Restoration: 1978 Honda Civic (1200) Part 1
Documenting body work and fabrication of repair panels.
- Randy
- Administrator
- Posts: 1449
- Joined: April 7th, 2005, 9:06 pm
- Province/State: Ontario
- Hometown: Ajax
- Model: 1978 Hatchback
Restoration: 1978 Honda Civic (1200) Part 1
The timing belt was also chewed up. This is what it should look like on the far right.
The bracket would still bend away from the head causing the muffler to break off as well as bending the strap that holds the downward exhaust pipe. This is also my second muffler, The first one broke off right at the muffler.
Here is my new design, you can see I used a stock bracket and flipped it with a 3/8″ rod with a bracket on the manifold. This method is really strong.
Weber 32/36DGV (Manual Choke)
Weber 32/36DGEV (Electric Choke)
Here was a deal, $165.00 us for a Weber 32/36DGV manual choke carburetor. I only wish I had bought one more at that price.
This kit is easily put on and includes all the parts needed to get you up and running in no time
One modification I have to do is to remove the area of the intake that the adapter covers, I just have to remove the material in the opening of the adapter. This will also give me better performance as well. This was a good time to replace all the old vacuum lines.
To install the accelerator cable is possibly the only difficult thing about installing a DGV Weber on your old civic.
First get a piece of metal about 1 inch wide by 4 inches long and about 4-5 mm thick. drill a hole in either end about 8mm or so (I am not sure about this).
Then make 2 bends, one about a centimeter above the bottom hole of your choice, and to the right at about a 45 degree angle. then one more about a centimeter below the top hole, so that when the bottom is attached underneath the nearest intake manifold bolt, the top hole is totally facing towards the linkage area. this may need a little adjusting. you may also want to cut a slit a few centimeters wide from the top into the top hole. makes it easier to get the cable in. The accelerator cable can now be screwed into the hole at the top. there you go. Weber throttle cable bracket for the 1200.
Even if your car is absolutely bone stock, right down to the floor mats, you can still benefit from the use of adjustable camshaft gears. Adjustable camshaft gears allow you to tweak the conservative factory settings for increased power and drive-ability. Adjustable camshaft gears also give the user the ability to shift peak power throughout the rpm range, a big plus if you are a low-end city driver, mid-range auto crosser, or high-rpm drag racer.
I will get this one of these days.
I replaced the front ones right away, but when I was asked to take some under car pictures of the rear wheels is when I noticed that something strange was going on. The picture on the left is the actual back of my car, that’s a CVCC rears suspension, I am very surprised to see it on a 1200 Civic. The U shaped shock is for the 1200 where as the CVCC bottom has no bracket similar to the front shocks.
CVCC rear shocks
Unfortunately the glue used to attach the black fabric was of poor quality and it came unglued.
A sweet trade for a 76 overhead console as seen in the picture below.
I cut out the wood grain section in the middle of the dash to find a blank filler plate that is easily popped out to access a wiring harness to the left of the opening, If I remember correctly it was taped to the main harness.
One thing to consider if looking to acquire an overhead console for your first generation
Images of 78-79 and then 77 and older Civic and last is the console from a N600 coupe, notice how similar it is to the earlier Civic type less the clock.
Some of the clock's don’t work so well but these can be repaired or you can re-calibrate it your self.
I stripped the old varnish off the wheel and too any rough edges of. The metal spokes were also repainted. This wooden wheel and shift knob gives the car a real classic look.
Wooden shift know to go with the newly acquired steering wheel. Seems to be made of a soft wood and capped off with a brass insert for the five speed.
I have since restored the shift knob and repainted the brass insert to it original colour.
I started of by using a coarse flat file to take the gouges out, followed up by the use of a Drumel tool to get at hard to reach places in between the webbed patterns. The use of many grades of water paper can make this job go a lot quicker and less work. I started off with 40grit 60,80,120,240,400,600 and finished of with 1200grit. A final chrome like finished was obtained by using Mother’s Aluminum Polish.
To get the Honda Civic Stock wheel caps to fit the Cheviot wheels I filed off the ridge from the opening, Minor bending of the cap tabs was also done. To help the cap maintain a tight fit I drilled 1/8″ divots inside the opening for the dimples on the caps to sit snugly in.
Before the final finish can be applied the outer polished areas are taped up with Duct Tape. This is done to protect the finish from the sand blasting that will remove the old paint and even out the rough areas that were repaired.
I went down to the local Napa auto parts store to get my cars colour mixed and put in two pre-charged cans for easy application. I also bought clear coat for wheels, but the type I used must be applied while the base coat is slightly tacky. I removed the Duct Tape after the base coat (colored) was applied. The area where the tape was cleaned with paint and silicone remover. I put several coats of clear coat on the entire face of the wheels. When the clear coat goes on its a milky colour, Don’t panic now, it clears up as it dries.
Now get it back in with out scratching the paint.
Remember to get you alignment done after this procedure. To get it straight I used a measuring tape with the steering wheel still straight with the bungee attached, I measured the front edge of the tires from center to center. Then measure the same on the backside. I left the front side of the tires a bit narrower than the backside.
As it turned out when I took it in for alignment it was perfect. The garage only charged me for setting it up.
To see more of my steering rack rebuild Diy you can see it here:
I do not endorse the site nor was I asked for permission to use or re-publish the information from here.
He scraped the web for past pages that are already included in the database of this site known as 1StGenCivic.com/org or previous generations and upgrades.
I am closing site down as an open discussion forum.