cr-x exclusive

[audmcrx]

Last December I lost my ef7 (https://crxcommunity.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=243410) thanks to an old man who decided he would break the road rules and since then I have been thinking about what to buy to replace it seeing as it was written off meaning I couldn't repair it and start driving it again.
I thought about importing an SiR or a skyline but I happened across this after talking to a new friend about his CR-X. Long story short I picked it up and started work getting it back on the road and looking as good as I could get it




It is a 1989 CR-X Si Exclusive, imported into Australia in 2005 and was last registered in 2009, meaning its been sitting up in the shed I bought it from for 10 years or so.
The odometer shows 60,000 km and besides the seats the interior is in excellent condition, just very dirty
The plan is to clean the entire car up and have it as a nice weekender, completely standard outside of some mugen parts I will take off my old car


The seats will be recovered once the car is mechanically sound, using the door cards to get the right colour

It didnt take long to have all the easy to reach pieces out of the car and cleaned off

[audmcrx]

Time was not kind to this half full tank, good thing I have a spare car to take parts from. The replacement tank is minty fresh inside and out.

Because the fuel pump and sender harness is different for the early and late model cars I had to modify the tank wiring to work with the old style double stacked connector. You can see the facelift plug on the far left.
I ran out of solder after tinning all the wires so I used a screw connector as a placeholder just for testing pressure.

I nabbed a bunch of parts which should be going on the car over the next few days to freshen the engine up a bit

With the fuel tank and pump swapped over and a careful going over of the engine itself the car now starts and runs like it should, you couldn't tell its sat for 10 years. I will swap the pod filter and piping out for a factory air box when I have some time, along with a standard black valve cover and a new manifold

[Tasos_7R]

Wow!!! Such a nice and rare Rex!!! Well done!!

[shortA25]

Tan interior is not my favorite but I certainly appreciate the condition and rarity of that trim level. Nice job finding a one of the rarest CRXs in that condition.

[audmcrx]

Wow!!! Such a nice and rare Rex!!! Well done!!

Thank you very much

Tan interior is not my favorite

It certainly is very polarizing, especially when every other cr-x interior is a very dark colour

I havent been doing anything very interesting over the past few days other than cleaning up interior pieces. Everything is just about done save for a few little things here and there, I started cleaning the carpet using a product that leaves behind very little residue making it perfect for carpets in cars, especially when I didn't want to remove it. The drivers side has been done whilst the passenger side has only been vacuumed


The only plastics left to clean are the two large rear pieces, so they were removed and stuffed into my daily so I could take them home to work on. The speaker covers are a bit faded unfortunately so I will need to look into a dye to bring them back

[Robb]

wow.
thats stinkin rare !

[audmcrx]

thats stinkin rare !

You betcha

Simple stuff recently, filters and other wear items were delayed in shipping which threw my schedule off completely.
Though it did give me time to clean the seat belts, black to tan once again
Very filthy, but luckily it was a very easy procedure. Sprayed down with a mixture of hot water and dish-washing powder then left to sit for a few minutes to really soak through

Pressure wash it off and the crap comes right out, minty


The buckles were pretty bad too but they only needed a wipe over with some product and came up perfect

[Baker]

With only 350 produced, I would have thought Honda would have made it more special.

Very nice car though!

[Hadtstec]

Awesome, great to see a complete Exclusive.

[budget_crx]

I can't wait to follow this, I was wondering what happened to those two. I am so glad to see another Exclusive owner that speaks english, we are going to have to chat a bit

[audmcrx]

With only 350 produced, I would have thought Honda would have made it more special

I feel as though they did a pretty good job, nowhere else did you see an interior like this in japan and it really makes it stand out due to how European it looks. More power maybe but it was pre-SiR

Awesome, great to see a complete Exclusive.

Thank you, I hope I can get it back to how it should be

I can't wait to follow this, I was wondering what happened to those two. I am so glad to see another Exclusive owner that speaks english, we are going to have to chat a bit

I was very close to taking them both but I just couldnt spend the amount the seller wanted, I wouldnt have had anything left over to actually start working on them. The second one is still where I saw them both and will probably never leave
Do you have a list of owners? I have managed to find evidence of 13 existing which is very unusual in my opinion, especially when they made 350 cars

Ive been doing a bunch of stuff to get the car ready for the road so I can then start focusing on the interior
My plan with the car is to get it running and driving perfectly, then fix the interior as best I can, then start on bodywork
I put my SW4 wheel in the car to replace the momo it came with, the slanted three spoke design is very close to the oem wheel and with it being slightly smaller it gives the car a sportier feel


