The Black Box

[sketchman]

Figured I'd start one of these. Might help to keep me motivated to do whatever it takes to keep it running till the end of forever.
Once a northerner, it has now gone country, but I hope you don't hold that against it.

So, the start. It will be my DD, so everything I do is to hopefully make it more fun while retaining the crown jewel of stock Festivadom: fuel economy.
Where it is now:
Stock shell and drivetrain with HIDs, nice multi light dome piece, black painted interior, "Plasti-Dipped" exterior, and Pioneer HU with decent speakers in back; rollin' on 12s.



The plan so far:
Escort center console to be painted and installed - have it, just gotta get paint to do it.
Repaint the body - I LOVE the satin/flat black look, but I'm thinking Rustoleum this time around, and all over.
Rust repair - new rockers welded in and bedlined to keep them there, and probably pull the rear beam and freshen it up.
Rio front swap - knuckles and brakes being negotiated as I type, and ready to pull the trigger on the struts and springs and sleeves: mounts will be custom(or that's the plan ATM )
Civic ST shifter, boot, and knob - in the mail now.
Early model grill.
Wheels/Tires - have 14x6 Konig Lightnings collecting dust, and rubber to follow when it's time.

The B3 is "probably" staying. I do have a B6T I'm converting to a B6D, but I'm still not sure I want to go that route. Might just end up selling it when it's done. I'm liking the idea of a very mildly built B3 + a small turbo and keeping it simple.

All I have for now.

[FestYboy]

you need aero mods to support the extra power.... or you will quickly loose MPG with your gain of HP

[sketchman]

Well, coilovers will go with the Rio swap, so I should be able to keep it low-ish, and the built B3 is very much a pipe dream at the moment. And it's all fluid.

[sketchman]

Picked up paint, and will proceed shortly. I'm thinking black with hints of bright green. VERY few hints. The 323 had green decals on the back glass, and that came to mind when I was thinking. Right now, only the calipers and some small things in the engine bay will go green. Beyond that needs playing with the GIMP to see what it needs, if anything.

Pics hopefully shortly of the Civic shifter, and console in and working.

Off to paint.

[TorqueEffect]

Looks like you need new battery tie downs, lol.

Don't fret, when I bought my car it barely had a battery tray, most of it was gone and the battery was being held in by heavy duty zipties, had to buy a tray and the fasteners off someone on here.

[sketchman]

Yeah, it's trashed. I have a new battery and will fab a simple bracket from perforated angle iron when I remember to buy some more. At the moment I've managed to make it not drivable by attempting the Civic shifter install, so the bat issues are secondary. Now I need some urethane and bolts/washers/more daylight.

[sketchman]

Some progress. The "simple" Civic shifter install turned into an ordeal. 2 hours later everything was apart and a rough cleaning done to get gobs of grease off it all. The shifter wouldn't come apart from the linkage, so I had to take a big piece of pipe and pound the whole assembly down between the body and exhaust. And it all fell apart in the usual places. Stabilizer bushing on the trans is shot, the main shifter part was falling out of the piece that bolts to the body, etc.

Scraped off most of the flaking paint, and will remove the rubber from it all and replace with urethane and shoulder bolts, and then copious Rust Reformer all up in here.



Here the trans ends are soaking in undiluted Purple Power. Hopefully they'll be clean-ish when I get back with parts to put it back together. 19 degrees outside.


I love Purple Power. Got the engine bay nice and clean even with the diluted? stuff in the spray bottle to see if it was any good. Now I buy gallons.

Didn't think and have 03+ Rio knuckles coming and ordered loaded Escort calipers from rockauto. Hopefully I can return the knuckles for the right year.

[sketchman]

Getting there. It was supposed to get up to 34 today. Don't know if it did, but I successfully froze my last giblet off around 3:30 and decided it was time to come in. I was having to preheat the parts with a heat gun to prevent runs and puddling in the paint, and then use the heat gun again to dry it after the spray. It was, interesting. BUT, the shifter parts are mostly derusted and painted. Just need baked now, and to do the urethane filling in the trans end of the stabilizer bar and the shifter mount on the body. I did eventually give up on the degreaser bath and went to gasoline. Much quicker. Also, per AdvanceDynamix write-up, I deleted the bushing on the trans end of the U joint. Left the shifter end one alone because it seemed tight enough.

Pics.


Console painted and ready to go in.

[Prafeston]

Console looks nice man. I gotta do that to mine!

[sketchman]

Thanks. Krylon Fusion satin black. Looks more like gloss to me, but it works.

[TorqueEffect]

Heh, you should paint those steelies black as well.

I am glad my Civic shortshifter installation went as easily as it did, but I am glad I did it. I didn't care at all for that long wobbly stock shifter. Fortunately none of the bushings on the transmission end were bad, only the ones of the shifter itself.

Can't wait to go get myself a Escort console, hopeing at least one of the many escorts in this jy I am going to is a manual.

[sketchman]

My stabilizer bushing was literally falling apart and pretty much fell out in a greasy gobbed mess. I'm surprised all the shifters in these cars aren't sitting on the exhaust. Stock design on the shifter end is really really bad. The idea that 2 TINY rubber nubs are supposed to hold the thing up and last is crazy to me.
Won't be happening again, though. :twisted:

And it should be firmly stabilized for a good while too.


In case anyone's wondering, that's PL S30, urethane roof and flashing sealant(about $6 at Lowes). It's soft-ish but still firmer than stock rubber bushings and shouldn't rot away like the stock rubber one does. Plus you can fill in as much as you want so there's not so much flex and thus it won't even have the chance to tear like OEM stuff does. Works really well. I've filled several sets of engine/trans mounts with it. Oh, and you don't necessarily have to fill them a little at a time. You can fill it up, let it set till at least the exposed areas are firm(overnight for me) and then bake them on LOW for 3-4 hours 1 hour at a time with cool down breaks in between. Done lots that way and they all come out nice and firm. Oh also, the tape in the pic is to hold the steel spacer in place while the mount dries. Don't be fooled by how thick and sticky it is. It won't hold its shape on its own for long.

Steelies will be gone ASAP, so I probably won't bother with painting them. Rio swap and 14s.

[sketchman]

Calipers came in. Gotta grab some grabber green from Retard Auto tonight to spice them up. Think I might just make adapter brackets to use the 03+ knuckles with the old style calipers I already have rather than mess with shipping again. Some GIMP comparisons of the 2 styles show it should be very doable, plus I get studs already installed and should be lower mileage which is nice.
To illustrate, 03+ on top, 02- poking out from beneath. The old style caliper will sit right between the new style mounting tabs, which should work nicely for making the adapter.

[FestivaReed]

wooo keep up the progress , cant wait to see it when its done !

[sketchman]

Well, the seller refunded the payment and cancelled the shipment before I could tell him I'd keep them anyway, so I've reordered, and will stud a 02- set and use them. Easier, so it's OK.

Shifter in, and WOW it's good. This is a must-do mod on these cars. I'd also recommend the urethane filling at both stabilizer ends too. I did a 1/2-3/4 fill(going by the height of the cylinder that houses the shifter rod/ball) on the body mount end, and I'm very happy with how it feels. It still gives some, but SO much less than stock rotten one. DO IT.