Carotman's 1987 hatchback project

[Low_Rida]

Well, I ordered one from the dealer... costa 135 bucks at my price. Not too bad and it's the right part.

I need 2 rocker panels for my coupe, i was gonna curve some sheet metal, bolt it on and fiberglass and paint over it. is this a bad idea?

[carotman]

Not at all.

It depends what you want to do with the car in the future.

[Low_Rida]

Not at all.

It depends what you want to do with the car in the future.

Thanks, yeah thats true, i dont care for perfection, i want more "go" than "show" but i do love the looks of the 3gee, they are quite sexy.

[carotman]

I sent an Email to a Honda dealer in the US. I may buy a new floor pan but it's discontinued and not available anymore in Canada.

If any of you guys plan to get rid of an hatch, think about all these parts I need

[thegreatdane]

mmmmmmm, oem body parts, drool!

A new floor pan?? Maybe you should ask for a new complete body instead lol

How poor condition is the floorpan in? Any pics of the illness?

"Tabarnac!!"?? is that french for "goddamn it all to hell" lol

[carotman]

Hahaha, the floor is damaged around those rubber plugs. I'll have to weld some metal there. You can see the pictures on page 1.

I was planning to repair the floor but it might be even more time consuming than just put a new floor board and forget about it. Wel'll see if I can get my hands on one and how much it costs.

I think you figured "Tabarnac" pretty well. If you watched the movie "Love Guru" you know what it means

[carotman]

I received the brand new Honda rocker panel this week. It's all pretty and accurate (yeah)

Now I wonder what's the best way to install it. Should I cut the whole thing on the car and install the new rocker panel or should I just cut the minimum amount of sheetmetal on the car and march the replacement panel to what I cut?

I think welding the new rocker panel as a whole would be easier and lead to less welds. The thing is spot welded on the bottom and door sill. The biggest welding job would be on below the rear molding and where the door hinges are.

Anyway, I got some rust repair job to do behind the rocker panel itself. It was really cold here this week (like -30C) so I couldn't do anything on the car.

[thegreatdane]

I received the brand new Honda rocker panel this week. It's all pretty and accurate (yeah)

Now I wonder what's the best way to install it. Should I cut the whole thing on the car and install the new rocker panel or should I just cut the minimum amount of sheetmetal on the car and march the replacement panel to what I cut?

I think welding the new rocker panel as a whole would be easier and lead to less welds. The thing is spot welded on the bottom and door sill. The biggest welding job would be on below the rear molding and where the door hinges are.

Anyway, I got some rust repair job to do behind the rocker panel itself. It was really cold here this week (like -30C) so I couldn't do anything on the car.

Things can get really nasty behind those rocker panels.
Definately weld the panel in as a whole. It is much much much easier.
But you might want to cut down the size on that bit covering the door pillar and part of the rear quarter panel incase the panel ever need to be replaced again. That way there will still be fresh metal to weld in next time.
I think a picture update would be in order
Any luck with the floorpan?
Btw I did actually watch Love Guru, I remember now

[carotman]

I got the wheel arch today.

Now, if only it could warm up a bit here...

[2ndGenGuy]

Quite the project you've got here! I thought the temps were bad where I was, but -30C is ridiculous! I better take more advantage of our relatively mild weather.

[b20a86lude]

wow im hAVING A HARD TIME FINDING A NEW DRIVER QUARTER FOR MY LUDE AND OTHER STUFF

[carotman]

Here's the rocker panel I got from Honda. It's a perfect fit



Not much progress. I've been lazy a bit, it's cold outside and I need money to buy other stuff before the project can continue.

[87roach]

It'll be nice to see those new rockers on there! I know what you mean about the cold.. and the money..

[b20a86lude]

ur pix are messed up

[carotman]

Ok, I don't have pictures (yet) but I finished the cabin floor. There no more hole in there. I took off the fuel tank and I coated it with POR-15 so it should last for a long time.

