89 civic wagovan 5spd (very slow build: power + ecomods & lots of pics!)

[OG VX]

Originally Posted by tvbd56

I was thinking the EXACT same thing when I read that! ha!

Victor, wagon is looking so fresh! Love the rims. Can't beat them, especially for the price you paid.

[vrmouseyd15b]

Originally Posted by OG VX

I was thinking the EXACT same thing when I read that! ha!

Victor, wagon is looking so fresh! Love the rims. Can't beat them, especially for the price you paid.

Thanks! I'm real happy, and I love the look now. Sexy Skiddy!

Hope everybody's Wednesday was better than mine had a great day at work and came back to find my front right tire was flat. Aired it up and went to the tire place to complain, and they didn't have a tire for me! Had to drive 15 minutes across town with a bubble on the inner sidewall. Arrgh. Finally got home with 4 good tires, but late. Sucks.

Had Thursday off, and decided to get down on the camber kit! I'm going to switch to a tablet and get these pics uploaded. ..

Be right back!

Thanks,
Victor

[vrmouseyd15b]

Ok, so this is the part where I'm going to try and make the camber right, or at least adjustable so I can get Skiddy in for an alignment.

Started out back, the old camber arm in place:


I had already had the bolts to the body out, but the bolt into the rear assembly had me a little worried. Hit it with a little love juice, and the bolts let right go! I was ready for a fight there, after the bolts on the lower control arm bushings gave me a solid fight

Old and new side by side:


New camber arm in place:



The rears were relatively simple to get done! Then I moved on to the front. I've had bad luck with ebay cheapos for front upper control arms with the minion (lesson leared), and decided to do this instead. I't a copy of the moog adjustables, made by the same folks I got the coilovers from, it bacisally replaces the upper control arm's bushing and makes it adjustable:




That takes the front's upper control arms from this:


To this!



I didn't even separate the upper ball joint (it seemed ok), just spun the arm around to get get old bushings out and new ones in:


Then it was off to the alignment rack! Happy times! Until the alignment dude said Skiddy needed an inner tie rod end, and told me how much extra that would cost ($79 for the part, $101 for labor) I then asked if they saw anything else that needed attention - he said no, and that the parts weren't available today (yesterday). Good. I wouldn't have to break his heart telling him about the MOOG inner tie rod end SET I got at advanced for $35 (they messed up telling me they had 2 in stock, so I had to wait and got them at cost!)

Inner tie rods are here now, but I'm comfy in the house clicking on the internet..
There's always tomorrow the procrastinator said! But today is always yesterday's tomorrow, What to do, what to do?

I'll probably be in the garage!

Thanks,
Victor

[vrmouseyd15b]

Got the inner tire rod ends installed. The old ones were pretty ugly.


When i was under there adjusting the camber out a little more, it looked like I was rubbing the upper control arms on the inner fender well. I ground some meat out of the way. .



I had to spray undercoating on everything to prevent cancer, of course. .


So now I'm ready to go for an alignment a second time. This one should be it! I'm ready like SpongeBob.


Thanks,
Victor

[pgfpro]

Enjoying the build keep up the good work!!!

[vrmouseyd15b]

Originally Posted by pgfpro

Enjoying the build keep up the good work!!!

Thanks dude! things keep happening. I did finish reading your other thread, haven't got the boost book yet. I'm all out of order! Still reading, still not decided on internals. . Life keeps getting in the way. Good times!

Thanks,
Victor

[vrmouseyd15b]

I got the alignment done this morning! Yay Skiddy! Then I got called in to work and took Skiddy for a long drive! Yay money!

When I got back to the shop, Skiddy wouldn't crank - I left the lights on! Boo Vic! Jumped her with one of the work trucks and went home!

I like cruising with my lights on in this car for safety, but I'm going to have to set up a buzzer with the lights or do some kind of daytime running light thing. Not looking forward to another no crank on a cold night. Looks like I've got my next little project. ..

Thanks,
Victor

[vrmouseyd15b]

My buddy Max stayed with us last weekend, and we got to talking about Skiddy, of course, but the one thing that kept coming up was my crappy alarm. Time to upgrade to the full-on hard-core alarm. Time to go full potato.


In search of potato, Skiddy would require power door locks. So be it. I got the acuator set with the wiring and goodies. The actual motors were a breeze to install. The wiring, however was not in the least, especially the rear doors. So much that I won't even cover the motor install, basically just the boots!

I knew I would need some kind of wire boots for the rear doors, since manual windows and locks on rears, and speakers are in the rear cargo area, not the rear doors. Looked at stuff like this on the interweb:


Didn't like the options/costs available, that only left me one option - junkyard I violated a 96 civic hatch for it's door boots. Walked out for $10 with both boots, connectors and enough wire to comfortably solder and heat-shrink new wire ..



First thing was to make a template for the lower penetration (giggity) into the door, like this.


Then onto the tracing and hole extendification.


Looking good so far...


Also made a template for the top out of clear hard plastic:


So that I could lay out the hole on the center pillar:


Also looking good so far..




Rear doors' boots complete! I shouldn't have to mention that ALL of my wiring connections have been soldered/heat shrunk, but they are..

The front boots only needed some modification to play nice with the new goodies. Biggest problem up front was in the driver's boot, adding 5 MORE WIRES!! The driver's lock is the "master" to this set - if you lock the master, all doors lock. I'll just show the master side, there are more prety colors to look at...

I had to feed the wires individually into the boots, but once thru, I notched a little room for my wiring to go thru next to the stock connection, but inside the boot. Makes more sense when you look from inside the door..




Now I have 7 conductors thru the driver door's boot! 5 for the master lock, and 2 for the speaker..



Upgraded front boot:



This is an incredible amount of work! I'm freaking tired! But, for all my hard work, I'm very happy!
Only problem is that it's not done! Still have to get from the remote harness to the doors, pull more interior out to run the wires proper like, etc.etc..

And the interior of the doors, with the holes in the plastic sheeting/insulation on the door skins bothers me. I'm going to end up re-skinning the doors with something before they get put back together. I won't be able to sleep at night without it.....
Might see another Wagon Wednesday come and go before another cruise, but It will be worth it

Thanks,
Victor

[Xist]

A mad scientist's work is never done...

[pgfpro]

Originally Posted by Xist

A mad scientist's work is never done...

Very well said!!! It never ends. lol