The seller’s brief introductory description says a lot: “1974 Honda Civic. All Wheel Drive, VTEC, 6 speed manual transmission, cruise control, power window on passenger side, air conditioning.” Yes, this car was put together with a 1990 Honda Wagovan and a 1974 Civic and it has a 6-speed manual trans. Most important is that power window on the passenger side.
The seller provide a lot of detail, including various engines used in this car over the years. Short version: If this is for you, you know it and you’re prepared to deal with a largely homemade vehicle.
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Pollock Pines, CA (?)
$3,500 with ZERO bids
The lift and fender flairs indicate this isn’t a normal Civic. I’d personally find a way to ‘subtlize’ this if I had it, but I’m not sure how much can be done. The grill treatment would fit right in at a Texas ‘Scoot a Boot’ bar.
Rear is a bit more subtle, but this angle clearly shows the side pipe. Yikes!
Things aren’t too bad inside – modern seats are obvious and, yes, there’s some diamond plate on the kick panels to add ballast.
Diamond plate there continues here, extra protection right nest to a speaker without a protective grille?
Unlike the drivetrain, the engine appears to fit fairly nicely.
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This auction is for serious buyers only. Please do not bid if you do not intend to follow through with the transaction and have the means to do so. A $1000 non refundable deposit is due within 24 hours of the close of the auction. You must pick the vehicle up within 10 days of the close of the auction. Full payment in cash or wire transfer is due within 7 days of the close of the auction. A storage fee of $25/day will be charged after 10 days. Shipping is up to you but I will make it easy for your shipper to retrieve it. I personally wouldn’t hesitate to drive this car across the country but I do know the car inside and out. I do not warranty any part of the car. Please ask any and all questions before you bid. I will answer promptly.
1974 Honda Civic. All Wheel Drive, VTEC, 6 speed manual transmission, cruise control, power window on passenger side, air conditioning.
I built this car in 2003. I took a 1990 Honda RT4WD wagovan and cut the body off of it. I shortened the pan 9 inches. I then removed the floor pan from the 1974 Civic. And then welded the whole thing together. I preserved the firewall of the wagon so that the car would have all the wagovan gages, air conditioning, etc. It took hundreds of hours to build this car. The car is smog exempt in California because it is a 1974.
After building it I drove it for 190,000 miles, mostly commuting from the mountain town of Pollock Pines, California, to Sacramento where I work. The first engine I used was the OBD0 D16A6 which was original to the wagon. I later converted the car to OBD1 and installed a jdm d15b vtec motor and then a D15Z1 VTEC (economy VTEC motor). That motor went bad so I recently installed another D15Z1 with approximately 180K miles. The turbo will make 9psi boost but it should probably be wastegated down to about 6, although I never hear any pinging. I have an exhaust gas temperature gage that only works occassionally. There is no intercooler. I installed a 5th injector in the runner from the turbo to the intake but never plumbed fuel to it or wired it.
It has a 6 speed manual transmission. It has 5 normal gears and a super low or granny gear. It has not been driven off road. I put in a 4WD shifter and took out the wagovan viscous coupler. I drive it in front wheel drive all the time except when I need the traction. I built it for the snow in Pollock Pines, which can be substantial. It does about as well as a Subaru in the snow, which is pretty good. It gets about 28 mpg in town and 31 on the highway. It is a 49 state lean burn motor and seems like it should get better mileage but it does weigh 2450 pounds. It is not showing any CEL codes or light at this time. The battery is mounted in the trunk.
It has air conditioning which is factory to the wagovan. It worked awesome for 10 years but developed a leak in the schrader valve last summer. I put in a new valve, new receiver drier, pulled a vacuum and recharged but it doesn’t get as cold as it used to. In traffic in the heat the AC doesn’t work too well honestly.
I installed factory Honda cruise control which works very well. I installed a power window on the passenger side only. You can reach the crank on the driver’s side.
It has a 1 1/4 receiver type trailer hitch. The passenger door closes hard. At the very least the latch need adjusting. There is a dent and a tiny rust through hole in the middle of that door. The weather stripping on the car is in pretty good shape but not perfect.
I am running an IHI RHB5 turbo. It dumps out the passenger fender well, wraps around the front wheel and exits with a side pipe in front of the rear wheel.
The car comes with extra body panels, an extra transmission and a rear differential. Also included are some extra tail lights and grilles.
When I first built the car I had a small back seat that my daughter used to ride in. A first gen civic back seat won’t work because the wagovan gas tank goes in the foot well. My daughter outgrew the back seat and I removed the back seat and put in a large, aluminum diamond plate cargo shelf. Now the car is only a 2 seater. There are no tears in the two front seats. The headliner has a few small tears. The dash is pretty good for the most part but does have a couple small tears above the glove box. The horn button says “RT4WD”. The stereo works but only one speaker is working at this time. The tires are nearly bald. It is rolling on 16’s right now but has had 15’s and 17’s on it at various times. I will include an extra set of rims if you want for free.
The body has some dings. The car looks better in the photos than it does in person. There isn’t much rust. Even though it was driven in the snow this is California and they do not use salt on the roads in this area. The windshield has a crack about 2 inches long but I drilled it and it is not spreading. The trim around the dash is a little iffy. I made some custom interior panels to adapt the wagon dash to the first gen space. They look OK but not great.
It tears me up to sell this car but I just can’t justify keeping it any more.