Carcass Featured Projects

Carcass Builds

Parts Used In This Episode

Summit Racing
Racequip Harness Hardware
Summit Racing
Rugged Ridge Auxiliary Lights
Custom Wheel Outlet - CWO
Spec-1 Wheels
Insane Shafts
Insane Axle Shafts
KSport USA
KSport Coil Overs
Matco Tools
MATCO Tools are the Official Tool Supplier to Carcass
The Industrial Depot
Tools, Hardware, Shop Supplies
Tire Streets
MRF ZDM3 Tires

Episode Transcript

(Jeremy)>> You're watching Powernation.

(Jimmy)>> Today on Carcass we take our Honda rally car out for a rip but before the fun some more work needs to be done.

(Jeremy)>> We'll put on the final touches adding some race ready suspension, fabricate some strut braces for better handling, and add some safety inside and out. ♪ ♪ [ tires squealing ] ♪ ♪

(Jeremy)>> Hey guys welcome to Carcass. What you see in front of you is our 1996 Honda Civic rally car that put down an impressive 203 wheel horsepower with the help of a little thing we like to call a turbocharger.

(Jimmy)>> And to go along with that we ripped out all the interior, put in a roll cage and some racing seats, and today we're gonna finish it off with some rally specific coil overs, some new wheels and tires to grip the gravel, and then we're gonna go down to Alabama and pay it off at a rally cross course and see what this thing can do.

(Jeremy)>> Sounds great! Where do you think we should start?

(Jimmy)>> Suspension.

(Jeremy)>> I'll go get a jack and get the wheels and tires off.

(Jimmy)>> Let me get the coil overs. Alright these are our rally spec coil overs that we got from KSport. These are gonna do great for our Honda because they have a lengthened shock stroke and a long spring to handle any bumps that we're gonna see on the rally course. They also have a heavy duty top plate to handle the extra abuse and they have 36 levels of dampening adjustments that we can try to make this car grip up. [ drill humming ]

(Jeremy)>> Now before we can install our coil overs we've got to take apart the complete front suspension. Now there is one piece we already installed and that's a set of axle shafts. We picked these up from Insane Shafts, and they're capable of handling over 500 horsepower. Now we knew we weren't gonna hit that 500 horse mark but we did want something that would hold up to the abuse. We'll start off by loosening the nuts that hold on the tie rod end and the upper ball joint. ♪ ♪ Then we can tackle our brakes. Get this caliper off of here cause we're gonna do a little brake upgrade a little later too. ♪ ♪ We use a hammer to separate the lower ball joint and pick the whole spindle assembly free. [ drill humming ]

(Jeremy)>> We'll remove the bolts that hold on our old strut. [ drill humming ] ♪ ♪

(Jeremy)>> And follow that up by removing the upper and lower control arms. [ drill humming ] ♪ ♪

(Jeremy)>> We'll also remove the old worn out inner tie rods. Alright so now that we have all the old parts out it's time to start putting some new parts in this car. So we went to RockAuto dot com, plugged in the year, make, and model of our Civic, went down to the suspension tab, and clicked on this front end kit. Now the best part about this is it's one assembly. I didn't have to go individually search out the upper and lower control arms or the inner and outer tie rod ends. This came as one setup. They also have assemblies like this available. If you guys are looking to do brakes they have pads and rotors, or if you're doing tune ups they've got plugs and wires. So I've got a whole bunch of new parts to put in the car. So let's get started. To assemble the suspension in our Honda we'll do everything the same but in reverse order. We'll start with the inner and outer tie rod end. Follow that up with the lower control arm. [ drill humming ]

(Jeremy)>> And the upper control arm. ♪ ♪ We'll install our rally design coil overs. ♪ ♪ [ drill humming ]

(Jeremy)>> And lastly we'll throw on the spindle with the new ball joint already installed. ♪ ♪ Now we're gonna be doing a brake upgrade on our little Honda Civic and we're gonna be using EBC brake pads and rotors. Now you guys hear us talk about EBC all the time and you may think that they're just a performance brake company, but they have many different styles of brake pads that could fit your car or your truck. Now what's the easiest way for you guys to figure out what you need to run? Well it's as simple as looking at the colors. Their red stuff is a ceramic pad and these are great for your street and your sport use. One of their most popular pads is their green stuff pad and this is good for the street and daily driving use. The high friction formula on their yellow stuff pad makes it great for your street and your race use, and then they have their blue stuff pad. This is a track day pad and it works great for your high performance vehicles. They also have different styles of rotors you guys can run. These are their replacement o-e style rotors. They have slotted rotors, and they also have their GD drilled and slotted rotors, and what we plan on running on our little Honda Civic are the GD rotors and the yellow stuff pads. ♪ ♪ This setup will work perfectly on our rally car, especially when we have to do some hard braking on the course. ♪ ♪ Alright that wraps up the passenger side. We'll move on to the driver's side, and then we're gonna take care of a couple of things under the hood. We take our suspension one step further for improved handling.

