Restoring a vx

[hondaguy72]

Not really a how-to so much as a project page. I acquired this beaten up vx a few months ago and want one that looks and runs like new. I'll keep a photo journal on progress. Currently the car is torn down pretty far down as it needed a drivers quarter panel and a new/rebuilt transmission. So far:

The car as it sits


Motor out to detail the engine compartment and swap transmissions


Getting ready for a new timing set and water pump. 180k and original belt in good shape


Many of the parts under the hood have poorly weathered so into the blasting cabinet they go

[TomO]

Oh man, let me know if you want some help. I can swing by just about any weekend, maybe our kids can play and we can talk shop and work on your car.

[suspendedhatch]

I love these kinds of threads.

[hondaguy72]

I may just need some help on that lower pulley bolt. It's getting on my nerves. I'll probably be dropping it back in and using the starter to break it loose. It'd be fun to have you out, Tom.

[Erik]

Crank pulley bolt- an air impact wrench should get it

Or you can hit the end of the socket handle with a quick hammer blow.

Some people have threaded a long rope into the cylinder through the spark plug hole to keep the engine from turning.

[hondaguy72]

I've got an impact tool and air gun which did not work. I really beat the piss out of the impact tool, too. I'm 6ft 210 and lift often, so I'm not under driving the tool. In the car at least I'll be able to crack it with the starter. With the zero balance pulley there is no place for a crank tool like on most Hondas. I have easy access to the tool, too. I'll get it with some work.

[TomO]

there is a tool made for the type of pulley that is in the VX, but not worth the $$$ to buy it, you can make it yourself or use a torch and heat up the bolt for a bit and try the impact on it again. I've used a chain wrench or strap wrench on the pulley as well to hold it during bolt removal.

[hondaguy72]

Here's what a battery powered toothbrush and Simple Green can do for plastic parts.


I started with tar remover on the wheels and decided that they needed more elbow grease than I was willing to invest. I found a local guy that sand blasted them completely. They will get silver on the front and I'll sand and clearcoat the inners.


New struts arrived yesterday and I already had the springs. I'll be blasting and painting the rear drums. Pictures to come after completion.

[suspendedhatch]

Do you have a BEFORE pic of the timing belt cover? Did it look just like the lower half? I find it hard to imagine that I could get mine looking that nice.

[hondaguy72]

That's the point. It looked damn near the same as the lower half. When I complete the lower half I'll post the picture.

The process is to spray the part and soak it in a diluted solution for an hour or so. A little help with the toothbrush and she comes out near perfect.

[Danronian]

I went through a near-restoration on my VX after I bought it too.

http://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1994784&page=1

With many 1/2 wit mods. and 238k miles mine needed a lot of attention too (though it did run well and had new paint).

Even now a year later I manage to keep the engine bay shiny clean (hard to do with it being my daily driver) minus a valve cover which likes to leak due to a cheap gasket on it.

Good luck with your restoration! Something I didn't do was strip and repaint my wheels. Hopefully in the future I will too.

[hondaguy72]

Thanks Dan.

More progress. Rear arms and struts are out, but bad news. All the bushings are completely shot and one arm looks just a little different than the other!


Looks like I'll be ordering a new set of rear lca's. Add it to my bill. At least the aluminum arms are lighter than the stockers by a couple pounds.

The color scheme isn't the keenest, but the products are quality. The Tein S springs are designed to work with stock struts, so the Tockico's should be fine.



Next up, front assemblies and rear drums blasted and painted, but that will have to wait until Friday night.

[Mr Incredible]

I made a tool to take off my lower pulley bolt.

I often use two wrenches to remove stubborn bolts. One on the bolt head and one on the nut. I put a wrench on the bolt head and let it turn until it stops against something solid. Then I turn the other wrench to get the nut off. That's the model.

I had some 1" square tubing laying around, so I drilled two holes in it about as far apart as two of the holes in the lower pulley. I then took two approx 3" bolts and bolted them through the tubing and through the pulley. I turned the socket on the bolt head until the tubing met an immoveable object. Then I really laid into it. Works like a charm. You could use flat stock if you wanted to, but I don't think anything wooden would be strong enough.

Putting the bolt back on and torquing it is the reverse process. The bolts were a LOT the worse for wear, but straightening them with a hammer worked just fine for the re-do.

Hope that helps.

[Nden]

damn gotta <3 that crank pulley bolt ..

[hondaguy72]

Well, I almost messed up. The transmission I picked up as a replacement was an LX trans, not okay. I've had some experience in going through these transmissions, so I'll go ahead and replace the ISB (input shaft bearing) which was making tons of noise. This probably isn't in the cards for most untrained mechanics. Opening the case I was very pleased to find very little wear and few shavings on the magnet. This car was obviously never driven hard. The synchros and shift forks are in excellent condition.


