SiRedge

It occurs to me that the car handles just fine, quite well even, when I'm the only one in it. It never bottoms out normally when I'm the only one in it . . it only does it when I've got a passenger, and then it does it on the passenger's side only when the front passenger's side wheel hits the bigger shocks. This got me wondering. Is the passenger side adjusted lower than the driver's side, without me really noticing? Is the front passenger's side shock more worn than the driver's side? Or both? Or maybe my passengers are just heifers? Dan pls. :giggle: So I went out for a short drive this evening. Sure enough, the car went fine, didn't bottom out anywhere . . . until I intentionally turned left into a side street faster than I usually would. The side street had a bump going into it, the same as you'd have going into most driveways. Sure enough, thump. On the driver's side. First time I've known it to do that. So this got me thinking. Is this any worse than stock? Do they have a tendency to do that, time to time?

The thing with these is, because they have a torsion bar front suspension setup (no springs), apparently when you lower them at the front by repositioning the torsion bars one spline lower, it significantly reduces the suspension travel in the front shocks, meaning that you're bottoming out much more easily even with uprated shocks. Anyone know the best way around this? The website I'm reading says: Would this be the best way or are there shocks you can buy that get around this problem? Or would extended top hats be the way to go? I'm happy to buy decent shocks but there's no point if the car's still bottoming out all the time! Sorry about the questions, I don't know very much about the mechanical side!

So as a result of yesterday's cruise, one thing is pretty clear - I think the shocks are about had it. Time to sort out some new suspension and improve the ride height while I'm at it! It's factory at the moment with Mugen shocks, but due in no small part to Christchurch's bloody awful roads they're pretty knackered. The front bottoms out hard over harsh bumps - there's a god awful BANG as you hit them. Not fun. I don't want to go slammed, the roads here are too crap for that for now, but a better stance would be good. You've seen pics of it - bringing the height down would make a big difference. This is always going to be a road car and may never go to the track (though it's possible), so what I'd like is something that can handle the crummy roads better, but is still up for a bit of fun when the going gets twisty. Also it's got to be lower than it is so it looks better! So the springs I've got sitting in the garage for the rear are King or Cobra Lows (at least that's what they said on Trade Me), apparently good for a 30mm drop. They measure 300mm from top to bottom. If I'm bringing it down 30mm all round, that just leaves the question of what shocks to use, given what I want to achieve? I don't mind spending a few $ as long as I'm getting a good deal! I should point out at this stage that the front has a torsion bar front suspension setup, it doesn't use springs. The problem is that when you lower the front by repositioning the torsion bars a spline lower, you run out of travel in the shock much more easily. That would be worse than useless in my mind. Unless I'm improving the car I'm not interested in doing it. I'm also planning to take the car into Honda for a big overhaul soon, sort of as an early 30th for it. It will get a new cam belt and water pump, new rear main seal, new clutch, flywheel machined, and have about every belt and seal I can think of replaced, so it should be good to go for a good while yet with a bit of luck! Thoughts?

That would be good actually. I can't think of anything off the top of my head but I'm sure there's something I could use! Yeah the high stop light is pretty crap quality wise, but it does the job for now. If it falls to bits I'll just find another. I'd like a better one but couldn't really find one, so the shitty one will do for the meantime! Modifications wise, not really, I like it well enough as it is. There are always things I want to do to it, but I don't especially want to mod it too extensively because I kind of feel like that would be ruining such a tidy F1 edition. So most of the work I want to do is mechanical refreshment at the moment - planning on a big engine freshen up soon (cam belt, water pump, rear main seal, belts etc) and would like to do a suspension freshen up as well at some stage. If the motor blows up (seems unlikely, runs so well), I most throw something more interesting in it . . . but seems unlikely.

I've been very slack in checking for Oldschool meets. Came to one, got everyone's hopes up, and haven't been back! I'll keep my eye out for the next one.

Went for a cruise to Akaroa today. Photos happened. Dumping them here: Artsy with Coke? Actually took some photos of the car too... With the sunroof out... Also realised how few interior and engine bay photos I have of the car, so I took a couple... For the middle of winter it was a beaut day - warm, sunny, hardly a breath of wind. Fish and chips were good, the car performed faultlessly, and there wasn't too much traffic. The downside to all this unseasonable warmth is there's no bloody snow on the mountains and I can't go skiing!! :disappointed:

