ZacCarter

iTrader: (1)

Hello HT this is my build thread and hopefully one to stay around for a while.

Meet my paradise green civic, no it does not have a name but it does serve a purpose, daily transportation.





I've been a semi-active member here for years and recently have had a chance to build something that I hope to keep and continue to improve.

This 1995 civic was picked up from a neighboring town for cheap just to serve as daily transportation after my wife and I had our daughter. I sold my RS Integra to fund my photography hobby and buy a new computer and the money I had left over from the sale of the RS I purchased the civic.



I never really had much interest in fixing up this car as it had right at 240k when I purchased it then and is now just about to click over 260k. But things change and I have been making enough cash flipping parts and selling vinyl decals that I will swap out the tired d15b7 for something a little less anemic.

The main motivation for my build is my old couple:



My old coupe was an ex with a b16a3 swap.

Goals for this car:

B16a2 swap
A/C
Functional suspension travel
Reliable enough to drive to track days 3+ hours away

One day I hope to pass this car on to my daughter with half a million miles on it hopefully by then. I'll be documenting the build piece by piece on here as well as my blog listed in the links in my signature. This build is funded by parts I resell on ebay which is also linked below. I look forward to sharing with you.

ZacCarter

iTrader: (1)

Saved for later

RotiEatter

iTrader: (1)

Hope the build goes well man.

ZacCarter

iTrader: (1)

What's up Roti!?? It's been a super long time man! Hope everything is good.

Lack of updates I know.. But I've been stacking up parts.

First on the plan of attack is the Disc Swap.

IMG_0637 by ZacCarter, on Flickr

I snagged a DC2 Rear disc swap which included the rear calipers, control arms, swaybar, rear trailing arms. In the process I picked up the following to make sure everything was done right.

White Line Rear Trailing Arm Bushings
Goodridge Stainless Steel Brakelines
Moog OEM replacement Front Upper Control Arms
Moog OEM replacement Front Lower Balljoints
Moog OEM replacement Inner and Outer Tie Rods
Remanufactured Nissin 15/16ths 88-91 EX Sedan Master Cylinder
A rebuilt 40/40 brake proportioning valve from a local member.

For now I'll just be running the stock pads that came with the disc swap they are in good shape as are the wheel bearings. I'm going to get these parts installed and make sure the car is good to go from there. Koni's and Ground controls are coming soon.

In the Engine front. I've still yet to pull the b16 out of my buddies car, hopefully once it starts to cool off next month I can do that. I've since picked up a socketed p06 with a p30 program. I'm also talking to chase of Chasebays on getting a harness made up. I should have a set of rdx injectors showing up any day in the mail. So I still have a few things to gather up but progress is being made slowly.

While i've been beating the **** out of the stock motor for the last 20k miles the exhaust that the previous owner had put on finally rusted off the other day so I picked up a Megan OE:RS from DWS Parts. If you need anything aftermarket hit up Autrey, he's very customer oriented and will get you exactly what you need. I'll post some pics of the exhaust as soon as I get some time.

Mac2118

iTrader: (1)

coming along nicely. seeing your rear disc swap reminds me of how much I bitched while doing mine. a little piece of advice to conserve hairloss: try to use a press for your rta bushings.. don't be like me and use a mallet

ZacCarter

iTrader: (1)

haha yes I pressed them in at my buddies machine shop, he has an electric hydraulic press. It took about 2 minutes to get them in and out.

ZacCarter

iTrader: (1)

Random parts showing up today... RDX injectors, ITR oil pump, and rebuilt 40/40 prop valve. Stay tuned.

ChadB

Can't wait to see the build

AussieGSR

Hey thanks for the f/s bump. Car looks real familiar man, I think I've seen it on Rutledge pike a few times. Nice looking build!

joey1320

Funny that you mentioned you will like to pass the car to your daughter, I just picked up an EM1 which I'm restoring, plus adding some tasteful add-ons, which I will like to pass onto my 1y/o son.

These cars will be the VW's of our generation (current 25-40 y/o people). They were sold by the millions but due to rust, accidents, hellaflush, stance, thieves and such, they will be hard to come by clean and unmolested after the next 15 years.

Kinda crazy to think of it this way but we are getting older and these cars are too...
Updates?

ZacCarter

iTrader: (1)

No Problem man! I may have been over that way. I drive all over the place in knoxville. d

Yea man. I love em1's but they still pull a fat premium in rough shape around here, plus I don't want to fool with obd2. But you are exactly right, so hard to find a decent car to start with.


I don't have much to update with currently. I've been pretty busy at work and my funds for the build have been a bit limited. I took a few weeks off ebay and the classifieds here so i'd quit dumping money on stuff I don't need right this second.

I did however work on the valve cover today while I was cleaning up the garage:



I have shaved a few things such as the right hand drive throttle cable bracket, the "honda manufacturing" text, and added a couple other touches you can probably see in the picture. I still have to do the back side of the cover and am still deciding on if I am going to shave the "DOHC" and honda emblem.

I picked up a set of GSR front spindles, new timken wheel bearings for the front, pads and rotors all the way around.

Its finally starting to cool off so I will be making a trip to pick up the b16 very soon. All I lack for the engine swap are mounts and a wiring harness from chasebays. Hope to pick both of those up at the fall import alliance meet in october. I'm going to be running the mpc motorsport mounts with the 70a bushings.

ZacCarter

iTrader: (1)

Took a trip to deal's gap/tail of the dragon, which is about an hour drive from the house. We didn't take my coupe but took my brother's GSR ej1 and met up with my buddy josh who owns a K20 swapped hatch. It's been a battle over the summer to get both of their cars going. My brother bought his in May and it needed some TLC. Josh went from having a completely stock SI hatch to k-series as well over the summer so that's been taking up lots of my free time as well.

