bbarbulo

I need a place to keep track of the work done on this car, so what better place than honda-tech? Comments both positive and negative welcome. Yes, I know it's an automatic. But I live in the rust belt and these cars are extinct around here. This car was too nice to go to the scrappers and it is super low mileage so I decided to save it; even though I have way too many other dope *** cars - some may even be shown here.

I bought this car around my bday December 2015. Drove it home with no brakes, no heat, and a hole in the exhaust. Around the same time I had bought a 2007 pontiac G6 (sometimes I buy cars accidentally, it's a sickness); I needed to turn around and sell the G6 quickly so that took priority. The Civic sat untouched till it started to thaw in the spring. The car had a saggy rear bumper, little quarter panel damage, bad rot in the forward rear wheelwell area, had stock wheels, stock everything, ghetto stereo with a ghetto install done, etc etc. I did manage to immediately source a brand new set of rear tail lights (new OEM in-box), new OEM antenna (car had a radio delete factory option, but some retard drilled into the delete plate), new OEM delete plate (but I could only get the new style without the 'HONDA' raised lettering), used German 89 auto cluster with tach and KMS, used old school Accord radio and the proper harness, used center trunk garnish from an LX model, used auto trans garnish (the PRND21 black surround), couple of used clocks, used 4 spoke steering wheel, etc. I'll let some pics do the talking.

the car was filthy, but I could see through it - it was a good car worth saving!! I could undo the butchering, make everything right again.

bbarbulo

Dirty, filthy car with b!tchmade radio wiring basically marretted together and taped to the front of the dash and run behind the door panel. Also note that the original radio harness was hacked off with no real purpose, there was no reason to cut the stock wiring.



Under the hood was no different. All original, all stock, just dirty as heck. Thermostat failed, trans has a harsh engagement into R only, and the aforementioned exhaust leak (hugely rusted out replacement exhaust. I bet the original owner got suckered at some point into replacing a perfectly good stock exhaust. That makes me really pissy, but it is what it is.







I wasn't overly pleased with the rear garnish purchase, had a slight scratch that I had to buff out and I think the one corner back side (not the reflector) got crunched in transit. But overall there wasn't much I could do...





from the same seller I bought the auto trans garnish. I was real upset about this one because it looks like *** - the lettering is all faded and just... not a good looking part. Mine was actually in better shape, but someone had leaned on it or something and cracked it. I ended up repairing mine and it looks better than the part I had bought to replace it. My repair is pretty much flawless.

here is how it SHOULD look, unfaded



but here is the faded part I bought... notice the bleed-through around the P.






here are three of the nine cars, my daily, the 88 civic, and a lowered saturn sedan...




The time came to rewire the cluster so I can put in the German cluster with a tach. I'm not a hack, so the cluster was depinned and repinned correctly. The choke light is now the CEL since german cars were apparently carburated? I MAY eventually get the correct gel inserts or splice together a USDM/DDM set of gels so I can have an actual CEL symbol, but that's pretty damn low on the list of priorities out of so many cars.









I know, pretty clean hands for someone that works on cars


At some point in the summer of 2016 I pulled the carpet, floor looked good. Everything was stripped down completely and washed properly, including all the seat belts and all the upholstery. Everything was in good shape, I mean mint. No cig burns, no tears, rips, or significant wear. The headliner was lightly steamed and cleaned.








This was a good time to see about not having brakes... there was a hole in the left rear brake line. The right rear brake line was replaced previously, and that was a bit of a hack job. I fix.

Having the brake fluid out, it made sense to install a big 15/16 master cylinder. No pics of that. Actually there are lots of pics missing, but it happened.

bbarbulo

I had an H&R set of coilovers for an EK. I sourced a set of EG LCAs and EG front forks and went on about the business of installing coilovers. It was also time to take care of a few issues to pass safety inspection, like new upper control arms, sway bar end links, and tie rod ends. The EK coilovers were really just plain too long for an EF. I ended up having the forks machined out so I could push the coilovers deeper into the fork and I relocated the pinch bolt. I also ended up removing the lower lock collar. Overall I gained about 20-25 mm back. But this was a temporary solution; I could not be happy with that. Still, this is a journal, and that's how it was.

bbarbulo

I mentioned previously the saggy rear bumper. I knew there would be some work, but I didn't care. The car was sweet, all the doors, rockers, floor, hood, trunk, roof, everything else was mint mint mint. Never a significant accident (I did mention a bit of quarter panel damage), and all original paint!

