96hondacivex

I need to be honest, I've only just started on this restore. My wife wanted a 5spd that got great gas mileage for commuting to college, so I picked the civic up for 750$, obviously needing some TLC. I also need a car to teach my kids to drive stick. Which means I want to hold onto this for 12 years or so. There's no way they're driving anything else to learn, and they WILL learn!

Issues-
Suspension Bushings need replacement.
Fuel and brake lines near end of life
Someone broke bolts on the distributor cap and put clamps on it
Dented gas tank (someone didnt know where to put the jack?)
Body rust (yay, sanding small spots and welding panels on and lots of
filling/painting)
Lots of minor rust on the suspension parts/uncoated frame parts
Oil leak- forms drops, engine is fine so im assuming a gasket needs to go
E-brake needs tightening
Exhaust pipe broken at catback-muffler fitting
Someone had a bright idea for a forced intake- they cut out a hole in the
pass wheel well and worked some 4" painted PVC down.. TBH I think it
actually worked haha. Regardless, this isn't amateur hour, it needs to
work a little more pro-like
and MORE!

Ive replaced the exhaust cat back and am in the process of removing/repainting/replacing the rear suspension system. I have the entire driver back-end suspension removed (minus 2 or 3 broken bolts) I tried penetrating oil, diving on it, more oil and driving, then oil, then heat. They still broke damnit. Regardless, I couldnt drive it anymore knowing the condition of the fuel/brake lines. I am currently removing the rust and repainting the control arm and assorted pieces, so I have time to order the bushings and such. I believe every single bushing is shot (its 20 years old.. to be expected) The level of rust is not great, but workable. I live in the north where we salt the roads. The gas gauge wasn't reading (but at 35mpg, is wasnt an issue), so I assumed loose connector or bad float/sending unit. So I removed the gas tank and I am testing the gauge tomorrow. Its very spacious under the rear end now! Once I am done with the back end and fuel system I will be moving up front. If anyone knows a good resource for replacement parts (esp. bolts and zeus/plastic anchors) I would be very grateful. I use hondaautomotiveparts.com, but would like multiple resources. I will get some pics up too, there is alot more to do!

Oh yeah, I couldnt really tell how old the shocks and struts are, I drove a few times and it wasnt terrible. I am thinking about replacing them, at least at some point. Considering everything is going to be rebuilt in the rear, replacement later on will be MUCH easier. Mind you, I dont want to exceed 500$ too quickly, this is supposed to be a cost effective solution for a 2h daily drive, not to mention I havent gone too much into the engine compartment. Thanks!

96hondacivex

Here's the removed suspension/brake/gas parts

SinisterB16

nice, good luck with that. any pics on the body?

Grant12978

Sweet I bought a 2000 coupe a year ago and brought it back to life. As you are going through there are lots of super cheap upgrades one the at comes to mind is to do a rear disc swap. My conversion was from a integra donor and grabbed a prop valve from a ex civic and new ebrake cables and brake lines and bushings. Easy upgrade. Keep us up to speed on your build I am excited to watch.

joey1320

Nice work man. I'm doing a restore on a Civic also(you can see my link) and just went through the whole suspension ordeal. All my parts got cleaned, painted and all new bushings in.

As far as bushing sets for the rear, look into the brand roca (I'll have to double check on that), they have the whole front and rear kits. Also rockauto.com has a lot of things at great prices.

I'm all about oem quality, but sometimes the aftermarket has just as good quality for less. For the brake/fuel lines, I only use EZ Bend brake lines, they never kink and flare great.

Good luck with the job. Have fun with them bushings lol.

joey1320

Here's the link - ROCAR-USA

Also as far as painting, I ended up using rostoleum high temp paint. It dried into an almost porcelain material. It was thicker than normal paint(prob cause of the high temp resistance) and covered really nice.

I bought the front bushing kit on eBay from that brand and compared to the oem ones, they felt exactly the same. Time will tell about the quality but I think they will be okay.