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Ef yu's crx

31K views 125 replies 34 participants last post by  ef yu 
#1 ·
Trying to keep a Log for a car that i purchased.

Story is that I purchased the car back in December of 12'.
I was in LA county at the time when the deal came up back at home (norcal)
I got on it, emailed the seller and he contacted me first. We talked back and fourth for an hour or so. Heres what the previous owner sent me.



Busted windshield


it had a momo wheel, not too bad of a choice. Ill be switching it out for oem later.




He had the car since he was in high school. Not sure if he was the second owner or what but the car sure had its fair share of abuse during its 288k miles

The following days later, I had my brothers check it out and they said it was cool. It seemed like it was a deal considering it was running and complete. For the price, i couldn't complain, til later.

As soon as they brought the car home they sent me some poorly skilled pictures lol.
Heres what they sent me while i was in SoCal for the time being.

Some 1/4 panel damage....=(




minor dents


cutout for foglights...ill fix this.


Frame looks straight.




Some weird rust spots? dont know how this happened....




and the only best picture i got from my brothers.


Following week, i finally arrive home. I couldnt wait to see what was actually up with the car but as i know it, Airline lost my luggage. lol. Woohoo!

I still went home and cleaned up the car for a few hours.

Got rid of that intake...Somewhat cleaned it. I already purchased a MAJOR tune up parts from Hondapartsunlimited.








Some Dynamat was installed during its life...


Trying to fix the climate control...lol i couldnt go on and finish it. just looked awful.






Also found out that the driver side quarter panel has been worked on =(




Some fender damage as well....


I dont know why but i didnt take any pics of the passenger side quarter panel before. It didnt seem that bad but it was pretty bad. things didnt lined up nor was the skin of the panel even attached to the body anymore. So me and my very good friend tony got to work. Mostly he did it lol.









Test fitting the lights to see how they fit.


The day was almost ending and i had gotten some tires so i had to get the wheels off.
started goofing around to make the day feel better lol.




While this was being done, my brother came to help too. He installed the waterpump/ belt and tensioner. Cleaned up the timing covers and reinstalled.


The next day we got back on it. With no time wasting, we already applied and sanded the body filler.












I welded up the seams to the rear panels, and used window weld to seal it.
Wish i got before pics.






I fixed the rust from the A pillar. rust was pretty deep but i got it to work out.


While cleaning up, i found this. haha I guess the previous owner high school days were fun.


We got bored and wanted to start something different. The quarter panel was such a pain in the butt to line up.
I told my friend Tony that i wanted to install some OEM foglights. Of course i didnt wanna dish out 300 for a pair of fogs that i will likely seem them crack.
Heres the work being started on it.






nerve racking when u cut your only bumper lol. We applied filler onto the bumper as well since the bumper is fairly easy to paint, we said why not.


Alright, it was fun playing with the bumper but its time to get back to business.
Was trying to capture the line correctly.






Here it is all primer-ed up and possibly ready for paint.






As that was drying, we started working on the roof and the hood. My god was that a mess.....sigh.




With the bumper on for giggles.


Started to felt that i neglected my first crx.


couple weeks later, we wanted to paint this sucker to get our motivation back.








Of course you didnt expect a actual spray gun now....I am trying to fit this into my budget.







We got the usual massive orange peel from it not being in a booth and not with a real paint gun. we sanded it down and got to buffing it.












Not too shabby if i might say.

Ill post more pics later.
 
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#102 ·
I am sorry to hear this...

Moral of the story for me is to never let your gf sister drive your car! Perhaps she should not be driving if she is hitting parked cars?

This is terrible news. I hope you are able repair it and get it back on the road. A good amt of work went into this...
 
#105 ·
AZCRXSI said:
I am sorry to hear this...

Moral of the story for me is to never let your gf sister drive your car! Perhaps she should not be driving if she is hitting parked cars?

This is terrible news. I hope you are able repair it and get it back on the road. A good amt of work went into this...
lol well i returned a favor that she did for me so it was the least i can do. in the end, its just a car.

NovaVTEC said:
Omg that is really bad. I'm sorry for your beautiful car. What are you going to do with this?
I guess my next quest is to find a way to pull the pillar back down to atleast get the door to align properly ,if not better than its state now.

selling it now just hurts my feelings since i cant exactly get a decent price out of it so i guess im going to keep it for now. my only problem right now is the wheel being about 1-2 inches pushed back from its center. the only thing i can think of replacing is the rear cross member + front cross member. and if that doesnt fix then knuckle + upper control arm + shock/spring. sounds like a heep of work to do if i ever plan on getting it on the road properly.

ive also moved on over to an awd vehicle so this car may or may not be put on the back burner til i get extra funds.
 
