The life of my 1988 Honda Civic Wagon
Mo-Van
Wagonist
Hello to the wagon community. My name is Ge, I have been on here for quite some time way back when this site used to be called HONDACIVICWAGON.COM. I read a lot and gained a lot of knowledge and so forth from here.
The purpose of this thread is to capture the different stages of my wagon. I wouldn't really call it a build thread but more of a documentary of the life of my 2nd Wife..
Here is my first wagon. Some of you may remember this wagon. This was my first wagon and I purchased it from an old friend who purchased it from an old member of HCW (Marc-111). I picked this thing up in 2007 and had it for 2 years.
The wagon at its prime, racing at the local drag strip. I raced it that year and I got a lot of attention. In MN/WI I believe I was one of the firsts to bring the CIVIC WAGON to light in the local car scene. After that race day THE CIVIC WAGON trend caught like wild fire.. Everyone wanted a Wagon NOW!
Fast forward a couple of months. It was now Winter, I went to help my brother move out of his apartment. We shoved a 3 person couch with the fold away bed in the wagon. It drove fine for a couple of miles and then I went over a speed bump CRACK I felt the car instantly drop lower! Well, what do you know? The car was now slammed! I went home and then I discovered this..
Sitting and waiting to get parted out
I would spend the next few months parting this wagon out. Nothing ever really sold. I pulled the motor out and got rid of her that spring. I kept the valuable parts in hopes of one day rebuilding another wagon one day. I was sad, I was heart-broken to say the least. My first car is now gone. I left the HONDA scene.
Two years passed and I got married. I got rid of most of my parts. The only thing left was my engine and my transmission. One morning I received a call from my brother. He said dude, you gotta look at this wagon. He told me jokingly you gotta buy this thing! It was on my local Honda Forum (MNHondas.com). Instantly I fell in love, I just knew I had to have it. The car was stock, unmolested and had low miles! I pmd the owner of the wagon. Funny thing was back when I had my blue wagon after race day I received a call from him, he had some questions that needed an answer. He too told me he wanted to buy/find a wagon.
Here is his thread on his journey and feel free to read it! http://www.civicwagon.com/showthread.php?6724-From-MN-to-GA-and-back-One-mans-quest-for-a-wagovan&highlight=peekoo
A few days later I went to go check out the wagon.. My jaw dropped and I was beyond ecstatic about seeing such a clean car.. It was love at first sight .
DSCN0761 by MouaGe, on Flickr
DSCN0758 by MouaGe, on Flickr
DSCN0757 by MouaGe, on Flickr
DSCN0756 by MouaGe, on Flickr
DSCN0755 by MouaGe, on Flickr
Sorry guys I have to get back to work. To be continued Stay tuned..
The purpose of this thread is to capture the different stages of my wagon. I wouldn't really call it a build thread but more of a documentary of the life of my 2nd Wife..
Here is my first wagon. Some of you may remember this wagon. This was my first wagon and I purchased it from an old friend who purchased it from an old member of HCW (Marc-111). I picked this thing up in 2007 and had it for 2 years.
The wagon at its prime, racing at the local drag strip. I raced it that year and I got a lot of attention. In MN/WI I believe I was one of the firsts to bring the CIVIC WAGON to light in the local car scene. After that race day THE CIVIC WAGON trend caught like wild fire.. Everyone wanted a Wagon NOW!
Fast forward a couple of months. It was now Winter, I went to help my brother move out of his apartment. We shoved a 3 person couch with the fold away bed in the wagon. It drove fine for a couple of miles and then I went over a speed bump CRACK I felt the car instantly drop lower! Well, what do you know? The car was now slammed! I went home and then I discovered this..
Sitting and waiting to get parted out
I would spend the next few months parting this wagon out. Nothing ever really sold. I pulled the motor out and got rid of her that spring. I kept the valuable parts in hopes of one day rebuilding another wagon one day. I was sad, I was heart-broken to say the least. My first car is now gone. I left the HONDA scene.
Two years passed and I got married. I got rid of most of my parts. The only thing left was my engine and my transmission. One morning I received a call from my brother. He said dude, you gotta look at this wagon. He told me jokingly you gotta buy this thing! It was on my local Honda Forum (MNHondas.com). Instantly I fell in love, I just knew I had to have it. The car was stock, unmolested and had low miles! I pmd the owner of the wagon. Funny thing was back when I had my blue wagon after race day I received a call from him, he had some questions that needed an answer. He too told me he wanted to buy/find a wagon.
Here is his thread on his journey and feel free to read it! http://www.civicwagon.com/showthread.php?6724-From-MN-to-GA-and-back-One-mans-quest-for-a-wagovan&highlight=peekoo
A few days later I went to go check out the wagon.. My jaw dropped and I was beyond ecstatic about seeing such a clean car.. It was love at first sight .
DSCN0761 by MouaGe, on FlickrDSCN0758 by MouaGe, on FlickrDSCN0757 by MouaGe, on FlickrDSCN0756 by MouaGe, on FlickrDSCN0755 by MouaGe, on Flickr
Sorry guys I have to get back to work. To be continued Stay tuned..
