[windraver]

So my sister needed to borrow my civic so I needed my crx operation. So I did a quick prime and paint and bolted it on.

Also readjusted my passenger light while I was at it. Looks much better now

Still need to smooth out the nose a bit more and then start welding myself some fenders.

 

[shorty_boy]

Pretty damn good job right out the gate man.

Did you take any welding courses previously? I was thinking about this as my CRX will need some major restoration in the rear.

How much did the MIG setup cost you? Everything keeps telling me to go with a TIG setup but MIG seems so much more affordable and easier to do.

 

[windraver]

Pretty damn good job right out the gate man.

Did you take any welding courses previously? I was thinking about this as my CRX will need some major restoration in the rear.

How much did the MIG setup cost you? Everything keeps telling me to go with a TIG setup but MIG seems so much more affordable and easier to do.

nope, I didn't take any welding courses. I watched a lot of youtube tutorials and did a handful of research on how to weld thin metal. I had tried my friend's flux core welder in the past which would always burn through thin sheet metal on cars and splash everywhere so after some conversations, I concluded I needed a better welder and started researching and came across this site:
http://www.secondchancegarage.com/public/150.cfm

The conclusion there is MIG. I didn't really question it much further and went with it.

As for tutorials I watched:

You'll also need an angle grinder with some sanding flap discs. Harbor freight is a good source for this.
Heres an example:

This angle grinder is a life saver when cleaning up the welds. I still have much to learn given I still burn through and have to do a lot of rework.

The total setup costed me 1200 with a 100 rebate from miller with consumables, tank, tip, gear, helmet. I went with the Millermatic 141 model I did given its one of the cheapest but still ranked as a decent welder.
http://www.millerwelds.com/products/mig ... del=M00486

Its pretty easy to use and is a world of a difference in comparison to flux core. Hope that helps!

 

[shorty_boy]

Thanks for the info. I guess I will have to look at the new MIG setups and compare them to the TIG setups that I have been eyeballing for the last few years.

 

[razordave]

Tig is nice if you have any plans to move to exotic materials like aluminum.

If you're planning to stick with steel welding, mig seems to be much less expensive and fairly easier to learn.

Wind, that thing is looking great. Can't wait to see what you come up with for fenders.

 

[windraver]

So I mentioned a couple months back that I've been trying to get rid of a weird swaying my car when going over a light bump on the freeway.

I had already changed out the shocks so this time I swapped out the radius rods with ball joints.

First things first, off with the wheels and axle nuts...

A quick look at the old old bushings. I picked up some NRG bushings so I'll be swapping this out later.

The cursed ball joint. Sometimes it just won't let go...

Nice broad view

took quite a bit of hammering but its finally off

Someone's been asking me for some measurements of the replacement axles I got so here they are.

N is for the NEW replacement axles from HASPORT while O is for the original axles that were too short. 3 shots in case they aren't good enough.

Now whats interesting and quite the contrary to what I thought is the remaining axles are the same size!

More pictures for referencing

Another shot at the transmission ends with measurement

compressed fully and lined up

To illustrate the difference in numbers

AAAAND back to the main project at hand!

Here is everything removed.

New bushings!

Nicely packaged

Old bushings disasssembled in order

old vs new radius rods

So clean

New bushings versus Old bushings

And they're in!

And this is where the story begins

First thing after swapping both out and getting the wheels on comes the test drive. I roll out the garage and GRINNND.... what happened? where did that come from?!

I lift the car looking to see if my car was grinding something but nothing was in sight. Its 4 am... I'm tapping out til tomorrow.

Next day afternoon I go back out and decide to take off the wheels and begin to look around. I find the problem below.

Turns out the rotor is scrapping right up against the new radius rod... lovely...

yum... my rusty rotors..

Another shot with more contrast

So it turns out that the new radius rod ball joint mount is quite wide...

in fact, its oval going in the direction of the rotor... ain't that lovely...

look at the overlap

The old one is much much thinner. This is what I get for buying cheap off rockauto I guess.

So what do I do? I grab my angle grinder and grind it down a bit to thin the excessive metal protruding. Hopefully that won't turn around to bite me later. I had to do this about twice so on the third time, I throw a coat of prime on to see where the grinding was happening.

Turns out both wheels had the grinding and so I slimmed it down and the problem is solved.

With life's chaos, I haven't gotten around to prototyping the fenders but they're next. Maybe after I change my rear shocks...

 

[shorty_boy]

Thanks for continuing to do work. I need to get motivated.

 

[windraver]

Finally got around to working on my CRX again this last weekend.

Took the paint off my black hood and put on a coat of prime and white. Pictures to come later.

In the meantime, I put up some inspiration in the office to remind me to work on my car.

 

[ScottMog]

Finally got around to working on my CRX again this last weekend.

Took the paint off my black hood and put on a coat of prime and white. Pictures to come later.

In the meantime, I put up some inspiration in the office to remind me to work on my car.

Oh hell yes, 86-87 si right? Love those wheels.

Terrorists would have a hell of a day with this stuff, completely remove an airplane @@

 

[windraver]

Big updates. Sorry 56k.

First, I never really wanted a rice rocket look so I finally got around to paint the black hood white. I started off with stripping all the paint off but found some hidden bondo. Otherwise, there was black, gray, red, prime, then bare metal. My backyard had red dust for weeks to come.

