my youngest son found out about these cars on the net and thought it would be neat to get one to fix up .i had never heard of a civic wagon before but after seeing some pics of finished wagons i thought it would be a fun little car .i am registered on the civic wagon forum and it is a great site but i have not figured out pictures there yet .anyway we found a 1991 wagon on kijiji and picked it up for 950.00 . it is a FWD automatic car and needed a bit of rust removal but has a very nice interiour and runs very well .so far i have replaced rear wheel arches , welded up some holes on the drivers door and rocker panels .and some big holes in the tail gate got fixed .all my before pics are on my mac so these pics will be progress up to now .whole car is painted and now we are putting everything back together . so a lot of work so far .tailgate is finished and back on .all the rust on the gate appears to be the result of a bad seal on the wiper actuator stub .if you think a fiero is hard to get parts for , get one of these .they make almost nothing for this car and in ontario there are none to be had in wreckers .the new rear wheel arches are for a sedan .they fit OK but the wheel openings are bigger now .it is going to be a unique ride though , i have been watching kijiji ontario and have not seen a wagon listed since summer .
thanks .i had it parked beside my fiero one day and it is about 6 inches shorter and narrower , holds 5 people and only weighs 2350 lbs .and it has a big trunk .a miracle of packaging in a small space .i thought there was something wrong with the steering because the wheel goes back and forth with no effort , felt sloppy , then i looked up the specks and it has power steering .in a light weight car it seems strange to have power steering but it was a feature packed car for 1991 .
got some pictures of when we first picked it up.looks better in pictures than in person .but the main reasons we liked it was a rust free frame and only minor rust on drivers door .and the near mint interiour.you dont find too many 22 year old cars with out a rip or a stain on the seats .the yakima basket and roof rack cost more than the car ! the rust around the wheel wells also ate a lot of the inner fenders so a lot of the work was welding in new metal there .this is my first attempt at a metal bodied car .i bought a new US made hobart mig welder with gas .sold my stick welder to help pay for it .the mig can do everything my stick welder can do except weld thick metal. we have coilovers and camber kits for it front and rear but i want to get it safety checked first in case that causes questions during inspection.it has a new exhaust , newish brakes , e brake and horn works so now that all the holes are fixed it should pass inspection .no e test where we live but it does not throw codes anyway.the rear bumper was held on by wire and ty wraps and drywall screws .when we took it off , there was nothing underneath- no rebar frame and no energy absorbing foam .tried to order some but no luck so i made up a frame and used spray foam and some packing foam for the energy absorber .just something that will prevent major damage in case of a good hit in the back end .
[This message has been edited by wftb (edited 12-21-2013).]
Originally posted by wftb: you dont find too many 22 year old cars with out a rip or a stain on the seats .the yakima basket and roof rack cost more than the car !
My 86 SE Fiero (27 years old) has absolutely spotless seats and carpet! Only 66.5 thousand well-cared for miles so I shampooed all the carpet and the seats and know the inside smells and looks fresh!
we have a set of D2 coilovers and Skunk2 upper front arms and rear camber correction arms .we are going to drop it probably 2" or so , maybe a little more in the rear because it sits really high back there . the coilovers are fully adjustable for height and damping .having trouble finding rims for it .tried to order OEM 7 spoke steelies but supplier was out of stock .so now we are waiting to see if a set of the OEM AL rims is available .if that does not pan out we will be going for aftermarket rims .these cars are 4X100 pattern and came with 13 and 14" rims from the factory .
The rust removal started with the rear driver side under the tail light .A nasty hole right where the opening curves to match the tail light .I figured if i could do a decent job there , the rest would be easy .So here is kind of a photo play of my battle with a rusty honda : home made energy absorber/bumper support system bumper mounted and mostly rebuilt tailgate (some touchup and rebadging needed) getting the rocker covers and OEM (used from a seller in New Zealand ) mud flaps on : Pretty much where it is at now .Holidays are over for now but i should be done all the cosmetics in a week or so .
it has 328000 KM on it but it runs great .you can tell the car was really looked after .i found some 7 spoke steelies (OEM on the 4wd models) that i am going to get sent up from a wrecker in GA i hope .too much snow in the yard around the shed to get the car out to take it and get it safetied .dont intend to let it ever see salt again but i want it ready to go first thing in the spring .there is a civic wagon website and i hope to post there too , but i have not figured out pics there .my son thinks they use photo bucket and i dont have an account there .
it has 328000 KM on it but it runs great .you can tell the car was really looked after .i found some 7 spoke steelies (OEM on the 4wd models) that i am going to get sent up from a wrecker in GA i hope .too much snow in the yard around the shed to get the car out to take it and get it safetied .dont intend to let it ever see salt again but i want it ready to go first thing in the spring .there is a civic wagon website and i hope to post there too , but i have not figured out pics there .my son thinks they use photo bucket and i dont have an account there .
That's a bunch of Km. Not much snow down here in GA, so hopefully, they'll get them sent up soon. Any pics of the interior?
thanks for the replies .i will try to get some interiour pics tomorrow .working nights right now , but i have the weekend off so i will be out in the shed quite a bit .we have an unusual amount of snow already , more than the total of the last two years combined .and we are in a cold snap now so a little hard to get motivated to go out there . i had an aversion to doing metal body work until i tried this .but it has worked out so well that i will do another car when i get this one done .nothing drives the price of a car down like rust .as long as the frame is good and you can get weld in parts , it does not seem that hard .the car is not and will never be perfect but it looks pretty good .have to get a big capacity compressor so i can graduate to spraying with the HVLP gun i have .this car only cost us 950.00 and it came with a lot of brand new parts .it is a high miler , but i bought an 88 two door hatchback civic with 280000 on it and it had over 400000 on it when we sold it , still running well but burning a bit of oil .this one does not burn oil and it even passed emissions 6 months before we bought it .
some interiour shots and some pics of the suspension parts that we are going to use .i was going to wait till i get the car safetied to put thse parts on , but with all the snow we are getting i may get bored and install them anyway .i dont think it will affect the inspection process .the drivers side seat is not stained or dirty , just a shadow showed up in the picture .this is as we got it , havent even vaccuumed it yet .
suspension parts that is all i have time for today , my computer is really slow right now and i think an update snuck in some facebook and other programs that seem to be slowing things down .
got some new wheels and tires for the wagon .these are bmw OEM "bottlecap" wheels , 4x100 pattern and the same size centre hub as the original wheels.the trailing arm needed new bushings ,not a fun job but now that i built a press and got the passenger side done the drivers side will be easier .the rubber was rotted and the bushings had become sloppy .some pics : home made press: the press worked ok once i made a slight mod to the bushing.i had to grind a bit off of it .even then it took a lot to get it in .i measured and it was bigger than the hole.nothing short of a hydraulic press would have gotten it in unmodified .compare that to the Utube demo video where a guy just wacks one in with a brass hammer and i am pretty sure these china made bushings are too big .there is a set that is designed to just tap in but i did not find out about them till after i started the job .
we gave up on getting the 7 spoke steelies because every wrecker that had them listed on car-part.com did not actually have them . when you search for a part , it just means that they have a car that matches with your search and might have what you want on it .the wreckers i called checked and none of those cars had the wheels we were after .found the bmw wheels on kijiji , 250.00 for 5 from a guy in oshawa .three hour drive each way but they look good and price was right .thanks for the replies , hope we get a winter thaw soon so i can back it out of the shed and get some finished product pictures .
got some moulding in the mail today .company called automega .at first i thought i had made a mistake because it looked too plain compared to the OEM trim that came on the car .the original trim is rust damaged and too far gone for me to fix .i cut a piece of the new trim , sanded the gloss off with synthetic steel wool and taped a piece on to see how it looks .i really like it, would like some nice used OEM pieces but i have been watching and not found any so far .but i am thinking this stuff might even be an improvement.once it is on it would be very difficult to remove without damaging the paint so i want to make the pieces all up and tape them on one side of the car and then make a decision .damage on old trim : old trim vs new took the gloss off sitting on the car
I'm not a mechanic by any means so please take this suggestion with a grain of salt but, if it were me (and I understand it's not), I would try to find a different way to attach that molding to the door besides blue painters tape. I know they make duct tape in various colors. Perhaps you could find some in white to match the car? Or maybe black. At least that would match the molding. Like I said, I'm not a mechanic and surely not as smart as you are so maybe you've already thought of this. I would also try to find another piece of molding to fit the rear door as it will help cover up those holes. (I assume you ran out of body filler goo when you were repairing the car or you would have covered those holes.) Again, just a suggestion.
If I've helped, feel free to give me a plus (or a negative or maybe neutralize me.....wait, that didn't sound right).
thanks for the comments and entertainment .the moulding comes with the same 3M double sided tape that holds on our fiero rear sail windows .i did not want to stick a piece on and then not like it and end up repainting the bottom of the door .some one stuck one of the OEM trim pieces on with 3M tape and it was an hours work to get it off .the holes in the body are for the OEM mounting clips that will not be used again . .the new moulding will cover and seal the holes .they come with a lot of tape on them .
