Loukiii
06-15-2009, 03:21 PM
My Mother died of cancer after 8 months in a hospital, and left me her P.O.S 1990 Honda Civic 3 door.
She was so darn proud of that car. Needless to say I wasnt really thrilled at the prospect of driving a 19 year old car from San Diego, Ca. to Tampa, Fl. However after 3 long days driving it across the country, I have become somewhat infatuated with the little hunk of junk.
After cleaning up 19 years of cigarette ashes and 2 heavy interior detail jobs, I have almost gotten rid of the stale cigarette stench. The interior is actually in pretty good shape, with a working radio and A/C. Believe me when I say everything is original on the interior except for her cheesy dashboard cover that she stuck on with velcro. I removed that and cleaned of the tape goop and the dash is in pretty good shape too. There isnt even tint on the windows.
On the exterior there are a few minor modifications, like the ventilated left rear tail light and assorted scrapes and scratches on the door. My favorite is where she lowered the front end using the bumper of a 4x4 pickup, which shaved off the Honda emblem. There is also a custom headlight job which uses plastic bags stuffed behind the light assembly to keep it aimed in a generally forward direction. It does come in handy for looking for birds in the trees at night, or shining in second story windows of buildings as I drive around at night.
What I hope to get form these forums is information and advice on restoring it to its former splendor and maybe even boosting the performance a little bit (who am I kidding... A Lot!) so when the kids with their pretty little rice rocket cars point and laugh I can blow their doors off with my moms old looking clunker.
Okay so maybe I really want to turn it into a fire breathing, tire melting, rocket sled from the depths of hell or at least a reasonable facsimile thereof. (With both headlights that pointing in the right direction.)
She was so darn proud of that car. Needless to say I wasnt really thrilled at the prospect of driving a 19 year old car from San Diego, Ca. to Tampa, Fl. However after 3 long days driving it across the country, I have become somewhat infatuated with the little hunk of junk.
After cleaning up 19 years of cigarette ashes and 2 heavy interior detail jobs, I have almost gotten rid of the stale cigarette stench. The interior is actually in pretty good shape, with a working radio and A/C. Believe me when I say everything is original on the interior except for her cheesy dashboard cover that she stuck on with velcro. I removed that and cleaned of the tape goop and the dash is in pretty good shape too. There isnt even tint on the windows.
On the exterior there are a few minor modifications, like the ventilated left rear tail light and assorted scrapes and scratches on the door. My favorite is where she lowered the front end using the bumper of a 4x4 pickup, which shaved off the Honda emblem. There is also a custom headlight job which uses plastic bags stuffed behind the light assembly to keep it aimed in a generally forward direction. It does come in handy for looking for birds in the trees at night, or shining in second story windows of buildings as I drive around at night.
What I hope to get form these forums is information and advice on restoring it to its former splendor and maybe even boosting the performance a little bit (who am I kidding... A Lot!) so when the kids with their pretty little rice rocket cars point and laugh I can blow their doors off with my moms old looking clunker.
Okay so maybe I really want to turn it into a fire breathing, tire melting, rocket sled from the depths of hell or at least a reasonable facsimile thereof. (With both headlights that pointing in the right direction.)