Red Pepper Racing

Howdy RPR!

Fellow lurker here for the past 6 months, amazed at the wealth of information found here! I finally found the time to post after moving out of state and settling into new place. I'm now in northwest Vermont---it's like The Shining up here..

Had a '96 Ej8 back in the day, sold it off in '09 and fell off the scene. Since then only own a couple Honda bikes, but bought a half rusted nightmare winter beater (Isuzu Trooper) in 2016 only to drive it across country and sold it to buy something worthwhile!

 

All original '87 RT4WD 6speed with only 101k! Purchased from the family mechanic in Northern Mass, the original owner (a sweet old lady named Sydney, her mix tape collection still in the glovebox) was used solely in the summer at her vacation home. Supposedly the car was driven from Cali and never saw snow. Apparently the family had two, and one (FWD version) had already sold previously (maybe to someone on here?) The lack of exterior rust on the brown turd was amazing, only a small bit on a rear wheel well and at the hatch hinges. Car came with a Weber 32/36 DGEV installed, and original carburetor and emissions controls.. Mmmmmm spaghetti.

 

 

The day I had it dropped off to sit until I could get it registered and road ready.
Immediately went to work, rough clean up and finishing the shoddy devac and Weber install...
The tank had to be drained and flushed, both fuel filters replaced before I could get her to idle well enough to drive home.

 

 

 

Out with the old (Maroon 95 Trooper parked behind) in with the.. EVEN OLDER!

 

The paint isn't original, it appears there was a small accident below the driver side quarter window, so the the entire car was repainted with some grimey brown that has virtually no clear coat.

The original champagne brown is visible underneath and looks great. I've debated trying to see if I could bring it back to the top somehow... In the meantime I haven't even bothered washing it or vacuuming the interior once.

 

Considering the original steel wheels (13x4.5) complete with sick hub covers had been sitting for who knows how long, I wasted no time finding a second wheelset that wasn't completely dry rotted. Picked up a set of Fat Fives/Hammers so I could pass inspection.

 

 

Wasn't long before doing a decent tune up. New NGK plugs and wires, Cap&Rotor, Carb overhaul with new gaskets and float, fuel pump, valve lash, tranny & rear differential fluids, and a Holley fuel reg.

Winter hits New England and I got the No-Garage-Havin' Blues.

 

 

As she sits now. Roughly 2,500 trouble free miles thus far, and now living an hour from the Canadian border!

 

 

Immediate Plans: Find missing interior goodies, Passenger Mirror, Suspension overhaul, energy suspension bushings all around, clean up and repaint entire subframe. Looking at a fresh setup, using the stock 21mm torsion bars, new KYB GR2 / Excel Shocks, B&G Lowering Springs, and either DIY or an adjustable panhard bar and extended tophats from Cheddas. Anyone have input on B&G and ride quality or other spring suggestions?

Future Plans: Finding a donor (86-87 integra) to do a browntop D16A1 swap. Carb to PGMFI should be a real blast.. I've read a little into the wiring nightmares from harness to harness. I'd probably ditch the RT4WD and swap the entire integra rear live axle setup as well depending on the quality of the donor.

Nothing crazy as this is my daily driver. Even being severely under powered, this thing is already a blast to go through the gears even if it looks like an 80's ATM Machine rolling down the street. I now realize why people love these ugly little cars so much hahah.

 

Look forward to sharing my trials and tribulations. Thanks for looking, much appreciation to everyone who has contributed to this forum and is still keeping 1G/3G's on the road!

Welcome! great to see another wagon in the club.

I JUST drove to the Burlington area today!

 

Nice Wagon. This is what I would do.

 

I would not mess with the ride height. I would rebuild the suspension and leave the stock springs. Yout have a bunch of nice roads up here ro usae eh 4wd.

 

If you are swapping to a d16a1  it really does not matter if it is a blacktop of a browntop. You will have a ton of work. anyway. You need to find a rusted out 1st gen teg because you really cannot piece meal this swap.

 

Please do not make it a 2wd. That would be a pity.

Welcome! Glad to see some diversity here. I love wagons, one day I'll get one. 

Love this car!  Welcome to the community.

Awesome.  Great to see another alive.

I hit the road the last week of February for the little brown box's maiden voyage due west. Two days and roughly 860 trouble free miles later I made it from Vermont to my hometown in Michigan and immediately got to work.

200 miles into the first day after skating through the snowy Adirondack Mountains and putting along on the New York Thruway, a horrendous noise under the hood developed while climbing a long hill and forced me to pull over at a rest area conveniently at the top of the hill. Fearing the worst, I let it cool while I found nothing obvious. Luckily after I fired it back up, I immediately realized the awful exhaust leak drone was coming from the EGR pipe off the exhaust manifold, the temporary plug I made had heated up and managed to jump ship... a spare bolt and a wad of electrical tape served as a second 660mi bandaid.

 

 

A Mile from home in the middle of no where.... Heavy rain in combination with 2 days in the 60's melted all the snow in the midwest lead to some record flooding.
NO THANKS!

Whipped up some much needed block off plates for the air valve, EGR, and EGR pipe.

 

 

While tearing down to access the EGR pipe I found the source of a lovely clink/rattle on the front of the engine I couldn't previously...
However broke this off the exhaust manifold is likely the culprit who is responsible for doubling up the gaskets to compensate. No leaks, so I'll be pretending that isn't there for now.

 

 

Remove dash and clean remainder of mouse nest from driver side vent: Check.

 

The poor little SOHC was now running lean and even pinging at idle after the trip. Ordered up some new Weber gaskets from the manifold up, as well as a the Synchronous Throttle Linkage kit from Pegasus.

A little grinding for clearance, double pumper, and some new springs and it was good to go.

 

 

Gonna need a lot of sandpaper!

Someone really did a number on this poor wagon.

 

 

 

 

 

To avoid nightmares induced by 3/8" drill holes and slabs of bondo, I took a break from assessing body damage to rebuild the front calipers.

Mmmmm. Aged like the finest chocolate pudding, from 1987....
 

KYB GR2/Excel-G's for a CRX/Civic. The Showa's were so blown they sank before I could even get a wrench on the knuckle bolt.
I fabbed up a couple bumpstops for the front, and cut the spring perch off the rears.

 

 

A little closer to earth. This is piror to re-indexing the front torsion bars, and replacing stock RT4WD rear springs.

 

'92-04?
 

 

Skip ahead a day or two and the real fun begins. Attacking rust isolated to the back, and finding the real gems of someones bodywork to repair a rear end collision.

I think they had the Unlimited Bondo cheat enabled.
 

 

The car also came with free trail mix. Both sides of the rear quarters were completely packed to the brim.
Better yet, the mangled rear taillight housing would drain water right on top of the mess. It just goes to show, even a family of rodents can't genuinely appreciate the spacious atmosphere of the wagovan.

Attending to rust and continuing sanding/prep work for paint.
 

Swiss Cheese.
 

 

Surprise.. MORE BONDO!

 

The everlasting gobstopper sees the sun after a week under the knife.
Installed a pair of B&G S2 Sport springs, as well as re-indexed the front torsion bars up front.
 

Between attacking this thing with a 6" orbital sander and acetone, I was able to do some measuring and had my stock panhard bar shortened to match the lowering springs.

 

More sanding, more filling, more profanity...
 

Took advantage of the warm weather and finally did my first coat of primer. Next up is some filler primer with some wet sanding to even out everything I missed and then finally lay on some color within the week!
I have 4 days to paint and reassemble before I have to drive the 860 miles back east... here goes nothin'!
 

 

Cheers!

Nice work so far. Want to see it painted already!