By tedshred (63.224.195.169) on Monday, June 25, 2001 - 01:35 pm:

Hey folks, I’ve finally figured out how to post pictures and present to you this mini album of the work I’ve done for the past 8 months. I want to thank Todd, Don, John S, Ken Che, and others who have come through with much needed time, advice, and parts for this rebuild.

My friend Louie purchased an Orange 1974 (November) EB2 1237 from an old lady back in 1992 with 24K, and garaged all the time. He paid 2K! Needless to say he found a pot-O-gold. Unfortunately, he drove it into the ground over the next 8 years including rear-ending someone mildly, draining the transmission instead of the engine, and then overfilling the engine while leaving the tranny high and dry. It froze up in third gear so he had to replace that as well with another 4-speed 4:91 ratio. At some point oil started leaking from the oil pressure sensor, which sprayed oil around the entire bay. He didn’t bother to clean it up so dirt and oil bonded to everything. I asked if the car was a CVCC (on the phone) and he said yes. Turns out he didn’t know much about this model. He has seen me driving it lately, and I think he’s a bit pissed he didn’t do this work and keep the car. I purchased the car for 600, which was more than I wanted to pay, but upon inspection and a test drive, decided to pay up and go to work. These cars are somewhat rare in the Pacific Northwest. Most are CVCC’s. First thing was a pressure wash, and systems check of the engine, electrical, brakes, transmission, charging and suspension. There were lots of little things wrong and missing.

Here is what I have done so far:

Engine:
Carb upgrade to Weber32/36 DGV jetted for stock 1237 with port matched manifold and K&N style air filter (thanks Todd)
Electronic dizzy and coil off a ‘82 civic 1300 with new cap, rotor and wires, plugs
New water pump
Fresh Radiator hoses, fuel hoses, fuel filter
Flushed and cleaned radiator
Electric Purolator fuel pump
Have a header that needs to go on and need a nice sounding muffler Got one?

Suspension:
Red Koni adjustable shock inserts up front from Ground Control
Front wagon springs cut down 2”
Front springs in rear cut down 1.5” (kept rear shocks as they are new)
New bearings all around

Brakes:
’79 civic wagon uprights (knuckle)
New rotors (disk)
Rebuilt ‘79 Accord calipers
New brake pistons in rear
New brake pads all around

Wheels:
Found 6-point star pattern Accord Enkei rims on eBay for only 25 bucks!
Mounted used 175/70 13 Goodyear’s on them (they match the rolling radius because of wear)
5 BFG RA T1’s (thanks Don) and mounted them on steel accord rims for Autocross events

Body and Misc:
Replaced both front fenders with ’79 1200’s
Removed rubber shocks, and rubber bumpers from chrome which brings bumper in by 5” reducing my overall car length by about 10 inches!
Replaced both door seals (got a brand new pair off junker for only 15 bucks)
Took out nice Sony stereo and replaced with stock Honda am radio (last night someone got into my car, but found nothing to steal!)
CRX steering wheel (thanks Todd)
CVCC deluxe gauges (thanks Ken Che)
New windshield reservoir and pump
New bulbs, fuses, turn indicators, etc.

I’m going to drive this engine until it dies, and then do a rebuild with better cam, bottom end, pistons, valve springs, adjustable cam pulley, lighten flywheel, maybe lsd, who knows. The body still needs work, and I’m going to be repainting it orange again because I like those 70’s colors.

Enjoy the pictures:

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By tedshred (63.224.195.169) on Monday, June 25, 2001 - 01:37 pm:

By tedshred (63.224.195.169) on Monday, June 25, 2001 - 01:38 pm:

By tedshred (63.224.195.169) on Monday, June 25, 2001 - 01:56 pm:

A few more that didn't make it:

By Todd (63.52.9.68) on Monday, June 25, 2001 - 01:58 pm:

What?? no picture of the proud papa with his baby???
I'd say that is one 1200 that has come a long way!!

