DX1992HB

Hello all! I am new to this forum and I bought a 1992 DX Hatchback about a month ago. When I bought him he didn't have an O2 sensor (had a misfire like crazy and had to drive it 200 miles home like that) but that is the first thing I replaced. My boyfriend is a mechanic and is probably the only reason buying a 21 year old car as a 23 year old girl was a good idea lol

So a lot of stupid stuff was wrong with Howie. Like the kid that I bought it from broke a bolt off in one of the holes for the license plate so he just had it stuck in the back window. The hatch also mysteriously won't open... he rattle canned the whole thing primer gray, and spray painted the steelies white! ugh!



So he needs a new hood and passenger fender, and there is a gnarly dent right above the passenger door which I don't think is fixable. Plus the roof is dented I'm guessing from someone sitting on it you can pop it out but when you close the door it pops back in lol

I bought some seat covers and a new mounting plate for my license plate. Had to replace the driver's turn signal too. The main problems now are that he has a horrible oil leak from the bottom of the engine (which my boyfriend is guessing is the oil pan gasket, i'm crossing my fingers he is correct) the top of the engine was rebuilt about 10 months ago with a new head and piston rings.

I bought Howie because I was driving a fast little car that got 15 mpg. I love that car but I needed something with better gas mileage, and with what I was spending on gas I will have paid for Howie by what I'm saving in a year.

We also just switched out the gauges... cause I wanted to lol I will post pictures of that in the next post.

DX1992HB

So yesterday we finally attempted to replace the gauges, I bought them for 22 dollars off ebay before I read that everyone pretty much says don't even try to switch them lol So they sat around for a month before we got up the guts to try. It was pretty stressful, because you CANNOT remove the needles without breaking them all together or having to re-calibrate the gauges and hope all goes well. This is not a tutorial or anything because well... now my temperature gauge is dead even though it got messed with the least. The gauge faces I bought were really flexible and I was able to slide it over the old gauges. Well here is a picture of the old gauges taken apart.



They were horribly dirty and old fashioned and honestly I just wanted to prove to myself I could do it. So my boyfriend sat by while it took me an hour to first dremel out the places on the plastic gauge surround for the wires for the new gauges to fit, it actually wasn't too hard to do that except the plastic shards that fly off are really hard not to get EVERYWHERE including the crevices in the gauges. And while I was dremeling the plastic it made the needles jump around a little bit which unnerved me. At one point I accidentally hit the speedo needle and it went all the way around and was sitting under the stopped at zero I about you know what in my pants at that point. But i just tapped it towards the correct direction and it went back correctly. The gas gauge is very easy to knock out of the correct position, to make sure it was close to correct I took a before picture, and I made sure it was at the place when I snapped it back together but then I noticed when installing it back in the car it was reading at a higher level than it was actually. I got really worried til I turned my car on and it fixed it self thankfully. (I checked that by filling my tank up afterwards and making sure it said full which it did)

The stock needles were white, and I was installing white face gauges so that wasn't gonna work. I had heard of people using sharpies to color their needles, I wanted to color them blue but couldn't find the right color especially without seeing what color the gauges were at night! So I chose red due to the fact there was a small amount of red on the gauges and I had seen good results from people using a red sharpie on them.





We also installed lights under the dash, also just for fun. Its now cliche looking but I love it lol

What do you guys think? (I haven't been able to get a matching head unit yet...its still red in the mass of blue :p )

grumblemarc

iTrader: (4)

Ug. Those gauges are horrible. As long as YOU like them though.

DX1992HB

They look 1000% times better than the stock ones did and for 22 dollars who could beat it. Plus to actually have the ***** to do something everyone was saying not to and have it work out is very satisfying. For 15 bucks I can buy a replacement temp gauge if I have to, what most likely happened was the plug got jostled when re installing the gauges and just needs to be re-plugged in.

Emeraldbomber

Not my taste but hey to each his/her own! good luck with the hatch

Eddie

Up next body kit.

DX1992HB

haha I don't think I'll go for a body kit, I just need panels that aren't rusted and dented!! lol not too much to ask for right? Plus mostly I just was trying to make the inside fun so I could deal with driving slower everywhere, hoped it would distract me. And it seems to! lol so I feel successful in my endeavor

Yea the hatch seems dented from the inside.. like someone moved furniture in it and slammed on the brake causing the furniture to jam it closed... any suggestions?

