A New Adventure - 1997 Civic Coupe resurrection

In reply to 10001110101 :

Thanks! Hopefully come spring-ish it'll be successfully rescued and back on the road. This is all happening in MN, and I chose this one especially because of it's lack of rust. 

Minor but exciting weekend update: 

Back seat! I scored this in a U-Pull yard over a month ago and was very excited to find it. However, it opened a rabbit hole of other problems that I was aware of but until that moment had been ignoring - fuel pump & tank situation. Before I put the seat in I decided I should investigate the fuel pump access, and found this cruddy mess. 

So, new fuel tank & pump were ordered, and have since been installed. Which means I was able to put my new-to-me backseat in this weekend. Which feels awesome. The seat took up a lot of space, and the car looked ugly without it. Win Win. 

I've set an arbitrary goal of driving the car by April 20th. That gives me roughly 3 more months to get everything sorted, which seems like a lot of time, but there are a plethora of yet to be seen problems and parts I still need to purchase. 

Plugging away, I had some fun with NEW parts last night. I went out to the garage and assembled my new struts and springs, and played with some of the stuff Cousin_Eddie gave me.

New struts and $59.99 Amazon JDM SPORT lowering springs went together nicely. I ordered struts, bumpstops, bellows, and all mounting hardware. I'm not sure what kind of person it makes me to want all new bushings etc. but be willing to run cheapie Monroe struts and generic lowering springs. Maybe cheap yet meticulous? For what it's worth I ran these same springs on two MK4 VW's last year and was completely satisfied, so I got another set for Christmas this year for the Honda. 

And, because garage time isn't without some difficulty, one of the struts Rock Auto sent appears to have been either a core or a new strut previously installed. The box looked like it was from 1981 and the strut has clearly been installed before. 

As we speak Rock Auto is in the process of sending a replacement. I've had good luck with them in the past, and this winter was the first time I've had to deal with returns/bad parts. Their website is really easy to use and *fingers crossed* they've been very forthcoming about returning & exchanging parts.

So, 3 out of 4 struts assembled, and I installed the new upper control arms I was so generously gifted. Not only did it feel good to get some shiny new things assembled, I was also able to clean up some boxes of stuff in the garage and help my clutter situation. Working in a 1 car garage definitely makes you conscious of clutter, not to say that my work space isn't cluttered, but I try to keep it to a minimum. I find myself not wanting to be out there if it's too cluttered. 

Baby steps, April is fast approaching! 

Gunchsta said:

Plugging away, I had some fun with NEW parts last night. I went out to the garage and assembled my new struts and springs, and played with some of the stuff Cousin_Eddie gave me.

New struts and $59.99 Amazon JDM SPORT lowering springs went together nicely. I ordered struts, bumpstops, bellows, and all mounting hardware. I'm not sure what kind of person it makes me to want all new bushings etc. but be willing to run cheapie Monroe struts and generic lowering springs. Maybe cheap yet meticulous? For what it's worth I ran these same springs on two MK4 VW's last year and was completely satisfied, so I got another set for Christmas this year for the Honda. 

 

And, because garage time isn't without some difficulty, one of the struts Rock Auto sent appears to have been either a core or a new strut previously installed. The box looked like it was from 1981 and the strut has clearly been installed before. 

As we speak Rock Auto is in the process of sending a replacement. I've had good luck with them in the past, and this winter was the first time I've had to deal with returns/bad parts. Their website is really easy to use and *fingers crossed* they've been very forthcoming about returning & exchanging parts.

So, 3 out of 4 struts assembled, and I installed the new upper control arms I was so generously gifted. Not only did it feel good to get some shiny new things assembled, I was also able to clean up some boxes of stuff in the garage and help my clutter situation. Working in a 1 car garage definitely makes you conscious of clutter, not to say that my work space isn't cluttered, but I try to keep it to a minimum. I find myself not wanting to be out there if it's too cluttered. 

Baby steps, April is fast approaching! 

When my Passat cracked a coil spring last Memorial day, all I could get my hands on in time to get it back on the road were Monroe struts from NAPA and a set of second hand H&R Ultrasports for a MK6 Volkswagen. Luckily all the diameters and spring lengths were the same. I know the rates are wrong since it is sitting way lower than advertised. But it rides soft and tight, which is odd but nice.

Stay warm, it's getting cold up here today. 

In reply to 10001110101 :

Sounds like a perfect setup really. Probably won't be out in the garage much the next few days, likely be beer & video games for me! My garage is heated and insulated, but it is pretty drafty. 

Welp, Not much to show, but I did go out and play in the garage a bit last night. Air temp was somewhere around 8 above, got to maybe 38 in the garage. Not bad but it's drafty out there and the floor and all my tools sure were cold. 

