When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
LiteraCola's Project Daily, Version 3.0: 98 DX Hatch
Well, I guess it's about time to start another build thread. Here she is! My new (to me) 98 Civic DX Hatch! 124k miles on the clock, stock as **** Y7, S40 trans. The car came with ONE mod; Si wheels that need to be refinished. Luckily, the guy gave me a set of steelies with brand new tires. The tires on the Si's are shot, so I'm going steelies for a while...at least until I can dismount and refinish the Si's. As you can see, she has some rust, and the clear is peeling off the roof. I'm thinking in the future I'll CF vinyl wrap the roof and stick a CF duckbill wing on it. The fender/quarter rust is a little worse than I thought it was when I first started looking at the car...I think it'll make for a good spring/summer project.
As of 2/10/18, I have completed the following:
Full inspection including suspension, engine bay, brakes, interior. I have found the Ebrake cable disconnected (more on that later), suspension is solid, nothing wrong at all besides a little rust on the shocks themselves. The car definitely needs a brake job; the rear brakes are pretty much inoperable. The engine doesn't leak a drop of oil. Also completed an oil change and swapped to the steelies for the time being. The interior is solid, besides normal wear and tear, but the hood cable pull tab is broken. Replaced the cluster with one that has a tach. I've been looking for a rear bumper, and once I get one I'll install the new lips I found for super cheap. Also, black housing headlights mmmmm
As of today, 2/19/18:
Complete brake job, besides rear shoes. The drums were crumbling from rust, but the shoes look basically unused (way out of adjustment), so I disassembled everything, cleaned it and reinstalled with new drums and cylinders. The passenger side parking brake cable that I mentioned early is totally seized up; the driver side is fine. Of course, no parts store in the area had one so I had to order it, should be in this afternoon. I'm gonna be an expert by the time I get everything back together for the third time! Man, drum brakes are a bitch! I think I'm gonna try re-bleeding the brakes this afternoon or tomorrow; the pedal is spongy since I did the brake job. New spark plugs, fuel filter and air filter.
Re: LiteraCola's Project Daily, Version 3.0: 98 DX Hatch
Originally Posted by Freedo_Civegra
When you said version 3.0 I thought I might see another J30 swapped Civic. Lol
Yeah, I hate drum brakes, too. I feel you.
Hahaha The Version 3.0 is pertaining to the fact that this will be my THIRDattempt at a true Project Daily. The last two, I've gotten bored and put them up for sale. Since an EG or EK hatch has always been on my wish list, maybe I'll be able to stick with this one! Sorry to disappoint! No J-swap happening in this thread!
Re: LiteraCola's Project Daily, Version 3.0: 98 DX Hatch
Originally Posted by LiteraCola
Hahaha The Version 3.0 is pertaining to the fact that this will be my THIRDattempt at a true Project Daily. The last two, I've gotten bored and put them up for sale. Since an EG or EK hatch has always been on my wish list, maybe I'll be able to stick with this one! Sorry to disappoint! No J-swap happening in this thread!
Re: LiteraCola's Project Daily, Version 3.0: 98 DX Hatch
So I forgot to mention... I was browsing FB Marketplace about a week ago and found a gentleman selling a full (new) set of Duralast rotors and ceramic pads for 50% off retail. So naturally I jumped on the deal. Obviously I only needed the front set since I have rear drums, duh. The guy couldn't meet me so he sent his friend. When he handed me the boxes I opened them and looked inside real quick. Everything seemed fine. Well, fast forward to Sunday.... I removed the front calipers, pads and rotors, got everything cleaned up for reassembly, opened the rotor boxes and realized... The dude gave me the rear rotors with front pads. Mother ******. I tried to contact the guy to exchange them, but he ghosted me. So all the money I saved buying them from him was all for nought since I had to go out and buy front rotors. Damnit.
