1987 HONDA CRX SI Happy 16th Birthday Mad Max! Restoration Rebuild Project

Project Mad Max: 

Restoration / Rebuild of a 1987 Honda CRX SI to a daily driver.  108K miles on the clock.  Moth-balled for 22 years since I purchased it in October of 2000.

My son needs a car.  This Covid sky-high car price craps gotta stop.   Why not give him the car that shaped my youth, respect for Japanese reliability and engineering since 1993:  and a hellava lotta FUN!  I just can't kill these cars, they keep running and running......    Just don't make them like this anymore. 

 Its the middle car.  Picture taken around 2005.  

Full disclosure: I started a detailed post on RedPepperRacing a short while ago.   Since RPR is not searchable via Google, I've added it here hoping to reach out to other first gen owners out there.  Thanks Tom and all for all you have done to support the 1G/3G community! 

Mad Max just got his license 2 days ago.   Did Parent taught Drivers Ed here in Texas.  Great bonding experience.  Luckily, we got a snow storm the other week.  Got to share w him some of my life experiences drifting Michigan and New York powder.  He passed his "hazardous" winter drivers test in my daily driver CRX w flying colors.

I'm typing this as he's driving CRX#1 (the Beater) on his first Friday night on the town w his freshly printed license.  Can't wait til he gets home to share the beginning of a wonderful life time of CRX ownership for the next generation in our family.

Proud father.  He took his drivers test in my car.  Mastered the stick shift.  DMV instructor and I were the same age.  Shared stories of our glory days of the  1980's.  He had a Geo Storm he wished he'd never sold.  I told him I didn't want the regret.  Never sold my childhood car...  Said less than .1% of car drivers tests are done in manual transmissions.  Said this is the 7th car hes done in 10 years.  I'm so proud of Mad Max!!!  (My daughter has been driving this car since her feet could reach the pedal when she was in the 6th grade.  Its my moral obligation.  I've taught more than 20 people to drive a stick w this car)

I love these little cars.  I got the next generation Civic Si myself, a 1990.  I remember reading pretty much the entire Kakabox build thread on RedPepperRacing a long time ago.  Can't wait to see what you've done/will do to the car.

This car was my third CRX purchased (now Mad Max).  I couldn't help my self.  Moved to Texas and no salt.  

 Was able to store 3 cars in a 2 car garage before the kids were born

This is the earliest picture I have of Mad Max.  It was a spare car.  I've only put a handful of miles on it.  No pictures, no adventures until now.   Shes the third one parked in the left back corner.

Knowing rats, mold, parts degradation would affect this car in storage, I stripped her down some time ago and stored the parts in a climate controlled room (moth balled)

  Kikabox!  Had like over 300,000 posts.  So many, Tom had to cull it down to save server space.  Whats ur RPR avatar?

Mad Max hiberation as a storage rack as of last week.

10 years sitting in this spot w the clutter cleared

Shes a survivor.  original paint.  I never placed a wrench on this car besides disassemble.  All original.  Still has the 1987 date stamped sumitomo plug wires.   Infamous panhard support perfect.

Car spent a little time in MN, VA & UT before I bought here in Plano TX in 2000.  Surface rust on the control arm is no problem.  I'll squirt some muriatic acid or something in that seam.  The short time in the north did create some rust formation.

RETROCRX allowed me into his garage on a trip to Canada years ago.  He gave me a tour of his restored electric blue time machine.  He has a detailed photo album/project book of his Mugen styled beauty.  He unfolded the layers of sheet metal around this particular rust area and meticulously re-welded layer after layer of sheet metal to rebuild.  Labor of love

Car was always stored jacked up and on top of a moisture barrier.

Washed, on blocks and ready for her "refresh".  

The beginning of my CRX love affair.  The day (summer 1993) my buddy and I road tripped to Kentucky in his 85 prelude (notice he welded 2 Preludes into 1) to pick up his in-laws CRX as a wedding gift.  His wife drove an 87 CRX DX at the time and didn't need the SI.  I kept looking out the back of the Prelude on the drive back to Michigan.  HUGE smiles...  So I bought it from him.  Todd, my college buddy apologizes to my wife for creating the monster......