I was able to extract the passenger side toe-link, which was also stuck. I demolished the mounting almost as bad as the drivers side but it seemed to go a little smoother overall. Anyhow, now both rear trailing arms are out and I can take them in to have new bushings pressed in. Then more new parts can be installed. Also, getting the e-brake cables out of the drum backing plates sure is a fight. 

Another pointless 'decision' I think I've made is one of motivation. I think once I have the new suspension installed and the brakes bled I'm going to skip ahead a few steps and order new tires. I'm tired of looking at the car on steelies and dummy spares, and though this means the car will sit for another couple of months on good tires, I think I want the motivation of seeing the car on aluminum OEM wheels with the correct stance.

Took yesterday (Monday) off of work and did some stuff in the garage, as well as brought my rear trailing arms to a friend to have him press in my new bushings. 

Here's my remanufactured to link bracket

Ugly, but it should work. 

Here's some more low lights... Clapped Out. So clapped out. Luckily this will all be replaced soon. 

Old junk removed and set aside for trash. 

New springs and shocks set to go in. New parts! Clean shiny parts! Happy Honda! 

Oh and Ricky helped me replace some o-rings on my injectors. Pretty good day overall, starting to get closer to having the car on actual new suspension sitting correctly. 

My second attempt at axles appeared correct. Somehow I had ordered D-series axles before, those got sent back and now I have axles from a 94-00 Acura Integra. These went in as expected which meant I was able to assemble the rest of the front suspension around it. No pictures were taken of this process, it was pretty straightforward. 

Here's my rear trailing arms with new bushings pressed in and painted. 

The path to having the car back on the ground is nearing completion! Front brakes need assembling, and rear suspension needs to be finished up - these trailing arms are still in the basement. 

Progress is good! 

More fun! 

Last night at about 8:45 I brought my rear trailing arms out to the garage, in my P.J's, and ended up bolting them into the car. It started out just seeing if I could crack the brake lines loose. Then when those came loose I tested the bleeders. Then when those came loose I looked at some stuff for a bit and thought, hell it's not that cold out, and bolted them in the car. 

Front and rear assembled somewhat. I have questions though... 

This rear upper arm, is it in correctly or is it upside down? Dumb me forgot what it looked like when I disassembled it. +

Quick google search tells me that I likely have this arm in upside down. Luckily none of this is tight yet so it's easily changed. 

Getting closer! Spring is coming. 

I don’t know one way or the other but in my mind it makes more sense for it be the other way to allow for more clearance when the suspension is compressed. 

Car is looking clean!

In reply to orthoxstice :

I think you're correct, it needs to be reversed from what it is currently. 

And thanks for the compliment, I hope it ends up looking clean when it's all together. 

Woof, watch out world! 

Exciting order of brake-disc retaining screws ordered from Amazon. Truthfully though I'm quite excited about it, because they came out of the hubs but I misplaced them. Now I'll have 4 new ones on order. Now I realize these aren't operation-critical, but since the old ones weren't rusted into the hubs I wanted to use them, and not having them was kinda hanging me up. 

I should look more closely at the parts I've bought before buying new parts.

Did my front brakes this weekend, new hoses, pads & rotors. Everything pretty much went as expected, which felt nice. 

However, the keen reader will notice... No fancy brake rotor screws! Yes, those ones that I just had to have... these rotors have no provision for them. 

Anyway, the brakes are all assembled and ready to be bled, however it's -9 out right now and though my garage is heated and insulated, that's a lot of negative degrees to overcome. For those keeping score I believe the hoses are stoptech and the pads are powerstop, or something along those lines. Basically whatever Rock Auto had that was a little better than stock. The rotors are some premium stockers with that nice painted center so they don't rust, they're pretty slick. 

Now to decide if I order tires so I can actually see the car at ride height with nice wheels and tires on it, or order exhaust first because the car is up in the air right now and installing exhaust would be logical and easy. If I do tires first it's going to get pushed outside, admired & photographed for personal motivation, then shoved right back in the garage and likely put up in the air for exhaust. 

Decisions.

Decisions have been made, exhaust has been ordered. 

I believe it was recommended earlier in here but I got the eBay Yonaka 2.5" stainless deal, reviews are overwhelmingly positive and it's relatively inexpensive. Supposedly backordered but they have a shipment arriving today; hopefully doesn't take forever to show up. 

I'm very interested in a GRM-type review of that exhaust.  I'm still droning away with something that starts with a Mugen header and ends with a Magnaflo muffler.  There's a really shiny resonator in the middle.

In reply to chrispy :

And you'll have it sir. Just as soon as the car runs .

This will be an eBay header, test pipe, and the Yonaka catback exhaust. I'll try to grab a video of it when I can. 

Nice progress.  It's starting to take shape.  Before you know it, VROOMY sounds will be happening.

In reply to Dirtydog :

Thank you! 

