1989 EF7 Restoration

[kdevitt]

I was holding off on sticking this build up for a while, but have had a few curious georges land on my driveway recently taking photos of it, so might as well update.

I have wanted one of these for decades, literally. Its been 21 years since I tried in vain to do a deal on a CRX locally - which I later found out was an Si Exclusive. I paid a deposit on a rough looking one which I'd been told was having some cosmetic enhancements being done - never heard back from them again (although they never cashed the cheque).


When living in Australia I was adamant I'd buy one - and even bought some parts, but nothing materialised, although thankfully some of the parts are now coming in useful. More recently (3/4 years ago) I started looking at them again and figured I'd try and source one from the auctions in Japan. My requirements were pretty strict - needed to be black, needed to be an EF7, and needed to be a pre-facelift car. Zero interest in VTEC versions, or anything with the face-lifted front end. So this essentially mean I was restricting my search to a relatively rare car produced over an 18 month period or so.


By this stage though, the cars were eligible for import to the US and prices had gone nuts. An Si I bid on eventually went for €12k at auction - which would have ended up being a €16k car once shipped and cleared. At even at €16k, there was still a chance it would need substantial work.


So, when this one popped up on Facebook, I knew that while it looked like a horror show - a full restoration might end up being cheaper long term than buying one. I got in touch with a bodyshop prior to pulling the trigger to see how manageable it was - and pretty soon it was being transported direct to them.