I've been thinking i need to do a project thread, so i can keep track of it better as ive done a lot to it i think, on quite a good bugdet, and just show off my car!
I bought it in December 2005 for £1700 off a guy in Brighton where it had lived all of its life. it was sold from the John Cooper (Mini) garage when new, and had 3 previous owners before me. came with fHsh... there was nothing wrong with it at all apart from clutch was on its way out and the drivers seat bolster had worn, and some light front end damage which had been repaired. it had all recently been wax-oiled too. but obviously not very good as ive just had to replace the rear arches!! it had 73000 miles on it, and i felt very lucky to own a 4th gen, which was the first vtec civic!! my mate had a GL years ago, and he upgraded to a VT, and when i went in that i thought it was the fastest thing ever!!! i never knew what vtec was until that point, and it was crazy!!! i couldnt believe how rappid and different it was, and how old people would re-act, taking over 5500k!! OH MY GOD!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOO...... dangerous thinking about it for old people!! IF YOUR OLD - DONT BUY VTEC, YOU'LL ONLY GET YOURSELF HURT!!!!!
I haven't spent a lot on the car really (yet). My old 306 S16 i spent loads on, around £6-7 i think, and that was mainly on the engine. It was so sweet though!! after i crashed it i wasnt really in the mood to get another car - as i loved my 306 to bits and was almost perfect!! I was gunna buy some Group N cams for it, which would of made it around 200bhp (he says! lol). it was as quick as a B16 anyways when it died.
Prang!!
I oversteered too much and jumped up the curb into a lamp post at 50mph. very scary and dont want it to happen again!! was mainly due to sh1t tyres and sh1t new roads!! even the 5-0 said the road was dodgy. as soon as i stopped and spat the glass out my mouth, i started the engine and it was perfect. someone got an amazing engine who ever towed it away to scrap land.
THE CAR
when i got it home after a mad after work friday mission.... a mate rang me up, said he found this, left work an hour early, got down to Brighton about 7pm and loved it!!! I had beaten a few people to it as well.
One thing i did have to do after a few weeks was fit a new radiator - very easy!! being the first thing i did on the speedboat - i was chuffed, and got it for £40 i think off here! just had to pull the drain plug out, let that drain, undo it and lift it up and out. then slot the new one in, fill up and make sure its all filled/no air in the pipes etc...
I had to get a new clutch fitted - just a normal one as i still want it driveable on day to day basis. got one for £100 from the local auto factors, and cost around £190 to fit. its an LuK one, and had an exedy sticker on it - haha!
Next came the door speaker pods. the ones in there were just an mdf bracket, and water was getting on the speakers - so that needed doing - cant have sh1t like that going on!! again i got some off the forums - lovin it!! I got a pipercross panel filter too - cost me £30 off motorsportworld. I couldnt find the right K&N part number and size, and originally i wanted the ITG one, but they dont do one for the EE/EF, and seeing as they are made of foam (which i think is a much better idea) i went for Pipercross.
I spotted an oil leak from the rocker, and the usual places, so went to Honda, and came back with a new sump gaskets too as aparently i needed one, funny thing is they fecked up the order, so turned out cheaper than it was suppose to. hahahahaha!!! was suppose to be £216 and turned out like £126 or something like that.
Quick pic of the VT's mileage
I then went for a new exhaust which i bought on ebay from some asian guy from up north, it was £130. he drove down in a Toyota Lucia and delivered it!! it was an SSR or SRS one i think, and it was LOUD!!! came off a crx vt. got it fitted by a local guy i go to for stuff i cant do, and got him to fit a striaght B&M short shifter that i found on ebay for £35 at the same time. It was very nice. i like it being straight but had to lean forward more (the standard shifter has a bend), but it was a real nice smooth change... good for lazy nite time drivers! u no wot im sayin!!
