afx31

Yo! So I've been in the old school Honda game for over 3yrs now with my track/street built hatch (https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-...chbox-3251019/) and I've now picked up a new project, a RT4WD Wagon! Plans with this some what barn find which has been off the road for 9 years is to restore it, make it look shmick, and slap a SOHC VTEC motor in it and turbo! I've always wanted to do a SOHC Turbo build, and which chassis would be better than a 4WD wagon hehe. Here's some starting photos for the old girl, bit rusty around the window but apart from that the rest of the chassis is somewhat clean!

Marcos Barrios

looks like its in great shape + the steering wheel is where its supposed to be ^_^
does it have a motor in it ?

afx31

Yeh she is! Yep has the D15B4 carby motor!

Marcos Barrios

so whats your first move

afx31

Alrighty so last weekend I got around to just cleaning everything out, gassed the entire car with bug spray as there was spidery ***** (juicebox reference) left right and center! Cleaned out the boot too and vacuumed all the dog hairs out. Also removed front seats as under them contained more spidery ***** too..







Now onto the fun stuff, RUST... Both top corners of the engine bay under the crowl contained some nice looking holes, the left hole on the right side actually goes under the windscreen.. Started poking away to get rid of the big sections of rust but still way more to come out. It's definately a windscreen out job, but for now I'm considering just laying down some rust converter so it can't grow anymore. Not sure when I'll actually remove the windscreen to do all but sometime this year

~sp33~

Did you get it started?

afx31

Havn't even tried yet, the battery terminal is the wrong size for battery.. I found more rust today when I removed the plastic seal runners on either side of the roof.. was gonna msg ya but thought I wouldnt ruin ya monday

Marcos Barrios

looks like its going to be a good time cutting and welding in new sheet metal
it doesnt look that bad in the pictures
its worth saving ^_-

just fix one hole at a time

afx31

Most definately worth saving. It's not too bad tbh, the crowl sections won't be too hard, just cut out the sections and weld some new metal sheet in. I've found another section on the roof under the seals on the sides which I'll post about now, that too won't be too bad fixing but I feel it'll be more challenging.

afx31

Sooooo... I felt like removing the plastic seat trim pieces on the side of the roof to see what lies below, and boy did I find some rust.. In the first photo below you'll see where I marked boxes with a permo, inside those sections is where rust is. The one on the left I then provided a photo of before I poked around and then after with a torch shinning through from inside. This weekend I plan to drop the sunroof assembly and cut out all the rust, and weld in my sheet metal to sort that section. Not worried about looks as it'll be covered, just as long as the rust is gone and it's sealed!






Also, the previous owner had the roof rack holes filled in, he wasn't sure how the shop did it. I was praying they did it the easy way and used bog, but nope, they welded it and did a pretty peasant job of it. No paint or anything to prevent future rust and here we go people, 3 sets of bolt holes either side of the roof all nice and rusty... sigh

Marcos Barrios

theres always been something oddly satisfying about cutting out rust
it really is like curing cancer

~sp33~

FML @ roof racks.

afx31

Yeh im keen to get rid of it

afx31

So I started sussing the rust on the roof today first with dropping the sunroof. Quite easy to drop it actually. 3 12mm either side and 2 on the front and out she came. Once it was removed hopes got a litter hurt. So on the drivers edge of the roof the rust was fairly bad, not sure how it all started but yeh where the roof skin meets the chassis was completely rusted there, quite badly. Ooooh'd and ummmm'd and decided the best thing to do is to drill the roof out, cut all the rust out and weld new pieces of metal in. So in the next few coming weeks I shall do so. But here are some photos from today showing the sections of the rust. Also cleaned up the sunroof and also the head liner. Good thing is the sunroof assembly itself isn't actually rusted at all apart for the left rear corner which has a little bit of surface rust. Shame the OEM bronze tinted glass is cracked :/

~sp33~

Do you have a sandblasting booth? They're not that pricey and maybe worth your while to strip off the blistered rust to see what you're working with. There might be some salvageable steel hiding in there.

afx31

I was just going to go to town with the wire brush and flappy disk

SlobberGoat

Congrats on the EE3... they're a rare breed.

afx31

So finally got some free time to work on the wagon, the university semester started 2 weeks ago so hopefully I still have spare time in the coming weeks to work on my rusty wagon! Started with mving my brothers drift car out the garage to put the wagon in, as I'm going to be drilling the roof off we feel it should have some lovin in the garage, as oppose to under the carport. Taped up the front window, ran a big stanley knife (razor) around the inside of the windscreen to cut trhough the sealant and she popped out with ease. First time removing a windscreen and boy was I impressed! With the windscreen out we could see the extent of the rust damage under the window and to be honest, it's not really that bad. I think the best way to repair will be to just weld in new pieces of sheet metal. Was considering using bits off a sedan crowl section but unfortunately they are different sizes.. Anyways cleaned back some more of the rust, cut the section off on the passenger side where the bonnet mounts go as that was completely rusted..




