So i just bought a *slightly used* 96 Civic Hatch , and HOLY CRAP is it a mess.
it had been abandoned stuck in the mud for a couple WEEKS?!? AND in that time some kids found it and DROVE THEIR TRUCK up onto thehood and into the windshield.
broke out all the glass on the drivers side , rear hatch . messed it up pretty good .

heres the good news , it only has 105k on it , CLEAN title(it was never turned in to insurance comp) came with a brand new hood , frontfender , rear hatch , front clip , wiper assbly , 4 brand new studded snow tires.

heres the bad , YES its an auto ..lol..BUT im not trying to win any races , just .get my kid to daycare and maybe save a little on gas , and especially this gives me the chance to FINALLY start tearing my real dream down for rebuilding (68 chevelle) . So that being said .the whole back seat was filled with misc parts that had been taken off the car at some point, and some of this stuff i have no idea where it even is SUPPOSED to go ..so i will be asking ALOT of questions as i stick it all back together , and when you respond , keep in mind i have never even SEEN the engine bay of a honda before , so feel free to talk to me like you are writing in GIANT RED CRAYON , ya know like you would talk to a 3 yr old ....lol..im TOTALLy fine with that !

im going to try and attach some pics so you can see what im working with ...may work ..may not .

thannks in advance .
J.


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wlecome to the forum!

How much did this civic cost you if you dont mind me asking? It looks sad, but it shouldnt be too hard to fix. Good luck, and hope to see you more around the forums!

 

what if i told you ,......say .....1000.00 bucks??..would that seem like a good deal ?...it runs fine . i drove it into my garage .

and really , for the most part all the parts are there except the glass , which i spent 2 hours tonight cleaning out of the car with a shop vac .There is dried caked clay/mud EVERYWHERE inside ...its going to take DAYS to get all that off .

 

oh and i found my first question , i have been searching this site for a few days trying to find if the radiator is supposed to have little rubber feet/grommets on the bottom where it fits into the holes in the front clip?..im asking because the car came with a new (unopened in the box) aluminum radiator ...and i found the little hold down clip that sits over the center pin on the radiator to hold it down ...but the hanger sits about 1.5 inches above the top of the pin ..? like the radiator needs to be sitting up higher a bit ....if that doesnt make sense i can take a picture ?.

J.

 

Could be the wrong radiator. I think there are supposed to be rubber cushions on the bottom but they won't raise the height that much. Maybe just bend the top bracket to make it fit.

You could go to majestichonda dot com (a real Honda dealer that sells parts at a discount online). They have the dealer parts catalog on line, the drawings are very useful for showing how things go together and little parts that may be involved.

Actually that site doesn't link to the parts store, use hondaautomotiveparts dot com instead.

If it were my car I'd concentrate on getting it to run. Take a test drive with no glass in the windows, etc. to be sure that the engine and transmission are OK before doing any work on the cosmetic stuff.

 

cool deal i already bookmarked the site!

The radiator was still in the box it came in and its marked correctly , unless it was just put into the wrong box maybe?and i bought the car from the mechanic who had just tuned it up and evrything for winter , he said it ran absolutely perfect a month ago ..and i trust this guy we do alot of biz with him , it runs right now but i havent driven it for more than just a couple minutes until i get the radiator hooked up (which was why i was asking )

also ...does anyone know if these came with a transcooler stock??....mine came with one in a box , but i'll be damned if i can find the lines to run ..?.

and ya know i think i will just take that mounting bracket and cut and weld it to fit ,i work at a custom fab/exhaust shop so it should be pretty easy , and i was thinking about using some rubber grommets froma muffler hanger in the meantime until i get the correct little rubber deals for the bottom ( so i can actually run the car a little and se how it shifts and stuff.

thanks for the replies so far .

J.

 

well today i think i got the sub-bumper on the right way ..lol...actually sorta would have to work to do it the wrong way as the bolts only line up one way .








and also i got my radiator to sit in pretty good ...had to bend the tabs on the hold down bracket a little ...and used some rubber grommets i had at work to stuff over the bottom pegs ...seems to work pretty good ...wont be able to tell for sure until i put thehood on tho ..

oh AS MUCH of the glass i could see is gone now ..holy crap it was EVERYWHERE . what sucks is i can still little glints here and there so i know there are tiny tiny little pieces left ...not sure how im going to get it all out .

thanks again .

J


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