It’s been a minute since the last update on Project: Lifted Civic
We have been busy troubleshooting and diagnosing issues with the transmission over at Slightly Mangled. Essentially, the car will go into one forward gear and reverse and has a hard time going into park & neutral. We believe that it may have something to do with a connector that is different between the Civic and the CR-V. Regardless, the lifted Civic will soon be headed to our friend Nate Cagle’s shop. I recently wrote an online feature of his Datsun, which you can find here. He has the knowhow, tools and skills with transmissions, so he is definitely the right man for the job!
In the meantime…
We have been doing quite a bit of body work on the car. The civic is not in the best shape, body wise. It has not been since day one. That all has been changing, slowly but surely. Thanks to our friend Casey, we have been chipping away at the body work. It is finally to the point that I am happy with it – not perfect, but definitely better than what it was. The factory paint was literally peeling off in patches & there were dents everywhere. Luckily, the fenders and hood remained relatively unscathed and we have new bumpers to put on the car once it returns from Nate’s.
What’s next?
Once the car can run in FWD on its own, it’ll be time to fit the rear lift kit components for the LCA’s and diff. You might notice that the rear wheels are extremely cambered in the most recent photo. That’s because the lower rear arms need to be dropped in order for the upper arms to stop digging into the tires. It’s a geometry thing. The drop kit from our friends over at HRG Engineering should solve our problem. Currently, the car has 4″ of spacers in the rear to clear those upper arm pieces that are sticking out.
I have been under the weather on and off over the holidays, preventing me from filming anything worthwhile with updates for YouTube. So, enjoy this montage that Slightly Mangled put together on his channel – be sure to subscribe if you have not already!
Text & Photos by Ben Battles – Video by Slightly Mangled
