| EVO Civic Evolution History |
| EVO 4 - May 1999 |
| Some of the pictures in this section look like someone is attacking the car with a flame thrower ... it's just a dodgie film/camera. |
| 01/05/1999 |
Finished off the right side wheel arches. Tied the roll cage windscreen bar onto the body above the windscreen. Did a few little rust repairs and some seam welding and grinding here and there. |
| 02/05/1999 |
Installed the harness mounts in the floor for the lap belts and the crotch straps (hope I got them in the right places.) Bit more seam welding and grinding around and about. |
| 04/05/1999 |
Took it off the rotator and loaded it onto the trailer ready to go to the sand blasters. |
| 05/05/1999 |
Dropped the car off to get sand blasted. |
| 07/05/1999 |
Collected it from the sand blasters. WOW! It looks quite different...all nice and clean. |
| 08/05/1999 |
Took it off the trailer and put it back on the rotator   . Went out and bought a passenger's door. |
| 10/05/1999 |
Bought some primer, bog and thinners. Started filling up a few of the dents and rust repairs. Finally decided that it looked like a good idea to foam fill the sills, pillars and panels, so I started squirting Fomofill into the cavities.  |
| 11/05/1999 |
Bought some more Fomofill and kept filling up the voids. Did some more dent filling. |
| 12/05/1999 |
Bought more Fomofill... |
| 13/05/1999 |
Bought more Fomofill... Went to Honda and ordered all the Gaskets (except head gasket as the Honda one has too close a tolerance and only allows up to a 73mm bore...as I need 74mm I'll use a slightly less accurate after market one) and oil seals for the engine and the gearbox. Went to Auto One and ordered a couple of head gaskets (doesn't hurt to have a spare), and some tie rod ends. |
| 14/05/1999 |
Popped into Heasman's to collect my front shocks which they had rebuilt and shortened. |
| 15/05/1999 |
Stripped the paint off the new door and found it had some repairs that will now need to be redone, but it's not too bad. Bogged up the dents and rust holes (only small ones) in the front guards, bonnet and new door. Lots of filling and sanding on the body. Decided to add a final bit to the roll cage and welded a piece straight across the main hoop where the intrusion bars attach to it. |
| 16/05/1999 |
Got most of the repairs on the body reasonably good. Did a few little bits of welding and then gave it a good blast with the air gun and vacuum cleaner before putting some primer on the underside and the inside. Sprayed some chip-guard onto the underside and painted some seam-sealer into a few places that looked like they needed it. |
| 17/05/1999 |
Collected all the gaskets and seals from Honda. Collected the new head gaskets from Auto One. Sanded a lot of niki on the front guards and new door... |
| 18/05/1999 |
More sanding... Stole the RS cylinder head off the engine in my sister's car... Drilled out all the head bolt holes in the block and tapped them to 5/8 UNF (yes I know it's not metric but it's a nice fine thread and I happen to have a 5/8 tap)  . Into these holes are screwed some high tensile steel interts  that are simply a length of threaded rod (or a bolt with the head cut off), with a hole drilled down the middle and tapped to 10x1.25. The head studs (stronger than bolts) are then screwed into these. These inserts vastly increase the thread surface area in the block and allow me to crank the head up to 55-60lbft rather than the standard 42, without fear of stripping the threads. I could heli-coil all the threads instead of going to all this trouble, but I did that last time and one of the heli-coils pulled out. |
| 19/05/1999 |
More sanding and ding filling... Dropped the engine block and head off to get looked at. The block need to be bored out to the big pistons, decked and o-ringed. I'm retiring the old Mugen head as it's getting a bit too thin. I'm using the big Mugen valves and having the ports copied to the RS head (Mugen head is based on the RS casting.) |
| 20/05/1999 |
More sanding... |
| 21/05/1999 |
More sanding... |
| 22/05/1999 |
Gave the body, front panels, new door and bonnet a splash of primer. Sprayed chip-guard all around the sills...then ran out. Damn, I knew I should have gotten 2 bottles. |
| 23/05/1999 |
Bought some more chip-guard and sprayed it on the bottom of the door, front guards, front floor and anywhere else that looked like it needed it. The stuff seems to be taking forever to dry in the cold weather so I couldn't prime it today. Pulled apart the new gearbox. 1st to 4th gear look perfect and the synchros look nearly new. 5th gear however is completely stuffed. It looks like someone drove for quite a long way in fifth with not enough oil in the box as the case hardening has worn off the teeth and they are quite dead. Luckily fifth from the old gearbox is perfectly ok, so I'll use that. |