#106 ·
sorry for your loss man. Seriously people have rear ended my parked car over the years. With the money ad effort that I have put into my car, I hate to see it go but I am very close to sending her to the yard and just import a jdm vehicle. It will cost me roughly the same amount to fix my car.
 
#108 ·
The windshield definitely needs to be replaced but i am on the fence about it as the moldings cannot be saved when removing the old windshield. I never liked their universal moldings, just didnt fit right.
anyways here are the pics as of now.






Drove the car 7 hours straight from norther california to southern california and it didnt gave me one problem but after driving a 6 cylinder car for two years, the b16 just isnt cutting it anymore. definitely will have to find ways to squeeze more hp out of this thing.
 
#109 ·
sCoRe !! nice man :)b

JDM front / even the hood looks JDM , can't really tell though.
Minty interior , cool
not really a big fan of most wings on the hatch.
I only like the mugen wing / seibon CF clone ( i got the Seibon , going on soon )
But of all the other wings i don't like ... i like this one the best .. ;) haha

the paint looks pretty good too ..
just need to paint that front bumper , right ?

Also, i'm pretty sure you can still get the OEM honda front window seal.

BTW: my daughter has a CRX in SoCal that could use that B16 ;)

anyways .. nice find .. looking forward to updates ..

Photo TIP: cloudy day , best light you can get , it's like the clouds are one huge softbox ;)
less shadows / reflections / better color translation etc etc

PS: i just realized the correlation of your screen name and austin powers .. lol .. great screen name :tongueblue:
 
#110 ·
JeffWilliamsUSA said:
sCoRe !! nice man :)b

JDM front / even the hood looks JDM , can't really tell though.
Minty interior , cool
not really a big fan of most wings on the hatch.
I only like the mugen wing / seibon CF clone ( i got the Seibon , going on soon )
But of all the other wings i don't like ... i like this one the best .. ;) haha

the paint looks pretty good too ..
just need to paint that front bumper , right ?

Also, i'm pretty sure you can still get the OEM honda front window seal.

BTW: my daughter has a CRX in SoCal that could use that B16 ;)

anyways .. nice find .. looking forward to updates ..

Photo TIP: cloudy day , best light you can get , it's like the clouds are one huge softbox ;)
less shadows / reflections / better color translation etc etc

PS: i just realized the correlation of your screen name and austin powers .. lol .. great screen name :tongueblue:
Thanks, its not a recent purchase or anything. Ive had the crx for over 10 years now. it sat for the last 4 years until last week. still running like a champ but the vtec solenoid gasket is leaking horrible every time vtec engages. The car rattles so freaking much. I will need to find some softer mounts to install as the current one is just too stiff.
Yeah it has a jdm hood, interior is decent. cant complain lol.
Paint is definitely better on picture than in person. haha. Paint will need help but i really dont want to repaint this thing. I may just do a vinyl wrap because all my neighbors have new cars and me having the oldest car in the city with crappy paint looks bad. lol.
The paint on the bumper is not good. cracks and peels everywhere. I am trying to find a usdm 90-91 front bumper to replace it as i will be daily-ing the car to school and don't want to risk my bumper lights being stolen.
If i take out the b16, i will let you know. :D

Definitely some stuff i plan on doing:
AC (neeeeeed)
turbo? lol
softer motor mounts
vinyl wrap
 
#111 ·
I started taking the car apart to prepare it for vinyl wrapping. Going to have it washed later today and then possibly start tonight if not, tomorrow. Since writing is boring and everybody likes pictures here are a few. Dont mind the messy tools, i got lazy (over 90 degrees+ in the garage)




And here is my test wrap. (came out decent, 7/10, at this rate, the car will look good from 10ft away lol) i need a professional wrapper to do this...



This was also a pic from the other day when there was a fire the next city over down here in SOCAL, pretty crazy. the sunlight+smoke+whatever else made a bright orange glow on everything. Was told by the property management to stay indoors.
 
