Tamiya Honda CRX Restoration

[Viccario]

Yet another restoration from the early 1980's!

In the photographs before the restoration it appears to look ok but when viewed for real the enamel spray can paint job is awful!

I have stripped off the paint and plan to update this little Honda to appear less 80's! (except for the 80's touring car racing style suspension set up!)

The pictures below show the car before any restoration work except for removing the glass and so on.







These pictures (below) show what it looks like after stripping the paint, lowering the suspension in a 1980's touring car racer style and adding some different more suitable wheels (in my opinion!) with a bit of negative camber added to the suspension! I also sanded down the edges of the sunroof which appeared to be massively out of scale. It is also worth mentioning that in order to get the Fujimi wheels to fit the Tamiya arrangement I had to alter the wheels from having a female fitting (with the poly cap in the wheel) to having a protrusion on the wheel suitable for inserting into the polycap on the Tamiya wheel hub assembly which was a mighty time consuming and tricky task!















I then decided to fill in the 1980's red stripes and also the Japanese number plate space on the rear for a more up to date smoother look, and I re-attached the boot spoiler. The filling is is not very noticeable in the pictures but should be when I get a chance to paint the body shell! I think it looks a lot more purposeful than before! Sorry for the picture quality!

[Wishieftrottle]

Beautiful, unusual car.
Im looking forward to your next UP !!!!

[MidMazar]

Stripping the paint came out good, better than all my attempts. May i ask what you used to strip the paint.

What about this one? Except i know its a newer gen.

[evil_hanzel]

i love old hondas...

some ideas..

[Viccario]

[quote=MidMazar;6073569]Stripping the paint came out good, better than all my attempts. May i ask what you used to strip the paint.

Thanks, I used brake fluid. It was a bit of a pain to do though. Even though I left it soaking for a week I still had to use wooden cocktail sticks to scratch off the paint (no damage caused because the wood is softer than the plastic) but it was a lengthy, unpleasant task!

Some paint residue was still left where it had leeched into the plastic which I removed as best as I could with well worn 1200 grit wet and dry paper. Althought it still looks like there is original paint in the panel lines this is also just residue that cannot be removed. I used sharp cocktail sticks and a pin if necessary on all the panel gaps!

Thanks for the examples Evil Hanzel, I like the white one with the flared arches it looks like the old kit of the Mugen version Tamiya made a long time ago! I will probably go for a Honda Milano red colour with gun metal wheels for mine!

[Uninen]

Originally Posted by Viccario

Thanks, I used brake fluid. It was a bit of a pain to do though. Even though I left it soaking for a week I still had to use wooden cocktail sticks to scratch off the paint (no damage caused because the wood is softer than the plastic) but it was a lengthy, unplasant task!

Did You tone the brake fluid down? Quite a gamble if You didn't, cuz usually brake fluid makes plastic very fragile. It eats up the oil from it (Ithink?). Very harsh procedure.

Originally Posted by Viccario

Thanks for the examples Evil Hanzel, I like the white one with the flared arches it looks like the old kit of the Mugen version Tamiya made a long time ago! I will probably go for a Honda Milano red colour with gun metal wheels for mine!

Sounds very cool I had an EG3 in milano red (tho it was a 1.3l, but nice car tho, never let me down).

I just "restored" or retuned my Fujimi CRX glasstop, lowered and changed the wheels from Veilside marriot to DC2 ITR 15" rims painted white (body is painted dark pearl grey, almost gun metal).

[Viccario]

Originally Posted by Uninen

Did You tone the brake fluid down? Quite a gamble if You didn't, cuz usually brake fluid makes plastic very fragile. It eats up the oil from it (Ithink?). Very harsh procedure.



Sounds very cool I had an EG3 in milano red (tho it was a 1.3l, but nice car tho, never let me down).

I just "restored" or retuned my Fujimi CRX glasstop, lowered and changed the wheels from Veilside marriot to DC2 ITR 15" rims painted white (body is painted dark pearl grey, almost gun metal).

Thanks for the comments.

I didn't do anything to the brake fluid and it was generally ok. I always try to be as gentle as possible removing the paint but I did manage to snap the rear 'glass' light cluster in half! I got round this by removing the rear smooth glass section between the rear light lenses though! You are right the plastic does definitely seem to be more brittle after the brake fluid treatment! I did have problems with the Audi Quattro restoration that I did recently when I managed to snap a centre pillar and some other bits.

Sounds good! I use to own a lowered Milano Red 1991 5 door Civic 1.6 VTi that looked pretty similar to the one in ImolaEK's signature! I loved it but it ended up going rusty which was a shame!

[tuned.by.twenty]

It looked good before the restoration, I can't wait to see it after.