Project CSP CRX   

    This new section will allow you to see the building of my new C Street Prepared CRX.  The reason for the new car is weight.  My 1986 SI body is just too heavy and will never be as light as the new one.  The perfect CSP CRX is either an 84 1.5L or an 85-87 HF due to their lower weight.  My new car, which is a 1984 1.5L body, when done will weigh 1600lbs, about 300lbs less than my current car.  This weight difference will not only help cornering but more importantly acceleration.  With only about 125hp every pound has a great impact on the cars acceleration.  As my 86 car sits now it has run a 15.8 sec 1/4 mile on street tires.  The same engine and suspension in the new body should turn a 15.0 sec 1/4 mile on street tires.  The new car will be receiving all its suspension, engine and race goodies from my 86 CRX.  Plus we will be adding a few extra goodies along the way.  We project completion in August of this year and pictures will be posted every step of the way.  When its done the car will be a nationally competitive CSP car.  The 86 will not be trashed I see a B16 in its future with over 200hp, just for a fun street car.  I have managed to drag Neil Kuhns ,a previous national CSP champion and the owner of what has to be the fastest CRX in the country, into the project.  He has done several of these conversions and possesses a great deal of knowledge.  Keep posted for more...................

The chosen one. Truly a diamond in the rough.

May 29th, picked up the car and took it to Neil's house to begin taking it apart.  Also removed wheels because tires are flat and no good.  Going to Discount to get new ones to roll car around on, had to use the race set just to get it on the trailer. 

June 14th, car is completely empty. No engine, trans, wires, interior, hood, fenders or front bumper. Taking it to the body shop to check the frame for straight and welding a small mystery hole in the floor.

July 18th, the frame is straight and hole is welded.  Now the car is off to the paint shop for a fresh coat.  Looks like the car will be the factory blue top to bottom.  I am also having the engine compartment painted since it is easily done with an empty shell.

July 26th, went and picked up a new hood and two fenders at a local wholesale parts shop.  I could not believe the prices compared to factory parts.  Also picked up a header panel off of a junker CRX at a local yard.  Mario at Complete Paint and Body wanted to paint the whole car at the same time to insure the color matches on all of the panels.

August 2nd, car is painted and it turned out very well for the price.  Had to have the car towed because things did not line up with our normal towing system.  This was a bit of an unexpected expense but it had to be done to get the car back home.  Now the reassembly process can begin and the transformation to fuel injection.  I took a bunch of pictures of the car and will be posting them as soon as they are developed.  The first step now will be to get the SI wiring harness in as well as the SI dash cluster.  During this period we will also be dropping the fuel tank to change the pickup and pump to an SI unit.

September 6th, well it has been a while for an update sorry to keep everyone in suspense.  I have been gathering parts at the yard to get this thing back together.  That is the one down side of a yard car that has been stripped already.  Its amazing how many parts we are missing.  I have the harness now and am in the process of testing it.  Tomorrow I will be picking up more things like the insulation pad that goes against the fire wall and new carpet.  The interior was originally blue it will be black when we are done so I am getting carpet and interior parts as well.  This is taking longer than I thought but it will be one sweet car when completed.  Things should start to speed up a bit now though we have put together a list of items we need to get it on the road.

September 15th, we have the harness and pad in.  Discovered however, that the rear harness in the car will not plug into our 86 front so have to get one of those too.  I guess there are three types out there, 84, 85 and 86-87, and they only work with the same year front engine harness.  Plan on installing the drivers window, tail lights, spoiler and some other items so we can get the car closed up to start work on the interior.  We are going to drop the sub frame and change the rack to an HF unit do to its quicker ratio.  While it is out we will also install the 27mm Lightspeed torsion bars and change all the bushings.

October 1st, spent 3.5 hours in the junk yard pulling an 86 rear harness to plug into our front harness.  Another discovery was made, the tail lights have different plugs as well so now the tail light wiring needs to be changed.  The plugs for the hatch switch and license plate lights are different as well, but those are easily fixed.  The wiring for this car has proven to be the big snag.  Getting everything to plug in and work together has to be done before we can proceed any further.  We did drop the fuel tank and discovered that the years of sitting in the junk yard has caused rust to form in the filler neck and tank.  Going to have to make some calls to see what is going to be the best way to handle this problem.  After we resolve these problems we plan to go onto the front sub frame to swap the rack, torsion bars and bushings.

October 9th, we opted to go with another fuel tank and filler neck.  Honda Auto Salvage set us up with one in great shape, no rust.  Now we need to change the pick up and install the fuel pump.  While it is apart we will also be replacing all the rubber hoses and filler tube due to their age.

November 17th, spent 4 hours at the junk yard getting the remainder of the parts needed to assemble the interior.  Had to get every interior part since I am changing it to black.  Also picked up misc. parts and pieces that we will need.  Spent another 2 hours separating nuts, bolts, screws and other connecting parts to get ready for assembly.  Will be spending the week of Dec. 4th to put the car together as much as possible.  Also found a pair of DX door panels since they are lighter then the SI units.  One part still eludes me and that is the rear carpet section for the hatch.  The ones in the yards are in very rough condition so I may have to bucks up for one.

December 5th, took the week off to work on the car.  It now has most of its interior and the engine compartment has a lot of the components installed.  By gosh its starting to look like a car.  I have been taking a lot of pictures so they will be posted soon.  In them you will see a lot of little changes from the original 84 interior because it all came from an 86.  I just did not like the blue.  A few problems surfaced like the blower and heater core would not plug into the 86 harness.  Seems as though Honda really didn't want to make it easy to update the 84 with 85-87 stuff.  If you don't change the blower you will only have two speeds.  Also ran the wire to remote mount the battery in the courtesy box in the hatch.

December 8th, spent the final day doing some items I have been putting off.  Mostly removing the tint from the windows!  Now I know why they want so much to remove the stuff, what a pain in the butt.  Still have to remove the tint off the hatch window but the sun needs to cooperate more to do that one.  Did some clean up on the car seems as though nine years of junk yard dirt does not want to leave the interior easily.  Put the front carpet section in today and spent time scrubbing dirt out off that as well.  I also had to make some connectors to connect the license plate maker lights and the hatch light since the plugs on the 86 harness are not the same as the 84 wiring.

January 8th, picked up the fuel pump from the yard today.  Also went to the dealership and ordered new hoses, brake hard lines, window trim, misc. front end bushing and clutch cable.  Also picked up a rebuilt master cylinder from checker.  Spent some time flushing the fuel lines in preparation for the fuel tank and pump installation.  I also installed the SI fuel pickup in the tank, the tar they put on the tanks made this a bit of a pain.  I am now looking into new carpet for the car since the junk yard stuff was a bit rougher then I originally thought.

January 20th, not much to update but I have been working on the block-off plate for the master cylinder. Since I will not be using a booster I had to fabricate a plate to go against the firewall.  Finally finished it so I can put the pedal assembly back in the car and install the new hard lines.  Also spent about an hour cleaning out the old reservoir for the master cylinder.  There was a lot of slime in the reservoir that needed to be cleaned out before I could reassemble it.

Cost Break down of Project: