HCF Project Section - Synenberg's $300 2000 Civic Build

As most of you already know, I picked up this 2000 civic from a repo company for $300. It has 235,000 miles on the body, and I'm led to believe that the D16Y8 is not the original engine from the car. At any rate, It was a young (very inexpierenced kid who previously owned this coupe. I spoke of him as a punk before, maybe I'm wrong, maybe he just didn't know any better and only half-way did things for that reason......At any rate, my goal is to build a nasty Boosted SOHC hoping to produce 250-260 whp, That's realistic IMO


Anyhow, Here are the pics of the car in the condition In which I bought it.


http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/ss257/Synenberg/DSCF8209.jpg
Passenger front angle

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/ss257/Synenberg/DSCF8211.jpg
Driver Side front angle

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/ss257/Synenberg/DSCF8219.jpg

The Stitches in the front bumper... I guess no one ever told him that you CAN'T fix everything with a drill and zip-ties

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/ss257/Synenberg/DSCF8215.jpg
At least I've got some SI tails out of the 300 I spent...

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/ss257/Synenberg/DSCF8213.jpg
Terrible body work on Driver rear qtr. panel
(there is also terrible body work on the trunk where I guess he covered old spoiler mounting holes)

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/ss257/Synenberg/DSCF8237.jpg
It also has a broken driver door handle, but lucky for me He bought one and threw it in the trunk and never put it on....SCORE!


http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/ss257/Synenberg/DSCF8217.jpg
Uh, this doesn't look very good.

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/ss257/Synenberg/DSCF8238.jpg
Driver Door Panel (Hardly attached to door and torn as you can see)

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/ss257/Synenberg/DSCF8239.jpg
The stock painted interior (with no plastic in the bezel)

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/ss257/Synenberg/DSCF8240.jpg
The non matching dash, I noticed theres a bunch of screws missing, so evidently he TRIED to remove it at least And the P.O.S. radio with no kit, in a whole big enough for a double DIN

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/ss257/Synenberg/DSCF8241.jpg
Stock back seat and all of my sanding gear.

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/ss257/Synenberg/DSCF8224.jpg
Ugly engine bay with d16y8 with no PS or AC

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/ss257/Synenberg/DSCF8234.jpg
Okay today I got it into the air to assess the damages err.... Journey I'm about to embark on. and to Replace the clutch and release bearing....Terrible vibration when clutch was engaged led me to do so.

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/ss257/Synenberg/DSCF8225.jpg
Got the tranny out, only to realize that it had NO fluid in it. and the gears sound like garbage.

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/ss257/Synenberg/DSCF8226.jpg
I grabbed the Collector pipe and the weld to the cat BROKE OFF. WTF? It looked to be already have broken and he has used a 110 welder with no shielding gas or flux-core wire to tack it to temporarily hold together.

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/ss257/Synenberg/DSCF8227.jpg
Notice the Coat hanger that be used to hold the exhaust up instead of spending 20 bucks on a new bracket.......

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/ss257/Synenberg/DSCF8228.jpg
After his bracket broke I dont guess he could've spend another 30 CENTS on another coat hanger, so he decided he would drag a Massive hole in the exhaust.

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/ss257/Synenberg/DSCF8229.jpg
Flywheel has a lot of heat spots on it.

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/ss257/Synenberg/DSCF8233.jpg
Another glance at the flywheel

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/ss257/Synenberg/DSCF8231.jpg
Not only did he hack up the bumper to make some Ebay Fog lights work, he either cut the wires from the harness, or didn't run one. I guess he just wanted the cool fog light look.

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/ss257/Synenberg/DSCF8230.jpg

I also got some Ebay Coilovers! WAHOOOOO!!!! By the way, all four struts are blown out.

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/ss257/Synenberg/DSCF8236.jpg
WIth that big a$$ hole in the exhaust and the broken flange I suppose exhaust will come a little sooner than anticipated. but for now I also used the coat hanger trick until next weekend. However I did weld the flange up with ARAGON!!!!!


Thats all for this weekend as I have already used it all up in the garage working on my Honda. However I do feel really accomplished.

