Intertwined's 89 CRX / 91 Sedan

Intertwined

It's onski brah
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Well its been a couple years since i've had a Honda and finally got the chance to pick up another one for a long term project.

I'll start with the link to the last thread i had which was my '99 DAP hatch that flowed into a couple of other cars lol: http://www.clubcivic.com/forum/threads/intertwineds-99-dap-hatch.219350/

Searched several sites and craigslist for a couple months and found a CRX that i wanted for a good price only 2 hours away.

$800.00 1989 CRX DX with 249xxx on the clock. Clean title, NO check engine, NO quarter panel rust (as in no penetrating rust, just minor surface rust), minimal dents (PDR repairable), full interior minus the wall that blocks the view of the trunk area. Just need to replace fenders and rip out all the bondo from the crappy flush job on the molding areas. Also came on some discontinued Enkei RP02's.

Drove it the 2 hours home at 80+ mph (75 mph speed limit on I25) without a single hiccup. Got it home and in the garage to start cleaning her up and inspecting everything to see what needs to be fixed (remember this is a $800 car)

In the garage and opened up to start taking out some of the interior to be cleaned:









The filth that was:



Previous owner said that the stereo was wired "direct" to everything. You had to turn it on/off with the power button on the radio only >< Heres all the wires they used to wire it "direct" to the battery/ground/speakers:



The cage that holds the stereo in place was gone as well so i fabbed up some sheet metal into U shapes to hold it in place (ghetto but functional). Also soldered/shrink wrapped the stereo harness with a 4" extension into the factory harness so it will work as intended.



After cleaning up the filth that was:



All back together and clean:



Put her on stands so i could check out the suspension and undercarriage. Only place i found any signs of scraping are on the front jack point. Everything in the rear is good to go. Up front i need to replace both upper and lower balljoints. Have receipts from both axles and tie rod ends being changed out 4 months ago as well as oil/filter/plugs/wires being done just over 2k miles ago. Also looks like i need to change out the driver side wheel bearing. And i need to locate and remedy the very small oil leak (pic showing on cardboard is from 4 days.)




All in all im very happy with the purchase. The car is a solid base to work with. Now its time to start saving up for a swap......and everything else haha. This will definitely be slow going so bear with me if you decide to follow.

Oh was also stoked to find the original owners manual in glove box!
 

Intertwined

It's onski brah
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Nothing special, but was informed that there is a plug in the firewall that fits the rear wiper.......so........deleted the rear wiper today for Free.99

eventually will weld it shut when body work gets done.
 


Mr.Baker

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Just need to replace fenders and rip out all the bondo from the crappy flush job on the molding areas.
This is a bit worriesome, as it may have more rot than you think.
Bondo is used for many reasons, and with these cars, covering up rot is one of them.
 

Intertwined

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if theres rot on the doors then i dont care. easy enough to replace. The quarters themself are fine as ive taken the plastics off to check from inside. :thumbs up
 


Mr.Baker

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The rockers also are very susceptible to hiding rust and rot.
Doors can be an issue as they are not as easy to find rot free as you think and not all Crx doors are the same fitment either.
 

Intertwined

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started working on the tedious task of taking the bondo off tonight. guess we'll find out in the next day or so whats under there :D
 

Intertwined

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Alright, I came to a stopping point for now. So time to update with some pics to see what was under all that bondo.

Forgot to grab a pic of the pile of bondo, but once i gathered it up and weighed it there was 5.4 lbs of it from both sides.

All in all I'm happy with what i found, could have been a lot worse. The rust formed only in the places that the bondo was cracked. Ended up with a rotted spot in the passenger door, and 2 rotted spots in the passenger rocker. Which Im sanding/grinding out the rot and treating with rust converter and then primer. Not repaired, but treated and will not spread any further until repaired, i hope lol.


Driver side:






Passenger side:






Passenger rocker rot:






I ran out of supplies, so i haven't treated the rocker yet. Will be doing that asap to stop it from spreading.
 

Intertwined

It's onski brah
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Got the rocker treated and replaced both Driver & Passenger side upper control arm assemblies as well as both lower ball joints. I Seafoamed it as well before doing the suspension parts and was surprised at how little it smoked. Im kinda wondering if its been rebuilt at one point. It still pulls plenty strong for its sub 100 HP lol.

When i went to unbolt the upper control arms from the bay i noticed that i was the first person to put a wrench on them >< the original paint stripes were still intact. Bye Bye 250k mile ball joints lol.

Also found out that i dont need to change out the driver side wheel bearing. The noise i thought was it ended up just being debri stuck inbetween the rotor and dust shield.

No pics this go around as i didnt want to touch my phone with all the grease from the ball joints.
 

Intertwined

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Touched up a couple of other surface rust spots here and there. also replaced the cigarette lighter, so thats functional and working as intended from factory. I might rewire it to switched power instead of constant power though.

Found the old stock GSR shifter from my DB8 in my tool box, so im going to cut the base to size tomorrow and get it installed. Love free mods.

