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

[vrmouseyd15b]

Originally Posted by Xist

Are eBay fenders painted?

The ebay ones I'm referring to are used, painted whatever color wagon they came from. I haven't seen any reproduction panels for the wagons online, and of course they would want an arm and a leg anyway!

Thanks,
Victor

[vrmouseyd15b]

This is going to be a good one - lots o pics, I'll share contact info at the bottom of this post!!!

It's been a few days and about 1600 miles since I've been on the forums - Skiddy and Yoda and I have been out on "field trip" to Tennessee!

I'm not going to talk about Indiana and their terrible highways, I'm still a little ticked off about that - ( Indiana broke a weld on my exhaust out back, about halfway thru the trip in the middle of the night ) but I did find that Waffle House is my new favorite thing in Indiana.



Touched about a quarter mile of Virginia on the way down:



Tennesee was the coolest! Great people, AND you can drive thru the clouds...





After looking for about a month, I finally found a "honda only" junkyard (turns out, up until about 6 months ago they really were honda only - now it's about 85% honda). I figured they would have the best odds to have a wagon - these guys had about 5 of them! Even better, they had an 89' with the same color code as Skiddy - the paint in the pictures looks a little white - it's actually a little moss or something, came right off at home.

Check these beauties out:









YES!!! Battery died on the phone, or I would have got more junkyard shots.

For those of you with the eagle eyes, the red wagon is an RT4WD model, but the whole drivetrain is gone. Plenty of good Wagon parts here, though..

I had my own little laundry list of items that I wanted to pick up for Skiddy. Both front fenders, both glass headlight assemblies, tail lights, bushings for the rear seatbacks' pivot points, rear seat release handles, and more..







Too bad the Skiddy donor didn't have a passenger side fender...

This is my current right brake light - hard to see, but the amber is cracked as well as into the red on the left:



New one's just got a little scratch - should buff out.





New glass heaadlights with adjuster assemblies! The dude that was pulling my parts (yeah, THEY pull the parts YOU pick out) did show me an awesome trick with the headlights. First, let me point out that he flat out would not sell me anything with moisture inside the glass - good. Then he explained that all THE GLASS BODIES ARE THE SAME SHAPE IN THIS GENERATION - THE ADJUSTER BRACKETS ARE DIFFERENT!! We ended up taking one headlight assembly complete from one wagon, and only the glass from a CRX. He mounted the CRX glass in the Wagon's mount / adjusters, and VOILA



The other assorted goodies don't really need pics, but they include the bushings for the rear seats, handles for the rear seats to fold down ( not the right handles - those were gone. got round door lock posts with same thread )

I'm so happy I got the rear seat bushings - that damn rear seat (actually the seat- backs) can get to rattling and squeaking without either the bushings in place or rear passengers!!

After speaking to the OWNER of this yard directly, I found out that they had DESTROYED a couple wagons here in the past year. We had a very pleasant conversation and he PROMISED NOT TO SMASH ANOTHER WAGON!!

I also promised to share his contact info with all my fellow Hondaddicts Wagonheads on both ecomodder.com and civicwagon.com thru my threads...

That said, if you need anything for any Honda (non motorcycle) I would send you to the fine folks at Hilltop Honda in Johnson City, Tennessee!

You don't have to be insane like me and drive a 25 year old Wagon you pulled out of a field less than 6 months ago across the country to get there, either. They have Facebook! look up Hilltop Honda Auto Salvage on facebook...

Tell them the crazy dude that drove from Illinois in the Wagon sent you....



Thanks,
Victor

[92civicvx]

Great build man. Rt4wd wago would be the only other civic I would get if I had to replace my vx. Good find on the honda yard. Wish it was closer to Nashville so I could check it out when I'm down there visiting my parents.

[vrmouseyd15b]

Thanks! I wish I could have an rt4wd myself. I'll keep dreaming until i find one.

Thanks,
Victor

[OG VX]

Great post! Send me a PM, I'll get the pinstripe removal tool back to you

[vrmouseyd15b]

Haha! The old lady was telling me to get a hold of you again for that tool! Thanks bro!
I'm just about over my "wagon lag" after the trip, time to start cleaning stuff and making with the pretty Skiddy!

Thanks,
Victor

[vrmouseyd15b]

I started putting the "new" body panels on Skiddy yesterday.. To get at the fenders, you have to remove the bumper first. 4 bolts behind the lower turn signal lamps, and 3 screws at either end of the bumper, by the wheels.







The new door needs a lot of goodies from the old one - window regulator, door card, mirror, some gasket/trim for the airseal,etc..

Started lining things up, and noticed the clip on the door frame had cracked out! This is for the thingie that "holds" the door open. I took the new door back out and "burned" a bead of weld across the top and inner side of it after tapping it back into place:



That should do for now, until I can get some primer and hopefully some rattle-can paint mixed up for little spots like this.

Back to work! still need the new fender installed and the bumper should go back on as well...







Now there's just a little cancer out back, over the wheel wells. A natural beauty!

More later.

EDIT:
I've been having some issues with my radio, It seemed like it would cut out at weird times on me. I took it out and double checked all my wiring for shorts / breaks and found none..

That had me a little worried. Out came the meter, and found that I wasn't losing voltage, I had TOO MUCH!! It seems that the voltage regulator had failed in my alternator - allowing it to send as much as 16.43 volts to it before it would cut out! New alternator at O'riellys was $75 - not too shabby.

I was glad to have discovered this alternator issue thru the radio acting up, versus an underhood fire or battery explosion! New alternator is in, but the radio's still all over the place and I'm not done with the driver's door either.

Skiddy, Skiddy, Skiddy. Always something!



Thanks,
Victor

[OG VX]

Any updates?

[vrmouseyd15b]

Originally Posted by OG VX

Any updates?

Sure! Sorry, life kinda got in the way of things for the last few weeks.

When I took Skiddy on the trip to Tennessee, I just tightened up the old adjustable upper control arm stuff and got out on the road with the new goodies in the trunk ( along with enough tools and balls to do the repair on the side of the road, if necessary! ) Here's what the new stuff looks like and a side by side:







Here's a torque refrence straight from the wagon FSM:




I got the pinstripe removal tool from OG VX again and cleaned up the "new" quarter panel and door. This was the last pic I had shared with OG.



These were taken today.





The driver's door is all put back together now as well. I'm using a severely faded maroon lock handle - it really looks brown!







As far as the seat covers, I hated them from jump. I got these iron on patches pretty cheap on amazon. Tan looks stupid, the TWEED or TWILL colored ones are much closer to the original material. Good enough for now..



That first interior door pic made the seat look much better (washed in light) this is closer to the truth.

Thanks,
Victor