79cord
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Dec 20, 2016 14:23:13 GMT
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So, aside from the distraction of Integras I was working on Civics I had already decided it best to get them my parents & my welder for the work required repairing the jack damage upon their floor rails & could borrow a trade plate to do so (& wanted to do so before I stopped working for the guy with it..). '88 Civic was roughly put together (still need to align/paint panels) & run for a while before I set off for parents (30km), getting 1km before I noticed engine temperature gauge HOT, though radiator was still cold.. I let it cool down for a while before turning back & pulled out the thermostat thinking it must be stuck closed, before testing running the car for bit longer to check all was well & set off again. It was obviously running rough though under load but I continued, eventually stopping along the way for another look under the bonnet & thankfully pushing the plug leads on more firmly seemed to solve that problem so I could enjoy it's flexible if not especially powerful engine, & general feeling of airy lightness with its light steering & glassy little cabin. Reminding me most of fathers Lancia Fulvia 1200 coupe. '91 Civic next, & I had to fill the radiator I had drained when it arrived(driven) since it was only filled with water, rather than coolant. Started it up & drove it around the block a few times & all seemed well; although rear wheel alignment was obviously W-A-Y out. So I set off.. And made it to the end of the block before it overheated & head-gasket very obviously failed. Rolled it home again & let it cool down, though like '88 radiator was quite cool already. Once cool I removed the spark plugs & turned the engine over to see the four decorative fountains of water the pistons could pump out. I feel especially stupid for not keeping a better eye of the temp gauge after the earlier trouble with '88 & think I might not have bled the cooling system properly leaving the waterpump trying to pump air. The fact it has a new radiator & hoses does make me think it had been overheated before & I may have been lucky to have driven it home without incident when I first got it. So a new plan was hatched. I had already been thinking I would like to upgrade it to one of Hondas related injected 1.6 engines, probably the SOHC VTEC, but since the Civic was carburetor I'd need a fair bit more than just the engine. Coincidentally the boss was about to send away a manual '91 Honda Concerto for scrap metal so I jumped upon it, gave him $ & drove it home. Drove very nicely indeed. D16Z6 inj. 1.6 SOHC non-vtec obviously more powerful than 1.5 twin carb (110hp/91hp), but also shared its close-ratio gearbox & equal-length driveshafts with the DOHC CRX (& upper spec DOHC Civic Si that wasn't sold here, engine same as USA spec Si), so it wasn't hard to chirp the tyres changing to 2nd mildly enthusiastically. Being Japanese built it also shares all it's suspension with the mid/upper spec Civics with fractionally bigger front brake pads, rear discs & rear anti-roll bar that we didn't get in Civics here. Having had a car sat on its roof & some filler in the rear 1/4 gave me an excuse not to get sentimental but it did deserve better. Not a common sight here having been almost the price of the newer Accord, & it's history shows they had a hard time selling it: Built May 1991, Honda Aust didn't bother putting a compliance plate on it till June 1992, & it then wasn't registered until April. Would have looked old next to an EG Civic at the dealers (with better engines optional)!
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Last Edit: Aug 25, 2017 9:06:09 GMT by 79cord
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79cord
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Dec 16, 2016 21:53:02 GMT
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Big & depressing changes, sounds like a much better footing for the future thankfully. New toy certainly interesting.
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79cord
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Dec 16, 2016 21:47:03 GMT
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Previous repairs do look alarming, but hopefully kept it from being scrapped long enough for it to be better appreciated.
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79cord
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Dec 16, 2016 21:40:49 GMT
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Gorgeous cars, glad to be able to see how they were constructed originally. Not to the mention the potentially much greater effort required to rebuild them.
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Last Edit: Dec 16, 2016 23:00:55 GMT by 79cord
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79cord
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Dec 16, 2016 12:16:10 GMT
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79cord
Posted a lot
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Dec 16, 2016 10:00:40 GMT
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Can't think of anything clever to assist, interesting to see the progress. Missed the comment earlier about snapping the Civic Driveshaft, that sounds like an achievement!
