Hello to all. I've been at it with this '86 CRX Si project since this summer, and have been actively posting about the project on RPR. I see a lot of sweet 88+ builds on this site, so I thought I'd share some of the trials and tribulations that are met when working on Honda's first (and best ) CRX.

Many of you may remember my last build, an '87 Civic Wagon.






The wagon project has been a ton of fun, and I learned so much in the process. However, I wanted a car that would not only look great on the street, but would hold it's own on the track as well.

I read about how 1G CRX's were a great choice for autocross, and how they were competing very well in their classes. Being an RPR fanatic, this chassis was the obvious choice. So, off I went in the search for a car and parts.

I ended up doing my project backwards. I bought a parts car first, THEN bought a clean shell.

I was in the process of looking for a clean shell, but instead stumbled upon the gem below. The car was a crap shell, but an AWESOME parts car, so I snagged it while I could. This purchase gave me a HUGE jump start on collecting the needed parts for my build. The owner was a great guy, and sold the car to me for a very fair price.

Here's the parts car the day I brought it home:








The best part about the purchase was that this car had an amazing engine, which had been totally re-built for N/A power by a previous owner. 0.040" over pistons, intake and TB port-work, 3-angle valve job, new seals/rings, etc..... Dyno'd at 95 hp/94 tq. to the wheels. The tranny has an OPM LSD, stage 2 clutch, and a 5 lb. flywheel

Additionally, the car came with SO many parts, some of which were extremely hard to find parts that have since become unavailable for purchase new for the 1G Rex, and rarely even come up for sale used.

Included:
- Koni Yellow Adjustable shocks front and rear
- Peformance rear springs
- SuperTrap tunable exhaust; dyno-tuned
- HF radiator
- PaceSetter Headers
- ST Front and Rear swaybars
- Drilled front rotors
- SS lines front and rear
- HF aluminum drums in rear
- Momo Cup racing seat
- Momo seude racing wheel
- G-Force Harnesses
- 92-95 HX Rims (sold to cover purchase costs)
- Azenis RT-615 Tires (for this spring/summer)
- 13x8 Racing Slicks and wheels (plenty of tread left)
- 8 14" Si phone dial rims (soon to be stripped and polished)
- multiple other misc. usable items

Unfortunately, as you can see, the body was shot. Auto-X action had cracked the fenders and rockers, and the header panel and door skins were both heavily cracked. Additionally, there was several rust spots and a previous owner had chopped off the driver's side seat mounts b/c he was a mega-tall dude So, a clean chassis was still a neccesity.

I ended up lucking out once again, and found another great buy locally on CL. I picked up this beautiful, rust free, crack-free (if you know 1G CRX's, you know this is definitely a biggy, non-cracked plastics are like GOLD!) '86 CRX. It had no engine. Perfect! Just what I needed. Here's a pic just before I rented a U-Haul and hauled her home!



Then, progress begin to strip down the new chassis, remove and swap in the engine and performance goodies from the parts car, and prep the car for paint.

Pics-

A buddy of mine helped me to remove the engine from parts car:



Then, degreased, pressure washed, tooth-brushed the engine from the yellow rex. Put the cleaned-up motor in the red rex. Painted valve cover, drilled holes in stock airbox, installed cleaned and re-oiled K&N filter, painted Pasesetter headers and radiator with high-temp satin paint:





We had the whole car up and running in 2 days, and it was time to start hitting the interior and exterior work.

Then, came the interior work.

Stripped down the interior pretty good for cleaning and a dash swap (the dash on the parts car was a big cleaner than the Red car).



Spray-dying the interior black, as the upper parts of the CRX come a light grey from the factory.







Then, came the process of body work. I still had a few small cracks to take care of on my plastics. I drilled grooves along the cracks, plastic welded them with a plastic adhesive, and then fiberglassed the backside of all of the cracks for added strength.













Next, came all of the body work. Took a few days, but here was the car the day it headed off to the paint shop.















Now, many knock Maaco, but I have found great success with a local Maaco here in town. This CRX is the second car they have painted for me. They painted my wagon as well. I have gone both times with their "presidential" paint service, single-stage w/ integrated clear. I'm very happy with the results of both cars. For the money and turn-around time, you can't beat it. You just have to be **** with your prep work.

I got the car back in 3 days, and began re-assembly.

Here's the car a few days after paint, in near-finished trim:





















Once I passed inspection, I put on the SuperTrap exhaust from the parts car.




Additional parts I obtained for the CRX through the summer and fall:

- JDM "CR-X" B-Pillar emblems
- JDM Side-markers
- EDM Tail-lights; 85 non-smoked models
- USDM optional red "CRX" rear reflective panel
- 14" Mugen MR5's (taken off of the wagon)
- 2G CRX seats (1G seat pans swapped on these to complete the install)
- OEM Mudflaps front and rear
- CD Accord side-skirts (cut to fit)
- CD Accord sun-roof visor (actually fits the 1G very well!)
- OEM CRX Si front lip (neither of my cars came with one)
- OEM optional rear speaker pods
- NOS 1G CRX Fog Light kit w/ wiring and switch
- "OK Honda" window decal reproductions off of Ebay

I cleaned up the Momo racing seat, which was quite worn from (actual racing!) use when I purchased the parts car. Used SEM fabric spray-dye in "Flame Red".

