We got the car new back in ’78. By the time, I had my hands on it there were 120,000 miles on the clock and mechanically it was not too bad. Problem was the bodywork. My mother had deliberately sought out the cheapest body shops she could to keep it on the road. She said she did not care what happened to it and it showed. When I started stripping it down I found holes almost big enough to drive a bus through. With no parts available for these cars and with only the 3-doors having been catered for anyway, I have had to make all the body parts myself except for the new wings.
One was located in a shed in Sussex; the other came from Comox Valley in Canada. Needless to say then that these 5-doors are as rare as hen’s teeth here in the UK. So far only the sills remain to be excavated but with only a pair of cheap cover sills snot-welded on I reckon it’s going to be pretty easy to dislodge them with a cold chisel. In fact, most of the ‘patches’ on the car were only tacked on and judging by the state of the welds must have been done by a blind chimp in boxing gloves! Some git had even attempted to weld through paint onto rust That came off easily, though thankfully not on the road! Engine & transmission run pretty sweet though.
The biggest problem I've faced so far was replacing the right front fender. Without a decent steel one I was going to have to use fiberglass and I didn't fancy it. I fabricated the replacement chassis rails okay, but on the outside of the car things have to look just right. I needed a new panel and without it the car wasn't going anywhere. I trawled the internet for months looking for a new one while I took time out to rebuild the top of the engine. Eventually I found a new panel in a Canadian scrap yard. I ordered it and a month later it turned up. It's never been used and fits like a glove! Problem solved.
Corbeau seats Sweet eh? I recon I'm going to go with the Civic rails and make my own setup. I think it'll be a simple enough matter when I've got the bits. The seat seems to hold onto its mountings by four screws so I might only need to add some flat or L-section steel to get it properly kushty.
This is the Corbeau D280T mounting frame if one desires to go this route, click on the image to link the manufacturers web page.
I’m hopefully going to be grabbing a set of stock seat rails. The Corbeau setup looks a little ‘hokey’ for my taste. I like the look/ feel of the stock Civic lever
I’ve already stashed away a few choice period accessories including turbine 13” alloys, overhead console and Honda Pioneer cassette player. If you want to see more of my car just check out Grot Watch.
I’m going to be painting the alloys. There some light kerbing scars so I want to fill ’em and see if I can’t get them all trickery-boo. They’re the Honda wheels (Even got ‘Honda’ cast into them!) but I think they were manufactured in the UK by an outfit called ‘Wheels West’
