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91 CRX Si: It's good to be back!

114K views 379 replies 82 participants last post by  paopao 
#1 ·
New to the forum, but not new to Hondas :) I fell in love with Hondas when I was 8 years old. We were driving down to Texas to visit family, and a little yellow car passed us by as I stared out the window. Sure enough, it was the distinctive rear end of a Barbados CRX that had me hooked.

I've had many Hondas since I was 16, but nothing was quite like my first. When I was 16 I bought a TGP 91 Civic Si from Carmax for $1500. I learned so much from having that car, and regrettably sold it when I entered my senior year of high school. I've had numerous Civics/CRX's, and even ventured into a BMW 540i, GTI, and an S2000. Nothing was quite like that 91 Si though.

Fast forward to 2012, and here I am in Texas starting out fresh with a new job, my second baby on the way, new house, and most importantly: a 3 car garage with one empty bay :) I've scoured craigslist, Honda-Tech, Autotrader, etc. looking for that next project car ever since I moved down here last July in anticipation for this empty spot. I've checked out several cars, but nothing has appealed to me. From Civic's, to NSX's, to STi's, none of the cars I checked out screamed out "buy me".

I almost gave up hope, but my daily routine of searching craigslist is a hard habit to break :) I typed in my usual search queries, and when I put "CRX" in, a title catches my eye. I believe it was something along the lines of "Extremely Clean Unmolested 1991 CRX Si". I didn't want to get my hopes up, but I admit I was pretty excited when I read that :) Long story short, I had found CRXCommunity member Charles' CRX for sale. I went back and forth with Charles over the car, and ended up picking it up a couple weekends ago.

The whole purpose of this thread is just to document the car's life in my hands. I usually only use forums to buy/sell things (HT member since 03), but my love for the CRX runs deep, and this site is great! So I want to share the love I have for this car with people cut from the same cloth :)

So on with the pics!

I took a half day off of work to pick the CRX up from Charles' house. I met his wife, exchanged cash for keys and pushed the CRX down the driveway. Here it sits:







I spent a good amount of time just eyeballing the car, realizing in how good of shape it was. Excited to get it home, I wait for the tow truck to come, it seems like forever (probably only waited 10 minutes or so), but they finally arrive:









All loaded up, I drive back 60 miles to home and await delivery of my new toy. Snagged a shot of the car on the way home:



And here it is, resting in the garage:



I have worked on the car on and off during the week when I get free time. I've been busy taking care of random house stuff, and will update with some pictures of what I've been doing. As of now, it's time to eat dinner, cheers!
 
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#4 ·
Nice! I remember seeing this car on Craigslist.. yea from what I remember it needs a whole fuel upgrade.. I did it on mine..(gas tank,pump, filter, rubber lines).. well worth it..
Shame u can't make it to our meet. You and jzak might battle it out for cleanest "stock" crx..
Well there will be many more..
Also welcome!!

Sent from i.d.s
 
#8 ·
Nar said:
Sweet, handed from one enthusiast to another. This car and you are very lucky! :)b My 1st crx was a TGP, this brings back some good memories. :)b Welcome to the community. :)
Thanks, there is nothing quite like your first car. Although mine was a 91 Civic Si, this is the next best thing.

snarflebits said:
Alright! Another north Texas rex :) that's one clean car. Congrats

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
Haha, snarflebits makes me laugh. Thanks for the kind words.

Tian90crx said:
Nice! I remember seeing this car on Craigslist.. yea from what I remember it needs a whole fuel upgrade.. I did it on mine..(gas tank,pump, filter, rubber lines).. well worth it..
Shame u can't make it to our meet. You and jzak might battle it out for cleanest "stock" crx..
Well there will be many more..
Also welcome!!

Sent from i.d.s
You're correct, this car has been sitting for the past 7 years, so it's definitely in need of reconditioning. I will get into that in some other posts :) As far as being the cleanest CRX, I'm trying my best :)

Rexmen said:
Good start man in for this!! :)b
Thanks!

TWEEkS said:
I would kill to find an "unmolested" honda in Southern Cali :cry:
Treat her right!!
I've seen a lot of clean cars in Cali, but I agree that it is hard to find one that is stock and original. But keep in mind, I've been looking for the right one since 2005!
 
