This has been a 3 year project and is still going.

I originally got the car for my 15th birthday and was planned to be a project car with my father. We got the car for only 50 dollars. You heard me right. The girl who last drove it didn't know how to drive stick and mashed the front cross member in. Three days after towing it to my house, we got the transmission free and the car running. That was the first day we started working on the Rex to bring it back. Roughly a year after I started to drive it, I began the build project.



This is the first part where I started to shell out almost all my earnings to buy parts and upgrades.



We gutted the motor out with the transmission and sold it online. Then got my b16a2 motor and transmission from someone who was trying to build the motor for turbo.



The man never did tell us fully what he had done to the motor. I guess it's because he agreed to sell the motor for only 500 dollars and started to get upset. He said he needed money for another project he was working on.



We spent countless hours studying everything online to make sure we had all what we needed. We bought the P28 computer from Hand Command (Tony, I believe, of Hand Command had been anxious to hear how the Vtec felt in the Rex but it seriously took three years to drive, I will have to call him sometime to let him know).

In the mean time, my mother freaked out about crash test ratings on the Rex. So what did we do? We installed a roll cage. With the interior still in.



Seriously, we welded it all ourselves and worked with the interior to keep the luxury of the interior with the purpose of the roll cage.

At the same time, I was given a sub and amplifier for Christmas. I installed the amp inside my rear compartment right behind my seats so no one could tell I had one.



We built a custom box for the Infinity sub in the rear which is also hidden from view.

More time went by and we finally got around to dropping in the b16a2 motor!


Sexy eh?

I don't have much more in pictures, but more will totally come for this is an ongoing project. If anything this car is currently a sleeper. I am still breaking in my clutch and haven't been able to race my baby and go through the gears.

However, here is a quick run down of all things bought/installed on the Rex:

Tenabe front and rear sway bars.
Rear disc brake conversion
Stage three clutch and flywheel
Stainless Steel exhaust headers
Stainless steel Catalytic converter
Stainless steel straight pipe
P28 ECU from Hand Command with Hondata hookup
8 point roll cage converted into a 6 point roll cage
3 point racing seatbelts
quick release steering wheel
ADR wheels
Hankook tires

I Am sure there's more but I am sure I Am too tired to really remember it all.

More pics and info to come!

 

Looks good. I want to see more pictures of the roll cage with the interior.

You can't beat getting a crx for $50. Your gonna need that roll cage with that yellow crx

 

I'm more than happy to show the pictures of the roll cage! Here they are:


That is the driver side. The constant rubbing of me climbing in and out of the car is what caused some of the paint to rub away. The bar that is at an angle is actually meant to do into the dash but we put it down at an angle to make it possible to get in and out without climbing through the window.

We had to shift the whole roll cage to the left to allow more room for me (since I'm the driver and I'm 6 feet tall). This led to cutting into the door trim on the driver side.



Here is the view in the back of the rex:


As you can tell the roll cage is off center to make room for me, but it's a little more f a tight fit for the passenger.



This is the rear view with the trunk cover off. What you see behind the roll cage is the sub woofer box we made. The trunk cover hides the lower half of the bars and the sub. We had to cut into the cover by a little bit to make it work with the roll cage.

You can barely see the roll cage from outside of the car which is nice.



That's all I have of the roll cage.

Here it is out in the sun!



In due time the exterior of the rex will be brought back to life with new trims and paint job. It will eventually have a yellow carbon fiber hood.

I just recently got my new shift **** which matches my paint job I am working on.



Also, here is a picture showing the dual exhaust and the tenabe sway bar, which is also installed in the front with all new polyurethane bushings.

 

Not bad. I picked up my crx for $50 from my ex girlfriends father after we had broken up.


Glad to here your keeping the stock interior. Most people guy it out.

 

I felt guilty buying it for only 50, I am glad I am not the only one! Hahaha.

Yeah, I decided to keep the stock interior because I saw nothing wrong with it. I decided to make this car perform, while looking very nice inside and out. Sure, I may not be the fastest, but I love it.

 

I like it minus the stripes. Did you have to cut up both doors?

 

strangely I like the stripes, was thinking about MAYBE doing something like that to my hatch, don't know yet though.

like the shift **** too!

 

my dad once bought a 1988 ef hb for 1 dollar later sold it for 500 acouple years ago

 

Like the direction so far! In for this build forsure

 

Just the driver side. If we had it centered then we wouldn't have had to cut into the doors at all, however my left leg would have been hitting the roll bar. The passenger side would have been the same but it pushes into the original seat a little bit more due to us moving the cage to the left.



The stripes on the hood of the car is just a test right now. I want the car yellow, perhaps brighter like the paint on it now. I am currently trying to invest in a yellow carbon fiber hood. From there I'm debating as to whether to paint the stripes onto the hood and have it travel to the rest of the car to the rear bumper.

 

beautiful

 

All the mechanics of the car is complete and in working order.

The next step to the build is to work on the exterior. This needs more work than the interior of my rex.

I've been without work since July and with the job market going to the ******* I plan on going back to college. This won't happen until Spring time. In the mean time, I figured that a good winter project would be to prep my car for a paint job. I hope to paint it myself this Spring.

I do have a paint gun and I have previously purchased the paint. I have a compressor that is being worked on, but should do the trick for the paint job.

Here's the beast.


Here are some pictures of the exterior in it's current shape. As you can see, there's some rust and gaps on the fiberglass fenders. The original fenders were beat to **** before I got the car, so the fiberglass fenders was a must. The only wheel well that has rust is my rear driver side wheel well. Also, my front bumper will most likely be replaced. As for the trim pieces of the exterior, I plan on buying the pieces I am missing at South Bay Honda's website. I want to take my old trim pieces and paint them black. If I have to, I will paint the new trim pieces to match.












Anyone have tips as far as sanding?

 

 

Started to take things off the car today to find rust spots and figure out all what I am going to need to fix (body wise) for the paint job.

Here's without the bumper:



Pretty dirty here haha:



I kinda cried a little when I saw this on the passenger side:






I still have to take apart the driver side and take out the rear bumper. For now that is.

 

I want a rex badly....for some reason I bought a sedan. Sucks to see how bad the door is, I wish you luck with the rest of the bodywork!

 

Don't waste any time on that door. Just get another one that is rust free. Unless you want to do all that work for some $30...

 

Couldn't I just cut out the rust and bondo it? It's all pretty much covered by the trim pieces anyhow.

 

Is she running? I'm thinking about doing a b16a swap into my 91 civic sedan.

 

Yup! I've been driving her since June this year. Here's a video just before I put the front bumper and wheels on to start driving:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TRaSR67m_k

 

[QUOTE=BarcodeCRXSI;44234019]Yup! I've been driving her since June this year. Here's a video just before I put the front bumper and wheels on to start driving:

That's whats up man. Was a direct swap besides mounts? pretty easy? OBD-0 or 1. was wiring hard? Im a noob sorry for the many questions haha

 

Id avoid bondo,
Get a door as said or sheet metal it

Bondo gets heavy

You got a real good foundation to start with especially with a cage in it,
Only thing id tank is the exhaust, duel exhaust is unnecessary.

I always had a thing for yellow rex's

Cause as fun as a rex is blowing someones doors off in a family sedan is saaaweeeeet

 

i had bigger holes in the same spots on an 89 crx...we used fiberglass cloth and resin. worked great! not heavy either. just wanted to throw that out there, GL

 

Fiberglass is your best bet if you can't weld, its light and won't crack

 

X2!!!!!

 

You Sir are the king of budget builds your my hero. Just get rid of that ricer fender with the air scoops lol, but very niice.