On the subject of Vroomy noises - last night I had a Honda friend come over and help me bleed the brakes, so the car now has a functional hydraulic braking system! This is very exciting.

The other exciting bit last night was that my buddy has a greater knowledge of Civic wiring harnesses and was able to quickly help me label a large portion of the plugs on my harness. This cleared up a lot of unanswered questions for me and gives me confidence going forward about the eventuality of Vroom Vroom noises. We're supposed to get a bunch more snow this weekend, but I feel like I have some nice momentum going on this thing coming into spring.

Doing my usual "put a cat on it" preach that happens now and then.  They don't cost power, they help muffle a bit, and it's not like you can't put it in yourself...

In reply to pres589 (djronnebaum) :

I know, I know - You're not wrong. I'm going to stick with what I have for now, but theoretically putting one in down the road would be a snap. This setup may be noisy with the header, so the cat will be in the back of my mind.

99-00 Si high-flow cat should bolt right in (for future reference).

In reply to chrispy :

Good to know! Thank you.

Monday update:

We had the first  bout of nice weather since last fall and I took as much advantage of it as I could. Saturday morning I went to the junkyard with my Dad and scored big time. I found an OEM hood (mine was junk from flipping open on the highway when the previous owner brought it home), some nice front fender liners, a front sway bar, and some misc. side trim that I needed. Using my junkyard gift card (that's right!) I spent $57.70.

It's Monday now and I'm still excited about the hood; Here's a long story of why. 

This bent up, dented, cert-a-fit hood came with the car. It had flipped up in transit to the previous owners house, destroyed the windshield and bending the hood all up in the process. So I cut up the underside thinking I could pound some of the dents/crap out of it. 

Well as it turns out I cut too much bracing out of it and left it with no structural integrity any longer. So I resigned to running it with no hood to start the year. Which I really wasn't that excited about, can't drive the car in the rain (I won't much anyway, but I'd rather not worry about clouds) and can't wash it very well either. I figured I could find a hood in a junkyard, but since I sold my truck I had no good way to haul it home should I find one. Well, this Saturday I scored one and went with my Dad so I had a truck to bring it home in! 

It's black, and it had a spot of rust on the front (which I've since fixed), but it's mine and it protects the engine from the elements. It is now pinned & mounted and ready to rock. This will get wrapped or painted eventually, but for now I have a half-panda Honda and I'm not even mad. 

The sway bar was also a nice grab, I was tempted to purchase one new but they're a couple hundred dollars from the aftermarket, this one was $11 from the yard and will utilize the new bushings Cousin Eddie was kind enough to donate to the cause. 

All in all a good weekend, I should be picking up my exhaust at the UPS distribution center today (needed a signature, I wasn't there 3 days in a row). Things are coming together! 

Woo! eBay, Canada, China JDM swag! My first modded car starter pack! 

This is all the loot that was included in the box with my exhaust from Yonaka. Chinese parts sold in USA distributed through Canada for some reason. They seem to be the high-end of eBay Civic parts, and this exhaust in particular has really positive reviews. As for my personal experience, I would concur so far with the reviews with the only caveat being that the car hasn't been started yet so I don't know how it sounds. Fit, Finish & quality is quite nice for a $300 stainless exhaust system. All the factory hangers line up, the tip fits the opening in the bumper nicely, and the install was pretty straightforward. I did have the midpipe (right after the cat) in upside down at first and that made it not fit very well, but once I corrected that everything was stellar. 

My 'test pipe' however doesn't match up with my header very well so some butchery ensued. 

Editors note: This didn't work so well. Everything fits now but the bolts are so far away from the center that there is a lot of flex. I expect this to leak in the future, but for now the exhaust is on and fits. I'll plan on readdressing this once the car runs and I can prove it does leak. Hopes and prayers. This is also one of those 'fixes' that I'm glad to have a welder for, but often wonder... am I really suited to have a welder? Ha Ha Ha. 

Anyway, here's the rest of the exhaust in the car. Follows all the factory mountings & heat shields and looks fancy. I'm quite happy. 

Here's the resonator, it looks like it hangs down a bunch in the picture but it's really tucked up nicely. 

Here it is from the rear forward... Ooo shiny eBay stainless! 

Overview from the tip looking forward

Nice touch, manufacturers logo on the muffler itself. 

Fitment of tip in bumper. I like it, it's a little bigger than I may have chosen on my own, but it fits the cutout nicely and doesn't look like a big cannon like some of the cheaper exhausts look like. 

Now to order tires! 

Wipers! 

The amount of excitement I had bolting these back on both makes me laugh and feel quite old. On project cars past I would have definitely left these off as some kind of 'proof of project car' status. Now the thought of driving the car without wipers annoys me, so back on they go with new blades. 

Full disclosure: I'm still a child too, I did remove the windshield washer pump & nozzles. Rebel!