With the help of my work I was able to legally drive the car for a day and have it inspected for registration, which it passed. The only issue is that I quickly realised all the bushings were toast and the ride was absolutely terrible, beyond something you could actually put up with so I ordered all new bushings. I had a few I bought for my old car that never made it in so I only had to buy a couple which was nice.
The cannon will go


Whilst waiting for the bushings I set to work cleaning up the engine bay, the pod filter and pipe went and I dug out a spare valve cover from my shed to paint black to replace the red one that came with the car. I think it has come together very nicely, all that is left is to give it a detail and to replace the exhaust manifold which I will do when I have time to do the entire system.
New oem valve cover gaskets and washers were used


Here is a closeup on the cover, unfortunately the original red leads had gotten on in age so I substituted some NGK ones, down the line I will replace them with OEM again


When the bushings arrive they will be installed along with my mugen suspension that was supposed to go in my last car but never made it. I have also taken a colour sample from one of the seats to a trimmer so he can get the closest colours for me to pick from for the repairs

[budget_crx]

I was very close to taking them both but I just couldnt spend the amount the seller wanted, I wouldnt have had anything left over to actually start working on them. The second one is still where I saw them both and will probably never leave
Do you have a list of owners? I have managed to find evidence of 13 existing which is very unusual in my opinion, especially when they made 350 cars

I do not, I have been trying to put together some kind of registry to track as many as possible but it has not been working well. Since they are so rare finding other owners has been very difficult and a few that I have found didn't want to share much info on their cars. Its easier to find people that have swapped in the interior to be honest, I've tried to keep track of those as well.

[audmcrx]

I have been trying to put together some kind of registry to track as many as possible but it has not been working well. Since they are so rare finding other owners has been very difficult and a few that I have found didn't want to share much info on their cars. Its easier to find people that have swapped in the interior to be honest, I've tried to keep track of those as well.

Here is what ive come up with so far, im sure im missing a few. This cant be all thats left from the original 350
https://files.catbox.moe/1ex813.jpg Im unsure if this link will work, it seems to break a lot because its such a big image
I did think about starting a small site that lists them all but I dont think I have enough to justify it

[Leon]

Great to see this, and on the forum, just when you think it's dead a nice rare CRX pops up. Good luck with cleaning her up and getting her back to it's former glory

[audmcrx]

Great to see this, and on the forum, just when you think it's dead a nice rare CRX pops up. Good luck with cleaning her up and getting her back to it's former glory

Thank you very much, there is much work to do

Recently I have put orders in across the internet for replacement parts, ball joints, boots, bushings, the works.
So far everything for the rear end minus the compensator arm bushings has arrived meaning I was able to start work stripping the car of its suspension components.



I took note of the fact the hubs were pretty crusty, essentially confirming the fact the car had spent a winter or two being used in japan
I pulled the same parts from my ef7 parts car and it looks a bit bett.er, probably because that car was taken from Japan in 1998 leaving it very little time to be ruined by winter weather.
The main point of concern were the trailing arm bushings, visually toasted and once I got the whole thing off the car I instantly saw they were just about ready to fall apart completely


Ill be speaking to a local mechanic in order to have the bushing pressed in, I dont have the space for a press in my garage unfortunately.
I gave the parts off the ef7 a clean, they will get dirty pretty quick under the car but its nice to clean everything as I go. I will likely clean and paint the inside of the wheel wells tomorrow to tidy those up too


Hopefully the next post will be the front end, if everything arrives in good time

[Leon]

It's really easy to do those trailing arm bushings yourself, no need for a press really. Just a good hammer and wack those right out.

[audmcrx]

It's really easy to do those trailing arm bushings yourself, no need for a press really. Just a good hammer and wack those right out.

Thats true but I wanted all of them done and a few are tricky with the protruding sections

Here is the rear end all together, it still needs to be tightened down and have the brakes finished as you can see

Back on the ground all finished


The front was next so it all came out and I started working on some of the things that had to be taken care of, like axles and tie rods



I also bought another set of cf-48 wheels as my last set were ruined in the crash. Down the line I will go over them and clean them up like I did before with the others.
They are a pretty odd wheel but I like them a lot, especially with the aero covers


I lucked out and managed to buy some NOS seals for the doors and boot, they wont be going on for a while as I want to have some work done to the body before anything like that


I also replaced the rear struts as they were not working in the slightest and leaking fluid onto the rear plastics which isnt very nice


I am hoping that over the weekend I will have the front arms back with new bushings and a few extra pieces I bought off the internet in hand so it can be put back together completely

[Robb]

Good work.. make a video when done.

