got a new 88 hatch (lots of pics)

silver DX hatch, automatic. black/gray interior

body is mostly straight, zero rust. theres a dent right above the driver headlight and the headlight sits back about 1/4 from the corner light and filler piece. a few parking lot dings on the rear fenders, and 3-4 hail spots on the roof. aside from that, no actual wrecks and no bumper damage.

when i got it, it had these awful tribal tattoo looking blue flames in place of the factory pinstripes, and the side molding was covered with CF look stickers. the rear quarter windows had purple tint too.

it also had a grant GT steering wheel in decent shape that was inexplicably covered with a dragon steering wheel cover. it had two 97 del sol rims on the front (painted black) with two steelies in the back with gunmetal hubcaps on them. the owner gave me the other two del sol rims (unpainted) with no tires, and the other two steelies and hubcaps with rotten tires on them. the interior was pretty gross, with a homemade carpet all cut up to fit in the pan, and a set of accord seats spot welded and selftapping screwed to the floorboard.

the guy got me there by telling me it had a CRX Si engine swap.... its a DPFI setup on a d16a6 with the stock DX automatic tranny, but at least the A/C works! when i picked it up it was under an oak tree, in a giant mud puddle. and oak tree mud is dark dark dark, and very gritty. also, the drivers side window was wedged up with a piece of styrofoam. the plastic mounting clips on the glass fell off, and they tried to glue them back on with elmers or something because i found them at the bottom of the door. oh, and the owner said i should pump the brakes a few times before test driving, since the back "calipers" leak (its got drums).

anyway, the body was just too straight to pass up, and the A/C still blowing ice cold with R12 was enough for me to want it anyway, since im not in the mood to do any body work after my Katrina fiasco, and the rest of the crap was easily fixable for an EF junky like myself. i offered him 1100 bucks for it if he would agree to do an Act of Donation to save myself some tax money. he said OK.

on the way home, it would surge and anything over half throttle would bog the engine down. i ended up taking almost 2 hours for a 30 minute interstate drive, and parked it at a friends house. i went back, and figured out that it runs great when its cold, and would surge when hot. immediately i started thinking about thermal idle valves and all that shit. but then when it started acting up, i shut the key off and turned it back on and it ran fine for another 3-5 minutes. i figure that whenever its in open loop, it runs good, but when going into closed loop, it gets nutty. so im picking up an ECU from a buddy to test that out.

heres some before and after:

an hour after i bought it
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/185320_2207826350348_1088106185_32645672_5134407_n .jpg
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/228973_2207825230320_1088106185_32645671_37941_n.j pg

got it to my shop, and this is what im working with:
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/281319_2221018560145_1088106185_32664681_7425621_n .jpg
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/263270_2221017600121_1088106185_32664679_2195980_n .jpg
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/282459_2221017920129_1088106185_32664680_7037442_n .jpg

looks like someone had some EFI main relay issues!
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/282514_2221070801451_1088106185_32664769_5118351_n .jpg

accord seats. nice right?
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/267206_2221070201436_1088106185_32664768_8174357_n .jpg
on second thought, not so nice....
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/284550_2221069361415_1088106185_32664767_4619865_n .jpg
i love how the seats are welded on with grilled cheese sandwiches
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/198642_2221068441392_1088106185_32664765_5541311_n .jpg

anyone got good sunvisors?
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/252061_2221067841377_1088106185_32664764_3855435_n .jpg

driver's window wedged with foam, door panel and plastic watershield MIA
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/285594_2221019440167_1088106185_32664682_5188534_n .jpg

AFTER!

black wheels (see the drivers side hood/headlight issue)
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/184144_2221067001356_1088106185_32664762_6608872_n .jpg
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/281501_2221067441367_1088106185_32664763_3669608_n .jpg

silver wheels (should i strip the black ones or paint the silver ones?)
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/282513_2221065601321_1088106185_32664759_1765159_n .jpg
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/283978_2221024320289_1088106185_32664689_1015542_n .jpg

this is all of the progress ive made since i bought it last thursday. i didnt work on it at all on Friday because it was still 60 miles away at a friends house, and all i did to it on Saturday was try to figure out the surge issue and then take 3+ hours to drive that 60 miles to my shop. Sunday and Monday i did most of the work, and finished cleaning it up yesterday before getting the license plate and inspection sticker. waiting on the ECU, but thats 90 miles away in Baton Rouge so i may have to make a drive tomorrow to pick it up.

this weekend im picking up a full DA brake setup from a friends parts car, and the seats too if they are in decent shape. i have to get those accords out, they stink and they are loose. carpet is already ordered, and new taillight gaskets as well since the drivers side one has a leak and is darker because of oak tree mud getting into it.

