Hi all, I see a lot of build threads, so I thought I'd give one a shot. I've owned the CRX in this thread for a couple weeks, and have decided on what I want to do with the car. So I'm going to try and update weekly on progress.

To start, the car I happened across is a 1991 DX. I got it off of a kid about an hour from me, he had to get rid of the car, and I picked it up for a mere 1,000$. It apparently has been through a lot of owners, so I have my work cut out for me. The car is originally white, but has been recoated with a lavender/green ish pearl. Looks pretty neat I guess. It used to have a built b20vtec turbo but has since been replaced with a stock high comp jdm b20b. It sits mated to a 1st gen b16 cable trans and the car gears out at 110mph. The car has all original full blue interior, with only certain bits needing replaced/repaired.

I just sold my black crx due to damage and grenading a trans, so I'm going to take this white crx and make it into a show and go road race weekend warrior type deal. I will be keeping it fully road legal (to a point), full interior, and as oem as possible aesthetics wise.

Hope you all enjoy. I personally love this car so far. It needs its work, but it is a blast to drive, and for just having a stock b20 in it, it's quite quick too.

Here is a picture of when I brought the car home. It was sitting on bmw bottlecaps, of which the kid wanted them back when I got a set of wheels put on. No problems here.



Some more pictures. The car has some very small rust bubbles in the rear quarters. But you should be able to see the pearl I'm talking about. It actually has a Rywire engine harness, score.

 

So first update, first and foremost, I brought the car home and just threw on all the parts I took off my black Crx before I sold it. I also just cleaned everything as best I could and tinkered about just to see what I'm working with.

For starters, I took off whatever dumb intake was on it and threw my AutoZone intake on, it may not look fancy, but it isn't made of metal so less heat soak, and it has a mean note to it around 4k rpm. I also moved some wires around in the bay as well as the clutch cable just to clean things up some. I installed my vvme 55w 6k hids also. Last but not least I put on my Sparco Rally wheels which I think look pretty nice. I kinda like the white on white. Oh yea I swapped out the crappy carbon hood the car had on for my VIS carbon from my black car. No more hood pin holes.

Before

After

Wheels on

The exhaust on the car now is hideous, and will have to go soon, it has no bolts or even a flange to speak of where the catback meets the cat itself, so it sounds awful.

 

Well, that does sound awful (the exhaust). Looks decent otherwise. Should be an interesting car. What springs/shocks/coils is it on? Looks like a decent drop.

 

Thanks. Yea the exhaust is terrible. And it knocks all over the place. Broke one of the hanger posts off the back by the LCA. Right now it's sitting on terrible suspension as well. Discovered that when I changed the wheels. I REALLY have my work cut out for me with this car. It's on no name shocks with eBay coils and the dummy took the perches off. So the springs sit crooked and squeak. So those will be replaced soon as well.

Also, after further examination under the car pretty much all of the suspension is shot. The car was lowered horribly improperly. The bushings are dry rotted and blown in some spots. I'm surprised the car rides at all. It's getting worse and worse by the day.

 

More updates.

My Miata got t boned and it was totaled, so I got a decent payout from the insurance for it. Time to order parts :-)

I couldn't stand how the car rode, so for now I ordered a set of cheap ish short body shocks and ground control coils as well as some Godspeed extended top hats to keep those in good standing for now.

I also ordered a set of innovative shift linkages, a b&m race shifter (part number 45074), password JDM shift bushings, an oem type r 5 speed ****, and an innovative traction bar to get rid of the stock junk.

I should have some pictures up when they get here.

 

Update:

Shocks and springs are all here, so they're assembled and ready to go on the car. I'll be keeping the ride height where it is. It doesn't bottom out or scrape anywhere so no reason to change it. I'll be putting those on this weekend.



Linkages and shifter arrived today. Still waiting on the shifter bushings and ****. Also should be here by the weekend and they'll go on too. Sorry for the awful picture.



I'm looking around at catbacks and headers as well. Not sure what I want to go with just yet. For now it's just going through the annoying phase of fixing the previous owners' screw ups. Always fun.

Snagged an OEM rubber rear wiper delete and put that on this evening too. But that's no biggie lol. Weight reduction haha.

