Hello

I am new to Honda-Tech but I definitely lurked over the years because I always admired these fine machines. I have owned 3 Subaru's and fiddled with for 7 years. I Finally blew a motor and decided it was time for a change in scene's. So here is my build thats still in the works. I purchased a 96 Ek and kinda got ripped off but that's OK I have never purchased a car in the dark,rushing,and under 10,000 that wasn't from a friend or dealer lol (making excuses). So the guy i purchased the vehicle from said "yea man its plasti-dipped but under it ready for paint" HUGE LIE. So normally i would never buy a car that i would have to do any paint work to because its a huge hassle and an expense i am not interested in. He also stated it was mechanically perfect and just needed a few things.. YEAAHHH OK . I purchase the vehicle after test driving it and getting lied to then set off on my way home. I get to a gas station and realize hmmm damn this interior doesn't look as good as it did. Fast forward to the next day, I pull up to my job where I had taken the car that nite and F$%%^CCCK Me. Well yea it looked like hell in the day light and I got made fun of for the rest of the day at work and for the month it was there lol.









So after rethinking my whole approach to the vehicle I realize i am going to have to paint it but still haven't discovered the nightmare under the plasti-dip. So I bite the bullet while saying "well i got my project".! So i call a good friend of mine who does awesome paint work. after deciding I want another white car i send him pics of what I have and he says no problem. Then he suggests i should try and peal some of the plasti-dip up and I agree and at first glance it didnt look ready for paint at all.





in fact the front clip was completely normal silver paint.!!! WTF Then I was doing some re-search and found out that there was 2 different vins on the damn car. YES i did a CARFAX on the vin he sent me, and it was clean . But the actual vin that was on the title and on the dash was a damn nightmare. 7 different owners and it was hit 6 months after its original owner had purchased it so great.!! (also had a cop friend look into both vins to make sure it wasn't stolen) now i have to look where it was hit.! will come back to that.. Again with the plasti-dip I go on there website and order there product to dissolve the **** and pressure wash it off. JESUS HELP MEEE that did not work well kinda but not really. The previous owner or who ever did this **** put it on so thin it was damn near impossible and it was coming off the size of dandruff flakes only melted lol. Then I thought f-it im painting it any ways lets stop wasting time and i run to home depot and get this stuff that melts paint off and what do ya know it works.!!!

Sorry switched phones companies and phones and lost a few pics in the transition.
here is one


While waiting to take the car to my friends house to paint I start dealing with this interior mess. In the damn ad it states clean interior just cleaned.! again this is my fault for buying a car in the dark and putting to much trust in people I don't know. I realized the interior was painted black the rear seats are stained to hell and barely sitting in. The front seats stained and everything is just a freaking mess (at this point people are thinking I am a newb lol but the flash light I had wasnt that bright and the guy said it was well lit)


its worse than it looks, i mean fake type-r carpet from the junkyard lol











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now some of the things I was aware of but most I was not and but was I shocked at how sloppy everything was.



I very quickly decided it needed to be gutted and start with brand new everything or way nicer stuff.!! immediately started ripping stuff out and throwing away.






Finally get done throwing away 80% of the interior and get a bright idea to tough liner the rear because i was not planning on using the back seats any ways and I ride Bmx so my bike is far more important than my friends lol.




Scrapped off the tar strips or w/e the hell they are called






Now time to scuff the metal and prep for the spray.!!!




over the next couple days I re-applied because i was doing this at work and I was a salesman at Cadillac lol couldn't mess the suit up also paid a porter to help me lol




In my opinion it came out freakin awesome for what was put in to it...once the crap around it gets cleaned up and some nice black carpet meets the truck it will look great.


now that chapter is closed. I got the call that my buddy was coming to pick it up so we can prep it for paint and fix all the wrongs.!!

 

To be continued.!

 

Keep us posted looks like a nightmare, but you'll make it look good one day!

 

looks rough... what motor is in it?

 

D15/ plan on swapping k24 in after i finish the body an save a little money

 

thanks for the positive feedback

 

well you got your project. I like the truck liner in the hatch. Thinking the same. mine is autocross only and will be carrying the slicks in the hatch and don't want to scuff everything up especially since Ive been prepping for paint for the past 6 months. Its a bit!h




I ran into a similar situation when I bought a 96 hatch. MAACO paint job not bad but runs. B20/b16 smoking rings and valve seals and an electrical nightmare. Oh it was converted from auto to manual using MDM (Mexican domestic market) parts. So yeah its a pain but been a blast learning a lot! All from Honda-tech! and youtube and b20vtec and..... well the internet
Good luck!

 

fun project. how much was this thing since you say you paid too much?

 

Back to the story, My buddy picks the car up and drives it out to rural VA. He makes it home fine then looks over to see what he just got him self into aside from what i told him. After being called dumb and an idiot lol he said ill get started sanding it down and to come by next weekend to help out.!! Awesome im thinking from here on out it should be good i saw minor body damage even though it was in an accident. Ohhh boy again with the discoveries before the freaking weekend could even come more bad news..





as you can see he is taking her down to bare shell and sanding and boy not only was the plasti-dip a b$%*$h but the car was painted a few times on top of each other just paint on deck.!!


only good new is that the body doesn't have any dings in little b.s you get with alot of these hatches now a days.