| 24/05/1999 |
Popped over to see Goeff O'toole to get a bit of machining done. I got him to shorten the front struts. These are VW Golf cases, as I'm using Golf inserts, with the spring seat cut off and a threaded sleave welded on for the height adjustment. The bottom of the Golf case is cut off and replaced with the bottom of a Honda strut case. Also left the dizzy drive gear with him to get shortened a bit and some bolts that need to get turned into inserts to bolt into the block into which the studs are screwed. |
| 25/05/1999 |
Got the center riveted onto the new clutch plate. Did a bit of rubbing back of primer and spot putty that's used to fill up tiny dings and holes...hopefully I'll get it primed and maybe painted a bit tomorrow... |
| 26/05/1999 |
Collected the block and pistons/rods. Ordered a windscreen. Stuck the block on the engine stand, installed the crank and pistons and checked the deck heights. All the pistons are slightly below the deck so it'll need a bit skimmed off. |
| 27/05/1999 |
Dropped the block, pistons, crank, flywheel, alternator belt pulley back to the engine place. The block needs to be decked and o-ringed and the crank/flywheel needs to be balanced. Painted it yellow! |
| 28/05/1999 |
Finished the last little bit of colour, then sprayed some clearcoat on...doesn't look too bad       . Picked up the engine. The head has been ported and skimmed several millimeters. The block is nice and clean with a flat top and o-rings in it. The crank and flywheel have been balanced. |
| 29/05/1999 |
Started putting it all together. Installed the rear brake lines, normal handbrake, hydraulic handbrake cylinder and bias valve  . Got a call from the windscreen bloke to say that the screen he was sent was cracked...bugger! Said he'd have a new one couriered over first thing Monday morning and be over after lunch. It actually turned out to be a good thing that he didn't install the screen today as it made putting the dashboard and other interior stuff in a lot easier.
After the brake lines were in I started on the dashboard area. Installed the heater, then stuck a new speedo in the dash as the old one was making horrible noises. Popped over to Geoff's to finish off and pick up the few things he was finishing off (block inserts and a bit of machining of the bellhousing to clear the flywheel and a couple of other odd things).
Installed the dash  . It was very easy to put the dash in with the car on its side and standing in the door opening. |
| 30/05/1999 |
Hmmm...seem to be running out of time...only two, possibly three days to get it together and I haven't even looked at the engine or gearbox yet. I'm going to use the old, small motor which just needs the cam bolted in and a distributor stuck in it. Also going to use an old standard 4-speed for the moment. Got the brake booster / master cylinder and front brake lines in and connected up  .
Installed the fuel lines, fuel tank, pedals and steering column. Got all the wiring looms threaded through and connected under the dash. Installed the rear lights and got them wired up, put the rear hatch and glass on...starting to look like a car from the back now.  |
| 31/05/1999 |
Definitely running out of time now... Welded the threaded sections onto the front struts and painted them...hope the paint dries. Did a little welding of the front subframe to strengthen it a bit. Installed the wiper motor, fuel pump and ignition gear (coil, igniter). Wired up the headlights. Made a new panel to hold the kill switch and voltmeter (getting rid of the ammeter as it never worked properly).
The windscreen guy turned up and installed the windscreen. About time to get it off the rotator and onto some wheels...With the help of Dave and Micheal we managed to get it off the rotator (much stuffing around with the chain block, trolley jack, chassis stands, concrete blocks and a beam to brace the roof). Bolted on the front subframe, suspension and wheels, then the back. Stuck the exhaust on. Bled the brakes. 
Dave and Michael gave up at this point as it was about 11pm...ahh, who needs sleep...Pulled the motor out, installed the cam and stuck the dizzy in...looks like everything should work. Pulled out the old 4-speed...it should be perfectly ok. Bolted the gearbox to the engine... |