 

Well, it was a busy weekend for me, so here's a nice update.

Got rid of the junk seats that were in it, of which they were bb6 seats, very uncomfortable and sat me way too high. I got a pair of blue bb4 seats, and adapted them to fit.





I got the shifter bits all installed, and I am extremely impressed with how it feels now. It's super stiff, very very short throw. Makes you feel a part of the car, very mechanical feeling gear changes. Although the shifter doesn't come up very high, so it is a bit of a reach, I'll sort that out later.



A buddy of mine gave me a steering wheel of his, just an eBay drift wheel. Much better than what was in it at least. Moves it closer to me for a better feel. I do want to get a Nardi deep corn at some point.

I installed the suspension over the weekend too. Definitely improved the ride. Shocks are actually soft IMO especially for short bodies, but they'll do for now. I set the ride height to where it was so no changes there. I just had to do something for now so the car wouldn't feel like it was falling apart.

Snagged some carbon paneling and filled in a broken spot in the dash by the instrument cluster. It's not oem, but it looks pretty good and will house switches in the future for things.



I'm preparing the car for inspection as it's transferred states, and the windshield has a nice crack in it, so I've set an appointment for a new one. Should be either later this week or next week early sometime.

Also got a set of tires for the Sparcos. Falken Ziex. Also to pass inspection. It had Bridgestone Potenza RE11 on it and they were wore the hell out.

So to conclude for now, lots of work done, lots left to do. So here's a parting shot for the time being, as she sits.

 

Nice mirror by the way. I have the same one.

I'm jealous of your door panels. They look mint.

Whats up with the bumper by the way? FMIC? Saw the original post... woopsie.

 

Freeman, you're jealous of everyone's mint items.

I like the the build, definitely a nice car. Makes me want to buy a white rex.

 

I AM!
Unless you were just making fun of the fact that I enjoy saying 'mint'.

I have a habit of noticing pieces on other people's cars that I like/want. Pretty typical. I just happen to want less than mainstream things.

 

looking good so far .
is it me or is the wheel colour different to the body.
are u match them the same or leave em different!??!

 

Thanks Freeman. The interior is overall in great shape. The bumper is quite hideous though. I'm scouting for a replacement. Matching that paint won't be easy though.

The wheels are the stock gloss white with blue lettering. So yes they are a different color than the car. They are in somewhat rough shape so I'm either going to refurbish them back to stock white and blue or just get a different set of wheels. Not sure yet.

 

GOLD!

 

Love it. Makes me miss Old whitey! (my 89 EF SI)

 

Update

Got the windshield put in finally. It's some weird glass. Love it.



I've started scouting for some OEM parts from overseas. I've decided that I'm not going for the JDM look 90% of the population goes with. I have a pen pal in the UK that has linked me with some European spec parts. So I'm going to go that route. I like the way they look, and I don't have to modify my car structurally to fit any of it. It's practical and still aesthetically pleasing.

I found the exhaust I want and have ordered it. Should be here in a week or so. I'm going to keep it a secret until it gets here and gets installed . I also ordered a new header as well. PLM tri y. Got some DEI Titanium heat wrap for that as well.

This fixing crap is annoying. Last car I EVER buy that someone has modified. It's a nightmare. Still haven't decided on what to do with the wheels as of yet. I'm just trying to keep them clean, which is a struggle in itself. They do clean up quite nicely though.



I got a set of OEM rear mud guards as well. Those are a dime a dozen, the fronts, however, are practically extinct. So hopefully someday soon I find a good set of them. Don't mind the wheels/tires, they're a set of spares I had laying around I put on while the tires were mounted to the Sparcos.



For those of you who may be wondering about the "Go" part of this build, I plan to road race the car on the weekends at a local road course. So the "Show" part of the car is coming at the moment first because I don't want bits flying off, and because I want the car to be completely street legal and easy to drive every day if the need arises. Once I take care of the bigger issues at hand, the "Go" part of this build will begin. This isn't one of those builds that has endless funds, I'm doing this on a normal budget, considering I have three cars and two motorcycles and a life to maintain. So as of right now I feel like I'm rolling along at a nice steady pace. Hope you all are enjoying the build at least remotely as much as I am. I love this car so far, despite its faults.

