Project Steph's 1978 Honda Civic 1200

[steve.ewing@ottawa.ca]

As Jimmy Barnes would say, too much ain't enough. Looks great Steph.

[Randy]

Steph

That is looking so good.

[Steph]

Cheers for that!

Today I'm working on the wiper motor body (the part that pokes out of the plastic cover).

I've also been working on the front and rear bumpers from time to time. Getting the paint off the underside of the bumpers has been a nightmare. I must have applied paint stripper a dozen times to get it all off. I'm not sure if Honda applied the white paint in the factory, but the paint I had to deal with was really resistant to being stripped off. A lot I had to do with a razor blade. I also banged all the tiny dents out, and created 'high' spots out of dents so they can be sanded and polished out at the chromeplaters. The Plater told me to do this, then he'd do the rest.

[Randy]

Paint on the underside, that's weird. Not factory. I have one new one on the bumper and its chrome with just a Honda part number sticker on it.

I was thinking of putting 77 bumpers on mine, I may cut them in half and shorten them a bit before getting them plated.
Bumper tuck! Is that like a face lift?

[Steph]

I was thinking of putting 77 bumpers on mine, I may cut them in half and shorten them a bit before getting them plated.
Bumper tuck! Is that like a face lift?

Bumper tuck sounds really painful!

But seriously, I would love to switch to 77 bumpers if I could find a good pair, like NOS. I'm definitely tucking the bumpers to a super snug fit.

Tucking the bumpers really adds to the shape. I've already done all the measuring, drawn up the templates for modifying the OEM bumper mounts. One of the many jobs still on my list. Lots of jobs to keep me busy during winter (it's getting cold down here, 6C at the moment).

[Steph]

Finished the wiper motor body today and screwed it on to see what it will look like.

The polished motor body will look even better once it's been chrome plated.

You may notice I trimmed the plastic cover to get more of the polished surfaces exposed (there used to be a 'sleeve' that extended along the motor body.

[Randy]

Steph, WOW! that looks really purdy.

You know how to turn bits into real Gems.

[Steph]

Thanks Randy

I'm polishing the wiper actuator arms at the moment (the ones that connect between the wiper motor and wiper arms).

I thought they'd be easy, but I was wrong. They had deep tooling marks from the manufacturing process (metal stamping and pressing).

I'll post photos in a couple of days when they're finally finished.

Won't be long and I'll have another batch to deliver to the chrome plater!

[Kurt]

Any updates Steph? They never cease to amaze me.

- Kurt

[Steph]

Wow, where to start... I've been working day and night for months now. Each day I go to bed completely exhausted, then the next day I start again... 7 days a week. Even when I had the flu I was still sanding parts and making myself feel even sicker. In anybody's books, that rates as a full blown disease!

As I write, I'm masking the hard brake lines from the front calipers. I'd already polished them ready for chrome, with the mask to prevent chrome from sticking to the threads, etc. It's fiddly, time consuming work, but at least it is easy work... it's the prep work that is the killer.

So far of late, I've polished both front brake calipers ready for chrome. I've also polished all the caliper parts, including the backing plates on the brake pads. I masked the pad area of the brake pads, leaving just the metal parts exposed to being chrome plates. All the pins and parts have been prepped for chrome too, along with the big metal brake-caliper slide, which took about a week each to prepare for chrome. I've also prepped the gearbox linkage and the shifter extension rod, and the suspension lower radius arms. Photos the follow... shortly.