Restoration Speedy 1975 Civic

[Speedy]

Hey all,

I'm really excited to be able to share my resto with all you guys, I hope you find it interesting. So if you read my New Member's post (link here viewtopic.php?f=4&t=19186" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;), then you know that at the beginning of my resto project I had 5 Civics on my property. Also there was this picture there of three civics being hauled at once on our rig:

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The car I actually started with on my project was the '75 white car that is hanging off the end of the trailer. It was also the most incomplete car there
The car started out in this condition

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I finished stripping out all the wiring and glass and absolutely everything on the car. Obviously there was no suspension so we stuck some super heavy duty old casters on a piece of 1-1/2" thick plywood and put it under the car as a single heavy duty dolly. After that I made the horrendous mistake of sending the car out on a trailer to a powder coating shop to have the entire shell sandblasted.

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After Sandblasting

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After Primer

Most of this project is occurring under a canopy on the side of my house, so we just had to put up some plastic as walls and used the canopy as a temporary spraybooth. Now I must say if you are ever considering having your car sandblasted... DON'T. DO NOT EVER HAVE YOUR FIRST GENERATION HONDA SANDBLASTED! EVER!!! Terrible mistake on my part because it warped the thin sheet metal that Honda used for these cars and weakened all of it as well. Anyways, the sandblasters were not very clear on when they expected it to be done so we ended up picking the car up from them earlier than they thought and they did not get the interior of the car blasted. So I went to harbor freight for a cheap spot blaster and ended up blasting the entire cabin myself and then doing primer-work to it.
Now I went to put some color on the car! Sort of. The engine bay got a coat of heat resistant engine enamel. Spray can stuff, that way I can easily touch up the engine bay if it gets scratched without having to tear out the engine to get a gun in there. Around the same time I bought a bunch of 3M spray undercoating and did the wheel-wells.

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After that it was on to suspension. I bought brand new everythings for the suspension front and rear except for struts because I plan on getting the BC Racing setup at some point later on in my resto. Repainted a lot of old components, no detail will be spared here!

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The Eagle has landed! Finally got four tires on the ground! Next I got to play with the engine. Pulled it from a parts car and completely rebuilt it. Crank polished, cylinders bored out 1mm over with flat top pistons instead of the stock dished type, new crank bearings (machine shop lost mine), Valve job done, cylinder head resurfaced, and everything top to bottom gets cleaned and a fresh coat of paint.

Whoops! too many pics already. I will continue posting on this tomorrow. More pics to come

[bob78cvcc]

Great to see another 1st gen Civic getting some much needed love!

[Bill]

Great progess so far! Please keep us up on the updates and parts needs. I can see from your IP where you are, but you might want to post an area where you are located with whatever level of area scope you feel comfortable with, it can really help with parts and even special tools and help when you run into that problem that is just making you crazy!
:welcome
Welcome to the site, hope you enjoy it here!
=Bill

[Speedy]

username: I'm from the gilroy area, but I'm comfortable making drives all the way up to Sacramento down to the Pismo area. I'd love to meet up with you guys sometime

SO! I got the engine all rebuilt and (almost) ready to go. Need to tear it down again and get the ARP studs on it.

Sanded off the paint on the CVCC lettering, been having problems with clear coat on the valve cover wrinkling. Hard to spray clear when you can't see it :P Along with these cans spraying really fast. I saw Steph's thread for an ITB setup using Honda CBR throttle bodies. I was thinking of doing the same with my CVCC but now I'm starting to lean towards putting in a turbo. So I'll make another thread inquiring more about how to get my engine ready for turbo and what it would cost to go that direction.

I apologize for the next couple sections of this post but it's going to be all over the place because I've been working on multiple parts of this project at a time. I forgot to show you guys what my end goal for this car is going to be. Basically I am hoping to have the car painted similar to this color:

Most likely a bit more yellow in color to brighten it up a bit with a bit of metallic to it.
Trying to get these side stripes (Is this QDseeker's car? I've had this picture for a couple years now, didn't realize it was a forum member's car until the other day)

and these stripes

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Can't find any good pictures as example on the internet, but I bought a roof rack for my car and in between the chrome strips I'm going to put wood slats to match the wood steering wheel I purchased. Most likely going to be African mahogany, about an inch wide and 1/2 inch tall or so. Haven't actually gone out and measured anything yet, I'm not ready for that stage. I'm also getting African mahogany veneer to put on my dashboard. I work at a large cabinet shop and have easy access to all the lumber and veneers I need to do everything. Actually just thought about putting some veneer inserts on my door panels as well, along with a custom full wood center console so I can put some cup holders in this bad boy 8) Also, bought an NOS center console and a full set of NOS mud flaps! Don't have a pic of mine but if you don't know what the factory add-on center console looks like it's this one

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For the mud flaps I'm going to try to make the rears fit at the back of the wheel well like the fronts do instead of on the rear valance. I don't care for that placement too much. Also! another idea I have is that I want to fit a custom bumper overrider on the front to fit some rallye lights. Specifically speaking of these:

(Not mine but I love the Hella lights and I really love these covers, I think they would really fit the car well)

The way I want to mount them is to have the outside of the over rider start on the bumper almost inline with the inside of the headlights then come up diagonally a couple inches and two lights would mount on that step. Then in the middle the over rider would step up again and two more lights would mount on that step. and then the whole bar would be slanted outwards a couple inches. I guess the best way to describe this would be to "draw" it for you guys. So here's my crummy drawing with a mousepad and my super fancy high end photo editing software Microsoft Paint!

