Project Steph's 1978 Honda Civic 1200

[Steph]

Hey, sorry for the late reply. I had a major breakthrough on the home renovation front, so I've been going with it. I can honestly say every muscle in my body aches from painting with a brush and roller. My problem is I can't bear to put paint on a wall until I've removed every little imperfection. As always, you still find one or two that emerge from under the paint (I'm hoping they'll shrink back!). I bought all the paint last year (Dulux), and the cans have been mocking me ever since. I still have two more rooms to finish, but the hardest part is out of the way, that being the hallway. You can spot every imperfection hallway walls, so I spent days filling and sanding for a few minutes at a time, until I ran out of stuff to fill and sand. Talk about a change is as good as a holiday. New paint can transform a home, especially with bold feature-walls tied in with soft furnishings. I'm loving this stuff! :D

I haven't touched the Civic in about a week, and even then it's just been small jobs. That said, I've completely tidied up the workshop. Work should resume in a week or two. I've given my body the day off today. Sooo sore... two rooms to go... maybe I could cut in around all the woodwork today... :P

[Evoboy]

Good to hear I love doing home improvement things. Just finished removing 2 walls and reconstructing a wall! Can't wait for you to get on with the civic! I'll be waiting :P

[pushpuller]

Steph would you share your header cad design so i can build a set

[islander]

Steph...... i haven't been on in awhile, But i must say well done on that motor..... makes me want to pull mine out again a re polish it :D

[O D I N]

Beautiful Motor Steph !!

[Kurt]

did you polish the oil filter or is it a cover?

[Vulcan]

did you polish the oil filter or is it a cover?

There's an idea. Retrofit a replacable cartridge style filter. That way you can have the nice external casting all polished! And, if you had countersunk fittings, you could file down the contact edges to make it a nice seamless join!

[Steph]

did you polish the oil filter or is it a cover?

Sorry Kurt, late reply, it's a standard oil filter cover that I cut about an inch or so off so it would be short enough. I did it with a friction saw... pretty easy as long as you are careful and take your time so the saw doesn't grab the work. The cover was like US$10 on line auctions. It's all covered in the blog here, about 3 years ago, of the top of my head. Don't make me do a search!

OK, this is the exact same one, from the same seller, so don't say I don't do you favors!

http://www.on line auctions.links.au/itm/Chrome-Steel ... 1479346786

The grub screw was easy to relocate... I think it was just a hole drilled in the side that the grub screw bites into, but it holds on well.

[Steph]

My mum had a bingle and the crash repairer ended up keeping her car for a few days longer than promised, because he had to repaint it due to a poorly matched colour. That makes me feel a bit better about the fact that it took an amateur like me three tries to get the paint on my sump perfect. My OCD is a real curse when I'm doing stuff like this, because I get locked in a 'loop' until I get the paint right. Most people would have been happy with the first job, but I knew I'd only see the imperfections every time I looked at it, so my curse made me do it all over again. The upside to all this, is once it's finally over, I end up with exactly what I wanted... but at what price?

[Steph]

...as per my 'disorder', I gave the sump another coat of silver, and now it looks really nice. Tomorrow I'll give it two coats of clear. I'm using VHT Wheel Paint which is rated to 120C and is polyurethane based. I think it's ideal considering the environment, with small stones and grit hitting it. The clear urethane will give it a good barrier against all manner of muck. Oil temps should never reach 120C, so I'm hoping I don't regret the choice! :P I used a full can of silver, but I'll only need half a can of clear. I only used a full can of silver because I effectively sanded the first half of the can off again after I had applied it!