Bye Bye Hatch :( equal new project :)

[Loserkidwac]

Well, I haven't been around here for a little while just been busy lately...well on May 20th my VX hatch had its life cut short, on my 25th B-day too, some girl turned in front of me going threw and intersection and i had no time and no where to go...here's the results





Well I had to move on, I've been searching for another VX hatch and 40+mpg but finding anything reasonable was far and few between, so I started seeing what else was out there since I bought my hatch back and figured I'd just swap my VX motor into something...well after searching for a few weeks, I came across something in my ideal price range and snagged in asap... so here she is a 94 Del Sol S...auto but not biggie since I have all the parts in my hatch for the 5 speed conversion








Of course there is no chance that I could let this thing sit so I ripped out the interior since it was filthy and the drains for the rear window were clogged so i needed to get to those to clear them up,




bye bye carpet


this thing was filthy


So all the plastics got scrubbed down and cleaned the whole inside of the car is getting cleaned next, I removed all the extra wiring that seems to be in used hondas lol and once I receive the conversion mount the VX (D15z1) swap is going in...gonna try and clean and possibly wire tuck the engine bay while I'm waiting...

My Koni Yellows and GCs from my hatch along with my HX wheels will be going on the car soon too..future plans are to hit 50mpg :mrgreen:



Well I impressed myself here lol first 2 days I had the car and it is almost completely gutted, the inside metal got clean some surface rust i wire brushed and painted over, the auto pedal set is gone, the auto gear selector is gone and I dropped the motor, here are the pictures...progress will be a little slow now I need to start ordering up some parts, engine bay cleaning and detailing along with the suspension is about the only things I can do, I'm gonna wait to put the interior back in untill the swap is done, just makes things a little easier...here are the pics...






I started removing everything on the firewall and along the sides... gonna try and figure out some of the wiring for the VX and tuck as much of the harness as I can to clean things up and of course clean the crap out of this dirty engine bay...I'm also gonna swap the manual steering rack from the civic into the sol..figured its a little extra weight gone and a little less drag on the motor...plus I have it might as well lol...well here are some pics

The old D15 and auto are history

Me wrenching away






Did a little more, pulled the rear lower cross member with the steering rack out to make room for the manual rack from my VX and then tried to scrub some dirt out of the engine bay...looks like I'm gonna need to put a little more elbow grease into it lol...also started to look at how I am gonna tuck the harness...a couple pics...






This is where the Sol stands now, this weekend I am hoping to get some time to rip the civic apart and the motor suspension and steering rack plus 5 speed swap items out, mostly all my new parts have arrived so I just need to get down and dirty with the rebuild now, thanks for looking guys...Matt

[GasSavers_bigrod]

Wow you work fast!! But it looks like the VX is still reparable, just judging from the pics, I could be wrong. Was the frame damaged? Looks like it needs new front sheetmetal, bumper, radiator support and pull the sides a bit. VX's are just hard to find and hate to see a good car go to scrap.

Goodluck on the new project, looks like you're off to a good start.

[Loserkidwac]

Originally Posted by bigrod

Wow you work fast!! But it looks like the VX is still reparable, just judging from the pics, I could be wrong. Was the frame damaged? Looks like it needs new front sheetmetal, bumper, radiator support and pull the sides a bit. VX's are just hard to find and hate to see a good car go to scrap.

Goodluck on the new project, looks like you're off to a good start.

yea i got a new toy and a big check from the insurance company so I got busy with it right away, waiting for all the parts to come in sucks lol...

Unfortunately the civic is pretty heavily damaged I was doing 40ish when the girl turned in front of me, the motor is pushed back an inch or 2 the driver side frame rail is bent over just about to the exhaust manifold and the pass side has a nice bend outward too...I'll be selling the shell if anyone is interested for interior or other parts off it but I doubt it would be worth the repair to make it road worth again...maybe someone could give it a tube frame front and make a drag car?

The AC torque mount snapped in half, trans side rubber ripped out, my O2 snapped off the manifold (that one sucks but I have a spare) hoping the drivers mount is ok cause I have brand new mounts for all the others, might just grab an insert if needed...

I've ordered all new control arms front and back, new trailing arm bushings, new tie rods and ball joints, have a complete gasket kit and new exedy clutch , all new coolant lines and rad hoses coming from honda, new fuel filter, Sol already has a new rad in it, new water pump and timing belt...the list goes on, can't wait, the car should pretty much be brand new when I'm done other then some body work but I'm not concerned at this time with it, rather have an awesome MPG car then a spotless shell

[suspendedhatch]

Wow, this is your introduction post?! Nice work. I love how small the Del Sol is and always wanted to see what could be done since it has less surface area than the VX. I think the back window kills it aerodynamically but I wonder if something like vortex generators could unlock the potential of the small chassis.

