Progress Pictures

"Chris F." wrote in news:4a58caaa$0$23751$ snipped-for-privacy@news.aliant.net:

Look at it this way: A Civic is one of those vehicles that's everywhere for years, and then all of a sudden they're nowhere to be found.

Then one day you show up in yours, and people say to you, "Hey, I haven't seen one of those things in years!", and then you get into a conversation about how they had one years ago or they learned to drive in one, etc. Might take another ten years before that happens, but it will.

In the end, they're just cars, and not even very valuable ones at that, but that's not the point. My Integra (bought new) is now 18 years old. I find it kinda fun to keep it going, warts and all. A newer car would be boring, just like this one was until it started to get some gray in its beard.

Tegger wrote in news:Xns9C45931499E74tegger@208.90.168.18:

Besides, all the new cars look like someone attacked them with a heat gun. I'm not impressed with the look of the *average* car in the last

Why do you need "much-needed" encouragement? Sounds like you're tired of it. Don't hesitate to toss the thing if that's how you feel. Go on to something else, and chalk what you've done up to experience. If you enjoyed doing it and learned something there was no loss. There's no accomplishment in banging your head against a wall. Even the best in their fields aren't afraid to toss away projects partially completed. Be realistic. But if you *are* enjoying it, carry on, and good luck.

--Vic

Far from it, you definitely have skills. I would say they are being used in a fun sort of hobby/learning manner rather than a money saving effort, but I assume that is your intent.

Two things:

2) How much would I have to pay for you to let me lie under that car whilst it was supported by stacked cinder blocks? My wife suggested it after a recent life insurance policy review, and I always try to please her.

Looks like you are coming along well with it.

I have to fuss at you over one thing though... You have to car up on cinderblocks. You also have some of the cinderblocks on their sides and they are very weak when used that way.

Please don't be working under the car with it supported that way. They may hold up for years but if they let go it is sudden and catastrophic.

Steve B.

Don't even get me started on the look of new cars. I absolutely hate them! I want a car that looks like a car, not a modern art sculpture. The trend these days is to make vehicles as curvacious as possible, and IMO it has more to do with sex (imitating female curves, etc) than aerodynamics. Heck, some mfr's even refer to their vehicles as "sexy" in advertising. It's all part of the degeneration of society. And the uglier new cars get, the more inspired I am to preserve these older, more sensible ones. That's not to say I dislike every current-production vehicle. The Jeep Wrangler and Fort Mustang GT are pretty nice, albeit expensive. And the current Honda Civic is a bit better-looking than the previous three generations, though it still has an ugly ultra-curvy interior. I think the '88-91 Civic was the ideal mix of style and performance, though the '80-83 is still my favorite for sentimental reasons.

fred wrote in news:Xns9C459CE03F1D3fred@127.0.0.1:

Personally, I think they're kind of stalled for ideas, so they're going for "grotesque" instead of "pretty". This has happened before. At some point somebody is going to come up with something /really/ new and we'll be off on another "pretty" go-around.

Plus it doesn't help that the the government has mandated those bulbous "safety" front ends, which just beg to be grotesqued-up with ugly grilles. Seen the Toyota Venza yet? Reminds me of something from the movie "Alien".

Gone are the days when I used to do that. As to body style on new cars>>>>>> I miss my 1956 T Bird. WW

Quite prophetic! Yes, why? These cars are a dime a dozen, in better shape!

Is this an old car you just can't stand to part with? I can understand that, really! Are you going to 'boost' the thing, as the polyurethane bushings suggest? How many miles on it? Are you installing a new engine?

Not being derogatory; believe me, I have done similar things myself. I use a general rule of thumb: if it costs less than half of NADAguides.com, I'll do it. Over that, I'll look for a better example for a few hundred bucks that I don't have to do too much work on.

No, I gotta go. I gotta start doing a similar thing to my '89 Subaru GL AWD hatch...

I miss mine, too... :(...

Did I post this before?

My 'stable': (NOTE: Not my actual cars...)

I admire your tenacity and your courage. Hope you enjoyed it, and learned a lot.

You have a point about the cinder blocks.... the car sat on those blocks for over 9 months and until recently everything was fine. But recently, after several weeks of heavy rain, the blocks started sinking into the ground and it became clear that it was no longer safe to be working under the vehicle. Since I was about finished working underneath anyway, on Friday I decided to start lowering it to the ground. It got lowered alright, but not the way I wanted it to. The instant the jack raised the left side off the blocks, the blocks on the ride side gave way and everything came crashing down. One side landed with the wheels on the ground but the other side landed on fallen blocks, denting the floor panel. It's nothing that I can't hammer out from the inside, but it's still frustrating. Given how wet the ground had become, I think it was inevitable.... I'm just glad I wasn't underneath it. I was uneasy about those blocks from the very beginning, but without the proper facilities I just didn't have a choice. If there's a next time, I don't think I'd leave a vehicle on blocks long enough for them to sink into the ground and create the same hazard. I don't intend to spend 9+ months on a project like this again anyway, unless it's in the safety (and comfort) of a decent garage.

Buy an old Jeep, anywhere from the World War Two era or into the 1950s, before they drastically changed the body style.I own a 1948 Willys Jeep I bought a few years ago for $300.00.The Jeep is worn out, has two burnt valves.Someday, I intend to restore my Jeep.There are places that sell parts for old Jeeps, such as

NEVER get under a car sitting on hollow concrete blocks. Not even a good idea with solid concrete blocks. Ramps and jackstands are cheap, or if they don't give you a warm fuzzy, visit the local sawmill and get some short pieces of wood cribbing, like house movers use.

One comment- make sure you paint over the filler if you're not going to paint the whole car for a while. Krylon in a spray bomb is fine. Also on the backside of the repaired panels make sure that has a good coat of paint and go over the welded seams with roofing tar or similar to make absolutely sure that no moisture can ever creep into the repair, because if it does, you'll have to do it all over again. Pay special attention to the wheel wells, make sure those are coated all over with paint/tar/whatever and there are no unsealed joints between panels. (weep holes for drainage excepted of course.)

Back in the day before I had a welder I rebuilt the area under the driver's door of my dad's (formerly my grandfather's) '73 Chevy pickup truck. Once I got everything about in shape, I crawled under the truck and where I'd bridged the floor to the inner rocker with some pop-riveted sheet steel (I know, I know) I just gobbed on the roofing tar with a putty knife and after it'd set sprayed some undercoating over it. This was 15-20 years ago and it still is holding today, so some driveway repairs done with some care can actually last a very long time.

Today I probably would have used Fusor or similar but it wasn't available back then, or at least I wasn't aware of it.

good luck

nate

This car is of sentimental value, as it's the last remaining vehicle from my childhood (the '75, 80, and '82 Civics we had are all long-gone, and all attempts to locate them have failed). If not for that I almost certainly wouldn't have bothered. I often say that sentiment and logic don't mix, and this definately proves it. The polyurethane bushings were a cost issue; I was unable to find any rubber bushing kits, and to have ordered all OEM bushings would have cost far more. Plus, the poly bushings are supposed to last much longer, which is good because I plan to keep this thing going for as long as I'm around. The engine is in great shape at 262k km, and shouldn't need rebuilding for a long time yet. My parents '99 Civic has 336k and is still going on the original engine....

Hit a hollow concrete block with a hammer and see what happens.If a hard part of your car is sitting on a concrete block, the same thing is Very Likely to happen.Don't trust your life to those kinds of blocks, it isn't worth it.Put something solid under your car, or use jack stands.Last week, I bought four new jack stands at the Lowe's store.They are rated at 3 tons each. cuhulin

I figured that if a block was going to break, it would do so immediately when the car was set on it. I don't doubt you regarding the safety issue but I've never heard of anyone being killed this way. I have however known of people who were killed when commercial vehicle lifts malfunctioned. How high can a jack stand go? I had these blocks stacked about 2 1/2 feet high, and even then it was hard to avoid hitting my head.