I am fortunate to be the original owner of a loyal 1993 Civic Si. I am in the process of restoring it to like-new. It has not been slammed, stripped, or transplanted. It is quite factory. The only real exception is the audio system. For its 342,000 miles, I have done no mods and it has been in no accidents. Always used OEM parts. Often, I do mechanical work myself.
As you can see from the photos, the paint is showing signs of age. Lots of oxidation, but no rust. Not surprising for a car that lives where it doesn’t snow. Over the next few weeks, I will add to this post about the restoration, including:

1. A new audio system. When the AAA guy went to jump a dead battery, he put the jumper cables on the wrong terminals. That burning smell was the amp.

2. Suspension. My car is ¾ inch below factory clearance, despite having no suspension work done. It still has 19 year old shocks on it.

3. Paint. You see the pics. Even if you really like a car, you want it to look better than this. In the mean time, I try not to park it near mirrors.
I expect that careful quality work for all of this will cost me $4-5k. I will provide lots of photos, model numbers, prices, and details.

 

Good luck. Wanna see how this baby turns out.

 

Did u agleast get paid for the sysyem the idiot ****ed up?

 

HOLY GIANT PICS MAN!! Make them smaller bro..

 

No, I didn't get reimbursed for the audio system. The amp was as old as the car, so not worth a lot. Still, it was working just fine.

 

Point well taken. Didn't see that until I posted. I'll try downsizing. Just started on the site, so have a few things to learn.

 

Audio system. I started with the audio system because those were the parts that arrived first. Like anyone else with two ears and half a brain, I didn’t get the factory radio when I bought the car.

Amp. Since Joe Loser fried my amp while jump starting the car, I obviously needed a new one. The circuit had melted and a continuity test revealed that the + and (–) now made a complete circuit. That explained why replacing the fuse didn’t help. It essentially completed a short circuit to the battery.

The new amp is a Sony XM4S, 60 watt per channel front, 115w rear subwoofer, $115 at Amazon. The prior amp had complicated wiring, and part of the reason for getting this one was to use the same layout.

The amp’s mounting location is behind a removable panel in the back seat, near the back seat passenger’s elbow. There is plenty of space and some breathing room. The prior amp had remained nicely mounted for years using Velcro tape. I didn’t want to use something really permanent like epoxy, and I didn’t want to put holes in the frame.

I had a roll of white Velcro and thought I would do the same with the new amp. Warning to anyone using this method. There are at least two grades of Velcro. The one I had was light duty (on the left in the pic). It did not hold the amp in place. It appears to be better suited to lightweight uses, like fastening a tampon case to the inside of a purse.

Off to the hardware store to get the same stuff I had used before. Industrial Strength Velcro is much more serious (on the right in the pic, with the drill on the cover instead of the tampon). I suspect I could cover the roof of the car with it, stick it to the ceiling of the garage, and work on the bottom of the car with no problem.

Once the amp was in, I tried it with the old speakers and head unit. This was partly to confirm what else was working. Conveniently, if there were any remaining electrical problems, I would be abusing stuff I wanted to replace anyhow. I only needed to replace a 7.5 amp fuse under the hood for the head unit and everything worked. If you haven't had to replace that fuse before, it's NOT under the dash, it's under the hood on the passenger side near the battery.

Head Unit. The old one was fine, well except you couldn’t plug an Ipod or a flash drive into it. The new unit was $80 at Best Buy, and Sony CDX-GT565UP. Installation was childishly easy. Despite being made at least a decade apart, both units had the same wiring harness. Unplug harness from one, plug into the other, plug in the antenna, and done. Installation in about one minute, two if you include opening the box and walking over to the car. I’ve had parallel parking in tight spots take longer. Nice unit, much better reception than my older one.

With my copious spare time, I proceeded to the tweeters. That's the next post.

 

Tweeters. I had MTS tweeters that seemed to have lost some of their highs. They were mounted in the headrests. In order to do this, I had originally removed the cloth covers from the headrests and cut holes with a scalpel. The placement was pretty good. Wiring goes from the speakers inside of the plastic brackets that hold the headrest, and then inside of the seat back, and under the carpet and console to the dash. You can fish the wiring through with a coathanger with a loop at one end.

The replacements were two pairs of Polk DB1001 tweeters, at $60 a pair. Also from Amazon. They fit into the same spots as the prior tweeters. Unlike the older tweeters, they have separate crossovers, which you have to find a place for. In this case, they could be discreetly hidden toward the bottom of the vinyl covering the back of the driver’s and passenger’s seats.

The difference in tweeters was, well, stunning. I hear notes and stereo separation I have never heard before in a car. My other car has a good Harman Kardon sound system. It sounds like *&^% by comparison. I’m trying to figure out how to put the same tweeters in those headrests, but it has leather seats.

Next up: Woofer. This will demand some cutting.

 

Yes you did if you are the original owner

 

http://www.edmunds.com/honda/civic/1...res-specs.html

Optional Equipment: AM/FM/Cassette Audio System


I ordered it without. Saved something like $150.

 

Oh wow, must have been in the market for aftermarket tunes then right after purchase.

I just sold here on the marketplace a civic si 93 just like yours, color and everything. It was all stock and in great shape.
They are becoming a rare peice these days

 

Love the detail and humour.

What finally convinced you to commit to a restoration?

 

That paint job probably. I had that same oxidation on a 92 Prelude. Drove me insane.

 

I have the receipt for the original head unit on my 94 Civic installed by the previous owner in about 1995. Nothing too special - an Alpine unit with tape deck. Price was like over $600 - I could not believe my eyes. I imagine the OP spent some serious coin on the audio system back in the day.

