Tom B.

UK member and have owned the car for a few months now. It was imported about 8 years ago and I am the 3rd UK owner. It's closer to say I am the 2nd UK owner as the guy before me only had the car for a few months/500 miles.

It's a P registration with approxiamtely 109,000KMs on the clock, 96' Spec JDM import in Championship White!

After five minutes of driving it home, I was saying to myself 'what a car!'.

It has a few modifications including:
KW Variant 2 coilovers (Height and rebound adjustable)
Bridgestone Potenza RE002 front tyres and budget tyres on the rear
Resonated De-cat pipe
Tanabe Racing Medallian mid pipe & muffler
A/C removed
Stereo system removed
No antenna
Toad Cat 1 Alarm system

Pictures of when I got her.

Tom B.

Polished the headlights with Autosol and Autoglym Super Resin Polish. Finished them off with some Autoglym Fast Glass.

They still aren't perfect but they are much better than they were!

Before



After



Also, those little paint chips above the headlight have now been touched in with a Genuine Honda Championship White touch up pen!

Tom B.

Next up was a full service.







Cleaning bits from Honda. I can recommened both of these.

Tom B.

Next up. I sealed the 'slit' on both sides using Tiger Seal.

Tom B.

Rear interior stripped to look for rust on the inner arches. There was almost none whatsoever! Bonus! Just some dirt that I assumed had come in from the 'slit' before it was sealed. Wire brushed the small amount of rust, Rust Remedy then a coat of underseal. Job done.

I also treated a few minor bits of surface rust on the boot floor.

Tom B.

New Genuine badges front & rear.



A heat gun was my first weapon of choice.



The difference between the old and new!



Rear done.

Tom B.

All arches undersealed.

Tom B.

New Honda rear brake pads & recondition right rear caliper(Right rear was sticking). Serviced the brakes, bled the new caliper.

Tom B.

Found a mint OE gear **** to replace the carbon fibre aftermarket one fitted by the previous owner. Also picked up an OE clock blank.

Tom B.

OE Antenna Bung.

Tom B.

Checked behind the mirrors for rust - hardly anything. Will most likely treat what's there and give the area a lick of paint.

Tom B.

Photoshoot.

Tom B.

More undersealing. Also sprayed the rear lower tie bar and rear boot brace.





This is the stuff I'm using ...

Tom B.

B18C selfie! Haha.

[/url]

Tom B.

Changing the timing belt.

Seedc2

iTrader: (1)

good work, looks great!

Tom B.

Pictures from the weekend. I have now removed the window tints too.

feck

Lovely car Tom B, well may you wear!

Great work going towards preserving her too, which is so important IMH. Fewer and fewer are close to as Honda made them, especially the JDM 96/97(in my neck of the woods anyway), which is after all the actual original of the species and yours looks like a beauty. And a non ABS, airbag model to boot. The Pure(™) one. Sweet. The interior looks amazingly well preserved.

Good call on sorting out the slit thingy. When I read of it first over on the UK R forum and the unseen woes some lads and lasses had I needed a stiff drink and a lie down before I investigated my own arches. Luckily, like you mine was grand, as it's a 98 JDM, teeny bit of surface stuff in one arch, but some Bilt Hamner rust killer, followed up by their wax and a couple of pints of waxoyl on top made me a lot happier. OK, yea I went overboard and now my R is more rust killer/wax than car, but I did mention the stiff drink beforehand… FWIW I'd have a look behind the front bumper for possible rust, seems to be an area that attracts the crap.

Yep that was pretty much my face when I sorted mine out.

Tom B.

Thanks mate! Do you have a build thread?

It's not easy, especially being a bit OCD about everything. Pretty much every weekend I'm doing something to her if I am not cleaning her.

The area behind the front bumper is next on my list to underseal! Other areas (which I will probably do next year now) are; floor pans - these still have plenty of underseal on them, could be OE as it's white, so I am only adding a layer of my black underseal for added protection and so it looks neater underneath. Exhaust channel - plan for this is to remove the exhaust and heat shields. Whilst they are off I'll rub them down and give them a lick of silver hammerite. Fuel tank and some tight areas around it - not going to take it off.

Obviously I clean the areas, grind and treat any surface rust before applying the underseal.

Tom B.

I do nearly all the work myself to save money, and I know what I'm getting. Beleive it or not it's my only car but I am very lucky in that I work from home so don't use it to commute.

CW-ITR

iTrader: (11)

Great looking caR and good work Tom. Type R meant to be driven. You and the car will be happier

Tom B.

Thanks, man. Haha. I drive it at least once a week :-)

feck

Nah, it's pretty much the same as I got it back in 06 T. Just do maintenance and keep an eye out for any corrosion, but so far so good(touch wood). Daily driver in all that time too and I use it for work. Yep. It's a surprisingly roomy "van" when the need arises.

This is an old pic(and my avatar);



Handily shows the best of the local weather. Sure you know that one yourself. Since then I slapped on some clear side repeaters and I sourced some grey OEM wheels, to replace the ones that were nicked on the boat from Japan(I ended up with the previous owners Civic Type R ones wearing snow tyres) Though I went for UKDM ones as 1) I'm a cheap so and so and the tyres are cheaper and 2) on some Irish roads a moon buggy would be a better bet so the bigger JDM ones would be more prone to damage.

EDIT here's a more recent pic from last week of the oily bits.



All standard really and not looking too bad for 160,000 Kms on the clock. Doesn't use a drop of oil either. They're a scarily reliable oul beast. The only non service parts I've done has been a distributor rebuild which cost less than 80 quid.

You have it well covered. Other areas I'd fire wax into are into the bonnet leading edge and the bottom of the boot lid. If she has a tendency to leak from the rear lights as they often do any moisture ends up in the spare wheel well and then by condensation on the glass into the boot lid. That's what I found anyway when one year I ended up with the makings of a carp pond in my boot. You can sort the leaks with new rear light gaskets from Honda, or better yet get some of the aftermarket ones made from much thicker neoprene as the originals are as thin as a catwalk model. Here's a link to a lad selling them. I dunno what quality they are and no doubt there's someone closer. Californian owners are reading all this as if it's in a foreign language.

Mine sits outdoors in the Irish weather so it pays for me to be paranoid. On that score T make sure you have security sorted as these cars need good security layers like a fish needs water.

joey1320

Great work!

Glad to see someone paying attention to the important aspects of maintenance and rust protection.

On my SI, I've primed/painted/undercoated all inner fenders, inner trunk sides and now working on the interior parts of the car. I've started with the drivers' door - removed the panel, cleaned off dirt, sprayed 3M Moly-Lube and will do a second coat soon. Then onto the rest...

It never ends but at least you know you are preserving a real beauty!

B16EJ

Looks great! Any plans with the muffler?