1988 Honda CRX Si
I've posted a few photos of this car elsewhere, but I decided that I should probably put it all together in a project thread, so here it goes.
I found this car about two miles from my house, parked in a retirement community with a For Sale sign in the window. The first thing that grabbed my eye was the fact that it still had it's original wheels on it. And, while not completely rust free, there was less rust than I have seen on a CRX in years. A closer look revealed that it had 179,000 miles and absolutely no modifications. A day later, I bought the car from the original owner and he drove it to my house. He also gave me a folder with every receipt from the day that the car was new. He was a very good service customer. It's worth noting that the clutch, flywheel, timing belt, alternator, and radiator have been replaced within the past 25k miles. The tires are also in excellent condition. And, as an added bonus, it came with 3/4 of a tank of fuel.
The interior is nearly perfect. In fact, I didn't even have to vacuum it. I did, however, toss the awful steering wheel cover into the trash.
The first order of business was to get rid of the horrible window tinting. The driver's window and the rear glass were in especially poor condition. According to the receipt, it's been on there since August of 1988. Following some GRM advice, I bought a laundry steamer to help remove the film. Between that and a razor blade, it wasn't too bad getting it off of the door windows.
A word of caution if you're trying this yourself:
Remember, by definition, steam is hotter than boiling water, so be careful.
With the film removed, I still had a thin layer of glue on the glass. I used the steamer again to soften it up, ran a razor blade across it a bunch of times, added more steam and then wiped most of it off with a shop rag. After that, just glass cleaner and paper towels.
The rear glass was much more difficult, primarily because it sits nearly horizontal to the sun and covers the rear defroster grid. Here it is with the easy half done, just to give you an idea of what I started with. Bottom line: the back window was a slow, uncomfortable nightmare.
Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't do another rear window unless the film was as bad as this one was.
Next up was cleaning under the hood. It was pretty filthy, which was due to a combination of age, miles and a leaky valve cover gasket.
I put the car up on ramps and, with the engine warm, soaked it down with Gunk Foamy Engine Brite. After letting it soak for a bit, I hooked up the hot water to my pressure washer and blasted the grime away.
Looks like I'll be painting the valve cover when I take it off to adjust the valves.
According to the receipts, the brakes don't have a lot of miles on them, but they were squeaky so I planned take them apart for a clean and lube. Once I removed the wheel, I discovered they were a lot crustier than I had expected. Fortunately, brake parts are so cheap for these cars that I picked up new pads, shoes and drums, and had the front rotors turned.
Tomorrow, I'll tackle the rear brakes and then I'll turn my attention to the oxidized paint. Hopefully, that'll buff out...
Very cool car, and you don't see them in that kind of shape in the Northeast anymore. Keep it up!
