A New Adventure - 1997 Civic Coupe resurrection

Let the record show that I do NOT have deep pockets, nor am I the animated spokesperson for a board game. 

Last night I replaced the broken passenger side door handle which was fairly straightforward aside from the circlip that held the lock mechanism in the handle itself. No pictures were taken but the car no longer has a broken passenger door handle, which is nice. As is often the case with somebody else's project, there are some silly things happening behind the door panel. The large speakers by your feet are absent, and the ugly aftermarket power mirrors aren't even plugged in. Which leads me to believe that with the proper set of stock power mirrors they may function. Currently the mirrors don't respond to the switch, which given that they aren't plugged in makes perfect sense. 

The car is getting an alignment today, hopefully pick it up after work. Once the alignment is done the last real big thing to check off the list is timing belt/water pump which I plan on doing in a couple of weeks when I get the clutch broken in. 

Stay tuned! 

The car is aligned now and drives much nicer. Supposedly it still has a little excess toe but I suspect that can be corrected with adjustable toe arms down the road a bit. I took it to a friends shop to have it aligned and expressed some concern leaving it sit out alone all day (I'm a worrier and Honda's frequently get stolen), so when I showed up he had it sitting tucked into his bay. That was a really nice gesture, and maybe he just pulled it in right before I got there, but I still appreciated it. 

That was Wednesday, which was the only day I didn't drive the car to work this week as a matter of fact. It's got 150 miles on it now, and aside from a slightly sticky throttle cable and a pretty rattly parcel shelf it goes great. It's a blast to drive and actually seems to get more attention/looks than I expected. 

Yesterday I pushed the comfort zone a bit and used it to take my wife to the airport. It's close to home but it's an international airport and the dropoff area is always pretty congested and busy, a nervous place for a project car. Got my wife unloaded and made it out no issues. Was actually kind of nice becuase it's a small maneuverable car I was able to get out of the 4 lanes deep people were parked.

This is a fun car! 

Glad it's getting sorted! It has to be a great feeling having it on the road considering where you started. I pass MSP every day on my commute.

I should probably start a thread on my work beater.

In reply to 10001110101 :

Thanks, it is a good feeling! I felt like I didn't work much on it this winter but all of the sudden it's a running driving viable car. Each time I drive it I get a little more comfortable and enjoy it a little more. 

It's May! Last weekend I changed the timing belt & water pump, which is the last of the items on my checklist of maintenance needs. The job went smoothly, thanks to a friend for loaning me the Honda specific balancer removal tool. The timing belt appeared to be original, which supports the theory that the engine has 50,000 miles on it. 

realistically the belt was in pretty good shape, but being that it's 20 years old now it was time to replace it. 

As previously discussed, the engineers over at Honda are pretty clever. The exhaust and intake cam caps are labeled by direction, number, and if they're for intake or exhaust. The cap closest to the timing belt also has a hole in it that corresponds to a hole in the cam that can be used to assure everything on the top end of the engine stays aligned. Brilliant. 

Yes, I cleaned those drill bits before I put them in my engine, and in hindsight I should have used a more accurately sized bit. These had maybe 1/16" of play, which was enough to cause some difficulties. I ended up having to hold one of the cam gears while I put the belt on to get it on the right tooth. Otherwise the job was pretty straight forward, the balancer bolt was tough to get off and the water pump had a ton of coolant behind it despite draining the radiator, but it went well. Probably took 4-5 hours with some interruptions on Saturday morning, which isn't bad for the first time doing this job. 

Valve cover off - everything is very nice and clean in here. 

Valve cover gasket and spark plug tube seals were replaced as well. Started up and ran just peachy. No problem. Accomplished! 

Now to drive it! Saturday it was supposed to snow actually, which is why I planned the project for that day. Turns out it was pretty nice so in the evening I went out for a drive! Took the car to a little airport in St. Paul and took some pictures. There was some stance kid meet nearby that I kinda checked out and decided I didn't want to partake in so I went home.

That was Saturday. Sunday my wife went on a work trip so I spent most of the day driving around. Checked out another stance meet, watched some autocross, and ended up venturing to Red Wing then into Wisconsin for some delicious Spotted Cow (beer, for the unfamiliar). The car ran great and after filling up appears to have achieved 30mpg, despite being at about 3,700 cruising on the highway. It didn't skip a beat the whole drive (maybe 120 miles round trip, nothing too far) and was really fun to carve some of the winding roads on WI 35 along the river. Saw some Corvettes and Harley's as one naturally does on this route and had a good time.

Downtown Red Wing/Barn bluff. 

Wisconsin 35.

Oh, and I picked up another set of wheels for the car on Friday. I said I wasn't going to but I've had my eye on these wheels for about 4 years now so I finally pulled the trigger. The tires are junk so they're still in the garage, but I had to test fit one. They seem like they'll fit well and look pretty neat on the car. I think I'm going to save them for later this summer when I'm bored of the look. Right now I'm still kind of into the Integra 5 spokes so these will be more of a 'rainy day' project for later on. 