Anyways, today's plan is to install the new ebrake cable and rebleed the brakes. My wife was elected to be the "pedal pumper" for the first bleed; I don't know why I didn't use my brand new MityVac hand pump. I think today's bleed will be with the hand pump. I might even bleed the clutch and re-lube the slave cylinder push rod. I get a nice metallic screech when I engage the clutch. Good things are coming. Good things.
Re: LiteraCola's Project Daily, Version 3.0: 98 DX Hatch
I figure I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. The photos in his ad showed both the front and rear sets of brakes. MAYBE he just grabbed the wrong set. Who knows? Oh well, it's all good now.
Re: LiteraCola's Project Daily, Version 3.0: 98 DX Hatch
Originally Posted by LiteraCola
I figure I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. The photos in his ad showed both the front and rear sets of brakes. MAYBE he just grabbed the wrong set. Who knows? Oh well, it's all good now.
Re: LiteraCola's Project Daily, Version 3.0: 98 DX Hatch
Originally Posted by Freedo_Civegra
Even so, there was no need for the ghosting.
Yeah, makes sense. Oh well, I'll just have to sell off what I have now. Yay.
So I completed a few more little projects on the car last night while the weather was nice. I removed the slave cylinder and cleaned and lubed the pushrod and clutch fork to get rid of the nasty squeak at clutch engagement. A little high temp brake lube took care of that. I remove the battery and cleaned under it. I also cleaned the science experiment off the positive lug and put everything back together. I disconnected, cleaned and lube the throttle cable. I was feeling a weird notchiness right when I started to push the pedal in. It was making driving a pain in the ***. I'm pretty sure that's good now. Lastly, I bled the clutch out thoroughly; you should have seen the nasty black **** that came out of the master reservoir. Ugh. But all good now. Also installed the new ebrake cable and got everything adjusted. She's ready for VA Inspection next week! She's getting better and better each day!
We're currently going through reductions at work and I'm not 100% I'm going to have job in a few months, so all major projects have been put on hold. I still might install a stereo in the car because I currently have a choice between the radio or silence. They're both torture so I'll be shopping around for a simple head unit/speaker set up.
On that note, does anyone know of anyone interested in a 96 Prelude? Haha
Re: LiteraCola's Project Daily, Version 3.0: 98 DX Hatch
Originally Posted by LiteraCola
Yeah, makes sense. Oh well, I'll just have to sell off what I have now. Yay.
So I completed a few more little projects on the car last night while the weather was nice. I removed the slave cylinder and cleaned and lubed the pushrod and clutch fork to get rid of the nasty squeak at clutch engagement. A little high temp brake lube took care of that. I remove the battery and cleaned under it. I also cleaned the science experiment off the positive lug and put everything back together. I disconnected, cleaned and lube the throttle cable. I was feeling a weird notchiness right when I started to push the pedal in. It was making driving a pain in the ***. I'm pretty sure that's good now. Lastly, I bled the clutch out thoroughly; you should have seen the nasty black **** that came out of the master reservoir. Ugh. But all good now. Also installed the new ebrake cable and got everything adjusted. She's ready for VA Inspection next week! She's getting better and better each day!
We're currently going through reductions at work and I'm not 100% I'm going to have job in a few months, so all major projects have been put on hold. I still might install a stereo in the car because I currently have a choice between the radio or silence. They're both torture so I'll be shopping around for a simple head unit/speaker set up.
On that note, does anyone know of anyone interested in a 96 Prelude? Haha
Wow, I hope things go okay at work! That can be really stressful...
I picked up a pretty cool looking head unit for my EG, it was a Pioneer w/ bluetooth for less than $100. Still has a CD player! I will try to figure out a model #...
Re: LiteraCola's Project Daily, Version 3.0: 98 DX Hatch
Originally Posted by 94 Civic Si
Wow, I hope things go okay at work! That can be really stressful...
I picked up a pretty cool looking head unit for my EG, it was a Pioneer w/ bluetooth for less than $100. Still has a CD player! I will try to figure out a model #...
