James' Civic Rebuild Thread + High Power ER Motor Theory

Post whatever you like in here but try to keep it Honda City related!
mangusta
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Postby mangusta » Fri Jul 04, 2008 6:14 pm

The only reason for rigging wastegate atmos to the turbo intake is so that when the supercharger is boosting it doesn't open the wastegate on the turbo, otherwise that will make the turbo idle slower while the supercharger is boosting but when the supercharger stops it will then have to spool up (cause the wastegate will slam shut)

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James
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Postby James » Fri Sep 05, 2008 4:08 pm

OK Guys long time no update.

Had a long period of inactivity on my car when I went over to Aus, and concentrate don some other hobbies for a while (mainly photography), but I am finally back into it and making some progress.

Nothing much engine wise has happened except for picking up a T2 wiring harness while I was in Aus. Will start wiring the car very shortly, will hopefully finish painting the interior this weekend.

Still working on welding up the roof channels, Have completed one side and am most of the way through the other side. Have started welding the replacement slam panel I got from the states back together (had to cut it into 1/3's to post it). Next mission is to start welding up all the unneeded holes in the engine bay, and filling and fairing it to get it all nice and smooth. Then the engine bay will be the first area to get proper paint. Hopefully within the next couple of weeks.

I have finally decided on a paint colour and started doing some paint practice. Its a dark mettalic red from a Fiat. My first choice was a Mazda red but that was a tri-coat system, too expensive and fiddly for me, this look fairly similar but is only a base and clear, much more managable.

Am also currently working on re-upholstering my WRX seats in black suede. Have taken the factory covers off and unpicked it all to make templates. Currently have the headrest bit done and its looking good, doing some exposed red stitching which looks the business - pics to come.

Thats about it so far, just bought a new compressor yesterday so I can actually run air tools for longer than 3 seconds at a time. I am also doing a fair bit of rust work on the City R, was fairly bad around the strut towers, but it will soon be all new metal.

Am still hoping to have my car maybe make it to NZHondas North Island Mega Meet on the 17th of next month, but Id have to really get Ass into gear to make it, we shall see.

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James
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Postby James » Thu Oct 23, 2008 12:18 pm

Stiiillll havn't decided on a colour. Im trying to get one that Roz, my fiancee, Colza and I agree on and its not proving easy. Have gone through red, goldy/bronze and green so far ($30 test pots!) and havn't found anything everyone likes. Going to get another one this afternoon so hopefully that might be the last one :/

Have decided I am going to stich weld my chassis while I have it like this, then I can do my engine, suspension, interior and bracing and the car will be finished and should last 10+ years.

For the stich welding I am going to concentrate on around the engine bay, front suspension and rear supension. I am going to build a few nifts braces in there which apparently make a huge difference. Will post some pics of the first braces I want to make which are between the front strut towers and the rail the front doors bolt to. Might be a good plan for others building their cars at the moment too (turbocab hint :P).

Having many engine thoughts, am getting my hurry on to do the engine bay so I can get the engine back in, do all my hidden wiring and do some skids!!! :mrgreen: Will hopefully make a start with the stich welding tonight and get some pics up.

I still havn't decided if I am going to sound deaden the cabin or not. If I remove all the old shit and don't add any new stuff I probably have a ~30kg weight benefit, which isn't to be sneezed at. However the car will be significantly noisier for long trips and stuff. Not to worried about around town as its not really going to be a daily driver.

Fuckit, I think I will get more enjoyment out of making it a pretty hard edged sports car than trying to make it a comfy quietish performance car that it will never be, so no sound deadening :P

Bah this project is full of indecision :roll:

Comments and encouragement if you please.

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ProT
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Postby ProT » Thu Oct 23, 2008 5:44 pm

The removed sound deadening material from my cabin (firewall, floor & spare wheel well) weighed 7.5kg.

So, an approximate 8kg I guess after I finished cleaning the remnants off.

