Actually, come to think of it, I actually recently got another things that uses tapes. It happens to be a 1987 Civic. 100% Out of the blue, but I am once again, overlaiden with Hondas. Did not see it coming. Allow me to regale you with this story, that’s all of literally one week old.
Last Sunday, I’m going through the Facebook bilge- same as ever- a while ago there’s this guy who made a post about selling an 87 Civic hatch, 1000 obo, says he’s moving and has to get rid of it. Don’t make too much of it. Well Sunday night comes around, says he’s moving out Thursday, car HAS to be gone before then, FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE. And well, I’ll be honest, the 3G Civic pages are about as active as this forum, there’s posts and activity, but no crazy rush, my comment, and one other guys make it to the post. I shoot him a message, tell him I’m into Hondas, send him some pictures of the car I’m supposed to be talking about in this thread, and we get to talking. To my amazement, the odometer reads 80K, the engine has been rebuilt (and still unfired at the time I’m writing this) and probably the straightest, most rust free Honda I’ve come to know. The catch? He’s three states south of me in Kentucky. So I call Wednesday off and make a trek down, bringing with me the wheels the Civic didn’t have and some tools. Grab a U haul once I’m in town, and pick it up. Can’t turn down a free car.
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And MAN, I’ll be honest, for FREE, I couldn’t be more blown away, this car very much has come value, and it’s nuts that I own it. The haul near the end was brutal, but I made it back in one piece, and the car really is in incredible shape. It’s an auto, and the previous owner says he broke the front pump of the trans when he mated the motor together, so that’s what halted the cars progress. Understandable. The car came with everything that’s come off of it, and so after getting the front end loosely back together, it looks far more respectable (and yes, long term readers, I picked up those Si Hubcaps a couple years ago and had them on the car known as the B-Cord, and they’re coming out of storage yet again to look sweet on this car) and really complete the cardboard box that makes me love these cars
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And if I haven’t mentioned it, the interior on this car is near spotless, featuring the 3 spoke steering wheel that I adore, factory radio and awesome brown on brown action, it’s in great shape, and only needs a few pieces of plastic and a few tears in the driver’s seat addressed to be practically new.
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As it turns out, I have access to most of the plastic I need. Actually nearly everything I need to bring this car back to life. If you scroll up and back some, you might remember I laughingly put a 85 Civic front end on my Accord, and it turns out that the feces filled, mouse infested rusted wreck of a car that’s currently sitting in a junkyard is an absolute diamond in the rough. I made a list of everything that I’ve found that’s broken, scuffed or beat on the Tan Civic and went with my fists clenched and nose pinched last Sunday, and had a blast making a huge junkyard haul, this photo taken shortly after I had finished pulling perhaps the most crucial part from this blue hatch, the manual transmission.
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That’s right- I’m manual swapping the Civic, which I think is a great idea, top to bottom. Now I’m sure you can tell by looking closely, but here’s what I pulled from the yard. Complete manual conversion (trans, flywheel, clutch ((buying a new one, don’t worry)), pedal cluster, cable, and shift linkage) optional rear mudflaps, optional passenger side rear view mirror, weatherstripping that was crumbling on the Tan car, A pillar trim- same story, two functional center dash vents (both toast on my car), new upper timing cover (one on my hatch was rattle canned gold), front bumper (tan hatch has some teeth missing, and both the turn signal lenses were toasted), and everything I need to convert it to the cooler-looking recessed headlight look of the pre-facelift car. Not totally necessary, but I think a nice thing. I’m so geeked at how much that was bad on my hatch was good on this car. I’m just too excited. And I should mention, all this, plus the new clutch that’s in the mail right now has only set me back 300 bucks. Really, really not bad all things considered, I can’t imagine trying to source all this otherwise, especially for that cheap!
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