My Project

[Honda_Boy]

well I'm having to get a brand new engine mount cause the butt holes at the junkyard won't let us take the mount out of the red hatchback. $70 for a new mount plus labor................................That's not all. My clutch is destroyed. SO I didn't get that Exedy for nothing after all. God this car is costing a load. Also if I'm not mistaken, the broken mount is what broke the clutch. I hope my luck holds out and this is all that's gonna need fixing. I posted this problem on the Honda-Tech forums and they gave me a list of of things that could have broken too. Some of these folks have had the same problem. Supposedly this is a common issue amongst 96 Civics. Jimmy (my mechanic) said he's fixed a ton of these. No wonder 92-95's are more popular. They are cheaper too. EK's are safer though.

*I just found out. No need for a new flywheel. The one I have is fine. Plus....................it's a lightweight 7 pound aluminum flywheel. Haha. Nice. My mechanic told my dad that even though this going to cost a pretty penny, I'm gonna really like it when it's done.

Edited November 30, 2006 by Honda_Boy

[Bubba Bob]

*I just found out. No need for a new flywheel. The one I have is fine. Plus....................it's a lightweight 7 pound aluminum flywheel. Haha. Nice. My mechanic told my dad that even though this going to cost a pretty penny, I'm gonna really like it when it's done.

Well it'd be a first for a mechanic to say it's going to cost a pretty penny and your probably not going to be satisfied.

I hope this is the last of your problems for a while.

[Honda_Boy]

I'm also having an axle replaced cause it seems the idiot previous owner put a D16 axle on a B16 trans but he said it's cheap and the labor is nothing. All I'm paying for is the clutch work I think. The rest is an Early Christmas present. My dad was telling him that I was down in the mouth about my car. He said though the repairs are expensive, I'm going to really like how the thing drives when it's done. It should be finished either tomorrow or Friday. So I should actually be able to drive to work Friday. I'm getting right on the hatch when I have time after getting the car back. I've got a plan on how to make everything work. Once my wallet and bank accounts quit suffering, I'm gonna have a nice little ride. Every Civic project out there has had it's troubles. Determination can make one look like this though.

yes those are the same wheels as mine and yes this is what color my new hatch is. Also those headlights are what mine would look like if they weren't so crudded up.

Edited November 30, 2006 by Honda_Boy

[bozodog]

I like red cars..

[Honda_Boy]

YAY!!!! I got my car back and it's doing great. My old clutch. Shattered. Man it feels like when I first got this car again. The clutch is stiff and it takes some leg power to hold it down. I'll get used to it though. New engine mount is holdin the B16 in place and doin fine. Turn out it had the right axle but the differential my mechanic says is real loose. He says it'll be fine as long as I don't go frickin crazy in it. He's putting a LSD (Limited Slip Differential) in his project 99 Civic Si (same as what my motor came out of) and he said he'd give me his stock one when he gets it swapped out. Man he's cool, not only am I getting a free differential but I drove back from the his shop with a Ractive 4 to 1 sport header in the back of my car. Sweet. Free header. If he keeps giving free parts, you know he's staying my mechanic for a long time.

Edited December 1, 2006 by Honda_Boy

[JDoors]

Is he being generous, or does he simply recognize a money machine when he sees one?

Must be nice to have it running properly again.

[Honda_Boy]

Well I shined up my car all pretty and nice today. Sort of. I pulled it into the garage and got a bucket of warm water and went to work. Cleaned up my windows and wheels. They were filthy. The car itself wasn't that nasty but it still wasn't none to clean either. The hatch and rear bumper were obviously filthy. 4-5 inch tip muffler, it's gonna spew some crap. I rolled back out and into it's parking spot and grabbed some spray on, no wipe, tire shine and froze my butt off sprayin it on in 20 degree weather. Them wheels and tires are shinin bright now. Hatch still looks like crap though. I'm thinkin of going to NAPA and grabbin some black primer to prime my new hatch and put it on. I really don't wanna put it on red.

[Bubba Bob]

Red hatch on a green car would look good. Very Christmasy!

[Honda_Boy]

Well, my brother and I have started painting the hatch ourselves. It's kinda fun. Lucky I found a power sander to speed things up a little. It's gonna take a few days to finish since he works at Mercedes Benz up in another town every weekday while I have go to college and work most of the week. Thursday maybe my dad and I will continue it and Saturday or Sunday my brother and I will continue/finish it. Then we'll try to put it back together, put the old hatch's lock in it (which is surprisingly easy to do), bolt it on, run the wire through it, and put the panels all back in it. Should look real nice especially compared to a bashed in hatch. I might just gloss it and leave it black.

[Honda_Boy]

by the way, I got the primer from O'Reilly's instead of NAPA cause they were closed today.

P.S. I gots a new sig. both pic and words.

[JDoors]

Why not match the paint? Afraid it won't match well enough?

[Honda_Boy]

$$$$$$$

I have no money. Plus we are only doing the visible part outside the hatch. It's only gonna cost me about $25 to do.

Also, take a look at the job a previous owner did trying to color match the front bumper. Sucky.

Edited December 11, 2006 by Honda_Boy

[JDoors]

I hadn't noticed the color difference on the bumper 'til you mentioned it. Oh ... Yeah ... I see. Is that a "metallic" color? Definitely hard to match.

As for price, is the factory color that much more expensive than the gloss black you are using? ('Course, if you already had the black ... )

[Honda_Boy]

So here's the new hatch hanging up in the basement/garage

The side that ain't getting done

The side that is

Where we screwed it up (newspaper fell over on it)

The best shot I could of all that's getting painted

Where it is perfect

I took the best shots I could with the space that's in the basement. I'm gonna try to get my dad to help me with this thing a little more today.

