A thank you, and a question.

[EuphoricBlue]

Firstly, I must say THANK YOU to all the poeple that partake in this forum. You guys seriously saved my engine... The story follows this question:

Q: Are the flush mount lights of the later first gen CRX SI directly transferable to the moutns on the older first gen CRX SI (with recesed lamps)?

And now, to the story.

I just had to join the thread and thank everyone for it's existance.

I just boght the '85 CRX this moday (March 14, '05) from my mechanic when the master break cylinder on my Oldsmobile Cutlass Cierra '85 ('92 mech) began a harakiri or sorts and gave up on the car due to it's many defects. The olds was a good car to me, but it was just that time. I got the CRX from my mechanic, the same my mom boght the olds off of, for $1500 Canadian because it fitted my neads perfectly. I needed a light, peppy 4 banger with a stick shift, prefrably 5 speed. (fun to drive, cheep on gas)

I knew the car had an engine swap and the 180,000Km engine was from a CRX DX, it's the 1.5L carb. What I didn't know, and found out just today (March 16, '05) is that the rest of the car is SI (thanks to this thread http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...d.php?t=199192 ). That is where the botch up comes in.

Driving it as little as I did, I found the car to be verry peppy and responsive but I felt it had a hole in power delivery toward the top of it's RPM range. I just thoght, "Oh well, what do you expect from a little 1.5L carb Honda coming from a 3.3L FI Olds?" Later I got online and desided to run some searches online for the first gen CRX and see what was avilable in terms of possible mods for the future, when I ran across this forum. Spending quite several hours reading the posts I ran across some links inside which a key link (sorry, don't have it for refference) suddenly broght all the blocks of pointless data together.

Here is what I discovered thanks to this site: I have an SI body, with SI instrument cluster running a DX engine. The SI instrument cluster shows a redline of 6500RPM, the DX engine has a redline of 5500RPM. There is only one thing I can say. THANK GOD I RAN ACROSS THIS FORUM. That little detail explained the hole in power delivery at high RPMs and saved me a whole mess of trouble I would have no doubt gotten myself into by, unknowingly, overrevving my car by as much a 1000RPM <__>

Once more, thank you all for participating in this forum and thank you to the owners of this forum/website for providing it!

My plans for the near future are to take what little usable aftermarket audio the CRX currantly has (namely an amp and equalizer) and merge it with some parts from my Olds (MP3/cd player, 350 watt amp, 2x12" subs) throw it into the CRX with some new midrange. Also I'm planing to tare out, clean up, and reinstall the intirror as it's got that "used car smell" I'm currantly fighting off with some Farbese.

(PS: I am really enjoying my little CRX and excuse my poor spelling.)

[cvcc_wagon]

hey, welcome to the forum. we're always here to help. i'm more into the earlier civics (83 and older) but i'm sure you have already discovered that there are plenty of knowledgeable CRX guys here as well.

[EuphoricBlue]

Originally Posted by cvcc_wagon

hey, welcome to the forum. we're always here to help. i'm more into the earlier civics (83 and older) but i'm sure you have already discovered that there are plenty of knowledgeable CRX guys here as well.

Hey, thanks for the welcome. Your from my neck of the woods I see! I'm in Burnaby myself, right near Metrotown Mall.

[cvcc_wagon]

cool. you should check out redpepperracing.com as well. it's a 1G CRX page as well and there are lots of guys from the lower mainland. during he summer they have get to gethers from time to time. last one we went to was to Mission for a GT4 race one of the guys was in.

[EuphoricBlue]

Originally Posted by cvcc_wagon

cool. you should check out redpepperracing.com as well. it's a 1G CRX page as well and there are lots of guys from the lower mainland. during he summer they have get to gethers from time to time. last one we went to was to Mission for a GT4 race one of the guys was in.

I am so there. I was hoping to find some sort of a local comunity I could invade

[cvcc_wagon]

check out the meets forum. they're doing a go-karting thing at the end of the month i believe, not sure if i'm going to be able to make it tho

[EuphoricBlue]

Originally Posted by cvcc_wagon

check out the meets forum. they're doing a go-karting thing at the end of the month i believe, not sure if i'm going to be able to make it tho

Awsome! Thanks for directing me there. I think I may just go there. I'm pritty curiouse to check out the rides that show up, thogh I'll probobly be wishing mine was not a somewhat rusted and castrated version of it's formal self >_>

Oh, what is your username on that forum, so I know who to credit for introducing me.

(Edit: Never mind.. I just spoted you there.)