The bad news is that I broke the rear brake lines. In fact, they broke when I touched them so they were really rusted. They rusted and snapped exactly where the rubber grommet it.

It turns out that these aren't available anymore from Honda in Canada. I might check in the US for new replacement or I could just make my own lines.

[Civic Accord Honda]

sounds like a good time to do custom lines and do a brake line tuck

[thegreatdane]

No pics?? thats cruel! I love seing bodywork pics. Good job getting the floor done though!
Your rusted brake lines are no biggie. You can either cut the lines under the backseat, put a flare nut on them and flare them, put on a brake line connector and make a new short section of line going to the rear wheels. Downside is that the brake line connector looks ghetto if you plan on running the car with no backseat and it will be visible.
So if you plan on taking out the entire interior during your repairs and want the cleaner 1 piece brake line it's not difficult at all to make the entire brake line by hand.
So dont sweat it if you cant get the oem ones.
The bonus of making your own lines is that you can relocate or hide brake lines and you can select between stainless(bitch to work with though), copper and steel lines. Just make sure to get a good brake line bender to get clean factory looking bends.
Good thing you didnt step on your brakes while you were still driving the car or the pedal would have gone to the floor lol.
Now get pics dammit!

[A18A]

that's scary knowing your brake lines are that bad, would hate to press the pedal then have fluid squirt out the back of your car and not having the car slow down much :O

No pics?? thats cruel! I love seing bodywork pics. blah blah blah. Now get pics dammit!

and i agree

[carotman]

Ok

Here are some crappy cell phone pictures of the repaired floor. I tried to keep as much as the original floor shape as I could. I sandblasted everything and coated it in POR-15. It should last a long time.

Diver floor:


Passenger floor.



Now, I took the fuel tank off to repair what's damaged under it. As sandblasting makes a LOT of mess, I still wanted to be able to take the car in and out of the garage.

The problem is that my driveway is in gravel and has a slight slope. I can take the car out but can't puch it back in without 2 people helping me.

I just thought I'd make a temporary fuel supply of some sort. I decided that my Tecumseh snowthrower tank was the best candidate!




Since carbs don't actually need fuel pressure, this works like a champ!

I'll take some pictures of the subframe damage near the fuel tank.

[Hazwan]

Hahahaha nice tank lol

[thegreatdane]

Looks good! What about the subframe is it rusted away completely or is it still in okay shape?

[A18A]

looks fun driving it without a seat :P but that does look good though

[Tomisimo]

Nice to see he project coming along, did you changed rockers yet? And props on floor work, I need to lift my carpet and see, I discovered that drain hose from moonroof came loose on the drivers side, so it siped inside, I fix that but I dont know how long it was draining inside.. Hope and pray its ok..

[carotman]

Here are new pictures I took today.

I've been working on the project this week. I mainly removed the rear knuckles/subframe to clean everything and get ready for the sandblast session.

There's so much dirt/mud/crud stuck under this car it's absolutely insane. I use WD-40 to clean all this mess. It's the only stuff that really does something.

Here are some pictures:

Rear knuckles and sway bar.


You can see here what I meant by crud


This is the stuff that's under the car:


Now, I had to clean the strut tower for further inspection. It turns out this is only minimal surface rust
Left:

Right:


The wheel wells aren't pretty, especially the left side. Nothing my Lincoln Electric can't fix.
Left:

Right


A hole developed under the rear bumper on both sides. This is the worst one:

[carotman]

Here's what my cleaning job looks like. I don't have "before" picture but I'm sure you can imagine how it was:


Now the uglier part The attachment points or the rear crossmember. The right side is really rusted. Fortunately, this is all fixable, thanks to my Lincoln again.

Left side:



Right side:


As you can see, there's a hole where there shouldn't be one. I'll sandblast this, patch this up and add another layer of metal all around this. I have an SE-i spare car that I could take this part from but I'm not sure if it's in good condition on the other car. I'll have to investigate this one.