Also a small project item should be here tomorrow. If that comes in early enough ill be able to get it (mostly) done and post some more pictures finally.
 

Mr.Baker

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Ended up with a rotted spot in the passenger door, and 2 rotted spots in the passenger rocker. Which Im sanding/grinding out the rot and treating with rust converter and then primer. Not repaired, but treated and will not spread any further until repaired, i hope lol.
This link may be of some help along the way.
http://crxcommunity.com/viewtopic.php?t=12393

If not, there is a TON of helpful material on the forum having to do with any and everything with the Crx.
 

Intertwined

It's onski brah
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Ill check that link out in a bit. Just taking a break from working on the car.

The item I was waiting on showed up while i was doing the GSR shifter, so now im working on that project. Im going to take as many pictures as I can, and possibly do a write up because I wasnt able to find anything clear myself. I also dont know if anyone will even like it, except for myself......oh well :D
 

Intertwined

It's onski brah
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Going to break this into 2 posts for seperation.

Alright, so I got myself motivated today to work on a couple more pretty much freebie projects.


First thing first was doing a shifter upgrade because as I said before I found the stock GSR shifter from my old DB8……cant beat a 20% shorter throw for free!


Safety first! Jack stands and wheel chocks as always.



Got the stock shifter out and compared the two. Civic on left, GSR on right in the next set of pictures:




After cutting to size, 2mm off the short side & 8mm off the long side (roughly):



Installed and cut off the plastic piece that held the shift knob to the plastic boot retainer. I took out the plastic piece and replaced it with a rubber bushing i had laying around:



This is such a solid upgrade even if you have to buy the shifter for $5-$10. The throws are noticeably shorter and it feels a little bit tighter. I do need to get new shift rod bushings as well as the bushing and cover that go over the shifter ball in due time.
 

Intertwined

It's onski brah
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Now onto the second project. This was going to be practically free, but now i need a couple things to get it done correctly.


Through my wife’s Amazon review thing she does I was able to score a roof mount antenna meant for a BMW for $0.64 shipped to my door. I absolutely hate the stock antenna location on just about every Honda except the Del Sol and S2000. Sooooooooo I decided to move it somewhere I wanted.




Ive already removed the rear window wiper, which left me with a worthless window washer up top. Time to change things up :D Took the washer off and then got out my 1/2” drill bit and made a hole clean through to the inside. I also had to cut an additional small section out because I went a little to far and was left with a shredded section of metal.




Had to re-route the antenna cable:





So with the hole cut at 1/2” it made it perfect for the antenna base to screw onto the body and lock into place. But to be on the safe side for water, I used a little bit of clear Flex Seal around the hole before screwing the antenna down. As well as some on the seams between the base and the gasket afterwards:









Now I'm at a stand still. I have to go out and get a new antenna extension as well as a male/female adapter. I want to do this so that the entire installation is done legit. Right now I have the antenna connected, but it isn't picking up reception right. The antenna has already been spliced at one point by a previous owner. I think my second splice is killing it so Im going to replace it.


Super happy with the outcome so far though. I think it looks awesome and cant wait to get pics acting like its a RC car haha.
 

ctag

fill it with wires!
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Dude your build threads are awesome :headbang: Definitely looking forward to this.
 

Intertwined

It's onski brah
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Got around to doing a little more sanding and priming tonight. My daughter decided she wanted to help, so we got some father/daughter bonding done over some body work. I would have gone further, but this is as much as i could get done with the product on hand.





Went to check all the fluids to make sure everything is still full after doing an oil change and driving a bit for the shake down after replacing the suspension parts……..and well the passenger side hood hinge decided to break. I ended up drilling out the broken rivet and put a nut/bolt/washer setup in its place for now. Took it back out, cleaned it up and put primer on it after the pic.




There were also several stickers and some sticker residue on the glass in places so I goo-goned all that off and while I was at it I went ahead and wet sanded the tail lights to get rid of some of the white overspray from a previous owner.






The next area im going to tackle will be removing the rear bumper and seeing whats under there.
Ill end with a random pic before i started working on it last night.

 

ImportFan1

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Nice progress.

Whats the little side project?
 

Intertwined

It's onski brah
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TY.

The side project was the antenna replacement/relocation.

Going to dig around today and find the damn speaker that keeps dinging when the doors are open and rip it out!!!!!!!!
 

Intertwined

It's onski brah
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Still havent taken out the speaker to get rid of the door open chime.

I did fill it up today. Only mention this because its the first time trying to see what kind of MPG it can get. I filled up at 249,222 (trip meter doesnt spin so cant use it). The needle wasnt quite at the red line yet but low enough. Mileage today as the gas station was 249,535. It took 8.678 gallons to fill up.

313 miles driven / 8.678 gallons = 36.07 MPG. I consider this all highway miles as the only time i am under 65 MPH (majority of driving is at 75-85) is in town which is less than 20 miles of the tank.

So, yeah im pretty damn happy with 36 highway MPG from an almost 250k mile $800 car :D
 


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