27 replies to this topic

[jweber89]

Hey guys. This past November I purchased an 1987 CRX DX from a fellow in Jeffersonville, IN. He was the second owner of the car and was good friends with the original owner. After we agreed on a price over the phone, I drove up there with a trailer to pick her up. I ended up talking him down a bit more after I saw the amount of rust in person. Considering the sweet parts that are on the car, I still feel as though I got one hell of a deal. Here are some pictures of the car as I was on my way home:







As you can see, she definitely needed some TLC. So here is the list I came up with for what needs to get done immediately and what I would like to get done eventually:

NEEDS
-Replace clutch DONE
-Change and bleed brakes DONE
-Replace oil pan gasket DONE
-Get exhaust DONE
-Clean interior DONE
-Install different wheels(while I get the CF-48s repainted) DONE
-Install fenders and replace other broken plastics SEMI DONE
-Get new fog lights
-Paint car with rattle cans
-Have new crx decals made for the doors
-Replace rusted floor pans with new metal
-Fix header panel
-Install new radio
-Replace radio antenna

I'm sure there's some other things I'm not thinking of. But enough of that, lets see some more pictures.

Fenders mounted.







Replaced front rotors and pads.

Before


After




Continued in next post....

[jweber89]

Fully rebuilt the drum brakes.

Before


After





A box of goodies came in the mail. Old School REX bought these because he decided he wanted some 13" Mugen CF-48s for himself. He had them sent to my place so his girl didn't know.






After finishing off the brakes and replacing the clutch, I decided to replace the DX exhaust manifold with one from an Si. This would delete the cat and the EGR. I replaced the oil pan with an Si oil pan and a new gasket from RockAuto. That turned out to be the last time I will buy those types of parts from them. The gasket completely failed after about 30 minutes worth of driving and I had to do the job all over again.






Cleaned up the interior and put my checkered floor mats in.




And here's how she sits now.




Sorry for such a long post. I had a lot to include since I hadn't started a project thread yet. I've got some more things I'm working on and a few parts coming, so I will be sure to keep this updated.

Jeff

[PowerWheels86]

so what happened with those wheels? and why not do a teg rear disc swap instead of cleaning up the drums? aside from those questions, awesome work and good find especially with the rear Louver!!

[jweber89]

so what happened with those wheels? and why not do a teg rear disc swap instead of cleaning up the drums? aside from those questions, awesome work and good find especially with the rear Louver!!

Well, the CF-48s are currently at Old School REX's place. All of the tires were shot so I had to replace them with steelies that had good tires so I could drive it around town. Cam and I plan on stripping the CF-48s and repainting them, then I will get a new set of tires. I thought about doing a rear disc swap, but I've read that they aren't much better than the stock drum braking. I figured I would just stick with the drums for now and maybe do a rear disc swap to my ZC swapped 86 Si. For now this car is just my daily driver hoopty. At least until I get the ZC running properly in my other rex. Then I will probably part this one out or fix the rust and sell as a whole. Thanks for the kind words. I've never been a big fan of louvers, but I really like how a red crx looks with them.

Jeff

[PowerWheels86]

Well, the CF-48s are currently at Old School REX's place. All of the tires were shot so I had to replace them with steelies that had good tires so I could drive it around town. Cam and I plan on stripping the CF-48s and repainting them, then I will get a new set of tires. I thought about doing a rear disc swap, but I've read that they aren't much better than the stock drum braking. I figured I would just stick with the drums for now and maybe do a rear disc swap to my ZC swapped 86 Si. For now this car is just my daily driver hoopty. At least until I get the ZC running properly in my other rex. Then I will probably part this one out or fix the rust and sell as a whole. Thanks for the kind words. I've never been a big fan of louvers, but I really like how a red crx looks with them.

Jeff

well you are right about the increased stopping power of the rear discs but the maintenance and swap of brake pads is so much more simple...

[EuphoricBlue]

well you are right about the increased stopping power of the rear discs but the maintenance and swap of brake pads is so much more simple...

Rear disks are also heavier and I've never been a fan of the integrated parking brake. Drum brakes make for a much better/stronger parking brake than the caliper integrated ones.

Also, you only save about 15 minutes swapping pads instead of shoes. I don't know about you, but I can live with that considering rear bakes get changed once every 50,000-100,000km.

[jweber89]

Also, you only save about 15 minutes swapping pads instead of shoes. I don't know about you, but I can live with that considering rear bakes get changed once every 50,000-100,000km.

Agreed. Hence the reason I did a full rebuild on the drum brakes. I figure they should last me for as long as I have the car anyway.

Jeff

[kaymo]

the old drum brakes appeared to be fine visually... i wouldnt have replaced them unless there was a problem. i actually regret the disc brake swap on my rex only because of the parking brake thingy being bad and waiting for over a year for used calipers that supposedly work... but now that i have another rex it will get aluminum drums just for scott....


you got a great car though... that front lip is in great shape! mine needs some work. the aero kit is my favorite....

[OG Wagon]

Nice project you've got going here, and some really great looking exterior parts and wheels came along!

