I bought a 95 civic ex a year ago and ive finally saved about 2k to start working on it myself. this car has been in several wrecks and repairs meaning the vin number may not be any help at all because of the massive about of restorations done to it.
it has a replacement engine in it, smallest/economical engine you can buy for honda's(as this was forced on me by my father), any help with what type that would be or how to find out would be appreciated. Next my gauge cluster doesnt have a tachometer on it, and my car is a 5 speed manual.
so a few questions i would loved answered are as the following
1. can i just swap the cluster out with one with a tachometer without replacing anything else?
2. I would love to swap out my slow engine out with a vtech engine. does that require a new transmission and other parts, or just the engine itself?
3. putting in a sun roof? possible? if so from 1-10 how hard would it be to put one in?
4. I want to put in power locks, power windows, and power mirrors.(yep car is completely stock) what parts do i need to buy for each of these? buttons. mechanisms, so and so. and what do i do with old crank wholes in door panels were window crack oncer was? as well as the mirror crank?
5. insulating trunk doors hood for sound system to reduce road noise, its completely bare right now
6. like previously mentioned my car was crashed before i bought it and i repaired it myself, the left side of the front in still sags and this causes an unusual gap between my hood and the front bumber that increases as you move from the right to the left, how do i fix this? i beleive it is the front bumper that is sagging and i need to know what bracket to bend upwards.
any help at all would be greatly helpful, like i said i'm new to repairing and working on cars and i love to learn, im smart and pick up on things as i take them apart. again i would love any help that can be givin. if you have more information contact me at shindog3@gmail.com or short_star08@yahoo.com
Thank you,
Learning mechanic

 

i might not be able to answer all your questions but i should be able to help with a few....

gauge cluster. you should be able to swap out your existing with one with a tach. the best way to find out is to remove your existing gauges and see if you have unused plug behind the gauges. That would be a good indication that you can hook up a tach.

engine swap. recommend replacing tranny too.

sun roof? not sure. curious myself.

as far as adding power locks/windows. you will have to buy the harness, switches and new door panels to hold the switch and remove your window cranks / mirror.

insulating trunk. use dynomat

hope this helped a little. let me know what you find about the sunrof.

 

any 92-95 civic 5spd cluster with an RPM gauge will plug and play.

If your car is really an EX it should already have a sunroof. power door locks and windows. but installing the doors wouldnt be too hard, any real 92-95 civic EX doors would bolt in, but all the stuff would have to be wired in with relays and such.

As for installing a sunroof, I wouldnt recommend it. My friend tried it on his CRX only to find out that chasis that come STOCK with a sunroof, have drain lines that run through the frame for rain and car washes and stuff. so his car leaked water.

As for a motor swap, you can use a majority of your parts if you stay single cam. You probably have a d15b8 or d15z1. if you install another single cam you can use the axles, harness and such even tranny, but i wouldnt keep the tranny since their gears are SUPER long. I would go with a D16z6 motor and tranny, But no stock single cam can really compare to a DOHC vtec motor