Hill-Billy-Mobile (The Trials and Tribulations of a RT4WD)
503-Hill-Billy
Wagonist
Here is my story. I'm recently married and we have a son, times are changing and we are moving out to rural Oregon.
Here is my family.
And my Chickens.
Quickly I found that my 97 Mustang GT just isn't family friendly and that small V8 loves the gas especially when I'm driving 1 1/2 hours from BFE to work. Oh and not to mention the 8 inches of snow we just got. Doesn't sound like much but snow in Portland is like rain in Los Angeles. The city SHUTS DOWN! and being a firefighter I don't quite have the choice of not coming to work. So push came to shove and I sold the Mustang and thus began the Craigslist journey of finding a 4wd with good mileage. Naturally everyone around here screams SUBARU (Mostly in a middle-aged lesbian voice) But I said nay! It was a Toyota Tercel Wagon I was looking for but I was shut down hard and fast. The years were never good to the old Tercel and the ones on Craigs were nasty old rust buckets.
And that's when I saw her.
She was dirty, nasty, and smelt like fratboy, a gutter slut if you will. She was owned by a little old lady until 60k miles when the little old lady died and her fratboy grandson got ahold of her. He tacked on an extra 70k which actually he took pretty good care of her. She has her fair share of dings but nothing unfixiable. I started doing my homework on how to fix her up when I found my way to this forum. I quickly decided that I wasn't fond of the old automatic and started doing my homework on converting her. After getting a list of needed parts from 503Wagon I kicked that old dirty slut to the curb and a new search began. I found the next one when I was taking a dump, well actually my wife found her. She was in Bend about 160 miles of mountain pass away and her "starter" wasn't working according to the post. After talking to, we'll call him Mr. Barber it was clear that we could push start her and be on our way....... If only that were the case.
Here she is, the new and improved (manual) Hill-Billy-Mobile
She wasn't quite as untouched as the automatic. She had 30K miles more and there was some obvious tinkering going on with the engine and she was cholo'ed out with the lowering kit BUT DAMN is she clean! And so straight to, I had to have her running or not. We tried push starting her, no luck. I knocked on the starter, no luck. I cranked the hell out of the ignition, no luck. I jumped the battery, no luck. I tried hot wiring it, no luck. And finally, I tore the starter out and had it tested but the starter was fine..... We were lost. He said it was just running before the snow storm. It truly did seem like a starter issue but I exhausted all my mechanical ability seeing that I was 160 miles from home with a wife and baby sitting in the car and another snow storm coming in. It was getting dark and we were exhausted. I told Mr. Barber I need to get my wife and baby some food and we can decide what to do next.
During dinner my wife and I talked about what to do, we decided F*ck it. We've come this far lets do whatever we can to get it home. I called Mr. Barber and renegotiated a price, it was Wagon or bust at this point. I needed a trailer and I needed one stat, luckily u haul franchises with meth heads. In Redmond there was a trailer out in a field surrounded by u haul truck, snow and tumble weeds. We pulled up and a woman (tweaking on meth to likes of which SE Portland has never seen) hopped out of the trailer. Keep in mind its pitch black outside when my wife looks at me and says, "If your not back in 15min I'm leaving for help." I nodded my head and pulled my pistol from the glove box and put it in my pocket. After about an hour of watching a tweaker enter my information into a computer and screw it all up 3 times she finally finished the paperwork. By this time we are well into the night. Then after another 15 mins of watching the tweaker try to hook the trailer up I kicked her to the side and did it myself.
We had finally gotten the trailer and were on our way back to the Wagon. The storm was hitting at this point, the wind was ripping and cold and the snow was starting to stick. We knew this was going to be the moment of truth..... will the Cholo wagon bottom out on the trailer? Would the three of us be strong enough to push the wagon? God damn right it will get on that trailer. I lifted and cranked the hell out of the trailer jack, just enough to get the car to clear the stick point, but unfortunately we weren't strong enough to push the car up. So what did we do? I built a 3:1 pulley system with a tow strap and we pulled that bitch right up! LOL! Like I said Wagon or bust! After getting it loaded we finished the paperwork and we were on the way home. We drove through the night going over the pass in the storm it was sketchy but we made it! And now that big beautiful wagon is all mine.
The best part of the whole thing...... EXTRA PARTS!
I have two sets of fenders and a bunch of stock parts the owner picked. BOYEAH!
So you ask, what now? Well I have little to no experience with Hondas but I'm excited to learn. I'm going to try and completely restore the car the best I can with a few little personal Hill-Billy touches. So stay tuned and keep checking it, I have a few more tools I need to start the project that I'm collecting and we'll be good to go. As for the frat boy car, I'm currently cleaning it up and will be putting it for sale.