Agreed, good call on keeping with the drums. Did you go for the aluminum drums? If not, don't worry about it. Hell, swapping out those backing plates is a HUGE pita, mainly just in releasing the ebrake cable connections from the old plate=nightmare.

Anyway, I've always taken Scott's advise in regard to aluminum drums>disc swap. Actually, I've made it a general rule to follow Scott's advise on everything on the forum.

Got to say though, that first pic with the car up on the dolly and the straps putting (what looks to be) a good amount of pressure on top of those original aerodiscs is painful to see. Hope they made it home in tact and in one piece for you!

Love the aero kit/louvers/Mugen decal combo. Going to be OG, and oh-so era-appropriate when done.

Keep it up and keep us posted as well! -Dan

[jweber89]

Got to say though, that first pic with the car up on the dolly and the straps putting (what looks to be) a good amount of pressure on top of those original aerodiscs is painful to see. Hope they made it home in tact and in one piece for you!

Actually, I never noticed that. It definitely didn't look that bad in person. I almost took the aero covers off for the trip home, but didn't bring any allen heads with me. But yes, they made it home fully intact. Cam and I should be getting some replicas made soon enough.

Thanks for the kind words as well Dan! I'm not sure how long I'll keep this project, but it sure is fun as hell to be able to drive a CRX again. I'm going to be starting back on the black Si pretty soon(probably when it warms up). Once that is finished, I'll more than likely steal all the good stuff and swap it over. I guess we shall see how it goes.

Jeff

[jweber89]

the old drum brakes appeared to be fine visually... i wouldnt have replaced them unless there was a problem. i actually regret the disc brake swap on my rex only because of the parking brake thingy being bad and waiting for over a year for used calipers that supposedly work... but now that i have another rex it will get aluminum drums just for scott....


you got a great car though... that front lip is in great shape! mine needs some work. the aero kit is my favorite....

There wasn't really much wrong with the drum brakes other than needing new shoes and one wheel cylinder was leaking. The only reason I went ahead and replaced everything was because my Ford Ranger's drum brakes were in great shape until one day a couple springs decided to give. I figured since those springs were only 15 years old and the rex's are closer to 25 years old that I would go ahead and buy all new. That way I know for sure that it will be solid for awhile.

The front lip is in good shape. It has a few scratches and is sagging at some of the mounting points. But I will address all that in time. Now if only it were easy to find some mint Si rocker panels for cheap so I could finish the aero kit off.

Jeff

[jweber89]

Well, she's been developing an coolant leak over that past week. Looks like it's coming from around the water pump area. I'm going to have to wait until tomorrow before I can get it fixed though. I've already ordered an water pump and timing belt, however, since this is a low budget build I will only replace the timing belt if it needs it bad.

Another issue is the way this car runs. Let me lay it out and you guys can just give suggestions. I'm new to carburetors. First thing in the morning she starts up fine and runs beautifully. Once the motor has had a chance to warm up the car starts hesitating. It mostly hesitates under higher throttle and up hills, but still slightly hesitates during normal driving conditions. Also if I turn the car off and then get back in it a few minutes to an hour later, it takes a minute to start back up.

Scott, I will go ahead and say that I am going to check and recheck the cam timing after I get the water pump done. I'm just not sure what else I can do to resolve this driveability issue. Carburetors are very foreign to me. Thanks in advance!

Jeff

PS...Got some sweet parts on the way so I can get back to work on my 86 Si with the ZC...

[Smokescreem]

Looks like you got yourself a keeper. On the changing of the timing belt. I would go ahead and do it. You are already in that area working. Later U would wish you had done it. Nice !

[ballade]

Hay Jeff love the car. Glad someone on here got it.
As for the oil pan gasket next time try not using the silicone. I've noticed that it causes the gasket to slip then rip when tightening the oil pan down.
Now I just make sure both surfaces are clean and just us the gasket. No leaks ever!

Good call on the rear brakes. I kinda wish I had left the rear drums on my car. will admit the pedal is firmer but over all braking hasn't changed. I'm also dealing with
the extra 17mm per side track issue associated with the swap. Rear disk is cool looking but at the end of the day ventilated rear HF drums with CF 48's is a "Cooler" setup.

Cheers
Mark

[jweber89]

Looks like you got yourself a keeper. On the changing of the timing belt. I would go ahead and do it. You are already in that area working. Later U would wish you had done it. Nice !

When I ordered the new water pump, I could have sworn I ordered a timing belt as well just in case mine was really bad. Unfortunately I was wrong. Once I realized it hadn't been ordered, I was already halfway through pulling everything off. I went ahead and ordered a new one, but it wasn't going to show up in time and I had to be somewhere later in the day. I'll do it another time.

I replaced the water pump yesterday. Pulled into my driveway after picking a few things up, turned the car off and got to work. When I pulled the upper timing cover off, I realized the lines on the cam gear were lined up perfectly parallel with the top of the head. Surely I couldn't have turned the car off right at TDC. I pulled the distributor cap off and sure enough, the rotor was pointing directly at number 1. I took that as a good sign that everything would go smoothly.

After I finished, I checked for leaks and drove her around. All is well.

I still would appreciate some input on what I need to do about the way the car drives. I know nothing about carburetors so I'm not really sure how to adjust anything. Thanks!

Jeff