Next I moved onto my fenders. Its bothered me for a long time how my plastic fenders would crack if someone decided to lean on my car

So I decided to try and find myself metal fenders and decided to modify the integra fenders I had used for my molds.

Top is the current ABS plastic CRX, Middle is the Integra fender, bottom is a spare broken CRX fender from the 2nd 1st gen I had back then.

The bottom CRX fender is broken but that works out since I'll use it for parts for this fabrication.

From this picture, you can see that the integra fender is someone slimmer near the bottom. This will represent an issue I'll illustrate in a moment

My old beaten plastic fender. The cracks are at the top.

Imperfections such as those below really are an eye sore. It motivates me to fix up this car.

Now to see the differences.
Current Plastic Fender vs Integra Fender

This is the primary issue. The integra fender is simply too short.

It is also missing that upward hook

The moldings don't quite match either...

I'll use this plastic part for the molding... and maybe more.

Bolts are a bit off but I'll make it work. I can weld a bracket as needed.

A closer examination of the side moldings

First I'll cut off the bottom part of the plastic part fender. Gave it a good cleaning as well.

This is based on my inspiration from the 2nd generation CRXs. My friend's 2nd gen bottom part of the fender was stolen which made me realize that it was multiple pieces. I'll use that same approach for this fabrication.

A quick mock-up before cutting

This will go somewhere here and will take care of the side molding as well.

I'll also need to trim this. Too bad I cut a bit of the bottom too much...

Tape Mock-up. Gonna have to patch that hole..

Time for some resin and fiberglass. And gonna have to recreate that missing hole

I left it all to dry overnight. A quick look at the progress

At this point I realized something is off... the bottom fender doesn't line up with the curve of the fender...

Well, gonna have to bondo anyways so lets do that first. Packed a lot onto that hole.

Sanded down and its looking better. The misalignment of the fender is obvious now that everything is straight and fitted in.

A close look shows how much I'll have to shift the curve as I have marked with some markers.

So I proceed to cut this and welded a new curve. Didn't catch too many pictures of the welding but it was difficult to weld curves, grind it down properly so I have more work to do.

I added some fill so I can see the defects better and threw on some primer. Looks nice but if you look closely, theres some defects I'll highlight in some pictures later.

This best highlights the defects remaining. The curve isn't quite right since the metal warped from the heat of the weld. I tried to clean it up with bondo but more work is needed.

Decided to sand down and prime my front bumper too.

Calling it a night before going back to work after a thanksgiving break.

As of now, I'm planning to repaint the whole car white and no more panda black white. Thoughts?

 

[windraver]

Note to self. Research Electroluminescence.

http://www.e-luminates.com/osc3/index.p ... 2d4eb09195

 

[windraver]

More Body work!

Starting off, I'm priming all the removable panels. Sanding down all the hideous drips too.

God these drips... this is what happens when you try to paint an entire car for the first time outdoors at a buddy's house and you're rushing because you only have 5 or so hours to get it all done..

Added some more bondo to smooth out the funky shaping... it'll get there eventually. Its too bad its not a perfect fit

Started to plasticdip my moldings.

noticed a few dips, scraps, dents in the front bumper so filling them.

Sanded down so its all smooth.

Then prime. Its now sitting here to dry.

Sand and prime. so many drips beneath it.

Fresh coat of primer. So shiny.

Sanded and another coat of prime.

Sanded down but I still need to work on the curve/flare?

Its a bit more even now as you can see.

All the work in progress.

So car paint scheme, panda or all white?

 

[windraver]

Was itching to work on my car so drew out some design for a new cargo cover. The current one sags and doesn't look refined enough.

The plan is to use parts from another civic hatch cover I have.

 

[91rexdx]

Great job! I've been following this post since day one. Love the work you have done to it. All white will definitely make it pop more then the usual panda theme.

 

[windraver]

Backdating some work from before the holidays! Dec 23rd.

Some more work on the driver door panel

All sanded and ready to prime

I decided to take a different approach with the driver fender. This required me to really stitch the plastic and metal together. The two shapes were a bit off so I need some strong solid stitching thus I used wood and screws. I then proceeded to pour on some resin and fiberglass to establish some structure.

Fiberglass and resin the back for support and bonding.

Threw on some bondo to smoothen out the bond.

The inside resin is solid now.

Threw on some left over dark primer.

Rear bumper looked terrible I went ahead and sanded it down and threw on some primer.

Cheap black primer

 

[windraver]

Started masking a bit.

The bumpers, panels, and skirts are now primed

Though long and hard if I wanted the mirrors to be black or body white. If I'm really going to do full white, the mirrors certainly would look better white. So I primed them.

These pillars are worn and beaten. A coat of black wouldn't hurt yea?

The light housing has been taking quite some beating over its years so I threw on a fresh black coat.

Noticed the rear molding of the hatch needed a touch up... so I gave it a touch up.

 

[windraver]

PAINT!

I got impatient so I threw a coat on all the parts. I need to pick up new passenger fenders given the drivers turned out so much better.

I'm considering white molding?

Heres the paint outcome!

 

[daveb91]

Nice to see you're still at it.

 

[windraver]

Sneak peak. Assembly required.

 

[windraver]

Assembly done.

I read I'm supposed to wait 30 days before waxing?