Here is my family.
And my Chickens.
Quickly I found that my 97 Mustang GT just isn't family friendly and that small V8 loves the gas especially when I'm driving 1 1/2 hours from BFE to work. Oh and not to mention the 8 inches of snow we just got. Doesn't sound like much but snow in Portland is like rain in Los Angeles. The city SHUTS DOWN! and being a firefighter I don't quite have the choice of not coming to work. So push came to shove and I sold the Mustang and thus began the Craigslist journey of finding a 4wd with good mileage. Naturally everyone around here screams SUBARU (Mostly in a middle-aged lesbian voice) But I said nay! It was a Toyota Tercel Wagon I was looking for but I was shut down hard and fast. The years were never good to the old Tercel and the ones on Craigs were nasty old rust buckets.
And that's when I saw her.
She was dirty, nasty, and smelt like fratboy, a gutter slut if you will. She was owned by a little old lady until 60k miles when the little old lady died and her fratboy grandson got ahold of her. He tacked on an extra 70k which actually he took pretty good care of her. She has her fair share of dings but nothing unfixiable. I started doing my homework on how to fix her up when I found my way to this forum. I quickly decided that I wasn't fond of the old automatic and started doing my homework on converting her. After getting a list of needed parts from 503Wagon I kicked that old dirty slut to the curb and a new search began. I found the next one when I was taking a dump, well actually my wife found her. She was in Bend about 160 miles of mountain pass away and her "starter" wasn't working according to the post. After talking to, we'll call him Mr. Barber it was clear that we could push start her and be on our way....... If only that were the case.
Here she is, the new and improved (manual) Hill-Billy-Mobile
She wasn't quite as untouched as the automatic. She had 30K miles more and there was some obvious tinkering going on with the engine and she was cholo'ed out with the lowering kit BUT DAMN is she clean! And so straight to, I had to have her running or not. We tried push starting her, no luck. I knocked on the starter, no luck. I cranked the hell out of the ignition, no luck. I jumped the battery, no luck. I tried hot wiring it, no luck. And finally, I tore the starter out and had it tested but the starter was fine..... We were lost. He said it was just running before the snow storm. It truly did seem like a starter issue but I exhausted all my mechanical ability seeing that I was 160 miles from home with a wife and baby sitting in the car and another snow storm coming in. It was getting dark and we were exhausted. I told Mr. Barber I need to get my wife and baby some food and we can decide what to do next.
During dinner my wife and I talked about what to do, we decided F*ck it. We've come this far lets do whatever we can to get it home. I called Mr. Barber and renegotiated a price, it was Wagon or bust at this point. I needed a trailer and I needed one stat, luckily u haul franchises with meth heads. In Redmond there was a trailer out in a field surrounded by u haul truck, snow and tumble weeds. We pulled up and a woman (tweaking on meth to likes of which SE Portland has never seen) hopped out of the trailer. Keep in mind its pitch black outside when my wife looks at me and says, "If your not back in 15min I'm leaving for help." I nodded my head and pulled my pistol from the glove box and put it in my pocket. After about an hour of watching a tweaker enter my information into a computer and screw it all up 3 times she finally finished the paperwork. By this time we are well into the night. Then after another 15 mins of watching the tweaker try to hook the trailer up I kicked her to the side and did it myself.
We had finally gotten the trailer and were on our way back to the Wagon. The storm was hitting at this point, the wind was ripping and cold and the snow was starting to stick. We knew this was going to be the moment of truth..... will the Cholo wagon bottom out on the trailer? Would the three of us be strong enough to push the wagon? God damn right it will get on that trailer. I lifted and cranked the hell out of the trailer jack, just enough to get the car to clear the stick point, but unfortunately we weren't strong enough to push the car up. So what did we do? I built a 3:1 pulley system with a tow strap and we pulled that bitch right up! LOL! Like I said Wagon or bust! After getting it loaded we finished the paperwork and we were on the way home. We drove through the night going over the pass in the storm it was sketchy but we made it! And now that big beautiful wagon is all mine.
The best part of the whole thing...... EXTRA PARTS!
I have two sets of fenders and a bunch of stock parts the owner picked. BOYEAH!
So you ask, what now? Well I have little to no experience with Hondas but I'm excited to learn. I'm going to try and completely restore the car the best I can with a few little personal Hill-Billy touches. So stay tuned and keep checking it, I have a few more tools I need to start the project that I'm collecting and we'll be good to go. As for the frat boy car, I'm currently cleaning it up and will be putting it for sale.
Comments
Nice life, nice wife, nice wagons.
Good pics and nice story of how things fell into place. Congrats on purchase of both wagons. Looks like you have something decent to work with.
