Right, first things first I've actually had this car since July, but for one reason or another never got round to posting. I've had a hankering for one of these for a while, so am quite pleased to be able to tick one off 'the list' as it were. Its a 1983 Honda Civic S 1335cc with around 90K miles and 2 previous keepers, who were husband & wife. The 'S' came with 'sporty' 2-tone interior, vented disc's and rear anti-roll bar, not found on other models AFAIK. This one came with loads of history, original dealer number plates, window sticker and tax disc holder, and Honda floor mats & mudguards. Its a bit crispy around the arches and has had a plate on one sill, but other than that doesn't look too rotten. Mind you I haven't subjected it to a thorough investigation yet. TBH when I went to look at it I'd pretty much decided I would be taking it home before we even got there. My mate Ian very kindly drove me down to the New Forest to pick the car up "look at it"; he's had 2 and was almost as enthusiastic as me about this one 
This is how it looked when we picked it up
As you can see it was a bit pink and waaay too high; still, nothing could be done about that until I got it home. Had to fill it up straight away for the journey home and already started getting interest off the staff at the petrol station ;D sweet! Picked it up on a Monday night and had to store it at BiAS Autoservices HQ as I had nowhere to put it at home. Had to make do with Photoshop to try out my ideas while I waited for the weekend, came up with this.
So when Friday came that's what I started doing; with Ian's considerable input we 'smoked' the indicators front, side & rear, and took the opportunity to clear 25years of crud out of them. We cleaned up the 13" steelies and sprayed them black, and did the headlight surround trim too for good measure, then we introduced it to "the stick" - well, Ian did, in his usual BiAS manner.
By the end of that weekend it looked much closer to how I want it
Out with the old in with the new, the following week I was forced to sell the 'teg due to buying my first property, a flat with garage It was a sad day, but tempered by the recent acquisition of the Civic and a garage of my own to put it in. The following weekend I went with some mates to our local drag strip to see if I could grow a beard in the time it would take to run the 1/8th mile. On arrival I discovered I'd forgotten my driver's license and so let my mates take it up the strip for me. After the first run, Jack proclaimed that it needed to be a lot quicker, so we started pulling the interior out and dumping it on the grass.
The BiAS parts runner faces off against robinxr4i's ride
After taking out what we could in about 10minutes it went better, however it has been smoking ever since...Anyway the following week I acquired a set of crystal clear headlights, which brighten up the front end a fair bit, and were a straight bolt-in. To address the lack of power I was originally dreaming about dropping in a B16A but that would be a while coming due to lack of funds. Then Ian calls me up to tell me he's just got hold of a 1993 Civic ESI for scrap. Well it has a 1.6 SOHC Vtec putting out somewhere around 125bhp (book), and bigger brakes, so was just what I needed. That weekend we called up 24vster for a hand and pulled all the necessaries out before loading it onto a mate's trailer to be scrapped.
Took the 14" steels off the donor as didn't know if the bigger calipers would fit behind the 13"s. Progress then stopped while I scraped together the necessary funds to address the lack of suspension. In August I took the Civic along to the RR08 gathering at Gaydon, where I saw another Gen2 Civic, this one a white 4-door Hondamatic. The guy who owns it is a fellow RRer and his ride can be viewed here. He had a similar problem finding suspension so sent a pair of struts off to GAZ to get some custom coil-overs made up. I figured that would do very nicely for me so ordered up a set myself. Well, first I spent a couple of months saving up
While I was waiting I started buying toys tools for my garage - jack, 2pr axle stands, etc etc and realised how easy it would be to spend more than I had to spare on tools ;D When the coil-overs arrived I was very excited, having never had coil-overs before. I took great care not to mix them up, as they were in boxes marked 'FRONT' and 'REAR'. To cut a long story short I couldn't get them to fit right, and it was only when BiAs & 24vster were there to witness my stupidity that I realised GAZ had placed the 'rear' springs on the 'front' shocks and placed them in the box marked 'REAR' and vice versa. Yes, this was an EPIC FAIL and one which I may never live down, however...no I wont try to make excuses for that, umm oops.
The difference in ride quality was immediately apparent on driving it. Quite simply it is a dramatic improvement, and the car is now ready for more power! However in the meantime I have acquired a set of new disc's and pads to fit the bigger calipers that came off the '93 Civic ESI along with the engine. Once again Ian at BiAs put in considerable effort in refurbing the calipers, as they were full of nasty old brake fluid, covered in rust, and one was seized. they're now looking much better, and ready to go on the car. unfortunately they wont bolt straight on, as longer bolts will be required to get the right clearance.