 

Nice progress. I'm pretty obsessed with most if not all the 4th gen builds on here as a fellow 4th gen owner. What are the future plans engine-wise? VTEC head? Built block? Boost? Bottle? And will you be doing drags or autoX or circuit?

 

I'm staying away from VTEC. Too many out there. I like to be different. I plan to stick to circuit only. It's my favorite by far. Local complex has three circuits. I've raced on all of them and they're amazing so I will be going that route. As for power I'm not sure. Definitely no VTEC or spray. The car is fast as it sits so for now may be merely good bolt ons and one hell of a tune. I like the idea of boost somewhat though. However a built all motor b20 is sure different . But again for now I want to get the car to be able to handle what power it has now haha. Thanks for the interest. 4th gens are probably my favorite by far simply because they're so light.

 

Build is looking good. Hope the front bumper gets replaced as well.

Still have the clear tails on the other CRX? would look cool on the white one.

 

The front bumper will definitely be replaced soon I hope. It upsets me when people hack up perfectly good parts, OEM parts at that.
The clear tails were sold to a guy I know a couple days ago. I don't like them and I got them for free so I wasn't worried about them. I have slightly other things in mind. Thanks for the kind words though.

 

Good to hear. But you can't blame someone for chopping the bumper to fit an intercooler and piping. It's a necessity of a turbo and I'm sure it looked a heck of a lot better with the intercoler in place.

 

I understand where you're coming from. It's just the quality of the job was absolutely appalling. That's mainly why I'm bitter about it. But oh well it's over with I'll be replacing that soon.

Update: exhaust and header are here. I'll be wrapping the header tonight and everything will go on this weekend. I also grabbed a test pipe so the tri y will fit. They have obnoxiously long collectors so a standard high flow won't fit at all. It's a multi piece test pipe so it's all adjustable and what not.

I've put up some ISO posts on overseas Facebook pages and forums for some euro spec OEM parts so I should be getting a hold of some soon I hope.

 

Update:

All the exhaust parts came in. The header looks sick with the DEI wrap. I hate wrapping headers. Especially with this stuff, it's worse than fiberglass. Even wearing gloves I have to completely shower after wrapping it and vacuum my entire room. Otherwise this stuff gets everywhere and it hurts if you get it stuck in an article of clothing. But I've used it before and had phenomenal results with how well it keeps the heat down.




Here is my catback. Full Invidia kit. I wanted something that sounded deep and looked different than most exhaust setups. Personally I'm in love with this setup. It sounds nasty, almost like a Soobie, and fits like a dream. I had to trim some of the inside of the rear bumper where the canister was rubbing, but that wasn't a problem and is not noticeable at all. I just had to trim it because the canister is at an angle and the tunnel on the bumper is not.




I had only one issue when fitting the header. I had to remove my cooling fan because the header sticks out so far a stock one will not fit. Not a huge deal, but I will have to find a solution to this at some point. The thermostat in the car is currently stuck open so there hasn't been any issues with heat unless I'm sitting still for a long time, which is obvious. The header actually sticks so far off the block that it just barely misses the traction bar, which is nuts. I also believe this header is going to cause a problem when I upgrade the radiator. I like this header, the ground clearance is fantastic, but after reviewing all the fitment and/or clearance issues with certain areas, I believe I may be looking into a different header sometime down the road.





The test pipe fit very well, I didn't have to weld it surprisingly. I just used the outer and inner pieces and shoved them as close together as possible and it squeezed right in and fit like a charm. You can also see my sweet shifter linkages here.



The car feels so much better now that it has back pressure. Feels a hair faster haha. Took it out all weekend and got all sorts of attention, thankfully the good kind. It purrs like a kitten at idle, insanely quiet, but sounds diabolical when you hammer it.

 

Header and exhaust look good. If you need spacing for the header and traction bar Whitfield sells them for the innovative bar and h2b application. I don't see it on the site but you may give them a call.

For the cooling fan slim fans work however I have found that a shroud is needed. Mishimoto sells these and the fans. Best to use a puller unless specifically designed for pushing.

 

where is ur flex pipe?

 

dayum looking good!!!!! makes me want to trade me sedan dx for an crx