Monday, August 1, 2011

2011 Summer Civic Project

Being an avid car enthusiast that  is into japanese cars, One usually cant deny that the Honda Civic is one of the easiest and affordable platforms in the market  to modify and tune. Anyone can trully make it into their own design. Having had this particular civic since 2008,icouldnt let it just sit there and remain stock. 
This partuicular civic was bought by my girlfriend at the time form one of my good friends. He replaced the motor with a lower milleage motor that was freshened up. All maintenance was done and all seals replaced. He also installed a new clutch kit along with a lightened flywheel. Eventhough this is not the fastest car out there, I don't mind since it gets great gas milleage.

The car now is in its second Iteration. After I bought it from my firend, the car was immediately modified. A plethora of carbon parts were installed just to update the look and the car was lowered on Mars full coilover suspension from my good friend Robert @ TCSportline.com. After the ride height was set, next in line was wheels. Wheels are what make or break the car so something different had to be installed. After looking, I ended up deciding on some XXR 501 wheels in 15x8 +15offset with 195 tires. I also Installed a CF backed Seat for the driver side to help when I was gonna track the car. Here is what she looked like after I was almost done with her:
This picture was taken in San Diego by Seaworld actually. Funny thing about this picture is that on the way to SD, a Dodge Neon tried to race us but we just laughed at the driver. I guess the Neon's driver's girlfriend got embarrased when she saw us laughing that she started getting mad at her boyfriend. Lol.
Sadly a couple months later, after my brother took it to school without me knowing, even with a detachable steering wheel, the car was stolen. All the aftermarket parts that was installed were gone. After all the hardwork and labor of love, the car was stipped. I had felt like I lost a member of the family.
The car was recovered thank goodness and I promply turned her back to stock in hopes of selling it since I feel like it would never be the same again.

Come 2 years later I still had the car. I guess I just couldn't let it go. Letting my brother drive it, since his turbo car wasted gas, was what it was mostly used for. Since he wasn't big of a honda fan, the car started to get neglected and parts were broken. The car also had an incident when a car not paying attention hit its rear end.
So being that it was being neglected I took it back and now am starting to modify her again.
I started off with replacing the interior front seats. My brother had installed a tenzo seat that came off an integra. Eventhought its a comfortable seat, it just sat way too high, so in turn, I tore that out and installed some DelSol seats that I bought from craiglist for $100.
Suspension work was next and I found a set of affordable Function Forms coilovers on Honda-tech that I ended up only paying $300 for. I also installed a set of Godspeed Project rear camber kit for $35.

Having the car sit at an acceptable level, I went in search of some wheels. I was thinking about getting the same XXR wheels that it had before but since I had those before, I wanted something different. I had less of a budget building the car this time so I went searching through craigslist. I found a set of Diamond Racing Wheels that were teal in color for $600 but I offered the guy $500 for it with tires and he accepted so those went on the car;
Sizing were 15x8 also but this time the offset are more aggressive than the XXR wheels with a 0 offset. In order to fit properly in the front of the car, a set of Skunk2 coilover kit set at max negative camber let the wheels sit flush with the fenders. Even with the camber kit the car still rubbed so a date with a fender roller fixed that.
I hated the wheel color so I sprayed it white:
I also installed a set of Weathertech Window Visors since its popular now. While the car was lifted on jackstands I also adjusted the ride height and removed the oem side mirrors. Why? To install a set of mirrors I've had for 4years. These went onto the fenders!

Since I haven't seen anyone stateside do it, I said F' it, why not. I also hit up my friend Rob again @TC and he hooked me up with a BYS style lip in poly/plastic. I wanted to stay away from carbon for the lip since the car is sitting a lot lower than before. Carbon lips are way too pricy to get destroyed and let alone get stolen!You can also see the OEM honda mudgaurds that I bought from work.


A Couple of days later, I hit up Mandy again from Godspeed Project and she hooked me up with a blue 6-point rollcage:

Looks kinda like Cusco without the Cusco pricing! lol ( you can also see the DelSol Seats) While i was at it I installed a set of Rallye/Wink 5 panel mirror to help get rid of the blind spots;

 
This is how she sits for now. I want to do more mods but I dont know what else to do.

here she is with my friend Barry's 4door DC: HellaFast and HellaFlush with his B20GSR and Diamond Wheels:

For now I guess, Im just gonna enjoy driving her around again!

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