Well, I'll start this post off by giving you a big, well, deserved pat on the back.
The work that your shop is capable of, is absolutely amazing. As its already been noted, there's not many places left in the *WORLD* that are capable of this sort of thing. The passion that comes through in your post, would appear to me, be the passion that allowed you to build such a shop and such a successful living. You answered wreckedracing's question on how the shop came to life without even needing words - it obviously came to life through great hard work and dedication and it shows.
Thank you very much for your great words here... yes, it does take a certain level of passion to be able to even -want- to do a project like this. I'm thankful for the opportunity to be involved with such a detailed and 'deep' project, and i am thankful that the owner of the car chose to come to me for this work.
I think that you had to have an idea that something was up with the rear of the car, before it was media blasted. I'm not bodyshop expert, but when I came upon this thread and read the first description and viewed the first pictures, I somehow knew that the car had to have hidden demons. If this was a Northeast car, or a car that has seen snow and salt, it had to be rusted. Its my hypothesis that not one honda rear quarterpanel from this era, up until about 1995, survived. Its just impossible.
LoL.... there have been SOME 1/4 panels that survived... hehe. Actually, we knew going into the project what demons there were. I'm presenting stuff in a 'as we go' manner, but for instance, the first clue of something wrong with the drivers-side was that it had an aftermarket fender on it, not a factory. Next clue was the very crappy door-skin replacement. Third, was of course when we hit it with a DA sander, and noticed that bondo was under everything
As for the passenger side, we didn't know how extensive a repair was done of there, but we knew that something had been done. The inside sill of the rear hatch had a 'smoothed out' section where they used filler and whatever to cover the new seam they made when they replaced the 1/4.
So yes, we knew it had inner demons... but onward we pressed, regardless. The one thing that was not known, was the extent of the A-pillar damage... thats still an 'unknown' of sorts.
Maybe they just slapped so much mud and shit onto the car that it was covered, but it still was hard to find the seams on the new quarterpanel.
Yes.... it IS possible to polish a turd
Onto the owner of the car. He obviously has a love for hondas or just too much money. Whatever the case may be, lucky him.
He has a definite love for Honda's, and CRXs mainly... of course it does help to have the finances to do such work, so its a little bit of both. Definitely the MOST deserving individual i know of to have this done. I'm proud to be able to help him accomplish this dream.
At this point in the game, I don't understand why his engine work is so mild if he's already spending and pumping so much money into the car.........completely ported, polished, and built engine should be going into this car. Overbored and sleezed engine, oversized pistons, better rings, ported and polished head, upgraded valve train, racing radiator, etc. I can't see this car not seeing a complete N/A crate motor along with a custom turbocharger kit.
I understand the thought, but i'm not exactly sure where you think the motor is going to be "mild"... hehe. Yes, it'll be N/A... Yes, it'll be running on pump gas, but that is for practicality purposes, not because he wants to keep it mild. The engine is a TSX K24 being completely (and i mean COMPLETELY) redone by Brad at RLZ Engineering in NC (AEBS sleeves, overbore, complete headwork, etc) It'll be running 54mm Hayward ITBs, and have a very very sick exhaust setup, using a Burns ultra-lightweight muffler.
I dunno whats mild about that, but if thats mild, i'd be scared to see what "not-so-mild" is... hehe.
OEM replacement stuff? Ha, from stainless steel brake lines to carbon fiber valve carbons and custom bezzled dash to
How about a complete carbon fiber overlay for the dash, a carbon fiber center console, custom seats, other random custom interior items, UKDM VTi Gauge Cluster, Momo steering wheel, blah, blah, blah... it will have stainless lines going from the OEM hard-lines to the brake calipers... the front brakes are complete aftermarket Wilwood components...
There's just too much money into the thing, to not go for the throat and get everything.
Well, just remember, the owner wants a $40,000 CRX, NOT a $140,000 CRX
Heck, at this point, if *I* were the owner, I'd be doing a RWD or AWD conversion so the car could compete with porsche's and exotics - by the time its completed, its going to be on the price level of other exotics.
And not to worry, with what is being done to it motor-wise, it'll definitely be able to run with them anyway, without the rwd/awd conversion
keep the shit to yourselves.
yea we're too damn lazy to say the whole thing i guess
I say good job so far bondo or not save that rex its going to look AWESOME when done I will keep an eye on this thread for sure for the progress of it.Keep it up man.
