Project Steph's 1978 Honda Civic 1200

[Thor]

Steph,
you must have a benign climate where you are [lucky so-and-so]!
Over here, unprotected mild steel would have a bloom of corrosion within 24 hours, alloy not far behind ! To slow raw metal corrosion, I spray with WD-40 orit's into lacquer and paint.
It's beautiful.
I thought the first incarnation of your car was superb before the accident, but this time.............. it is surpassing description.
Pete

[Gusto]

Amazing, Steph. I'd love to see this in person when complete!

[trouts]

hi, steph love your work, what a car it will be. also I think I read in one of your posts you have a Honda stepthru love to see some pics of it . I have a crappy sym simba 100 a pale imitation of the real thing. still I do love the way it starts first time, all the time, but it has no soul, being just a copy.

[Steph]

It's been a few weeks, but I've been keeping busy working on the Civic.

I had to disassemble a pair of driveshaft assemblies to get all the parts prepped for chrome. The driveshafts were like new, as in I had them fitted not long before I took the car off the road. I'd estimate they have a few thousand kilometres, if that. In fact, they look like new internally, with the CV showing no signs of wear at all.

I polished the driveshafts first, then wrapped them in MIG welding wire so they can be hung for plating. Then I dip them in Peel 'n' Seal to mask the spline areas from being chromed. I also put the wire under the mask, that way I don't have any wire marks in the finish. I always turn the wire tight to ensure an electrical connection under all that masking goo. Once they dry/cure I check them again with a multimeter to be sure the wire will conduct current.

[Steph]

I finished up the Birfield joints (CV joints) this week. It was a huge job to remove the outer 'skin' of each joint then smooth it for polishing. Now the chromed driveshafts will have chrome Birfield's attached to the end of them. That's right, I'm going to keep calling them Birfields because I'm a stickler for details. I'm really happy with the NTN markings which show it's a quality part.

I also paint stripped the 2 springs off the front coilovers. It wasn't actually paint, but more a plastic coat that took a full 24 hours for the paint stripper to remove it. I used an all natural, environmentally friendly paint stripper this time. They claim it has no fumes, but it does have a slight smell, but no noxious fumes to speak of. It cost twice as much as normal paint stripper, but I swear it goes way further that the cheaper stuff, with a thin coating doing the job on normal paint. I'd say it's at least twice as good as the Selley's product. The fact that it managed to strip powder coating is pretty impressive IMO.

[amifsud]

Are you doing the chrome yourself at home or are you getting it done by somebody?

[Steph]

I do all the prep work then I hand it all over to the plater. It's pretty cheap because they only have to hang them up on the chrome line. The real expense comes with the prep work. If they take an hour to prep a piece, then you can be sure that will add $75-$100 to the cost of that single part. If you take 100 parts in, you're going to have a huge bill at the end. HUGE.

I have 110 separate pieces in my latest lot. I expect it will cost about $200

My estimate is it would have cost somewhere around $2000-$3000 if I hadn't prepped it all myself. maybe more.

The platers were called Windsor Electroplaters but they've changed hands and their name changed to JJ Products. They still advertise for auto part restoration work, so it looks like business as usual.

[Steph]

Finally made it to the chrome platers today. The closer Christmas got, the more nervous I got that they would be too busy to do it this year. Today being December 1st made me even more worried, but it turns out they can do it all for me before the Christmas break. I had officially run out of things to polish to be chromed, other than pulling the rear suspension components off, but that's another job... probably start on it this weekend! :P

I'll post photos of my 112 items when I get them back. :)

[Randy]

I had officially run out of things to polish to be chromed

Steph

I am amazed at the commitment you have to your show car.
If you do get bored there are a lot of members that would surly love to have you polish and chrome parts for them. I would ask but is might cost me a vacation in Canada and this time of year is a bit chilly.

[Steph]

Thanks Randy :)

I sometimes forget that while we are warming up, you guys are... well, skiing. LOL!