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James
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Postby James » Thu Oct 23, 2008 7:51 pm

Sweet, cheers for that. I was considering adding about 30kg of new stuff to make it whisper quiet so if I take the old stuff out and don't add any new thats nearly 40kg difference, which you can easily feel when you drive.

Had a productive night. Cleaned all the seams in one of the engine bays and put heaps of extra welds. Cleaned up about half of the area under the Also planned where I am going to put additional bracing.

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All the seams I want to weld cleaned up with this:

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Its freaking brilliant and only like $12 from Bunnings. The rust proofing/ underbody stuff is really waxy and you have to wipe the seams down with something like paint thinners before you weld them, the wire wheel just spreads it around. I am going to brush on some 2pack undercoat tomorrow then when thats hard some bituminous underbody sealer is going over everything.

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This was my welding plan.

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And welded :D

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Got right up in the strut tower, figured it would make a big difference here removing flex in all the suspension points.

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I tihnk a significant point of weakness in 2nd gens is the lower control arm mounts, they just dongle out from the firewall with no real strength, I bet they move by like 10mm when you are driving hard. So my grand plan is to either build a brace like that above, or if its going to make it too hard to run and exhaust and stuff, then just brace it to the crossmember in a direct line between them.

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Pink is what I plan to stitch weld in the engine bay, blue is bracing I plan :D

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James
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Postby James » Sat Oct 25, 2008 1:09 pm

Got some more done today, focussed on the steering area, trying to get all the suspension and related areas as tight as possible.

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Again, pink is where I am yet to do, blue is bracing.

The front of my car is so light I can pick it up and wheel the car around like a wheelbarrow.

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James
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Postby James » Mon Oct 27, 2008 8:06 am

Im 95% sure I have finally picked a colour, here it is on the City R's guard.

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You can see here how it transitions from really dark nearly black out of the light, on the right, to a very light purple where te sun hits it. Its a BMW colour called mora mettallic and it has buttloads of perl 8)

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Closeup, you can see (maybe, you could in the full size) all the different colours of mettallic that are in it.

Its very similar to the colour they used for the special editions of the GT-R: Midnight Purple

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Postby turbocab » Mon Oct 27, 2008 4:16 pm

very nice colour!
i think ive found my colour its a metallic yellow that renault is using on the magane sport? i think,but i dont think it would be easy to spray or cheap for that matter.

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James
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Postby James » Mon Oct 27, 2008 5:21 pm

Cheers man :d

Like this?

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I considered yellow for a while, would look good on a City.

As far as paint costs go, its pretty much based on what quality of paint you buy, not the colour. It costs a little extra to get really perly ones but not much. Ones that do cost a bit more (purely because you have to buy another coats worth of paint) are multicoat systems where they have a base coat, a dye coat over this then a clear. This is what you use to get the candy look as well as some of the cooler modern colours like most of the new Mazda colours and probably those crazy Holden ones (more expensive and time consuming to apply and very hard to do minor repairs).

I am getting my paints from Resene, the primer is actually made in NZ and is famous for being awesome for everything, you can even use it as a top coat, was around $200 for 4 litres of paint 1litre of hardener and 1 litre of reducer. For the top coat Im getting DuPont 2K Laqcuer with DuPont (I think) clear. its around $240+gst retail for 2 litres of the Dupont 2k and 500ml of hardener (I think this is the ratio) (only need two coats so this is apparently enough), and around the same for 4-5 litres of clear, which is heaps. So about $650 or so for paint :cry: :cry: Plus underbody paint, and I need to get some black to do behing my bumper and stuff, and I painted the interior in black spray cans :D

If you went with 1K instead, it would be about $150 for 4 litres of base coat and $100 or so for the clear. As you can see its *substantially* (more than twice the price probably) more expensive to go for 2K paints but they really arent comparable in quality, water sealing and durability.

