Brucecastillo1

I am completely new to the Honda world! I just picked up an 82 civic wagon and want to start building it; however I know nothing about this car and I can't find any performance parts... Does anyone know how to lower the weird suspension this thing has? Any performance mods? Or at least where to even find parts for this thing? Any help would be awesome! Thanks

Stretch7

"Weird" suspension? It has coil front springs and leaf springs out back. Nothing weird about that, my friend. Me? I heated my front coils up and put blocks on the rear. Just like lowering a truck. I eventually went with no front coils and flipped/mono leaf on the rear.

crux131

Heating springs isn't that good of an idea, but in moderation why not. LOL
I would probably cut a coil, maybe two. It will have a stiffer spring rate but probably be okay.
Maybe some coil over sleeves could be adapted to use with the stock strut assemblies.

In the back slapping a set of lowering blocks would be your easiest option. Could possibly remove a leaf but I wouldn't get too extreme with that either. Like above, in moderation it won't be too horrible.

I will get around to dropping mine eventually. Would be cool to go back to my minitruckin' roots and bag it.

Brucecastillo1

That sounds easy enough, the only reason I said weird is that I have never seen that style of struts in the front( know where to get replacements?) and I haven't built a car with leafs in the back that were so narrow. I can't find blocks narrow enough... If you guys know a place to get stuff for this car let me know! I want to fix this car up but don't know where to find anything and its frustrating.

Brucecastillo1

It sits so high I want to go almost four inches in the rear and three in the front. Maybe figure out a way to get rid of the bumpers.... At least the huge rear one

Brucecastillo1

No front coils at all? How did it ride?

GrumpyOne

Gawd... I've been lusting for a decent '82 or '83 Civic wagon for some time for use as a daily driver and IF anything I want to raise the rear, not lower it.

But then I'm just an older guy who is sort of practical...

Brucecastillo1

Practicality has nothing to do with it I have a truck if I need to haul anything I want a unique ride that no one around wa state really has and one fun to drive and not have so much body roll

crux131

DON"T run without coils.
If you drop it as much as you want you are going to have serious negative camber issues in the front also. The rear is solid axle so no problems there. Might have clearance issues with the quarters and the structure of the car in the back though.

I mean I plan on dumping mine but am only going to run a factory offset wheel. I am also not going to go to such extremes either...well maybe not. LOL

You can find stock replacement struts and shocks for this car. Performance variants seem non existent though.

I have seen coil overs mentioned on 1stgencivic.com. They may have some for a second gen but they were expensive. That site has a section for 2nd gens as well. They may have some archived information that could be useful.

I am also going to look into bringing the rear bumper in tighter against the body, not sure how yet. If I am lucky I will be able to chop out a section from the brackets and weld them back together. I am hoping the top cover/trim panel can slide further over the bumper when I tighten up the fit. I want it to look stock but cleaner( shorter ). I am also going to freshen it up with some fresh trim black paint on all the plastics.

Just waiting for my Weber carb to come in and to work on making it more reliable first.

Brucecastillo1

Does that weber carb get rid of the vacuum nightmare? I was trying to make it a little faster before I drop time and money into a swap... Full exhaust, weber carb, maybe a cam or something... It sucks that parts are so few and far between... As for the rear I am contemplating shock style coil overs and eliminate the leafs... The fronts I need to get my hands on a newer honda strut assembly to see if the bottom will clamp on to my mounts...

crux131

Yes. If you plan on swapping it though I wouldn't spend the money, just add that ammount for parts for the swap.

If you need a carb or it is going to be quite a while until you swap it, then maybe consider it. Not sure just the carb will make it faster, should run smoother though.That is assuming the stock carb is in need of a rebuild at this point.

Stretch7

I'm coming up on 30 years of having lowered vehicles (lowered my first car in 1985) and have always had much better luck with heating over cutting. Ride quality is much better. And in these 277+ years of doing it, I've never had a suspension related issue. My CVCC is actually sat on heated springs for 6 years of daily driving (at least 200 miles per week). Removing leafs isn't that bad. Like I said, I went mono-flipped (true old school mini trucking technique) and wasn't bad at all.