Before:



After:







I then did a DIY job on my headlights, to try and emulate the look of the black-housed JDM/EDM lights.









While installing the new headlights, I wired up and installed a set of 6K HID bulbs w/ halogen highs, and put some Nokya Hyper Yellow H3 bulbs in the factory fog housings.



I then lowered the car a good bit. I also did some much needed alignment work on the front bumper and header panel, and snapped some pics with a recently purchased Nikon D40. So, here's where I'm at with the project now:

















There's still much more left for me to do. I drive the car every day, and am very happy with the performance and comfort. Insurance is dirt cheap, and I'm enjoying the 30+ mpg in the city.

I'll post up future plans and updates as I go along.

As always, I must thank the entire RPR community for their on-going support and advice! Without them, this build would not have been possible.

Thanks for looking!

 

Very sick! Im lovin it! An older family friend of mine has an 86 as well, all original with only like 40K original miles on it and in showroom shape. Good to see others keeping the 1st gen alive, and in great taste! Kudos!

 

wow very clean ,amkes me miss mine so much !!! my poor crx sittin at the farm all beat up looking

 

wow, i am impressed with this build. Please post more when you decide to do more. Also does the fabric dye wear off onto clothing? If not then im getting some racing seats for cheap lol

 

Looks hella fresh brotha

 

i dyed mine and it didnt wear off onto anything from what i could tell .**** ive even rattle canned some fabric on another car and it didnt come out bad at all lol

 

Nice !! Keep it up don't let it die!!

 

Thanks to all for the compliments and support.

I'm a MS and HS band director, so the majority of my big future plans for this project will have to wait until this summer before they begin to unfold.

I'll keep posting as I go along.

 

Nice build bro. Not too far from where I am.

 

Badass! I used to own a 1st gen crx. Sadly mine had a hole of rust about 1 foot by 2 feet wide in the passanger floor boards. This was covered by a piece of wood lol. It ran great though lol. Loving your progress though, keep it up. Have you considered swapping a different motor in? Is that even possible?

 

nice looking car man. i like the meticulous detail you have put into this thing. redying seats, and interior. looks very nice.

 

Soooo sexy!!!!

 

wow amazing job man looks good :thumbsup:

 

Nice.

 

 

I see momo seat...

 

Thanks once again to all for the positive feedback.

I have considered a future engine swap. If I did one, I would still want to go "period correct" and either put in a D16a1 or a 1G ZC engine. They are very straight-forward swaps into our cars, since the CR-X Si (Ballade Sport) in Japan and Europe came with the 1.6L engines standard.

However, to be honest, I really don't see a need. I'm currently pushing 95 to the wheels out of the bored and polished stock motor, which is roughly equivalent to the performance I'd get post-swap. However, my current 1.5L engine is much lighter. I just can't justify the need in comparison to the cost and work. Unless, of course, I built the ZC, then dropped it in...

For now, I'm going to focus on my driving, which is more important than any swap anyway. I've about got the suspension figured out. I have some coilovers for the rear on the way, and some 25mm torsions to put on. I just need an adjustable panhard bar. Coupled with my existing ST sway bars, and I'm good to go. If I suck, it's MY fault, not the cars.

Additionally, an engine swap will bump me out of my class. I want to remain competitive in a stock class. So, another reason to side against it.

The Momo seat will go in on track days. I teach a buddy's son drum lessons. In return, he's helping to build me a proper harness bar for the G-Force harnesses to run along with the seat. He builds racing chassis for junior cars. Great at what he does! So, that will hit first of summer, more than likely.

In regards to the fabric dye, I unfortunately, can't give any insight on this just yet, as I have not used the seat since. It's in storage until I can fab up the mounts. I'm just looking for a spare CRX LH seat rail in order to mount up to the Momo seat. I will say that you can run your hand across the seat fabric VERY aggressively, with no run-off/residue left on your hands whatsoever. So, it FEELS promising

 

extremely bad ***; i cant even explaine it... hey did you sell your wagon???

the crx is amazing- loving the sideskirts on it--- very nice!!!

 

Thanks Billboard! You know I respect your build-skills mucho, so it's great to get some positive feedback from you on this project as well.

As for the wagon, it IS for sale, just check out this link:

http://hondamarketplace.com/showthre...9#post41503759

I'm following your new Element build. Great to hear that you were finally able to get one. What happened to the brown wagon you bought post-summer?

 

amazing resto job! looks just about new! keep up the good work

 

Awesome project! I had an '86 Si and I miss it dearly. I had 15" Momo wheels, Jackson Racing springs, Tokico blues, Jackson exhast, and a Lightspeed header and fiter on it. At that time, those 2 companies were the only ones making performance parts for Hondas. Had to sell it in '93 when my first child came along. = (

 

We'll, hello again to everyone. I have worked an insane amount of hours on this project since my initial post here. For the most part, this CRX is now complete, sans a few more interior upgrades.

Since February, I have completely revamped the engine bay including a full shave and wire tuck, as well extensive rust repair to the interior, a battery relocation, and truck bed liner spray throughout. Lastly, a few needed upgrades to the exterior including a air relief cut to the rear bumper. I've learned a lot along the way, and can't thank the community over at Red Pepper Racing enough for their ongoing support. I'd like to share the progress and final results with you all here as well. Please let me know what you think.

The pictures will explain everything:























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