D3_Fab

First of let me say it was really hard not to post my build in the tech section like I saw a lot of other people doing..... Looong 5 days for me. But the time has come! Feast your eyes upon the epicness that is my mediocre budget dependant build of averageness!

I bought this hatch to replace my two (or three) previous autox/daily rides I will show you them because I love and miss them
First was my truck 95 Toyota pickup built by me!

Then my foxbody

Then my Ej


Unfortunately it needed more work than I was told but since I had some extra cash from selling the other cars I decided to dump more into the hatch than what I bought it for ($1800) because #carguylogic. This is how it looked when I got it.... Never buy/test drive a car at night...


What the guy neglected to tell me was it needed a top end, and it had a 4spd, and I found out it had bald (steel cords) front tires, stripped window crank (driver) broken driver seat, it also needed rear shocks/wheel bearing front axle ect ect. So I got a 5spd bolted to a junk d15b vtec block and started sourcing parts, first was some rear shocks


But that "fix" revealed more problems as someone decided to "replace my LCA's with ones off of a 87 hatch and also the new shocks ended up raising the rear of the car 1-1/2"...... Sooo..

But that created another problem... Now I have a slammed car and stock wheels :/ ...... Soooo scored these str racing wheels 15x7.5 zero offset just had 195/50 front and 185/60 rear for $250

Had to make the tires the same so again... New tires!!

But the wheels were to wide for the car as outside to outside lip the measured 8-1/2" wide so I figured maybe with the fenders rolled and a little more camber they might fit..... Sooooo yet again


Then I realized I needed to find out if that trans was any good before I kept spending money on suspension so I set about swapping it in

Me and my buddy Ryan have twins but I got the fat one cus I like her curves lol

I got the trans in and my 4-2-1 one peice dc header in as well as pulling the AC stuff out (was talked into with heavy use of #racecar which I already regret). Then I took her for a test drive and quick photo op

The car still needs to be leveled out

Got all the camber kits in and now the wheels fit (without being super "stanced" as I still want it to handle for autox)

Then I set out to fix other things like the window regulators (not pictured) and fix the seat and clean the inside of the car since it was previously used as a baby hauler

All welded up




Well now that I got the interior and suspension/wheels/tires sorted (for now) I needed to sort out the top end and was thinking about trying to rebuild the stock head but scored this for a good price instead (z6)

As we all know you can't just slap an obd1 head on a obd0 chassis and expect things to work out so a call to rywire was in order and earlier this week... Taadaa

Got everything needed but somewhere along the lines I came accross another deal that I couldn't pass up from a friend and got this stuff as well.... Pro series


But since my buddy that bought my Ej saw the parts (and has a good spare d16z6) I am currently trying to strike a trade with him for the parts. So that's it for now the car just sat for 2-3 months untouched until I sold the Ej and did all this work in the last 3 weeks so I've been really wanting to show it off hope you all enjoy and stick around for more updates to come as I'm planing on doing a lot more stuff and hope to have it done by the end of this month

Bently_Coop

Looks like a solid start. I had a seat pan in my 89 Si repaired as well, albeit not as severe though.

b20hatchek

Not bad

D3_Fab

Thanks guys! Well I started pulling the head today since it's not looking like I'm gonna be getting that engine off my buddy. I also wasn't able to work on it more than 2hrs today which sucked but what can ya do.. All I gotta do it pull the timing cover/belt then I can pull the head



As per usual the main pulley bolt didn't want to break free so I ground down some spare grade 8 bolts to prop a pry bar agains to be able to use a breaker bar on the bolt.... And I still had to put a cheater bar in it too!




I'll post more tomorrow when I get the head pulled and I get a better look at the inside of this unknown engine (I did do a comp test and it put out 210psi on all four) the compression seemed a bit high to me but maybe someone can chime in if it is just me or not. I'm hoping I can get away with swapping the head without having to rebuild the bottom end

.Grimace

I just quickly browsed the photos so maybe you said something about it but. For an autocross car tires are HUGE I'd make that my first purchase. Rivals, z2 or rs3

D3_Fab

I couldn't agree more but for now I working on a budget that's almost exhausted ($1700) so with everything that the car still needs and it still not running right I'm putting the tires off till later

D3_Fab

This day was going so slow ahhh! Just seeing my car sitting there waiting to be fixed



So I got my head off



Lots of carbon build up :/



But upon further inspection it looked like my smoking issue is from the bottom end so it's gonna come out for a rebuild.... Lame....



The head bolts looked good so I'm just gonna clean them up and re-use them, I numbered them so I can put them back in the same place/same order



Went to pull the axles and this is how one of them looked soo.... Gonna have to buy a new one



My buddies lending a hand getting it pulled



That's all for today....



Oh and about the head studs........ Troll lololololol

Ef9vsDa9

looks like you busted that axle trying to take it out lol ive done
it once or twice myself haha keep up the good work

D3_Fab

I got it out fine but i knew the boots were had been torn for a while because there was no grease left in them but if I didn't finish it off I would have been tempted to put back in so I was a little...... "Aggressive".... With it to ensure I wouldn't want to try and save it lol

D3_Fab

So a lot happened the last 2 days, first off I found out one of my wheels has a flat spot and needs to be repaired. Second, a deal has been made.... I'm trading the skunk2 intake/tb/cam gear and my wheels to a budy for his d16z6 out of his crashed car. He's gonna pull it this Sunday and drop it off at my shop. Which is cool because I know it's a good engine and it's coming out of a automatic car (less abuse) so I figured I'd start stripping the sound deadening and pressure wash the engine bay

Because everyone takes a weird picture in the empty bay of their car



Seats and nasty carpet out







I'm bagging everything I pull so I can see how much weight I'm saving, I'm also gonna take the opportunity to stitch weld some of the chassis to help stiffen it up. I'm gonna go back down to the shop tomorrow to work on it some more after I run some errands in the morning so I'll post more progress tomorrow

latino honda

Looks good bro keep it up.