A wagon will be the perfect fit for your snowy backwoods commute. Here you will find a wealth of knowledge buried in the search bar.
Prepare for a real addiction to set in, I can feel it setting in already. Can't wait to see more from you and your wagons.
Watch out! everyone is going to want your extra fenders
Love it, beautiful color and it still looks in great shape!
(I have four pairs and a hood)
yes, get it running first, or at least know for sure why not. Spell it out for us, we'll help out. There's probably no scenario I haven't encountered.
Here is the video just for shits
Oh and my trunk is full of craftsman goodies!
The good
Skunks 2's!
Not so lucky on the back but w/e.
U-Joints look and feel pretty solid!
The viscous coupler looks ok from the out side. PS this is my new words for vagina. Random thought, this is what makes the car not a 4wd correct? My history is with 70's Chevy 4x4s.
This thing, "vibration dampener" and the other bushing is ok.
All in all most of the bushings are doing well. A few of them look.... IDK deflated, since I've lifted the car off its struts some of the bushings look like the rubber is good but appear smashed. For instance on this picture.
I'm not sure if I need to replace these.
The bad
Lost a boot! All of them look great but this one tore.
These bushings are shit. Seems to be a common thing.
These are shit on both sides as well.
The annoying
I might really ruffle some feathers on this but I just don't get it..... It pisses me off SOOOO f*ucking bad.
THIS SHIT!
Zip tied rub mark
Destroyed from rubbing.
I mean I get the whole look of it and how that is appealing to some people but dude come on.... its basically a bone stock motor that is 23 years old and has 150k miles. Your lame lowering job isn't doing much. Not to mention it's a super heavy RT4WD. I just hate this person for a lot of reasons but mostly because you destroyed parts of a rare car that are so hard to replace. But I digress.
Overall I'm pretty happy with my purchase. It's gonna be an awesome adventure.
Also this happened. (My rubber broke) I've read all over and am extremely confused if the calipers are RT specific or if they were the same on the civic.
Next up is installing the new bushings and boots.
Oh and my son was helping.
What a crappy design. After all that I went and just ordered OEM ones. I'm starting to think pick n pull is bullshit. It cost me $125 for the new springs and pick n pull would have charged me $100. I could see how it would be useful if an actual wagon was there and you were picking rare parts but other wise the Chinese make it cheaper than you can pick it.
Anyways. I was looking at the radiator job the previous owner did. Looks super shotty and he cut the hell out of the bumper and lower front cross member? Not sure what its called. Does anyone know much about the half sized radiators? Should I keep it? Should I put the stock one back in. Anyways I noticed this...... What is going on here? Is this a stock bumper?
I'm thinking about taking everything off this car and putting it back to stock. It just looks like crap, I'm thinking he wanted to put a turbo in or something.
But anyways just waiting for parts to arrived now. Hurry up UPS!
As far as your pick n pull gripe, I fully agree. Pulling parts is next to useless unless they're wagon specific parts. I don't even carry tools in with me anymore haha. I just leave them in my car and go back if I happen to find something I want.
Make sure when you do the strut/spring swapping you put the rubber bushing on top and bottom of the spring otherwise you'll get some epic clunks like I have in my wagon.
Good heads up thanks.
if you havent got it running yet, check the usuals. most no starts with 90's hondas stem from the distrubitor. with these cars its likely coil or ignitor, the screw falling out of the rotor, the main relay (but this is usually a summertime thing), or lately ive been seeing more and more ignition replacements being the issue. make sure whatever you do inside the dist is oem. schmucks and aftermarket dist parts usually dont last long if they work at all and ive seen that crap ruin other components within the dist.
when your turning it over, does the tach bounce around?
I once spent 3 hours on a 110 degree day in 2 inches of spongy asphalt/grease pulling front/rear Integra calipers, hubs, uprights, sway bar, thinking I could get out of there for $400-500. When I got to the counter, they added up every bolt and asked me for $1150, and refused to go lower or get a manager. I raged and spent the next 15 minutes pounding out the one hub I really needed right in front of them, using the hood and other various body parts of a nearby American car for leverage and making sure to do the most damage I could in the process.
Epic story and I second what ^Vladi^ says about making this into a book lol!
I'm from Reno NV and ACTUALLY will be in PDX here in less than a month
Welcome aboard...have fun with your Wagons!
The other problem was that I removed the old lowered suspension and noticed my coil spring insulator was blown out so I ordered new ones. So basically I got nothing done today after waiting a week for all my parts to come Haha. Oh well, next week maybe.
Still on the fence about doing the motor swap my self but I'm not sure if I have the skill to do it alone.