And mini truckin' roots is hydraulics, my friend.

Most of the stuff is going to "home-brewed." There really isn't after market support for those cars.

None. Literally, lolol. Rode like hell, man. Felt every single bump. Even bumps that weren't there. But that's just old school "technology," dude. You worked with what you had. It was a very common way to do these things back then.

Take it from someone who has been there. Me. There were zero camber issues with my 2nd gen wagon when I heated the coils all the way down. Hell, there were no issues when I ran springless. The rear? Like I said above, I went mono-flipped with zero problems.

My car is below. Pictures were taken in 1996. Ran the same set of tires (175/50-13) on the same wheels (13x7) for over a year with no tread wear.

crux131

MY Minitruckin' days were torsion bars and lowering blocks, then airride. I skipped the Hydro route because I saw no advantage by the time I started.

I haven't had my front end apart, so my comment about the camber issue should have been prefaced with that. I have seen mostly first gens lowered and the owners complaining about camber issues. I still would prefer some more adjustment than these cars seem to offer before going too low.

Heating coils will ride softer usually but getting a consistant outcome is harder than cutting off an equal number of coils from each spring.

As far as removing leafs, how many are in the pack stock( can't remember off top of my head )? One may be okay, hell maybe two depending on the spring pack. I have ran mono leafes on my mazda b2000 and had noticeable side to side movement in the rear. The leafes only job in that truck were to locate the rear end and keep the axle from shifting laterally. I had firestone air springs to support the weight. I noticed shortly after bagging it, the rear seemed to sway some. This only got worse until I was ready to 4 link it.

I can see where you are coming from, but I can't suggest someone take make shift suspension lowering to any extreme. If he stays fairly conservative though he shouldn't have any issues.

Stretch7

I'll assume that you're in your late 20s/early to mid 30s? I believe that would be about the right time frame for folks coming up in to be doing bags instead of juice.

I've had 3 first gens and 2 second gens and have never had an issue with camber. I drove my 1980 Datsun 210 wagon for 5 years with no springs at all with nary a problem.

That's why it takes a bit of practice and patience. Back in the days of "self-modifications" that's all we could do. Couldn't just jump on the internet in 1986 and order a set of lowering springs or coil overs from your local auto website. So I had plenty of practice and I got good and stuck with it. I have a 2006 Grand Am that actually has actual lowering springs. Only car I've ever owned that was lowered the "right" way.

I honestly don't remember how many leafs, but I have to thing that it is only 3, maybe 4. Again, I never had any swaying issues.

I won't encourage it, but at the same time, I won't discourage it. If someone asks me about backyard lowering, I'll tell my tales about it. If someone asks if they should do it or spend money and buy parts, I'll tell them to do what they think they should do.

crux131

I see your point and agree. I just wanted to throw in a word of caution because some people won't research any further than the first answer they get.

I am mid thirties, started with an 87 GMC S-15, then moved onto Mazda b series trucks. Torsion bar minis were much easier to static drop than the s-series. Of course I regretted not having the S-15 when I wanted to bag something. They are much easier than torsion bar'd minis. LOL the s-series is like the Civic of the minitruck world. You can truly bolt together an entire truck now and be back on the road in no time.

I consider the Mazda's helpful in learning. At the time I started parts availability just wasn't there. The torsions made them easy to lower but no one made anything else for them. Even installing a sub box was more complicated since the back of the cab wasn't entirely flat like my s-15.

Hydraulics were always cool, just the older systems were messy and complicated compared to air ride systems. I would like to play with some juice in a mini some time. Some of the newer systems and installs I have seen are really cool.

Stretch7

I fully agree with you, dude. Very good advice.

As much as I was into mini trucking, I never had one, lolol. I always took the ideas and such that I got from that genre and applied to my cars. I do have a truck now, but it's a '97 B2300 and I don't like it from an aesthetic point of view so I would never consider modifying it.