[smccall]

Sorry to hear about the VX. Happy to hear to about the Del Sol. I always wanted to get one and still might if I see a super deal on one. Will you be parting out anything on the VX. I needed the rubber striping thats around the rear windows.

[R.I.D.E.]

Here is some irony for you. I bought a red 94 VX hit in the rear and totalled with 27,492 actual miles on it, and sold my 94 Del Sol, which was black.
7000 miles on the rebuilt VX and 59 MPg average.

Sold the Del Sol with 150 k miles for $3500.

My VX still has the original tires with about 15 k miles left on them. The only parts that have been replaced are the air filter and wiper blades.

regards
gary

[maxxgraphix]

Sweet swap! Sucks that it was a loss, however you made lemonaid when you were handed lemons. Hondas are so easy to work on. I wouldn't let go of that D15Z1 either. I'm working on my Passat now. It's a pain compared to a Honda.

[Loserkidwac]

Originally Posted by suspendedhatch

Wow, this is your introduction post?! Nice work. I love how small the Del Sol is and always wanted to see what could be done since it has less surface area than the VX. I think the back window kills it aerodynamically but I wonder if something like vortex generators could unlock the potential of the small chassis.

I bought my VX off of a member on here and had just been reading stuff not really posted but i figured a lot of people on here might like to see my new project since its planned to be a nice clean DD with a decent MPG goal...I am interested in seeing what I can do aerodynamically to see some gains, grill block is first step and maybe a belly pan but after that I have some researching to do...

Originally Posted by smccall

Sorry to hear about the VX. Happy to hear to about the Del Sol. I always wanted to get one and still might if I see a super deal on one. Will you be parting out anything on the VX. I needed the rubber striping thats around the rear windows.

Once, I am done picking away at the VX I am gonna see if anyone locally is interested in the whole thing since it has a decent interior but if not i'm going to be parting it out, I'll get back to you if I go that route...

Originally Posted by R.I.D.E.

Here is some irony for you. I bought a red 94 VX hit in the rear and totalled with 27,492 actual miles on it, and sold my 94 Del Sol, which was black.
7000 miles on the rebuilt VX and 59 MPg average.

Sold the Del Sol with 150 k miles for $3500.

My VX still has the original tires with about 15 k miles left on them. The only parts that have been replaced are the air filter and wiper blades.

regards
gary

Lol wow that is very ironic, congrats on the great find! I was at the beach this weekend and saw a pretty clean completely stock VX...made me miss mine

Originally Posted by maxxgraphix

Sweet swap! Sucks that it was a loss, however you made lemonaid when you were handed lemons. Hondas are so easy to work on. I wouldn't let go of that D15Z1 either. I'm working on my Passat now. It's a pain compared to a Honda.

I acctually have the motor in my VX plus a spare motor and trans, the spare is the one thats getting all the new parts and going into the Del sol, supposedly has less miles on it then my VX did so some freshening up and into the Del Sol...Hondas are way to easy to work on VW are the devil...lol I am not a fan, a 17 year old girl and her 2006 jetta ended my VX's life short...


Thanks for all the compliments guys, just picked up a new dash and manual cluster, old dash had some marks on it and now I won't have to stare at P,1,2,D,R lol all so all of my parts seem to be here other then the tool i bought to do the rear trailing arm bushings but I have a lot to do till I get to them anyways! should have some updates for you soon...Matt

[Loserkidwac]

Well Been waiting for parts and it seems like mostly everything is here now :mrgreen:



On my way home from the Beach today I stopped and picked up a new dash since mine had some marks and crap on it...what I didn't realize was it must be from a 93 since it dosen't have the pass airbag... I'd like to keep it but the underside looks to different for me to try and mount it, I guess I'll just take the weight savings for now till I can figure something out...maybe swap the dash skins?





The dash also included a cluster from a 5 speed so now I don't have the auto crap in the center too :wink:

Since I had the dash out I figured I'd remove the blower and the AC unit...looks like I'm gonna pull the dash out of the VX and swap the non-AC box into the Del sol, give me a chance to clean the filters and stuff there were some leaves and crap in the Del sol box





Thats all for now, tomorrow I have some time so I either will start ripping into the VX or countinue to clean the sol and wire tuck it...Matt

[Loserkidwac]

I suggest every Civic/Del Sol owner clean out there blower...if you don't have AC its really simple, remove the glove box and the bracket behind it then there is 2 screws holding the passage between the blower and the heater core, then there are 4 or 5 holding the blower in, I needed a swivel to get one but i'm sure you could get it without but not as easy, once you get those out it drops out pretty easy and you don't need to remove the dash...I took it apart and hosed it out and cleaned it really good...there was about 2 hand fulls of leaves in it and even after spraying it with the hose the paper towels I used to dry it were black...can't believe I was breathing that crap in...yuck!!