Words & images by Mat G.
1986 AH Honda Civic
Back in 1997 my sister with her newly obtained P-plates settled on a 1986 Honda Civic, about 15 years and three accidents later she decides to move on to a more modern car. Meanwhile, my Peugeot 205 GTI was giving me grief despite being an absolute joy to drive. I needed to get another car, one that was more reliable, and well it didn’t get more reliable than Honda’s of the time so I decided to take the Civic.
Although not a particularly fun car to drive, a new set of shockers did improve handling dramatically. I ended up taking it to a track day at Winton, while being the slowest car there I had a great time with it.
A reliable, solid car it was time to move on to something modern with things like air con, central locking, ABS, and it had to have a good handling: Enter the Renault Clio Sport.
I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of the Civic but eventually I decided to give it to a friend to use on his country property. He changed the worn clutch, brought it out West and there it sat for six years untouched.
Come time to sell the property I was asked what to do with it, I thought that I would take it back and put in on CPS, thinking it would be relatively easy to get it back on the road and the benefit to have a car with more power and comfort than the Niki.
Some scavengers had attempted to take two of the wheels but they were found discarded nearby.
The most impressive thing was that after those six years we were able to start the car first time, with a new battery of course and just spraying a bit of fuel in the carby, and drive it out of it’s resting place to the road.
Most of the work involved replace the perishable components, hoses, boots, and belts. A new hatch was obtained to replace the existing rusted one, along with a new steering wheel, replacing all interior lighting with LEDs.
I had obtained a few parts from the impressive but sadly, recently closed wreckers at Talbot. It was a great day out with some of the Motafrenz guys.
Covid did slow the whole process down but I was finally able to finish it last year and get some new red plates for it. It has been good to get it back on the road and I hope to make it look much nicer with a two-tone respray in the future.
It has made an appearance at the 2022 Pride March as the red car in the rainbow flag formation for Motafrenz.