The exhaust was crazy loud!! the guy that put it on had a civic ek coupe, and had a notoriously loud exhaust on that, now he has a mini and that loud as fook. just a co-inserdence. but it opened up vtec a treat!!
I don't really do the whole ICE thing, but ive only had 1 Alpine headunit in all my cars, its black with red buttons...
Wacked that in, and some kenwood speakers i had lying about and still got them all today. they dont have much punch but they will do. i love my hip-hop, but i just dont wanna spend loads on speakers, and rather get the rest of the car sorted. it had a sony cd player in too, so got some money back from that!
Next came lowering with some Tein springs. i ordered them from sumo power - who are a great bunch, and got them delivered for £160. i fitted these myself, (see the coilover fitting for 'how to') and it lowered it by 30/35mm which is a real nice drop. And they are a great set of springs! Cant fault Tein!!
And I can't believe my bad luck with strut braces - i had the same storey with my 306.
This is just a picture of one, but as far as i can remember, ive had 4 for the front and 3 for the back and only the ebay one fitted the rear. the Spats one fitted the front but touched the bit that gets in the way (see pic). I think only vision/spoon and cusco fit the front proper. So it clears the little disc thing sticking out the inlet manifold - i cant remember what its called...
Then came the siR spoiler. now heres a storey!! bought off a member for £100, it was white, but frost white, and mine is polar white. anyway, to fit it i needed to cut away about an inch of hard rubber that goes down the back window - as the siR spoiler goes down further. in comes my old man - overseeing what im doing and being nosey as usual, he then takes over which he does on a regular basis. i mean my dads wicked - can make anything and do anything DIY, very handy person to have around
- thats until he slices off half of his finger cutting the rubber. so had to finish it myself while my dads bleeding everywhere, and get him down A&E. apart from that it was all good. pretty easy to wire up - you just got to feed the wire down the boot seal to the brake lights. And make sure no water could get in anywhere
With exhaust, spoiler and springs on round a mates sweet house..
At this point i was looking for more umpf - so i found a DC 4-2-1 manifold on hondacrx. went and met the guy at a garage somewhere, cost me £280, and it had only done a couple of hundred miles. he also gave me a new honda manifold gasket too - which makes it a bit better for the money. it was a bit pricy for me, but had to be done as you'll soon read in a minute. worth it thou, real nice piece of kit, sexy arse welds!! i didnt want the hassle of a 4-1 hitting stuff on bumps as well, as ive heard bad storeys, and its just more hassle and something to worry about.
Didn’t feel much gain but it definitely breathes better, and a slightly deeper note.
All important dash-mat...
Had to get some siR door decals too, give the side of the car a bit more flash, and something for people to read in traffic
only thing is i put them on the wrong way round, after triple checking i was doing them right... lol ow well!! just cant be arsed to do them again. but i proberly will around Xmas time.
JDM rimmage!! some re-furbed watanabees. only thing they were painted with a brush. smooth hammerite silver by the looks of it. it was a good job though - but i wanted to change them 2 black. cost me £190 delivered with tyres!
Then this happened...
DC sports baby!! brand fecking new! this is my best buy so far i think (didnt cost me much
). so now have a full DC mani and cat back exhaust.
CSC photo shoot thing at the skatepark
And a shoot at a business park. These are my mates Civic's, an EG siRII, an EK VTi-S, and an EP3 Type-R on boost.
Painted the 14" Black Racing Watanabe's black as i think it suits the car better than silver on such a small wheel.
I found it a bit of a mission finding mudflaps. sent ricky-j £20 for some front mudflaps, and they never turned up. he said he would get on it and find out, then i never heard from him
. managed to meet someone (sorry cant remember names) off here who had rears, but they didnt fit - they were 16-16 ones, then bought some off ebay i think or someone on here.... lol i cant remember!!!! but didnt have to pay too much for them. only thing is when u lower the car they scape on a lot of bumps, but only the front ones. but god damn they look the sh1t!! also put in some amber bulbs into my sidelights 
At some point of ownership around this point, i was getting a crazy tapping from the engine. couldnt figure it out. so went to honda (had something else i needed them to do as well) and it was a spark plug and the thread had stripped - how the hell can that happen?!?!?! so they put some new NGKs in for me. i bought B18 LMA's at that point ready for a mission, but turned out i didnt need them. ive thought of b16b cams often, but i think my cars fine as it is now. also got a re-condtioned main relay as mine was going crazy in the heat - they got a good thing going with them on hondacrx!