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Postby James » Thu Oct 30, 2008 10:05 am

Sorry no pics for this update. Still making headway against the paint. Doing a bit each day. Trusty drill died yesterday after sparking massivley for a while (been going a couple of hours non stop every day) so I pulled it apart and luckily the springs behind the brushes were just a bit fatigued so I stretched them back out and away we go. Have almost completely shagged the wirewheel too so will be getting another one.

Did some testing for the primer yesterday to see how well it sticks to bare metal and the underbody sealer stuff, looks good so far. I am on target to be priming everthing forward of the front windscreen this weekend hopefully. One guard is completely bare and sanded, other needs some more paint stripping. Will take a pic of the car when the whole front is in bare metal, looks cool.

Also ordered some loom sheathing stuff, once the whole car is primed and sanded, and the engine bay is fully painted the engine is going back in and the wiring done and all the suspension put back on. Then do some skids, then mask up all the engine bay and send the car down to madmini to paint. I may also paint the bits under the window seals and stuff so I can put the windows back in, makes it easier to mask up and wetsand for Pete. Gay, just realised that means I should get on to getting my new window seals :( expensive.

You guys in Aus, Scotts Old Auto Rubber carries heaps of different kinds of rubber if you want to replace your door seals, bailey channel and stuff.

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Postby turbocab » Thu Oct 30, 2008 3:57 pm

bigelboe wrote: Trusty drill died yesterday after sparking massivley for a while (been going a couple of hours non stop every day) so I pulled it apart and luckily the springs behind the brushes were just a bit fatigued so I stretched them back out and away we go. Have almost completely shagged the wirewheel too so will be getting another one.

You guys in Aus, Scotts Old Auto Rubber carries heaps of different kinds of rubber if you want to replace your door seals, bailey channel and stuff.

ime using a wire brush wheel in a 100mm grinder works a treat but it does kinda suck when the bits of wire shoot out and stick into you.
ime looking at replacing all the window rubbers for my car so i might have to check them out.
matt

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James
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Postby James » Sun Nov 02, 2008 7:21 am

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:lol: Hot rod styles in bare metal :P

Bit of progress, found some more rust, fixed it, continued stripping paint :D Hopefully going to finish welding the roof today so I can get it outside and paint stripper it, its getting surface rust from having been sitting so I need to get some primer on it soon.

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James
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Postby James » Sun Nov 09, 2008 9:03 pm

So I made a little trundler for the front of my car so I can move the chassis around to clean under it and get at the other side (too many motorbikes currently in the garage to get at both sides). Used some old supermarket trolley wheels :P

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Spent yesterday making some ventilation:

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It replaced a window in the garage, using the City R rad fan, filter cage made out of the front and back of the trolley that donated its wheels for the trundler :P This will suck clean air in while Im painting to keep a pressurised dust-free environment (hopefully).

Can also see that I have started masking up the garage to turn it into a paint booth, and the massive array of chemicals I have started to collect since starting this work!

More welding:

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This side is all welded and prepped with deoxydine ready to paint!

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And painted.

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3 coats brushed on, thought it would be easier but it took an arse of a long time, will be spraying next time.

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Postby James » Wed Nov 12, 2008 8:48 pm

Bit of progress, finished patching all the little niggly bits in behind the slam panel thing, and tacked it on to see how well it fit

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And it fits great! I am stoked with it. Panel gaps are pretty good too. Next on the list is to weld up a handful of seams that are left, mainly under the car. Run a grinder over all the seams, sandblast and paint the engine bay and front of the car with some POR15. Will get a dust coat of primer on the POR15 before it cures to key it up for when I fully prime it.

After that is done and sanded seam sealer will go back over all the seams and the underbody bits will get underbody coating put on. Then I will move backwards and finish my metal work on the roof. Got some nifty bracing to do on that. I test fit the roof liner the other day to check it would clear what I had in mind and it looks all good.

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spike10000
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Postby spike10000 » Fri Nov 14, 2008 8:31 am

Really starting to take form and look excellent mate :) Looking forward to getting back onto the 200hp build also 8)


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