my newest project - not a Civic, but cool nonetheless

[KennyGS]

A glass bead booth would come in handy for all those small parts.

 

[hey_mikey]

A glass bead booth would come in handy for all those small parts.

believe me, if my boss would get one, I'd love to have one. I've worked with one at my old school when I did welding and casting, and those things were awesome.

he did say something about getting a portable sandblasting room to clean up the frame tho. I guess I'll look more into it once i get the body off.

I'd have more pictures of the process if I didn't feel like i was getting paid for wasting time by stopping so much. haha.

 

[hey_mikey]

 

[KennyGS]

We have booth like that at our company. Very nice!

 

[hey_mikey]

Milestone! Body off!

 

[hey_mikey]

The frame actually looks very good for being 50 years old. There's some surface rust but nothing deep.

 

[webby]

AWESOME!!!! I take it you didn't have any issues with the forklift lifting it off?

 

[KennyGS]

From what I can see, the whole car looks pretty good.

 

[hey_mikey]

AWESOME!!!! I take it you didn't have any issues with the forklift lifting it off?

Nope. I checked and double checked everything before we started the lift. I used way more straps than necessary for the load, too. Went up slow and once everything was clear (only the shifter really needed to be adjusted) it was easy.

 

[hey_mikey]

From lift to drop probably took no more than 15 minutes

 

[webby]

so what's the next project.... working on the frame?

 

[hey_mikey]

so what's the next project.... working on the frame?

That and getting the body prepped to go for paint and body work. I have to clean up the door hardware and latches and get everything cleaned up and working smoothly so the body can come back in one piece ready to drop back onto the frame. Once that's done and the body is sent off I can focus on getting the engine and frame ready

 

[hey_mikey]

so here's an update. I have since gotten the frame completely broken down and ready for stripping. we're debating whether we should media blast or acid dip. our only concern is if there is any rust in the frame rails, media blasting won't do anything about it. plan to powdercoat the frame after prepping. I do have a few questions, which will be highlighted in bold.

bare frame

the engine is on a stand, and with the frame apart, I was finally able to spend some time on that. our plan was to just clean it up and put it back together, depending on if the internals were in good shape or not. it seems like the previous owner or whoever worked on it before really liked blue RTV sealant, because that stuff was all over the motor.

driver side head

driver bank

passenger bank

passenger head

 

[hey_mikey]

fuel pump. is this the correct fuel pump? something about this looks wrong to me.

oil pan looks pretty beat up.

inside the oil pan

oil filter mount. is this an adapter?

crankshaft

pistons look pretty new? they're all stamped "B 396" on the inside of the skirt. supposedly, the motor was rebuilt not that long ago. would you say these pictures coincide with that?

were the rods stamped like this from the factory? or is that an indication that the motor was disassembled and reassembled?

heads and lifters - i made sure to keep the lifters in the same order I pulled them out. I pulled the heads as a complete unit to make sure I don't lose parts or mix up the order.

not sure I want to tear down the rest of the motor, because it looks pretty decent. what would you all do? any advice would be appreciated.

the driver side subframe looks like it was damaged and repaired before. The bolt holding the upper A-arms looks like was welded in place but since broke free. It seemed fine until I got the front suspension completely apart. after removing the bolt, the hole is super rough and it's missing the bushings that are found on the passenger side of the subframe. do you think should I just look for a new subframe? or can this be salvaged?

thanks again for any help!

 

[webby]

I definitely don't have the answers on that one. I can send the pics to a guy would probably be able to answer most (if not all) of those questions though. Budget would probably be a deciding factor on some of the answers though. Regardless, I can see what he thinks of it.

 

[hey_mikey]

I definitely don't have the answers on that one. I can send the pics to a guy would probably be able to answer most (if not all) of those questions though. Budget would probably be a deciding factor on some of the answers though. Regardless, I can see what he thinks of it.

That would be great. Honestly, budget isn't a huge concern. We'd rather get it done right than half-*** something. But we're not going for top-flight status either, so it doesn't have to be 100% true to original form if it works just as well or better and looks about right.

 

[webby]

sent him a message with your pics, so I'll see what he says

 

[hey_mikey]

sent him a message with your pics, so I'll see what he says

Thanks webby! After further inspection, I decided it'd be better to just tear the whole engine down, so I have more pics to share once I get home. Haha. It just opened up a whole new can of worms

 

[webby]

is it bad?

 

[hey_mikey]

is it bad?

I don't think there's one main or rod bearing that isn't deeply grooved and/or discolored.