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79cord
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,609
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79cord
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,609
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Dec 15, 2016 13:00:14 GMT
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Goodness. Hard enough to believe the DC2 Integra is already 23 years old, but just realized that the Red '88 Integra was younger when I first got it & cost me 2/5 the price! Blame it on the fact '88 was 2nd last year for that shape where DC2 is 1st, DC2 had unusually long production run for Honda '93-01, popularity & relative scarcity of B18 Vtec engine. Better not take as long getting this one back on the road! Still don't know what to do with Blue. Spent the 1st weekend removing the remains of an alarm from it. Removing CD-stacker from boot. Removing aftermarket cruise control & wiring from dash & engine-bay. Removing Tow bar (!) & wiring from rear bumper reinforcement... Replaced Sunroof glass as it was cracked. Interestingly/unfortunately the original was tinted laminated glass, where replacement from a '97 Integra was toughened with cheaper 'dot-matrix' instead of the much nicer tinting. Replaced steering wheel with another in better condition. Dried out the wet boot/spare wheel well. At first I thought water might be getting past the rear light seals, but it turned out water from the sunroof drain-tubes was not getting out easily enough so instead drained to the boot via the remains of the rear mounted electric aerial that shared a drainage tube! Thankfully the boot & spare wheel well were not noticeably rusted but the metal 'drain plug' at the bottom was rusted through & spare mounting tie-down broke its spot-weld to the floor. Removed broken & rusty rear aerial.. Faded rear seat-backs swapped with Blue. Dent in front of left rear wheel I hadn't noticed earlier. MANY tiny door dings along rear flanks & passenger door. Noticing the bonnet had a few large, VERY shallow dents I was off to a local wrecker & bought another, right colour too! And a pair of lower rear suspension arms from a Japanese market EG Civic sedan (JDM not so common here!) that would work with the type-R rear shocks, though the bolts joining them to the rear coilovers were rusted solid with one bolthead snapping & the other rounding! So I was forced to pay twice as much for the Civic shocks I didn't want. After noticing & some nice black leather Alfa 147 seats Dad insisted upon getting the full set for it, they impressed for tight side bolsters & FULL leather covers (even rear pocket), though unfortunately are from a 5-door so don't bend easily for rear access (SLOW windy-knob), & weigh a heap more than Integra seats with significantly bulkier frames, so I would prefer to restitch/reshape the covers to Integra seat frames. Perhaps revising the seat-base covers for simpler styling & bigger bolsters too. The rear seats won't be straight-forward either, split 60/40 with ctr armrest ( Integra is 50/50 ), & split rear seat-bases (Integra's 1-piece & doesn't lift-up). Hope that plan works out, but not first priority!
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Last Edit: Aug 8, 2017 8:47:41 GMT by 79cord
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79cord
Posted a lot
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Technically, our ones were all Mazda's that were given Ford badges. With the exception of the WB Festiva. Made by Kia, engine by Mazda, badged as Ford. To be fair though our Lasers/Meteors were assembled by Ford in Australia with design input to Mazda from Ford Aust. right from the start, with their own nose-cap, lights & extra windows in the rear 1/4 pillars. With Mazda also building Ford versions for Japan & other areas in Asia... And it was believed the Ford Aust designers had leaked the styling of the mk3 Escort to Mazda & pushed for too much similarity such that Ford later complained about the similarity & demanded the 323 versions not have the rear pillar windows on 5-doors. Though still closely related the 2nd gen Lasers had more signifigant body differences. Thankfully we were saved the confusion of 121 badged Fiesta's (assume the bubble 121 sedan did not sell well in Europe), at least the earlier Kia festiva's were 5drs instead of the 121's 3drs. Chain welded to the Valiant certainly a creative theft solution!
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Last Edit: Dec 15, 2016 9:01:52 GMT by 79cord
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79cord
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Dec 13, 2016 11:56:48 GMT
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Family Comparison pics with its grandfather inevitable once home. Love that swoopy roofline, though they did move the rear window over passengers heads to achieve it.. so feels a bit more constricted inside, compounded by bulkier dash to package airbags (passengers not fitted here till a few years later), & much cheaper interior trim in the rear without rear grab-handles, upholstered trims, cloth inserts or storage bins. Equally inevitable are silly idea 'sketches' for it.. Wondered what it would look like with single headlights... Though would probably require bi-xenon conversion for light output since outer projector lights are dipped beam only. Thought it needed proper flared front wheel arches to match the rear. & Honda's Paradise blue-green pearl, such an early '90s colour & I'm not a fan of the black metallic though will probably get used to it unfortunately. Or a bright candy blue since I already want to do an Accord in such a colour? of course solid colour would be easier...White works well on them, Type-R Yellow a standout.. but don't want it to be a wannabe type-r faker. Also spotted these adjustable shocks (&spring height) for sale cheaply & could not resist.. though only realized afterward they are for type-R so will need different lower rear arms for use. (Not silly enough to set as low as ideas above). & an equally silly idea for Civic as well since I didn't put it up earlier: Mini-Aerodeck inspired since we didn't get them here.. Pop-up eyelids atop bonnet raised by central-locking solenoids?
