wheelerboy12

Well I've held off on this thread for almost three months now as i teetered on the fence of what to do with the car.
Starting with some history: I got the civic in trade, I had a 78 f250 i bought from my friend for $500. Eventually I traded it for the civic and $250, So starting the tally, I'm only $250 into it so far. I was on the fence about weather or not to sell it, eventually decided on keeping it for a number of reasons

1: ive read tons of threads about peoples cheap gem they found, "my $200 this" or "my $350 that" ect and had always wanted to find my steal of a deal gem and i finally did

2: im bored, i have a suspended license and wont be driving again till next spring and really just want a project to bide my time, since my favorite passtime before hand was going for a drive, and no not reckless driving or anything dangerous, was lack of insurance because i kept trading cars around so quick, **** caught up with me, ive learned my lesson, get a car and ******* stick with for a while.

3: kinda just fell in my lap, so why the hell not

This is my second civic, I drove a 92 sedan when I was 16-17 it was pewter gray and beat to ****, it had over 300k on it and it had the ugliest rattiest red interior ever and i remember posting up with huge dreams and goals, I didnt do a single thing that i wanted because i was a dumb kid, im back now at the age of 20, with a much nicer starting platform and a much larger knowledge base and much more experience.

My goal is the have the car in good shape and nice and clean by the time i get my license back next spring so that i have an awesome DD

so enough long *** boring story, lets start with the car and discuss some ideas, because thats why im here! and i hope thats why your here!

First off this is 20 minutes after i got it, front end torn completely down as i inspect for wreck damage/rust



this is the only picture i can find before i tossed the shitty paint on it
and here it is after the shitty paint





im embarrased to admit i did that, that was the fastest a car has ever been painted probably, i really just wanted it all one color to sell. took me 20 minutes to go from purple white and primer black to red. I hate this paint job. HATE IT. i cannot wait to fix it

and thats pretty much how the car sits, ive tossed it completely together now and started cleaning things here and there while collecting stuff, Im waiting on a tow dolly so i can get her home before i tear into her, right now shes at a friends house, she could probably stay there and be just fine but id rather do the tear down at my parents where it can stay indefinitely,

over the next week or so ill be making some junk yard trips and trips to a few local people parting out civics,

things i need for the car/need to do

most of the window moldings and trims, car has some of them but some were broke or missing,
i need both steering column switches for headlights and the whipers
new windshield (not immediate but it is cracked so new one would be cool)
track down electrical issues, no windows work, gauge cluster is dead, has a few miss matched fuses ect
I need a passenger side front door handle interior and a drivers side rear interior handle
Maybe a new drivers side fender
need to drill and tap a few broken fender bolts
get a battery
new rotors and pads on the rear.
install new drivers window (however highly unlikely this is one of the last things i bought for my old sedan a few years back before it got totaled was a new drivers window that i never installed, so i still have it new in the card board)

and thats what she needs to be a back to factory par

Things i need done

Body and paint
suspension
wire tuck/shave


Posts will be discussion only for a week or so, these are the only pictures i have of her before my camera broke, waiting on a new phone

wheelerboy12

Totally forgot

this is the first purchase i made for the car, i got them for 130 with almost new tires and the security lugs, one has a slow leak in the bead but other then that they are great, no brand on them anywhere, theres a PN I cant remember it now and id have to take it the wheel off to check again, they are made in America and they are light. thats all i know. i impulse bought them because they were cheap and i pretty much fell in love with them, gonna sand and paint them gloss black with a purple lip




that brings the tally up to 410 in the car.

averyvm

iTrader: (1)

Nice buy on the wheels

wheelerboy12

Thanks! I knew I had to have them when I saw them, then he said 130 and I was like deal
funny thing is I wasn't even there to by parts, I had just gone to help my friend get some parts for his CB7 and the guy had the wheels on his car.

Was going to get my car home today but i had no straps to tie it down, so hopefully i can get some in the next few days and i didnt miss my opportunity

Spent 6 hours cleaning my driveway and loading up **** for a dump run, got a perfect spot to work on the car, found all my missing tools at a friends and managed to regroup everything, now i only need some pliers and some diagnostics tools and i can get started!

going to pick up the tools sand paper, bondo, shrink rap and a new soldering gun in the next few days (as soon as i get up to the hardware store) and then ill go drop $120 at pick n pull for my ABS delete parts and the trim pieces i need, motor comes out as soon as the car hits my driveway and body work starts instantly, i want to spray before the rainy season starts in mid September.

wheelerboy12

Pictures are about an hour out (got another phone im using like a camera, its only letting my upload on picture at a time to my google account though) have some more general pictures of the car, and lots of updates!

