Chopped & dropped '88 Civic = +5 mpg

[DeadAt40]

Hey, I built my car in 2002, and got about 5mpg out of the body mods. I wanted to do more, but Katrina put my car under salt water for a couple of hours and I haven't been able to touch it since the Huricane. I'm still trying to rebuild my house, and can't do anything else untill that chore is taken care of. I wanted to get more involved with your site a long time ago, but knew that I was unable to do anything with my car. I am now at a point where my house may be finished soon, and I'll be free to participate more soon.Gauge Magazine Online :: www.gaugemagazine.com

[MetroMPG]

Hope you don't mind I moved your post into its own thread. That's a wild looking car.

Not difficult to believe the reduction in frontal area from the chop and improved fineness ratio from lowering would have given you a healthy CdA improvement that you could see at the gas pump.

The only thing I would have done different was mimic the CRX angle toward the rear. But maybe you wanted to keep 4 seats. (Don't you just love the comments from the peanut gallery after all the hard work you put in?)

Glad to hear your house is nearly back on track.

[DeadAt40]

When I built the car, I was mostly thinking about making something that nobody had ever seen before. When I took the top down I wanted it to be really strange and when we angled it like a crx, it really just looked like a crx. But, leaving the original civic angles looked insane. If I ever put it back together I'm going to ocasionally fill the back with overnight gear. (tent, sleeping bags, assorted stuff). So the cargo space will get some use. There aren't any seats in the back only 2 feet tall back there. Thanks for checking it out.

[SVOboy]

Wow, interesting stuff!

And I'm sorry to hear about your house, I hope everything gets itself back together for ya soon, , thanks for stopping by ecomodder!

[Daox]

That had to be quite a bit of work! My cousin has wanted to do that to his 00 civic hatch for a looong time though. I'll have to show him your handy work. Very nice.

[Chris D.]

looks like a mid 90's modified car that was left just as it was back when
the styling was hot, and simply chopped the top.. very 90's retro..

trippy lookin, looks like a station wagon.. Magnum Civic anyone?

[thebrad]

Pretty weird, never would have imagined it would wind up looking like a Dodge Magnum Micro Machine.

[Johnny Mullet]

That looks really neat! I like it.

[dentprone]

That's cooler than that chopped electric Metro floating around.....very nice work. Sorry to hear about your damage, hope it all works out well. Thanks for posting and keep in touch with us.

[RH77]

Welcome...

Sorry to hear about the flooding. I haven't been down that way since -- is the region recovering?

Best to you and getting your car back on the road, and life back to normal.

Regarding the Civic -- very nice setup! Excellent chop -- best I've seen in a compact lately.

Keep us posted.

RH77

[nowhhs]

In my opinion, that's the biggest problem with that series hatch, I have a 90, it looks out of proportion in the stock form, too much window. I've looked at mine and thought fleetingly about doing something like yours. I'm very envious. Nice work.

[DeadAt40]

The Methodist Church has sent representatives to talk to me about finishing the repairs on my house. We'll see what comes from that. For now I am living in a FEMA Trailer on my property. Probably about half of the population is better off now than before the storm. The rest of us will eventually get back to normal.
When the Dodge Magnum came out I had a lot of people telling me that someone else had built a car like mine. When I saw the Magnum for the first time I thought it did look like mine. But when you sit it the Magnum It's like sitting in a normal car. When you sit in my Civic it's really tight in there. You have to sit in a reclining position about a foot back from where the original seat was. I welded about a foot of tail pipe to the steering wheel to extend it back. The car has a lot of problems now, it needs a whole new engine, plus there are rust holes all over it, and a lot of electrical stuff is not working. I really don't look forward to all of the work but I had always planned on traveling with this car when I retired. I can not afford to travel unless I can get at least 50 mpg, so the Suzuki Aerio that I drive won't do. It gets between 25 and 30 mpg.

[thebrad]

I'm willing to donate my D16Y7 (~215,000 miles) if you will pay the freight shipping.

[Katana]

That a car bra on the front?
A cheapish mass produced option to cover up grills quickly, and protect from stone chips.

[DeadAt40]

The bra on the front was a bad Idea. I put it on there just because I liked the look. The front of the car was flawless, but with the bra everyone thought that I was hiding something. I paid $250 for it and the worst part is that when I got tired of it and removed it, it had already ruined my perfect paint job. I highly don't recomend bras for any purpose on any vehical. Everyone that I talk to about this story has a similar story. I don't know how so many cars have been ruined by bras, and yet still people buy them.

[cfg83]

DeadAt40 -

Welcome to EM! That's my favorite-generation Civic Hatch. I love the chop-top look, what a natural! Hope everything works out so you can start the rebuild. I wonder if a VX drivetrain would fit? I think that's what SVOBoy has in his same-gen-as-yours CRX.

CarloSW2

[metromizer]

I have always LOVED chopped tops, yours looks great! I've come dangerously close to building a chop-top myself, but dam it's a lot of work. I even looked at two that were for sale, but didn't like the quality for the price (one was an unfinished hack job, the other was a finished car built in the 70's, good SoCal build but really needed to be completely re-done)

I know of several chop tops that have been started, but were never finished. Semi-common sight at the goodguys street rod swap meets :-)

[Katana]

Yeah, if you got a swirl free finish it's not going to do you any favours, you need a spotlessly clean car, washed/clayed/polished/protected/washed to use any kind of car cover without damaging the paint.

[FunkSkunk]

Love the car! But I was curious if you had any pics of the car without all the funky magazine angles? Like maybe a straight shot of the side or angled a bit? I like to see an overall pic of a car before I zoom in for the details. Just my .02

[DeadAt40]

I have fallen into that trap myself. Once in my twenties I bit off more than I could chew with a 65 beatle that I chopped. Later I chopped a 88 Astro Van that was destroyed in the Huricane before I could complete it. Here is a photo of it on Picasa. I hope you can see it without some kind of Pass Word.