Then we get to the passenger side and see the orange substance thats not paint and its starting to flake off. Hmmmm what could these be BONDO..!!!



lets take a closer look




Ohhh Freakin sweet what i've always a wanted a Cliche' Civic..! Now you know what that means,there is some kind of Horror story behind all the b.s. Needless to say there was a huge dent that couldn't been seen form the inside of the car because of the metal in front of it. So my buddy went to work on that and go it all knocked out and looking some what good so he could properly put filler in. The previous owner and just took a handful slapped in the hole and smoothed it out to make it look kinda normal a threw some paint on there.






as you can see it looks like a fat ladies *** all kinda of carters...he did his best knocking it out smoothing it out before the filler and sanding process..

http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/jdmsti/civic/CE80F250-6722-4D73-AD6C-05E17188F991.jpg[/IMG]

After that we keep sanding and removing stuff and carefully looking at body panels looking for where the accident was to get to the bottom of that as fast as possible.


Then decide to strip the car of all glass including doors an all. Might as well strip the car completely and do it the right way even though I was hoping a quick proper paint job guess we will have to go a little deeper.






Here is another part done of stripping the panels and a good amount of sanding done. On the left side on the inner part of the door area noticed a rust spot then we follow it up and BOOM there we noticed that it was a new complete panel on the car that was cut and welded correctly. At least that was done right



so month 2of owning and about 3 weeks working on it this is what we have

 

Yea mos-def got my project lol. Thanks yea i live the idea of it being ready for w/e i throw in it. i also owned subaru's the last 7 years and took out the back seats for my bikes and gear so this will fit me and my hobbies perfect..! Yea i didnt go to nuts i just did a little scuff and sand but going ot re-do it after my paint job and body work is done.

Yea this has been a crazy road so far man but honestly love that i have touched every inch of this car with my hands to make it right and create my dream hatch. Thats pretty crazy hahaha ive never heard of MDM lol..! ill def be reading up around here for sure. Thanks for the feedback man GL on your project to man

 

Wow, talk about getting fucked over. At least it runs, though. Hopefully you didn't pay too much for it. Any idea on colors yet, or are you still undecided? What are you planning on doing with the car in the long run? Also, minor point of clarification: You have an EJ6, not an EK.

 

Yea man i def got the back end of the person holding the stick. yea it runs pretty got and shifts good so it'll hold me over until I decide on the build. I paid a reasonable amount i mean it wasn't that bad but for all the bullshit i found and went through it was a loss. It it getting painted flat white ironically like the plasti-dip. I wouldn't mind the championship white or like my old STI Aspen white but wanted to be a little different so i think it'll turn out good. My end result is a weekend auto-cross or track car and DD. I would really like a K24 swap and eventually turbo it but no rush just a smooth running clean an simple EJ lol.. Thanks for the comment and the clarification..

 

Subbed. Interested in where this is going.

 

At the end it will be all good knowing that it was done properly. As for the k swap lol talk about hella expensive I know because I am still in the process of getting my 99 sedan done, research is you best friend, but hey looking good so far

 

DAmn........I really want a 99-00 hb, but my money has to go elsewhere sadly....

GL DUDE!!!! Love build threads..

 

keep up the good work man atleast some of us do it right.....

 

In for this one, definitely got your work cut out for ya.

 

Damn. This thread scares me. I have a 98 hatch and I love it. I guess it pays to do research and really look the car over (during the day). Good luck dude. Hope it didn't kill your wallet when you bought it.

What engine is in it, you can only tell it's a single cam from that half pic. Is the engine bay completely thrashed too, there's no detailed pics.

Hopefully this thread will help some poor kid in the future.

 

Keep at it. Your doing it right the car will look great in the end. I have built 4 of these hatches and they are fun cars. And next time take a good flashlight.

 

Keep up the good work, no short cuts! It looks like this will be a multiple season project, but once you get it completed it will be YOUR car.

Have you tried asking for any money back and threat of suit against the seller? At least something to compensate for the huge amount of time your going to have to utilize.

GL on the build, you made the H-T news letter.

-Al

 

Holy crap, dude... I can't believe you didn't drive this thing back over to the previous owner and right up his ***! I live in NOVA as well; did you buy it around here or somewhere else? Need to make sure people know 'who' to not do business with in the future... And like the previous poster said, at least getting some money back since he obviously raked you over the coals. SMH

I admire your dedication and drive though... I'm sure the end result will be just the way you like it, so, perfect!

- justin

 

This is definitely a build thread..

Next time, grab a paint depth gauge.. It wouldve pointed out the bondo with a quickness.

But since your in deep, looks like your doing it right!
Props for biting the bullet and doin werk!


I would look to current honda color codes for paint options and the new water based paints are amazing.


good luck with it!

 

Any updates?

 

Hey H-T thanks for all the positive feed back from every one. Got a few updates and pics for the build and progress on the the hatch. When I started the thread I was unemployed and had a broken leg from racing Bmx. Now healed up moved back to FFX VA and working at honda lol.

As for the car things are looking up but you guessed it ran into more problems with the electrical hack job that was done. So tossed a new battery in re-did some wiring and SHE LIVES..!
The car is now primered and ready for paint. I'm going with a flat white. We tried the paint out on the fenders and it has a egg shell gloss. I like it hopefully you all will. Basic update will be back with pics this evening and more in detail with the process











Here is a few teaser pics. There is a few more pics in between I should document lol

 

Updates coming