1979 Accord, Prelude, Integra, Z, Civics & CR-X ! & CBR

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.



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?

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)!

Well I was still rushing to get the Civic going again ASAP, so comprehensively stripped the Concerto & cut up the shell for transport to local scrap metal. I'd hoped it might provide better bumpers, bonnet & lights for the auto '89 Concerto I'd ended up with but being a facelifted model all frt panels, bumpers & lights had been redesigned (more comprehensive than most of Honda's facelifts), so it might only benefit from a straight RF door of the wrong red.

At least it being the facelifted model provided some small advantages for use in the Civic of the same year  with minor wiring harness changes & probably flywheel/clutch revisions. Mileage was only 1000km different between tham.

Rear suspension trailing arms went straight on to '88 after being fitted with new pivot bushes.
For rear disc conversion, handbrake cables & transverse arms ('88 Civic/JDM style pressed metal lower arms with Sway-bar mtgs.), though I haven't bolted up the rear sway-bar yet.

Followed by dropping the drivetrain & frt suspension from the Civic.. Carefully leaving the A/C components in place to avoid re-gassing.
     
Followed by the 'fun' of figuring out Fuel supply.                                       A picture of the Concerto fuel tank & fuel pump mounting in the tank.
Unfortunately the CRX & Civic hatches had significantly revised fuel tanks compared to the Sedan & Concerto due to the filler location in front of the rear wheels rather than behind, with correspondingly different entry locations to the tanks. Fuel injection cars also had in-tank electric pumps rather than mechanical { S600, Z360 & '79 Accord/Prelude all had external electric pumps!}. Thankfully the main tank pressings were clearly the same with the additional hole then cut in the top for the pump along with the addition of a pressed metal bowl in the center of the tank (edge can be seen in picture) to control/baffle the fuel sloshing around in the tank to better ensure fuel was held around the pumps filter 'bag'.
I couldn't easily add the fuel baffle bowl to the Civic tank, but could at least cut the hole & peripheral mounting holes to nut & bolt through with additional thread for the pump mountings.
Hope the lack of the fuel bowl will not cause any starvation issues & welcome any ideas, though an additional external high pressure pump for a swirl-tank sounds like a painful/bulky/expensive solution. Tempted to consider adding a 'cup' to the pump asm, over the filter bag that will sit on the bottom of the tank & ensure it can only get its fuel from the bottom of the tank rather than breathing through the top of the bag when tank gets low. Honda also fitted a pressurized fuel filter in the engine bay that may help reduce the starvation risk by increasing the fuel capacity 'in-line' before it reached the injectors.
  Also of note the Concerto also had the 'upper' spec. fuel gauge sender with an additional sensor to light the dash when it became dry (early Accord had that too), so that was swapped into the Civic tank as well.


Then there was the fun required to force in the Concerto steel fuel supply pipe with its threaded end fittings & the larger fuel return pipe.
The Red lines show its routing inside the car behind the firewall, over the Heater fan, A/C Evaporator, & Heater Core.
Full dash & heater core out required.
Given the Concerto's 50mm longer wheelbase I had to increase some of the bends under the rear seat to take up the extra length of the fuel supply pipe before it connected to the fuel pump.

Rather than use the Concerto's return pipe I removed the Civics tiny carb fuel return pipe & used the Civics original supply pipe for fuel return, bending it to the left (right of picture) towards the return line from the fuel rail, which would normally have returned through a hole at the far left of the firewall. Though I have seen others use the small dia. carb fuel return pipe I wasn't game to risk it.. There was also an additional bracket welded to the firewall of injected cars to hold the end of the fuel pipe & another to mount the pressurized engine-bay fuel filter that I have not yet resolved.


& swapping in the Complete Concerto wiring harness & instrument cluster. Thankfully being Japanese built & the same year as the Civic the wiring colours & plugs nearly all matched. I stripped excess wiring for the rear doors, and the rear of body harness still requires work &/or splicing in old Civic harness due to different routing & complication of Concerto reverse lights mounted in rear hatch rather than main rear light clusters, but the rest of the lights have been connected so it could be driven.
 Though it will be a while 'till the electric windows are operational again. With the additional wiring to the front doors for the rear-door electric window switches, as well as central locking & door lights not fitted to Civic hatch. the harness plugs to the doors were quite different so will require larger holes in the door & door harness revisions or re-thinking before they can be connected.