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Last Edit: Aug 11, 2019 13:00:06 GMT by 79cord
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79cord
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Posts: 2,609
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Classic Japan car show organized by the Toyota Car Club of Victoria (Australia) www.facebook.com/classicjapanshowGreat as usual. A friend made the effort to drive 3 rather special cars of his there...one at a time.. I was lazy this year, slept in & parked outside only staying a few hours.. Organizers have been obliged to 'lock in' cars @ the display to keep it 'static' for insurance reasons.. which obviously can get somewhat frustrating for those there.
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79cord
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Wow, congratulations! Hope the upcoming adventures taking it out & teething problems go well.
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79cord
Posted a lot
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just missing a feu orange in there now. Wouldn't that be far too modern? A few dried old flowers/lavender/empty unusual old perfume bottles.
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79cord
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If I darken my screen, turn my head sideways, and squint, I can see a bit of Honda NSX........... Back of a Lotus Europa.. just need to sit on the floor & drive everywhere in reverse.
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Last Edit: Dec 4, 2016 3:42:55 GMT by 79cord
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79cord
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So, committed to the Integra concept but unsatisfied with the Blue terror naturally I looked into other options. One was to get it running & swap for another the boss had which was a bit rough but bodily straighter making it better for my intentions, where mine was easier to get on the road for his ideas of a road/track toy. Though he was probably lacking storage/resources/time to keep such a toy anyway. In the meantime he bought & sold a nice honest, low mileage 1999 model after fixing minor problems like ignition lock & door handle for a nice profit; it was offered to me but for more money than I could justify. Then another one came up & despite doubts & common sense I said I would buy it...Do I really have to end up with 2(or more) of everything?! So it's certainly not perfect & not with out some doubts with the clearcoat peeling from broad areas while others have been repainted, but 'door-dings' aside the body seems straight & used rather than abused. Moderate mileage @ 230k km, failed engine mounts & suspension bushings, cracked sunroof, faded rear seat-tops, wet spare wheel-well. Although its rear spoiler has been removed it wears its original alloy wheels & air filter suggesting it hasn't been played around with too much. Also of interest it is about as old as these come, built in August 1993; chassis number suggesting it to be the 160th of this specification made. Black would probably be one of my last colour choices & naturally it ended up costing more than first proposed but a much better buy than Blue for me.
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Last Edit: Dec 13, 2016 12:26:51 GMT by 79cord
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79cord
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Perhaps 'separate' air dam & spoiler styles (rather than moulded on), or a freestanding spoiler might suit better? (Carbon finish if fitting a vaguely modern motor).
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Last Edit: Dec 1, 2016 10:30:47 GMT by 79cord
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79cord
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Lots of progress & inventive solutions. Are you going to box in the rest of the side rail to keep things clean or is it useful to protect fuel/brake/electrics? Almost looks like enough room to have used another section of the tube under the first.
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79cord
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I've got '78 G49-M SanRemo green Accord, which doesn't actually look 'that' grey when clean in proper light. but also like bluer '81 BG11-M Hampstead green. Paradise blue green Aztec Green Hard to imagine a Really bright green suiting the Accord.
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Last Edit: Nov 26, 2016 4:10:39 GMT by 79cord
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79cord
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Colour certainly adds personality, started me wondering about tri-tone colour ideas with bonnet & top of sides in off-pinks/corals.
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79cord
Posted a lot
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Nov 25, 2016 14:54:27 GMT
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Definitely prefer welding from above where possible. Floor shape convoluted by design so wouldn't want to be welding patches into that if avoidable. Looking at the way Concerto separated the rail into overlapping pieces I will probably just replace the worst areas. If I can get/make replacement reinf. section, will drill spot welds to identify & grind off bad areas of old rails to avoid mangling floor, straighten floor & plug weld through drilled holes to new rail. Still a few plug welds required from below at overlap of new rail section to old & where damaged floor rail does into front rails.
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Last Edit: Nov 25, 2016 14:59:37 GMT by 79cord
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