By tedshred (63.224.195.169) on Monday, June 25, 2001 - 02:01 pm:

I know, I should get the wife to take a picture of me with the car, or at least use the timer on the camera. I'll take some shots tonight and try to post them tomorrow.

Man, posting pics is a bitch! (for a retard)

By tedshred (63.224.195.169) on Monday, June 25, 2001 - 02:04 pm:

That's my boy Liam who's 2 and a half. He's going in for surgery friday morning for what the medics call the 2nd most frequent opporation on young boys. He's having his "Communicating Hydrocele" closed up.

Why do my some of my pictures look so fuzzy?

By quikrick (63.204.16.66) on Monday, June 25, 2001 - 03:17 pm:

Ted... what can I say. BEAUTIFUL!! I was begining to think that you didn't even own a Civic! I love that story of Louie... I treated my little baby pretty rough (not as bad as Louie though) when I first got her back in 1990. Keep up the good work.

By Zippy (Zippy) (205.188.196.31) on Monday, June 25, 2001 - 03:59 pm:

Great work. Man it looks sweet with those couple of inches taken off. Changes the whole demeanor of the car. Can't wait till I get to play with my suspension. Hey, how did you get the bumper off? I took a look and it appears to be like one of those puzzle blocks where you have to push on the mystery spot to get it fall apart, and then yuo can't put it together. Keep up the good work.

By kenche (130.212.252.7) on Monday, June 25, 2001 - 04:27 pm:

Good luck on your son and I think orange is the best color but I got a yellow one is not too bad. I would like to bring the bumper closer too. Can you tell me how you do that? Is it simple and I have an extra front end I can play with. Thanks

By Don (209.181.52.101) on Monday, June 25, 2001 - 07:52 pm:

Very nice! I think orange is my favorite color on a Civic. Those bumpers look good when you toss the ruber spacer He-He. I cant wait to get mine up and going too.

By tedshred (63.224.195.169) on Tuesday, June 26, 2001 - 09:09 am:

Thanks for the compliment you guys. The car has been pretty easy to work on thanks to the wealth of knowledge and experience of you guys. I could not have done this as easily without your support.

Snagging the bumpers in is a snap, but you will loose ALL BUMPER SHOCK ABILITY. This means if someone “bumps” you in a parking lot, it will most likely dent your bumper worse than before and possibly bend your bodywork. With that said, scooting the bumpers in close is pretty easy, and can be done in a few hours. First, take the outer rubber bumpers off, and then remove the bolt holding the chrome bumper to the rebar. The rubber shock will slide right off. Unbolt the “shelf”, and unbolt the brackets from your body that hold the rebar in place. This part is the only real tough spot as the space is small down below the battery. With the bumpers off, the car is very tough looking. I almost wanted to keep it this way, but decided to stick with the bumpers.

This next part I made up, and you may find something better to use: From the hardware store I bought 4 large “eye-bolts” with washers, and lock nuts. I think they were .5-inch diameter, but use the largest size that will fit through the hole in the bumper. Install the brackets back onto the body and slide the “eye-bolts into the hole so the threads come out much like the rebar did. Carefully slide the chrome bumper back on and mark on the threads where to cut the bolt (unless you like the look of this long bolt like thing sticking out from the car). Cut all 4 bolts to this length.

At this point you will see where the bumper meets the bracket is not flat, or flush. You can file the bracket flat, or cut a piece of rubber shock to act as a large washer to act as a bridge between the two parts. I cut the rubber shock because it was easier than filing.

Please note, that by bringing the bumper in close, your spacing between bumper and body near wheel well is now pretty close. In some cases it may bring these two parts together which will cause body damage, so the rubber bumper idea is good because you will be able to cut a larger washer if need be.

The “shelf” will slid under the bumper for that clean look.

Now assemble everything together and voila! Not to bad.