Comments
In 2009 I purchased this car. It sat for about a year while waiting for all of it's parts.
She sat empty awaiting her heart..
A picture of my brother's JRSC GSR. Good times with this thing.
Sorry for the crappy cell phone pictures..Here are some goodies waiting to be installed.
Here they are all unboxed. The piece that makes me the happiest is the BRAND IN BOX Carbing bar with MC brace. I have only seen 2 other strut tower bars like this. Better yet mine was brand new! I am lucky to have such great group of brothers, the helped buy me a set of BRAND NEW Hasport mounts!!
While I spent time buying car parts and such I was not able to work on the wagon because I had surgery on my wrist.. It left my right hand pretty much useless.
To be continued....
Once the wagon started running again. I drove it around town. It was a blast to drive. Spinning 13inch steelies and no traction was fun! haha
After driving around town one day my dad ends up detailing/washing my engine bay for fun because he just loves making sure things are clean. I didn’t know that he washed my engine bay. Well wouldn’t you know water ended up getting into my spark plug wells. I took the car for a spin shortly after without knowing the bay was washed and instantly my car was bogging!
I ended up going back into the garage thinking that my cat was clogged. At home I had waiting for me a AEM Hybrid CAI, Thermal R&D CRX exhaust, a SPFab (Spoolin Performance) Toda Replica header, BLOX Adjustable Test Pipe and Full Race Traction bar waiting for me at home. My hope was since the cat is clogged why not just take off all those parts and replace them with aftermarket pieces to solve the issue. That night I slapped all of the parts on the car. Got it running and took for a spin. Once again the car was still bogging! Frustrated I returned to the garage and I asked my dad to help me take a look at the car. Instantly he mentioned to me that he washed my engine bay. We immediately cleaned out my spark plug wells and I told him to hop in. Sure enough he did!
As we left the garage and I slowly went through the gears I could feel the car’s behavior change in a good way! As we entered the highway I was in 1st gear. I floored the car and instantly the throttle response improved. At the top of 3rd gear I slowed down and then looked at my dad. This was his first time witnessing his son’s craze in the car game and first time experience VTEC! My dad’s face was priceless. It was a look of scared shitless and excitement! (By no means am I claiming that my car is fast.) This experience with my dad was unforgettable.
The car felt AMAZING! The only thing now was to address why I had no power below VTEC. When VTEC engaged it was like opening a can of whoop-ass. The car just wakes up! At 4,000 rpm to 5,500 rpm the car had no power.
When I took off the valve cover to my surprise I found that my timing was off by 1 tooth! Keep in mind I bought this motor with my blue wagon above. Instantly it made sense why I had no power before VTEC. When VTEC engaged it was like waking up Snorelax from his deep slumber!! It was awesome but if the RPM dropped below VTEC the car felt powerless!
With careful research and time spent diligently working on the car I was finally able to put them on. I reset timing and while I was at it, I installed a new valve cover. I replaced the yellow because it was an eye sore. I am loving the new wrinkle blue valve cover!
Hopefully you like the look as much as I do!
That's it for now. I will update this thread soon!
I really like that color, especially with the black hood!!
Its not not the real color??
And i I personally like the yellow valve covers, especially on white cars. But it looks great both ways!
With the help of my brother Enderson, owner and operator of EndWorks Premium Automotive Detailing, he worked his magic..
These are his words and his post that I copied from another board.
This was a challenging yet fun car to do. I finished sealing the car last night at 9:30. The photos don't do the car justice and they are simple Iphone photos. Prior to the paint restoration, it was dull and the paint was more yellow than a nice pure white. The car turned out amazing!
The car:
Wheels
Before
After
Roof
Before
After (ignore the haze...)
Side Shot
Before
After
Mirrors
Before
After
Wing Thing
50/50
Hood 50/50
Front End
Before
After
Engine after some Adam's APC
Some "After" shots
And lastly, some photos out in the sun. The sun wasn't out as nicely as expected so I just quickly snapped these before it went into storage.
Sorry man for the super late reply! That blue car was resprayed. The blue was darker than most. But it looked great!
Excellent job man!
Either way it looks damn good!
Superhatch, you're from Wisconsin??? Where you from?
I'm from Hudson, on the border of WI/MN.
Thank you!
This was a 36 hour job. It consisted of full wash, clay, cutting, polishing, waxing, and then sealing of the paint. Honda's clear coat is super super soft and it's single stage paint. Not only that but the paint is 27 years old so time was taken to prevent any paint failure.
Finally I have some shots of the beast at the last local Autox event of the season. I present to you The Smokey Wagon in it's natural environment. :P
This event was difficult. The course not so much. I battled traction and rotation issues all day. I was running 225/15/45 tires on the 949s. The wagon felt vague upon turn and didn't have the grip it need to get out of the corner when I needed to get out of the apex. I learned lot that year. There are going to be some minor changes coming up if the car doesn't sell.
Now when you say "sealing the paint" what exactly is that? Is that like reclearing the car?