Hoping to get the bolts sorted this week so the brakes can go on at the weekend. Also need to have a look at the spark plugs as is sounds a bit misfirey. The other thing next on the list is wheels - one day while the car was sitting down at BiAs HQ Ian whipped one of the wheels off and trial fitted a 14" alloy off an E30 BMW
And here's a rather shonky Photoshop effort I just knocked up to get an idea of how it will look.
Well I think that looks rather tuff and I also know those alloys were available in the 15" variety so I have just this week acquired a set which I hope to slap on this weekend, so look out for updates soon!
This is how it looked when we picked it upAs you can see it was a bit pink and waaay too high; still, nothing could be done about that until I got it home. Had to fill it up straight away for the journey home and already started getting interest off the staff at the petrol station ;D sweet! Picked it up on a Monday night and had to store it at BiAS Autoservices HQ as I had nowhere to put it at home. Had to make do with Photoshop to try out my ideas while I waited for the weekend, came up with this.
So when Friday came that's what I started doing; with Ian's considerable input we 'smoked' the indicators front, side & rear, and took the opportunity to clear 25years of crud out of them. We cleaned up the 13" steelies and sprayed them black, and did the headlight surround trim too for good measure, then we introduced it to "the stick" - well, Ian did, in his usual BiAS manner.
By the end of that weekend it looked much closer to how I want it
Out with the old in with the new, the following week I was forced to sell the 'teg due to buying my first property, a flat with garage It was a sad day, but tempered by the recent acquisition of the Civic and a garage of my own to put it in. The following weekend I went with some mates to our local drag strip to see if I could grow a beard in the time it would take to run the 1/8th mile. On arrival I discovered I'd forgotten my driver's license and so let my mates take it up the strip for me. After the first run, Jack proclaimed that it needed to be a lot quicker, so we started pulling the interior out and dumping it on the grass.
The BiAS parts runner faces off against robinxr4i's ride
After taking out what we could in about 10minutes it went better, however it has been smoking ever since...Anyway the following week I acquired a set of crystal clear headlights, which brighten up the front end a fair bit, and were a straight bolt-in. To address the lack of power I was originally dreaming about dropping in a B16A but that would be a while coming due to lack of funds. Then Ian calls me up to tell me he's just got hold of a 1993 Civic ESI for scrap. Well it has a 1.6 SOHC Vtec putting out somewhere around 125bhp (book), and bigger brakes, so was just what I needed. That weekend we called up 24vster for a hand and pulled all the necessaries out before loading it onto a mate's trailer to be scrapped.
Took the 14" steels off the donor as didn't know if the bigger calipers would fit behind the 13"s. Progress then stopped while I scraped together the necessary funds to address the lack of suspension. In August I took the Civic along to the RR08 gathering at Gaydon, where I saw another Gen2 Civic, this one a white 4-door Hondamatic. The guy who owns it is a fellow RRer and his ride can be viewed here. He had a similar problem finding suspension so sent a pair of struts off to GAZ to get some custom coil-overs made up. I figured that would do very nicely for me so ordered up a set myself. Well, first I spent a couple of months saving up
While I was waiting I started buying oops.The difference in ride quality was immediately apparent on driving it. Quite simply it is a dramatic improvement, and the car is now ready for more power! However in the meantime I have acquired a set of new disc's and pads to fit the bigger calipers that came off the '93 Civic ESI along with the engine. Once again Ian at BiAs put in considerable effort in refurbing the calipers, as they were full of nasty old brake fluid, covered in rust, and one was seized. they're now looking much better, and ready to go on the car. unfortunately they wont bolt straight on, as longer bolts will be required to get the right clearance.
Hoping to get the bolts sorted this week so the brakes can go on at the weekend. Also need to have a look at the spark plugs as is sounds a bit misfirey. The other thing next on the list is wheels - one day while the car was sitting down at BiAs HQ Ian whipped one of the wheels off and trial fitted a 14" alloy off an E30 BMW
And here's a rather shonky Photoshop effort I just knocked up to get an idea of how it will look.
Well I think that looks rather tuff and I also know those alloys were available in the 15" variety so I have just this week acquired a set which I hope to slap on this weekend, so look out for updates soon!
Looking forward to more...... 
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