I've never done welding or body work, but how hard can it be?? Now, I'm a ***** for tools, cars, everything... basically I'm a *****, I hoard everything. So yes, I have torches, MIG and wire feed welders, good size compressor, sand blasting cabinet, most air tools a man could desire, etc. For most of the work seen here I used a few hammers, blocks of wood, lots of sheet metal, die grinder with a 2 inch cutoff wheel and a 4.5" elec angle grinder, wire brushes of different kinds, my little Lincoln Electric 110V wire feed welder with .030 flux core wire. I started out with 0.035 wire cuz that's what I had on hand, but my welds looked like poo.

Everything was cut out and replaced, seam sealed or fillered, covered with POR-15 or weld-through primer, then sealed up with primer-sealer.







This shot shows the quarter panel damage. The panel and part of the wheel arch were pushed about 20-25 mm in.










Here you see the rusted tabs. The left upper is newly made





Cleaned up/replaced as needed



No pics, but a small portion (the lip) of the trunk floor was also replaced because it caught cancer (rust) from the adjoining rear panel

Test fitting... yes, this piece was banged out with a hammer and a piece of 2x4







looking a bit better



This area was too hard to include in the initial patch, the geometry of it was too hard to all form at once with a hammer. So, I made it a 2 part patch.




assessing the other side, not as bad - two pretty small patches. the rest of it looked good



patches welded and smoothed a bit



Ok now the wheel wells where the bumper brackets mount. This side was totally gone, luckily I had the other side mostly intact so I could copy.

Inner panel done







rotten wheel arch



rotten wheel arch repair





oh-oh... this looks bad. but the rocker is totally solid!! win!







again, trusty hammer and 2x4, some cardboard template... voila a patch is formed and welded in place

inner panel and wheel arch repair - I cut away the outside panel too, it was starting to rot. so the dogleg at the bottom behind the rear door (south of the molding) was also replaced.



with por-15 coating



this shows the inner panel repair of the dogleg area. The larger hole is as-factory for the molding, the smaller hole goes on the outside panel. Everything was copied as from the factory.






I bought a complete quarter panel patch on ebay so I could ****** the dogleg area and have good (decent??) geometry to start with. I fitted the panel real tight and welded it in place. Notice in the pics there is nothing holding the panel in place before welding, no magnets, no screws, no pop rivets - that's how much care I took to fit the panel correctly. The masking tape is just to protect the door from grinding sparks and welding spatter (using flux core produces a lot of spatter and I didn't feel like lugging around the MIG and bottle).










The daily needed a engine bay wash



Work continues on the outside skin of the dogleg area



don't trust the aftermarket coating of the replacement panel




The other side needed a little less love, but just the same, all rot was cut out and replaced, here the rear bumper bracket area you can see is already taken care of, and I suspect at this point the wheel arches and forward inside wheelwell area had already been done. This pic is more about the quarter panel damage and getting it straight again and looking good without using some b!tchmade solution like a ton of filler. Yes, filler was necessary, but only to smooth the panel to perfection after straightening and to recover some of the body lines and corner radiuses (radii??... wtf is the plural of radius in this context, I know radii is correct for geometry use, but this is more of a body work... never mind).

Here you see studs welded to the panel ready for pulling. Paint has been ground off and the panel was already worked with hammer and dollies from inside the trunk area as far forward as I could reach. Remember, I've never done body work or anything, but I'm not a retard. Some degenerate had unfortunately pounded on this panel from the trunk and caused a lot more damage than the original incident. Hence the need for filler, I suspect if I had gotten this car before that hammering idiot, I probably could have restored the panel pretty much to perfection. Now, note that I did have a replacement quarter already purchased, but I didn't see a need to cut original sheet metal when all it needed was a little gentle massaging.








