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wind's pop-up 86 CRX Si (Electric "Mid-engine" Vehicle)

292K views 505 replies 77 participants last post by  windraver 
#1 · (Edited)
Edit 2:
EV Conversion Update Pictures

Edit:
Since this thread is so long, this summarizes what's documented here. Lots of pictures.

This is a Frankenstein of:
Civic EK armrest/cupholders
2nd gen crx trunk divider
Civic vx D15z1 motor
EM57 Electric Motor
Leaf Battery Management and Inverter
24kWh Leaf Battery Modules (~92 miles range)
40kWh Leaf Battery Modules (~200 miles range)
Resolve-EV Controller
Civic 84 hatch trunk cover
Insight cluster
Some GM car's rear view mirror
Prelude seats
Integra flip lights/signals, part hood/fender
Civic Hx rims
2 different 1st Gen 1986 CRXs

Have fun!

Original:
so back in july 26, 2007, some dude in milpitas california decided to give his 86 crx si for free on craigslist.

i showed up the next day with a borrowed truck and a rented dolly from u-haul and it was mine XD

the car was in pieces.. wasn't running... hatch wouldn't close, hood latch was broken... broken lights everywhere... engine bay looked like someone put oil in a water gun and had lots of fun and thats just the start

got it home, found a piece of rubber gasket that kept the hatch from closing... removed it and the hatch close normally again

put in another battery... car started... dead battery

found that the valve cover gasket was busted and spitting oil like insane

but for the mean, time, i put the project aside til october 2007













 
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#202 ·
I had the same thing happen on my 86Si, the throwout bearing goes and wears down the shaft. Only way to fix is to replace the bell housing.

I really like what you've done so far! Keep up the posts!
 
#208 ·
sleeper17 said:
in a first gen i would say build a D series but if i had a ton of time on my hands i bet a B series would rip in the first gen. ive seen it done but never seen one first hand.
why not a D16 Vtec? that would rip it up i bet also.
the d15z1 is the civic vx engine. I not too concerned about speed but the 60+ mpg is very tempting.

b16a though would be nice too but very costly.
 
#210 ·
man i wish i had your knowledge in the body work area, i have a 87 si and my fenders are dry rotting and crack and break off in chunks at the slightest bend.. i looked a bit further into my panels and noticed that the main and most critical points they are broken on, is where the bolts connect the panel to the body, ya know, the little eyelets on the panels the the screws go through.. any advice on how to possibly salvage those? or do u think they would even be worth trying to fix?
 
#212 ·
MIKEcheckX1212 said:
man i wish i had your knowledge in the body work area, i have a 87 si and my fenders are dry rotting and crack and break off in chunks at the slightest bend.. i looked a bit further into my panels and noticed that the main and most critical points they are broken on, is where the bolts connect the panel to the body, ya know, the little eyelets on the panels the the screws go through.. any advice on how to possibly salvage those? or do u think they would even be worth trying to fix?
Heres a link:
http://crxcommunity.com/viewtopic.php?t=35849

Bondo at the end of the day is brittle. Fiberglass is flexible but difficult to form.

At the end of the day, it comes down to your budget. I'm a reasonably poor college student so I take the repair route. If you have the money, sourcing a replacement beats repair any day. On the positive note, a good job at repair will be worth much more.

What I've been trying to do is source a metal fender that might fit on the crx. It has yet to be done.
 
#213 ·
windraver... you have an awsome thread going here... awsome work..im gonna use your thread to do a few of the same things to my car, cause im diggin the GM mirror, center console and cup holders...

what car the steering wheel come from?

and thanks to you windraver, i know what ima do with my window seals... and i have to look under them to check out this rust i have going on under my driverside window seal right around the mirror on the door.... i hope i can fix it and make it look originall, cause its sticking out to the side just a little
 
#214 ·
guccimane said:
windraver... you have an awsome thread going here... awsome work..im gonna use your thread to do a few of the same things to my car, cause im diggin the GM mirror, center console and cup holders...

what car the steering wheel come from?

and thanks to you windraver, i know what ima do with my window seals... and i have to look under them to check out this rust i have going on under my driverside window seal right around the mirror on the door.... i hope i can fix it and make it look originall, cause its sticking out to the side just a little
thanks, im glad that you're able to find something useful off my thread. The steering wheel came from another crx which i believe was a euro version. Its a bit rare and tough to find but you occasionally can find it on ebay or redpepper racing.

its a center piece. the outside is a mix and match.
they actually have it on ebay right now. F-1 Edition
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/JDM-RARE ... ccessories
 
#215 ·
windraver said:
guccimane said:
windraver... you have an awsome thread going here... awsome work..im gonna use your thread to do a few of the same things to my car, cause im diggin the GM mirror, center console and cup holders...

what car the steering wheel come from?

and thanks to you windraver, i know what ima do with my window seals... and i have to look under them to check out this rust i have going on under my driverside window seal right around the mirror on the door.... i hope i can fix it and make it look originall, cause its sticking out to the side just a little
thanks, im glad that you're able to find something useful off my thread. The steering wheel came from another crx which i believe was a euro version. Its a bit rare and tough to find but you occasionally can find it on ebay or redpepper racing.

its a center piece. the outside is a mix and match.
they actually have it on ebay right now. F-1 Edition
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/JDM-RARE ... ccessories
i asked where it came from... i didnt say i wanted to blow my whole paycheck :rofl:

thats a nice steering wheel you got tho... when i get my rex running, because right now, i put ALL new seals in the engine, and i bought an Exedy OEM clutch, just put it in... i just got my P/S lower ball joint in... and i gotta find a Cam gear, and ill have the car all together.... but i Still gotta wait till friday so i can buy all of the required fluids..

im gonna take off the window seals, and under my drivers side one, the piece of metal sticking out that the seal clips on to is kinda rusted away.. i know without pictures its hard to judge so i will get back with pics sometime...
 
