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cr-x exclusive

25K views 56 replies 17 participants last post by  audmcrx 
#1 ·
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



 
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#28 ·
signalpuke said:
Can you please attach your pictures to the forum so that they resize. They are HUGE.
I am sorry, I have resized everything in the thread and cut the majority down to under 300kb
When I looked at the thread everything would auto-resize for me so I guess I never noticed it

I have finished my the restoration on my wheels and am hoping to get the tyres mounted tomorrow
 
#30 ·
signalpuke said:
Those wheels look great! Very nice having the caps and covers too, that is super rare. What spec are they?
Thank you, it took me a bit of time to piece together the full set in the condition its in but id say it was worth it
They are 14x6 +38


The height looks crazy but its just stock, it will be adjusted a little when I get the new suspension
 
#32 ·
91torinoredcrx said:
Gotta hit them moldings and rockers with some trim paint.
I have thought about it but because I will be painting the car down the line I have been hesitant as I have plans to take care of it all at that point, im just waiting for a final part to arrive from japan

My coilovers arrived and I got them installed
They are MCA pro comforts, which are Australian built meaning warranty and support is all in country, and at the moment thats a pretty big plus not having to send things overseas




They dont drop the car very far, but they make the ride a fair bit stiffer and it really feels like im riding on rails now
During the first test drive I didnt scrape on anything which was my main concern, so the height will likely stay at this
You can compare it to the picture posted above with the aero discs, I tried to get the same angle


The car as it sits now


The next job is getting the steering rack back out and doing a full rebuild on it
The seats are finally moving too, I have looked through just about every swatch book trimmers have on hand and couldnt find anything that was close enough to the original camel tan so I have sent a patch away to be custom matched. It will likely take until early next year to get the samples back but I should in the end have it perfect (plus a heap of spare leather for future fixes)
 
#34 ·
A couple of things have happened since the last post

I was given this cover for Christmas, its great

Another great item from JDS

Today I got the seats back from the trimmer
After all the time spent preparing everything I think its paid off
Before and now



Unfortunately its been very wet here recently so I cant get better pictures until it clears up

Ive got a rebuilt steering rack waiting now too, but I forgot to order new tie rod lock washers so its all waiting on those
 
#38 ·
bambbrose said:
The seats look excellent! Great work keeping this rare and special car in top notch condition!
Krix said:
Quality work! It's looking much better
Robb said:
nice work !
Thank you, I am very happy with how the seats have turned out
With a bit of product they have darkened down a little as you can see on the right


The big job this time was getting the steering rack I had rebuild into the car, its not very enjoyable but I got it done
Old one out, along with a leaky line

New one in


New lock washers too

I also replaced the front sway bar because I had one that was in nicer shape


I did some small stuff at the rear too, like new exhaust hangers to recenter the tips on the bar

The rear bar screws were all replaced with bolts at some point so I got the proper hardware and put it all back to how it should be



Unfortunately the new rack is very stiff, at first I assumed the guy who rebuilt it just tightened the adjuster all the way but it doesnt change at all no matter how lose I make it
When I got the car realigned I spoke to the mechanic and asked him to take a peek to see if he could see anything and it was suggested that the pump was failing, I have sourced a new (used, to be rebuilt) one and i will throw that in to see if it makes any difference
If not I will need to speak to the guy who did the rack and get him to fix it
Which means pulling it out of the car again, im not happy about that idea in the slightest
So if anyone has any idea im all ears

I did some testing with some body parts ive been piecing together over the past few years but none of that will be final for at least another year or two as I need more money to start the next stage of the car

How the car sits now


 
#39 · (Edited)
It has been a while with everything going on, lockdowns and moving house.
Things have been getting done though, albeit very slowly

The steering rack was replaced for the fourth time, I used a different shop and as soon as I got it back from them I could instantly tell it was done right.
I could move it by hand with little resistance unlike the previous time.
It was a huge pain but at least its all done now and I am able to actually enjoy driving the car.

