Project Steph's 1978 Honda Civic 1200

[Kurt]

Good to hear! Glad you are still at it. I may having some smaller items chromed this winter having found a contact. I may just atttempt at making a new exterior door handle from scratch too and having it chromed. I will attempt it anyway. Your hands must be raw after all that sanding

[Steph]

Hahaha, my hands go through several stages of being mangled and crippled. I've made my finger tips numb on many an occasion. The first couple of times I was worried it would be permanent, but now I'm used to it. I really notice it when I'm typing.

Making door handles? Can't you find any good ones locally? There's a part I've never seen NOS on line auctions (not that I look anymore, I have all the parts I need!).

Today I've been finishing off the brake calipers. They took ages to sand and polish, and today I blasted them out with brake cleaner and a brush to get all the muck out of the seal grooves. I also spent ages carefully cleaning the varnish off the brake pistons. I was real lucky, as they're both in excellent shape (I was expecting them to have some rust). Next I'll mask off the insides of the brake calipers so they can go off to chrome. Almost ready for a visit to the electroplaters. :)

[Steph]

Here are some of the parts that I've finished recently. There's tons of small, medium and large bolts that are not pictured. All the engine to gearbox bolts are also being chromed. The windscreen wipers have more hours put into them than I'm comfortable admitting... each one of the brake slides took a full week out of me! The brake caliper were pretty much the same effort to complete.

[bob78cvcc]

Just AMAZING!!

[Steph]

Thanks Bob! :)

You know, the front calipers on these are unbelievably clever. They have a dual-opposed piston design that utilises the slide as a brace and a 'slide' to allow the caliper to move about freely. The pistons are 42.5mm in diameter, which is pretty huge for a little car. Using the opposing piston caliper and slide design allowed them to double the pressure on the brake pads. That's why they stop so well with those tiny brake discs/rotors.

[Steph]

Just in case I didn't explain that well... they're twin-piston calipers (4 pistons in total for the front brakes). Brilliant design, IMO.

[Thor]

Steph,
Absolutely stunning.
I'd be frightened to start it, let alone drive it after all this work.
It is fantastic to see such passion expended on such an iconic design of car.
We all express our love of the cars in different ways.
RESPECT.
Pete

[amifsud]

Steph,

I was going to say don't think about polishing or chroming the windscreen wipers. I did it to mine and when driving with the sun above you they reflect back into your eyes. I had to drive around with the wipers stopped half way up the windscreen to be able to see. I quickly scuffed them up with a scotchbrite pad when I got home.

[steve.ewing@ottawa.ca]

I remember all the kind things you said about my valve cover and bumpers but I can't find the words for what you've done with your car. Brilliant in more than 1 way.

[Steph]

Thanks guys!

The windscreen wiper 'blinding' doesn't deter me, but I will bring some masking tape with me in case I need it during transit times. Thanks for the heads up!

I have to say, it's mind blowing the amount of time, work, and organisation this project has taken so far. I know eventually things will fall into place really quickly, but the grunt work is seemingly endless. The other 'problem' is I keep thinking of new things to do. I've almost run out of things to polish and chrome, which is a huge relief. The past few days I've been repolishing my power booster. Even though I already had it polished, I went at it with #2000 grit wet and dry for a couple of days until the whole thing was super smooth and devoid of any low spots (bit like orange peel). Today I gave it a good session the pedestal polisher with a brand new soft 'mop' to ensure I got a super fine polish. In the end I had a mirror finish, then I tried a little autosol which actually marred the finish, so i took it back to the polisher and cleaned it back up again. I then went and did some reading, where I found that Autosol comes in various grades/grits. So I ordered some of the Autosol 1824 soft polish, and a bottle Autosol Liquid Metal Polish, which is the one you're supposed to use for a light polish.