Over the week I'm going to order a new muffler, I want something that sounds good but isn't super expensive or Obnoxious. Any input is greatly appreciated. Next weekend it goes to Eddie's to get 2.5inch exhaust run to whatever muffler I buy. Only because I have no tubing benders or Exhaust building knowledge .

Than the plan will go as follows:
Interior (because thats where I spend most of my time when I'm driving)
Exterior ( because it looks like Poop)
Drivetrain (Because It is pretty peppy and runs good now. and I need more time to do research to find what parts I want to use, and how to build it properly to be reliable.
:D
Thanks for reading my build thread!
Magically yours,
P.J. Synenberg

P.S. The van is jacked up because I was replacing the wheel bearing on my wifes car. I suppose the mini-van jokes will commence now:

and just cause I think its bad a$$, my buddy just built this ford Coupe, He primed and reassembled it this weekend, I figured I'd give him some props because he did let me use his shop all weekend and he is going to paint the Civic when its time.
http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/ss257/Synenberg/DSCF8235.jpg

You've made a good start. Keep up the good work!

Wow, if i was you, i would rip the whole car apart and work from the ground up.
Wish you the best on this project.......is this your only ride?

Does that rat rod have a 350 in it?

yeah i agree with splat. I say you rip everything out except the driver seat and start cleaning everything up.

Damn, honestly, Id just find another civic to build lol. That thing needs a lot of work. Ive seen many completely drivable decent condition EG's go for under $1200. Looks like you are off to a decent start though.

^ not to get picky, but the car was $300, besides, it looks as if he knows what he's doing. All of those fixes are easily done in a couple of days and a few trips to the junkyard.

How does the flywheel get heat spots
(i have an automatic so idk)

Cool project, good luck with it.

I like the captions on your pictures, most of them are hilarious. lol

Heat spots are.......................Drum roll please..................Spots on the flywheel that have gotten overheated, causing the metal to distort and see what you see in the pic..........................j/k I know that isn't the smart a$$ answer you were looking for. Just when I didn't know as much as I do now (don't think I'm a mechanical genious by any means, I just do good to trip my way through things) my mechanic friend would always answer with the same type of response when I asked a question as such. So I came by it honestly. The best way to describe a clutch is to think of it as a brake rotor and caliper ( I know your honda has those) when you take your foot off of the clutch or, engage it, the fork pushes the pressure plate against the flywheel which in short is moved by the crankshaft. And pretty much , Driving the balls off of it will make it acquire heat spots, or shifting with no clutch. In a big rig you only use the clutch to start and stop and "float the gears" (shifting without the clutch, at a specific rpm range the transmission will fall into any given without disengaging the clutch, and frankly, sometimes Well, alot of the time I do it. or riding the clutch , or clutch slippage will cause excess heat on a flywheel.


Yes thats a 350 in the HOT ROD. It's a grown man, its bananas fast. (Rat rods have no type of paint at all, generally all rusted and such all over) But Rat rods are the sh!t RAT ROD over hot rod any day FTW!!!3

Yeah, its my primary transportation, but everything I want to do is set up to do it in weekends, until the driveline comes along.... but than I got the BIG MONTANA to drive.... and the best part of it is that it has dual power sliding doors so I can open both doors and slow down to about 30 when I pass a friends drive way and they can jump in all cowboy style and such LOL (If you're clueless go to the following link to fill yourselves in : www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmQprds206s although mine is an 03 not 97

Also to everyone who told me to buy an new civic to build. to that I respond, theres only 2 types of people who give up on things. B****es and quitters, take your pick, which are you?


Lastly,
Everything I say on there that makes you guys think, "wow, this guy is a D!ck"
I'm really just being funny you just can't see my smile and hear the sarcasm in my voice.....So don't get angry, its all in fun and games. Ive been readin this forum for 6 months before I joined and even bought my civic, so I pretty much know everyone's level of seriousness (Well So I think)

Anyhow, just laugh off every thing condescending that I say. Because you can bet your sweet a$$e$ thats what I do. Take it with a grain of salt, I think you are all great guys

It's refreshing to have someone who's laid back and cool. You're definitely welcome here.

