Sea Jay's 1989 Civic Wagon - Baltimore, MD
seajay3
Band Wagon
A little about myself:
I started my passion for cars at a young age while hanging out with my Grandfather. He's an old school V8/Hot rod guy so of course I too wanted a big V8 car of my own. My first car was an Automatic v6. Fast forward to 2010 just out of high school and long days waiting tables at Cracker Barrel, I made my first big purchase. A 2001 Mustang BULLITT #5118. Is was a great car but I found myself getting bored of the car after a few years. In that time I met my good friend, Paul. He owns a beautiful 35xt clone named P-Nut. Paul expanded my knowledge into the Honda "Tuner" scene and most importantly the 88-91 civic chassis. I was hooked! For whatever reason I was stuck on the Wagon chassis. The goofy yet functional trim was the best of both worlds. And boy was it a blast to drive and put a smile on my face no matter the day. To this day I have owned three wagons, one being RT4WD. I've owned a handful of other cars from a C5 ZO6 to a 68 VW Beetle. But none of them were as much fun as my wagon. One last bit of information, my friends and I raced in the 24 Hours of Lemons in 2018 at New Jersey Motorsports Park. This was my second time racing Lemons but the first time racing my own car with my group of friends. As you can see below we raced an EF hatch with an imported Vtec ZC and 4 Speed STD trans. The car did amazing but the trans had to go. It now has an Si trans. To learn more about the car follow CharmCityRicers on Instagram or visit https://charmcityricers.com/
P-NUT (35XT)
Honda Day, Charlotte, NC 2015 - With all the OG Sedan guys. (Paul, John, and Jon)
My buddy Jonathan's Shuttle
Paul, Blue wagon(#1) and Jonathan's bagged 2WD
Comments
Enough life talk, lets get to the Wagon!
This was the First Blue 2WD Wagon with RT bumpers (It was t-boned)
Picked up a Second 89 2WD off Ebay for $850 (I saved the crashed wagon and sold it to a friend in Tennessee)
Multi-Point Swapped the new wagon in 2015
Picked up the lower second on an armrest from Bill Reddick. I routed out the top section and re-covered it with extra seat material. (Note the Drivers seat is from a 90-91 that I pulled from the passenger size)
Decided it needed more flair ( Circa 2016)
Paul (Fox Designs) Helped me come up with the window shapes for the lover livery. This rode like crap and was shortly installed on 4wd suspension that was previously on it.
MANY MANY YEARS LATER
YEAR 2020 - I just finished rebuilding an E36 M3 project, sold the car in October and decided it was time to give the wagon some love and document the build. The car was supposed to be a "Cheap" Drift Car that turned into something way nicer than I was expecting.
BEFORE - $500 M3 With a clean title (Airbags never deployed)
I had some fun with it as originally intended.
A few days before I sold it
AND NOW!
I picked up another wagon from NY. Its an 89 RT with all but the trans and rear trailing arms missing. It came with a TON of extra parts all in the picture. It's a perfect parts car to make mine perfect and hopefully help others save their wagons. ITS SUPER DUPPER RUSTY!
Picked up EDM ZC Single Bulb level adjusting headlights
That's about all I have for now. Next steps are disassembly and a TON of body work.
I'm slowly making YouTube videos of the process. (See Below for Episode 1 and 2)
ENJOY!!!
CJ
Also made another batch of hang tags for Paul!
OH Yeah! And I picked up a new Daily Driver last year, 2003 Element 4WD.
I installed Nissan Skyline GTS-T Wheels on it with some A/T tires
I had to paint the nasty center caps too!
For some reason they squat super hard in the rear (Up to -2' of camber) especially with the bike rack installed so I added a Shim kit from HRG.
And I added an OEM Wind deflector.
THATS IT! WAGON CONTENT FROM HERE ON OUT!
Cheers!
CJ
Took the wagon out for a cruise to meet up with a few EF sedan buddies.
