My Girlfriend's Dad's Integra

After several years of prodding, I finally convinced my girlfriend's dad to sell me the old first gen teggy that's been sitting in the bottom of their driveway since she can remember. $200 to get it out of there and make a good home for it. He was the original owner, bought in 1988 and driven for 19 years and about 260k miles. 

I went over there today to clean out some of the fuzzy interior and assess the state of the car. Everything came to life with a new battery and got the engine to turn over after a few hours of marvel mystery soaking in the cylinders. Tomorrow we convince AAA man to tow it down to Atlanta and attempt the first start in about 14 years. 

Has the original d16a1 dohc engine and 5 speed manual. Goals for the car are a cheap fun project and a potential challenge car if it stays under budget by October. Going to redo the interior so I don't get spores in my lungs by proximity and figure out the health of the engine before making any further plans. 

If anyone has suspension parts or upgrade tips for 1st gen crx/ 3rd gen civic/1st gen teggy I'm looking to be learned on the platform as in depth online information has been hard to come by. Bolt on suspension upgrades are expensive and hard to find these days so tossing around the idea of some more involved suspension modification and conversion further down the road if anyone has experience or wacky ideas.

Great car. I always wanted one of them but they've all rusted away up here in the salt belt.

That's disgusting, but I love those cars and I haven't seen one in a long time. Nice score. Well bought.

I don't think we've seen one of those up here since about 1998. nice score. They're rare for sure at this point. 

Love these. Almost bought an '87 back in the mid 90s. 

Nothing's ever straightforward.

Fuel pump not kicking on. Adapted junkyard walbro style fuel pump with some fuel hose scraps and extra barbs. Next up, looks like fuel filter is clogged, new one ordered. More fuel system diagnosing this week.

Fun weekend jacking it on the sidewalk. Carpet and sound deadener material also came in for interior refresh.

I had a '89 LS, a lease return that I ran for three years starting in '92.  Other than the normal ware items, the "ignighter", engine coil at the distributor died and after I spent the money to get it fixed they were the subject of a recall. 

The only issue I had with the car where the profoundly uncomfortable front seats.  The pivot bar for the folding, top and bottom seat sections ran across the small of my back.  

Other than that, a great car. 

BigDaddyDeek said:

Fun jacking it on the sidewalk.

I don't know where you live but where I am that's an indecent exposure charge.

That's a nice project.  Good luck and keep us posted.

Hit the seats with a pressure washer, and then leave them in the sun to dry out for a few days.  They will look brand new.

The seat cushions are collapsed and the fabric is worn down and sun faded. The center section of the seats is textured and it's worn to the point where there's little loose strings and bald patches everywhere. I could get them cleaner but they're past looking nice without refoaming and reupholstering. 

Going to get some black cloth RSX seats from a friend in exchange for 2 racks of Natty light, so those should be a nice step up.

Personally, I would do the timing belt and water pump first thing. I mean, first thing. But, I'm a worrier of the highest order. 

Had some bad luck with rainy weekends, finally got some productive work done on the car.

Finished replacing and flushing the gunked fuel system components. Got the first fire and was able to drive it up and down the block, first drive under it's own power in 15 years!

Also made good progress stripping out the interior. Nice fuzzy mold clusters behind every panel I pull off, can't wait to get all the gross out of here.

Picked up the RSX seats and welded the old tabs onto the new sliders for a test fit on the passenger side. Fits well enough for the passenger, but I'm going to need to make some new brackets for the driver's side to get the seat a little lower.

Anyone know fmv on for 2 vintage chuck-e-cheese coins for challenge recoup purpose? Lol

It's been a couple months since my last update so here's a quick photo dump.

The car is officially back on the road and I've been driving it around campus without any serious issues for the last few weeks. Right now working on getting cleaning up the engine bay, rebuilding the interior I ripped out, and tuning up the engine cause it's still running a little rough. Timing belt, waterpump, brakes, and some new shoes since the last update.

I had a '91 LE or LS I can't remember. Dealer installed white leather interior. It looked like a panda inside. I ran it stock power with H&R springs, Tokico 5 way shocks, E36 M3ty aftermarket rims and Azenis 615s and EBC pads for brakes but I cannot remember colors. I have a video on one of my offline hard drives of me at Saint Laurence Motor Park in upstate New York running surprisingly close to an STI and an EVO at the time.

What are Chuck E. Cheese tokens worth in reducing the budget?

Seats came out great but my routine is:

1.  Make it run.

2.  Make it safe.

3. Then make it pretty.

watching jealously from afar .....

I had a 1st gen.  I put Tokicos & the biggest  REAR sway bar known to mankind at the time. I think the bar was from a newer gen Civic or maybe it was an ITR bar, they can be adapted to lots of Civics & Tegs. But it was a great handling car then. 

914Driver said:

What are Chuck E. Cheese tokens worth in reducing the budget?

Depends how close you are to a Chuck E. Cheese that is still there.