Oh and from the research I've done, for this 21 year old car a leaking proportional valve for the brakes is to be expected and needs to be replaced with a brand new one right? If I pick one up at a pull a part place it will most likely have the same leaky weep hole correct? Any input is helpful :D

Emeraldbomber

Anything is better than the one you have now, right?

Eddie

Interested in seeing where this go's.

Emeraldbomber

ditto

POPLERO

iTrader: (2)

looks like it will be funn

DX1992HB

Howie is definitely my new toy and it has been so fun. I'm sure most of y'all will hate it (from previous responses I'd say yes you'll hate it lmao) but next weekend is when I'll be changing the color of my wheels. I don't like the white at all, wish he would of left them black. I shall make do though... I found my favorite color, a dark matte teal, that I will be painting them next weekend. Shall post pictures when he's done

Eddie

sohc_PhaZe

do what ever makes you happy with your car, its ur money and your car. People will hate but thats life. Good luck on what ever u do! My suggestion please dont get underglow xD

DX1992HB

Lol don't worry I won't Cops in Oklahoma are too finicky about that stuff, plus I've never liked them... although oddly enough my 53 year old mother does and I had to talk her out of buying some for her explorer about 3 years ago lmao but she is dork and I love her

Eg*

Get ride of the steeles and buy some ls mash rims

hunghoang

personally all the blue light hurt my eyes during a long drive. Maybe I am getting too older. I did like blue LED's when i was younger

DX1992HB

LOL not trying to spend that kinda money. plus the steelies cost nothing to replace the tires on (compared to the 800 bucks for my stock 17s on my other car) and the paint I got was 4 bucks a can can't beat that, they are already spray painted (the kid didn't even cover up the brake assembly, the calipers are white polka dotted!!! smh) can't get much worse honestly

I was actually pondering this exact thing on the way home from work. It doesn't bother my eyes right now but I'm only 23 and I could imagine they would start to bug my eyes after a couple years. And at that point they are just stuck on there with some 3M double sided tape lol and they can be removed at any point til then they shall be enjoyed!

RoseFuneral

good luck on fixing it up, i have a 93 si hatch, love it. turbo build this summer

if the car came with an automatic, you might want to do a manual swap. it will last longer and the car will be a lot more fun. the automatics in the civics have always been crap. il never drive another auto again, anyway.

JuggerNaut-CTR

Cant afford $300 to blow on a more than decent set of wheels compared to steelies, yet your wasting $60 on hideous guage overlays and whatever else you spent on those f&f interior neons....hmmmm. Weird seeing other people priorites & logic with their build. Glad you like "him"....I thought only europeans called their cars he's...

FYI: For around $30 you could have swapped in a oem cluster that has a tach. To each his own I guess.

Eddie

Idk man the cluster that was dropped in to replace the OEM one is a ebay product. So i'm thinking it was less then 40 bucks and I'm sure it won't last very long before the lights go out or it starts acting up.

JuggerNaut-CTR

You're right....now that I actually looked them up they are between $20-$40. As long as op is happy happy joy joy though.

DX1992HB

Money Spent on Interior
$22 dollars for the gauges (free shipping)
$16 dollars for the neon lights
$7 dollars worth of spray paint.

I just do not like stock gauges, and the problem with mine was with my eyesight I couldn't read the dim white on black on the stock gauges, I could rarely go from looking at headlights to trying to see my gauges, now its not even a problem. And I guess we shall see if the new ones crap out on me or not eventually.

LOL I am a girl and my cars are boys.

We were debating on whether we could possibly do a trans swap on it, it broke my heart to buy an automatic car like seriously. Not to mention the whole reason I bought this car was for gas mileage, and the auto trans steals like 10 mpg, but for the price it made a difference. Every other manual EG hatchback in the surrounding area was over 2500 dollars and at least a state away. It seemed that everyone that owned a hatchback around here was either hanging on to it or only wanted to trade for another Honda to play with. I'll have to start looking for a manual trans and doing some research then. I'm glad to hear that its a possibility!

RoseFuneral

im glad you want a manual you can find a used one for 300 or less, and you will also need shift linkage, pedal assembly, etc. but its WELL worth it. its not too hard to drop the trans at least. im sure your bf could handle it

Emeraldbomber

For a swap itll run about 1000 bucks give or take. If you have a homie hookup around 600-800 range. Its totally worth it. I loved doing mine