I've replaced one front strut assembly so far. Pictures will come when both are done. Thank god the lowering springs are so much shorter, as I have not found the correct tool for compressing the tiny springs on these cars. The lower mount isn't particularly willing to be removed from the strut as well. This may take longer than I hoped!

[TomO]

If you still need it, I have a spring compressor that works with Honda struts that you can borrow. Just let me know and I'll get it to you. I will be leaving town for Sioux Falls Friday afternoon and return sunday though.

[hondaguy72]

Thanks, Tom. I'm just letting the stock spring let loose. The Tein spring is short enough to engage the nut without a compressor. I'd guess the front drop is a bit more than the advertised 1.5"

[TomO]

Ok, then if you're doing that....place the strut/spring assembly between two wheels on the ground. Rim/tire (wheel) : Strut : Rim/tire (wheel) and then use the impact to loosen the strut nut as you stand on the wheels. This allows the assembly to come loose without the danger of the spring flying anywhere.

[Loserkidwac]

Looking good can't wait to see how it turns out!

[hondaguy72]

I've actually started and moved the car to the far garage stall after reinstalling the driveline. She's running very nice minus not having an O2 sensor. I'm contemplating converting the assembly over to the much more affordable bosch sensor with the accompanying correct connector. The connector is available through VW. I'll be getting into the body work in short order.

[TomO]

Thanks for the update! Just let me know if you would like a helping hand and I can come over.

[hondaguy72]

I will take you up on your offer sometime!

[suspendedhatch]

I launch the springs by temporarily mounting them to the upper perches in the rear, sitting inside the hatch, and popping off the top nut. The spring shoots downward and you have the unibody shield between you and the possible loss of an arm.

I picked up some stock spring/struts from the junkyard on half-off day. They only charged me for the struts so they came out to $7.5 a piece! Unfortunately though one of the struts was blown and the other two don't seem to be damping very well (rebound extremely slow). So I may get some KYB GR2's or something.

But I'll have to find a spring compressor and not amputate an arm in the process...

[hondaguy72]

Sorry for the lack of progress and pictures, but not too much has taken place. I've installed the fender and front cover for the trip to my body man. The newly installed O2 sensor is a perfect fit and the car is running like a top, at least around the neighborhood. Once fully warmed up the idle is a bit choppy, but I'm expecting that to clear up when I've run a few tanks of gas through the car.

[hondaguy72]

Finally, the car has moved to my bodyman's shop. The car was placed on jack stands and the wheels are off to paint. The rear quarters are in tough shape and need to be replaced. We marked the quarters for cutting.


Here are both sides cut.



The passenger side inner lip was rusted too far to be useful, so it was trimmed and cleaned. A new inner lip needed to be fabricated. We cut some 20ga steel and bent a 1" by 1" L channel. Here I am forming the lip with a shrinker/stretcher.

The trailing arm bushings and upper control arms were in poor shape, so out go the old.
Here's a picture of the new control arms with the rear out.

My body man made short work of cleaning up the areas where the panels will meet the quarter. We used a pneumatic stepping tool to make a low ridge where the panels will fit. Here are the areas ready for panels.


The new metal will be mounted with a 3M product #08115 known as panel bond.

[hondaguy72]

On the first ride out with the car the hood latch failed and allowed the hood to fly up, break the old windshield and ridge the roof. To take the ridge out I'm using a body spoon and hammer.

Since the incident I've installed a new hood latch so that never happens again. More shots to come of the body work in progress by next week end.

[hondaguy72]

More pictures to come of the body progress. It's getting very close to being mint. A while back I had the wheels sandblasted. I've finally had the tires removed (which will be replaced with some LRR tires). After checking around for a good deal on powder coating I finally gave up. Either they were too expensive ($200 plus for the set) or three hours away round trip. I settled on the cheap way out, painting. It does not mean that the results are not good, though. I chose Duplicolor's wheel coating in stock silver. I was really torn between going with graphite or stock silver. Silver is what I chose, to stay with the original intent of the project. Here are my results.


Two of the wheels had pretty good size bends which I was able to straighten with a body hammer and dolly. No cracking was evident after the work. Even though the sandblasting took off most of the poor finish and road tar each wheel still took a good half hour of sanding and cleaning. The bead area on three were pitted pretty badly but sanding them took most of the pitting out. Total costs were; removing tires $20, sandblasting $80, sandpaper and acetone $6.50, primer and paint $25. The Duplicolor cans are quite large. I only used about 1 and a half for all wheels, inside and out.

[TomO]

Looking good I can't wait to see the body pics, and maybe swing by someday to see it in person/help out.

[hondaguy72]

The car is up in Coon Rapids right now, pretty close to you. I'll PM you when I know when I'll be going back up to block the car.

[hondaguy72]

Jack the body man really has the project a long ways. Here's some pictures of the progress:
The quarters are test fitted


Patches were made for areas that were too rotted to save



continued