Project Steph's 1978 Honda Civic 1200

[JNR880]

Steph's back!
Woo!!

Loving the updates again!

[Steph]

Cheers guys, and yes it is a custom torque rod (stainless steel).

Back when I still had the engine in the car, I had to cut some metal out to gain clearance for the air cleaner. With the poly bushes in the torque rod I was concerned about vibration being an issue, especially with half the metal removed from the factory 'strut brace'. So, I decided to cut out a section from some steel plate to reinforce it with. In the first photo you can see the plate just sitting on top with holes drilled along the centre line to weld through. I welded all across the front, and put a bunch of short welds at the back. Once it was welded in place, I sanded all the welds and flattened it all out in preparation for filler, then paint. Now there's a reasonably flat panel to paint, rather than the spot weld metal with indentations causing all manner of distortions in the surface. I want the engine bay's painted surfaces to be as smooth as possible for that custom look. I've also been cutting out all the visible flexible sealer/filler that they smear around the upper surfaces (like where the ignition coil is mounted).

[Bill]

Looks good!
Glad to see you back here and working on the projects.
How have things been working out?
=Bill

[Steph]

Heya Bill!

Not much different than before... one minutes it's aches, then the next it's pains... and sometimes it's both at the same time!

I just keep chippin' away, breakin' rocks whenever I can. :P

I hope you're fairing well?

[Bill]

Hey Steph, found that the cure really is worse than the disease. Time will tell...
=Bill

[Steph]

Sent the throttle cable off to Flexible Drive cable and control systems to get it extended 100mm to suit the Delorto carburetor. Nice neat number to extend it by! Ended up costing an extra $40 to get it made. The cable I supplied was an OEM throttle cable that Jay supplied me. I swapped out the adjusting-nuts and associated washers for polished stainless items. I also found you can polish the cable with Silvo to get a polished cable 'look'.

Anyway, they said I'll see it in the mail on Monday, so I'll post a couple of photos of it fitted to the mocked-up engine.

[Steph]

Cable turned up today, and it fits perfectly.

Now that I have the cable I've pretty much covered everything in regards to the engine and gearbox.

I also had to strip the bumpers of all the paint before they can be stripped and chromed.
They don't like paint and muck getting into their stripping and pickle baths.
Next time I'll outsource the job... that paint stripper really has a bite to it when you get it on your skin! :P

[Panta]

Wow you're doing a piece of art !

[Steph]

Wow you're doing a piece of art !

Thanks

My problem is I'm too easily distracted by other projects I'm working on...

Tomorrow I plan on going back to prepping the bumpers. There's a couple of shallow 'knife-edge' dents I need to flatten/hammer out before they go in for stripping and plating. Slightly high points will polish out, but low points create 'wells' in the finish (that's assuming they can remove enough material to hide the low point).

[sergio1976]

damn I can't see the photos :roll: