Our current fleet at this time consisted of a Mazda 2, Ford F150 and a MG B. This a wide vehicle variety but we had two itches that it did not scratch. First up was our oldest son had recently passed his learner’s driving test which allowed him to drive accompanied by a fully licensed driver. Both the Mazda and MG have manual gearboxes and while the truck has an automatic it is both physically huge and worth real money. This left us without a suitable vehicle for a new driver to learn on. While I understand that in other countries many people learn directly on a manual gearbox I felt I would like to preserve my clutch and at the same time give my son a less steep learning curve. We also wanted a cheap clunker for The Great Beater Challenge. Luckily for us both of my brother in-laws had moved away for their post secondary education but also possessed a cheap vehicle they were both ready to move on from.
This hail damaged 2003 Honda Civic was very generously given to our boys but it needed a few minor mechanical repairs (rear wheel bearing, oil change, light bulbs and a maintenance warning light on). It also had a slew of cosmetic issues resulting from a collision as well as a powerful hail storm. In other words perfect for a beater rally (and teenage car). While an oddball is preferred for Beater Challenge the Civic proved to be a perfect fit.
The first step was to clean the car out. There was a couple hundred pounds of books in the trunk and back seat which were quickly donated. In the spare wheel well was several hundred of roofing nails which had to be individually picked out. Other miscellaneous items like the booster cables, flashlights and windshield washer fluid would be useful to take along on the rally. Hopefully we have no use for the snow brush.
The car had been sitting a while so the interior needed a good clean. On the plus side I found almost ten dollars from clearing out the interior which is a nice bonus for the budget.
I should have taken a better before photo but it cleaned up rather nicely.
While it is hard to fully see in photos the exterior is rather hail damaged. My plan was to customize the existing damaged trunk and hood for the rally and then replace with a salvage yard parts. The roof would still be a little beat up but perhaps the overall look would improve.
With a vehicle of this value it always comes with a few quirks. The first time I filled it with gas I discovered the oversized washer in the cup holder is actually there to open the fuel door. One has to use a surprising amount of force to get the door open but it works.
Mechanically the Civic was pretty close to ready to go. A noisy rear wheel could have been repaired but I took a look at it and declared it good enough for now. Mechanical preparation was limited to an oil change and a quick peek to make sure the brake pads had some material left on them. The biggest problem for the challenge is that the Civic is not a particularly unique or interesting vehicle. In a bid to earn some bonus points I attached a junkyard sourced Special Edition badge. If you recall for last year Dodge Aires scored most of its points for being a (legitimate) Special Edition. A few other body customization touches might be in order.
Since the car is a Civic we decided to go with budget\cheesy “Fast and Furious” style car. This meant we needed to add some simulated go fast equipment. Up front I used a leftover can of white spray paint to make some racing stripes. Only the hood was done as that is how far the paint went. Last year we mounted a paint tray hood scoop in a (failed) attempt to keep the Dodge Aires cool. This year I figured we could honor last year’s car with a similar scoop so I bought a slightly bigger version to give the impression of a cool air induction system.
It could not be a “performance” Civic without a wing. Some free pallet wood combined with some left over bolts, washers, nuts and screws from my spare bolt bucket gave us a suitably tall wing. It was parked in the garage leading up to the challenge so it does not bring down the neighbor’s property values too much.
The bolt bucket itself gave the Civic an enhanced size exhaust tip.
Inside an old fire extinguisher painted blue gave a reasonable facsimile of a NOS bottle.
While I would have liked some really terrible hubcaps and under-glow I could not find either locally. I would have thought Walmart or Princess Auto would have been a sure thing but all the aftermarket hubcaps at the local Walmart were disappointingly tasteful. Even the local scrapyard did not have any. They did have a replacement for the one missing stock hubcap which I bought but will install after the rally. I did manage to add two last minute custom touches which were a signature and personal message from rapper Vanilla Ice as well as a “No Junk Mail” sticker. The junk mail sticker produced a surprisingly large amount of feedback.
The Civic performed admirably in the 2017 edition of The Great Beater Challenge. You can read the write-up here below if you interested.
Day One Part One: Tarmac, Gravel, Tarmac and more Gravel
Day One Part Two: Out into the Prairie
Day Two Part One: Dinosaur Hunting
Day Two Part Two – Bridges, Pipes and Star Trek
After the challenge was complete it was time to convert it back to more normal duty but I had one more task to complete. An airbag recall as well as a key interlock inspection. I figured I should keep on all the challenge customization intact until this work was complete. So I took the Honda in for service in all its wooden wing glory. I parked it right at the front by the entrance. I made a big deal of it and how it’s been in the family since new when I dropped it off.
When I picked it up they parked it way down at the very end hidden by a used Odyssey. Parked nose out instead of tail out.
I popped in to retrieve the keys the guy at the counter says “what color is your car?”
“Black” I reply.
“The one with the … errr … wing?” he asks “… what’s up with that?”
Apparently the service techs had a good laugh and it brightened their Tuesday after a long weekend. I got a couple thumbs up and a few what the heck looks on the way back to work.
Next up the Civic received a scrapyard sourced replacement trunk and the original hood back on as the replacement hood did not fit well due to the existing accident damage. Sadly I could not find black so painted a silver trunk. The non-functional passenger door had to be fixed by carefully prying at the fender with a long, flat head screwdriver. This had to be repeated a few times over our ownership.
I was able to find a more or less matching hub cap to replace the missing one. Unfortunately it was in poor condition but fortunately had some zip ties and was not afraid to use them.