The next step is an alignment but I want to get a few small things out of the way before that because they require suspension work.
First being new drive shafts and the second being the removal of the current exhaust so I can fit my new one.
Unfortunately the people who made the system I am using currently did so as a single gigantic piece which means ive got to drop the drivers side rear lca to remove it

The system I have purchased to replace it is in 3 pieces which makes it far easier to deal with.
I got in contact with Mr Takashi Uno who operates Saclam in Japan and requested a modified version of his ef8 system to suit an ef7 which he was happy to do for me.




Its a beautiful piece of equipment and its almost a shame to have to hide it under a car, but I will be getting a cat made up so I can mount it as soon as possible.
This also means I will be removing the headers from the car and spending some time making them look presentable.

A couple of small things have also been changed.
I sourced a new airbox cover because of how damaged the one I pulled from my previous car was.
The replacement is in excellent condition.


I also managed to get a hold of a good example of the standard steering wheel that exclusives came with
It is the same leather wrapped wheel that was offered as an optional extra on other japanese models but with how much these kind of parts go for online it took me a while to actually find one for a decent price
At the moment I will keep using my mugen sw4 as I like how it feels but it is good to have original parts to swap back to down the line

I also happened across an exclusive center console whilst online looking for parts.
Its not in as good a condition as the one in my car but seeing how uncommon these parts are I thought I should pick it up whilst I had the chance.
With a bit of cleaning up it came up pretty nice (overspray has since been fixed)


Another two purchases include a double din console, which is being set aside until I can decide on a nice enough head unit to fill it, and a replacement set of pillar trims.

The ones on the car (right) were super shiny compared to the ones I picked up but the main reason was to fix the snapped tab that tucks under the trim on the door.

The car still looks the same from the outside pretty much
I have been enjoying quick drives around with the newly-fixed steering and im looking forward to hearing how it will sound with the new exhaust too.
 
#41 ·
Thank you, with how expensive the original systems are now it was really the only choice for me

After removing the old exhaust I realised that the cat was not welded on so I was able to remove it and found that it was in good condition.
It allowed me to install the system without having to wait any longer.
Down the line I will probably go get a new cat to make it look a little better underneath but for now it works.

Here are the two systems side by side, note the size in resonators in the center pipe on the saclam piece compared to the single small one on the old one

I really like the way it sits on the car, the muffler being such a low profile makes for a very tidy looking rear as you can only see it from a distance without kneeling down to look

The tips are in line with the rear bar now as well, compared to on the old system where they stuck out a good couple inches

I am very happy with it all, I want to make some videos of how it sounds on the ZC but I need some help so I am waiting for a day when my friend is available to record for me as I do a fly-by.
It no longer has a drone at idle and is surprisingly quiet until you get on it, then it wakes up. Overall I find it to be far more refined in sound compared to the cheap shop job I was running before
Hopefully within the next week or two ill be able to get the recordings.
 
#48 ·
Check with the local glass companies, one of them might have the OEM seals you need. I got lucky on the pieces I was missing, they sourced them for me. For the rear triangle glass on the sides, I opted not to use the rubber trim. I've seen a couple of EFs and EGs done the same way, and it looks much cleaner than with the rubber surrounding it.
 
#49 ·
I have considered skipping out on the glass trims but for originality I decided it was best to keep them on
The only parts I am missing that are of any importance in terms of actually getting the next stage started are these pieces for the tailgate. As far as I know the glass needs to come off in order to replace them which will make paint far easier. Ive seen a couple come up over time but they were well over what I was willing to pay, unfortunately its looking like im just going to have to bite the bullet and drop the money.
 
#53 ·
Thank you
I do have a set I picked up from the uk a few years back but I will need to wait and see how they are when it actually comes time to apply them. Genuine would have been nice but between the price tag and the fact they are 35 year old stickers I wasnt willing to spend the money and risk them not applying properly.

Unfortunately progress has stopped for now as I had to lend some money to my parents so they could have some roofing work done on their house, so until they pay me back I am unable to afford bodywork.
However I have been working on a couple of little things that ive had sitting around for ages, the main one being finally getting the double din console I bought a while back installed.

I have spent a fair bit of time on auction sites over the past year or so looking for a head unit and I recently picked one out.
I wanted something that wasnt too over the top whilst still having some cool features and within what you would consider period correct.
I ended up with this kenwood cassette eq combo from 1990, its not genuine but its better than the cd player I had previously.