Nice swop, is the accelerator cable keeping the idle up? Could you measure the rear anti roll bar please I'm still looking for one for the back ofthe acclaim.

Back to new Integra, since I paid too much to leave it idle..
I bought some engine mounts knowing that the front ones where bad, & might as well do the much more difficult to access rear one as well. Old ones weren't well so glad I have now completed that task.

Note clearance between bolt Dia. & mtg sleeve of frt mounts to accommodate location tolerances since these are supplementary to two other upper mounts. I guess tightening prevents movement between bolts & mounts but I filled the gap with PVC tube & used spacers to locate the mount in the proper location instead.
Whilst painfully replacing the rear mount I also found a leak in one of the small coolant bypass hoses near the thermostat.. Wonder if that had anything to do with the new looking radiator & other hoses...
Also replaced Distributor oil seal due to evident oil leaks, despite obvious attention replacing other cam-end cap/seal & sealant around cam cover by previous owner.
I now want to know if there is an Alloy A/C compressor mount available to replace Cast iron (saved 1.3kg for Type-R), from CRV ?

With a missing rear spoiler & no desire to hide the subtle haunches on the hatch/bootlid with one I welded up the rear spoiler & pwr Antenna holes, the spoiler brake light wiring hole proving troublesome as rust had thinned the inside of the metal to leave me chasing weld holes & wishing I had epoxied the holes closed instead.

Both tail-light lenses were slightly cracked so were swapped with those from Blue Integra, but all the tail-light lenses had also become unclipped/unstuck from their housings so they filled with water & cultivated Algae inside.
Internet suggested sticking them in an oven to soften the mastic adhesive sealing them together but I was wary & found the heat under the rear hatch sat in the sun ample with patience & WD40 to slowly & gently pry them apart. Though cleaning up the remaining mastic proved a time consuming mess. I started with Turpentine to wash out the mastic but eventually found spray De-greaser worked much better. Followed by cleaning & repainting the rest of the housing since the reflector paint had also disintegrated. Sanded & polished the lenses since they also had scratches.

With three clip features across the top of the lens proving useless & the lens having developed too much curvature from heat & not being retained properly I had to find an alternative fastening method that would also pull the lens in against its curvature, and preferably not too permanent in case it ever needed cleaning/painting again. The housing shape with integral top cover made that a challenge but  my Soldering iron with a slightly bent tip allowed me to melt a 3mm hole in the housing at a 90 degree angle under the top cover so with another 2mm hole drilled in the lens flange (beside the original clip feature where there was enough material depth). I was able to pin the lens in with short pieces of wire, followed by Silicone sealant around the outside. I just wish I hadn't thought the excess silicone would be easier to clean off after it set. More cleaning.

Then I found the rear hatch stop light was actually missing both globes & wiring harness. Strangely I think that since the rear spoiler with LED brake light was factory fit/standard for this upper-spec. model, the basic hatch light assembly was simply left in place without the harness! So that was raided from Blue as well, whose Spoiler was removed & holes welded by a prior owner.

a little info digging
Honda Japan Auto-Archive link

& even more interesting
Honda Japan Factbook Press info
Press info back to the '70's

Yielding for the Integra:


Always interesting to find out some of the reasons they came out the way they did, and what they thought they were aiming for.
Shame they didn't try harder to transfer the pointier nose concept into reality, but I guess bulky ABS pump location behind headlights compromised & reshaped it since they must have wanted to commonize location between LH & RH drive. Some good Type-R information upon it's later development to be found as well.

Some recent pics of the SiR..


Since I had the camera while washing it, not that much has changed aside from some of mum's carpark dings & worsening g-box problems: Dropping out of 3rd when not under load & requiring extra care to select 4th properly.. Have another box to fit, though without viscous LSD.


Still working on Integra though.

Frt & Rr Lower suspension arms out to replace rubber bushes, & figured I might as well smooth & paint them whilst at it

After trying to press out the bushes without much success I ended up having to burn out the rubbers so I could cut the bush outer sleeves with a hacksaw for removal before pressing in new ones. Front lower coil-over bushes proving particularly difficult to remove/fit even after placing arms in oven & bushes in freezer before installation. Pressed steel rear lower arms also required extra care since the arms were not sleeved within the U the section so could be crushed if not treated carefully.

Carpet was also worn through & those in Blue were also looking rather threadbare.