Re: LiteraCola's Project Daily, Version 3.0: 98 DX Hatch
Thanks for the heads up! I'm honestly debating whether I even need a CD player at this point in my life. I haven't listened to any of my CD's in years... I mean, I could have it just as a backup, but I haven't needed a backup yet. Is it worth the extra hardware? I honestly like the cleaner look of the head units with no CD player anyways.
I've definitely got some thinking to do...
Basically, the thing with work is we have 140 people on staff right now. We're looking to reduce to 107. On the union side, they're starting with a voluntary severance plan. If they don't get enough volunteers, they cut each dept as necessary... from the bottom. In my dept I'm 3rd from the bottom out of 21. And so far we only have about 5 guys interested in retiring.
The problem is that the bosses haven't divulged any information as far as how many people are needed to leave from each dept. They haven't even told us how how the split goes, as far as management/union. It's definitely a stressful time.
On second thought, I think I will go with that one. The next step up had all the custom color changing and all that bullshit. I just want music; I don't care about all the visual effects. Most of the time, the AV effects and the demo **** are way too bright anyways and affect me when driving at night. My eyes aren't the best and a bright *** headunit glowing in my face is not ideal haha
Re: LiteraCola's Project Daily, Version 3.0: 98 DX Hatch
Originally Posted by 94 Civic Si
That is a bummer. I hope you can get the 'Lude sold soon so you can squirrel away a little cash.
Hopefully that is a good head unit, I have not installed mine, but it looked like it had everything I would need.
I think you are wise to suspend upgrades and save $. Just take good care of your sweetie and get through this time at work,
Good luck!
Thanks man! We've been putting money away for a little while now; just got our tax refund back and she does some real estate photography on the side. She's a stay-at-home-mom but she does her part to help out financially.
Re: LiteraCola's Project Daily, Version 3.0: 98 DX Hatch
Haha well, for me, having access to good tunes is essential to me keeping my sanity! So $90 is money well spent, even with the current job situation. We don’t find anything out for another month still. So driving in silence will only cause me to get stuck in my head.
Re: LiteraCola's Project Daily, Version 3.0: 98 DX Hatch
Why yes, yes it is! I was pleasantly surprised at how much better the stock speakers sound with just the head unit! I think I’ll stick with the stockers for a while, or until I start feeling the need for more POWA!
Yes, brakes have been installed and all is well! This weekend I also installed my new Energy shifter bushings! The old stabilizer bushing was so worn that I had at least a 1/2” of play from side to side and it made the shifts really sloppy! No one likes a sloppy shifter...
Re: LiteraCola's Project Daily, Version 3.0: 98 DX Hatch
I'm still trying to diagnose the sticky accelerator pedal... I have cleaned the TB, cleaned and lubed the throttle cable on both ends, but it still won't engage smoothly. Apart from replacing the cable altogether, I'm not sure what else to do. The cable and throttle plate both operate smoothly when separated... I did find that lubing the cable at both ends fixed the problem, but only temporarily. Any ideas?
Re: LiteraCola's Project Daily, Version 3.0: 98 DX Hatch
Originally Posted by LiteraCola
Why yes, yes it is! I was pleasantly surprised at how much better the stock speakers sound with just the head unit! I think I’ll stick with the stockers for a while, or until I start feeling the need for more POWA!
Cool! Have you tried the Bluetooth functionality?
I can't wait to get mine in. I spent the weekend working on our taxes...
Re: LiteraCola's Project Daily, Version 3.0: 98 DX Hatch
I tried to pair my iPhone (SE) with the head unit, but it wouldn't pair. I had the same trouble with the JVC head unit in the Prelude. Maybe something is wrong with my phone. I do thoroughly enjoy the USB though. I get tunes AND charging, which is great for me because I tend to kill my phone at work (Zombie Catchers, play it, love it). I'm also not the "talking on the phone" type (I know, sue me, I'm a millennial), so I didn't attach the BT microphone.
I'm really loving the Energy shifter bushings! She shifts like she should now! Best $12 I've ever spent!
02-19-2018, 03:57 AM
LiteraCola's Project Daily, Version 3.0: 98 DX Hatch