Don’t mind the dust, this thing hasn’t been cleaned in years! That will change soon, don’t you worry!
this is awesome so many years with so many cars/stores, i already follow you on IG and youtube. keep up the great work waiting for updates
Thanks buddy! I recognize that car! I’m happy you’re enjoying the progress of the wagon! I’m just happy to start focusing my time on one project. This will be a fun one!
CJ
sounds good can't wait, also love the Ef Hatch
Lookin good!
@arries289 Thanks buddy!
ahhhh yeah! In for this re-build/clean up!
@BillBoard Yeah buddy!
It’s been a while but I’m back! I was out of pocket working on house projects. Now to get into the good stuff!
Picked up a Jackson racing supercharger. I’ve wanted one of these for too long now.
I'm also on the hunt for an HKS Sport Exhaust system. I've called everywhere and they're all on backorder. Any connections would be huge!
That's it for now!
Can’t wait for updates, a supercharger that’s going to sound great I’ve always wanted one but can’t find any complete or broken. I have a HKS exhaust that I have for my wagon but not installed just yet, love the double tips
After a very long wait, the Third Episode of the wagon build is up! Enjoy!
It’s been almost exactly a year of owning the JRSC and the day has come to install it. (life has been busy) I picked up a d16z6 and had planned on using that motor in the wagon. I quickly realized how bad I wanted to get the supercharger running with the least amount of downtime possible. So I decided to install it on the stock d15 that’s been reliable ever since I converted it to MPFI back in 2015. I’m waiting on an AN to 12mm Banjo adapter to start the car for the first time. The install with wiring and plumbing took a few days. For now I’m going to run the car with the D16a6 ecu then convert it to OBD1 and run Hondata that I recently picked up. Im trying to keep this project as simple as possible.
Dude, I am so excited to see how this works and how much power you get from it!
@Tadas According to this Jackson Racing brochure about 140hp.
https://www.jrponline.com/downloads/catalogs/jackson.pdf
All in all I’m getting very close to being able to drive it hard with no hiccups. I’m in the process of converting the car to OBD-1 to run Hondata. The only part I need is the non v-tec distributor. I will then need to install the new Injectors and fuel pump. As of now I’m running stock a6 injectors and probably the original fuel pump. My buddy also gave me the old FMU that was an option with this kit. I don’t plan on running it but I threw it on to see what it would do. Before the car drove just like it did when it was N/A but as soon as you got into it, it threw a CEL for the MAP sensor and felt very sluggish. I’m assuming it doesn’t know what to do with the added air. I’m also running the smaller high boost pulley which doesn’t help my current situation. After installing the FMU, the car actually wanted to pull but still threw the code. That was fun while it lasted shortly before converting it to OBD-1. I’ll report back as soon as I install the distributor and give it a go on the stock p28 ECU. I already have Hondata but I’m curious to see what the car does/reacts through different stages as I’ve been told by many that this setup ran with no issues right out of the box.
Heres the current state after some new coilovers and installing the ATS Cups.
A few updates:
Installed new/used Skunk2 coilovers. I really wanted FortuneAutos as I’ve religiously run them on all my cars. With the new price tag of the “entry level” 500 series ($1,934 shipped) I couldn’t wrap my head around making it happen. Instead I paid $400 for lightly used Skunk2’s conveniently stored in a FortuneAuto box. Was able to do some wagon/girlfriend bonding which is always a win/win!
Next up was finishing up wiring the new deatschwerks 420cc Injectors and Walbro 255 fuel pump. Everything went smoothly on that end and I even had my buddy test/clean the injectors before I installed them. I wrapped the door of his 1,200hp CRX while he ran the injectors through his injector cleaner.
My same friend (Austin) that cleaned my injectors helped me street tune the wagon. The process went extremely smooth. The car feels amazing, makes all the noises and actually gets out of its own way! We were giggling after the first 1-3rd gear pull.