#9 ·
you're lucky. she is a beauty. i paid $400 for my 91 rio red hf. doors, quarters and hatch all need replaced. i might fix the hatch, but who ever had it decided that a wiper delete using bondo was a smart idea. an looks like they had a spoiler on there too. i've wanted a rex for about 5 years now. my rex had 294k when i bought her. still had the original d15b6, but it was worn out and wouldn't start. i found hmotorsonline and steve there took great care of me. it took me roughly 4 months of saving. i didn't spend any money on myself. i paid my bills, tool payment and gas. everything went into the bank for the rex. bought my b16a from hmo, and got everything ready over winter. my boss let me use his barn behind the auto body where i work. i just started driving it monday night of the week. i couldn't stop shaking from excitement. i'm hooked. :)b
 
#10 ·
mugendreamsickle said:
you're lucky. she is a beauty. i paid $400 for my 91 rio red hf. doors, quarters and hatch all need replaced. i might fix the hatch, but who ever had it decided that a wiper delete using bondo was a smart idea. an looks like they had a spoiler on there too. i've wanted a rex for about 5 years now. my rex had 294k when i bought her. still had the original d15b6, but it was worn out and wouldn't start. i found hmotorsonline and steve there took great care of me. it took me roughly 4 months of saving. i didn't spend any money on myself. i paid my bills, tool payment and gas. everything went into the bank for the rex. bought my b16a from hmo, and got everything ready over winter. my boss let me use his barn behind the auto body where i work. i just started driving it monday night of the week. i couldn't stop shaking from excitement. i'm hooked. :)b
Continue to work hard and the money will follow. If you can learn anything from cars and this site, is that you should not worry what other people have or are doing. Some can afford the most expensive parts, some can barely keep their cars running. All that matters is that you have a CRX! Enjoy what you have, live within your means, and you will be happy!
 
#12 ·
AntonioRexSi said:
That's nice :D I was a late bloomer lol I recently bought my first Honda a 89 Si I love it!! Although it needs work its something that I'm looking forward in doing!!

---
I am here: http://tapatalk.com/map.php?agxgm3
The beauty of life is that you're never to old to learn something new, enjoy it.

So the day after I picked it up, I started to attack the car. As some of you may know, the car has been sitting for several years, but at least it was stored in a garage. While it is a little dirty, it's nothing that can't be helped with a solid detail. However, my first point of interest is the interior.

I'm pretty meticulous, and one thing I always do whenever I pick up a new car, is rip the interior out and clean it as much as possible. While the car will eventually get dirty again, I know that most owners have never removed the interior panels of their car, and what you can find behind them is sometimes a surprise. Luckily with this car, it really was pretty clean despite the age and mileage.

The first thing I did was remove the seats:







My garage still isn't organized from moving in :) I plan on building a workbench to go against the wall behind the seats in the picture above. The carpet looks to be in a great shape for 21 years of age, just a few stains that need to be cleaned.

Charles had mentioned that he had an alarm system and power door locks installed when he first purchased the car. This might be a good thing to some people, but I absolutely loath aftermarket alarm systems. Most of the time, the installs are sub par, and it messes with the OEM components of the car. Sadly this install was no exception. No offense to whoever Charles had do the install, but I was not happy with the results.

I removed the door panels to take out the door lock actuators. I still need to decide what material to use for new vapor barriers:





Pic of the actuator:


After ripping those out, I moved on to the dash. Here's a quick pic of the carpet after vacuuming the loose dirt.




The kick panel under the steering wheel was housing two kill switches. There was even a third located in the trunk of the car. Again, not a fan at all:







The brain for the alarm was mounted under the center console:


I spent a couple hours removing all the wiring, zip ties, and alarm components. Also removed all kill switches and butt connectors, and soldered the fuel pump wiring back to stock. Many thanks to the installer who left me an inch of wire next to the plug, that was fun :rolleyes1: After all was said and done, this is what was removed:



So with the alarm gone, I let the car sit for a week or so. I had some other obligations for work, home, and family to take care of. Next post will show what I was able to do with the car earlier this week.
 
#15 ·
snarflebits said:
Alarms.... who knew they could be so much fun. :)
Fun for approximately 2 hours :lol:

Tian90crx said:
i'm so jealous of ur garage!!
:shock: crx floormats! and seats in awesome condition!
The garage is my man zone! I take my shoes off when I work in there :lol: The flooring and paint cost about as much as the CRX, but worth every penny :) If anyone needs a referral on garage flooring, I was VERY pleased with the work done. Lifetime warranty as well, and it's a small business owner who does all of the work himself.