Probably should have used a different color just for demonstration purposes, but I don't feel like fighting terrible editing software again just to properly change a color. But as you can see I would have to delete the blinkers and then most likely mount another set underneath the bumper which I don't mind doing.
I also plan on getting the BC Racing suspension kit. I've heard that this doesn't fit the CVCC's is that true :?: :?: :?: And yet another thing I will be doing is that I will be fabbing up a rear hitch assembly so that I can haul a small trailer that I have for my dirt bikes to the hills! I need to do some modifications to the trailer as far as deck and wiring goes. Plenty of welding for me to do in the not so far future. And the custom trailer hitch in the back reminds me to tell you guys that I will also be doing a rear disk and master cylinder upgrade which ALSO reminds me that I will be doing a 4x100 conversion which ALSO reminds me again that I need to look for some 4x100 Panasport/Minilite/Rota RB wheels. <These are all similar right? I haven't figured out a difference. If someone could give me information those that would be great. Looking for a 14" that fits without screwing up handling. I say 14" because around here there is almost no tire selection for 13" rims and I doubt I'll be able to find the actual rims I'm looking for in a 12" size. But basically I want these rims

ANYWAYS. Back to my actual build. I left off on the engine. Well since I got the car rolling and the engine built, I had the car sent out to the body shop where, because of the sandblasting of the car warping the sheet metal, I spent $3600 in body work alone. I will be getting the car back this friday and start saving for some good paint and start my search for a good guy to spray it with a warranty. My body guy won't paint it because he's already got $4500 into the car and he's charging me $3600 because he likes my car and me and had originally quoted me for $2000 and didn't want to keep upping the price. Really a great guy and he does amazing work. My rockers were completely caved and he cut them out, straightened them, and welded them back in and the whole car is looking like new now if not better. Only area that he couldn't get perfect is the roof but with the chrome and wood on top of it there shouldn't be a problem.

While the car's been at the shop (been about 7 weeks now) I've been working on other things like the steering wheel, shifter knob, bumper brackets, dashboard, and grille. The steering wheel, shifter knob, and bumper brackets are coming along well. Dashboard and grille are a work in progress.

This is "before". I forgot to take a pic before I sprayed the metal spokes. There was rust popping up on the metal so I tore it all down and got some nice super metallic silver spray paint. It's more metallic than stock and looks great. Afterwards I stained it:

I got two coats of urethane on it before a guy at my work in the finishing department offered to finish it for me (didn't even offer to use his stuff, knew that what I was using was already top of the line :mrgreen: ) because spraying is more consistent and even than using a brush like I was doing lol. So the steering wheel and shifter knob are at work and this guy is also making me sample colors on a board of African mahogany. Once he gets the color that I want down, I'll order the veneer and the boards for my roof rack.
As far as the grille, I started to paint it and even after all my prep work and degreasing it fish-eyed like crazy. So that got put on the back burner. But I did get the grille emblem started, and that is looking good. 8)

"Before". Again I have a hard time remembering to take pics before I start something. I get too excited lol

It came out alright. I "filled" the red and white areas again the other day with paint and it came out better. Didn't have a syringe to fill everything and this acrylic paint didn't spread as well as I wanted it to. Next step is to scrape off any paint that got up the side of the raised "H" and do some precise masking so that I can spray the emblem with that same metallic paint I used on the steering wheel. (Thought about it after the fact that I should have sprayed them emblem first and then filled the red and white afterwards :roll: )

My cousin is actually well known on the forum RedPepperRacing.com as KSousa for his custom and stock replica fiberglass parts that he makes. He is currently helping me research parts for making my CVCC a turbo engine. He is currently building one for his CRX, so he will be a good resource as well for sure. If you know someone who wants some custom body pieces for CRX's and 3rd gens, he's your man. He even has these sweet stickers lol

So that's my build so far. I'll keep you guys updated when I get my baby back from the body shop. Sorry for the long read, I hope you guys enjoy

[Darqnez]

Hey, thats great work so far, I am up near Berkeley and have my own build going, let me know if you need any help or maybe parts. I fabricated my whole front end so may have things I wont need. Keep us posted on progress!

