90 Civic Si - Update/Build

[arpenn]

My brother, dad and I are in the process of repainting our 1990 ITA Honda Civic Si. We will be putting the car back together tonight and applying the graphics and stickers. We still have to replace the door bars on the cage, add our oil cooler and accusump, replace suspension bushings, and corner weight the car. Here are some pictures after we got the car and took off the previous owners decals:

[arpenn]

Here are some pictures during the body work process. The car was pretty beat up.

[arpenn]

Pictures during the painting process:

[arpenn]

Painting is done. We are going to put it back together tonight and apply the decals and stickers. It will look different with the decals and stickers. Right now it looks like a barbasol can.

[Mike Mackaman]

I just bought a '90 Si to be a daily driver and someone put a 2.5", very loud exhaust on it. I litterally drove home with ear plugs in. I will pull this and pedal it to some fast and furious wannabe, but what size is good for a street car? I don't want to spend a bunch of $ on this as it is supposed to be a cost saving car not a money pit.

Any suggestions appreciated. Your car looks good coming together.

Mike

[GBugg]

The paint looks great! I picked up an ITA CRX this summer. Since I think my season is over, I've started the clean-up/paint prep effort, too. Haven't decided on the paint scheme yet.

[quadzjr]

Can you post more picstures of the cage.. from teh two yo uhav eposted it looks ... skimpy

[arpenn]

The cage isn't the best. This winter we are going to redo part of it. We will be putting NASCAR bars on both sides of the car, we are also going to pull the dash and install new front downtubes that will go down through the dash and add a bar inside the dash bracing both front down tubes. The cage is 1.5" DOM .120" Tubing. We have the new tubing laying in the shop right now. That is our winter project for the car now that the exterior is done. When we redo the cage we will be painting the inside of the car also.

[arpenn]

Here are a few pictures of the finished car. We are very pleased with the way it turned out. My dad did a great job on the paint and my brother made all the vinyl lettering for the car which also turned out great! As I stated earlier we are going to redo part of the cage and paint the inside of the car this winter. We will also be replacing the suspension bushings, and installing our oil cooler and accusump this winter. Our next purchase is a new set of tires $$$.

[arpenn]

We finally got around to updating the roll cage. As you may have seen in the earlier pictures the original cage left a lot to be desired. We also lowered the seat a couple of inches which really helped too.

[arpenn]

Here are a few more pictures after we reinstalled the dash, seat, windshield, etc. We didn't get the entire interior finished and repainted because we had to put the car back together to make the race this weekend. We will be finishing the rear part of the cage and painting after this weekend.

[arpenn]

And a couple more. The interior really feels bigger with the door bars bent out into the doors and with the front down tube going down throught the dash. We also reinforced the halo with a few gussetts.

[spnkzss]

If I could make a recommendation. Get rid of that soft roll bar padding around the head. I did that, and took a hit. That stuff does NOTHING for impact. It compressed completely and it felt like I just hit the roll bar. You don't HAVE to go SFI, but the harder stuff is 1000x better. I took the same hit with the hard stuff and it actually does something.

Other than that, it looks great.

[arpenn]

We plan to get some of the high density padding, we just forgot to order it and we have a race this weekend so we put this stuff back in. I know it's not much but has to be better than nothing. Is the high density padding just needed around the head or should a guy use it all around the driver?

[tnord]

i just use it around the head in my car. although it's not a bad idea down by your feet as well.

[mossaidis]

I placed the SFI padding on the head bar, foot well and all over the NASCAR doors - anywhere where my head, feet or arms could make contact with the roll cage. It may have cost $100, but I think it's worth it. Plus I impressed the NER techs. PS. Sweet CAR!