Owning this car 29 years, She's been my reliability study.  As an engineer working polymer/metalurgical sciences, manufacturing, aerospace, reliability, failure analysis...   this has been a great pride to keep these cars operating to Honda spec.  The MadMax "refresh" will be to keep this car on the road as a daily driver until my parts run out.  I drove the crap out of CRX#1. Purchased parts based on those MTBF failures and problems others reported on RPR to maintain my other cars far beyond my lifetime (hopefully).  Thankful my son will enjoy this experience and you will see CRX's regularly take cross country road trips well into the future.

I pulled the Beater out of hibernation in 2008 to begin an unbroken chain of annual road trips cross county.  I started a thread on RPR in 2009 listing annual updates of those trips.  The posts list all repairs and maintenance for CRX#1.  Unfortunately, the server had to offload decades of images.  Several of the trips were uneventful as I burned the midnight oil driving 18hrs straight through as I was anxious to return to my Michigan roots.  

The maintenance on the beater turned from "reliability study, lets see how far I can take this" to "its a 35 year old car needed refreshed components for road trip reliability" 2 years ago.  Until recently, she had the original T stat, radiator cap, CV axles,  steering joints, ignitor, ignition coil.... etc.   Amazingly, the components still functioned.  .  Point of this, MadMax is going to get a refresh of key components, seals and hoses due to age, not wear.  I'll be opening up alternator, steering rack etc... to inspect for wear with the expectation of a regrease/reinstall and go.  

My cars are Honda OEM.  I go out of my way to avoid aftermarket Chinese components, maybe brake pads....  On Mad Max, there will be a few non Honda NOS Japanese aftermarket parts here and there.  No modifications or upgrades.  Not sexy, I know....  I've forbid my son to modify this car as part of my gift endowment to him.  He's interested in the Mugen body kit.   I told him good luck, get a lot of $$$$ and another shell as I'm footing the bill for this refresh.   I missed the boat decades ago on those prized performance parts of the day.  Searching unobtainium parts w the associated costs is not something I want to do at this stage of my life.  These cars are my retirement plan.  I do not have plans to purchase newer cars for my personal use as long as gasoline remains available.

Honda/Acura just made 80's cars well beyond reliability expectation IMO.   I don't mess w a formula that performs.

I believe in Honda so much, I own stock in the company (HMC).

My old 87 CRX Si is the only car I really really regret selling. What a great little car. 

Great story and cant wait to see the process of putting back the car together for daily duties. Since 1979 there has always at least been one Honda in my family. I myself took the driver's test in a 1989 Accord LX manual, that was a great car. 

There are a couple of other 1G CRXs on this board. 

I seem to remember the front plastic fenders are plastic and unobtainium. 

I have a friend in Ontario who still has his 1st gen CRX from new. I think it currently has an Integra drive train in it.

Congrats to your son! I'll be following this for sure, I had one back in the late 80's-early 90's till it rusted away here in Minnesota. I check CL/FB every day looking for another one. 

DeadSkunk (Warren) said:

I have a friend in Ontario who still has his 1st gen CRX from new. I think it currently has an Integra drive train in it.

My car buddy calls - I'm going to look at a new Honda CRX Si - want to go?  I just read about this in R&T.    

We hit up the local dealer - never seen one yet.  Sales dude says he has the first one coming in.  Selling at sticker.  

My friend buys it and drives it for 5 years.  Great car.  

I'm a MK1GTI guy but have always loved the first and second gen CRX's.  Very cool car and will be a great and memorable first car for your son.  84FSP Junior is 12 and I'm starting to think on what a first ride should be for him.  Would like it to be something to teach him to wrench and modify without being fast.  Also safety is a thing as I wrecked my first two cars hard and would expect nothing less from my boy.

greasemonkeyreborne_5x1gs said:

Honda/Acura just made 80's cars well beyond reliability expectation IMO.   I don't mess w a formula that performs.

I believe in Honda so much, I own stock in the company (HMC).

Love the passion for HMC! Somewhere on my reading list is a biography of Soichiro, but I keep putting it off. I'd love to read a history of Honda in the 80's and 90's, or even the dvelopment stories of some of their products, but so much of the material is in Japanese. 

