99 CR-V Build - Jane 2.0
503Wagon
moderator
So as many of you know I sold Jane a few weeks ago. It was time to move onto something with a bit more off road capabilities than the civic. CR-V has a bit more power as well as a significant height advantage. Not to mention cup holders.....A/C....power windows.....power door locks.....cruise control....Just a few comforts the wagon just wouldn't have had.
Lets start from the beginning. I had $2,500 to play with after selling Jane. I wanted a CR-V for under $1,500. Needed to be a first gen, preferably late first gen. Manual. Really wanted either red or white. Found a 1999 CR-V...white....manual...sitting on craigs list for $2000. More than I wanted to pay but i figured what the heck, lets go talk to him. Picked up a buddy of mine who has been buying and selling cars off craigs list for YEARS. It's like an art form to watch him. Met the guy at his house, talked to him about the car for a few minutes and he let us take it for a test drive. As most of you know I manage a local Firestone Complete Autocare here in Portland Oregon. The guy lived about 3 minutes from one of our locations, so naturally we drove it straight down and threw it up on a lift to check it out.
Once we got it up in the air we noticed zero oil leaks. Drive line looks great. U-joints all solid. rear diff looked clean, axles were solid. Rear trailing arm bushings have the typical cracks in them. Major suspension issues with the right front. Very loud clunk and a beyond bad lower control arm bushing. I could push the wheel forward and backward about 3 inches total travel. Super sketchy to drive. Struts are all KYB. Check engine light on, very very loud valve tick. Car has some significant body damage as well.
Drove it back to the guys house and was prepared to purchase. My buddy duked it out with the guy for about 45 minutes about price and ended up settling on $1300 cash. I was satisfied with the price seeing as I was prepared to spend $1,500. Here are a couple of photos when we picked it up.
Once we got it back to the shop, the first focus was on making the vehicle safe to drive. Replaced the Right front lower control arm. Replaced the right front lower ball joint. Replaced the right front Upper control arm / ball joint. Basically the whole right front was destroyed.
Some in process fun
Also did front and rear brakes.
Previous owner put in a new cat, only to find out its shit and CEL is on for cat efficiency. Found this out after replacing both oxygen sensors so they actually read. The ones that were in the vehicle were not even reading anything when we checked them with the scan tool.
I had some random winter force tires laying around that I threw on. Better than the bald junk that was on it.
Once we got all of the suspension bits taken care of we tackled the check engine light. Codes were throwing the cat code, which we were not worried about. The others were a random cylinder misfire, as well as each individual cylinder misfire. We got the valves adjusted, they were completely out to lunch. Engine is silent now! Threw some fresh plugs and plug wires into it, replaced the cracked distributor rotor. Still throwing the same code. We messed around with a few things and finally figured out the IAC was FILTHY. Like the air passages in the intake were caked with black gunk as well as the whole inside of the valve. Cleaned that baby out and re-installed. Car runs like a dream and no issues other than the cat code, which again I'm not worried about at all.
All in all I'm into the car $2,000 after the repairs and purchase price. Not bad for a 1999 Honda CR-V with 222,000 miles. WORKING A/C. WORKING cruise control.
Lets start from the beginning. I had $2,500 to play with after selling Jane. I wanted a CR-V for under $1,500. Needed to be a first gen, preferably late first gen. Manual. Really wanted either red or white. Found a 1999 CR-V...white....manual...sitting on craigs list for $2000. More than I wanted to pay but i figured what the heck, lets go talk to him. Picked up a buddy of mine who has been buying and selling cars off craigs list for YEARS. It's like an art form to watch him. Met the guy at his house, talked to him about the car for a few minutes and he let us take it for a test drive. As most of you know I manage a local Firestone Complete Autocare here in Portland Oregon. The guy lived about 3 minutes from one of our locations, so naturally we drove it straight down and threw it up on a lift to check it out.
Once we got it up in the air we noticed zero oil leaks. Drive line looks great. U-joints all solid. rear diff looked clean, axles were solid. Rear trailing arm bushings have the typical cracks in them. Major suspension issues with the right front. Very loud clunk and a beyond bad lower control arm bushing. I could push the wheel forward and backward about 3 inches total travel. Super sketchy to drive. Struts are all KYB. Check engine light on, very very loud valve tick. Car has some significant body damage as well.
