veggie

Hello, I am veggie and soon I will have a 1983 Civic 1300. After Christmas my dad and I are taking an Amtrak train to California to pick it up. It is my grandma's and has not been driven in a few years(although she still drives a honda, also a jeep, yuck). I believe my dad told me it has under 110k original miles. Besides general maintenance from not being driven and the sun baked interior, it shouldn't need any work to be my daily driver. Currently, I drive a red '96 mazda miata. As fun and awesome of a car as it is, I am very excited to get this civic. I will be putting on a Yakima so I can haul this beast of a tandem around:
I am also going to look for some older honda wheels at a local junkyard and maybe install some HIDs. Maybe next year swap the four-speed for a five-speed. I don't know much about working on cars so hopefully with my dad's help this car will will be my stepping stone into the world of cars.

ShortyzKustomz

That bike just might be longer then the roof on the car haha

E-AT_me

sounds like fun. good luck on picking it up. i have a 94 miata also..

veggie

I believe it is, there is a first gen civic hatchback about a mile away and just referencing that, the tandem looks longer.

We seem to have run into problems with the registration, apparently the plates are expired. So we are going to try and have my grandma fedex the title to us and try and get some texas plates to slap on it. If that doesn't work we are going to either tow it home or pay someone else to haul it back.

Miatas are fun aren't they? Speedy little go cart of a car.

E-AT_me

yeah, they are fun..

sounds like you may run into a few snags with the plates.

veggie

Nothing is set in stone as for getting it back here. I think the plan now is to get it running as quick as possible and run and get it registered there in California.

JDM-EK-B18C5

Welcome to the H-T yo

veggie

Thanks

Rutspeed

Welcome...here's another site that has a wealth of knowledge specifically for our year Civic's

http://www.1stgencivic.org/world/c1z...index.php?c=22

Hope that helps !

veggie

Thanks! I've got that one bookmarked already.

cbstd

If this car has not had much servicing lately, you will want to immediately CHANGE THE TIMING BELT!!!!!.

The only weakness of any Honda is the timing belt. They are fine for 50-60,000 miles or 5-6 years. But once they get old they are prone to slipping a tooth (not so bad, but not what you would want) or breaking (very bad things will happen).

Do yourself a favor and change the timing belt and water pump (it lives in the same part of the engine) when you take possesion of this car.

Scott

veggie

Thanks for the advice. I'm sure my dad has thought of the timing belt, but I'll tell him about the water pump. He has had many hondas over the years, including his first new car, a 1981 Civic. He also has a '98 Prelude in the garage and drives a 2010 Accord as a company car.

antihero12

hey dude nice car i got one just like it mines an 82 civic 1300 4 speed an i love my car so ur gonna love it to though one thing with these cars r they r not fast at all lol i mean there only a 1.3 liter engine but if ur not looking for speed then this is a car for u but if u do want to get alittle more power out of that car then i suggest doing a webber carb conversion they can be bought on ebay (i put the link below) also ur tandem bike will be hanging over the car roof for sure lol cause i tried to but a friends tandem on my car just to see if it would work but it kinda does lol

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Honda...ht_4290wt_1165

veggie

Thanks, It was a real PITA to get it home.

veggie

I know its been more than a month since any updates, but with other things going on this just hasn't been that much of a priority. We are working on getting it back to Texas pretty soon and getting the title transferred. In the meantime I have a question. The front seats are in really bad shape(from sitting in direct sunlight), the headrests completely denigrated when I touched them and rest of the upholstery is pretty much in the same shape. Are there any other Hondas(maybe newer?) that I could snag front seats out of and use with little to no modification(unless the mod was easy). The rear seat is in pretty bad condition too, but I already know, nothing else fits there.

veggie

I never got pictures up. Here are a few after we got the car here:







Torn up seats/seat covers:


We went to the junk yard to get some wheels, tires for the 12" rims were not readily available.


Old versus new, my dad's 98 prelude on the right:


All waxed up and clean:


Nice rack!




I haven't had time or the motivation to but the newer stereo I have in and it doesn't have AC yet, but surprisingly that doesn't bother me. It's still spring so I get a good cross breeze with the windows down.

All of my friends who have ridden in this car say they love it. They will love it even more with AC and a stereo.

I plan on making my own fairing for the front of the roof rack out of Plexiglas, there is no way I'm paying $70 for a yakima one.

Stretch7

I disagree. The car looks one hundred percent better without that on there. Looks so out of place and turns the look of the classic to off.

veggie

Well I think a roof rack makes most cars look better.

realred96

+1

veggie

I know, right?

Stretch7

It is your car.

But it still looks terrible with rack (my opinion!).....+32 ooooooh!

veggie

Function>Form

Thanks for saying my car looks terrible!

StreetsideStig

Now, now, fellas.

The car looks awesome. You should get pretty amazing mileage, though, as I'm sure you've discovered, it's a pretty low-power vehicle, so you might not even need a five speed. I wish I could help with your seat question.

Great find!

Stretch7

You're welcome, I suppose.

Sera_

Very nice-looking ride you have there, veggie. But just like the majority here, I think "her" rack is terrible, sorry

Looks very clean for its age. It doesn't have any major rust areas, does it?