 

I had this as a spare car in another city where I often work. I hadn't been using it much, and I missed having it when I needed to haul big stuff. And, it has a bike rack. My other car doesn't.

 

Yes, almost 20 years later, better stuff cost less. Cleaner amp about 1/3 the price. I think the head unit was about $180 in 1993. A collection of speakers (2 door, 4 headrest, I woofer), was several hundred.

The new stuff this time cost just over $400. I did keep two door speakers that I had replaced. While the am/fm cassette player was optional, they had door speakers from the manufacturer regardless. I used those for a while, then upgraded.

 

Yes, that too. No mechanical problems. No audio problems until the bad jumper cable incident. More on the suspension later, but there wasn't any problem I knew of when I decided to restore the car.

 

I like how you worded everything, hahaha. GL with the project man. Take plenty of pics dude.

 

So, let's talk woofers. In a 1990s Civic hatchback, you have a lot of choices. You can mount a woofer (or pair) in a box against the outer edges of the cargo compartment. That doesn't cost you much space.

If you have the sedan, there are some custom woofers that fit in the trunk, like these http://www.crutchfield.com/S-Ht56Vpz...underForm.html . Of course, there are a huge number of generic boxes, and lots of people put in rather large setups which really reduce the cargo area.

Pioneer makes (or perhaps made, past tense) a spare tire subwoofer, TSWX50. It fits where the undersized spare would go. Of course, that would mean driving without a spare.

The spare tire well in the 93 Civic can take both a spare tire and a woofer, if carefully placed. By my calculations, the effective volume with the spare is about 1.3-1.5 cu ft, not bad for a woofer. I was sorely tempted to calculate the volume of this irregular space by laying down some heavy plastic and filling it with water. Maybe I'll do this later.

I decided to use a similar method to my old woofer, just barely clearing the spare.

The old 8 inch Cerwin Vega woofer was coming apart (see photo). Crutchfield had a good deal, on a 10 inch Polk MM1040 woofer on special at $129. The old woofer was mounted into the factory panel that covered the spare tire. Years of putting all kinds of cargo in had trashed that panel. For no apparent reason, this not very strong or exotic part is $170+ (part number 84521-SR3-T00).

Since the woofer was still on its way, I decided to make a copy from half inch plywood, which would provide a better and stronger mounting location for the new woofer. It is an irregular shape, so you need a jigsaw, and preferably a sander too. My recommendation is to cut the part nearest the tailgate first, test fit, and then do the rest of the cuts. Of course, you can also search for a used OEM part and avoid fabrication entirely.

When my woofer arrived, I had to cut the hole for it. Don’t do this without the actual speaker. Being off by a small amount can be a big problem. I used a gasket which came with the speaker as a template, and used a jigsaw to make the cut. Make a pilot hole in the plywood with a ¾” drill bit and then cut carefully. Sand the rough edges, and then flip the panel over. Check the length of the screws you are about to use. Put the gasket in place and make sure it looks like all the screw holes will be fine. Then set the woofer on it facing down. Set the woofer down carefully, coming straight from the top. Drive in the screws and flip back over.

How to protect the new woofer from cargo you ask? I used the same method as before, a speaker grill. OK, a Weber grill grate. As you see in the photo, this is a bbq grill part #7440. Very strong, about $9. I got mine at Home Depot. The prior one survived having bags of concrete on top of it, paving stones, and plenty of other stuff. To make this more of a sealed box, but to still use the spare tire if I want, I used weatherstripping.

The whole thing sounds excellent. With tweeters in the headrest and a custom woofer, you obviously need to get some settings right. There are input sensitivity settings on the amp itself. I got these about right while the car was parked, and added some bass, because I know that a car which is driving will produce a lot of low frequency sounds which are not music.

Once you get the amp settings anywhere close to correct, you can adjust the EQ and subwoofer while driving at the head unit. In my case, I had to raise the amp settings a few DB so that maximum power from most inputs was just below audible distortion. As an aside, there is no good reason to set your system so that you can hear distortion from a typical FM/Ipod/Sirius signal. Make your system last longer, adjust your EQ or preamp accordingly. As expected, I needed to add a big more bass.

Now for a cure for that annoying license plate rattle which afflicts a number of high bass systems. I have heard lots of these in traffic. You can be done with this problem in a couple of minutes. Place four dots of industrial velcro between the license plate holder and the license plate, one at each corner (both hook and loop sides, one stuck to the holder, one to the plate). Then, put velcro strips across the back of the license plate, and if the holder extends behind the plate, the holder too. You only need the fabric part of the velcro (called the loop). You don't need to put the hook side against the paint. Problem solved.

Next up: Suspension, and suspension surprises.

 

Are you refering to cleaner watts in the amp?

 

How much did you get for it? Did you sell it to someone who is going to modify it?

 

Awesome bro, can't wait to see the outcome... I'm digging the plans for the car. Fantastic commentary too

 

2,950$

And no, A member here brought his dad with him who purchased it to replace his car that was just T-boned, exact same car, color and everything.
Perfect replacement, and he also said he wanted to keep it bone stock just like his other one. He restores CRX's on for hobby to OG condition.
I made sure I picked the right buyer.

 

Good to hear. Original cars should go to people who want that.

 

If you're willing to get your hands dirty, call up www.paintscratch.com. They can set you up with EVERYTHING you need to repaint your car to factory appearance without the huge price tag. IIRC, About $400 gets you all the paints (primer, base, clear), materials, and other fun **** you need to do your entire car. If you want to make it easier and quicker, add in the cost of an orbital sander and buffer, and you'll be able to make your car look brand new.