Restoration 1975 Civic 1500 4 Door

[amifsud]

This is my 75 Civic 1500 4 Door getting restored. The first two photos are before we started. The rest are the restoration. I don't know what colour to spray it yet, maybe a dark blue or red. I will post more pics later and when it's done.

Adrian

[amifsud]

Yeah, I filled the roof channel with a piece of copper pipe soldered to the body, and then filled over it with body filler. The screws holding on the chrome bits on the channel rubber were all rusty, so was the channel. So I cut out the little clip in the channel and just filled it in. Less trouble and it won't rust again, hopefully. Today i've been chipping away all the bitumen sheeting inside on the floor. It's a little rusty but only surface rust. Is there a quicker way to do it? my back is killing me leaning over to chip it all. So far i've chipped the rear now i've got the front and a bit on the panel under the rear seat, and a small piece in the boot.

[amifsud]

I've got another bumper for the front thats not to bad, just one small dent and a few scratches, it just needs a clean up and it should be good. The rear one was painted black as is the front one. I tried using some paint stripper on it and it seemed to remove all of the paint with no problem. Then it will be just a matter of re-painting the black stripe in the middle of the bumpers.
Do you think I would need to check the underside of the floor for rust. It seems to be only surface rust on the inside. I think the rust on the floor comes from condensation. The bitumen sheeting does not sit flat against the metal around the molding in the floor, so when it gets wet from the outside it creates condensation the inside. What is that stuff there for anyway. Is it to insulate from noise, because I was thinking of not putting it back after I clean up all the rust.

[Vulcan]

I ain't sure what it's there for either. :? I know I'm not going to bother about replacing it.

When you've got the stuff off the floor I'd give any rusty bits a good poke and see if anything gives way. As for checking under the car just get down by the sides of it and have a peer under there. If you can see any places where anything looks disturbed then I'd say get stripping. Also check any seams under there. The floor's pretty much a flat panel on these cars, not too many places where water/ mud can collect.

[amifsud]

The worst part for rust in this car is in the doors, front wings, rear wheel arches, front valance and the boot around the seal. Apart from that it's just surface rust. And what it had wasn't too much either. I've gotten rid of the rust in the boot, front wings rear wheel arches and 2 doors, now it's the other 2 doors that need doing and the front valance one side. I already did the other side. So it shouldn't be much longer before its done, bodywork that is. Then I still have to decide what colour to spray it.

[Vulcan]

You might want to consider something like the non-metallic british racing green paint that was available for these cars back in the 70's. I've not seen many in that colour.

BTW, got any pics of the bodywork before you started? I had rust in similar places (As no doubt seen from my sig!) I was wondering how they'd compare.

[amifsud]

I didn't take any pics of the rust before it was removed. It wasn't nearly as bad as yours. There was about a 5cm bit of rust in the wheel arches, but I cut a bit more metal away just to make sure it was gone and to give it a good clean. That was on both sides. Then in the rear valance just 1 small hole about 8mm on either side. It's just because dirt and other junk collects in the wheel arches and blocks up the drain hole in the bottom of the valance. I'm gonna try and open up the drain hole a little so any junk will just run out. I cleaned out the rust as best I could and then poured in some rust converter, let that dry and then painted over it with body deadener bitumen paint to protect it.

As for the paint I was thinking of Monte Carlo Blue Pearl from a Honda S2000 as in the photo.

[Vulcan]

Woah! Were you ever lucky with that bodywork!

Yeah, not a bad colour that, I can see that happening. Looks like you've got some interesting alloys there. 8) Don't think I've ever seen those before. You keeping those or going with something else?

[amifsud]

Here's a photo of the wheels, They are ROH Wildfire 12" Rims, I don't know if i'll keep them, my dad said they are ugly, and they're only 12" rims so i'll see what happens. One of them is missing the centre cap and I dont know if the stock honda caps will fit. If they do ill keep them if not ill find something else. Are accord wheels 120pcd?

The last two photos are of the floor. I've still got a little bit of the bitumen left to chip off but it's getting there

[Vulcan]

You know, those alloys remind me of the pepperpot alloys we used to get on the fords years back..... :roll:

*basks in warm nostalgic glow*

As I recall people have done swaps with Accord steel wheels.