Btw, this is a ratrod....notice the extreme differences. Basically rat rodding is all about people with no idea what they're doing, building sh!t way too dangerous to even be on the road......Hey this sounds kinda like what the PO of my civic was building.....haha also notice th roof is cut out, and the shifter and damn near half of the drivers head sticks out....So Sick, it ought to be illegal

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/ss257/Synenberg/ShowTell-Brads30FordRatRod-003.jpg

Ive been readin this forum for 6 months before I joined and even bought my civic, so I pretty much know everyone's level of seriousness (Well So I think)

So you've been monitoring my posts have you? .................dick

Ahhh sarcasim, Gods greatest gift. Welcome to HCF. Off to a good start, but jeez that thing is a POS.

Yeah, its a POS, but this guy has got vision! lol.
Oh, wait.. we are being mean. I mean.. this D-bag can't build crap.
=P

Alright guys, well my project has been postponed for 2 weeks since i've bought a double wide trailer and I shall be hanging sheetrock and such this weekend and painting next....As soon as I get this done that I will be back on track, with tons of pictures, because you are all picture whores!

Ambitious project. Seems like with the amount of stock parts you're going to have to replace (trans, clutch, plastic and metal body panels, cats, coils etc) you probably could have spent another 8 or 900 bux up front that you're probably already going to be spending on parts and saved yourself the hassle/expense. Are you putting A/C or power steering back on the car? I noticed the cruise control has also been ripped out, do you want that back?

In any event, hope you have fun with it and good luck!

K

I think this project will be awesome. It's not impossible to get all those parts cheap as free, especially if you have a lot of stuff to trade.

I think this project will be awesome. It's not impossible to get all those parts cheap as free, especially if you have a lot of stuff to trade.

If he can do that it will be a really awesome project! Its cool to see not only somebody who can throw money at a car and make it look nice, but somebody who knows how to make due, fabricate and find deals to get the job done.

BTW, I've been following your project (itinerant), very nice work.

K

Nice Project. Man that car needs some loving.

*in for wicked build*

Pssshh you gots teh SI tails, who cares about the rest of the car :D

POS, but a 00 for $300 is still pretty good, considering it's (barely) drivable :)

WOW.... but for 300bucks what do you expect. but at least it runs! i paid 300bucks for my old 94 EG that was also a pos paint and blown motor.
i just wonder why the tranny didnt have any fluid... surely the previous owner wasnt that stupid.... :( maybe he thought the roaring gears sounded cooler like a supercharger or something.LOL

but at least you have the desire to clean it up...
and if you want the gauges clear bezel i got one for ya ;) its pretty dam dusty but i im pretty sure its in good shape. i also have a black oem EX grill also if your interested.

and for the interior panels if you don t like the painted trim.... try brake fluid on the trim pieces. ive heard it works good to remove the paint but not hurt the original finish BUT i havent tried it myself. what do you have to lose... worst case is you have to repaint it or still buy new ones to replace them.

at least most of it is just a bad rattle can primer job. hell you might be able to just pressure wash the engine bay and get all the old black paint off.LOL im sure he didnt sand and clean everything before he spray painted it.LOL

good luck with the rebuild! she doesnt look that bad looks like 95% of it it just paint.

love the build man good luck on it and dam you keep up on yhem pictures dont you haha i got a pic of a rat rod i seen yesterday :o imma post it lol

http://i351.photobucket.com/albums/q461/nikeh34d/IMAGE_014.jpg
^low quality is because its a phone pic lol i was on highway and he got off same exit as me we came to red light so i took my chance lol slipped into the turning lane and snapped a pic before i drove off :P

AWESOME

everyone, the civic has been sold, not really intentionally, i just saw an old friend from school at the barber shop and he mentioned he wanted a civic, and i told him "you can have my civic for cheap" and when i gave him directions to my house he came and looked at it and i thought that was it and i would not hear any more of it. until he showed up at my house yesterday with some cash, so its gone.....im now looking for a hatch to build, maybe one alot cleaner than the ol' black stallion. thanks for everyones input here, hopefully we will have a new build thread before long, so mods feel free to delete this whenever you feel it necessary

...:(

*sigh* too bad, this looked like it would be good...

better get another civic soon!!

did you get any more than 300 bux for it?