My Little Retro Jap Restoration

[eminaconfusedstate]

Thought I would post this up for those who are interested in resto's and old skool jap cars. This is a little project I have had going over the summer and stage one of the project is complete and the car is on the road finally, MOT'd, taxed and Insured

It is a 1987 Honda Civic 1.5 GT and since buying it the car has had:

Driver side sill and rear arch plus respray
Floorpan rebuild
Passenger side sill and rear arch patch up with repsray (proper job to be done next year)
Engine flush, oil and filter
Fuel filter & fuel pump
Reinstated airbox with new air filter
Spark plugs, HT leads, dizzy cap & rotor arm
Valve clearances adjusted
Injectors cleaned
Rocker cover gasket
Anti roll bar links
Track rod ends
Balanced & tracked
New rear brake shoes incl new fitting kits
Brake fluid system blead
New rear shocks (going on this weekend)
Fully undersealed incl arch linings and stone chip protected sills
Rear bumper brackets and mounts rebuilt and new number plate holder

Still got loads more to do, to fix and planned but here are some pics giving a full project diary  

The car before it went to the garage.



Work under way, rusty drivers side panels removed, nasty inner sills revealed!!!









New drivers side panels nearly done following inner sill rebuild.







Drivers side nearly completed




Floorpan corners before (drivers side has already been done)




and after






before and after of old patch removed on passenger side . . nasty!




Welded, filled, prepped, masked and then primed





and finished driver side




and stage one complete

[mr mince]

Nice project, thought I was being ambitious puting my engine back together until I seen that.

I really must learn how to weld one day

[Gary (not GT Gary)]

Very nice restoration. Mince, blutac does not weld. 

[mr mince]

Very nice restoration. Mince, blutac does not weld. 

Blu-tac and filler held my Serena's sill together well enough for an MOT though

[Kernowman]

Great job on the bodywork... you would know it's been done and the effort put in. 
Great when you can did it yourself and have a place that's dry to do the work..  would've cost an arm and a leg if put into a garage to be done..


The worst body work I ever had was on a Datsun 120Y... I got it of a mate after a lorry reversed into the front and squahed the bonnet and wings...  a little TLC and that was sorted.. even found a tin of original colour so a good paint match.

The thing was I was told there was NO filler.. yeah .. right.. was tapping sills with screw driver handle, checking ready before MOT.. got to rear valance.. tapped it and whole thing fell off. Luckily I had some sheets of ali in garage and made one up quick out of that .. had a drop of paint left too.. end job, even MOT bloke didn't notice it'd been change and a hand fabricated one put on.
Great car, but a dip in the sea at Weston S-M just fed the rust..   


Have you got anymore projects lined up... Mince could do with a slight mod to his esti.. like it being made into a bendi-esti so whole family can get in in one go..  :

[eminaconfusedstate]

Thanks for the comments guys. I still have loads planned for this car to be honest before I think of the next project. Clutch release bearings have gone so that needs doing, I might lighten the flywheel whilst I am at it as well. Two of the alloys are buckled, (picking up some BBS copies this weekend), and the car needs lowering slightly as the ride height is way to high, and there is a little bit of understeer that needs dialing out so it should help with that as well.

Car also needs a whole new ICE setup, timing belt and waterpump are getting done this weekend hopefully and then next summer the front wings are coming off for a whole load of rebuild under them.

The intake side of the stock engine is quite restricted so an engine skim, port and polish, throttle body P&P and custom stainless exhaust are also planned for next year . . . .  funds and wife permitting!

I really just want to keep the stock look but turn it into a bit of a sleeper really, therefore no rice being added to the mix you'll be pleased to here!!!!!!!

Its a very light and nippy little car as standard however so good for the B roads around Northumberland and real fun to drive, and dirt cheap to run as well, (classic insurance, low tax band, 40mpg).

[Kernowman]

So not gonna spend much more time on this project... 

And I thought I'd spent loads of time on Neima.. lol

But you'll love the drive once you're finished and the pleasure of knowing it was all your own work..