July 22nd, 2021 - A Drive Down Memory Lane

 July 22nd, 2021 - A Drive Down Memory Lane

Today I had a conversation on Facebook with a friend, another 'old timer' like me. We talked about our projects. It got me feeling a little nostalgic for the good old days with Project 88 -- when I was young and carefree and was able to spend gobs of cash on parts every week. 

I bought my first CRX in 1996. It was an '88 Si and it was in decent shape. Had 128,000kms on it and it was a local Vancouver car. I paid $6477 for it, and at 21 years old, it was my first "real" car, with payments and everything! I didn't know a bloody thing about cars. I didn't even know where to put the oil in it.

I didn't do much to the car. I had some trucker-girl mud flaps, and a fiend that worked for a sign shop made me some Seattle Sonics logos and a Dark Side of the Moon prism. 

In 1998 I went to the first annual BC CRX Meet. There were 23 CRXs at that meet and I was inspired by all the different things people did to their CRXs, and it was the first time I truly realized how customizable these cars are. Remember, this is pre-Internet (as we know it today). Someone at the meet told me about a magazine called Sport Compact Car.

The next week I went to a local magazine shop and asked if they had Sport Compact Car. Suddenly I found myself religiously buying Sport Compact Car, Hot Rod Honda, Turbo, Super Street, Import Tuner, Max Tuning and more every month. I had a list a mile long for my CRX. I wanted body kits - the more outrageous the better. I wanted block sleeves -- not sure why, I had no plans on forced induction, but they sounded cool. I wanted 18" wheels and decals and a custom interior. Hey, that was the style at the time.

I did read a one page article in Hot Rod Honda magazine that really piqued by interest. By this time I'd already learned that CRXs in different countries had some slightly different options than we got. In England there was a bulge in the hood (I did yet know about the ZC/D16A9 engine), and they had rear seats etc... But this article opened my eyes to a trend I didn't know existed: importing Japanese engines and front clips to swap into North American cars.

Fast forward to 1999 and a family emergency meant I had to move from Vancouver to Calgary. I packed up everything I owned into my CRX and made the 1000km trip over the Rockies from British Columbia to Alberta. 

I was fully loaded... I had enough room to see my passenger side mirror, and had enough room for me in the car. I sat on my pillow, had some cassettes behind my feet on the floor, and it was so packed it looked like I'd lowered my car. I would need all 95-ish of those horses to pull us through the mountain passes. 

I had packed:
all my clothes,
bedding,
pictures, 14" CRT TV,
VCR,
computer and CRT monitor,
six boxes,
4 struts and springs, 
sterero.
2 fully inflated basketballs and more...

And I still had my sub box and rear upper strut bar in the trunk!

I have more or less stayed in Calgary ever since. I started working for local parts stores (think: Napa, Canadian Tire). With my staff discount I started buying tools and supplies to start doing my own repairs and maintenance. 

One day one of my co-workers mentioned he had a customer at his workstation with a CRX. The customer and I got to talking and it turns out he had a "ZC Swap". I had no idea what that was. We went to the parking lot and he told me all about it, and told me about the local company he bought it from. 

It wasn't long after that I bought my very first engine swap: a DOHC ZC engine. 

I disconnected everything myself and with the help of a friend with an engine hoist we pulled the D16A6 engine and replaced it with the ZC. I de-pinned the two wires for the cylinder sensor and plugged them into the socket that came with the engine. I replaced the gaskets and seals, timing belt and water pump and re-used my L3 transmission with a new clutch and machined flywheel. 

After the engine was installed, I decided I needed the "ZC Hood" with the power bulge -- to let everyone know that this was no ordinary CRX. it was an "engine swapped CRX" haha

In the span of 3 years I went from not knowing where to add oil into my CRX to doing an engine swap. 

I was bitten hard by the JDM bug in the early 2000s. I bought my first new computer in 10 years because I wanted to source more parts from overseas and having a computer and an Internet connection, it would be much easier. 

Soon, almost all my extra cash went into sourcing parts on eBay from Europe and Japan. My specialty was buying several of the same broken parts (like an AirCon unit or power folding mirrors) for cheap, cobbling together and fixing them into one or two decent pieces. Or buying incomplete sets of things and making one or two complete sets and reselling. 

