Need Advice: Project Honda/Acura: Under $2000

[rh77]

Need help.

*I can buy a project car for $2000 or under.
*It has to be a Honda or Acura
*What model, in your opinion can be bought for this price, operate reliably, and be modified for super-efficiency.
*Manual Transmission is abso-freakin-lutely required. :-)

RH77

[SVOboy]

CRX HF stock 50+
You can get one rust free for 2k or less, if you don't mind a little body work you can pick them up for as little as 500.

88 CRX HF only weighs 1819 pounds, which is ****ing awesome.

Not to mention they have great (.29) Cd and the d15z1 is a straight swap.

[rh77]

My friend bought an HF project car to drop in an LS engine or B16 in there (since the weight is so low). Stock engine blew up and it sat. He sold it -- I knew I should have bought it, but I lived in an apartment with no extra parking, and no cheap way to store it. I'll do a search -- I was thinking of that. I hear they handle pretty well too (for fun of course) -- but are the sway bars pulled for weight?

RH77

[SVOboy]

I doubt the sway bars are pulled, but it ain't hard to make new ones. Mine weighs like 2100 and I can take a 90 degree corner at 40, so

[rh77]

I did a quick car search on Cars.com and the only HF in the United States is a modded one, overpriced, and is in the Dallas area.

RH77

[SVOboy]

Shut your mouth. There's prolly 200 for sale right now.

[MetroMPG]

there are a bunch of them on autotrader.com

[Matt Timion]

Truth be told the most cheap honda EFs are found locally in newspapers or other local listings. Often times you'll just see one on the street. If I were you I'd look for one with a broken engine and then you can swap in the d15z1.

It's worth looking for a HF model though, as you'll already have the ultra high geared transmission.

[krousdb]

Originally Posted by Matt Timion

Truth be told the most cheap honda EFs are found locally in newspapers or other local listings. Often times you'll just see one on the street. If I were you I'd look for one with a broken engine and then you can swap in the d15z1.

What's an EF?

Originally Posted by Matt Timion

It's worth looking for a HF model though, as you'll already have the ultra high geared transmission.

I drove a few hundred miles to look at a 91 CRX HF that was on ebay. It had 180k miles on it, the body was in good shape, not great, but missing some trim pieces. The interior was preety bad. I took it for a test drive and found the settring very loose, the cv joints going bad, an unknown thunking sound and a noisy engine.

The guy told me the reserve was $1500 before I drve up to see it. I was prepared to pay that much but after driving it told him that I would only bid up to $1000. He told me that HF's were in high demand because of thier light weight and that he was certain the he would get $1500 for it. He did.

[SVOboy]

What's an EF?

It refers to the part of the VIN that describes the body code. 88-91 civics and crxs are all EFs (though that's only in Japan, in the US they are technically EDs).

He told me that HF's were in high demand because of thier light weight and that he was certain the he would get $1500 for it. He did.

True it is, true it is. You've just gotta keep your ear to the ground for a deal, I see them all the time.