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CRX Complete Restoration

109K views 385 replies 125 participants last post by  Baker 
#1 ·
Well here is my 1990 CRX Si. I purchased it on May 29th 2010 and am working on giving it a complete restoration. It needs a lot, i have already completed a lot but there is still A LOT to do. This is my 2nd complete Honda rebuild but this one is much more in depth than my 92 CX Hatch which was a complete ricer. The CRX i want to be much more original and clean looking than the civic it will also be straight as an arrow. My plan is for it to be in my opinion completely flawless! I did most of the tear down work at home but i am doing all the suspension, body and paint work at my dads body shop. My expected completion time is around early summer next year... Since i can't just spawn money whenever necessary. Anyways here are some pics!

The Day She Arrived






Beginning of Tear down


Next to the RSX


Patching the Quarters



Taking her to the shop


Sandblasting




Sandblasted and getting ready for some corrosion protection



Corrosion Protection



Well that's all i have for now... more to come later! Let me know what you think of the progress.
 
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#2 ·
This is EXACTLY the kind of complete resto i want to do on my own 89 Si....but cash is tight right now. atleast you have your own facility and tools to do all the work there as it would cost a small fortune to pay a shop to do this much attention work to one car.

this will be a great thread to follow as it looks like a fantastic start so far. :)
 
#4 ·
Thanks guys! I have put a lot into it so far and it does feel like i'm not making much progress but i know ill be getting to where i want to be soon enough. The facility i have at my disposal is a HUGE help... i know that there is not a chance that i could do what i have done so far in my own garage and i definitely don't have the cash to pay someone else to do this for me (nor would i want to... i mean whats the point of having someone else build your car for you? kinda takes the fun out of it). I have a huge list of things that the car needs and hope to have it painted by the time snow falls here in western pa.

I will be pulling A LOT of late nights so don't think i forgot about you guys if i don't post for a few days. The pics will come, just may only be once or twice a week. Thanks for all your support!
 
#12 ·
Here's the progress since my last post (sorry about the crappy picture)... my little brother and i have spent the last 3days working on cleaning up the inside to get it prepped for sealer and paint... meanwhile my dad has been helping me out with straightening the quarter panels.



The color i chose was Honda R-519. It is a color honda had available in the early to mid 2000's maybe even before that. It was common on the S2K. We have books at work with every color put on every car since the 1980's and this red was the one that looked the best to me. It is a very red color, doesn't have an orange look to it like a lot of reds do. It is going to be base cleared on the outside with Sikkens Autowave MM water based base coat and cleared with Sikkens Autoclear III as well on the outside. For the inside and engine compartment i chose to use Dupont Industrial Imron which we had mixed in Honda R-519 so it will match the outside nearly perfect. It is much stronger and will hold up better than base clear in areas where there will be wear such as the floor and it is chemical resistant so it will work great under the hood.

And i was not planning on running any carpet or the rear interior in the car (thats why i am spending so much time on the floor area)... possibly the side panels in the rear but not sure yet.

This is kind of a random question that won't need immediate answers since it is in the distant future but what do you guys think? I have Silver Rota Slipstreams for the car (it came with them and they are brand new on brand new bridgestone rubber.. not my first choice but they'll get the job done). So my question is on a red car with black moldings and such would you leave the wheels silver or paint them white? or black? Any opinions?
 
#14 ·
RJack93 said:
I think white wheels always look good, black with black moldings already would be somewhat overkill. So In my opinion I would go with the white rims. :)b
^^That is exactly what i was thinking! Just wanted to get some thoughts other than my own on the subject. Thanks!



Here is what i did this evening after work... got the inside all sealed up. Tomorrow the interior and engine compartment will be scuffed up and hopefully it will see some new seam sealer and lots of red paint this weekend!
 
#16 ·
I hate white wheels... on most cars- some look OK. Just remember though that white doesn't hide brake dust well. I'd keep them silver.

Awesome job on the restoration so far. It's good to see people doing things the right way!
 
#18 ·
RJack93 said:
This is going to look really good man, I was going to do the Corrosion Protection when i paint whatever i get but the stuff they are putting on the roads here in Maine for the winter can eat through just about anything.
Thanks! and yeah... the stuff they put on the roads here in PA is bad stuff too but this car will be a summer only vehicle... It will be too low to handle the pot holes here in western pa let alone pot holes AND extremely unpredictable snow storms.

rex2nr said:
I hate white wheels... on most cars- some look OK. Just remember though that white doesn't hide brake dust well. I'd keep them silver.

Awesome job on the restoration so far. It's good to see people doing things the right way!
I hear you man. I haven't set my mind for sure on white or silver (not really considering anything else as of now) but i agree with you about the brake dust... The car will probably be washed at least once a week depending on how much i drive it. So the white thing doesn't bother me... I take car of all my vehicles... but it is most definitely something to consider

cbox said:
Did you remove, paint over, or leave untouched the rust proofing on the underbody and wheel weels? If removed, how did you do it?
I sandblasted over it really lightly in the wheel wells just enough that i could get some adhesion when i spray it down with rubberized undercoating. Didn't feel the need to take it off the bottom of the car... seemed like a whole lot of work to take off something that has done a great job at preventing rust for the last 20years. But i did accidentally take off some of the undercoating in the wheel wells, actually it took it right down to clean bare metal. We have a device called "The Inductor" it is a giant electromagnet that heats metal up instantaneously on contact. If i wanted to take it off then that is what i would use or any other type of heat setup. A nice heat lamp would work fine it would just take a while but if you don't want to spend 200 hours on the bottom with a flat head screwdriver and a putty knife then heat is the way to go
 
#19 ·
Yeah, the potholes here are ridiculous. One kid that is in my Autobody class put a "body kit" on his S10 and lowered it and within a week the body kit was junk and he needed a new suspension, and the stuff they are putting on the roads here eats through anything so im thinking my CRX is going to be my summer car. Gotta love maine! :mrgreen:
 
#20 ·
haha... I hear you dude! Here is an album of pictures of my first car my dad and i built. I don't want to clog up the thread with non crx type photos.

http://s240.photobucket.com/albums/ff62 ... 20Project/

I know its a complete ricer but it was a nice first car. It was lowered with all that fiberglass crap but i managed to keep everything on it for the entire time i owned it. The kid that bought it on the other hand ripped the whole front end off=/
 
#24 ·
Thanks! I put a lot of work into that thing... more than i even want to think about... but the CRX is most definitely going to top the hours in the civic. Anyways here is the update... Just put it in primer this evening after work:



The primer brought out some bad spots in some of the body lines but the quarters are very straight for the most part. A little more work on the quarters and they will be done. Going to try to get the doors, fenders, hood and bumpers fit up here in the next 2 weeks. We are really hoping everything is going to line up nice
 
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