Attached to it are a 6 disc Alpine MP3/wma CD Changer under the driver seat and an old Blaupunkt am/fm cassette deck with rotary knobs to keep the dash stock looking. He also wired in a 3.5mm input jack and USB charger into the dash for iPods/phones. We installed 6.5 components in custom front kickpanels. The sound is great and more than enough for me. I'm not into huge bass and the small airspace in the rear sub enclosures are perfect. It's got good clean sound. I don't have pics of it all but I'll upload them when I do.
I also re-did my front crossmember to clear my header and to use factory radius arms again. I didn't like my old setup. I swapped out my inner and outer tie rods and lower control arms/ball joints with pieces with didn't have any play in them. It drives so much better now and the steering is tighter. I had to swap in the stock suspension so I could get passed BC's provincial inspection so I could insure the car here. I partially redid my exhaust. It was too loud. I installed a flange near the engine (it was welded solid before), welded in a 18" or 24" (can't remember haha) cherry bomb for a resonator and fixed the exhaust hangers at the rear muffler. I painted the stainless magnaflow muffler black lol. I think it looks better. Cut off the big 4" tip and used a 2.5" stainless exhaust pipe, slash cut it, and welded it on as a tip.
I ripped out the interior and put in some much better (although used) black carpet. I found some '90-93 Integra seats and modified the stock civic rails to bolt onto them. I also grabbed the matching rears seats from the Integra and had the upholstering shop use that material to re-wrap my stock rear seats. I also found some kind of blue aluminum short shifter from an '94+ Integra and modded it to fit my 1st gen. I topped it off with a re-tapped CL Type S automatic shift knob. My friend also gave me an old Civic wagon chrome roof rack that I mounted. I installed some H4 Hi/Lo HID kit also. Then I installed 4 power door lock actuators and one actuator to release the rear tailgate. To make sure my wagon stays mine, my friend hooked it up with a Compustar 2-way remote start/security system. And last but not least, I yanked out my engine and dash wiring and redid the entire thing. I moved the battery back into the engine bay and fit a modded battery tray. I also re-did two of my engine mounts. Here's the funny thing, the wiring was the main reason I started working on it again. There was nothing wrong with it, I just felt like making it look a little nicer. LOL. I still got plenty of things to do though. This September, I drove down with Old Skool to the Japanese Classic Car Show in Long Beach, CA. I visited family in NorCal and drove back with my daughter. It was roughly 2600 miles round trip and the ZC wagon made it without a glitch and a booming sound system to keep me awake
Pics after dinner, it's Thanksgiving in Canada eh!!
2.
3.
4. Nardi steering wheel
5. wood wheel from a JDM Nissan March
6. old interior with Integra seats and Nardi wheel
7. Stock vinyl back seats
8. old
9. replacement dash...sanded it down a little fixed some small cracks
10. old cracked dash and peeling faux wood decal
11. some plastic parts prepared to be painted
12. 32 year old carpet
13. dash and seats removed
14. torn shifter bushing, impossible to find so had to repair it
15.
16. dash vinyl dyed
17. misc pieces dyed
18. CVCC deluxe center gauge pod
19. steering column covers and fresh air vents
20. instrument panel cover
21. wiring
22. CVCC optional tach and speedo. Replaced the plexiglass with real glass. Looks much cleaner!
23. recent engine bay @ JCCS '10
24. borrowed Old Skool's 14" Mugen CF48 for the show
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26.
27. 1stgencivic.com @ JCCS '10 in Long Beach, California
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I want some of those Mugen Aero Discs! Been looking for ages and never even seen a set come up for sale, let alone at a decent price
wagon...........................4ever.........................
You know where they are...question is, what are you going to put them on?
Thanks...and I have mentioned to my wife I wouldn't mind being buried in my car. Burials are too expensive though, so I think it'd be a better idea to just light me and my car on fire!
Old Skool is the one you got me hooked on 1st gen Civics. It's funny how his red wagon is pretty much what started the interest for me. And now here I am; I get to see it everyday (although it's in pieces currently). We'll always be around with our wagons.
Thanks man. Times were rough and I did kind of suggested I was interested in selling it a couple years ago when all the crap in my life went downhill. No one made me an offer. They probably knew I loved my car and didn't want to take advantage of me