Been wanting a project for a while so I finally picked this up. 97 Civic dx hatch, 209xxx miles, 5 speed etc...














So far I've only done a headlight restoration
(forgot to get pics), but I have alot planned for it.
Hopefully in the next couple weeks I'll be picking up
a y8 head and ecu for a mini me swap. Also should
have pics up of the ls meshies I'm refinishing/painting
for this tomorrow.

 

Nice, good luck on the build.

 

nice car reminds me of my old hatch : (

so many memories

 

Well, the meshies will have the old bald tires broken down tomorrow,
and new tires mounted/balanced...
Here are some pics of the process;
How they were when I got them, bald tires,
pitted/curbed (cant see it well in the pictures)


Aircraft paint stripper


After applied to wheels


After applying stripper wire brush with it still on, then wash them off.
After washing off, I used sand paper, steel wool, and a wire brush
attachment on a dremel to get all the old stuff off, and get ready for primer.

Primer (I did 3 coats of rustoleum primer)




First coat of paint (I did 2 coats of rustoleum brass metallic)


Final step I did 3 coats of rustoleum crystal clear.
And yes I did paint all over these tires, they were bald, and it
saved me time on masking. If you plan on doing this though I'd
have new tires put on in advance because I had paint chip off
on me from breaking down the old tires off, so I'm going to
touch them up tomorrow after new tires are mounted and
balanced, so just make sure tires are decent first and mask them off.






Pics will be up of these on my integra tomorrow because
the civic is not driveable yet. If you have any questions
about this process just ask.

On another note ordered a new throw-out bearing (not sure
on spelling correct me if I'm wrong) today. After this weeks
projects (buying sand paper, steel wool, 2 wire brushes, primer,
paint, clear coat, tires, and bearing) my wallet is empty.

 

nice hatch!

 

good luck with your project.

 

***** clean, i want a dap hatch so bad

 

Not as clean as I'd like, I'll have to post up some more detailed pics of the quarters... one side is a quarter sized hole by where it meets the bumpers. But I guess what do I want for a running ek hatch that I bought for lets just say under $1000.

Haha, also don't get my previously abandoned hatch (until I bought it) and vtecroar's clean hatch confused....

 

Another update; got tires mounted and balanced today, heres some pics of them on the dd until the hatch is running right...








Also going now to pick up the bearing, hopefully it solves the tranny problems on the hatch so I can start driving it! Will post up a pic and such later...

 

Reminds me of mine, same color, engine and interior. Mine has come pretty far I think I will make a thread of my build.

 

I can't wait to get some fresh paint on this thing usdm ek9 I love this color too, it's alot different. After I get it running these meshies will be on it too.
Hopefully within the next week or two I'll be replacing the bearing and pray it stops the grinding noise. After it's riding right I have a mini me swap waiting for me in my friends garage, and I'll finally get rid of that ugly updraft mani!