Project Steph's 1978 Honda Civic 1200

[Steph]

So I've been busy building a custom motorcycle, renovating the house, and converting the dining room into a workshop. I'll be keeping the dirty stuff in the garage, and all the clean work inside the house, basically the same thing I've been doing for years, but this time I'll be working on a workbench, as opposed to the dining room table and benches in the kitchen. :P The other advantage is I can showcase my 3 bikes in there, as well as keep my good tools clean and away from all the dust that can get generated. I can roll my car out of the garage to work, but all the tools and cr@p on shelves stay in there, and progressively get blanketed in metal dust, etc., as I work. Now I can keep my tool box clean.

Anyway, while I've been focused on other things, I've still been working on the Civic, and organizing all the small details involved in pulling off a smooth operation between the spray shop and the auto repairs who are pulling/replacing the engine and trans. The car will be off the road for a while, but I have bikes and a neighbor who's happy to loan me her car on occasion. Anyway, it's all the tiny details that need taking care of to make it as stress free as possible.

I recently did another search looking for a lower profile air filter element, and I managed to find a pretty obscure one that was originally fitted to the Rousch Mustangs. It's a K&N which, as some people may know, I hate (because they let dust in the engine). With this filter fitted I was able to reduce the depth of the intake assembly by 15mm, which should be just enough, but I still may have to trim ~5mm off the upper, firewall-lip. The K&N filter looks a 1000 better than the other filter I was going to use, but the best part is that it shares the exact same width and length as the filter I was going to use, so I didn't need to change anything other than trim the length of the studs.

[Steph]

Also, I finally cracked the code on restoring gear knobs. It took 3 tries to get the knob itself looking like new, but the little emblem I nailed first try. just as well, because the process I used wore some of the brass lettering away, so I expect you'd only get away with doing it twice before the lettering was too 'short'. I used a Dulux internal/eternal paint that comes in aerosol cans. The colour was Volcano Orange, and I think it's a really close match to what I've seen in old brochures.

Before, and after...

[simplyhonda]

That is Beautiful!

[HondaCarCare1]

That shift knob looks fantastic. I think you got the color of the center piece as close to factory as possible. :D

[HondaCarCare1]

Oh and btw - welcome back.

[Steph]

Thanks Sue :D

[bob78cvcc]

Looks like a piece of jewelry from the intake on up.

What process did you use to keep the paint off of the raised brass?
Did you have to treat the brass with anything to make the paint adhere?

[Oldie]

Really looks good :!: I see you are going to hook up the carburetor for a manual choke operation?Interesting spot for a fuel pressure meter.Very nice by the way. 8) Can't wait to see how you hook up the throttle linkage.A word of caution in regards to clearance between the air cleaner and the firewall.When you rev the motor it may rock back toward the firewall more than you might expect.I don`t want to see that very nice cleaner damaged as it ( and the whole setup ) is in my eyes a work of art.
Also what are your plans for fuel delivery and filtration.
No i haven`t had too much cafenine ,just like seeing someone showcasing Dell orto`s!

[joshuao]

Wow.. amazing job on that shift knob.. I wouldn't even know where to start (esp. with the emblem)!

[Meldge]

Hey welcome back Steph, some nice work as usual done there...

Really nice knob... Umm, awkward...