Project Steph's 1978 Honda Civic 1200

[moofymumma]

Wow, if you lived in Adelaide I think we'd be the best of friends, Shepherds, Civics, motor bikes...

Oh yeah, I got Marshall from a NSW breeder, Stunadel GSD in the Hunter Valley.

Steph

Ha ha yeah I reckon we would for sure!!
Our boy 'Kossie' is from a breeder in Sydney. He's looking much more mature than Marshall though...he's got a LOT of grey these days....check out his facebook. page ....under 'Kossie Dawgy' ;)

[Steph]

Haha, he looks great, I love the amazingly expressive faces Shepherds have. Marshall has actually learned to smile, I have a photo somewhere...

[ASM]

Haha, he looks great, I love the amazingly expressive faces Shepherds have. Marshall has actually learned to smile, I have a photo somewhere...

sorry to budd in here - but funny that you say that. I insist that our Labrador/Retriever has also learned to smile but everybody says I'm joking. Also in the last 6 months or so she has started to talk. Well she makes sort of grunting noises but I think she is trying to talk or make talking noises; especially when we all sit at the dinner table ant talk. Then she sits there and starts making noises too to participate in the conversation - I guess all she's saying is "can I have more of this?" and 'I'll finish that if you don't mind, I had it first anyway"!!

[Steph]

After I had my CIVIC stripes made up at the sign department yesterday, I figured I better make sure the paint was all up to scratch before applying them. I had the paint redone about 4 years ago, but they didn't do the hood because I couldn't afford it. So today I went to the body shop and got a quote on finishing the job. They're going to paint the engine bay including the front cowl/radiator support, and the two front guards/fenders/wings, as well as the valance and redo the passenger door that has a couple of bubbles of rust in it. Once that's done I'll fit all the decals and it'll look like new again. I want it to look the part for when I put the new header and Weber carburetor on. Nice, clean, tidy and rust free.

[Steph]

A few more NOS parts I bought this week. I left my petrol cap at a service station years back, and I replaced it with a generic one I bought at the auto parts store. Only problem is that it's difficult to get your fingers in to remove it when filling up. Luckily I found a NOS one..

PetrolCap.jpg (14.64 KiB) Viewed 400 times

PetrolCapside.jpg (13.69 KiB) Viewed 400 times

I had some new brake shoes fitted to the rear, and they obviously weren't manufactured to be exact copies of the original shoes, as they make a strange scraping noise when braking. I tried replacing the drums to fix it, but to no avail. The only thing that it could be is the shoes, because it started when they were initially fitted, and obviously it's not the drums, as it made the nose with the old set too. I managed to find some NOS brake shoes, so I figure that will be the best way to eliminate the noise, or the possibility it's the brake shoes causing it. I wonder if they have good old asbestos in them, I hope so :P

BrakeShoes.jpg (29.01 KiB) Viewed 400 times

Finally, I found an odd bumper end and snapped that up as a spare...

[TREVORM]

steph I know what the noise is man,. when I did the rear brakes last week or so,. I had that same problem and I changed everything,hardaware, bearings shoes, drums. what it is,.. is the hardware springs is rubbing on the inner bearing sleeve

check for marks around the housing. I think the after market drums where the inner bearing goes on the out side of it, is like 1mm wider causing it to rub on the spring.

[Steph]

We checked the drums and there was no sign of any wear other than where the shoes make contact. The noise was there with the original drum as well as the new drums. But maybe the springs were put back on incorrectly the last time the brakes were done? It's not major, just a quiet on-off scraping noise wjen the brakes are applied.

[TREVORM]

I see, just though I'd let ya know

[Steph]

I see, just though I'd let ya know

Thanks Trevor, I'll have a closer look, to eliminate that as a possibility.

[Steph]

I've started stripping pieces off from under the hood/hood in preparation for the new paint that I'm getting done just as soon as our spring weather kicks in (it's spring here). I plan on stripping off all the parts like the grill, bumpers, lights, as well as all the parts from under the hood that don't affect the drive-ability of the car, as I still have to drive it to the painter. So I've progressively been taking parts into work and using their glass bead blasting cabinet to strip them back to bare metal. I have to say, the 30 year old Honda paint comes of pretty easily, and all that is left is a perfect surface for applying primer and paint. I did a part yesterday and painted it with VHT paint, which I then baked in the oven for an hour, as per the instructions. The only thing was, I wasn't happy with the finish, so I took it back to work this morning and proceeded to blast the new paint off so I could start all over again to get a perfect finish. Only thing was, the VHT paint was tough as nails, and it took me ages to get it off again. Like 4 times as long as it did yesterday when I stripped the old Honda paint off. So thumbs up to the VHT oven baked finishes, although it was a PITA finding out just how good it really is.

Fresh out of the oven, here are the; hood/hood lock, cover for the cabin vent intakes, and voltage regulator fuse bracket...