Previous owner had a 'proper' panel beater repair some rust around the rear passenger tail light many years ago, considering the priming job he did spraying half th car in primer I could only assuming it wasn't done correctly. Decided to remove the tail lights and rear side plastics and what do you know, more rust. Because they primered it but didn't paint over it, the primer just absorbed moisture and I guess where they repaired it the water just attacked again. The first photo below is the drivers side which actually has no rust, but is somehow dirty and i don't know what.. 2nd photo is the passenger side where previous rust has been repaired, you can see where they've caked the sealant all on the inside, over board.. and now rusty water has leaked through (I'll get another photo on the other side of this, i forgot..) but to top this off, the water has run down into the tub section behind the rear wheel from this leaking and rusted out the bottom as you can see via the 3rd photo.. yeh... holes in that section left right and center, inner and outer skins too which makes it even better to repair.. But staying positive, once the rust is repaired I'll have a rust free wagon! :D

afx31

Long Easter weekend means time for some wagon lovin, we decided to go ahead and cut out all the rust on the crowl so we can start making templates to then cut 1mm sheet metal up to weld back in. Not much to say here, each of the 3 sections I've taken before and after shots of so I'll just list them below. First we cut out the big chuncks with the angle grinder then fine cut it again, on the drivers side we had to use tin snips to get into one or two tight corners, they worked very well. Then once the cutting was done, filed down the edges to prevent after hospital trips and then wire brushed the rest.

Also for any of you 'rare' Honda EF Access part nerds out there, is there any knowledge whether this arch trim is a access part or just a random thing someone did that happens to look OEM? Theres one on each arch. Cheers in advance!


DRIVERS SIDE:
BEFORE:

AFTER + TEMPLATE:




MID SECTION:
BEFORE:

AFTER:


PASSENGER SIDE:
BEFORE:

AFTER:

afx31

Cheers mate, yeah I know they are quite rare hence I jumped on the opportunity regardless of the condition of it. In Australia a small owners group I'm in have accounted for about 30 I believe. Not many around

afx31

**UPDATE**

Been a while since the last update, that's because not much has really happenedd until last weekend. Been busy with the uni semester and work, 2 weeks left of uni and then I'm done for this semester so I can focus a lot more on the wagon build!

Two recent purchases for the wagon is a minty fresh EF5 JDM cluster I bought from Yahoo Auctions, will be a nice addition to the build. As well as this, I managed to find a super rare set of Honda Access heated mirrors for a EF5. I've never seen these before, barely any info on the internet too. I plan to try and swap the base plates over to the wagon ones.





Upon sussing the roof we found some more rust at the back. Not sure if I had mentioned above but we are planning to drill the roof off as both sides of the chassis and roof skin where they are spot welded is completely rusted. Once it's drilled off new strips of metal will be welded back in. I had a mate wrecking a ED sedan so I took the roof in case we can use pieces from it on the wagon roof. Also scored the power window setup and the door cards are a direct fit!

afx31

Last weekend we finally got around to taking the roof off, drilling out all the spot welds was interesting. The whole drivers side of the roof was rusted so we just pried it upwards and it quickly came lose. Upon getting the roof off we came to realise it actually isn't too bad. Chassis side theres 2 layers, the top one on the drives side is mostly rusted away, however the under piece is still good condition just needs a wire wheel and she's sweet. All of the passenger side apart from a very small section at the rear is fine, just some surface rust. I'll spam a ton of photos, the order of the photos is from the rear of the car ->passenger side -> front -> down drives side to the rear. I'll also then inclue photos of underneath the roof skin.

afx31

So, with the roof now off I ca start cutting out the rust, as which I started doing so for the drivers side on the chassis, cutting the top piece off. However, you may have seen in photos previously but above the drivers door there was some primer, I always wondered why it was there. Then I realised there was bog at the top of the roof there.. Hammer, chisel and a wire wheel soon enough revealed this.. Our guessing is something like a tree had fallen on it before, Or someone tried breaking into the front door as the top of the door frame is bent, prying off the roof of the car. Someone has tried to repair it before but like the rest of the ******* **** repairs on this car they did a **** job. I'm quite annoyed, it will push everything back but oh well thats the joys of it. I'll fix it properly and then continue with the roof.

Here's a happy photo os each of my ED chassis (I need a CRX now don't I )

~sp33~

Love that last pic, damn that sedan looks sick.

I wonder if that surprise damage was also the culprit for the sunroof damage.

Have you gotten anything off that beagle being wrecked on eBay yet?

afx31

Yeah the sedan is pre cool. Old bloke from top of the street came down to have a look (CEO Marketing Manager for Achilles Tyres) and he was amazed how mint it was,let him sit in it and all. I think slammed on some nice wheels and thats that for the sedan. Or keep it stock.

The sunroof didnt cause any rust, rust is only on the sides. I'd say it is the cause of the rust on that side of the roof, the only other rust is each corner of the roof, surprisingly where previous owner had the roof rack holes welded in. You can see in the photos above of the poor job.

Haven't seen it however I'll look now.