Project Phil's 1975 Honda Civic 1200

[Phil]

The flywheel is back from Enfield clutch and I've got a new Clutch kit to suit the EB 4 speed gearbox.

The flywheel has already been sent off for balancing with the pressure plate.

Original EB flywheel weighed in at just shy of 7kg
Final lightened weight of 5kg

[Phil]

Flywheel is now balanced and I can proceed with the gearbox.

The torque rod bracket is now in its final form and attaches well to 4 points - 2 gearbox bolts, casting point from the EN1 head and behind the fuel pump. Will get better pictures once I have it mounted.

Torque rod bracket

The painting escapade continues!

Without a doubt through the painting process, my time management skills have improved. I have now also introduced a wire hanging system to speed up the process ensuring decent coverage.

Hanging out my primed washing

Painted and ready to cure (in the sun)

Back to the wire wheel for the air cleaner - minimal amounts of surface rust were removed.

Wire wheeled air cleaner base

Air cleaner lid

Almost everything is now painted!

I'm currently on the hunt for some steering rack boot replacements. I've found a full instructional from Randy, but have failed to find any kind of replacement options. Assuming it's highly unlikely that anything is still produced. Can anyone suggest any options here? Thanks in advance!

How do you feel about this?

[Phil]

After receiving some good advice from Jay, I decided to try my hand at using some resin on a spare set of wheel caps and front emblem.

I started off by cleaning up the caps using alluminium foil and a bit of autosol polish. I then proceeded to wipe them over with a clean rag.

Cleaned and polished comparison

Polished (damaged front emblem)

Filled with resin and hardener using a syringe.

Final result after 24hrs of setting

Product - pebeo gedeo Ruby resin and hardener. (150ml goes a long way).

[Phil]

I watched a few YouTube tutorials prior to receiving the kit. The trick is to mix the resin and hardener slowly in the host container. This prevents any bubbles from occurring. Final mix must be bubble free before moving on to the syringe. Also be careful to control the syringe output (I got caught off guard a couple of times!).

[Phil]

We started getting into the gearbox last week. Something I'm happy to leave to my mechanic from a technical perspective (less all the cleaning).

Adrian from Civic garage provided the goods with a seal rebuild kit and 4 speed gasket set.

We encountered a few bearings that require replacement. Both differential carrier bearings are noisy and the Countershaft roller bearing with the circlip also isn't sounding the best. I'm yet to find the roller bearing, pretty sure it's a unique part.

[Phil]

Bearings have arrived!

Spent this afternoon replacing the bearings and preparing the gearbox for reassembly.

Differential

Countershaft

Almost ready to seal.

[Phil]

I've been using my spare time to clean up the inner front bumper.

Pre treatment

I decided to sacrifice a few of my bumper bolts after confirming I had spares in the shed. The bumper bracket was rusted stuck, so I grinded straight down the nut to split it like butter.

The stuck bracket

2 solid days of wire wheeling on and off, followed by rust treatment.

Rust treatment

The day after I went to the local paint supply store and picked up some equipment enamel and primer. Also got a custom flat charcoal colour mixed up for the exterior bumper strip.

Primed inner bumper

Painted inner bumper

Charcoal colour comparison to gloss black

Unofficial colour mix

I changed both of the front bumper brackets for better condition spares in the shed. Although, one tab was broken off each of my spares.

Bumper bracket master

I made a new tab by flattening out a broken coil clamp using a vice and hammer. Bent it up to shape and measured it up against an existing one. Cut through with the grinder and attempted to shape it. Drilled a hole through the centre and filed the rest out. Next I drilled two more holes diagonally to support spot welds. I hammered up the existing part of the broken tab and cut it off & ground it down level.

Tab and grinding

Tab with holes

After completing this I moved onto the top bumper panel supporting the indicators, following the same wire wheel process.

Rust

Found a just in case spare in the shed

I wanted to get the lights off to see how bad the rust was. One set had rounded threads and the other came off fine. (still likely to replace these bolts). Whether I had spares or not... the rounded threads needed the old drill treatment for removal. At the point of removal I was glad to have the spare panel.

Holey cancerous rust

The threads on the orange panel are in need of some work, but that will be much easier than filling the holes of brown town.

The front portion of the car is now satin black!

Crossmembers back from the powder coaters

[Phil]

The bumper bracket tab is now welded, along with the bumper bolt channel. I've also grinded these down and rust treated them.

Tab attached

channel welded/grinded/treated

Today I was on a mission to get the bumper looking a little better. Step one was removing the overspray. I used a Mothers clay bar kit, that I can happily recommend for contaminate removal from chrome. I rinsed and washed the bumper, then spent 30 minutes going over it with the clay bar and came up with a good result. I went over the bumper with a microfibre cloth and waited for it to dry.

Next I moved onto sanding the inner section of the bumper with 400 grit sandpaper before washing and drying again. I used wax and grease remover and wiped it down. Before moving onto the paint, I taped up the centre section for painting. I laid down 2 thin layers of etch primer and 3 layers of paint, spraying the last layer of paint from a further distance to achieve a textured look.

bumper pre paint

bumper paint

bumper complete

The gearbox still needs some final measurements before moving onto final assembly.

Engine is getting there, timing and water pump is done* (*I would love an adjustable camshaft gear*).

Engine needs an adjustable camshaft gear

[Phil]

The bumper bolt tube had a split in it so it's just a repair job. I'll get these painted up next week in a stealthy matte black finish, then onto the top bumper panel.

[Phil]

Now that I'm back at work the build progress is slowing down. I will do my best to keep up with documentation.

My good friend August recently returned from Japan with some rs gauges, that we won on yahoo jp. I look forward to getting these working in the not too distant future.

The front bumper is together. I painted the top indicator panel, bumper brackets and number plate bracket in satin black, and replaced all the hardware with new fasteners.

Bumper brackets

Front bumper complete

Front bumper complete

The gearbox is finally back together and tolerances are to specification. I decided to spend the last bit of spare time on the weekend preparing and painting the gearbox.

Gearbox before

Gearbox after

After completing the gearbox, we moved onto the rear main seal (which was 'fun' to get out). The unfortunate event was when the new seal cracked on first contact (apparently had been sitting on the shelf for 18 years). Have already organised a replacement.

I also have removed the exhaust completely now, ready for its replacement.


I've also started to pull the looms back into the engine bay and install a few accessories.



Exhaust manifold has returned from the ceramic coaters. Pleased. With the result.

Exhaust manifold ceramic coated