first, I pulled most of the harness on the passenger side, got stuck at the battery box, rusted stripped bolt, when I go back over to work more I'll take what I need to get it out, i spun a 12pt on it (all my cheep tool kit had) but i think a 6pt will still grab it so ill take one back and try it out. otherwise ill drill it since the battery isnt going back there anyway.

then i pulled the dash, found corrosion on my cluster so I think its actually bad, put that on my list of things to get, with the dash out i started un clipping the interior harness from the car and after i got some wiggle room went back out to the front and pulled the drivers side harness all the way out.
took it home and im stripping it down, Took out cruise, and the washer fluid pump, my question is, i plan on deleting abs and so far my understanding is everything abs is orange, i have one orange clip, but i wont pull it till i find a diagram or get the rest of the abs free so i can see where it goes too.
for some reason i had like 3 feet of extra wire on my headlights power wires, every other wire is proper length, is there a resistance reason to this?

also pulled some power steering, when I pull the motor ill pull the lines and loop the rack, thinking ill delete the heater core and all its hoses and then pass then engine harness through the firewall where the heater hoses where.

With the dash out ill probably deep clean it and the interior, and whatever else i find myself doing.

like I said pictures to come asap.

wheelerboy12

Took a little longer then expected because internet was slow but here goes

First
took some more pics of the car, moved it from this spot to a nicer spot under a tree, its shaded all day so i can work whenever and not worry about heat


sun was shining bright on the car, not to bad at this angle, still shitty rough paint. patch of blue was just spraying some test, like the color but theres no way i could do the whole car that color, gonna pic up a few shades of gray and purple from lowes and spray more on till i find my base color



interior shot before I pulled the dash



Couple bay shots, bad sun glare, ill get more




Rats nest of factory harness


Getting better



just more wires, marking stuff clearly so i can find out whats what when it goes back together


Dash be gone!



and success! drivers side harness pulled from fuse block out,




got it stripped down of useless stuff, gonna need to go back to the car with it mock stuff up and lengthen the necessary wires then bring it back home to solder up

next week I will

-get the passenger side harness off
-mock up and extend wires on both sides
-delete heater core
-prep motor to be pulled, maybe pull

that way next weekend I can bring both sides home and solder them up and wrap them up

things i need to pick up this week
-bondo
-sandpaper and new block
-new soldering iron
-heat shrink
-CRC electronics cleaner

need to use my time wisely, rainy season is only so far away. maybe a month and a half left
whatever projects i start need to be wrapped up and the car needs to be together (atleast to the point rain wont destroy it over the winter) because once it starts raining things will really slow down as rain sucks.

ChadB

Good buy for a daily

wheelerboy12

Got back to the car and realized the orange clip in the drivers side is exactly what I though it was, more ABS **** that I can rip out. it runs through the car to the brakes themselves, assuming its the sensor that tells ABS when the wheel is locked, so I'll yank that too, forgot I already ripped out the power steering sensor when pulling the harness so that explained the unknown wires
looking at the car I realized having the intake off will make my life easier and probably eliminate the need to pull the motor for now, cutting work down and leaving me time to do other things.
so today intake comes off and I start on the heater core.

wheelerboy12

Heater core out.

harness pulled through to cabin, doesnt un plug like the drivers side so guess ill be working on it in the car, going to start spiting stuff up asap, wanna get the Hvac stuff out, and the abs stuff out of the harness so i can get it back in

going to start pulling brake lines and the abs unit. maybe power steering lines.

wheelerboy12

Lots of pictures, Where to start..

I guess first I'll start with the battery tray, finally got it out, Pounded a 7/16th 12pt on it and it grabbed enough to spin it out, wont come out of the socket but idc it was an extra socket anyway


and the mess of a harness all the way up to the firewall



fuse box out



Inside, heater core still in at this point, getting ready to feed the harness through


was trying to get the box out without taking out that dash support (that went out the window quick)



heater core gone (So is the dash bar... what do ya know)





Some wire mess




Got the harness through



what a mess





Auto to manual ECU conversion??







More mess


Decided the steering column was in the way



And this is how I left the car for the night







Making good progress
Someones going to buy my steelies either tonight or tomorrow
and someone else is interested in my heater core so ill pick up some stuff I need for the car and maybe a few extras (integra dash and cluster for sale in my area for 30)

got some boost parts laying around, may pick up a few more pieces and do a small setup on the d15, nothing special, hopefully make like 150hp off 3-5 lbs

wheelerboy12

Lots of pictures, Where to start..