When I was building a 2g CRX for the challenge I was amazed at how many parts were still available 30 years later-hopefully you will find the same.

Great to hear your stories.  The Dealership original buys are awesome.   Time to time I'd be filling up at a station and another 80's era owner would start up a conversation.  It always ended in...  "I wish I never sold that car"....

Got Max some minor wrenching.

Sorted through the headlights.  Since I need to support 2 daily drivers, need spares for the stone chips I regularly get driving Dallas to Austin on I35.  Constructions been booming in Texas since 2010.  Ladders, plywood, cement, wheel barrels and rocks typically on the expressways here.  

We selected an average set of glass w/o chips since his won't be a show car.  Keeping the original 108K glass off the car as its not sandblasted yet and has high gloss.   We used a coat hanger w 4-6 coffee filters wrapped on the end to clean the inside lenses.  One light really didn't need cleaning, the other did have a light haze and was worth while.  Disassembled the adjusters.  Greased the gears and mechanism.  The mechanisms are made of plastic and easily stripped out.  I learned this on the Beater.  Thats why we went the extra mile to cover ourselves on this one.

The plastic rings to the left in the pix are the headlight bulb holders.  Note the 3 on the right have fingers missing.  1G owners began reporting this issue about ten years ago.  Appears some guys are 3D printing these as NOS have long been gone from Honda stock.  I used the bottom one w most of the fingers broken to let him snap a few off to get in idea how fragile these are.  Its a part to collect at the junkie if you come across a CRX.

One of the biggest issues w these cars are the plastic body panels as Slippery noted above.  Particular components in the engine bay exposed to heat tend to be more prone to breakage.  Another recent addition to the PITA list are the plug wire clips holding the spark wires over the valve cover.

Tires came in a couple weeks ago.  Just picked up the battery.   Pricing's all over the place between dealerships.   I prefer OEM batteries in my cars as I've learned the problems of using aftermarket.  Either the terminal posts are too small and you have to modify the lug. Or the corrosion builds up on the posts from dissimilar/galvanic corrosion of the materials.

Pulled the valve cover, pulled the plugs, drained oil, bought a camera to inspected the cylinders.

Cam lobes shiney = good news.  Oil remains in lobe tray.  Oil dry on camshaft.  More carbon on exhaust side of valve train than I expected.  No sludge in oil.  Valve gasket is rubber.  Has to  be OEM Honda, its still pliable - more than 22 years old.   A lot of crx owners comment on how old the rubber parts are and still pliable.  Seems like they just took more care into their material sciences back in the day.  Injector wires on top had a casing, the rats ate it for dinner.  Appears copper strands still in tact.  Casualty of storage.

Difficult to get a clear pix through the monitor, then to my camera.  Inspected each cylinder wo rotating engine.  Walls shiney and smooth on all 4.  Appears I can see reflection of piston head on the cylinder wall??   I could see a little what I thought was machine cross hatching from the factory??  108K miles??  I must be mistaken/could be wrong....  I was concerned about the engine due to temp swings on condensation build up after 10yrs stored in an unconditioned space since last engine run.

I pulled the oil plug and let out 1/2 quart, then inspected oil.  No antifreeze or condensation on the bottom.

Next concern is freeze damage from old radiator fluid.  I recall having a minor leak at the water pump the last time I ran the engine.  I topped it off w a little water.  I know I diluted it, not by much.  We had a massive hard freeze for 2-3 days here in Dallas February 2021 (0F).  Hopefully 22 year old coolant maintained its properties and I get compression.

Plugs were uniformly light tan and had to have been replaced.  They weren't Honda OE.  Didn't tell me anything other than they all looked the same.   Ill take that.

Going to run the camera through the oil pan to inspect the crank lobes, replace oil (splash cam lobes and fog cylinder)  and rotate.  Wont' crank the engine until I remove the tank, pump and injectors for cleaning.  Then at least replace the water pump.  Once she runs, then pull engine for new rubber gaskets and hoses.

I have no expectation of rebuilding this motor.  I really shouldn't have to w the mileage.  My Beaters at 272K and burns half quart or less every 3-4K miles between oil changes driving 75-80 on my road trips.   