Luckily the harness was intact and the previous owner had used an adapter rather than cutting the loom which made it a lot easier to work with


It took me a couple days worth of trial and error to figure out what all the butt connectors on the head unit loom were doing but I condensed it all down to something that was removable and easy to deal with. Its still a bit messy but its a lot better than what it was.


Tested and working with all speakers and its sounding pretty good as far as 35 year old car audio gear goes.
I had it set up on the passenger footwell for testing

I also took the time to pick apart a couple center consoles and piece together the best cigarette lighter and ash tray bracket


I will get my hands on mounting hardware for final install tomorrow.
Ive taken a bit of time off work so I will make more progress on preparing the kit pieces but nothing will really happen until I have money again.
 
#55 ·
Thank you, its slow progress but its still progress

Im still at the same point with the bodywork but ive spent more time working through the kit parts, rubbing them back and removing the majority of the old paint.
There is still a lot more to do with it all so I wont run out of things to do at least.


I also put together a bracket so I could have my fire extinguisher mounted instead of rolling around the foot well.
Its just some aluminium with a few hole drilled, it uses the seat bolts and is easily removable



I have made a few purchases since my last post as parts came up that I needed.
Since I replaced the right side tail light it had annoyed me that the left was worn out in comparison.
I picked up the other side off the internet.


I also acquired the top trim piece for the tailgate and fender liners, the ones in the car are damaged from the large wheels the previous owned had fitted.
All this stuff will be fitted after body work and paint.



I was lucky enough to manage to pick this up out of japan as well, it was one of the interior parts I had relegated to the many years wait pile but one night it showed up online.
A new old stock cargo cover in Y28L, it didnt stay new for long.




My original cover suffered the all too common split fabric issue


Also something interesting is that the honda part sticker is hand written for this, maybe you couldnt just go order the tan parts unless you owned the car or something.
Or maybe its just a replacement because the printed one fell off


Whilst fiddling with the cluster to determine a rattle I noticed a plug was loose, I fixed that and it turned out that it was the warning buzzer for the headlights being left on with the door open.
Unfortunately it also turned out to be the speed alarm for going above 110km/h so there was a reason it was unplugged.

The next job will be replacing the speedo cable because I believe that is causing the rattle in the cluster, but I think I will test a different cluster first just to be sure.

Here is the car at an event I went to a couple weeks ago so its one of the most recent pictures I have
 
#57 ·
Things are slowly happening so at least its not standing still

Another year has gone and ive put just under 700km on the car, a little less than previous years but it hasnt been the best weather wise here so I only been able to take it out once or twice a month.
I decided that by the end of the year I want to put paint on the car, which is pretty optimistic but if I can at least have some real solid progress towards that happening I will be happy.

Ive now sourced everything I need to paint the car minus a couple of pieces for the boot lid, but I figure I can paint that at a later date once I do get my hands on the stuff so I dont plan on waiting for them to come up for sale in order to move forward.
The progress ive made for this post is related to getting the additional parts ready so that the car can start having metalwork done.
I have the rear end of my previous car as only the front was trashed so I have started working on stripping it down so I have factory panels to work with when tackling the problem areas on my current crx




The panels are in excellent shape with small sections showing some surface rust from where there was no protection between two panels, these are pretty common spots for rust to form (when you dont have to deal with salted roads anyway) so I am happy to see that its nothing a wire wheel cant take care of.
These spots are below the rear triangle garnishes and down the top of the C pillar between the outer skin and the inner structure.
From what I can tell the problems I am dealing with on the exclusive are the results of this getting out of control and water getting down into the spare wheel well.



I had also noticed the rubber seal around the third brake light was white, either from the sun or age or both. I dont really know, but it annoyed me so I pulled it out and fixed it.




I have also rubbed back another kit piece, only 2 more to go and then I will go over and repair any damage and fill any chips.
This wont need to be done until the metalwork is finished so there is plenty of time.


I havnt swapped the speedo cable yet because it turns out my jack isnt low enough to fit under the car and the one I was using previously wasnt mine, so I will need to buy another so I can do that job along with a couple other things I want to do on the underside.
 
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