[CrxMusix13]

Love it. Keep up the good work!

[audmcrx]

Good work.. make a video when done.

I will for sure, it wont be until I have the seats finished at least though

Love it. Keep up the good work!

Thank you very much

A bit more work has been done, once again I forgot to take photos
I got the front suspension pieces back and all new bushings have been pressed in so the car is now back on the ground

I took it out and drove it around for 2 days to check it all out and see if anything needed to be adjusted or if any new issues came up. First real use in 10 years!

It all went pretty well until the second afternoon when I saw a pool of fluid in the garage where the car was parked
It turned out to be power steering fluid so I took a look under the car to see where it was coming from and the rack had been leaking pretty bad, a steady drip was coming out the passenger side. Luckily the fluid hadnt run dry and the reservoir was still half full.
I took the rack out of my ef7 and gave it a refresh ready to be swapped in


At the time of posting the old rack is out and the replacement has been fitted, I still need to reinstall the tie rods but that is pretty easy work compared to replacing the rack itself.
I have also found out that I can fit the twin tip system I used on my old car without replacing the exhaust manifold, it will be nice to have it a bit less ridiculous. At the moment there is a cannon and a cat delete so its very loud
https://files.catbox.moe/jvnmm4.webm

[Nicky's 91Si]

car looks amazing brother! any updates in the last month? would love to see another photoshoot done!

[audmcrx]

car looks amazing brother! any updates in the last month? would love to see another photoshoot done!

Thank you, it is coming along slowly unfortunately but thats how these things always go

I finally managed to source the last bushing set I needed so I can get those in and have the car aligned which means I can replace the ancient tyres and put my mugen wheels on
I swapped the exhaust to what was on my ef7, which is a lot nicer to listen to and look at, down the line I will get something a bit nicer again but it all depends on what comes up for sale



I had the car out again and its all going smoothly, it rides near perfect (alignment will fix the remaining issue) and there are no leaks anymore with the new steering rack


Next job will be brakes, refresh the spare calipers I have and install them along with some new discs and pads
I am on the fence about using oem discs, I can only find ones for an american car (which I assume are the same) but ive got no way of making sure, and it will be a very expensive mistake if they arent the same

[audmcrx]

Its been a while and whilst I would like to say ive been too busy enjoying the car its not entirely true
Whilst ive been driving it whenever I can the lack of work done is just because im super lazy, but now with the whole chinese pandemic thing ive got time off work to actually get things done

Brakes were done first up, new discs and refreshed calipers
Here is the original disc next to a new one, they werent too bad but they did have some lip so they went


I forgot to take a photo of it all back together though, ill get that soon

Ive also started replacing a few rubber seals whilst refreshing bits and pieces
The door frames were pretty crusty so they were the first to get some love

Sanded back with some fine grit paper then primed and painted matte black

Here are the original seals next to the new ones, not too bad but a bit worn out

And all back together, ive got weather shields to go on but I will be waiting a bit for the paint to properly cure before fitting them


Unfortunately the seats were supposed to be done last year but there were pretty bad fires here and then with the virus I dont want to risk the shop being unable to source the material or get closed down and then the seats are in limbo. So they are sitting and waiting once again
In the post I have accessory belts so they will likely be next, ive never done them before so it should be fun (i doubt it)

[audmcrx]

Chipping away at some small stuff in between enjoying driving it
I had intended to install the weather shields but the 3m tape I got was too thin so I need to get more, they have been pushed back into the to do pile once again

All accessory belts were toasted, long overdue for replacement


The alternator adjustment bolt is such a pain in the ass to get to in a car with ALB, I really need to invest in a super long spanner just for that job. Between the ALB reservoir, the timing cover and the strut tower you barely have the space to fit a tool in let alone start moving it.

Replacement washer cap for obvious reasons


The center console was a mess so I pulled it and freshened it up


Installed back in the car with a newly acquired personal box

The head unit will go eventually, I have a double din console on its way, which should have been in the car to begin with but who knows why it was removed.
Im trying to track down a nice eq tape combo that I like but its proving difficult

Also recently acquired are a set of single bulb glass lights
Another factory item that has been replaced at some point for some reason. They may be installed next


Other items on the to do list include timing belt kit, with water pump, tensioner and thermostat but I need to do a bit of reading first so I dont break something whilst attempting it

[Oscar95]

It promises to be another great project