First gen Civic (1975) 1.5l 4spd CVCC

[California98Civic]

It might not look the same, but that is convincing enough. It'll look clean, and it'll shine. It reflect. It'll "give ya those nice bright colors, give ya the green of summer & make ya think all the world is a sunny day, oh yeah..." (i know the song is about kodachrome film, but it still captures the feeling).

[M_a_t_t]

I got the drills today. They were sitting on the desk and I was just was too excited to try them. I drilled a hole in some 3/16" plate I had and it just barely fit the threads of the stud (caliper measured 11.97mm). So I went ahead and drilled the drums out. All threads fit and stop on the knurling. I haven't pressed them in yet.

Service manual is "supposed" to be here Monday (6/22). The tracker says

Originally Posted by USPS Website

Your package is moving within the USPS network and is on track to be delivered the expected delivery date. It is currently in transit to the next facility.

Which I've never seen before. Hopefully its not lost. It's been like that for a few days now. The red powder is supposed to be here Monday as well.

[California98Civic]

Congrats on the success. Did you take any pictures you want to post?

[M_a_t_t]

Originally Posted by California98Civic

Congrats on the success. Did you take any pictures you want to post?

I have some, but not ready to post yet.

Is it worth it to paint the inside of the drum? Not the braking surface, but everywhere else of course. Just to try and keep rust off.

I need to repaint the heads of the wheel studs and bake them to harden the paint. Then maybe paint the inside then I will press them in.

The rear brakes will almost be ready to be put together. I need to

• Clean and paint the backing plates
• rebuild the wheel cylinder (bought rebuild kit and new units, going to try to rebuild originals)
• Un-seize the drum adjuster (one side is already done)
• The rest of the parts are maintenance parts and I have new, so just assembly
• I can't decide if I want to buy new wheel bearings. The old ones seem to be in good condition. Thoughts?

Still need to finish blasting the rims and paint. Then I can put the new tires on. I might get a white paint pen and color the letters. I think that would look cool. At that point I think the looks will really perk up.

I'm trying to free the master cylinder up. I want to see if I can transfer the guts of the new master to the old one. The new one is slightly different design and plus the old one has the patent numbers on it an everything. It would just look much cooler I think.

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by M_a_t_t

I have some, but not ready to post yet.

Is it worth it to paint the inside of the drum? Not the braking surface, but everywhere else of course. Just to try and keep rust off. ...

I think maybe yes. While you have it off the car... now is the time to do it.

Originally Posted by M_a_t_t

...[*]I can't decide if I want to buy new wheel bearings. The old ones seem to be in good condition. Thoughts?

i vote new, but keep the old as backup. Better reliability, which is hard to get in our old machines, so while you have it apart a few extra bucks serves a good purpose...

Originally Posted by M_a_t_t

... I'm trying to free the master cylinder up. I want to see if I can transfer the guts of the new master to the old one. The new one is slightly different design and plus the old one has the patent numbers on it an everything. It would just look much cooler I think.

I like the idea of trying to rescue the old if you can make it work well, because, as you say, it has special features that the new part will lose. Unlike wheel bearings, the Mast Cylinder is kinda visible to a viewer at the car meet.

[M_a_t_t]

I wish there was a facepalm emoji I could post. This will have to do for now atleast.



I painted the inside of the drum last night. I went to get the wheel studs and I can't find the 4th one. I have new ones, but I'd hate to press in a new one and find the old one soon after.


I will wait to order wheel bearings until I get the fronts apart and can confirm the correct bearings and order them all at once. My local Autozone doesn't keep them in stock anyway (more $ too).

Edit: Found it. Must have fallen off the work bench in the garage. I need to do a deep clean in there. Will post pics when they're pressed in.

[M_a_t_t]

Just need some wheel bearings now. I am going to powder coat the other side. As a comparison of how they hold up. I figure if I do opposite sides you won't be able to tell if there are any small differences. The spindle cap will be painted on both sides.

I got the master cylinder to budge. I'm hoping that if I can get the innards to compress enough I can use some compressed air to shoot the piston out. I've been letting it soak in some ATF for awhile (before and after budging).

Has anyone had problems with the image size? They seem to be like XXXL.



I need to find a replacement O-ring (#6) it looks like just a generic O-ring so I'll have to see what I can find at the LAPS.

[California98Civic]

That's what they call a clean look. Congrats on solving the fit issue.

[M_a_t_t]

The red powder coat arrived. I tried to use it by hand and just fill it in and flatten it out. It didn't work so great. The H is lower than the outside rim so I couldn't just slide a flat blade across the top. I tried to just be very delicate and uncover the H with some q-tips, that worked. So I then carefully used the flat blade (plastic ruler and wooden pencil) to level out the rest of the powder. I thought I got it pretty good. The results are not that great though. The red is a little brighter than the original one (again an extra I bought). I'd think the old one is likely faded.




I am going to spray (paint) some clear coat over the messed up powder to see how it turns out. Then I will probably just blast all of the old powder off and re try the red. My next attempt I will spray the whole part and then try to remove the powder from the outside and the H logo. I'm not going to re apply the chrome because it is in very limited supply. I think they are discontinuing the super chrome. Supposedly there is a replacement in the works.

Good new/bad news on the master cylinder. I double checked and I don't think that its moved yet. I had it in the press to keep some force on it and I had a block of wood underneath. The noise I heard was probably the wood compressing. I did however double check how it went together and found I hadn't taken it all the way apart yet. All I had to do was buy a 21mm wrench and use some elbow grease and it came apart. Now when I put it in the ATF (which isn't filled enough to cover the reservoir openings) the fluid flows through the side and up into the reservoir part. Hopefully that means with some more soaking it will come loose. I also found a place that has a rebuild kit. It's in europe though so shipping is a minimum of 27.50 euros (30.97 US)



The manual shipping status changed as well. Says its in Iowa now.

[California98Civic]

Sounds like progress... that "Project Farm" YouTube channel did a good test of the penetration qualities of a number of oils and if I recall right he showed that Sea Foam was quite a lot better than ATF. Search and see. He does great tests.