Project Steph's 1978 Honda Civic 1200

[Randy]

Steph, WOW! that looks really purdy.

You know how to turn bits into real Gems.

[Steph]

Thanks Randy

I'm polishing the wiper actuator arms at the moment (the ones that connect between the wiper motor and wiper arms).

I thought they'd be easy, but I was wrong. They had deep tooling marks from the manufacturing process (metal stamping and pressing).

I'll post photos in a couple of days when they're finally finished.

Won't be long and I'll have another batch to deliver to the chrome plater!

[Kurt]

Any updates Steph? They never cease to amaze me.

- Kurt

[Steph]

Wow, where to start... I've been working day and night for months now. Each day I go to bed completely exhausted, then the next day I start again... 7 days a week. Even when I had the flu I was still sanding parts and making myself feel even sicker. In anybody's books, that rates as a full blown disease!

As I write, I'm masking the hard brake lines from the front calipers. I'd already polished them ready for chrome, with the mask to prevent chrome from sticking to the threads, etc. It's fiddly, time consuming work, but at least it is easy work... it's the prep work that is the killer.

So far of late, I've polished both front brake calipers ready for chrome. I've also polished all the caliper parts, including the backing plates on the brake pads. I masked the pad area of the brake pads, leaving just the metal parts exposed to being chrome plates. All the pins and parts have been prepped for chrome too, along with the big metal brake-caliper slide, which took about a week each to prepare for chrome. I've also prepped the gearbox linkage and the shifter extension rod, and the suspension lower radius arms. Photos the follow... shortly.

[Kurt]

Good to hear! Glad you are still at it. I may having some smaller items chromed this winter having found a contact. I may just atttempt at making a new exterior door handle from scratch too and having it chromed. I will attempt it anyway. Your hands must be raw after all that sanding

[Steph]

Hahaha, my hands go through several stages of being mangled and crippled. I've made my finger tips numb on many an occasion. The first couple of times I was worried it would be permanent, but now I'm used to it. I really notice it when I'm typing.

Making door handles? Can't you find any good ones locally? There's a part I've never seen NOS on line auctions (not that I look anymore, I have all the parts I need!).

Today I've been finishing off the brake calipers. They took ages to sand and polish, and today I blasted them out with brake cleaner and a brush to get all the muck out of the seal grooves. I also spent ages carefully cleaning the varnish off the brake pistons. I was real lucky, as they're both in excellent shape (I was expecting them to have some rust). Next I'll mask off the insides of the brake calipers so they can go off to chrome. Almost ready for a visit to the electroplaters. :)

[Steph]

Here are some of the parts that I've finished recently. There's tons of small, medium and large bolts that are not pictured. All the engine to gearbox bolts are also being chromed. The windscreen wipers have more hours put into them than I'm comfortable admitting... each one of the brake slides took a full week out of me! The brake caliper were pretty much the same effort to complete.

[bob78cvcc]

Just AMAZING!!

[Steph]

Thanks Bob! :)

You know, the front calipers on these are unbelievably clever. They have a dual-opposed piston design that utilises the slide as a brace and a 'slide' to allow the caliper to move about freely. The pistons are 42.5mm in diameter, which is pretty huge for a little car. Using the opposing piston caliper and slide design allowed them to double the pressure on the brake pads. That's why they stop so well with those tiny brake discs/rotors.

[Steph]

Just in case I didn't explain that well... they're twin-piston calipers (4 pistons in total for the front brakes). Brilliant design, IMO.