Nice man!

The body looks great! Hood is perfectly aligned, door panels, fenders. Looks awesome! I can't wait to follow along on this one!

ok, so i found out why the car ran badly once it warmed up. and i was kinda right, it WAS the ECU. but its not broken, its just a manual trans ECU in an automatic trans car!

PM5 A5-- or PM5 A8-- would be an automatic
PM5 A060 is in the car!

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/252124_2221551373465_1088106185_32665354_4430745_n .jpg

i might have an at ecu if you need it, i'll look. thanks for the pics, its great to have you back man!

carpet and fuel pump came in the mail today! going to get DA integra seats and brakes this weekend!

http://hphotos-sjc1.fbcdn.net/281677_2224867176358_1088106185_32669905_5928090_n .jpg

started installing the carpet but then i got too damned hot so i bailed out.

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/285485_2225209584918_1088106185_32670170_92122_n.j pg
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/251405_2225209984928_1088106185_32670171_7805224_n .jpg
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/224567_2225211304961_1088106185_32670177_5062867_n .jpg

wow nice progression already with it, hope to see this build go well after all youve been through.

i'm jealous....now i want to go rip a car apart just to put back together!!!

i dropped the tank around 7pm and finished up at 10pm. fixed the fuel level sensor, changed out the fuel pump, and cleaned out the tank. i didnt take any pics this time, but HOLY CRAP was this thing disgusting. ive never seen a gas tank look this bad. it was literally 1/2" of rusty crud at the bottom of the tank.

the pickup screen on the fuel pump wasnt even attached, it was just mashed up and stuck in the crud. i had to squeeze my hand in through the pump hole and scrape all of the crud from the bowl that the pump sits in, and then sprayed as much as i could with b-12 chemtool. when that wasnt working well enough, i decided to do the big NO-NO and busted out the water hose with a pressure washer. it finally worked and i got half a gallon of rusty crap out of the tank. no joke, i poured the tank into our waste oil drain pan at my shop and there was half a gallon of rust on the filter screen.

after that, i dumped a gallon of toluene into it and shook it around. then i drained that out and vacuumed whatever was left in the tank. tomorrow ill get a few gallons of gas and see if it starts.

i have a new fuel filter to put on it once i run that gas through it.

saw this when i dropped the fuel tank. big ass black widow spider and like 12 egg sacs. i killed it with fire.

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/293127_2230176589090_1088106185_32677939_7145282_n .jpg

Thats a big ass black widow?!

Its ass was about as big around as a quarter. I'd say for a deadly spider, that's plenty big!

daymn! i would kill by fire too!! ever now & again i find those fuckers in rims laying around...give me goose bumps just thinking about digging thru the random steelies out back...

wow holy shit that is a big spider, black widows arent normally that large.

got the right ECU in it now, and it runs great!

fingers crossed, tomorrow or friday ill be pulling a full DA integra brake system and hopefully some seats. if the seats are trash, ill just have to order something from ebay :/

got the right ECU in it now, and it runs great!

fingers crossed, tomorrow or friday ill be pulling a full DA integra brake system and hopefully some seats. if the seats are trash, ill just have to order something from ebay :/


That is a pretty awesome recovery job, a car in that condition here would have been sent for scrap a long time ago.

That is a pretty awesome recovery job, a car in that condition here would have been sent for scrap a long time ago.

rednecks dont throw anything away!

tomorrow or friday ill be pulling a full DA integra brake system and hopefully some seats. if the seats are trash, ill just have to order something from ebay :/

Damn, the seats in the DA I pulled my motor from were mint. Those would be some giant box's to ship :lol2:

P.s. the carpet looks great! That makes me want to replace mine. It looks grey compared to that!

i've saved several cars either on the way or already at the wrecking yard. simple fix + finding new owners who love them = priceless!