[JDoors]

I was doing an engine rebuild with a buddy and we painted the engine parts in my apartment. (Hoo-boy, were we dumb!) We were both blowin' blue snot for weeks after that. Hope you have good ventilation!

[Honda_Boy]

oh we did it in the driveway on top of two trash cans. We just left it in the basement to dry and we hung it up 1. so we wouldn't mess up the primer but we managed to do it anyway and 2. to keep the cat off of it since in the winter we let her in at night.

We had this planned out. We were making sure we did a half way decent job which we did but then we went and messed it up trying to hang it up. If we woulda waited like 10 minutes we might not had that much trouble since the frickin can says "dries in 10 minutes"

[JDoors]

I wasn't even going to comment on the paper boo-boo since it sounds exactly like something that I'd do.

[Honda_Boy]

well, I fixed my driver side lock................for now. The little thing that hooks the outside keyhole to the actual lock had fallen off. I can't seem to get it on securely but as long as I'm nor rambunctious it should be fine. Finally I can get in my car after locking from the driver side.

I still havn't put the hatch on. Bad weather has hindered my plans.

[JDoors]

Got the paint fixed up? The driveline's good to go now? Is there light at the end of the tunnel?

A few reminisces: Pulled to a quick stop in the Mustang during a radio exercise (a game, hunt down another vehicle using signal strenth to find them). Slipped the tranny into park --- or rather I slammed it into park, I thought we "had 'em" so I was in a hurry to claim a win. Shouldn't have done that -- the cable inside the shift handle broke, couldn't shift any more -- and the hunt was still on! Being resourceful I used a screwdriver to shift for the rest of the hunt, left it that way for a long time before I bought the necessary (and necessarily factory) parts.

The clutch on my Jeep was still good after more than 150,000 miles! I'm going to pretend it's because I'm such a good driver. Hey, the other choice is to say that Jeeps build excellent vehicles, go ahead and take your pick.

[Honda_Boy]

well forget the lock. I think my dad shut the door to hard and knocked it loose again and I ain't taken the stupid door apart again. I might however take apart the passenger door so I can see the lock on it and see how it stays on.

[JDoors]

Yeah, if it's that easily disabled there's probably something missing or broken.

Current car: There was a factory recall on the cruise control cable. It can stick causing the engine to race. I looked my (used) car up online and it's supposed to have had the work done.

So I'm coming home from a trip using cruise control. I go up a steep hill, and when I go over the crest my speed keeps picking up. I try to stop but the engine's racing -- Thank goodness today's brakes can stop any car even at full throttle.

I investigate and find a piece of the cable slips along the length of the cable and jams in the throttle cam. I move it out of the way and proceed. That piece is for all practical purposes impossible to remove, and with the mileage on the car I'm not going to get the work done for free, AND I can't afford a new cable, so I'm just living with the occasional need to pull over, shut off the engine and slip that piece back where it belongs.

My buddy who used to work for the manufacturer said the replacement cables had problems too. Yeah, no kidding? Ya think?

[Honda_Boy]

oh happy days. My manager's friend works at a body shop PLUS this guy's dad owns it. So my manager has offered to sand the hatch down for me and even bought me some Midori Green Mica paint in exchange for 2 old car CD Players (The paint was $25 and that's about how much these 2 OLD cd players were worth). Then after that we are going to take it to this shop and have it painted (color matched and everything) for somewhere around $100. YES!!!!!!!!!! Then all I need to do is get some side skirts and the car will be half-way decent looking.

On another note, if I play my cards right, I might just have another project

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A 1988 Mazda RX-7. OH MY LORD, it's not a Honda. Who cares. I might be able to trade the motor out of my old car (which I finally got out last Sunday) for it. Oh man that'd be great. Plus they are giving a body kit with it (which I'd sell and get stock bumpers if it doesn't have em). If that thing runs good without oil leaks and what not, I might park the hatch for a little while until I get it straightened out. It needs a new oil pan at the moment and a new differential but other than that it's good mechanically.

I have a very slim chance of getting the RX-7 though. It'd be nice but I kinda doubt it. I'm not sure if the guy will trade. It'd probably have all the power stuff and everything making a nicer daily driver but that Rotary Engine is an issue. Not the most reliable motors out there plus it's hard to find a mechanic that can work on em. My current mechanic is Honda/Acura only.

[JDoors]

Good job on networking to get a deal -- and I'm glad the hatch'll be the right color.

Good Lord, the Mazda'd be cool. I looked up what it looks like (I only remember a friend's much older model) and whoa ... that'd be cool.

[Honda_Boy]

well I don't think the RX-7 deal is gonna happen. It doesn't run and the guy claims the ole rotary needs a rebuild. Plus it seems some things are gonna have to be put back together on it (simple stuff like the front fenders but the motor I think is partially undone cause they were gonna rebuild it). If there is a simple (cheap) thing to do just to get the thing running again, then I would definitely trade. But for now I think the ole Z6 is sticking with me. I'd hate to burst the dude's bubble but I don't want a non-running vehicle I can't afford to fix.

If there is a way to profit off this car then I might trade for that reason too.

The hatch is coming along. It just got sanded and we are thinking about painting the thing ourselves but I have a feeling that it's still going into a shop. I think I'd ratehr have a pro do it.

[JDoors]

Naww, you don't want an RX-7 project car. They're uncommon enough to cost big bucks and take way too much time (to get parts, etc.).

Especially with metallic paint, have a pro do it.