Drove it back to the guys house and was prepared to purchase. My buddy duked it out with the guy for about 45 minutes about price and ended up settling on $1300 cash. I was satisfied with the price seeing as I was prepared to spend $1,500. Here are a couple of photos when we picked it up.
Once we got it back to the shop, the first focus was on making the vehicle safe to drive. Replaced the Right front lower control arm. Replaced the right front lower ball joint. Replaced the right front Upper control arm / ball joint. Basically the whole right front was destroyed.
Some in process fun
Also did front and rear brakes.
Previous owner put in a new cat, only to find out its shit and CEL is on for cat efficiency. Found this out after replacing both oxygen sensors so they actually read. The ones that were in the vehicle were not even reading anything when we checked them with the scan tool.
I had some random winter force tires laying around that I threw on. Better than the bald junk that was on it.
Once we got all of the suspension bits taken care of we tackled the check engine light. Codes were throwing the cat code, which we were not worried about. The others were a random cylinder misfire, as well as each individual cylinder misfire. We got the valves adjusted, they were completely out to lunch. Engine is silent now! Threw some fresh plugs and plug wires into it, replaced the cracked distributor rotor. Still throwing the same code. We messed around with a few things and finally figured out the IAC was FILTHY. Like the air passages in the intake were caked with black gunk as well as the whole inside of the valve. Cleaned that baby out and re-installed. Car runs like a dream and no issues other than the cat code, which again I'm not worried about at all.
All in all I'm into the car $2,000 after the repairs and purchase price. Not bad for a 1999 Honda CR-V with 222,000 miles. WORKING A/C. WORKING cruise control.
Comments
Dang! As soon as my dad gets the side job he's working on out of his garage we will move the CR-V in and completely restore the body and get a fresh coat of paint on it. I've got a replacement rear bumper for it. I'm thinking about just doing bedliner on the bumpers and lower moldings so they hold on a bit longer.
I'm looking at the OMU kit to lift this sucker with a set of 30x9.5R15 all terrains on it. Should give it a nice stance and give me some more ground clearance. I'll begin my hunt for a JRSC as well....put a bit more pep in its step.
I'm having issues picking wheels....I've got a few options in my head but really I'm just not sure. If anybody has any suggestions fire away! Here are some of the ones i've been looking at....
And this is my front runner right now....
I saw a '99 RT 5spd on CL here for 2000, said it needed a cat. I was sorely tempted!
First you weld on some tabs...or body shims....
Then you hook up the slide hammer....
Then you yank...
And weld....
And yank...
And yank...
Tomorrow should be mud time. Ordered a new rear plastic license plate piece, mine was all cracked to hell.
Funny you mention the crank pulley, replaced that as well because it was really wobbly. Currently googling said wheels, I haven't bought anything yet.
Got some body work done on her.
Got the whole thing blocked....and in primer
Decided to do it the right way and yank the window out real quick.
GT-R wheels* GTS-T are 15x6.5" +45et or something weak, GT-R are the 16x8
Sanded and cleaned up both bumpers, fender / quarter moldings, rocker panel moldings and started hitting them with bedliner.
I used "bed armor" brand. Used it before on things so I figured it was good to go with something familiar. Once I had the four coats down on everything I let it dry for about an hour. The CR-V plastics are like a weird greyish color, and I want black. So I used "SEM" "Bumper Coater". I've used it to clean up other honda moldings and I really like the end finish. I sprayed the coating over the bed liner to give everything a uniform finish.
Here is a shitty photo of where she's at currently..
I still have not put the front bumper on or the grill. Hopefully I'll have the car put together tomorrow. Once she's back together and driving I'll hopefully have the funds to get the lift kit coming.
Later on down the road I'll refinish the doors other quarter and hood. I'm probably not going to bother with the roof, or i'll jus get it wrapped in a matt black finish. I figure with a rack and a large basket up there you're really not going to see it. Also will do the moldings on the doors at the same time so they match everything else.
These?
Yep, they are the same design just different sizes. GT-R ones are the ones to get
Yeah you are right, thanks for the clarification. I should know better too.
until i figure out something else, yes i can.
1) New front LCAs fixed our knocking up front, but I bet just the big bushings at tbe rear of the arms would've done the trick.
2) there's a bseries JRSC for sale locally $1500, want me to get it for you?
I feel ya on the wife thing. Happy wife, Happy life!! Sometimes you can work it out, though. We both want an awning for the camper, about a grand. That's what we're getting each other this year.