Here a few more photos of Liam, Emma, the civic and myself. In the background are the wife’s black 92 civic DX, and silver 95 Odyssey minivan (love it). The 74 civic has the least miles wouldn’t you know it.

By Todd (63.52.20.21) on Tuesday, June 26, 2001 - 10:33 am:

Hey Ted,
What happens after you get it painted up and Emma decides to repeat that pose on your hood? Ha-Ha!
Seriously, its really looking good. Now if we can just get Roger going.

By Tim Harding (Timh) (63.161.30.197) on Tuesday, June 26, 2001 - 12:36 pm:

Ted,
Awesome car! I live in eastern Washington and I've got an orange '76 that I'm in the process of putting a CRX motor into. But anyway, this is about your car, right!? What is your plan for painting it? I'm glad to see you're sticking with orange. Are you going to pay the big bucks and have someone paint it? Just curious.
Great work. I'm going to go out to my car right now and see about shortening my bumpers.

By tedshred (63.224.195.169) on Tuesday, June 26, 2001 - 01:04 pm:

Todd, no way will I let Emma get up there after the car is done, but for now, what the hell as that hood is pretty funky.

I took a sweeping right corner on a green light and noticed some high school boys in their 1995 rice civic staring at my car. Pretty funny at the time.

By Ramon Milano (207.5.4.95) on Wednesday, June 27, 2001 - 05:58 am:

The car looks great!!!! If you want to cover those holes in the bumpers you can use the rubber plugs that cover your upper strut mounting bolt. I think I got mine off a 1980 civic. My 76 had hard plastic ones. They look pretty good actually.

By tedshred (63.224.195.169) on Wednesday, June 27, 2001 - 08:15 am:

Thanks Ramon, I'll look for some at the yard.

By quikrick (63.204.16.66) on Wednesday, June 27, 2001 - 05:10 pm:

OK Ted... I think that you just started a "My kid is cuter than your kid" contest!!!

This is Jacqueline, she's 2 years old...

Raquel is 11 and Dan is 9

By Ed (24.43.71.141) on Wednesday, June 27, 2001 - 08:42 pm:

For those that know me... it's ED.

I have a 76 CVCC and a 76 1200 & love driving both of them.

W O W - weird coincidence. Our son LIAM was born nearly 2 years ago. If we have a girl next, we already picked the name EMMA. We thought we were being very original with the name Liam, but as it turns out... it's now pretty common. I just thought it was a weird coincedence that a fellow first gen. civic owner has the same names for his family members.

when I get the roll of film developed, you can see Liam "driving" my blue 1200. provided I know how to post pics?!?!

by the way TED ... when you get your car painted, I would be glad to take those factory side mouldings off your hands IF you don't want them.

Ed

By tedshred (63.224.195.169) on Thursday, June 28, 2001 - 08:54 am:

Those kids are cute Rick. Nice looking family, and great civics too. What model is the yellow one? Where did you find the mirrors?

Ed, I too thought Liam was unique, but there are plenty of them out there, Lot's of Aidan's too. If we have a girl, her name will be Lucy. I think that name is pretty tough. I've got full side trim, but will be reinstalling them. If I find some in the yard, I'll snag them for you.

By Brian Wilborn (24.4.254.120) on Thursday, June 28, 2001 - 09:10 am:

You want those little strips that are about halfway up the door right? I've got a set off my 79 CVCC that are not going back on the car. You want 'em?

E-Mail me: bwilborn2@home.com

By quikrick (63.204.16.66) on Thursday, June 28, 2001 - 09:29 am:

The yellow one is a 1976 CVCC Wagon. The mirrors were already on it when I got it, I traded off my 1974 1200 for the wagon. Those mirrors are POWER operated! the control is on the left side of the dash, really cool. The previous owner did a very clean job.


notice how much lower the red 79 is than the yellow 76!

By Ramon Milano (207.5.4.95) on Monday, July 02, 2001 - 06:37 am:

WOW your kid doesn't look that heavy!!!!!!!!