I always wondered if I was damaging the engine by not using a fogger before storage and reoiling before start up.  Now I know.  

Back in '86, my girlfriend (at the time) and I bought her a SI brand new. Her brother had a 85, and if he couldn't break it, it must've been a great car. It was. Loved it for about a year and a half. Only sold it to get out from under the payments. 
Didn't like the next bodystyle as well. 

Max and I opened up the alternator for a rebuild.

The alternator worked when I put the car in storage.  However, it began to seize (I had assumed from rust/condensation) from sitting too long until I had to cut the belt.  We determined the bearings would rotate freely, but one of the aluminum housing fins got cracked (PO must have man-handled it replacing a belt) and eventually wedged to jam the rotor.

We tested each component per Honda Helms manual and all looks good.  Since the housing has damaged, I'm installing another alternator I rebuilt the other month.  Saving MM alternator for future rebuilds.  Was good to get him familiar w  electrical trouble shooting and pressing out bearings

I pulled most of my alternators collected over the years and rebuilt 5 of the original Honda Nippon-Denso Japanese red labelled OE units.  I had purchased 2 Honda factory rebuilt alternators w blue labels, Japanese OE.  I had picked up 2 other used blue labelled Honda OE alternators off other junkyard CRXs.  Same blue label, but these were rebuilt by Denso in USA as they were newer vintage.

I have a detailed post on the disassembly, rebuild and observations on an RPR post.  So I won't go into detail here.

Main thing I learned on the assembly line 1) bearing grease dried out (opened seals, cleaned and regreased)  and 2) brushes required replacing while filing down the rotor slip rings

I'm sticking w the original 35 year old alternators w the red labels.  I'm reusing basically everything but the brushes, unless there was a "one-off" part requiring replacement.  Point here is I'm staying away from aftermarket (Chinese) parts and punting, hoping the 35yr old Japanese components continue to provide service.

I carry a spare alternator when I travel out of state as these parts are difficult to source quickly on the road.  Low risk IMO

Honda Media back in the day.....

A billboard poster version hanging in my office for the past 20 years.......  Dealerships would place their information just above the sunroof and slap it on a billboard.  My frame is close to a 24"x36" here.

Honda came out w a "Dealer Kit" and a "Press Kit".  I wasn't in a dealership when these cars were being sold new - I had no idea.  I stumbled on the information on Ebay early 2000's.  This is the transition time some of you will remember when Honda revamped their dealerships, signage and computer systems.  These kits appeared to have been stuffed in the back corners of dealerships and later tossed into the dumpsters as they cleaned out the back corners to make space for newer inventory.  I see images posted here and there of some of this information.  We had a series of RPR annual meets hosted by BadPenny and Gimpalot about 10-15yrs ago.  We had taken the kits, scanned them in to a CD and passed them out to members attending.  I was passing out 11x17 posters like the one in my office above.  Great times, but life got in the way and we haven't been meeting in recent years.  Information was uploaded to RPR years ago.  Unfortunately, the server had to offload massive amounts of images over the years and this data was a casualty.

87 HONDA PRESS KIT

1987 HONDA DEALER KIT

Glad record players are making a comeback.  Would love to listen to the radio add.

Billboard poster campaign.  Some of you might remembers seeing these across our roadways back in the day.  Complete w order forms.  I had called the add agency around 2000 to see if they had any loose stock left over.  Agency was out of business.

1986 HONDA PRESS KIT

The 87 Kit was a step up in quality over the 86.

greasemonkeyreborne_5x1gs said:

I have a detailed post on the disassembly, rebuild and observations on an RPR post.  So I won't go into detail here.

Could you post a link, though? Might come in handy for someone. 

I can certainly do that.  I didn't want to spam the GRM group by directing them to the RedPepperRacing site.  If someone from GRM can chime in if its ok?   I'd love to connect the dots.  Sometimes I bull through things w/o realizing proper etiquette....

I felt bad enough running 2 sets of posts on this Project as RPR is not searchable via Google.

I don't post Face Book as you can't search all the great information people have posted on their rebuilds and "how to's" as well as you can here.  Would love for this information to be available to those who can use it.