91 civic wagon build (Page 1/2)
wftb DEC 20, 06:40 PM
my youngest son found out about these cars on the net and thought it would be neat to get one to fix up .i had never heard of a civic wagon before but after seeing some pics of finished wagons i thought it would be a fun little car .i am registered on the civic wagon forum and it is a great site but i have not figured out pictures there yet .anyway we found a 1991 wagon on kijiji and picked it up for 950.00 . it is a FWD automatic car and needed a bit of rust removal but has a very nice interiour and runs very well .so far i have replaced rear wheel arches , welded up some holes on the drivers door and rocker panels .and some big holes in the tail gate got fixed .all my before pics are on my mac so these pics will be progress up to now .whole car is painted and now we are putting everything back together .



so a lot of work so far .tailgate is finished and back on .all the rust on the gate appears to be the result of a bad seal on the wiper actuator stub .if you think a fiero is hard to get parts for , get one of these .they make almost nothing for this car and in ontario there are none to be had in wreckers .the new rear wheel arches are for a sedan .they fit OK but the wheel openings are bigger now .it is going to be a unique ride though , i have been watching kijiji ontario and have not seen a wagon listed since summer .
rbell2915 DEC 20, 07:08 PM
That car is so cute! It looks like a Hatchback Metro Sedan. Good luck.
wftb DEC 20, 08:27 PM
thanks .i had it parked beside my fiero one day and it is about 6 inches shorter and narrower , holds 5 people and only weighs 2350 lbs .and it has a big trunk .a miracle of packaging in a small space .i thought there was something wrong with the steering because the wheel goes back and forth with no effort , felt sloppy , then i looked up the specks and it has power steering .in a light weight car it seems strange to have power steering but it was a feature packed car for 1991 .
wftb DEC 21, 09:19 AM
got some pictures of when we first picked it up.looks better in pictures than in person .but the main reasons we liked it was a rust free frame and only minor rust on drivers door .and the near mint interiour.you dont find too many 22 year old cars with out a rip or a stain on the seats .the yakima basket and roof rack cost more than the car !





the rust around the wheel wells also ate a lot of the inner fenders so a lot of the work was welding in new metal there .this is my first attempt at a metal bodied car .i bought a new US made hobart mig welder with gas .sold my stick welder to help pay for it .the mig can do everything my stick welder can do except weld thick metal. we have coilovers and camber kits for it front and rear but i want to get it safety checked first in case that causes questions during inspection.it has a new exhaust , newish brakes , e brake and horn works so now that all the holes are fixed it should pass inspection .no e test where we live but it does not throw codes anyway.the rear bumper was held on by wire and ty wraps and drywall screws .when we took it off , there was nothing underneath- no rebar frame and no energy absorbing foam .tried to order some but no luck so i made up a frame and used spray foam and some packing foam for the energy absorber .just something that will prevent major damage in case of a good hit in the back end .

[This message has been edited by wftb (edited 12-21-2013).]

DKcustoms DEC 24, 08:54 PM

quote
Originally posted by wftb:
you dont find too many 22 year old cars with out a rip or a stain on the seats .the yakima basket and roof rack cost more than the car !




My 86 SE Fiero (27 years old) has absolutely spotless seats and carpet! Only 66.5 thousand well-cared for miles so I shampooed all the carpet and the seats and know the inside smells and looks fresh!

Good looking civic I guess, for an import :P
Dburger DEC 24, 10:38 PM
Are you gonna keep it the stock ride height or lower it?
wftb DEC 25, 12:30 PM
we have a set of D2 coilovers and Skunk2 upper front arms and rear camber correction arms .we are going to drop it probably 2" or so , maybe a little more in the rear because it sits really high back there . the coilovers are fully adjustable for height and damping .having trouble finding rims for it .tried to order OEM 7 spoke steelies but supplier was out of stock .so now we are waiting to see if a set of the OEM AL rims is available .if that does not pan out we will be going for aftermarket rims .these cars are 4X100 pattern and came with 13 and 14" rims from the factory .
wftb DEC 27, 07:47 PM
The rust removal started with the rear driver side under the tail light .A nasty hole right where the opening curves to match the tail light .I figured if i could do a decent job there , the rest would be easy .So here is kind of a photo play of my battle with a rusty honda :









home made energy absorber/bumper support system
bumper mounted and mostly rebuilt tailgate (some touchup and rebadging needed)

getting the rocker covers and OEM (used from a seller in New Zealand ) mud flaps on :

Pretty much where it is at now .Holidays are over for now but i should be done all the cosmetics in a week or so .
carnut122 DEC 30, 12:12 PM
I'm not much of an import fan, but I do like car builds, so I hope you keep posting. How many Miles (Km?) does it have on it?
wftb DEC 30, 08:09 PM
it has 328000 KM on it but it runs great .you can tell the car was really looked after .i found some 7 spoke steelies (OEM on the 4wd models) that i am going to get sent up from a wrecker in GA i hope .too much snow in the yard around the shed to get the car out to take it and get it safetied .dont intend to let it ever see salt again but i want it ready to go first thing in the spring .there is a civic wagon website and i hope to post there too , but i have not figured out pics there .my son thinks they use photo bucket and i dont have an account there .