Last weekend the weather was good again, so I set about fixing the front lip paint fuckup. First it was a quick trip down to Supercheap to pick up some paint stripper and a new can of bumper paint. Stripped back the crappy paint, then a quick sand to get the rest off, and out with the new paint for a second attempt. It turns out I'm not the numpty I thought I was - this can of paint went on nice and even, so I can chalk my fuckup down to bad paint. Here's how it looked after a couple of coats: A couple of extra coats and it's ready to go back on the car - ran out of time last weekend. Today I got the LED high stop light fitted. Old: New: It's not very bright and looks quite small in the window, which is a little bit disappointing - hopefully the WOF man doesn't mind! Visibility through the rear view mirror is about 100 times better now though, which is pretty much the whole reason for changing it. I might get a better one at some stage, but for now, it works, and cars following me aren't obscured any more. Close enough. Then the weather looked like caving in and it seemed I wouldn't get a chance to get the front lip back on again. But after a brief shower it looked like it would hold off for a bit, so I hopped to it. I'll need a couple of new bolts and mounting clips because some of the old ones were pretty sad and couldn't be re-used, but it mounted up okay. I was just finishing up as big drops of rain started falling but got cleared up just in time. Crappy photo because rain: The right paint this time, so it shouldn't crack or flake off if I nudge something - not that I'm planning on doing that again mind you!

'kay. Turns out I'm pretty bad at updating build threads... Weather was pretty good this weekend just gone, so I thought I'd whip the Civic out of the garage for a wash. But before I got there, I got to looking at the front lip. Some background: A couple of weeks ago after cruising out to Scarborough for an ice cream, when I parked (nose in to the kerb) the lip just touched the kerb - this was because of the weird shape of the road, it normally clears them fine. Anyway this time even though it just touched, the front lip flexed enough to cause the new paint to crack almost the whole way along the lip, and flake off in places. A bit sadface but easy enough to fix. Right? Anyway I figured that since it looked pretty shithouse all cracked and flaking that I would just whip it off, clean it up and throw it back on again. Step one: Get the lip off. Many swear, such gravel. Ow. Many of the bolts were pretty rusty. One broke clean in two, others were a bit sticky, but most came off okay. A couple of clips, like bulldog clips without the levers were providing extra keep-it-on-edness, one at each end. They were a bit of a bitch to get off, but eventually I persuaded them. I'd already flaked off quite a bit of the paint. As you can see it looks a bit shithouse. Sat in the sun and worked away at it with some sandpaper to clean the rest of the paint off: Nice and sanded back. At this point I remembered I had a can of bumper and trim paint sitting in a box in the garage that had been there for about four years. Might as well give it a try, right? How hard could it be? Impromptu paint shop! Lel: All this was before I remembered that I have all the painting skills of a chicken with downs syndrome. Long story short: Started spraying, stuff came out a bit chunky, sprayed more to cover unevenness, sprayed more to cover more unevenness, ended up laying it on way too thick and chunky, like someone had vomited black on it. Fail. Tried to get it off with turps. Got some off but most of it had dried, leaving it looking super horrible. This completely ruined my mood. Rage quit, threw the lip in the back of the garage and went and got some fish & chips in a huff. I can't car. :disappointed: Anyway for all that, it's not like it can't be fixed. Need to buy some paint stripper and a new can of paint (threw out the other stuff, sitting around that long can't have helped it much) and I'll give it another go. Anyone know if you can get new bolts and locating plates? Could stand to replace a couple of the sadders ones. Also decided to do something about the dopey high stop light, so I ordered a super cheapie one off deal extreme: Mounts twisted around to how it will stick on to the rear screen: It's pretty cheaply made and rotating it to the right orientation sort of pinches the wires, but hopefully it will work. No big deal if it doesn't though, didn't cost much!

Felt like a change of knobs to grasp, and the factory shift boot was starting to look a bit ordinary. Time for a change. Before (Mugen): After: The shift boot is just a fraction too big to fit exactly right, but it's close enough. I'm happy with the outcome. Also decided to upgrade the roof courtesy lamp to an LED item: The one that was in there before was very dim, and when I took it out it was nearly falling apart - could have been in there since the car rolled out of the factory! This one is much better.

So, swung by a mate's place last night with the idea of hooking the front speakers up to the amp. With the amount of time we had before it got dark (not much really), we took one look at the wiring going into the doors and said "yeah, no" and decided to use the existing speaker wires instead of threading new ones. Happily they actually seem to be in very respectable condition given the age of the car and nature of the original radio, and it doesn't look like there would be anything to be gained from replacing them. I might still do it at some stage, but for the meantime they can stay as they are. Anyway, we got stuck in and managed to get both front speakers hooked up to the amp, but no matter what we fiddled with we couldn't get the balance to work and the subwoofer played no matter where the RCAs were plugged in to the amp or head unit. After re-checking things several times (and much swearing) I finally clicked that there was a switch on the side of the amp switching from 2 channel to 4 channel. Click, and everything's working perfectly. Facepalm but relieved at the same time I'll need to tidy up all the wiring and put the trim back together again - there wasn't time for that - but I did test it out on the drive home. It was quite a difference compared to running off the head unit! There's much more volume and better clarity now, and I got to turn the sub gain up whereas before I had to have the gain set near zero or it would be too loud for the given volume. Win!