On the way back home we stopped at the helipad which is about 5 minutes from the start of the tail of the dragon and I busted out the 5D to take some shots of the stars.

Here is the best from the series:

IMG_7584 by ZacCarter, on Flickr

One of Josh's hatch that he took last weekend:

Batch1 (6 of 11) by Joshua McCoig Photography, on Flickr

My buddy that has the press took off on a vacation to California for a couple weeks so I'm waiting on him to get back so I can install the brakes and suspension stuff. This coming weekend I plan on wrenching on the b16 as well. I'll post some updates soon.

ZacCarter

iTrader: (1)

The red hatch in the post above owned by my buddy Josh is now sitting on Mag Blue 57DR's so I bought the 7.5 inch wide 6UL's off of him for the coupe. B16 is still sitting in my other friends coupe, plan to get started on that asap. Harness is on order with Chasebays and hope to have it soon.

I will be using mounts by MPC Motorsport. MPC are local guys to Knoxville that produce quality parts for the Honda community. I've been talking to Spencer about collaborating on some ideas I have and we'll be putting them to work in the civic as they become available. Tonight I picked up their new CT-1 (circuit type) shift **** from them. Here's a shot of it straight off the lathe, I'm gonna snap a few more soon.

IMG_7593 by ZacCarter, on Flickr

Sorry about the slow updates hopefully soon i'm going to have some real substance to add.

joey1320

Nice shift ****. Good to see quality parts made in the US.

ZacCarter

iTrader: (1)

Here are some shots of the k n o b.

CT-1 on single bend civic shifter:

MPC Motorsport CT-1 by ZacCarter, on Flickr


RSX base model aluminum:

RSX Base Shift **** Aluminum by ZacCarter, on Flickr

CT-1 on dual bend integra shifter:

MPC Motorsport CT-1 by ZacCarter, on Flickr

ZacCarter

iTrader: (1)

Had a free hour or so to do some more work on the valvecover.


Untitled by ZacCarter, on Flickr

Last night I finally had time to press in the bearings in the front hubs and install the lower ball joints. Once my brake fluid shows up it's game on for the disc swap.

ZacCarter

iTrader: (1)

Have a few updates to post about.

Still haven't had a chance to get the disc swap installed, I had planned on doing it this weekend but had to go to pull a part to snag another caliper bracket for the front, as the one I had on one of the hubs was trashed because of a seized pin. When we got done at the junk yard it started **** pouring rain.

While there I found a new cluster surround, mine was cracked below the middle vents and the last few trips to the junkyard all the eg's were trashed because people break them to get out the gauge cluster.


Untitled by ZacCarter, on Flickr

After yanking the cluster surround my brother and I continued to hunt an integra or ex civic for the caliper bracket. Came across a dc2 that had been raped clean of just about everything, but the front caliper was laying on the cowl. Also while pulling it apart I got the lower tie bar off the subframe. The dx coupes do not have this piece but the subframe has the 4 holes that will accept it. It was cheap and I'll install it when the b16 goes in.


Untitled by ZacCarter, on Flickr

That's all we came across Saturday that we felt was needed. FYI: we cross referenced the caliper bracket on a crx si 88-91 and the bracket bolted up just fine on both sides so if you get in a pinch that part can also be used.

Today I clean up the 6ul's that I purchased used from josh. He purchased them in the spring and has probably only logged 3k miles on them as his car was down most of the summer while we did the k20 swap. He upgraded to gram light 57dr's. I didn't want them sitting all winter with hawk pad dust on them.


Untitled by ZacCarter, on Flickr


Untitled by ZacCarter, on Flickr

While cleaning up I stumbled on these hub centric spacers that came off a buddies car that had 6uls. Unfortunately they are messed up because they drove with a factory wheel on and forgot to take off the spacer. So I'll be ordering another set along with some aluminum valve stems from 949.


Untitled by ZacCarter, on Flickr

I found some OEM Honda center caps that came off my old integra that had slipstreams on it. Out of curiosity I snapped it in the 6UL & they fit great.


Untitled by ZacCarter, on Flickr


Untitled by ZacCarter, on Flickr

So I will be restoring these soon as well. Part number on the back of the cap is: 44732-s50-n900.

Here are some shots of the front hubs all cleaned up with new ball joints and bearings. I also chased the threads on the studs.


Untitled by ZacCarter, on Flickr


Untitled by ZacCarter, on Flickr

I also had time to button up the valve cover its ready for priming.


Untitled by ZacCarter, on Flickr

AussieGSR

I like where this is going.

ZacCarter

iTrader: (1)

Update: No pictures, but I finally bit the bullet and started the disc swap on Saturday. First bolt, lower strut on the driver side, snapped the head right off of it. I should have stopped there. LOL.. Ended up getting all the rear of the car apart by dinner and got the new trailing arms on.

Sunday I bolted up the rotors and started on the front. Got the new 15/16ths master cylinder installed and bench bled. I could not get the proportioning valve off because the flare nuts were seized. I will replace that when I do the b16, my old coupe had a drum brake prop valve with the rear disc and it was fine. I plan on making some new lines when I get the swap done to clean some things up.

Next plan of attack once i get an alignment done is to work on tucking the headlight harness and working on the stereo a bit; new head unit and speakers. I would like to find a new rear speaker panel and cut it out correctly because the previous owner hacked it up to put 4x6" speakers and they look ratty.

I'll post some pictures soon. Import alliance is this weekend, and I plan on going up to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherohala_Skyway in December for a cruise.