Honda CRX RALLY CAR Build


J Male

Rally EK9/crx build
Joined
Sep 2, 2009
Messages
98


Hi! and welcome to my project thread :D

Firstly to introduce myself as I haven't been posting much. I am Josh Male, I live in Somerset and am 23 years of age! I have always been into my cars and after buying a Honda I wouldn't go back! I own 3 Hondas although only my daily ep3 actually is driveable :oops:

I have wanted to build my own rally car for many years I have finally decided to have a go. I am reshelling my civic rally car into a crx. I am hoping to have it finished by next year and am aiming at competing in stage rallies and hill climbs in the south west. I chose the crx as I wanted to stay 1600cc class and to keep costs down I can swap many of my civic parts over (engine, gearbox, suspension etc) and had to be a Honda!






These two pics above are the last rally I competed in and where the car sits now. On that event I won the class and finished 5th overall out of 90 or so cars. I am hoping to continue the success of the civic and possibly improve!:nerv:





This is how the car looked when I bought it for £700 (I think was a little while ago) like most crxs the project started with the usual arch and sill repair. luckily the shell was in very good condition and only needed one arch and sill. The car had done 140k miles so all of the bushing will be replaced. There wont be many crx parts left on the car when its done :roll:







A replacement panel was welded in and then epoxyed to protect from rust. This was the first time doing this kind of body work and I am pleased with how it turned out. I then set about filling and smoothing the repair but don't have any pics of this







After the arches and sills were repaired the next mission was to remove all of the underseal. This took a huge amount of time and is something that I would never want to do again! while the shell was bare the seams were seam welded (stitched) to strengthen the car. I coated the bottom of the car with epoxy primer.

WIRING LOOM


While the car was away for the roll cage o be fitted I attacked the wiring loom removing what is not needed. fingers crossed it will work, I bought a spare loom just incase. The pic above shows all the wires that I have removed



I decided to start collecting parts, I bought the suspension parts I needed to make sure that I can fit the proflex suspension off of my civic.

Began cleaning up a few of the bits I have removed

Jenvey ITBS







Few parts waiting to be fitted



crx Honda parts




After a long wait the cage was fitted. It looks a bit overkill for the size of car but better to be safe than sorry :wink:








The seat mounts are welded into the car to allow the seat to be as low and central as possible. I have more room between me and the bars in this car than I did my civic. One issue with this I overlooked was the gearstick position. The stick was too far away to reach so I removed the plate and cut a section out of the tunnel further into the car to move the linkage back toward the driver. Luckily the civic linkage looks to have the same angles but is longer so may fit otherwise the crx linkage will be extened






cage triangulation to keep the car rigid



Cage was connected to the strut tops. Wont be needing to use a strut bar brace!










I decided to fit a pedal box and do away with the assisted braking. The pedal box is mounted to the car and as the seat position cannot be moved the unit is adjustable to bring it closer/further away.I will run braided lines to the brakes, and hydraulic handbrake assembly which I need to find room for.



It also has a balance bar adjuster to allow the change of braking to front/back



The next step is painting! I am currently working on this. After having quotes of £3500 to paint the car inside and out I thought it was now time to learn how to spray :D At the end of the day it doesn't matter what it really looks like as I will plaster it with stickers

All the pics were taken with ipod/iphone, was surprised how bad quality some of them were which is why the pics are so small!


More to come!
 
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Thanks for the comments guys :) might be a while before it finally gets finished!


The chap who did the roll cage was Ian harding, he is based near shaftsbury and builds /fits cages. He also designed and fitted the seat mounts, his work is very good and reasonable price.
 
Awesome, I think you bought a quick rack from us not long ago :)
 
Congrats on your position in the rally! Thats awesome. Rallying looks like tonnes of fun! Why are u changing to the crx? Fancy a change or did u want to start again and build a better car?
 
Congrats on your position in the rally! Thats awesome. Rallying looks like tonnes of fun! Why are u changing to the crx? Fancy a change or did u want to start again and build a better car?

Thanks :) yeh just wanted to try something new, my civic was brilliant and honestly its going to be a tough job to beat it. Ive always wanted to build my own car after buying my civic already prepared. Also there is getting to be more and more civics in competition so I wanted something a bit more unique!
 
The floor primer got a bit burnt after the welding!


I removed the primer that had been burnt and blistered from the heat and re coated



I then started on mocking up the interior to try and get all of the drilling/cutting done before the inside is painted. Welded some brackets to hold the clocks up. This is probably the only piece of interior trim going back in!





:nice:
 
What you've done so far looks good,
Look forward to seeing more
 
Thanks for the comments :)

Started cleaning up and working on the subframes. The steering rack frame had quite a lot of surface rust which was removed and painted







Finally got round to priming the engine bay. I left spraying the bottom bar as I still need to work out where the brackets for the radiator have to be welded once the engine is in.





Also while I was at it I epoxy primed the rear quarter that had been repaired to seal it



The tintop roof I had welded onto the car had a nasty matt black respray. Im not sure what kind of paint it was as it was very rubbery to remove. The aerial hole was welded up and then filled.

 
Back too it!



Roof primed, surprised by how many dings where on the roof but it cant be seen in the photo

Finished up the engine bay, first time spraying properly happy with the result! a couple runs but in places that cant be seen and no reactions yet in the paint! :nice:







 
Looking great so far mate, and too many civics? Just too many white ones ;)
 
Looking great so far mate, and too many civics? Just too many white ones ;)
Thanks Ben, yeh your right white just doesn't cut it anymore need more colour!

Coming along nicely! Cant wait for it to get the engine in and panels on

yeh me too! looking forward to bolting things in for the last time, god knows how many times ive been test fitting things!
 
Got the suspension bolted up, its not the finished article as waiting on some integra lca to arrive which will hopefully widetrack the car slightly and give me negative camber on the ek hubs!



Dropped the engine in, wasn't much of a problem as the mounts for the engine are basically the same, but the gearbox was a different story. Had a mount welded up to fit the gearbox and there is very little clearance so may have to persuade it a bit with a hammer ;) ITBs fit though which was a worry at first as the engine bay is a bit tighter than the civic!



 
thanks, heres a pic of the gearbox clearance (excuse the scratches need to sort them out!)


 
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