I guess first I'll start with the battery tray, finally got it out, Pounded a 7/16th 12pt on it and it grabbed enough to spin it out, wont come out of the socket but idc it was an extra socket anyway


and the mess of a harness all the way up to the firewall



fuse box out



Inside, heater core still in at this point, getting ready to feed the harness through


was trying to get the box out without taking out that dash support (that went out the window quick)



heater core gone (So is the dash bar... what do ya know)





Some wire mess




Got the harness through



what a mess





Auto to manual ECU conversion??







More mess


Decided the steering column was in the way



And this is how I left the car for the night







Making good progress
Someones going to buy my steelies either tonight or tomorrow
and someone else is interested in my heater core so ill pick up some stuff I need for the car and maybe a few extras (integra dash and cluster for sale in my area for 30)

got some boost parts laying around, may pick up a few more pieces and do a small setup on the d15, nothing special, hopefully make like 150hp off 3-5 lbs but that wont happen for a while, i want to finish the bay and tuck, and paint first

wheelerboy12

Not much to say for today, was kinda a shitty lazy day, didn't make it out to the car, might make it put this evening


Looking to trade my abs swap stuff for non abs parts and like 30 bucks or something like that

wheelerboy12

Got out to the car for about 20 minutes and did more harness work, got it pulled out almost all the way, it wraps up behind the pedal assembly, I didn't want to pull it so I thought about citing the abs and wrapping it then calling it good, but figured I'm this far why quite now, so pedal assembly will come out tomorrow meaning I'll have the entire harness out to be worked with.

Tomorrow I will get the pedals out and the harness out then I will sit down and sort everything, and wrap what I can and start fitting it back to the car then Wednesday I'll extend what I need too and get everything hooked back up, hoping to fire up the car and verify I didn't mess up before I go to work this weekend, then next week I'll pull the motor, tuck it's harness and clean/paint the bay then go from there.

DC4KiD

iTrader: (4)

Keep up the work!

wheelerboy12

So small update, can't find the camera phone so no pics to accompany. .

Harness is out 100% separated from the car
As far as I'm concerned I just finished the easy part.
Anyone can take stuff apart. It's The Putting It Back That Usually gets them. But I was careful and marked anything I couldn't clearly identify. I think I'll be fine.

Now to strip the stuff out witch should only take an hour. Then start slowly fitting it to the car and putting my firewall back together

PinkBatman

Sweet work bringing this thing back! Dig the photos.

wheelerboy12

Thanks guys! I plan on keeping the updates and pictures coming (as soon as i find where i left the camera)

I got the harness out and started stripping it last night, I will finish stripping today and I'll start fitting it back to the car

It's broke week so I don't think I'll be spending any actual money this week unless i sell a few of my parts (few interested but mostly flakes) so actual progress might slow down a bit

wheelerboy12

harness is in mostly, just working at putting the dash area together, also i found the camra phone, dropped under the seat of my buddies CB7, so ill have pictures of progress tonight. hopefully car will be back together

wheelerboy12

Pretty much done, wires ran everywere, and fit everywhere perfect. Ran all the ways I wanted without having to extend any wires at all. Need to hook up lights and two more grounds, need to clean of the wire mess that's down around the fuse box and pedals, and I need to put the dash in.
Also need to extend a battery cable to the fuse box that I plan on putting in the glove box.

Calling it a day as its getting quite hot and I got some other stuff to take care of.
Pictures will get posted when I actually sit down and relax tonight

wheelerboy12

Sorry its been a while between updates I've been busy with other stuff and I managed to lose the camera phone again so didn't have pictures for you anyway. I got the harness back in fired up the car and then reinstalled the dash, interior is 90% together. I need to get zipties ( I keep leaving them at my parents) so I can zip tie the harness up out of the way of everything and get the fenders back on, still need to extend and re wire the wipers.
car is together running and driving (in driving condition that is)
its hitting the back burner for about a month till it goes under new ownership, then I'll continue updating how shes going, I may update here and there as there are a few things I'm doing to the car before it gets passed on, No more details on this as the new owner doesn't know they are the new owner yet, don't worry, she will still be around and ill still be updating on her, she just might go a different direction, depends...
but heres some pictures of some stuff i did, the hood isnt the best and i wont be painting it when the rest of the car so i had some fun with stencils and some random colors of spray paint that were arounf





AND i picked up a new project, that im actually really excited about , I got a CB7 coupe for $100, havent got it home yet but i went and paid my friend and checked it out the other day, probably going to pick it up next weekend, it is surprisingly complete of a car for $100, im stoked to get it here and start tearing into it to see whats what.