(Jimmy)>> Jeremy's got the suspension all finished up and to wrap this whole thing up we've got some new wheels and tires. We've got MRFZDM-3's from Tire Streets. These have an asymmetrical tread pattern designed for sandy to loose gravel conditions, and where we're going it's very dusty. So these should be just fine, and to go with that we've got spec one wheels from Custom Wheel Outlet to really finish off the look of our Honda. ♪ ♪ [ drill humming ]

(Jimmy)>> Alright so we've got the suspension, wheels, and tires on this thing and we're gonna take it one step further. We're gonna be making some shock tower braces for the front and the rear. The purpose of these is to make the chassis a little bit more rigid, which will ultimately make the car handle better and be more predictable, and from a driver's perspective this should inspire a little bit of confidence and hopefully result in a faster lap time. So I'll start from the back, work our way to the front, and we'll see how we do. Alright in the back here it's gonna be pretty simple because we have a lot of room. I'm gonna be using the same tubing that we use for the roll cage. I'm just gonna make a plate to go over each shock tower, and then run the tube straight across. In the front it's gonna be a little different cause we don't have the luxury of having a lot of room. So I will be using a little bit smaller tubing, but first thing I have to take a measurement and then cut some stuff out on the plasma table. Bolt hole spacing about 3.125. ♪ ♪ [ torch hissing ]

(Jimmy)>> This is my favorite machine. This makes life easy. [ torch hissing ]

(Jimmy)>> With the brackets designed I'll take them over to the plasma table to cut them out, bend them up, and tack them together. ♪ ♪ [ mechanical humming ] ♪ ♪

(Jimmy)>> Alright let's see how this is gonna end up. Alright that looks pretty good. Really as simple as it needs to be. So I'll weld these up. Then we'll put them back in and measure for the tube to go across. ♪ ♪ With the brackets welded up I'll set them back in place and take a measurement for the tube. Looks about 37 and five-eighths. [ saw buzzing ]

(Jimmy)>> Then we can cut out our tubing, set it in place... ♪ ♪ ...tack it in, and then fully weld it. ♪ ♪ [ welder crackling ]

(Jimmy)>> Once everything is cooled off I'll put on a couple of coats of paint to match the roll cage and drop it back in for the final time. ♪ ♪ [ drill humming ]

(Jimmy)>> We'll repeat the process for the front end starting by taking some measurements, designing it, and cutting out the brackets on the plasma table. [ torch hissing ] ♪ ♪

(Jimmy)>> Alright so I've got the strut tower brackets and the firewall bracket in place. So now all I have to do is measure for our tubes, cut them out, and then we'll finish this thing up. ♪ ♪ 19.5, 12.5, alright let's cut some tube. [ saw buzzing ]

(Jimmy)>> We'll be using one inch tube for the front. Once everything is fit up I'll drop in a couple of tacks. ♪ ♪ Pull it out and fully weld it. ♪ ♪ Alright looks like everything lines up. So just put a coat of paint on it and then we'll be finished. Coming up, we take care of some final safety components to our Honda rally car.

(Jeremy)>> Alright well we're super close to getting this little Honda out on the course and the outside is pretty much buttoned up. Now it's time to focus a little bit on the interior. We already remounted our dash, took care of some of the wiring, made some custom door panels. Now it's time to worry about some safety. We already have our seats mounted but we never mounted our harnesses so that's what I'm gonna work on right now. So what I have to do is mark the location of our harnesses here on the floor. We're gonna get rid of the seats, and then we'll make a couple of holes. ♪ ♪ Now we'll get the seats out of here. [ drill humming ]

(Jeremy)>> Okay now that we've got the seats out of the way we've got to drill some holes in the floor cause we're gonna end up mounting these little eyelets and these clasps to our harnesses that we got from Racequip. Now we could just use a drill bit and drill through the carpet but it could end up fraying, and we have an easier solution to that, and that involves this little piece of pipe and this butane torch. We'll start by heating up the end of the pipe, and you'll know when it gets hot enough because it starts to feel warm in your hands, but it should go right through the carpet without a problem. Just like that. There you go! Now we can drill our holes and install our eyelets. [ drill humming ]

(Jeremy)>> Alright now here's the best part. All we do now is clip on these hooks that we got from RaceQuip and then we just thread on our harnesses. ♪ ♪ Alright that wraps up the install on the driver's side. Now I'll mark the holes and do the same thing on the passenger side.

(Jimmy)>> While Jeremy's finishing up the other harness there's one last thing we want to add to our Honda and that's more lights cause is a rally car even a rally car if it doesn't have more lights? I don't think so. So we went to Summit Racing and picked up these three and a half inch l-e-d lights. We got four of them and they come with this little mounting bracket and some stainless hardware. So you can put it wherever you want and this is gonna be the perfect touch to our Honda. ♪ ♪ I'll start by removing the bumper. This will make it easier to cut out the center section to make room for the lights. [ saw buzzing ]

(Jimmy)>> Cool, now I can mount the lights. ♪ ♪ Alright so I already kinda laid out some marks to get the spacing right, and then I'm just holding up one of these brackets here. That way I can mark each set of holes and that'll give me a real easy way to figure out where to drill. Once we have our marks I'll pull the bumper back off and then drill some holes. [ drill humming ]

(Jimmy)>> Now we can install our brackets and our lights. ♪ ♪ Hey Jeremy give these a look here.