[cvcc_wagon]

yep, same thing. pretty well everywhere

[EuphoricBlue]

Originally Posted by cvcc_wagon

yep, same thing. pretty well everywhere

Ditto XD

[Figori]

Again, welcome to the Forum! I have an '87 CRX Si, and I love it. Just show that Rex a little love and she'll take you far!

[lxndr]

Welcome!

And yes the '86-'87 Flush light will fit so long as you get all the brackets along with the headlights. Though having the rarest CRX production model, I would suggest leaving it stock.

[EuphoricBlue]

Thanks for the welcomes Figori and lxndr.

I'm affraid even if I leve the appearance stock it still won't be a true '85 SI as the engine was trashed by the previouse owner and swopped to an '86 DX by my mechanic (who I boght the car from). Sort of unfortunate, I guess. I didn't realize the '85 was such a rare CRX.

I have just today (March 17, '05) pulled out all the intirrior (excluding headliner and dash board) to find what was making a horible smell in the car, I think I figured it out, but in the proccess I descovered that the car has some extencive rust tamage to the underbody of the car. Looks like some patch work is in order. Only thing is, I have never done anything like that before. So I have a couple of questions.

How do I go abbout attaching the patch metal to the existing metal? What kind of welder is best for the job, and which is cheapest that can be used well enough?

I figure I can probobly raid the salvage yards for the metal required to patch the exterior rust damage, that way I won't have to shape it myself. One less thing I'd have to learn on the fly...

Any feedback would be apreciated.

[lxndr]

A MIG welder would be the easiest to use. Even a $199.00 MIG welder would be enough to weld floor panels, or you could rent one from your local tool rental shop. If you've never welded it's probably best for you to take a welding class from your local community college to learn how to use it (you could probably even weld up the car there) or pick up some books. A gas welder is really easy to use, but tends to warp thin panels since you have to heat the metal so much.

In order to weld a patch panel in you need to cut out ALL the rust and clean up the edges of the metal where you will be welding. It's easiest to cut and weld in a square/squarish panel since irregular shapes will be difficult to cut and still get the edges to line up. There should be about a 1/16th-1/32nd inch gap between the patch and the panel you're welding it to (the weld will fill in this area). You can either clamp the patch in place or use magnets to hold it while you tack weld the panel in place. Once you get the patch tacked, you can remove the clamps/magnets then weld the patch in up to 1 inch sections while moving from one side of the panel to the other giving the spot you previously welded enough time to cool. If you try to weld around the entire perimeter of the panel in one pass, there will be so much warp that by the time you get to the end, your edges could be off by 1/4" or more!

FYI, I am also a professional upholsterer, so if you need help figuring out what's going on with your interior, I'll be happy to help.

P.S.
It would be relatively easy to convert your engine back to FI, hopefully the ECU and wiring are still in the car. Or better yet, swap in a D16A1 motor!

[EuphoricBlue]

Hmm... Say I was to buy a mig welder, practice up on some spare sheet metal and then patch the car, would there be any issues with grinding the weld smooth for bondo/finnish work? I have used an asetalene welder a couple of times, so I figure I could pick up on mig welding easyly enough.

Some of the patchwork that needs to be done is behind the seats, now... on the outside is a gas tank that is not too far from this patch area, should I remove the tank if I'm using a mig welder?

How would I go abbout washing the intirrior now that it's out of the car? I figured I'd just wash it down with a hose and hope for the best. Maybe lay it out on my roof on a sunny day to let it dry.

What if I replace all the insilating material in the car with dinomat? Anything wrong with that idea?

And as for the engine swop... there are... shall we say... "plans" for when I am done school.

[lxndr]

If you've already had gas welding experience then MIG welding will be pretty easy to master. It's almost like smearing tooth paste on your panel!

As with all welding there will be a bead that you will have to grind off for a finished look, but if it's under the car then don't worry about it.

I've known people who have welded right next to the gas tank without problems, but I also know someone who set his gas line on fire! Personally, I don't feel comfortable welding right next to the gas tank.

Is your interior fabric and vinyl, or all vinyl? I wouldn't recommend hosing off your fabric seats because the foam underneath will absorb water like a sponge, making it incredibly difficult to dry and will allow mildew to grow. I think you're better off using Febreeze and letting it dry in the sun. The smell is probably coming mostly from the foam, and unless you want to take the covers off there's not alot that can be done for that, other than just letting it dry out.

There's nothing wrong with replacing the stock sound deadener with Dynamat. It's just the stock tar-like stuff requires dry ice in order to make it brittle enough to chisel out. Even after all that work there won't be much improvement. It would be better to just stick some Dynamat on the inside of your doors and quarter panels and maybe some little pieces above the headliner (although there's not much room with the sunrooof in the way).