Another bump for Josh. I took my Civic over to him to have the front bumper, nose cone, and bonnet resprayed, and the grille repainted the factory black. Very happy with his work, I'll be going to see him again in the future sometime and would recommend others to him Here's my Civic before: and after: Best money I've spent on this car IMO. Cheers Josh!

Many wash. Such reflection. Wow. With apologies for the crappy cellphone pic...

Damn, Scope is this weekend? I'm away all weekend, that sucks

So, as you can see above, I got the front of the Civic resprayed though Mr.Mk1 here on Oldschool. The price was good, and he did an excellent job, definitely recommend him. I still have yet to take some decent photos of it, but it's probably about time I did some before/after shots. So... Before: Aaaaand after: GREAT SUCCESS!!!!!1one ... Alright alright, fine... Because Rally car.

Oh g'day Paul, been a long time. How's things with you? I still see your old CR-X kicking around from time to time. And I've still got the photos from when I visited Dunedin in my EF3!

Thanks guys Hey Nige! Your AT Civic and the things you did to it were an inspiration to me. I enjoyed reading through your build thread and was very sad to see the end of it. I've still got photos of it on my computer and the gif you made of "lofreq's lucky escape" haha Appreciate your comments on my car. I can't claim much credit for the way it sits today - it's not like it's been rebuilt from scratch or had major work done on it like many builds have - I've mostly just kept it tidy, doing things that need doing or making little mods along the way, driven it, and enjoyed it

Just read through the build thread in its entirity. What an epic build! I would have given up in frustration and pushed it off a cliff long before, so this car is a credit to your patience and determination (and pig-headedness? ) Anyway keep up the great work, I'll be looking forward to more updates.

Cool project and good read too - nice work!

Build thread here.