Where it really took off was when I started a job at Honda selling parts. I sold Special Edition centre consoles, decals, replacement fog light switches, Type R valve covers, and I even discovered that SuperSound speaker covers were available new in the box from Honda Canada and Honda of America. I bought all of the left-over inventory of the covers for both Type N and Type K interiors as well as just the emblems, and I sold them online for a hefty profit considering I was buying for 10% above dealer net. 

PARTS TO SELL

All this allowed me to fund my build and allowed me to amass quite the collection of OEM parts. 

Now that I was working for Honda, and realized that some parts may be available through Honda Canada and I could order them through the dealership, I called Honda dealers in England to get part numbers for the things I needed. I called every day for a week - and at first I thought they must have hated me, but I built up a rapport with one bloke I spoke to and he gave me his user name and password for the Honda Japan parts catalog online. 

I placed an order for a glass roof panel, headliner and map light via special order from Honda Japan via Honda Canada's special parts requisition for imported vehicles. I got my parts, but I also got in big trouble for putting in that order since there wasn't actually a Japanese car that needed these parts - they were going on my North American CRX. The president of Honda Canada Parts division even called my boss and had a conversation with him about it... I'm surprised I wasn't fired on the spot.

At one point, I even bought a black 1990 Si (my third CRX) to swap parts into my '88. Namely the rear disk brakes, prop valve, seats, dash and tail lights. After I bought it, I found it came with a complete OEM armrest - including brackets! Score! I had purchased an '87 as a daily driver and the '88 was permanently in the garage while I worked on her. Soon, the '87 was gone and I was back to two. 

The OEM parts continued to flow in every payday and the rare Japanese accessories kept coming whenever my PayPal account was flush with funds. At one point I had two Spoon instrument clusters (which I had to sell when my dog got sick), I ordered two pieces of glass for the glass top but both came in broken. My salvation was a local shop got a roof cut in stock and a friend called to tell me about it. I rushed over the next day and bought it. I ordered some Japanese headlights and i mistakenly bought EF8 headlights. I liked them so much I bought myself the hood and the rest of the front end swap to go with it. 

On one of my trips to Vancouver, I slipped down to Washington State to visit some auto wreckers and I managed to get a couple of Civic EX knuckles so I could put in some larger front brakes to accommodate the ZC engine swap and the B16A I had planned now that I had traded in my ZC hood for an SiR one. This trip to WA was the summer after 9/11 and the lines to cross the border were long. While waiting on line I recognized the guy in the Escalade with the 20" rims two lanes over. It was Sir Mix-A-Lot, my favorite rapper. Apparently he had performed at a show in Vancouver the night before. I went over to him and got his autograph. This was before cellphone cameras were a thing, so I couldn't get a selfie but it was a pretty good day.

So how did I end up with a Japanese CR-X?

It's a long story and I've covered it already in this blog. The short version is that it was going to cost a lot of money and time to get all my parts installed and also to install the glass roof and repair all the rust on Project 88. At the time, CRXs aren't as valuable as they are today, or I might have been tempted to keep it and put it back to stock and sell it. It was time to say good bye and move on. 

I've said it before, if I had to do it over again, I'm not so sure I'd import another CR-X. I don't want to get into the whole legality/safety debate around RHD vehicles. I have no regrets, but I've seen what others in Canada have had to go through with their JDM cars and Alberta, as recently as 2019, was talking about banning them from the roads. I'm hoping that whatever happens, my car will be grandfathered in. 

In case it's not I've managed to purchase some LHD headlights from Germany, and I'm using North American rear side tails (with reflectors) and until my switch to Password:JDM corners, I had North American corner lights with reflectors. I have spare doors with side impact beams, front and rear rebar, and a fuel filler neck with rollover valve. It's more of a hassle than anything else having the possibility hanging over my head.

I've had conversations with people over the years on Forums and on Facebook and occasionally they'll let it be known that they have the impression my car is "bought not built", and while that's somewhat true, I have paid my dues in many other ways. 

Would I do things differently if I could go back in time? No, not really. I might not have bought that FX Designs combat body kit, or all those APC H badges though. I guess the one thing I would do differently though, is that I would really soak it all in, and enjoy my time skipping class in college with my friend Barry and going on cruises along the strip in White Rock. I'd probably take advantage of more trips to the Twilight Drive-In theatre in Vancouver (Calgary's drive-in theatre blew up in an explosion in 1999 and was never rebuilt). 

Those were the good ol' days.

Remember, this blog was written in chronological order so, you will need to click OLDER POSTS to move forward in time, and click NEWER POSTS to go backwards.