Project Steph's 1978 Honda Civic 1200

[Steph]

Very nice. So thats bare steel with the intention of chroming to protect?

Yes, it raw unplated polished metal. You have to polish metal it before chrome if you want a mirror finish. Electroplaters will invariably polish the pieces you bring them and all that work is reflected in the price. I do all the work myself so all they have to do is wire them up and hang them on the plating rack. That way a $2000 job only costs me a couple of hundred, or thereabouts. I also polish all the parts when I get them back from the chromers. It makes a huge difference polishing them afterwards.

[Steph]

I finished the hand brake/emergency brake equalizer. Because it sits at the back of the car it gets everything flicked up at it, so it was covered in mud and rust. It took ages to get to the stage where I was happy with it. I was amazed at how clean the cable was. All I did was wipe it with alcohol on a rag and it came up shiny and new. We have California type weather here, so our cars don't rot like they do elsewhere. But still, I expected the cables to be rusty, not in excellent shape.

[Steph]

It's been a while, so I thought I'd give an update. I've been working heaps on the Civic. As well as polishing a few more parts ready for the chromer, I spent ages masking all the threads in preparation for chrome. It was super fiddly work and gave me a headache a few times from being crosseyed while I worked.

Before I could send my car to paint I had to make a dolly to move it around on. I was looking at a auto parts catalogue and I spotted a 560kg engine stand on special. I noticed it had 4 wheels which were all mounted on 360 degree pivots. Right away a little bell went off inside my head and I was convinced I could convert that engine stand into a mobile car stand, or dolly as they're called. So, I made my way down to the auto parts store and bought one. After a little (a lot!) measuring I worked out is was going to be easier than I thought. All I had to do was buy a length of rectangular tube to run down the centre which I found at my local hardware store. I also had to buy 4 long 12mm bolts and nuts to clamp the frame all together. While I was there I grabbed a length of 40x40x5mm angle iron to make the uprights with. The bolting points for the car dolly are at all the inner pivot points for the suspension arms. It took a lot of finagling to get the uprights angled correctly. Drilling the holes wasn't easy either. I had to stop a few times to let my drill cool down because I could smell it was about to burn out. The tubing they used on the stand has a really thick wall. I measured it at 4.0mm. Now that it's finished I can roll the car in all directions with ease... sort of.

[mielko]

Nice tool

[Steph]

I've been struck down with some mystery virus that is going around. For the past 8 weeks I've spent most of my time sweating or sleeping. In the middle of all this I recovered for a few days and managed to make the rear bumper mounts. No sooner had I finished than I was stricken down with fever again (I'm still not over it). I've had to modify/shorten the reverse light housing so it would still fit in the bumper. I did this by converting them to LED which made them much brighter too. I'll post some photos later to show how I cut down the housing and got the LED to fit in there and look completely OEM. I even reused the original wiring with the bullet-type ends so it plugs into the factory wire loom. I soldered them directly to the LEDs. All up I 'sucked' the bumper in 60mm which gave a really even gap all round. The bumper ends look completely normal and you would never notice they were moved. Unfortunately I cannot suck the front bumper in because the bumper ends will encroach into the wheel arches and look wrong, so I'm stuck with the front bumper's factory position and the filler panel.

The first two photos are of the standard bumper mounts and show the MASSIVE gap between the body and the bumper. The last two photos show it bolted in place with about a 15mm gap between the body and the bumper. I could have got it a little closer but I found the 15mm gap looked even across the back and down the sides.

[Steph]

I finished modding the 1st reverse light fitting yesterday. The LED fitting I used can be found by searching for "T20 W21W 7443 7440 50-SMD LED Tail Brake Backup Reverse Light Bulbs White". As the name suggests, they use 50 surface mount LEDs and only draw about 5 watts, as opposed to the 21 watt OEM globe. They also throw way more light... and it's white light. I used black RTV silicone to fix the LED fitting in place, as well as to hold the reflector panel inside the housing. It's basically all glued together with RTV silicone and sealed off at the rear to prevent ingress. I've moved (hidden) the reverse light wiring loom inside the car and I've drilled holes immediately behind (and through) the bumper mounts. That way the wire goes out the back of the light housing and only has 2" of wiring exposed before it enters the car. I used the angle grinder to remove all the bendable tabs that supported the wiring harness from the back end of the car. I also scrapped off all the flex-joint filler. The plan is to use a little body filler and get a nice smooth finish because that area is visible now the bumper filler panel has been removed, and because a show car needs to look perfect even in the areas where you don't normally look, like behind the bumper, and from underneath with their mirrors. Here's some more photos...

[mielko]

Good job!

[Steph]

Good job!

Thanks Mielko

[Steph]

I've been converting all my bulbs over to LED and I'm switching out the 7" front headlights with a set of Anzo 7" universal replacement headlights. I've seen a few resto mod classic cars with them fitted and they look great. They're manufactured in Taiwan using high grade Philips LEDs. They fit any standard 7" headlight housing and when I checked using the compatibility tool it said they would fit the 78 Civic. They're a bit pricey though, at A$550+ including GST and postage... ouch... but they'll really look good on the front of my car IMO. I also have some 5" mini spotlight I'm considering mounting on the front bumper. They might detract from the Anzos so I might leave them off.

[mielko]

That is a pricy mod