#216 ·
guccimane said:
windraver said:
guccimane said:
windraver... you have an awsome thread going here... awsome work..im gonna use your thread to do a few of the same things to my car, cause im diggin the GM mirror, center console and cup holders...

what car the steering wheel come from?

and thanks to you windraver, i know what ima do with my window seals... and i have to look under them to check out this rust i have going on under my driverside window seal right around the mirror on the door.... i hope i can fix it and make it look originall, cause its sticking out to the side just a little
thanks, im glad that you're able to find something useful off my thread. The steering wheel came from another crx which i believe was a euro version. Its a bit rare and tough to find but you occasionally can find it on ebay or redpepper racing.

its a center piece. the outside is a mix and match.
they actually have it on ebay right now. F-1 Edition
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/JDM-RARE ... ccessories
i asked where it came from... i didnt say i wanted to blow my whole paycheck :rofl:

thats a nice steering wheel you got tho... when i get my rex running, because right now, i put ALL new seals in the engine, and i bought an Exedy OEM clutch, just put it in... i just got my P/S lower ball joint in... and i gotta find a Cam gear, and ill have the car all together.... but i Still gotta wait till friday so i can buy all of the required fluids..

im gonna take off the window seals, and under my drivers side one, the piece of metal sticking out that the seal clips on to is kinda rusted away.. i know without pictures its hard to judge so i will get back with pics sometime...
I got it for a quarter of the price off ebay. just gotta watch for it.
 
#217 ·
Hey I'm having truble wiring the motors for the ights I have the two small black relays that I had gotten from the driverside, and the blue relay from the pass, now I connected all the wires that match up w. Eachother, but on the blue relay I have these wires still lose a total of 6wires:

Now out of these 6 I have a positive feed and clicking in all 3 relays witch are:
Red/yellow
Red/green
But I tested the the redwhite and I only get a click in the blue relay.

Do u happen to have the wiring diagram still, can I get it emailed to me plz?
 
#221 ·
Indeed, to be accurate, its winter now. But that is what it took to resume.

Decided to start slow charging my dead battery again. I've been in talks with some buddies who have a D15Z1 Civic VX engine lying around. This car won't be strong but it will have ridiculous MPG once I get this going.

A bit of history/update:
Parked my CRX in the garage after the breakin.
I picked up an 1996 EK as a daily driver.



Somewhere along the way, I cleaned up an oil leak under the CRX

The my EK got rear-ended in a hit and run in July.










But the best part is he left his license plate imprinted into my car. So I got lucky with my insurance claim.





Picked up an EP3 from the insurance and sold the EK.



Currently going through some mini-projects like Android intergration and just making my daily driver comfortable.

Its work in progress but the screen will eventually interface with the droid3


Today I was slow charging my battery.



This project is definitely not dead and my plan is to take it to the meet in Niagra one of these days. Work and school take up all my time but I'm graduating this May. Positive part is I can finally afford some parts :D

edit:
BTW I have a huge crate of CRX parts I won't be using. This includes AC assembly and more. Pictures once I can find em.





 
#223 ·
So I mentioned prior that I'm planning to integrate android into the car.

So here is the progress.

First I recently acquire a samsung 7 inch touch screen. Theres plenty of data on it and it appears reliable while supporting HDMI, VGA, Composite(RCA) and also allows input for reverse. Not to mention there is a lot of support for it on MP3Car.com

sources:
screen discussion
http://www.mp3car.com/lcd-display/1...th-res-touch-controler-for-101-36-s-h-88.html
ebay posting
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAP...7&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:US:1123#ht_24513wt_911

Picture from the ebay posting:


Picture of the testing:


mini demo video (uploading)


As for android interfacing the screen, I'll be using this module:


More info here:
http://www.customgadz.com/store/product.php?id_product=16

So here is the issue. First, its a barescreen. Second, I want a single din flip out. So my approach is to acquire a flipout unit.

So I picked up a broken Clarion VZ 409 for 30 dollars to act as my framework


So next I saw that the screen encasing just wouldn't fit the board. So I needed to relocate the board but the cables where too short and there were 3 of them. These are Zif Flat Flex Cables and they don't make couplers for them. Soldering wasn't very... feasible since the pins are .5 mm apart. half a millimeter requires skills and a soldering iron i didn't have. So I used parts from the broken deck to create my "couplers" and some spare zif cables repurposed into extensions.





this is essentially how the screen will be displayed.



upside down view of the railing flip out setup


broken gears. I ordered some replacements so they should be coming soon.


These are the screen Zif Flat Flex Cables. There is a 40 pin(video), 6 pin(power), 4 pin(touch)

This is the Deck Zif FF cable cut to "simulate" the screen connection



Pictures to demonstrate the thickness of the board. Because of this, I'll be extending the zif FFC and putting the board within the box instead of in the screen.






Connections


Screen Test in the frame.





modified and repurposed an old bracket to hold the screen in place.



preview of what it might look like


Rerouting the connections:






Work still in progress. Got programming hw to do.
 
#226 ·
I have plenty of spare parts. The car itself is currently on hold until I graduate. Too many projects to make a long story short. Currently waiting on the Android Module and I'll have my android integration unit. Pictures to come.

As for the CRX. I'm pretty sure I'll be getting a d15z1 from a friend who happens to be upgrading his HF to an H22. I already have my EP3 so I'm not really power hungry but with fuel prices at 4 dollars, a vx build sounds mighty nice.

The build will happen in the summer. As for body, I'll be redoing the fenders. I have more equipment and capital to play with now so we'll see where that takes me.

If you want parts, let me know what it is and I'll see if its available.
 
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