So a couple days ago I found a car on Craigslist, 1983 Honda Civic 1500 S. The car was in pretty good condition and I talked to guy down to 600 bucks. Has a blown head gasket that I hope to fix in the coming weeks, but first I am going to focus on protecting what it has, the original paint!
This is the picture that he sent me:

And here it is in its new home next to the garage:








So today I went out and started buffing and waxing but ran out after just the hood. But this is what I accomplished in 30 minutes:


Kind of a big difference if you ask me, especially for 25 year old paint!
Heres the hood:

I plan on picking some more stuff to finish the rest of the car this weekend and hopefully getting most of the trim painted. This will be a slower build as I dont have a lot of extra cash at the moment but I just hope to be able to refresh her a little bit. I will be updating this thread as I go.
Thanks for taking a look!

 

Looking forward to watching you restore this car . As I said in your other thread, I've got the same car (not is as good of condition though), so if you have any questions, just let me know, maybe I can help.

I'm pretty sure the "pin-stripes" along the body and hood are not original (at least my 83 1500S doesn't have them). Also, not sure if you're aware or not, or that you'd really care, but your seats are not original. They should be mostly black, with red inserts in the middle. If I had a working camera, I'd take a pic of my car to show you.

Here's a head gasket (with other gaskets) on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...ZWDVW

 

I was browsing some some online sites and they all agreed that the pin striping is unique to the S. I dont really care either way I think they are pretty cool haha.

Yeah I wondered about the seats...I need to find some kind of solution to all of them though. Thinking of possibly ripping everything out of the car and having the entire floor re-carpeted and only keeping the front seats, different ones of course.

I'm sure I will have plenty of questions throughout this process though. This is the first car I have even been around thats carb'd.

 

So I got a little bit of work done on the car today but not much since it was so hot. I buffed and waxed the roof and looks a lot better, like the hood. Ran down to the store after pulling the bumper and got some bumper paint:

This is what it looked like before:



Between the first and second coats my sister found a big snake, about two feet long. My mom came out because she likes that kind of thing and picked it up. Well she picked it up and an egg came out! She put it back down and it went underneath the house and she put the egg back in the hole the snake came out of...weird.

Here it is after and compared to the rear bumper:


Going to go buy more bumper paint and finish the rear bumper and get started on the mirrors and other trim pieces this coming week. Mainly trying to buff and wax the whole car to help preserve the paint. And trying to track down a repair manual to I can pull the head and fix the head gasket.

 

I have questions as to what shocks or spring combos are available for this car...anyone know? The shocks could definitely be upgraded and I havent been able to track anything down.

 

this is going to be interesting....good luck! car looks good for being 25 years old

 

What areyour overall plans for the car

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by HighRevn &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What areyour overall plans for the car</TD></TR></TABLE>
I would like to finish cleaning the exterior up first, then I will move to the interior and refinish/re-upholster/clean that. In between all of this I am planning on doing the head gasket.

Further than that I dont know yet. I have been tossing around the idea of swapping a y8 or something along those lines in but its a lot of work and I dont know if this is the car for that. But short term plans are to enjoy the 67hp that Honda gave me and enjoy the 40+ mpg.

If anyone has links to useful sites they would be appreciated.

 

how much did you pick this up for?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by qbansir &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">how much did you pick this up for?</TD></TR></TABLE>

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ian1006 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I talked to guy down to 600 bucks. </TD></TR></TABLE>

super awesome car!! i've always wanted to find one of those, swap in a b-series and have a badass daily. i'll be following this for sure, good luck!

 

Yeah I have been doing research on a B series or a D series and the wiring and mounts kind of trip me out. I used the same coating on the bumper, on the mirrors today and they came out just as good.

Im putting off tearing into the interior because its so dirty, tons of dog hair in the back seat

If anyone has links for info on suspension, motor, etc let me know!

 

Cool car. Good score for 600 bucks!

 

subscribed

 

Went down to an auto parts store a couple days ago and they cant even order me the repair manual for the car There like "carz kind of old 'aint it?" Hicks...
But I went to Autozone today and they had one across town that they would ship to the store next to where I work. Its the Haine's manual and I hope they have all of the torque specs I need.
The guys kept trying to get me to buy the complete gasket kit for the head but I was only going to buy the head gasket and maybe intake manifold gasket depending on what condition its in...Do you think I need to replace all of them?

 

^ would be nice since it will give you a piece of mind knowing that they're all changed to new ones.

 

Well I have been trying to figure out a solution to mount the front bumper since the guy before me used two 6 inch bolts to mount the cover onto the bumper. He used these:

With some free floating nuts on the inside, I dont even know how he got them threaded in the first place because as soon as I unbolted them the nuts dropped off inside he bumper
But I found these at the store while I was picking up some more bumper coating:

Work like a charm.
And heres a picture of the mirrors I finished...sorry no before pics:

I have a day off tomorrow so I should be able to finally finish buffing and waxing the car so maybe a small photo shoot or something ghetto soon!

 

That bumper paint looks to have done a nice job, I'm going to have to get me a can of that and do my bumpers. I have the same problem you had, my bumpers turned greyish in color.

I should start my own 83 1500s build thread in here as well, lol. We can see who gets done first (probably you, as I have little to no funds to devote towards my 83, all my spare cash is going into my S600).

Although I am getting a few parts from a dude on the 1stgencivic site for my 83, some rocker panels, fenders, and a few other odds and ends.

I noticed you're missing a lower horn button on your steering wheel. I changed out steering wheels in my car, so if you want that button from my steering wheel you can have it (or maybe you plan to change out wheels too?).

 

coolest build ever

 

I would love to have a horn button haha. What wheel did you put in your car? You should definitely start a build thread. I too have no money at all and thats why I am only doing minor painting and waxing and buffing. Ill get back to you about the button ok.
Thanks for the compliments!

 

I put a Nardi wheel in mine with an S600 steering wheel emblem. It looks pretty good, I'll have to take a pic and show you.

Yeah if you want the horn button it's yours. I'll never need it. I just ask that you pay for shipping (which would be like 2 or 3 dollars).

 

damn the car looks to be in good shape. and the car's older than you are

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by smithenhiven &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I put a Nardi wheel in mine with an S600 steering wheel emblem. It looks pretty good, I'll have to take a pic and show you.
</TD></TR></TABLE>
What adapter did you use? I was thinking about getting a new wheel but didnt know they made adapters...or at least I havent found any.

 

While I was working on the bumper I found this:

So while I was picking up the Haynes manual at Vatozone today I also grabbed some rust convertor:

I rolled it on today and also around the wheel wells in the back and works like a charm. Converts the rust to black primer and then dries clear everywhere else. So the plan is to take care of all the rust with the converter then go back and sand everything and spray down with some rubberized undercoating on the lower portion of the car underneath the bumper. Should blend in nicely and repel future rust...but then again its rust and I was lucky enough to catch it before getting worse.

 

Started pulling the head today and drained the oil and the oil was a milky brown...didnt even look like oil

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ian1006 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
What adapter did you use? I was thinking about getting a new wheel but didnt know they made adapters...or at least I havent found any.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Actually, you can buy the adapters at autoparts stores like Autozone/Advanced Auto, etc... Grant makes the adapter, that's the one I'm running.