#112 ·
Hip-a-Hop , hip-hip hoppin, don't stop rockin to the boogie , to the boogie to be .. :rolleyes1: lol
Ok , so i'm not a professional wrapper .. :p

Looks pretty darn good for your first attempt.
My nephew does this professionally and he says it's all about the heat and the right tools.
Get a good felt covered squeegie thingy ..

I want to wrap my DD in that color / chrome wrap ..
I saw a green CRX on the web that looked so awesome i downloaded the photo for a screen saver.
The color choices are gold / silver / red / blue / pink < yuk / purple ..
I'd really like to do it in purple / chrome .. :) plain silver would be pretty cool too ..
I think gold might be over-kill ..
anyways .. looking forward to updates on your progress ..
 
#113 ·
Thanks for the tip.
i didnt get much done, laying it down and stretching/heating/more pulling is very tough. I was working on the driver door but as soon as i pulled the wrap off to stretch it out, the paint came off with it. I was almost ready to call it quits and just hire someone to do it . I got so frustrated with the hood coming out crappy (wrinkles everywhere) and the door paint coming off, I left it alone to go shopping with the gf. I have to give props to those who have done it because this is not an easy task for an average person. Here are some pics from todays mishaps.




I was messing with some small strips of vinyl and decided to see if i could blend in small pieces together for the A pillar. depending if i have enough, i may or may not go with this idea.




Anddddddddddddd here was tonights dinner.
 
#114 ·
Got some more done today, definitely getting the hang of it but really tough on your hands.
As i said the day before, the driver door paint came off after trying to reapply the vinyl. Here was when i thought i was at the point of no return lol.


and the shot of the driver side before...


and after...

Looks so much better (at a bit of distant...lol)


Passenger side...


Thats all for now, still need to do the roof, front and rear bumpers. cant wait for the finish outcome, definitely going to look better than what it was before.
 
#115 ·
well, i finally got time to finish things up today. Been really busy with summer school + apartment lease is over so we will need to find a new place to live. In the mean time, i will try to take advantage of the garage while i still have it. I installed the moldings back (repainted them) did some small tune up (fuel filter, air filter, pcv valve, vtec solenoid gasket, distributor seal)

anyways, onto the pics.
Here is before i started working on the car today. I drove it to school and back for 5 days like this lol, moldings missing and all.


and here is when i had just about finished



I definitely need to source a new bumper since the current one is a bit chewed up and needs some work. plus its missing the bumper support, i actually made one out of L shaped aluminum bars (thats why the bumper doesnt line up very well) . But i think this vinyl idea will need some work as i would like to redo the roof, hood and bumpers. in the mean time, this will do.
 
#117 ·
JeffWilliamsUSA said:
the wrap looks great man .. :)b
did you do the back bumper too ?
how was it wrapping the bumpers ?
what was the most difficult part ? bumpers ?
Thanks! i did do the back bumper. stretched it quite hard to curve around the bend but after sitting in the hot 100 degree weather, the wrap shriveled and crumpled. I didnt use a large enough sheet to cover it well enough where when i handled the stretch, the adhesive would get dirty and didnt stick well. since the corners of the bumper were where it got loose, i cut out that section and place over another piece of vinyl just to cover the mess. its a piss-poor job but i will do everything over (the sectioned part) once i have more time and once i purchase more wrap.

Here is a pic of it right after i finished wrapping the back bumper. you can start to see the wrinkles in the corner.


The most difficult part was the hood,roof, and bumpers. everything else was nearly flat that it didnt take much effort. However, the paint on the crx was already bad that when ever i peeled off the wrap, old paint would come off as well, so i tried to do everything in one shot. In the end, this was a great learning experience for me as i should never get into this business and leave it to the pros. lol. I think ill just stick to painting. :rofl:

In other news, my shift linkage is crappy (fifth gear almost touches the side of the console), gas cap didnt seal and had fuel spewing out when taking hard turns and
the shifter also snapped at the threads (i had a shifter extension on which is probably why it broke there...)



Im thinking if i should just buy a whole new linkage as the current one i have now, i have no idea what brand and or if its custom. I just know that the whole shifting locations are about half an inch or so to the right. plus the seat bushing will need to be replaced.
 
#118 ·
I'd highly recommend Wicked's zero-play shift linkage; it's been great on my car.