Yes, that's a VW centercap. I need to remedy that. 

These are 15x7's (as opposed to the 5-spokes which are 15x6) and a little more aggressive offset. 

I had an 87 Golf before my 98 Civic, nice Ronals!  Car looks good too.  

Thanks! I'm excited about the wheels, and more so excited now because I found the right center caps on eBay. 

Saving money < Buying the correct center caps for wheels I'm not even currently running. Every. Time.

Those Ronal Turbo wheels are dope, as the kids would say. 

Thoes Ronals look so so good on everything from 80s and 90s. 

mazdeuce - Seth said:

Those Ronal Turbo wheels are dope, as the kids would say. 

Thanks! I think they're RAD! 

In reply to Professor_Brap :

Thanks, I've been a fan of them for years. They ALMOST seem too old for the car, but I think they'll still look really cool. Plus as far as I can tell they're still in production so they aren't too old at all. 

In reply to Gunchsta :

My buddy just got a new set a few weeks ago. 

In reply to Professor_Brap :

New, what a legend! What are they going on?

In reply to Gunchsta :

Shelby Dodge. 

Oh.

Damn.

You win. 

In reply to Professor_Brap :

Very cool

In reply to Cousin_Eddie :

Thank you sir! I'm pretty excited to get them mounted up. Though of course like a true addict I want another set of tires for them so I can have 2 full sets of wheels and tires. 

Drove the car to work this morning, having some high idle issues. I did NOT replace the thermostat when I put the engine in, so I'm going to start there for the cheap & easy factor. 

I've adjusted the TPS a few different times, this is also a used unit that I may replace in the future. I've gotten codes for engine coolant temp and TPS so I at least have some directions to look. 

Stay tuned as I learn more about the wonders of electronic fuel injection! 

Oh yes, and another bit of weirdness - after I changed the timing belt the car ran great. I then changed the plugs (to the same OE spec, gapped properly) and have developed a small hiccup/misfire at idle. Once warm it's great, but when cold it sputters a bit. We shall see. 

Much enjoyment was had this weekend. Took the car on a little road trip to Mankato (150 miles round trip, nothing too extravagant) for a car show. Cruised with a group of about 10 cars and played some highway leapfrog on the open road. One pull from the back of the pack to the front got me up to 110 pretty quickly. I was impressed with how smooth and solid the car felt and how much power it had.

As always, should have gotten more pictures but didn't. I was too busy enjoying myself and BSing with friends. Cruise home was a little slower but still very enjoyable. I'm quite pleased with how quick and nimble the car is around town, but how perfectly comfortable it is at 65-75 mph cruising on the interstate. It runs smooth and quiet and is genuinely relaxing to drive. 

As you can see, 70mph is about 3,800 - this was probably the slowest I went on the drive down. A quick check of the dipstick on Sunday morning says no oil consumption, which is great. Third tank of gas is still at an average of 30mpg. What a fantastic little automobile. 

Sunday I went to a couple more car shows and hung out with some friends again. Busy weekend! Here's a picture of winding down Sunday night at a brewery with my buddies S4.

Beyond that I got my appropriate Ronal center caps on Friday and popped one in. They fit great and seem much better for my Honda than the VW ones. 

Cars are fun! 

Glad to hear it's treating you well. Those Ronal wheels look great! 

Alright! Update time! 

Mostly been driving the car honestly, the desire was to build it over the winter and enjoy/maintain it over the summer. The hope was that because the car is more modern it could be more hop-in-and-go than previous project cars. So far that has been the case. I've been fidgeting with a few things here and there, but overall it's pretty solid. 

Yesterday my wife and I had the day off so on a whim I decided to have the tires switched onto the Ronal's. I'm happy with the outcome; I think they look really cool and I like the width and offset better than the Acura wheels. Though, as with everything now it looks awesome but the fronts rub the fender a bit on certain corners. My hope is that when I put the front swaybar on it will tighten the car up some and help mitigate this rubbing. 

It doesn't photograph well but the offset is great. They sit right about at the fender lip and look wider & aggressive without looking too stancey. I think they really set the car off and give it a unique look. 

And as is tradition, this one is sold! 

Onto the new owner 6/10/2019. I'm proud of what I learned and accomplished with the car, and feel good about the fact that last September it was literally a shell of a car, now it's somebodies commuter. I'm not going to lie I lost a lot of money on this project, so I'm thinking a little hiatus is in order. However, my daily driver Towncar needs some attention so I suspect I'll still have plenty to play around with. 

Thanks for following along! 

In reply to Gunchsta :

Congrats man! 

Run_Away said:

Congrats on the first start and drive!!

 

Your ELD code is probably a result of the Canadian spec harness, ELD is a US-only thing I believe. You'll need a Canadian spec ecu or US spec harness. Might be able to wire it up separate. Actually, what kind of alternator so you have? I remember when my EK had a B series there was a difference in the alternator plug. That's the direction to look into anyways for that code.

I believe Canada also has their version of the ELD mandate now. I was reading about it here and it's pretty similar the American version except a few details. However I don't understand how they'd need it in this situation.