Restoration Speedy 1975 Civic

[Speedy]

Nice work man, I'm jealous.

How close is the shifter section of the gearbox to that rear cross member?
I was looking at getting my engine back as far as I can, possibly with a custom intake manifold but it looks really close there already.

Thanks! The shifter section is below the crossmember out of the way to where it won't need to be jerry-rigged to work. The engine is already sitting as far back as possible without a custom intake manifold. Just so long as you get the forward slant right on the engine there shouldn't be an issue since the crankcase and transmission are about an inch or so from the rear crossmember on my setup anyways.

Orange on the valve cover with the raised areas polished aluminum would be sharp. paint a couple of the accessories around the engine bay orange to balance out the look of the install. Very nice, can't wait to know that it is on the road, and see those pics!
=Bill

I was thinking brushed aluminum on the valve cover fins instead of polished, with an orange upper intake manifold to compliment, polished lower manifold, and maybe orange transmission. I'll be posting pics often, next ones will come once the engine is mounted up so I can get nice pics of the mounts made and hopefully inspire someone else to bring another old Civic back to life!

[Speedy]

Been working hard on engine mounts and a few other treats. She's back on the ground now! With her new shoes on, too.

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Got the rear discs in fitting nicely with all new parts, and the 4x100 axles in the front work beautifully. Upgrading to larger '92 Civic Si calipers and performance rotors as well as '92 Si master cylinder and brake booster.

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Still need to go make the caliper adapter bracket before I can install the fronts. Plus the face of the newer bigger caliper barely scrubs against the inside of my new rims, so I'll have to shave off just a tiny bit of material to clear everything. For brake lines I plan on just making my own custom lines with braided stainless hose and AN to metric fittings. The same will be done for fuel lines and oil lines to the turbo and oil cooler I'm installing. Speaking of which!

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Got my Garrett GT15 turbo shipped to my work! If you ever order a pretty new part, have it shipped to work. I swear it makes the day go by faster and makes you way happier haha. To mount this baby I'm going to need a custom header made and a bit of plumbing done. I'm actually drawing up a new exhaust flange to mount to the head so that I can bend some tubing to pipe into the turbo. I'll have a 16 row aluminum oil cooler to keep everything in check and probably install an oil temp gauge along with boost and oil pressure. But that's for later. Currently I'm working on my last engine mount so I can pull the sucker out one more time to rebuild, purdy up, and install for the final time after the engine bay is cleaned up to match. Have pics of the second mount, not done with the first completely so no pics of that yet.

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The bottom is the original and you can see the new one made from scratch next to it. Same concept, slightly different measurements is all. I was very happy with how it turned out. Used thicker plate metal than stock, so it'll no doubt hold up to the newfound horsepower.

Last thing I think I was working on was a bunch of wood trim I'll have around the car. I've got one of my friends helping me work on milling and fitting the wood paneling and what not for the car.

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All the wood is straight grained quarter sawn African Mahogany that will be stained to match the wood steering wheel, shifter knob, and African Mahogany veneer on the dash and door panels. The lumber is going to be used as more slats on the roof rack in between the chrome ones on the stock rack, much like an old VW Bug's looks; a wooden trunk floor complete with trap door for spare tire access and pop up spring-loaded knob; and speaker pods for the rear side panels. Hopefully my buddy and I can get that all installed soon along with the taillight wiring.

And of course, with all these '92 Si brakes and parts and an '87 Si motor, I had to splurge on the badges :mrgreen:

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Replacing all the CVCC badges with shiny new Si badges, felt fitting for the car. Grille, dash, hatch, and fenders are getting the new badge. My buddy that's helping me with the wood paneling is a woodworker and engineer among other things, and not so much a car guy. He passed me while I was playing with the new Si emblems and muttered, "Car guys and their damn badges, I will never understand" I like them, so I'm keeping them.

Hopefully I didn't leave anything out, that's what I've been working on for the past few months, progress feels slow but it's ramping up real quick. Hopefully see some good progress soon and get her running nicely!

[Thor]

Great car
one question.
Why have you fitted the headlamps 90 degrees from the correct position?

[Speedy]

Great car
one question.
Why have you fitted the headlamps 90 degrees from the correct position?

That is an awesome question. Didn't think anyone was going to catch that haha! Those aren't actually staying on the car. I'm going to upgrade to either HID's or some good LED's, whichever one I feel would work best. I haven't gotten that far, so I haven't researched thoroughly enough to make a decision. I really just put those old headlights on to give the appearance that I was getting a lot done on the car so my girlfriend would quit bugging me about getting the thing finished worked for about a week, then the nagging promptly started back up!

Side note, anyone know where i can find honda hubcaps for my rims?? Opening is 60mm and the rear dustcaps stick out a ways...

[Thor]

Just proves that I live by my signature phrase, and the old eyes still work.
:oops: Mind, I too can still get things wrong, the person who never made a mistake, never did anything. :roll:
Keep up the great work,
Pete
ps what rims are you using, re: center caps?

[Speedy]

ps what rims are you using, re: center caps?

I'm using some old Enkei Compe-8 rims. They're an old style though, kinda weird in a cool way. Opening is 60mm if i remember correctly. Problem is finding caps that stick out far enough to not interfere with the large rear dustcaps.

Update! Been a little sluggish last couple months, but it's getting there. Third motor mount is fabricated and the frame-side bracket is marked out, so the engine finally came out for (hopefully) the final time the other day. Just need to clear up room on the side of the house to start the rebuild and git'er done!

Next step is finish the engine bay work before sending it out to the upholstery shop this February for new carpet, headliner, and redone seats. Drew up the caliper adapter bracket for the front brakes in auto Cad, but haven't had it machined yet. I know there's a file for the bracket already, but I wanted to find my way around auto Cad before I start on the exhaust flange for the head. Got a nice little oil cooler for when the turbo comes in as well!

I FINALLY got the veneer for the dash and door panels back from the guys in Finishing at work. It looks gorgeous! Pictures don't do them justice, they're just gorgeous pieces and I can't wait to get them on the car along with the rest of the wood trim.

My heater box won't have a single sealing problem now! No lost heat or poor flow (again, being hopeful here)! I redid the foam on the flapper with some 1/8" self-adhesive foam from McMaster-Carr. Adhesive on it is great, it should hold up to the hot/cold for quite a while with no problems.

Lastly just as I'm posting this my brand new antenna arrived! NOS in its original 40yr old packaging. Always so cool getting this stuff in.

Hopefully I'll have more content for the next update, I'm planning on knocking this thing out soon within the next few months.

[lordame]

I love what you do.
I have planed to put also a ew4 in mine, one day

Great job

[lordame]

Anynews here ?

[rmilano31]

How's this car coming along?

[Rayme]

We need some news :D