First coat of filler. Less than 2 mm thick in the deepest areas.

bbarbulo

^^^ notice there I brought back the original lines of that profile. The Civic has this sexy curve that goes from the end of the wheel arch and gradually tapers into the tail light area. The incident crushed all that but I restored it.

another good shot of the curve I'm talking about








Started sanding to identify panel condition. You see the high spots where someone banged around with a hammer inside the trunk.









Oh wait a minute. This is no good... evidence of rust, so I did some digging - did not look good. I stopped there and slept on it... decided to cut it






Exactly what I thought I would find...



Fix...











Moving on... fast forward a lot of filling and sanding, then feeling the panel for straightness, then more filler, more sanding, etc etc etc... prob a week in filling and sanding, then pawing at it like a pervert, feeling every curve for correct geometry.

bbarbulo

Now. most of you know the ED (EF?) bumpers have a metal rebar, then plastic standoffs, then a metal bracket where the plastic bumper cover fits into a groove and then really nasty philips head bolts sandwich the whole thing together.

The metal rebar was a disaster, the OEM one had fallen apart completely and it would have been too much effort to restore it as-original. I managed to source a replacement, I couldn't get my hands on a OEM part but I did find an aftermarket replacement. 4 week wait and I had it in hand. In the meantime, I restored the metal bracket... all the philips head screws basically either broke or stripped. I drilled them out as necessary, tapped the holes clean, and used new stainless bolts. I will eventually convert everything to the new OEM rivets that my EJ6/EJ8's use (the plastic rivet with a center section that pops up and lets you pull the bumper with ease).



The metal bracket had some areas of rust and pitting that were cut out and replaced






no pics, but the bracket was eventually smoothed completely, painted with POR-15 and everything was reinstalled. The license plate lights were taken apart, polished and washed, the license plate brackets were sandblasted and painted with POR-15, new stainless bolts were used.

bbarbulo

The door windows had those stick on visors that I despise (I love only WeatherTech in-channel visors and rock those on my wagon) one was broken and one was missing and obv removed by an ape with a screwdriver... having scratched the door frame paint.


Pic of aforementioned wagon with WeatherTech visors, sittin pretty on AMR coilovers:



The door frames are faded and showing a little bit of rust. The glue from the dbl sided sticky tape was a disaster to remove.



Here you see I restored the left front door frame only



I had no more time for that nonsense, fall 2016 was fast approaching and there was an odyssey with a bad transmission I needed to tend to, and I had to get my new suspension installed

I mentioned before the EK susp was too long for the EF platform. Yes it fits, but it won't really perform. Leave EK coilovers for EK/DC/EG platforms.

I had also mentioned before I sunk the coilovers right into the forks to get lower. This meant I could do some prep work for my new coilovers. This meant modifying the brake line brackets to fit the new coilovers. Most of you guys probably ziptie your brake lines, but just because "bekuz_racecar_bro_dude" somehow is acceptable to most, doesn't mean it is acceptable to me.

The body of the coilover is fatter than the stock shocks, this mean moving the brake line mount out and back a little bit. Back to welding and grinding...

Ear cut off



Scrap piece of angle was the right thickness... here you see how little material I had to add to space out the brake line to clear the body of the coilover



Other side original (but sandblasted) and the cut-off ear from the side I was modifying




Side-by-side modified and unmodified brake line brackets.



Not sure what this pic shows, but that's the old suspension that was coming out.



Perhaps I was getting ready to install these




^^^ New steering rack bellows... those were installed at some point too.

bbarbulo

The suspension was going back in with some new bushings. These are for integra rear arms since I wanted the option to have a rear sway bar at some point if I feel like it (but remember, this is an auto tranny build... sooooo I dunno)



Dirty vs clean... everything was cleaned or replaced


Sandblasted and painted, new bushings all around



Coilovers assembled with the brake line bracket





EF/EG Civic vs DC integra





Yes the brake line brackets on the brake line are dingy looking, but that's for another day...



Yes, those ARE in fact drums...



I have two sets of rear disks I need to restore, one of them will end up on this car

bbarbulo

Little underhood cleaning, can't really see detail, but I started removing all the oil rustproofing and cleaned up 28 years of pine needles and stuff



Notice the strut towers... engine and firewall another day...



