Rehabbing a repairable 05 Honda Civic

Rch · Dec 25, 2007

This shows the process of repairing a Civic with only 800 miles on it. It was a stick EX with a sunroof and alloy wheels. It was hit square on the left rear door and quarter panel and wheel. The top third of the alloy wheel cracked off and was shoved into the wheel well, crimping the gas filler pipes( pic # 5 by the stacked planks) and a brake line and broke a 7" stabilizing bar. All that was a pretty easy with replacement parts from Honda. A used alloy wheel, in cherry condition, was $180 from a junkyard (new is $485).

A major hassle was no keys. To get new keys and fobs the car had to be hauled to a Honda dealer and hooked to their computer. That was 1/2 day and $500.

Rch · Dec 25, 2007

This shows some inside the trunk pushing, one against the wheel well and the let upper corner. The door and left rear fender were salvaged with Bondo. The welded washers were used to pull the skin of the door out. The left lower lateral rear of the quarter panel (behind the plastic bumper that wraps around) was kind of shredded and was built-up with linear MIG welding lines.

Rch · Dec 25, 2007

You can see the new gas filler pipe that was pinched-off being replaced.

Unfortunately, this car was totaled out about a year later when a kid flipped it by overcorrecting a drift to the right on the rumble strip. Fortunately seat belts and luck prevented any injury but the insurance co. went from 16K to 12K when the found out it was originally a salvage title.

This car really sold me on Honda, the 5 speed stick was the best manuel transmission I ever drove, The syncromesh was flawless, the shifting distances and detents perfect, finding reverse was easy and the gear ratios all good, the milage was up to 37 hwy and it was a very nimble machine.

I brought this from starautosales.com Lenox SD. They are in cahoots with henrysrepairabes.com in the middle of MN where I bought a 05 Corolla (rehabbing a repairable, recently posted here) and a 03 Pontiac Vibe. You can shuttle between their web sites and they share the same format. Its ~ $400 to get this hauled to central WI.

As mentioned before auto-part.com is a resource for salvaged parts in your neighborhood, say a trunk lid or rear gate or similar things. There are secondary sources for grills, bumpers- things that are commonly crunched, such as Keystone.

These rehabs end up 2/3 the price of an equivalent used car.