D3_Fab

Well I didn't get much done lately because my daily was acting up but I traded my wheels and skunk2 intake/tb/cam gear for a low mile d16z6 out of a friends auto eg,




Also found out my subframe is cracked...... Lame!



But today at the local sandwich shop this 1200hp r35 showed up!! Instant regret not trying to bribe a ride out of though.... I'm not beyond setting aside pride for a opportunity like that haha

D3_Fab

Meant to post this last night but forgot, over acquired some new parts for the car as well as finished getting a large majority of the sound deadening out, picked up some second hand stuff like a sparco wheel/QR/hub and a set up 15" slips (don't know if I'll keep them since when my friend with the Crx say them he wanted them).... anyway, here's some pics of the progress so far



The wheel



The wheels (tires are rotted)



Found this while stripping the car but offer little time of actual enjoyment



Also welded up the crack but I'm gonna put a small plate over it to help keep it from cracking again



More to come later today as I start to stitch weld some of the chassis and mock up some templates for chassis gussets. My daily is acting up so I'm kinda wanting to get this thing back together just incase

D3_Fab

Well a lot happened the last couple days, found out the driver side engine mount had stripped the threads out of the block from the crash, my clutch/flywheel was toasted as well but I got a decent jump in it tonight and got a lot done

First I plated and painted that crack I welded up



Stripped holes and the rest of the threads I pulled off of the bent bolts




So I got new bolts, drilled and heli coiled some fresh threads and tightened the mount back to the block




The old clutch and flywheel

D3_Fab

There was also years of spilt food/soda stains all over the car so I decided it wiped it down and clean it up a bit

Before:




Still looks like poop but I tried :/





I also got the new (stock) flywheel/clutch kit bolted on and the trans mounted to the ""new"" engine (I've never had that much trouble stabbing as trans onto a engine as I did with this one for some strange reason)



Well that's it for now, I'm gonna get the engine back in tomorrow and start trying to figure out the wiring (I don't know what hooks up to the tps so I have some research to do) and do a little bit more with the interior afterwards

D3_Fab

A little progress, got the back half cleaned/painted and started going back together. I kinda like the look with no back seat, I may rock it for a little while and store the rear seats for when I decide to put them back (no kids yet so not really a necessity for now)



All painted, dig how clean it looks (in pictures lol)




Well that's all for now, I'll have more you y'all tomorrow

bbarbulo

great progress! keep up the good work

b20hatchek

Looks good

rdcd12

Awesome job, looking forward to seeing it come together.

D3_Fab

Thanks for all the kind words and encouragement as always guys

Well, it's finally on the road now! Drove it to get wheels/tires on it and get the alignment done as well, the guy that did my alignment ended up buying the white wheels off me I drove the car there on so that was nice lol, and on the way there I ran over a pocket knife but the tire held together till I got there luckily haha. I'm gonna paint the wheels/mugen valve cover and sparco wheel white today after work and try and geth it back together to take home. Here's some pics from the last couple days

Knife in the tire


New Nitto neo gen tires to mount on my slips (drags) 205/50/15


Mounted looking pretty




Also gave it it's first bath since I've gotten it lol


And some husband wife bonding, we took our cars in to wash together (her first car, helping her get swap a new engine and help her clean it up from 100% stock has been stressful but a great bonding experience)


Goofy girl, love her so much


Well, stay tuned for more to come
Also decided on a name for the hatch, gonna call her "Mello" (marshmallow) since the theme will be white on white with white on purple accents (don't judge me haha)

StreetLethaleg6

keep up the good work bro

D3_Fab

Thanks man

Well I'm nearly the end of my budget so things will start slowing down now as I adjust to my new (or lack there of) budget but will still continue to bring updates on the car and events that I take it to. Last night I did a little bit of painting and my buddy is letting me "borrow" his old hood of his Crx since he is just put on his CF hood last night. Well here's some more pics for ya guys.









I'm gonna have to try and either get this hood from him or get mine painted cus it really helps clean up the car



Well that's it for now, gonna do a little maintanence work on her today but nothing picture worthy yet, I've got a d16a6, d15b7, d15b with z6 head I'm gonna try and sell so I can get more parts together ..... We'll see

D3_Fab

Went to get lunch just now and a guy flagged me down, turns out he wanted to try and talk me into selling him my hatch lol, he kept asking me how much I wanted for it but I told him I wasn't planning on selling it, so he insisted I don't sell it without going to him first haha.... Makes you kinda feel good about your build when someone says that

Well last night I got the oil changed, passenger window regulator changed, front bumper cleaned up, and my strut bar painted.





Before:




After:


Later today I'm gonna possibly change the shifter and fix a rattling exhaust issue.... We'll see.

ben_art

Love the fresh interior paint, transforms it

D3_Fab

so I did a couple more little here's and theres to clean it up a bit, I also replaced the front struts today (sorry no pics) but I did spend a couple hours with a paint pen filling all the little chips in the hood and bumper (it looks really good from 10' away haha. also removed the rear tint because it was peeling and a little to dark


BEFORE:



AFTER:



BEFORE:



AFTER:



"Stay classy Sand Diego"



also got some shirts off facebook that I saw and liked



well that's it for now, the engine that was "good" is now going through a quart of oil every other day and smoking at high rpm...... so look forward to either a single cam build or a B-series swap (if I can work a deal with on of my friends)..... most likely a a6/z6 hybrid since I can build it while I drive it and then sell the d16z6 so the buyer can drive it and check it out before they buy. so we'll see how it goes