The Civic continued to provide reliable if ugly transportation for our boys over the next couple years with only minor upkeep. I did replace both side view mirrors due to the driver’s one always drooping and the passenger one being smashed off in a minor winter collision with a dumpster. The passenger side received some fresh dents in the same incident but provided a winter driving life lesson which is what first cars are all about. The Civic’s looks were not enhanced however and my wife was starting to resent its ugliness. We encountered an interesting issue shortly after when the car died and all electrical except for horn and brakes lights out were out. As it turns out the battery fuse was blown. Oddly it appeared just fine until I unscrewed and removed it – then it fell apart. The alternator died at the same time or most likely its death had led to the blowing of the fuse. While an alternator replacement is pretty minor the Civic needed a lot more work so it was time to move on. I sold it quickly to a man with dreams of fixing it completely but perhaps without the budget to do so. I suspect it is still looking very similar providing basic and reliable transportation for him.
Good write up, thank you for sharing.
I have a bit of a conundrum right now since my 1993 Camry stick shift with 268K Miles needs new CV boots and has a minor oil leak where the transmission and engine connect. My neighbor and I already replaced several gaskets to fix other oil leaks, new spark plugs, and the timing belt/water pump. Fixing this car is cheaper than a car payment and I like shifting my own gears so I guess I will keep fixing it.
That sounds like a rear main seal leak. There are liquid sealer kits you can pour right into the oil case that can significantly lessen the leak.
I think the one I used is working to a certain degree.
I love your ability to find usefulness in the most mundane (and mostly used up) vehicles. As is the case for many of us this was just SOP when we started driving; the cars that we could afford had little useful life remaining and one was challenged by just keeping them on the road. At least for myself and my friends there were two criteria that had to be met when considering a repair, could we do this ourselves and did it not cost very much money. I remember seeing bumpers held on with heavy gauge wire (not a long term solution) and numerous exhaust systems “fixed” with wire and whatever other materials that were close at hand. More times than I can remember I saw holes in the floorboard repaired by tack welding a suitable piece of metal over the hole; repurposed road signs are ideal for this.
As far as I know there is no easy way to deal with hail damage short of replacing the dimpled parts, not much help for the roof. Shortly after we were married my wife decided that she wanted a Cougar XR7. Back in those pre-internet days the only real way to look for a car was to spend Sunday afternoon driving from dealer to dealer and eyeballing the inventory. Sure enough one Sunday we found an XR7, in the color she wanted, at a dealership about an hour away. As it happened I had to work late on Monday so we decided to go back on Tuesday after work. As it also happened there was a major hailstorm between Sunday and Tuesday and the poor Cougar looked like someone had tap danced on it while wearing golf spikes. As I recall the dealer offered to knock $300 off of the price to compensate for the hail damage; my wife just gave him her “teacher stare” and we walked away. We ended up buying a Thunderbird Turbo Coupe a couple of weeks later, same car underneath but better looking.
Teaching on an automatic and segueing into standard is the best way to go. We did that with my daughter and she did great – she’s the only person she knows other than family who actually drives a stick. I started with clutch-only with my son, and it was a bit too much to manage all at once right off the bat. After he had a few weeks concentrating on steering and braking and general situational awareness on the auto he was much better back in a stickshift car.
Given our fleet at the time, my daughter had to learn on a stick. To start out, I drove her to a warehouse district on a Saturday or Sunday. Once there, she could spend several hours on the broad, empty streets learning clutch control in an area free of traffic.
I taught my sister to drive a manual in the early eighties and while I’ve long since tired of rowing my own (too much congested traffic), to this day, it’s her preference.
Taught my teen daughter to drive in a manual and gave her the car she still has it and it still provides reliable service for a poverty stricken university student, She tried an automatic but didnt like it at all, witch craft changing the gears not her style, I offered her a near bullet proof Nissan Sentra but no she wanted my Citroen, at least I got a newer more comfortable model out of the deal.
I have since taught both my older boys manual and they can even drive on my Acura TSX with its super touchy clutch. But automatic first seemed to ease them into it.
Yes, I feel slightly bad for my daughter who is learning to drive in the Grand Caravan.
Our 13 Focus, 07 Mustang and 63 VW are all manual. She did drive the VW once successfully, so I predict that she will quickly learn to drive manual and use the Focus.
If it wasn’t such an expensive nuisance to safety, license and insure another vehicle I might have considered a cheap small automatic car for the kids to learn on. Looks like yours was exactly right for the multiple roles you envisioned for it.
Those who haven’t had a mailing address in Canada might wonder about that NO JUNK MAIL placard. In Canada, posting something like this (or “no flyers”, “no ads”, etc) very effectively cuts unwanted mail down to a bare minimum. Not like
on Ferenginorin the States where the postal service says “we’ve been paid to deliver these items, so we’re obligated to do so” and the paperspam industry babbles about how “many people enjoy and appreciate receiving” their garbage.Never forget Rule 294.
We had a 2004 Civic, in black. One dark evening, in a rainstorm where visibility was reduced, someone was driving it, and thought they found an easy, quick exit out of a parking lot. Unfortunately, that exit was chained off to prevent such efficiencies, and the vehicle propelled itself through said black chains. The links were all thrusted on top of the car, and very surprisingly, left little damage other than a few scratches. No mention was ever made on who happened to be piloting said vehicle at the time, but thankfully they and passengers were not injured in the process.