What extension was that? I've got a Circuit Hero one that I bought but never threw on, but if it's going to be snapping in two at any time, I'd prefer not to put it on at all. :eek:
 
#120 ·
Finally some time to update with the crx. shes been driving like a champ with no issues what-so-ever. I am needing a new car alarm as the remotes for this current one is falling apart. (screen doesn't show display and randomly restarts) Its an old CompuStar alarm that has lasted well enough through water and tough banging.

I also "tighten" up the shift linkage at the seat bushing. it was a sunday and i took it apart to find out why the shifter felt sloppy and moves up and down. the seat bushing expanded to where the shifter ball would slide up and down like a loose 2-dollar hooker. so i took the bushing, wrapped some black electrical tape and threw it back in. felt SOOOO much better but i know its not a permanent fix haha. itll do, itll do.

I am also moving out in a month and need to do some maintenance that i will not be able to do without a garage. definitely going to change out the trans oil, thinking of putting in AC-Delco/GM synchromesh friction modified oil. Has anyone tried it? thoughts? Trans thats in there right now doesnt grind normally but occasionally/randomly does from who knows what.

tommy said:
I'd highly recommend Wicked's zero-play shift linkage; it's been great on my car.

What extension was that? I've got a Circuit Hero one that I bought but never threw on, but if it's going to be snapping in two at any time, I'd prefer not to put it on at all. :eek:
I think it was a circuit brand. its been 5+ years since i bought anything for the car. but i believe that the extender didnt sit all the way down at the threads which caused it to snap at the last few threads. I have been trying to find ways to eliminate the play in the linkage. just cant spend the dough on it yet. I will just have to work with what i have so the car doesnt become a money pit.

DopedUpED9 said:
If you don't mind me asking...How much did it cost you to wrap that CRX?
Not at all, the total price, including some small tools and heat gun was a little over 100?. mind you, I am located in southern california where vinyl wraps are so common now, the price has gone down. let me try to break it down.
it was about 80 bucks for the wrap, 5ft x 25ft (close call, little to no room for error) , 15 bucks on a Harbor freight heat gun, $1 cotton gloves, $3 "felted squeegee" that my gf made for me from the arts and craft store, and lots of beer. I will have to buy more wrap as the front and rear bumpers will need to be redone.
 
#121 ·
I noticed about a week ago that my brakes were low, they were nearing the end of the indicators. Since i finished summer school a few days ago, i finally got around to changing them out. Previous brake pad set were EBC green stuff but since i didnt wanna fork over 50 bucks for another set (college-broke-life) i settled for Power-Stops ceramic pads which were extremely affordable.
Everything went in as normal. lube this, that, unbolt and bolt andddd done. front pads done in less than 30 minutes.

..just looked at my photos and i didnt take a single picture of the brakes... lol o well. but i did take pictures of something else.


there was so much grease over (axle boot ripped) the brake lines that i had forgotten i installed steel braided lines a long time ago. :rofl:


Also there was this on the passenger side...


...I think i may need new axles soon. lol. i didnt even realized that half the boot was missing. I bet theres 1000 miles + of dirt/debris inside those bearings. Didnt expect to spend more money after doing brakes but thats what happens when you have an old car. I guess my brake-saving is going towards the axles. :rolleyes1:
 
#122 ·
Started working on the crx last night. doing what? duct taping my axle boots lol :rofl: , yes this is some ghetto trash work but i dont want it getting any worse... but I doubt itll help since it probably ripped a while back. Either way, this is only a temp job until the new axles come in.


annnd the master piece


Also took the shifter apart again to wrap the seat bushing in duct tape to prevent it from sliding up and down. I really need to go buy a bushing but every time i come to think about fixing it, its always late at night. Also while the shifter was out, i took a 14 mm nut and "rethreaded" the shifter. it worked lol. took a lot of muscle and some wd-40 to lubricate it.



Compared to before when it snapped.


Id say this was a great fix for spending no money.
 
#126 ·
shorty_boy said:
Nice wrap. It looks like the practice paid off.
Thanks, but its definitely a 5 foot away wrap lol. Down the road i will be painting the car a different color. most likely the y49 color. always wanted the y49 crx but not its curse.

Well its been about 3 weeks since it was last driven, I rolled the car out of the garage and washed it in the rain today. Neighbors looked at me weird, which i can see why lol, but Southern California is still in a drought. Rolled the car back into the garage and thats where its going to sit for another week until I drive



Im trying to find a front support for the front bumper since it doesn't sit flush. If anyone has one here in socal, pm me.
 
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