Restoration: 1978 Honda Civic (1200) Part 1

[Randy]

Due to a serious neck injury I have not touched the car in months.

During a long easy run the day after visiting the dentist 🦷, I some how damaged the disk in my neck causing extreme nerve pain in my back and arm. I have been told by doctors it’s taking way too long to heal. No credit to the drugs that I am/was on, felt it could be life ending. I am off most of them now and treating the pain with more natural treatments and Physiotheraphy.

During some of the worst ones my loving 🥰 wife drove me to pick up this nice addition to the project and with the help of Bruce was able to get it in the back of my wife’s Honda Fit. I cannot drive at this time.

Don’t tell her I put it in the car by my self, she will kill me! Yes I am putting the phone down dear!

Happy New Year 🥳

[Kurt]

Happy new year Randy. Hope you mend up soon.

That roll cage looks fantastic. And nos even!! Never seen a piece like that before so what a find!!

[Randy]

I forgot to mention this – made by Canadian Stock Car for the original Honda /Goodrich series.

[Blue-Civic-Hybrid]

Hope you recover much quicker this new year and thank you for updating your progress, even though you risked the ire of your wife!

[Bruce V]

Boy , oh boy Randy , that roll bar looks like it was made to fit !!!
I'll have to get my butt in gear and look for some steel for the backing plates .

[Randy]

Hey Bruce your first post, welcome to the site.
I tried to email you but I think the spam gods are working overtime. I hope you are feeling better now and hope you had a great Christmas.
Speaking of steel, if you come across some extra plating I could use some to make new jacking points.

If it were not for Bruce This nice roll bar would be elsewhere

When I am felling better would you give me another tour of your fine car? I was suffering with neck pain during the first visit.

[Bruce V]

Hey Randy

Did you receive my email that I sent you a couple of weeks ago ?
No , the spam gods did not eat your email !!
Hope that you are feeling better .
So , it looks like I’m up and running again ( running - figuratively speaking of course !! ) .
I was out in the ‘race shop’ ( ok , ok garage !! ) the other day and within about 10 seconds I saw some sheet metal that I’m sure will work for both the roll bar
mounting pads backing plates and the jacking points .... it was sitting right by
the side door - we walked by it several times ... it was kismet !!
One piece is 4-1/2” x 23-1/2” x 1/8”
A second piece is 4” x 32” x 1/8” .
They are leftovers from a job I did to make up some custom mounting brackets
for an after-market rear sway bar for an ’84 CRX race car . I think that I still
have some of them around ... hey , ya always need spares , especially
when racing !!
I also have a piece 6” x 32” x 3/16” . It would be more difficult to cold bend , but not impossible .

Not sure how thick the jacking points are ... yours look a tad modified from
stock compliments of Mr Rust !!

Yes , of course , when you are up to it a more indepth tour of ‘Barney’ is
always possible .. .. 'come on down' !!
A little bench racing and guided tour ranks not far behind running flat in
4th ( 4 sp transmission !! ) down the chute ( cor 4 ) to the braking point
for 5a ( 5a and 5b are officially “Moss Corner” at the big “M” !! ) ... wowie ,
just thinking about that almost made me break out in a sweat !!

So , get better and when you are up for it we’ll get together .

[Randy]

I am still on the mends health wise. My neck has not totally healed yet but at least I can drive again. A big problem that is making life more difficult is I now have frozen shoulder.

As far as the restoration goes not much is happening. But my shed roof gave out and i am having to throw out parts due to rust and plastic bits that got frozen in water and cracked. All the plastic over the inner wheel well covers and the trays along the side of the seats are trash along with the seat belt assemblies. It’s not the end of the world as i can source the seat belts from a newer Honda

I picked up a spot welder to help me along with making the inner and outer rocker panels as well as many other areas it will come in handy.

[Steph]

Heya Randy,

that distributor looks completely knackered.

Hope you mend up soon. I've had great results with PEA (Palmitoylethanolamide) in regards to pain relief. It's not a drug, so no side effects!

[Randy]

I got all the jobs done around the house trying to keep myself busy and out of trouble.
Since I have a lot of extra time on my hands I started working on the car.

I have stripped the engine bay an removed the rusted out battery tray. Using the hammer attachment on my air chisel I was able to fix up a lot of the body damage on the passenger side including the lower valance.

I was cleaning up my workshop in the basement and was about to throw out a worn out saw blade for my Dremel Oscillating Saw. Then I realized how handy it would be if I ground down the end like a wood chisel to remove the dried out under coating. I realized tonight I knocked of the rest of the wheel well in the fraction of time it took me to do it manually in my condition. The only thing I will change is to round off the corners. It takes the under coating off too easily, and makes it a snap for seam sealer. I even used the side of the blade and it gets up to the seam in the strut tower so easy without any discomfort for my neck.