I'm thinking about buying this CRX but I have some concerns about things I noticed in some pictures.

I noticed that the lower crossmember looked bent up and the seller said it was from a jack.



I also noticed in this picture that the bumper doesn't line up with the body of the car.



I know the car has a JDM front conversion but I am not super familiar with this chassis. Any input guys?

 

It def looks like the whole front end is bent inward and upward towards the motor. Anyway you can get a carfax report? That just looks like a good bit of damage to be done by jacking the car up. Also test drive the car and see if it drives straight, you wont get a exact answer bc if the alignment is off it wont drive straight regardless.

 

It is just the radiator support. I would check the portion the head lights bolt into. The bumper/rad support that is bent isn't really needed to be honest. I've seen many people cut it out. The hood latch may not work, but hood pins are cool.

By the way, that isn't the 'lower crossmember' at all. The crossmember on this car is actually removed. You can see it has a Ktuned tracion bar. If it drives, give it a test drive. If not, someone else can chime in. But it looks fine to me.

 

I asked the seller to provide me with the VIN so I could carfax it but he hasn't given it to me yet. I will ask him again though.

I plan on taking it for a test drive before I buy it. The seller seems to have been pretty forthcoming with the issues so hopefully it doesn't end up being anything major.

 

Make sure you look over the rest of the car. I don't want to talk bad about your seller, but if he is this honest with a problem it could be because he is hiding something else. But the front end shouldn't be a problem.

 

Its def not the lower crossmember bent like you said Freemana, but it is also worse than you think. If you look the core support is bent. The radiator support is just the t-bar which consists of just the T looking bar (the top which has the hood latch and just the straight bar down that goes down for support from the core support..

 

What you would need are #6 #3 #2 from honda so you can see a visual. But most likely you would have to hit up the junkyard for these parts bc some of them are not available..

 

Would this keep you from buying the car if it ran and drove fine? I still plan to run the VIN to make sure there are no title issues.

 

The radiator looks trashed. Looks like somebody ran their fingers down the front side and closes all the fins.

How much are they asking for it?
Personally, if it's not running, then I assume that it won't run. I go with that mindset when considering price.
The damage in front does look like it was done with a jack.
The headlights look like they are positioned correctly. Headlights would be pushed back if there was significant accident damage.

 

Also were you referring to this illustration?

 

$4500 with no wheels. JDM H22a with some regular maintenance done. B16 cable trans with LSD. QSD H2b kit. Fresh paint, no rust. It supposedly runs very strong.

 

Thats your call if you want to buy it or not. But it looks like it have a wire tuck, make sure you check under dash for the wiring. Make sure the wiring was done right and not just thrown up under there like a rats nest bc if you ever have to trace wires back you will be regretting it. As far as the front end is concerned as long as it wasnt in a front end accident that should be very fixable with parts from the junk yard. Price sounds a tad high but id try to get him down a bit with the wheels lol..

 

The H2B kit is $700
Osaka high pricing is $900 for the H22A
Maybe $1500 for a rip off price for the LSD B16A trans.
$3000.

$4500 is kind of high, but it's used, not stock, somebody else's project, no wheels, not a show car by any means, has damage, paint job is probably cheap and covering up stuff.... etc. The rest of the car better look worth $2000 inside out - that's a LOT to say for an 88~91 especially with the shown radiator support damage.

As far as it running strong - that radiator trips me out. I hope it's just reflections of light, but really the fins look all mashed down except for the top left corner.

I would try to open it up at $3800 and see where it goes.
No way I would pay more than $4100.... and it BETTER be running and feel perfect on a test drive.

 

Wow. I would probably pay closer to $3500. B16 LSD trans really go for $1500? What? That's just craziness.

I don't know how the car drives though, maybe it is rock solid.

 

If its a rock solid car besides the rad support Id def pay 4k for it.. Yeah B16 LSD trannys are expensive lol.. But like we said earlier we don't know how it drives. My opinion is if the wiring is done right then I can say he prob did good work with the swap and it prob drives nice.. You can tell hack jobs from miles away..

 

Nah.. they go for much less. I'm just figuring in for an aftermarket LSD along with a refresh of all the internals.

Same boat though - car better be amazing.

 

Okay. Refresh the internals is key too. That's pretty much a rebuilt trans is what you are talking about.

 

I appreciate the input guys. I asked him about the upper radiator support and he said it was spaced out for the JDM front conversion. This coincides with what I researched about JDM fronts. It looks like you either need to use the JDM rad support or space the USDM one out a lot. The trans is some kind of JDM SIR trans with an OEM LSD. I have a freshly rebuilt synchrotech GSR trans with an LSD and LS 5th gear laying around. I want to do a hydro swap.

I'm still waiting on the VIN. I will update you guys when I get more info.

Dude said he would also drive it to my house on his tags if I bought it, so he is at least somewhat confident in the car. I live about 2 hours away.

 

Don't let him drive to your house.

Meet him someplace public like a bank, DMV, police station. If you decide to exchange money it lessens the risk of you getting thieved.

Ugh... stock transmission. I wouldn't pay $4500. $4k top end if the rest of the car is incredible, but that's up to you. I would rather build my own however I understand that it's often easier to just get something that's already done.

 

That's closer to what I thought the trans went for. Like $600-800 for the LSD trans.

I would meet publicly for sure. But! I would rather have the car cold so I could cold start it. That is usually key. A lot of idle problems are at cold start only.

 

I'm driving to his house to look at the car first. I don't want to be pressured into buying the car by having him drive down here first. I plan to look over it very thoroughly before I buy. I guess I can have him drive it to right down the street or something if I do buy it.

I was planning on doing an H2B swap to my 99 Civic so I have a lot of the parts laying around. The stock D16 in the Civic runs great though so I am hesitant to pull it. This car seems pretty close to exactly what I want if it is indeed as advertised. I have always wanted a CRX but most of them are so hacked up or rusted out.

I plan to do a hydro conversion on it and put my GSR trans in. Throw a set of cams in there and get it tuned. I already have an S300.

 

looks to be a bit of a mess. falling in love with that one could be a dangerous endeavor for you. picking up the pieces where someone left off is never fun. it really does not look like a clean start for you. the price is high and is surely going to have some secret fun things to work out. you will never be happy looking at a less than perfect hood, bumper, and headlight fitment which this chassis looks to be lacking. find a cleaner shell and build the H2B you want to run not someone else's kind-of JDM collage. just cause its close and available does not make it good. put the 4500 in the piggy bank and keep looking.

 

I'm trying my best to keep myself from getting too excited about it. I'm going to drive up on Saturday and at least take a look at it. Taking some of the advice here unless the car runs and drives flawlessly and the paint is quality and not a maaco job I won't pay $4500 for it. If I find any bondo or the wire tuck is a hackjob then I will walk away. I will probably **** off the dude but at that point I don't care.

I am still waiting on the VIN. I won't even go look at it unless he gives it to me.

 

another issue with checking vin number through autocheck or carfax is that the damage was simply not reported. from that image with the bumper off it looks to have been hammered around a little on the driver side. it just depends on what you are ok with. it may run and drive perfect and if you just want a beater with an h2b there you go. if you want something clean and not sliced up you should keep looking. i just dealt with a three year booby trap that has some very similar characteristics. wish i waited and saved loot for the super clean one to pop up because plenty super clean ones have popped up and my *** was broke de booby trapping myself.

 

Yeah the carfax for me is just to make sure there are no issues registering the car. This is going to be a weekend/track car for me. No car shows or anything like that. I will probably put less than 5,000 miles on it a year. This CRX would be my third car. I have a 99 Civic that I use as a daily that I get my hard parking entertainment from.

I am going to think about this long and hard. I appreciate the input.