With the price of gas over 3 dollars and a truck that gets 8-13 MPG, i decided to pick up a daily driver. Its a $900 dollar 1990 civic dx hatchback.
Here it is how i got it:
Then I found some H&R race springs on a car at the junkyard when i was looking for some smaller things... And i ended up getting them and a rear upper strut brace for 24 bucks from Pick N Pull:
I then bought some Skunk2 sport shocks to match the springs with. I also found some Wheels from a Miata with tires at 90% on craigslist. These wheels weigh 11.8 ounces! upgraded from steel 13s to some light 14s. Threw everything on and came up with this:
Its a lot of fun to drive, and put together on a budget.
KG wrote:These wheels weigh 11.8 ounces!
lol, that should read 11 pounds 8 ounces, or 11.5 pounds, its up to you.
That looks great! There are a few details I would fix, but for the price of everything, you really can't complain.
2010 Honda Fit LX
Tony T Crams wrote:That looks great! There are a few details I would fix, but for the price of everything, you really can't complain.
Yeah, i still have some buttoning up to do, i've been hacking away at it. It was clearly hit in the front, none of that lines up right.
I've been hitting junkyards and have done a lot of little things...
-Front bumper reinforcement
-headlight bracket
-headlight adjustment screw
-fuel door cable/popper
-windshield washer motor
-both windshield sprayer nozzles
-lots of bulbs/bulb connectors
-corner light tabs
-idle air control valve
-tail light
and probably some other small stuff i've forgotton about.
I have an integra center console waiting to go in and im looking for a crx/civic si cluster to put in so I can have a tach.
Its a 900 dollar car, so theres lots of little things to keep me busy.
I plan on painting both bumper covers and lining them up a little better.
I'm also going to get all the side moldings from a junkyard to have them all black again.
I want to get it ready for autocross next summer, so I'm gonna give the brakes some attention, and hopefully a lot of suspension bushings.
All in all, its fitting the bill well for a dd/project car/autocrosser candidate. Im happy.
Little progress, hit the junkyard last night.
Before:
After:
Good to have a tach again.
Looks great for a daily driver car build! I have always been a fan of these late model hondas,
Owned a crx for a little under a year which was a blast to drive. IT had adjustable cam gears, intake, lowered and full exhaust. Was a rocket for what it was, even beat an integra once if you can believe it. Would have kept it but the rear inner fenders were rotted along with most parts of the floor, prob why it was so lite, ha.
keep on with the updates
Rust free hatch. I hate you. I couldnt find one when I had money for one.
TheSundownFire (GME Chat) wrote:Rust free hatch. I hate you. I couldnt find one when I had money for one.
When i went to look at it, I was surprised that a $900 21 year old car from St Louis didnt have rust. It has some issues for sure, but rust isnt one of them.
Wait, its an auto?
2010 Honda Fit LX
Tony T Crams wrote:Wait, its an auto?
the new cluster shows auto, but idk if it was before
LE61T PTE6262 Powered
You need to Put your other cluster in for another 8k miles
IamQwibby (Eco Meatcake) wrote:Tony T Crams wrote:Wait, its an auto?
the new cluster shows auto, but idk if it was before
The car is a manual, but the car i took the cluster out of was an auto. If I thought the civic was anything more than it is, I would have waited until I found a cluster from a manual. As it is, it doesnt bother me at all.
BuiltNBoosted wrote:You need to Put your other cluster in for another 8k miles
Thats one solution.... I really didnt feel like disassembling and getting to the ODO, so I said hell with it. The main goal of this was to get a tach into the car while maintaining a somewhat oem look. Did manual cars come with auto clusters? Obviously not, but this is far from a show car. The auto cluster beats the hell out of a 5 inch monster tach with a mad tyte shift light.
Nice scores man, especially finding good springs at a yard! Cammed K20/24 swap and done.
oldskool (eco meatcake) wrote:Nice scores man, especially finding good springs at a yard! Cammed K20/24 swap and done.
While that would be badass, i would want to start with a nicer car if I were to do that swap. Im not gonna be disappointed if/when the current motor goes.... is that a bad thing?
A couple more parts came in today:
a set of braided brake lines and some hawk HPS pads.
Ya gotta go slow to go fast. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast, etc.
I think a k swap is a little crazy. I believe I talked to one of my honda fanatic friends and just the mounts for a k swap are like 400 bucks for the older cars. B18 might go right in easy though, not sure with those old civics.
1994 Saturn SL2 Home Coming Edition: backup car
2002 Chevy Cavalier LS Sport Coupe: In a Junk Yard
1995 Mazda Miata R-package Class=STR
Sponsored by:
Kronos Performance
WPI Class of '12 Mechanical Engineering
WPI SAE Risk and Sustainability Management Officer
That's pretty sweet. I had a 91 Si, fun little cars. I always either wanted a B18 swap, or possibly build a vtec hybrid aka Mini me swap.
Good luck with the project!
M62, 42's, ZZP 3", ZZP S3 H/E
214whp 190wtq
Kswap is going to be very expensive. The car will be a blast with just a B series. You can get power easy and cheap from a b series. I know the new craze is the K series, but is it really necessary? Power is power.....
Rabbit(AKA RedAssassin) wrote:Kswap is going to be very expensive. The car will be a blast with just a B series. You can get power easy and cheap from a b series. I know the new craze is the K series, but is it really necessary? Power is power.....
exactly. Even with 160 horse, this car would be a blast. However, keeping the street touring class in mind with autocross would rule out any swap. I think the next thing will be a dpfi to mpfi swap. We'll see.
Just ordered a set of these:
Falken Azenis 615K
RE11's out of your price range or not in your size?
1994 Saturn SL2 Home Coming Edition: backup car
2002 Chevy Cavalier LS Sport Coupe: In a Junk Yard
1995 Mazda Miata R-package Class=STR
Sponsored by:
Kronos Performance
WPI Class of '12 Mechanical Engineering
WPI SAE Risk and Sustainability Management Officer
Thats sad. You would think they would be, I guess bridgestone doesnt need to carry extra size since just being the fastest street tire at the auto-x sells them pretty fast.
1994 Saturn SL2 Home Coming Edition: backup car
2002 Chevy Cavalier LS Sport Coupe: In a Junk Yard
1995 Mazda Miata R-package Class=STR
Sponsored by:
Kronos Performance
WPI Class of '12 Mechanical Engineering
WPI SAE Risk and Sustainability Management Officer
Leafy wrote:Thats sad. You would think they would be, I guess bridgestone doesnt need to carry extra size since just being the fastest street tire at the auto-x sells them pretty fast.
troof. What did you think of the star specs?
Star specs are great. i needed about 38 psi in the front to keep my chalk line high enough in the sidewall though, and I know that wasnt helping the understeer. Real grippy though. I managed to put a time up faster than an ST miata that my friend was driving. And I also managed to slightly overheat the shoulders of all 4 that day, and it wasnt exactly warm out. Of course I'm kind of a @!#$ty driver. Road feel is also excellent, basically no numbness in the steering, unlike these blizzaks on there now, I'll be able to judge them at the drags in the spring.
1994 Saturn SL2 Home Coming Edition: backup car
2002 Chevy Cavalier LS Sport Coupe: In a Junk Yard
1995 Mazda Miata R-package Class=STR
Sponsored by:
Kronos Performance
WPI Class of '12 Mechanical Engineering
WPI SAE Risk and Sustainability Management Officer
sooo..... any tips for a first time autocrosser?