I had issues with the headlight aswell. FECK ME!!!! got a new bulb, dropped inside the headlight - tryed everything to get it out and couldnt. so i though "ill take the light out". tryed to do that and couldnt get the that anoying bolt that is down and behind. got very frustrated - proberly the most p1ss3d off ive been in a while, got a hammer, smashed the light, got the bulb out. then i had to bl00dy tape up the thing and get the glass out. why do they make things like that hard to do? headlight removal should be easy as pie!!
Then i got pissed off trying to tighten up the steering rack in the footwell. while doing that i dropped the metal clip that holds the plastic cover over it down inside and couldnt get my massive hand down there. while doing this, i though "i need a fag and a cuppa T", so was gunna do that, but i popped my shoulder out trying to get out (as i was down the footwell) and smacked my head getting out the car. thats when i punched the VT....
so out comes my mum and pulls the clip straight out.
Had issues with the exhaust, but it was the de-cat. when i got the exhaust fitted the guy didnt put the spring loaded bolts back on, so the was very vibrating (not that u would hear/feel) but it made my de-cat crack. so i bought a new one, got the old one welded by my mates bro, and sold to WELLZ...
The only bodywork that has had to be done is the rear arches. they were both rotten - with only a bit of bubbling on the outside, so make sure you check regulary and clean them out proper - as mud and crap gets stuck in there creating a nice damp environment for rust!! had to get the bmx out the shed while it was in the bodyshop.. which im gunna spray black soon, or get chromed...
It took the guy a month to do as he was busy with other things, but the job came out wicked - he also got rid of the dent i made. all for £350!! it helps having mates in the biz. that did include re-spraying my spoiler too.
and the dent gone
few more shots...
LAST FEW WEEKS...
when i got the car the red stripe was all flakey and old, so ripped that mo-fo off, and only sorted it out a couple of months ago, but i got a stripe that was slightly too think, so i trimed it down. looked ok, but i had to get the right one, so went to halfords and got the 7mm i think - its now all good. 1 or 2mm off the OEM one, but i dont care!!
put a front square number plate on. the old bracket was a b!tch to get off. but the bolts managed to come out the holes in the bumper that were holding it on, then i twisted it around and around and it came out the screw that holds it in down by the fins. then i had to get some nuts back behind there to screw the new plate to. i did this by getting some string/rope, putting the nut on there with a dap of superglue and putting a knot in one end, pulled it behind and held it there till dryed, then screw it on - bobs ur uncle!!
I also re-furbed the OE wheels, i may keep them for spares or sell on.
Got these on... but with some hesitation. JDM Honda Access yo!! they just clip on and have 3M tape on too. i opened the windows, then you need to get the corner of the window rubber out to get the end clip in there, then push it back in
and clip on the rest. after it was done i closed the windows, opened them again to make sure all good, then closed again and pushed up with a credit card to get the rubber sitted properly - rather than catching on the clips of the window deflectors. looks good though, my dad was pleased too! now i need some tints to accent them
Managed to paint all 3 wiper blade arms with black hammerite, as it had all chipped off over time as most do, so now the front looks nice and clean with the new number plate too. abd for the 2nd time my heater control wire has come unhooked. its for the direction slider, and no idea why it keeps happening - as its a bitch when its raining - you cant de-mist the windscreen. honda sorted it before and said it was because the headunit was pushed in too hard or something, but that was ages after i fitted it, and now its happened again and i havent even touched the stereo...???
hmmmmmm...
got round to taking a look at my brakes, as ive never had to change them. gave them a good clean up and painted them a goldy/champagne colour. they now look awesome!! when i get a bit more money in, hopefully december, ill be getting me some ebc yellow stuff pads, and standard discs. i dont want bigger brakes, decent hoses and pads are all you should need IMO.
last week i fitted a set of Tein Basic coilovers. very very easy.... only bad side if any, is that if you live in an area with pooh roads, like i do, then it can be tedious. and your cd player will start skipping too.
