- 2,568
- Wonderland
- zyla-corps
- N/A
I've finally decided to make a thread for my Civic. It's hard for me to not share something with everyone that I spend most of my time thinking about. It's a bit of a mess right now, but it's a work in progress. I'd like to start from the very beginning; when I purchased the car. I'll cut out most of the fluff but leave all the essential bits in there.
Rewind to late September/early October. I was in search of a vehicle to replace my Ranger. I cannot remember what made me want to get rid of it, but I think it was something related to the transmission. Anyways, I was driving past all of the used car dealerships in the middle of town when I spotted an awesome-looking Focus ZX-3. I pulled in and looked over it, and became more excited at the discovery of it being a manual! I started to turn toward the building to go ask for the keys when I spotted a cute little white Civic sedan on the south side of the lot. I rerouted my destination and started speed walking over to it and peered inside the driver window. 5-speed. Bingo. I was hyped. I had already forgotten about the Focus and made my way to the building for the keys. After acquiring said keys, I approached the Honda once again and started looking over everything. I checked for rust (there was a small amount on the rear fenders), major body damage, interior condition, opened the hood and trunk, and even started the engine. Overall it seemed pretty promising! I asked for a dealer plate and set off for a test drive. The clutch was almost too easy to use. I kept letting it out so fast and slamming it into the floor because I was used to my truck's more rigid transmission. After a short while I got the hang of it all and felt comfortable driving it. Everything about the car seemed to be in great working condition. The only thing I couldn't ignore was the clutch chatter (thankfully that's no longer a problem).
The car was OK'd by my dad and myself and the keys were handed over after filling out all the paperwork and such. Now that I had the car, I had to do the typical Honda owner thing and modify it! One of the first things I made sure to do was change the ghastly chrome tail lights someone had put on it.
You'll notice that I also removed the reflectors on the rear quarter panels as well.
---
Within the month of October alone, several parts were purchased for the car, including: timing belt and water pump kit (that I still haven't needed to install), a short shifter, a new shift knob, an OEM front bumper replacement, an oil change, new wiper blades, and SeaFoam.
After that, a few other things were purchased for it (front bumper reinforcment bar, front fenders, headers) but the cold months were rough for me. I was unable to buy hardly anything for the car except for gas. But I'm out of that rut now and things are picking up again.
Right now, the car has no backseat in order to make room for the 8-point roll cage I plan to buy for it. There is also no carpet, but that isn't permanent; I intend to buy red carpet for it sometime in the near future. The clearcoat has been sanded away. I had a brief phase of wanting to ratrod the car and I ended up spray painting it. After maybe two days I couldn't stop cringing at the thought of it and sanded the spray paint away and went back to the original plan. I should also mention that back around the time I bought the car, I looked into fixing the rust around the edges of the rear fenders and found that a lot of the body was rotten, but only in that general area - everywhere else is fine. All of the holes have been ridden of the rust and filled with Bondo. A while back, the exhaust rusted through and fell apart in two different places, so I'm down to running just a manifold and a cat. It's loud as crap but I've had no trouble from police about it. So yeah, the car is rough looking right now but it's on it's way to looking good.
The car runs and drives excellent though. It has 225k miles on it and it feels like it has 1/3 of that amount. The transmission is tight and shifts smoothly. I've yet to have a single mechanical problem with the car. It does, however, have a busted motor mount that causes some vibration on the freeway, but nothing too worrying until I can get it replaced. It was only recently discovered.
I currently have a lowering kit on the way, consisting of D2 springs and TruHart sport shocks. After the car is low, I'll be purchasing my exhaust system and wheels.
That's basically all I have for now, but I should be seeing that lowering kit on my doorstep fairly soon, so stick around. 👍
Rewind to late September/early October. I was in search of a vehicle to replace my Ranger. I cannot remember what made me want to get rid of it, but I think it was something related to the transmission. Anyways, I was driving past all of the used car dealerships in the middle of town when I spotted an awesome-looking Focus ZX-3. I pulled in and looked over it, and became more excited at the discovery of it being a manual! I started to turn toward the building to go ask for the keys when I spotted a cute little white Civic sedan on the south side of the lot. I rerouted my destination and started speed walking over to it and peered inside the driver window. 5-speed. Bingo. I was hyped. I had already forgotten about the Focus and made my way to the building for the keys. After acquiring said keys, I approached the Honda once again and started looking over everything. I checked for rust (there was a small amount on the rear fenders), major body damage, interior condition, opened the hood and trunk, and even started the engine. Overall it seemed pretty promising! I asked for a dealer plate and set off for a test drive. The clutch was almost too easy to use. I kept letting it out so fast and slamming it into the floor because I was used to my truck's more rigid transmission. After a short while I got the hang of it all and felt comfortable driving it. Everything about the car seemed to be in great working condition. The only thing I couldn't ignore was the clutch chatter (thankfully that's no longer a problem).
The car was OK'd by my dad and myself and the keys were handed over after filling out all the paperwork and such. Now that I had the car, I had to do the typical Honda owner thing and modify it! One of the first things I made sure to do was change the ghastly chrome tail lights someone had put on it.
You'll notice that I also removed the reflectors on the rear quarter panels as well.
---
Within the month of October alone, several parts were purchased for the car, including: timing belt and water pump kit (that I still haven't needed to install), a short shifter, a new shift knob, an OEM front bumper replacement, an oil change, new wiper blades, and SeaFoam.
After that, a few other things were purchased for it (front bumper reinforcment bar, front fenders, headers) but the cold months were rough for me. I was unable to buy hardly anything for the car except for gas. But I'm out of that rut now and things are picking up again.
Right now, the car has no backseat in order to make room for the 8-point roll cage I plan to buy for it. There is also no carpet, but that isn't permanent; I intend to buy red carpet for it sometime in the near future. The clearcoat has been sanded away. I had a brief phase of wanting to ratrod the car and I ended up spray painting it. After maybe two days I couldn't stop cringing at the thought of it and sanded the spray paint away and went back to the original plan. I should also mention that back around the time I bought the car, I looked into fixing the rust around the edges of the rear fenders and found that a lot of the body was rotten, but only in that general area - everywhere else is fine. All of the holes have been ridden of the rust and filled with Bondo. A while back, the exhaust rusted through and fell apart in two different places, so I'm down to running just a manifold and a cat. It's loud as crap but I've had no trouble from police about it. So yeah, the car is rough looking right now but it's on it's way to looking good.
The car runs and drives excellent though. It has 225k miles on it and it feels like it has 1/3 of that amount. The transmission is tight and shifts smoothly. I've yet to have a single mechanical problem with the car. It does, however, have a busted motor mount that causes some vibration on the freeway, but nothing too worrying until I can get it replaced. It was only recently discovered.
I currently have a lowering kit on the way, consisting of D2 springs and TruHart sport shocks. After the car is low, I'll be purchasing my exhaust system and wheels.
That's basically all I have for now, but I should be seeing that lowering kit on my doorstep fairly soon, so stick around. 👍
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