As for the floormats, they have seen better days, but I will have them reconditioned. Plan on getting them redyed black and the CRX logo put back on. I wonder if there's a way to just dye the outer border TGP?

I was also pleasantly surprised with the seats. The driver side does have some deteriorated foam I can feel under the cover, but most importantly the cloth isn't ripped!
 
#16 ·
So the past two days I've been able to work on the CRX a little after work. With the alarm out, it was time to move onto the rear section of the interior. Removing the panels reminded me why I love working on these cars so much; it's so easy! Probably had the whole rear gutted in 15 mins or so.

Took some pics to show the condition of the paint/metal under the panels:











Mostly dirt and some random debris that needs to be cleaned up:



Interior is taking over the third bay!

 
#17 ·
Yesterday I was able to clean up the rear of the car. Here are the fruits of my labor :)











It was really cool to see that this car still had the mat that goes under the spare. I cleaned that up as well:





After cleaning:





Mat put back in, and ready to move onto cleaning the interior plastics. Very pleased with the results, it looks brand new back there!









Check out the top hat on the shock, 21 years old and still fresh (I know this doesn't see the elements, but still!).

 
#18 ·
nice..
i would recommend some koni and GC combo... lifetime warranty.
Gives the chance to lower your car without it feeling like you're driving a racecar..
btw.. do you know what type of poly or thing did the guy use on your garage?
I see he added flakes, and that's what i've been wanting to do to mine. My friend does floors and he said if i found the material me and him could do it. :)b
 
#20 ·
Tian90crx said:
nice..
i would recommend some koni and GC combo... lifetime warranty.
Gives the chance to lower your car without it feeling like you're driving a racecar..
btw.. do you know what type of poly or thing did the guy use on your garage?
I see he added flakes, and that's what i've been wanting to do to mine. My friend does floors and he said if i found the material me and him could do it. :)b
I have had the Koni's in many cars, love em. Stock will be fine for now though.

The floor is polyaspartic coating, not epoxy. Chips are different colored vinyl.

JDMBOYof210 said:
Such a nice crx man cant wait to see whats in store for it :)b
Thanks! Just plan on restoring it back to running stock condition for now.
 
#22 ·
justinwinn said:
:shock:

I wish my Rex was this clean!! Congrats on the find, I wanna do everything you are when I'm done making it fast. :p
Thanks, I was lucky to find this when I did :) The cleaning is easy, but time consuming. However the end result is very rewarding.
 
#24 ·
Sweet ride man! And great introduction to the community. I haven't been around long here that long but sure plan on being here for a while. I can't wait to get my hands on my CR-X again one day and start enjoying it. That is super clean! I think I posted on the for sale thread saying how nice it was and glws and got my thread removed :lol:

And it's very nice to see you're just putting it back to stock running condition. And I installed an Compustar remote starter/alarm with power door locks in mine a few years back and it's the next best thing since sliced bread. Not so much for the remote start (only used in the winter) but more so for the power door locks. But I did do the install myself so I made sure to do a good job with it. I spaced out the install over a 3 day period so as to not rush it.
 
#25 ·
Layspeed said:
Sweet ride man! And great introduction to the community. I haven't been around long here that long but sure plan on being here for a while. I can't wait to get my hands on my CR-X again one day and start enjoying it. That is super clean! I think I posted on the for sale thread saying how nice it was and glws and got my thread removed :lol:

And it's very nice to see you're just putting it back to stock running condition. And I installed an Compustar remote starter/alarm with power door locks in mine a few years back and it's the next best thing since sliced bread. Not so much for the remote start (only used in the winter) but more so for the power door locks. But I did do the install myself so I made sure to do a good job with it. I spaced out the install over a 3 day period so as to not rush it.
Thanks! I'm not one for "build" threads, but for this car it would be a waste not to document my experience with it. I've had so many cars in the past that I've poured countless hours into that I have so little to show for now because I didn't take the time to pull the camera out.

I agree that power locks are definitely a nice feature. However that's why my CL Type-S is for :) I don't mind the lack of power features in the CRX, it makes the car that much more nostalgic.

On another note, what does everyone use for purchasing OEM Honda Parts? I've always used hondapartsdeals.com; but I just found hondapartsnow.com and really like that they show you if a part is discontinued or not. I used to have a friend that worked in the parts department of Honda back in IL; haven't made such a friend just yet here in TX :(
 
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