They came with a nice set of stickers.
(front)
- jack up on axle stands
- wheel off
- take out 2 10mm brake line nuts
- take out 14mm bolt clamping the bottom of the strut in the LCA
- take out bottom 17mm bolt that goes in the LCA fork end
- undo 2 bolts under engine holding it up and take out the strut
- get the new 1, grease up adjusters thread, and put them just below half way - about 1.75" from the bottom of the thread
- whack it up there, put the lca on the bottom, then get the bottom 17mm bolt back threw - pull up on the brakes to get lca on strut properly and put the 14mm bolt back in (should be a mark where u need it on new strut)
- do up top 2 bolts under the bonnet
- zip tie brake lines to lca or strut
- check everything is tight again
- wheel on - done! should be set at the right height too!
i had to get the top mounts off my old ones too. so remember that when buying new suspension, most kits dont come with new ones, so you'll need spring compressors or some know-how and muscle (i used big zip ties and clamps!). you dont want it to ping off anyway, as you need the bits and what order they go on!
(rear)
the rears were relatively easy, but again you need more muscle to pull/push the hub/arm out the way to slide the suspension out. its 1 bolt on the bottom of the strut, then 1 bolt where the arm connects to the hub, then undo the top 2 in the boot and get that mo-fo outta there!!
New tyres - michelin pilot exaltos (PE2) all round. £210 fitted
Ordered a DC de-cat pipe while i was off work. it arrived but was way too short. i mean the guy said it was 2inches shorter so it would mate up better, and as mine sticks out i thought this was the solution. cost me £100 delivered, and yeh it was too short. it would of made the exhaust hit the body underneath.
I've had a new CV boot fitted and the joint sorted (or so it seems...). had a double bend short shifter put in, as the old one was straight and made everything forward a bit, but that one felt nice to shift. that was friday!
And today I got the tracking done. so thats the suspension sorted, for now
!! and the engine runs sweet and always has, ive had to buy nothing else or had no other problems from what ive typed for the last hour (fingers crossed)!! ive changed the oil and filter every 3500 miles, and had a Honda 96k service (currently on 93,908).but things left to do...
> re-hang drivers door, and sort out 2 small dents and scrape down edge of door (like its hit a brick wall when opened a little too hard a few times)
> decent alarm, proberly clifford, which i imagine being about £350, my last one was.
> shorten tailpipe, as it sticks out a bit
> lick of paint on the wheels, and re-spray wing mirrors
> rear brown tints, £170
> drivers seat re-conditioned
> re-new any rusty bolts, and sort out some new ground wires under the hood
> a few new bushes and maybe camber adjusters
> jdm rear bumper
> amber indicators, which i wanna try myself
> order and fit new discs and pads, hopefully new s/s hoses too
> take key lock/barrell out of the boot
I'd just like to say thanks for helping me out with all the questions and stuff, selling/buying to and from me, and just being here really - thanks to Craig there is a wealth of knowledge on this site, THE place for 4G owners!!! ive learnt so much as well while owning a civic, its great! CHEERS!!!
i get looks from loads of people - from kids to old people, they all love the retro cool-ness ive created!
a lot more women look my way too...
not that they didnt already lolI'll proberly edit this post at some point after ive read through it and realised im half cut, its saturday night and im going out, and this is MASSIVEE!!!
Stay safe people, and look after your 4th gen!!!