Discussion thread here. Well, truth is, I've never made a build thread about any of my cars before, because I've never really had a 'build' to post about. It turns out, though, that lots of people seem to be interested in reading about things that are done along the way, even if they're only minor or maintenance related... or just like checking out a bunch of pics in various different locations after a wash. Fair enough, I do the same! And since it was requested of me when I joined.... So, might as well make a thread of randomness about my Civic. Here goes: Details: It's a 1986 Honda Civic Si F1 special edition. Factory 1.6 DOHC injected engine (ZC), 5 speed manual. Apart from some items specific to the F1 special (leather clad steering wheel with F1 on it, embroidered seats, decals and stripes, and I believe the 14 inch alloy wheels painted white were specific to the F1 edition as well), the rest is no different to a regular Civic Si. You could only get an F1 edition in white, in 1.5i or Si specification AFAIK. There are few left now. I got it around October 2010 - the guy I'd bought it off had bought it off a lady who had owned it since it was imported in 1993. When I got it, it looked like this: I've done a few things to it during the time I've owned it, but regardless of what I've done and where I've lived, it's always been garaged and driven as often as I can get it out... much like other things I own Anyway, some history of what I've done to it, according to my paperwork, some of which appears to be missing which is a bit of a nuisance... 2 October 2010: Bought the car at about 160,000km. 25 October 2010: Carried out the following work: New spark plugs New spark plug gallery seals New rocker cover gasket New air filter New fuel filter New thermostat and seal; flushed cooling system New transmission fluid New radiator cap I find that most basic maintenance often gets ignored, especially by younger people who buy cars and never know to check these things. For example, I know that used Hondas I've owned that have ticked over 150,000kms are almost always due for a new thermostat, so it was one of the first things I bought for this. It turned out that the thermostat was in a right state, surprising it was still working. The fuel filter was gunked up. The spark plug galleries were full of oil because the seals hadn't been replaced. There was oil over everything. Poor little Civic! About the same time I installed a Sony headunit because the previous owner had removed his. The front speakers received an upgrade. Nothing serious, just some decent 3-ways, I can't remember what. Also installed a Mugen gear knob - why not? 18 May 2012: Failed a WOF on "body damage to the left hand rear behind the bumper". It had been rear ended at some point in the past but only half-arsed repaired. Previous WOF checks had not picked up on this, even though they were done at Honda. Le sigh. Also, had Mugen shocks fitted, which I had bought second hand of a guy on NZH. The factory shocks had completely had it and were due for the bin. Wheel alignment done. 30 May 2012: Had "body damage" professionally repaired. New WOF! 2 July 2012: Had a set of 4-2-1 headers installed. They don't seem to be badged but could well be TRR. The rest of the exhaust is still stock at this point. It went a little bit better but sounds a fair bit worse. About 2600 - 3000rpm it goes through this buzzy yowl which isn't the best, but I'll put up with it for the meantime. Also changed oil and filter. 167,600km. 12 November 2012: Have A/C re-gassed and high stop light connection soldered so the damn thing stops crapping out. May 2013: Finally decide to get around to getting tyres for the set of Mugen MR5s I've had sitting around for two years, so I can get them on the car. I was a little worried that going from the OEM 14" wheels with 65 profile tyres to 15" wheels with 50 profile tyres would cause the ride to get worse - it was pretty bad on the 14s. The opposite turned out to be true - the ride improved a fair bit! I reckon the tyres on the 14s were just plain awful and well past their use by date. Now on brand new Bridgestone MY02s all around, it's pretty good. Pics below. 6 June 2013: WOF check. Main fuel relay resoldered (another common older Honda issue). Clutch pedal pivot lubed. Rear hatch hinges lubed. Car squeaks less = win. 31 October 2013: Finally got fed up with the 'zorst sounding like arse. Pay a visit to Uniweld to remedy this. Custom 2" exhaust from the extractors back, two resonators, flow muffler. Tip fitted a couple of weeks later. Result? Very pleased, huge improvements all around. Enjoy driving it so much more because the 'zorst doesn't sound awful any more. The tone is a brazilian times better, much deeper and so smooth. Relatively quiet but sounds fantastic under load. Looks good too with the tip done, nice and subtle. 4 December 2013: After noticing the A/C is not working at all again (le sigh), back to the shop for a "WTF?" Turns out high pressure o-ring needed to be replaced. A/C regassed again (had better keep working this time...) 5 December 2013: WOF check (pass). Oil leaking from sump gasket and bung. This will need to be remedied. 11 December 2013: Finally installed the amp and subwoofer that had been sitting around in my garage the last couple of years. Much doof doofs to be had. 18 December 2013: The car's been with Honda the last couple of days. The sump's been rethreaded and got a new sump bung and washer as well as a new sump gasket - hopefully that's taken care of the oil leak. I've put down a clean sheet of cardboard where I park it in the garage to see if it drips any oil. Also had: fresh oil and filter the auto choke adjusted - the idle would often hunt a little when the engine got half way up to temperature, hopefully this will resolve the issue rear boot hinges lubed again - hopefully no more squeaky! Pretty spendy at almost $800 all up... but it would have needed doing sooner or later. They didn't think the valve clearances needed doing, so didn't bother, and didn't have time to flush and bleed the brakes, so I'll get that done in the new year. Pics as it sat then: 14 January 2014: Been talking to Mr.Mk1 about giving the front end of the Civic a bit of a spruce-up. The front bumper and nose cone were awfully stone chipped, a lot of which was the result of me following an uncovered truck full of gravel on the road to Ashburton a couple of years ago , and the grill was quite patchy. Also, if you look at the earlier pictures, the grill is white - mostly. It had been repainted at some stage in the past, factory the grill was black: It looks so much better after the freshen up. I'm still waiting for a new front badge to arrive ex-Japan, I'll take some good photos then. Otherwise, here's a wee tease: So yeah, stuff and things and more stuff. There are heaps of things I've done along the way but forgotten when they happened. More stuff will happen in the future! Some plans that will happen at some point: Source fog lights that are similar to the rare OE options Source and fit front strut brace if that can happen Do a restoration mission on the wheels. Sand and polish lips for much shininess. Source Mugen boot spoiler and 1st gen Integra side skirts. Probably a pipe dream as they're that rare. Source a different front lip. Also rare. Other cool stuff as it occurs to me! Thanks for reading!

I'd be interested - would love to have proper pro photos of my Civic over my point-and-shoot efforts + ninja editing - but I have to admit it's the price that means I can't really consider it. Being made redundant means I have to be careful with a buck until I find another job. How much would it have to be for me to say "okay, willing to cough that up"? I'd probably be happy to spend $75, but realise that this would be akin to mugging Richie for all the work going into it. That said, would be up for a drink while you're down here if you're free Rich, as I'm sure others in the Christchurch area would be. Seen you posting that much (mainly on NZH) that it feels like I already know you, which is nonsense of course!

Good to meet some of the Christchurch crew today. Sure was hot! I took a couple of photos: Thoughtfully this was kept well away from the oldschool cars... Hopefully I can come along to some future meets and meet some more Oldschoolers. Might have to wear the same shirt so Barty remembers me. I've got some higher res photos and originals if anyone would like them, including some of the individual cars.

Hi everyone, would be keen to come along to one of these and meet some people. Is the next meet on the 19th?

I'm looking at getting my Civic tidied up a bit. Needs a front bumper and nose piece repaint, but will possibly be more, depending on price. How's your availability? Pics of the car here: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjMDzUUy