Crappy wreck repair-- my turn to fix

[Veonik]

I bought a 1987 Honda CRX Si back in October. It was pretty clean, a little bit of rust damage, and the such, but being in Utah all its life and made in 1987, it was in good shape. Except for one thing. The rear driver's side quarter panel was fucked. I didn't notice how bad it really was until after I bought it. It looks like that whole side was crushed completely, then pulled back out in 15 minutes and spraypainted. The rear driver's side taillight is held on by wire and the structure (the chassis under the quarter panels) is shredded.

Anyways, I was thinking I could buy another scrapped 84-87 CRX, cut out the rear quarter panel, measure thirteen times, cut out my car, and weld/bondo/sand/bondo/fiberglass/etc/etc/etc until it looked like new. The damage on the chassis could be fixed with a small piece of steel to mount the taillight.

Should I do this or just scrap the car? The interior is nearly mint and the motor only has ~150k on it. I could transfer these over to another CRX in better shape, but I've grown fond of this car.


And to you LOL HONDARICE AMIRITE people, it's not rice I'll be keeping it pretty much stock, except for the motor and maybe I'll put a lip on it.

[f00ker]

What you are suggesting is difficult, cutting the 2 bodies, and putting them together will work, but if you dont have any body work experience, i'd leave it to a professional.

I would love to help you, I love old skool CRX's, but I'm in seattle.


edit: LOL HONDARICE AMIRITE


Put a d16a1 into there, and call it good

[Veonik]

Originally Posted by f00ker

Put a d16a1 into there, and call it good

I was actually thinking about doing that, and stripping the interior and just slap some fiberglass over the damage and autocross it. I love 1stgen crx's too and i'm definitely gonna get me another one, whether this works out or not.

[miasman1]

Body panel replacement is difficult, especially with quarter panels. You also need access to a spot welder and a MIG welder to get OE quality joints.

[Veonik]

Originally Posted by miasman1

Body panel replacement is difficult, especially with quarter panels. You also need access to a spot welder and a MIG welder to get OE quality joints.

My dad is a steel manufacturer so I have access to any welder I need, he'll probably even weld the joints for me. I also am taking Autobody class this semester at Highschool, so maybe I can ask the teacher about possible alternatives.

I think I could pull off fiberglassing the panel, but the rear has a slight ridge in the quarter panel, about 3 inches from the top of the hatch. The people who 'fixed' the car just rounded it out and didnt even finish pull the metal all the way back out. The bumper is screwed up too, so I'd have to fabricate the mounts for it. I think it'd be about the same difficulty to get the damaged panel to look OE again, whether I replace the panel or fiberglass and the like.

[Geotpf]

If it's holding together fine, why don't you just leave it as is and drive it like that until it blows an engine or something? Sounds like too complicated a repair to fix correctly on a car that age.

[kstokes]

You COULD transfer them over...

I own a '86 Civic HB 1.3L 2bbl carbed.. pretty damn similar car. hehe.

there's plenty of space under the hood, and they're really easy to work on overall. You could probably remove and install that engine in a solid day. Is yours EFI?

[Squeezer]

www.hondaautomotiveparts.com

[Veonik]

Originally Posted by Squeezer

www.hondaautomotiveparts.com

Yeah, except that the rear quarter panels are welded to the roof panel. You can't just go and buy a new one.

[ZMan]

you have pics of the damage? I can understand you wanting to fix it up..but sometimes you just gotta realize on a car that old..its not really worth it.

[Veonik]

Originally Posted by ZMan

you have pics of the damage? I can understand you wanting to fix it up..but sometimes you just gotta realize on a car that old..its not really worth it.

I've only got one pic of the damage, and it's not a very good one:

http://img148.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img1...scn02395ks.jpg
Note that my main concern is getting the ridge back. The damage isnt too bad but I'm betting that it's going to be pretty difficult to get the slight ridge that runs down the length of the car. Also, the chassis is actually damaged, but I have no pics of it. I'll try to get some tomorrow afternoon.

[Tex Arcana]

Why not sand the paint down, bondo the crap out of it, get it looking right, then repaint? Simpler and easier.

[Fraggster]

Originally Posted by Tex Arcana

Why not sand the paint down, bondo the crap out of it, get it looking right, then repaint? Simpler and easier.

because it will last about a year and look like shit.

[Tex Arcana]

Originally Posted by Fraggster

because it will last about a year and look like shit.

Not necessarily.. he could go an use lead filler instead...

[Veonik]

Originally Posted by Fraggster

because it will last about a year and look like shit.

Why would bondo not work? If i didn't go for replacing the entire panel, that's basically what I'd do, except use fiberglass over the back part and then bondo to smoothen it out, primer, then take to a propaint shop and have them fix all the other small dings (i'm weird like that, I'll swap motors but let someone else change the tranny fluid ) and paint it for me.

Also, I fixed my previous post so you can actually see the bigger pic.. I hate the new resize crap