(Jeremy)>> Flip them on once. Holy cow those are bright, and they're crystal clear.

(Jimmy)>> They have a good spread too.

(Jeremy)>> It kinda makes our stock headlights look like junk, but you know what. I do have a solution to fix these things. Now we're gonna be restoring the headlights on our little Honda Civic with this ceramic headlight restoration kit that we got from Cerkote. It applies in three easy steps with no power tools required. Now this is a little bit different than your standard headlight restoration kit in that it has a professional grade ceramic coating that chemically bonds to the headlight surface, and it gives you outstanding u/v protection that will stand the test of time. So let's get started. Using the supplied oxidization remover pads we'll wipe the headlights down four separate times. ♪ ♪ Then I'll wet down the headlights to clean them off a little bit. I'll start sanding with the red disc and then follow that up with the gray one. ♪ ♪ Now we can get ready to apply our ceramic coating. Alright so we're only gonna apply one coat with this. We're gonna start from the top and work our way to the bottom, and we're gonna do a 50 percent overlap. That pretty much wraps up our little Honda. Now Jimmy and I get to load this thing up and head out to the rally course. It's time for some fun! We take our Honda to the track and start slinging some dirt.

[ engine revving ] ♪ ♪

(Jimmy)>> Alright we're out here at Holly Tree Off Road Park in Alabama, and we're gonna see what our Honda Civic can do. So we're gonna take it for a few laps and just have a bunch of fun.

(Jeremy)>> Let's time this too and just see how fast we can get around this thing.

(Jimmy)>> I'm gonna beat you!

(Jeremy)>> Let's do it.

(Jimmy)>> Alright dude!

(Jeremy)>> I got the watch you got the steering wheel, let's go! That is so awesome! ♪ ♪

(Jimmy)>> Alright a little slippery, and we're self clearancing the fenders already. [ squeaking ]

(Jimmy)>> That suspension's not doing too bad. It's actually doing a really good job.

(Jeremy)>> It's floating really nicely. ♪ ♪ Don't blow the corner! Oh that's too much fun! I can't believe how well it handles for a front wheel drive car. Maybe it's all in the driver though. [ engine revving ]

(Jeremy)>> Pick a gear! Oh he's going inside! ♪ ♪ [ engine revving ]

(Jeremy)>> 1:08.

(Jimmy)>> I don't know if that's good or bad.

(Jeremy)>> But you made it! That's pretty good. I think the car held together nicely. You can hear the fenders.

(Jimmy)>> I can squeeze the dust between my teeth.

(Jeremy)>> Spit it out.

(Jimmy)>> I probably could have dropped it a gear in a couple spots but.

(Jeremy)>> It sounded like the motor was spooled up nicely if you call it spooled up.

(Jimmy)>> Well dude that's awesome!

(Jeremy)>> That's fun on that back part that's got that little kick to it.

(Jimmy)>> We didn't jump it but for it to handle a big bump like that, jeez! Alright dude, so that is one of the most fun things I've done in a car cause we've never done anything like this and I've never done it outside of this project.

(Jeremy)>> We built the car on the cheap and I think you had enough time in the driver's seat. I think I need a turn now and we'll see what we can do.

(Jimmy)>> What was my best time?

(Jeremy)>> One minute and eight seconds is what you ran it in.

(Jimmy)>> Well that's the score to beat then.

(Jeremy)>> Alright let's switch here. My turn. Get me in this thing. [ engine revving ]

(Jeremy)>> Oh I don't know which way I'm going. [ squeaking ]

(Jeremy)>> Woo!

(Jimmy)>> Yeah!

(Jeremy)>> This thing handles amazingly well.

(Jimmy)>> Inside, inside!

(Jeremy)>> That one snuck up on me a little bit. That is so much fun that's scary. Holy cow.

(Jimmy)>> I don't like being the passenger as much.

(Jeremy)>> It's quite a bit of work over here though. It's unbelievable how much you turn and actually how well it sticks. [ engine revving ]

(Jimmy)>> Eat that cone up.

(Jeremy)>> It is fun. [ engine revving ]

(Jeremy)>> Holy cow, this thing is an absolute blast and I'm super happy we got to drive it down here at Holley Tree.

(Jimmy)>> And to think in total we probably have $5,000 into this thing and it's this much fun.

(Jeremy)>> So that pretty much wraps it for us. We've got a little bit of daylight left. We are absolutely gonna go hammer on this thing a little bit more. See you guys later. Well if you guys like anything you've seen on the show today why don't you go to Powernation TV dot com and we will see you next time.

(Jimmy)>> And be sure to check out our project pages where you can see this Honda Civic, Project Junk Mail, and our C-30 tow truck.
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