That lasted a solid 24 hours until I made the attempt to take a trip to the grocery store. It immediately threw a CEL for the TDC sensor. I blamed the cheap Amazon distributor and bought a new one from NAPA. I’m a firm believer of OEM but they’re unattainable and I really wanted to get the car running ASAP. The NAPA was a re-manned unit and actually had a Honda “tec” coilpack, sensors, and wiring harness. The only thing that was aftermarket was the assembly itself and the ignitor. After replacing the distributor the CEL returned. I then went to the ECU and wiring. The wiring checked out although I wasn’t feeling great about the cheap ECU jumper. I traced the wires and they all had continuity. I swapped ECU’s and the CEL disappeared. The P28 Hondata installed ECU was OLD so I’m not surprised it gave up on me. I then reached out and found a guy locally that could swap the Hondata board into my working P28 ECU. Thank you @PopPopsGarage for arraigning the repair and squeezing in a bike ride and a little bit of show and tell!
Now we wait until the new ECU is repaired.
@seajay3 Great updates, I’m with you with going with a different suspension cause the price almost being $2k for suspension is mind blowing (to me that is)
never fails with the distributor going bad, I never had an ECU go out on me like that, that’s great @PopPopsGarage helped you out with someone to fix the ECU.
How did the wagon feel with the supercharger in it ?
@Vtec_Shuttle I happy that they’re progressing. I owned their Gen 1 coilovers when no one knew who they where and they were $1,200 for the entry level 500 series. This was for my Miata and I just wanted it to handle like a spec Miata but better.. and it did. Long story short I ended up upgrading to the 510 series with swift springs and at that price point per performance it was worth the money. For the wagon it just doesn’t make sense. Honestly progress has been my favorite coilover on the comfort level.
Andy definitely saved the day and we were able to hang out so it was a win/win. The ecu was VERY old so I’m not surprised it blew up. We were also testing launch control which could have upset the computer since it was sitting for so long.
The car feels perfect. Yet again, I’ve only had one night to rip it up and down the near by highway but it’s exactly what I was expecting but maybe a little faster. It’s not a rocket but the sounds it makes and how much it woke up the old d15(remember my car has been MPFI converted) it’s amazing. Feels like twice as much power. It pulls harder throughout the entire powerband and I can already tell I’ll need new pads and rotors. Again, it’s not earth shattering but in my opinion it’s the best performance combination for the period correctness of the car. If that makes any sense.
This also happened today!
I REALY wanted an HKS exhaust but I’m just not ready to buy one. I’m trying to have a quality build yet not dump a ton of money and regret it next year. The old high school me is telling me to empty my bank account but the adult me is straight up saying no. So here we are…
I was able to pickup this RS*R muffler only for $60 from a buddy. I not a huge fan of the large single tip but I’ve heard this muffler before and it’s perfect. A tad louder than the HKS with no drone. I ended up also buying a cheap eBay system with test pipe. The friend that I bought the muffler from is going to help fab up something that fits the wagon since we all know nothing fits directly.
Here are some mock ups with one drivers side hanger attached.
Haha I feel the same way limiting myself and not going over on my wagon but I made couple big purchases that made me question myself 😂 so I stopped after that, sounds great it’s what you expected with the power band and sound out of the supercharger d15. I should’ve bought a supercharger when I had the chance 🤦♂️. That exhaust looks nice I like the Single exhaust tip, I never had a dual exhaust before I bought my HKS, I need to fix some exhaust leaks cause it’s driving me crazy specially the header has a crack in it. Hope we can see/hear a sound on your YouTube
@Vtec_Shuttle
It happens quick! It’s enjoyable taking my time with this car and appreciating every progressive modification.
The single “large” tip is still growing on me. Hopefully once I hear it I’ll fall in love. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard and RSR exhaust system. I think the small dual tip fits the wagon best even though it’s a big booty to fill. Exhaust leaks are the absolute worst! I hope you get it buttoned you soon.
Exhaust and supercharger video to come. I’m still waiting on my ECU. As soon as it’s in my hands I’ll be sure to share a video.
Few updates:
DC sports header - one piece header, heat wrapped and new oil pan gasket.
The one piece design made for an interesting install. I ended up dropping the front traction bar/front support to strategically snake the header through to the head.
The oil pan gasket was a mess so I didn’t take any pictures.