Final ride height for now...





That was it for 2016, autumn came hard, and I still had that odyssey to get at...



that's inside a B7TA Honda transmission for those that were curious...

in terms of plans... maybe it will be as clean as my other sedan that I've owned since new (bought June 1998). Yes, that IS a real Si-R OEM lip and OEM CTR lights and OEM red/clear tails.



or my coupe??







Susp loaded = NO rub!!



Who knows... definitely will respray it myself in the original color - to perfection... no bullshit half assed paint job. Will definitely peel off that tint LOL... but for now it does at least protect that minty fresh interior.

I do want input on keeping the bumpers black vs. color coded to the body.

The molding and handles are staying black for sure, that I already know.

Marcos Barrios

wow that sounds like a crap load of progress dude
but none of your pictures are working
i wonna see your handy work ^_-

bbarbulo

Alright, pics should now all work - holler if they don't

ssmrico

wow looks good

bbarbulo

^ thanks ssmrico!

ssmrico

anytime

bbarbulo

doing some prep work on a brake upgrade. these are 280mm brakes (~11 inch) and fat too... 25mm thick.

mounted to a DA or EX knuckle, these would be a 300mm (11.8") brake setup. but I want to keep 15" wheels an option and I haven't been able to find an EX knuckle... sooooo... I'm good with 280mm



a random DX caliper vs new




that's how it should look all together, except the custom hubcentric ring would be on the hub :p

bbarbulo

Scored a DA rear sway bar and all the hardware, 4040 prop valve, and a DA steering wheel today. Super stoked about the purchases! Wheel should be in tomorrow if weather cooperates and I'll have some pics. I love the current wheel, but it's a little too close to the light and wiper controls so I'm afraid one day I'll slip up and break them off. The idea is later to take a aftermarket wheel hub, and drill that pattern into my steering wheel - basically using the hub as a spacer. Cuz I'm not in love with having ACURA on the steering wheel.

BETaEF

Hey man,

Progress on that 88 is Sweet! I will be watching this thread. I really like how you just get right in there and give her what she needs....rust repair....weld some patch panels! I dont know how to weld yet, but plan on learning with my car too! Awesome cars!!

ssmrico

nice!

bbarbulo

thanks gentlemen!

I didn't know how to weld either, but hell if that's gonna stop me. I wasn't born knowing any of this stuff, so just get the tools and do work.

Actually I haven't updated this thread in a little while. I've been building a TDI Golf



the past couple of months instead. But I did do this:





Cut and welded rails off the Integra:
















The stock DA coupe rails don't even remotely fit. All the measuring, cutting and welding really paid off though, the seats fit as if they were meant for the Civic.

Dr side is done as well, but I haven't installed yet since I wanna run the remote trunk release cable under the carpet first. The 88 DX did not have a remote trunk release, so I got one to install.

BETaEF

Super clean install! Your work motivates me man!

bbarbulo

did a bit of work today. 88 DX didn't have remote trunk release. and the seat was already out, so I ran a cable to the back. I misplaced the clips that hold the cable to the trunk arm, but I'll find them eventually.



Start like so...





Run the cable nice and tight, clips already exist



Grab this guy...



And finish!



Now reinstall seat and enjoy!







I also changed out the window cranks for blue 2nd gen Integra ones. They are very slightly different, but enough for me to be intrigued by them.

ratchetEDsedan

Clicked on your sig after re reading your reply to my thread. You're baws as hell dude, that fuel door repair is incredible. I'm staying posted for sure. Maybe some day I won't be scared to cut into all the rust on my first EF, you saw it. Clean car too, good find, even if it is auto.

bbarbulo

won't be auto much longer, bought a 5 speed complete car a couple weeks back

but then I bought a 99 EM1 yesterday too; so before I end up with 3 half-started projects, I'm gonna whip the EM1 into shape and THEN I'll pull the driveline from each of the cars and do a proper factory swap - including all the correct cable/shifter block-off plates on the body around the shifter. It should end up a very exact manual car replica after.

thanks for the kind words