My 1990 crx si build...check it! (NOT 56k friendly)

[red_EF9Si]

Well folks, this is the story of how my sad little rex was given a second chance at life. |||Disclaimer...If you are hoping to see JDM this and name-brand that, this is not the place for you||| My goal is simply to build a clean tasteful car while using quality parts that don't cost a left nut. With that said, enjoy my build and feel free to comment. It all started when I bought a 1971 Datsun 1200 fastback from a good friend of mine as a project car. It was in decent shape overall. The body needed some work, but had a nice BMW leather interior, 280sx turbo wheels, and was powered by a (weber) carbureted Toyota 3TC engine & 5 speed tranny . I enjoyed driving it and it was a real head-turner because of its rarity, however after a few months of owning it, I grew frustrated with it as I knew nothing about rwd datsuns or carburetors for that matter. I wanted something I would enjoy working on but this car just never felt right. Having owned mostly Hondas prior to the Datsun (a 95 accord v6, EG coupe, and two swapped EF hatchbacks), naturally I gravitated to them again and thus began looked into trading it for another. A few days of looking led me to my current project car. A 1990 crx si with a JDM B18c swap. It was exactly what I was looking for; a 90-91 crx si, white, and the swap was just a nice bonus. Besides the nice power plant, it really had nothing else to offer. It was not in running condition (the previous owner wired the swap wrong and actually melted the damn cabin harness), the body was all primered black, most of the interior was missing, broken steering column, tail lights were busted, no seats, had tokico blues w/ ground control sleeve coilovers (crap), the roof was dented from the hood swinging open, and didn't come with wheels...not even steelies. Plus I still had to fix the harness problem to get it running. I decided to trade the guy anyways and brought the crx home. Upon further inspection the crx needed more work than I initially anticipated. Turns out the fenders and rear bumper were pretty beat up, had a pretty rusted rear bumper support and the rocker panels were all rusted to hell. Oh yeah, the doors were actually from a 88 crx! WTF? By this time I was really regretting trading the Datsun but oh well. I wanted a project car, so now I had one. I don't have any pics of the day I brought her home. I was too ashamed of her to take any. It had a Mugen knock off front bumper, beat up fenders, a hood with pins that was covered in stickers and rode on steelies. Here is a pic of some of the crap that was on it that I ended up selling. Eventually I replaced the, fenders,front and rear bumpers. Also picked up some LS mesh wheels to roll on temporarily. Also, I picked up some EP3 seats but traded them for some mint JDM integra xsi seats. Then I replaced the 88 doors and busted ass hood. Even with the mis-matched colors it was an improvement but, still looked like ass. Something had to be done.

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[red_EF9Si]

After a few months of her sitting in the garage, I decided it was time for a serious makeover.

I work for a place that builds custom booths/exhibits for conventions here in Las Vegas. We make everything from scratch and so we have several departments. Carpentry, lamination, carpet, cnc, and most importantly...paint. Luckily I'm good friends with the painter so he agreed to help me out with this project.


Here's what she looked like the day I brought her in for her makeover.



Fortunately the primer was only a light coat and was covering only the factory paint. (less work)



We got to work right a way.




Oh shit, is that a door from a Y-49?? Hopefully I can dodge the curse.




Fast forward a couple of weeks and we have most of it sanded down. The problem areas anyways.



Next, we addressed the roof situation (it was dented from the hood swinging open)

[96accordsir]

damn ill keep in touch in this build for sure!! what motor setup?

[misha]

looks great so far

[red_EF9Si]

The motor is just a bone stock 1996 JDM B18C (GSR) w/ B16 cable tranny (y1). The nice thing about the motor is that it's really healthy and looks like it came out of an automatic car.
Compression checked out as follows:
1-225 2-230 3-230 4-230
Leak down was 98% sealed

[my95dc2]

nice

[hai_tech]

lookin good keep us update

[red_EF9Si]

Originally Posted by hai_tech

lookin good keep us update

will do

[red_EF9Si]

This must have been a midwest car or something because the rocker panels were pretty badly rusted. I just about cried when I took off the side skirts and found this...





The passenger side was worse than the driver side, though not by much. I never would have traded if I had known this was going on under those sideskirts.
Oh well, too late to cry about it now. Time to sand, grind, mark and cut for new metal.






Bought some steel sheet from Lowe's then proceeded to mark, cut and mock up to weld it in place.




We screwed this piece in place so that we could mould it to the body lines using a body hammer. The screw heads will be ground off later.



After alot more grinding and prepping the metal, the welding process began.











Next was to grind down the welds and sand some more to prep for the fun part...fiberglass! We also sprayed rust converter on the affected areas.

[sde780]

Good stuff, keep us updated!

[Ej8_KiD]

All that rust glad ur taking ur time and doing things the right way

[builteg6turbo]

Originally Posted by Ej8_KiD

All that rust glad ur taking ur time and doing things the right way

x's 2

[red_EF9Si]

Originally Posted by Ej8_KiD

All that rust glad ur taking ur time and doing things the right way

I almost said Fck-it and traded the car again but my painter talked me out of it. He's seen much worse I guess being from PA. Well worth the time and effort in the end though

[red_EF9Si]

bump for updates

[r_Senik]

Originally Posted by red_EF9Si

I almost said Fck-it and traded the car again but my painter talked me out of it. He's seen much worse I guess being from PA. Well worth the time and effort in the end though

hell yea
thanks for saving another rex.

[Syper]

Looks like it's coming out pretty good!!!!


Keep us updated on EVERYTHING you do to it!

[red_EF9Si]

Originally Posted by r_Senik

hell yea
thanks for saving another rex.

Every rex deservers a second, or third or fourth chance!

Originally Posted by Syper

Looks like it's coming out pretty good!!!!


Keep us updated on EVERYTHING you do to it!

Plan on it, thanks for the support.

[red_EF9Si]

I was excited to try my hand at fiberglass, having no experience with it. I was also excited about knowing that my car would be fixed the right way and and not just half-assed. The last thing I want is for that damn cancer to come back.

We took some rough measurements then cut a bunch of pieces to use on the rockers.



We mixed up some resin and taped up the sheets of glass to make it easier to spread in place.





After the first layer dried overnight, we then applied a second layer of fiberglass.

[HondaTom87]

G/L with this build man...
looking good so far

[mister_ej2]

props for taking care of that rust the right way

[red_EF9Si]

Thanks guys, stay tuned for more updates.

[jgraham0326]

props! love the rex's!!

[crazyjetsfan22]

no more rust Is it going to be resprayed white?

[DrZFiNeSt]

Lovin the direction this is going.Also glad your steering away from the whole "overpriced jdm" thing.

[DrZFiNeSt]

BTW I love that Datsun