So I had bought one from wreckers, though could only get Grey from the more common (cheaper) non-Vtec model, where Vtec Vti-R had 'off-black'.

So I decided to paint it dark red with some leftover auto acrylic.
I wanted to see what it would look like since I thought the interior's blackness needed more interest but could only buy bright red interior dye, which would seem a bit too bright... so used what I had.
In bright sunlight it didn't look too great showing grey roots were the fibers stopped the paint getting all the way in, & some uneven application, though certainly no worse than its slightly stained & thin starting point. Looked great in evenings shade!

Happy enough with the end result though & gives confidence in the colour scheme if I want to order a new custom carpet later. Found I also have enough room to relocate ECU slightly upward to negate the need for those lumpen plastic 'kick' panel trims that cover it, in favor of carpet later.
Removed dead original speakers while I was at it. & aftermarket Radio/CD as well since I'd already eliminated antenna... Might have to investigate electrically boosted antenna later when I get new speakers, though not a priority.

Slow progress, & a step backward.
Mum managed to scrape the CR-X's frt guard & tried to tear off its front bumper turning out of the garage before she had reversed out (again), denting the front 15cm of the wheelarch & tearing 10cm of the bumper at its lower front corner & cracking the indicators. So I should have sorted out a Civic for her earlier, though my friends family may be selling off his ED Civic mentioned earlier so I had indicated I would like to get it to replace mine, though have made no moves yet. At least CR-X is insured, though they will have to know how to repair rather than replace such parts.. not that I am in a rush for the repairs. She distracted us by suffering a stroke a week later, though was lucky that it has not affected her physically though affected speech for a few days & has caused her various other confusions so she certainly won't be driving for a while & is staying with my sister for rehab. etc.

   Without the funds to put Integra on the road just yet I started work upon my hybrid Alfa 147-Integra seats.
The Alfa seats impressed with their FULL leather covers & decent side bolsters but being from a 5-door were not designed to tip forward for access to the rear seats with much knob turning required even to recline. Their frame was particularly bulky with a high, thick backrest that would noticeably reduce rear seat knee-room & vision. They were also Heavy at 21kg for the drivers seat, Vs 14kg for the Integra; though to be fair the passengers was 19kg without (manual) height adjustment! Type-R Recaros are also much heavier/bulkier than Honda's effort. So my plan was to remove & retrim the Alfa seat-covers over some Integra seat frames I had acquired earlier.

Of course once stripped I could not resist modifying the Integra seat backrest-frame for symmetry by removing the inboard bolster reinforcement wire & bending/revising the tubular outer framework forward on both sides to replace it with stronger structure & some thin sheet metal back to the spring supports to better support foam, this also reduces seat bulk around rear passengers knees even further. Unfortunately that meant I also had to revise the top rear of the seat frame to put the headrest back in the correct location, though I didn't like the protruding shape of the headrest mounting to the frame anyway so that was slimmed & covered with sheetmetal too. Seat base pan sides were also built up higher with sheetmetal.

After FAR too much time playing around cutting & gluing new foam (mostly scavenged camp/sleeping mats after supplier quoted $50 M²) it is starting to look far more athletic & shapely than Alfa or Hondas efforts:

Backrest top/rear edge is now re-sewn though new seat-base foam still needs more work/cutting/gluing (Honda foam was damaged already). I would really like to form a rigid back cover to pull/hold the leather in tight behind the tube frame on the sides though, so that will add difficulty.
Have to sort out passenger side frame & foam to match now...

Sorry I don't have any practical progress to report, Integra still waiting for some $ to get it on the road & haven't progressed further on seats either apart from welding up 2nd seat frame.

Did get carried away & bought some Japanese market EG Civic seats (despite the fact I don't own one), since they are characterfuly different from our normal EG seats with their side-mounted headrests & a rare find.


Then of course I spotted an upper spec. JDM EG hatch in a cheap local wreckers & could not resist grabbing that rare & funky interior with its organically amorphous '90's seats & unique rear trims.

Due to memories of the wilder Japanese colour schemes.

Entire rear different from boring local models with a raised rear seat pivot for a higher, flatter luggage area with storage beneath & smoother rear 1/4's for more of a 2-seater look with seats down... Not that I have a use for it yet, so they had to be cheap & I took advantage of an '$50-All-you-can-carry' charity sale to get the frt seats & some speakers for SiR, since it's originals weren't healthy.