[olag76]

looks great so far keep up the good work :burnout :mrgreen:

[Speedy]

So it looks like my pretty engine will be up for sale now. It's posted on Creepslist in the CA south bay area. As of Sunday my cousin KSousa and I did our research and I decided I will do an engine swap to an EW4 engine. We feel that it's not a horrendous swap, meaning that it's not going to feel like swapping a GM motor into a Mopar. Instead it's more like upgrading from the very early E-series motors to the final revision of the E-series. The motor is already fuel injected which is awesome, it's similar in size 1.5L (I heard someone stuffed it into a 1200? anyone got a link?), aluminum block makes it lighter, more reliable, 80% more power stock than our CVCC motors which will come in handy when I decide to put a small trailer behind my car, my cousin knows his way around them very well and can help me upgrade to 130HP very cheaply, I can swap out the fifth gear to a CR-X HF fifth gear and get well over 40mpg highway (his CR-X got 40 after upgrading to 130HP and fifth gear swap at 1950lbs, our civics only weigh about ~1500lbs) which matches our cars when they're tuned right on stock carburetor. And I mean who the hell knows how to tune those stock carburetor that well anyways? Along with the fact that from my understanding the mounts don't require extreme modification to weld in makes this a great choice because that is the part I am most nervous about is just getting the placement of the mounts right.

Anyways, I will make a for sale thread on the forum. Hopefully someone can take it quick so that I can go pick up a donor CR-X that I'm eyeballing right now. I will post a link to the for sale thread here soon

[Don]

Just an FYI, The USA 1st gens are a lot heavier than the ones in other countries. The 1500 USA Civic is over 200lbs more than your estimate.

[EvoCivic]

(I heard someone stuffed it into a 1200? anyone got a link?)

You hardly need to 'stuff' an EW into a 1200 shell. It's a relatively easy swap with only minor chassis clearancing to do. With appropriate brackets you can use the standard engine mounts. I've not got any pictures but have seen several done.

[Speedy]

So I've been getting a lot done in the past couple weeks on the civic project. The engine I rebuilt is not for sale anymore and I have sold one of my "parts" Honda`s along with my parts '73 Charger and made a nice sum of money for my Civic project. So a couple months ago the head gasket on my dad's yellow Honda blew and I just got around to working on it 2 weeks ago. Water was sitting in the cylinders and rusted up the walls a little bit. Since I was selling my engine and I needed a car for my engine swap, I told my dad he could have my rebuilt engine and I would install it for him if he buys me the donor CRX I need for my swap. After a bit of convincing from my uncle, my brother, and me, he finally gave in. So last weekend I finished buttoning up all the little things on the engine and I must say I did a damn good job on the rebuild because it runs better than any other carburetor car I've ever driven. So now I have my daily driver and my gas mileage back, because driving that Charger to work everyday was killing me on gas. In the middle of me installing the rebuilt engine my dad got me my donor car like we discussed.

Drove it home and everything, so I know the motor is good. Guy that I bought it from who is actually in that picture said that the engine was rebuilt and still being broken in so I didn't rev over 3K RPM, but when I took apart the engine I couldn't believe one bit that it had been rebuilt. There were a few mickey-moused things, wrong bolts everywhere, missing parts, and tons of gaskets that didn't look like they'd been changed since the car came out of the factory. It's all fine though because I was going to rebuild the motor to my specs anyways. Spent an entire day cleaning the garage and pulling the engine, and just last night I got around to test fitting it in the Civic.

It fits really well in there, just going to need some modification for mounts, but nothing major. Hubs and differential line up really well, similar mounts in a couple areas, enough space to run the exhaust in the front of the engine instead of the back, enough room for the EFI system, and it just barely fits in the engine bay width-wise. Going to compare axles once I figure out where the heck I put my CVCC ones. Some problems that I see are that the sway bars look like they're going to hit the transmission and smash it against the frame of the car

I may have to relocate the sway bar to sit underneath that second rod that connects the sub frame to the control arm, don't know if that would affect performance or not just by moving the sway bar a little lower for clearance? I'm going to try to keep the same angle on it along with not moving it back or forward any because I believe that might affect the leverage and force on the sway bar. Anyone have any input on this???

As for the engine I have decided that I'm going to rebuild it completely like I did with my ED3 engine that is now in the yellow civic, then put a set of ARP rod bolts and head studs in it, and put a turbo on it. I am going with the Garrett GT15 turbo. It is small enough to spool up very quickly, and strong enough to give me boost all the way to red line. My power goals are around 140HP, and that should be fairly easy to obtain once it's tuned right to that turbo. In my engine build I'm really just looking for something that will give me more bottom end power since I want to haul my dirt bikes out to the hills and jet skis to the lake, and that would still give me my mileage since this WILL be my daily driver even after all the money and time I have dumped into this project. Also picked out my paint color for the car! It's a House of Kolor color, I wasn't trying to stay original with the car as you can tell.

So that's the basic rundown of how my project's going. Once I've got the engine mounts done which should be by the end of the week then I'll be sending the car out to paint, then once it's back I should have the engine rebuilt and I can start working on getting this baby back together and get my Koosjer stripe on! I'm very excited at this point to see all the potential in this car start to actually become realized.