Sera_

If the bottom, the exhaust system, the wheel arch or the supporting structures have rust that goes all the way through the metal then it needs to be welded, otherwise it's a no-drive car here. Other than that the body can be as rusty as it possibly can get. This has a good bottom but the wheel arches aren't looking too good. I'll just have to hope the test guy goes easy on it and doesn't get too excited with his hammer.

Yep, they hammer the metal if they suspect it's rusted all the way, or stick a screwdriver through it

letank

Good to hear that it came back to life.....
As for rust... a little backing with sheetmetal ( a can of coke, beer or the beverage of your choice) and a few rivets or sheetmetal screws will take care of the rusted metal.... then cover w some under carriage thick tar..... spray dirt to cover your work....

StreetsideStig

^A brilliant solution!

I suppose if the supporting frame is rusted, they'd outlaw it here, too. It goes by states here in America. The state in which I grew up had no inspections, but they're pretty strict in my current state of residence. Bummer.

Sera_

letank, we'll see...

Now I got the damn crown/ castle nut off with Dremel, and took the driveshaft out of the gearbox. I disassembled the joint and now I just need some lock ring pliers so I can put new boots onto the shaft. Sorry I have no photos of this. It's such a messy job that I'm afraid to go even near the camera.

03yamr6

iTrader: (2)

looking good!

Sera_

Long time since the last post...

The bolt ascending from the ball joint got bent after I had gotten it to break free. But I - once again - used Dremel to even the threads of the bolt. But not to worry, those threads are higher than where the nut goes so there's really no risk as I see it.

The reason why the car's been sitting in the yard this long is that I looked for a M12 * 1.25 castle nut all over Finland, but I accidentally found one from a moped I bought (Suzuki PV '96, see here). It went right in, and now the moped doesn't have a nut for the rear wheel's axle, but I won't be driving it before the spring anyways so it's not a big deal for me. Long time to search for a nut then, eh?

What else... I bought a brand new battery for the Civic (55Ah, fits very tightly in the slot) today, cost 60 € ($80). The oil is now changed, and I used some chemical metal to fill the (quite large) gaps in the muffler and the rear exhaust tube.

It's beginning to look like it could go to the test...



BTW. Next Satuday will be the 1-year anniversary of the car's breakage

StreetsideStig

One year later...

Haha, well, I'm glad you found that part. It's good to see that this project hasn't been abandoned.

Sera_

Indeed it isn't abandoned yet Now I'm off to work, but later today I'll show you something gross, stay tuned.

Sera_

This is what I talked about (there's some tape over the hole for the heavy rain we had last night):



I'm yet to reveal the whole beauty of it... Could be something very interesting, we'll see.

letank

Ummm, the "wheel arch" or fender usually get beaten by the element due to the few layers of metal that are bent, my jeeps have all that cancer, I use a cut off wheel and make it look good, either with fiberglass or make a angle iron support to hold the fiberglass in place. You have to remove all the rust otherwise it will rust again in 6 months or less. Year ago I used the tape method, it looked good from 10feet..... until my friend would poke holes thru the tape.....

Interesting bike, amazing that you cannot find a 12x1.25 castle nut.

http://www.amazon.com/Help-13580-Slo.../dp/B000CO8ZV0

We can manage something before next spring....

Sera_

letank, thanks for the link, although both problems are now fixed - I cut all the rust off, and spit some phosphoric acid in there so the rusting is minimized, and then used some fiberglass, and on top of that some plastic padding, and painted it. The thing looks... well, at least there's no rust in there any more.

I found the castle nut from eBay, and it's safely installed in the bike now. Damn that bike, I've spent hundreds of Euros fixing it, and it needs more: the light coil is ineffective and needs to be replaced (I have the parts but haven't had time), and the front fork is mangled. Also the engine smokes. It smokes A LOT, and I'm in no mood of going down there to replace the crankshaft seals, maybe I'll order one of these magical gasket repair liquids you just pour among the oil, and it seals it like that!

Nevertheless, eventually I will ride that bastard.

StreetsideStig

I was just thinking about this thread today. Glad to see you're still working on it, Sera.

bombastick

Indeed keep it up!

Geo4k

This has been a good read - I applaud your "can do" attitude.

Cheers -

Sera_

Thanks mates. I've driven some hundreds of meters with the car since I "finished" fixing it. Now my daily driver (VW Jetta -89) is falling apart so I've spent my time on that one. Today the front exhaust tube was torn in half. Nice sounds

StreetsideStig

^Haha. I drove an '89 Toyota Tercel for a while, and the exhaust was rusting to smithereens. At one point I just took the whole pipe off, everything from the manifold back, and stuck it in the car. Yeah, it was really (really) loud. I drove it like that for two weeks.

Sera_

Bad news guys. I tried the driver's side wing with my thumbs carefully, and my finger went right through. The metal in there is not metal any more. It needs some serious welding so I'll see what I can do. Maybe the Coke can gimmick letank was talking earlier could do it, but it's a very hard to reach place.

Meanwhile, the car is on sale here, I've been trying to get 190 € ($250) for it for a week now but only a couple of people has shown interest in it. Both cancelled their offer, maybe my merchandise's safety and drivability aspects are not very convincing

http://www.nettiauto.com/honda/civic/4483710

Also, poorly Google-translated.

Bob Warner

I'm doing the head on my 1985 civic hatchback right now. How do I make sure the head is set at where it needs to be to match the #1 piston being at top dead center so as to make sure everything is aligned for the timing ???