My First Real Project Car – and How It Changed Everything
From a rusty winter beater to a full restoration – this is the story of how an 18-year-old’s ‘ugliest CRX on the market’ turned into a years-long passion project. Featuring a B16A2 swap, plenty of trial and error, and the birth of a YouTube channel, it’s proof that sometimes the least glamorous car ends up being the one you love the most.
Joy van Haelen
8/14/20252 min read
On December 5th, 2017, at the age of 18, I bought my first real project car.
Not my first car ever – that title belonged to a Honda Del Sol – but my first proper “let’s take it apart and make it better” kind of car.
It was a second-generation Honda CRX ED9, and quite frankly, it was the ugliest CRX on the market at the time. And that’s exactly why I bought it. My plan was simple: use it as a winter beater so my freshly resprayed Del Sol could hibernate in the garage.
You can probably see where this is going. After one winter together, I was more attached to the CRX than I had ever been to the Del Sol. In the end, I sold the Del Sol to fund the CRX’s revival.
From Rust Bucket to Engine Swap
Despite the rust and flaking paint, I didn’t start with the bodywork. The original D16 was guzzling oil and refused to idle properly. Then, I was offered a B16A2 swap – and of course, I couldn’t say no.
There was just one little problem: I had zero mechanical background and no clue how to do an engine swap. That meant the project dragged on for years. Luckily, I had friends who stepped in along the way, teaching me invaluable lessons about wrenching. Honestly, without them, the car might still be sitting in pieces. Back then, there wasn’t a single YouTube tutorial on wiring a B16A2 into a CRX. If I’d had a channel at the time, I would’ve loved to bring people along for the chaos!
Fresh Paint, Fresh Start – and a YouTube Channel
When I finally got the CRX back on the road, I loved every single kilometer. But the rust and ugly paint still haunted me. So in the winter of 2024, I tore the car down to bare metal, had it welded, and gave it a full respray.
Right after getting it back from the paint shop, I launched my YouTube channel, documenting the full reassembly. Looking back, I wish my filming and editing skills were as good as my wrenching skills had become. With the right production quality, it could’ve been an amazing series. As it stands, the videos… well, let’s just say they have “character” (haha).
Still, that project taught me just as much about presenting and editing as it did about building cars – and that’s priceless in its own way.
Check out this project on YouTube!
