Originally Posted by HalluciDrummer

Hey my name is Brad. I've been lurking this site for about 7 years now. Used to have a different username but it was attached to an old email and for the life of me I can't find it. Figure I would start fresh with a new one. I'm here looking for some advice and opinions.

I own a 99 Civic EX. Red. I bought it 'used' around 2007 with about 85k miles on it. There were a few red flags that I ignored when I bought the car, but I was young and stupid; signed the papers anyway. Red flags? …the car-fax report originally stated the car was white; when I bought it was red. The AC 'mumbled' but did not blow cold air. The plastic fender liners were barely attached, etc. I should have never bought this car but I REALLY really wanted a '99 stick-shift red civic. I had a 72 month loan on it.. ..so in my head, I was thinking I would just fix it and modify it to my liking once it was paid off

It's now 2013, it is still my daily driver and it has about 185k on it now. I love this car, but I hate it at the same time. I've treated this car like absolute DOG ****. Since I purchased the car around 6 years ago, I have not put one dollar into preventative maintainence at all. This of course excludes oil changes, tires, and the occasional brake repair. The normal things a 'good' civic owner should have done like changing the water pump, timing belt, etc.. have YET22 to be done. This is partially from my lack of basic maintenance knowledge, being lazy, and spending all of my expendable income on drum equipment and Dj gear. The car is really starting to fall apart….

Shortly after I bought the car, as my luck would have it, I was driving down Gornto Lake in Brandon and hit a kid riding a mountain bike; he jumped the curb out of nowhere, I nailed him going around 25 mph. I freaked out, the kid knew he obviously did something wrong, wasn't hurt and proceeded to take off. My new and beloved Civic wasn't so fortunate. You wouldn't think hitting a mountain bike at 25mph would do much damage, but it did. My front bumper cover broke completely off, my grille cracked in half and a huge dent was left in my hood. I proceeded to drive the car to a nearby parking lot and while doing so, my fender linings broke off and my two front wheels ran both of the linings over, which in turn pulled the bulb fixtures out of my headlights. I was really broke at the time so of course I wasn't able to fork over hundreds of dollars to a body shop to fix my front end. I was spending a lot of time on drifting forums back then and I saw a couple pictures that gave me an idea of how I could temp fix my fucked up bumper. See pic below.. …it's been like that ever since. ( …btw, my neighbor at the time was a cop so I did in fact fill out a police report in regards to hitting the kid. He was fine. )

My AC. I've only owned two cars in my life and neither of them have had functioning AC. Tampa is a terrible place to drive a car without AC. When I first bought my civic, like mentioned above, the AC 'mumbled' and blew a little bit of air but there certainly was no 'full blast.' It wasn't even cold and it did not blow out of the two vents above my radio. My parents were sympathetic to this issue. Although extremely pissed that I bought a 'lemon,' they shelled out $900 for my AC repair. I have never heard of a cheap AC repair. The shop apparently replaced my 'compressor' and something else.. ..originally quoting me at $1100 but I was able to talk them down to $900. This was somewhat of a temporary fix. When I got the car back from the shop, the AC blew extremely cold but there still was no 'full blast' and there still was no air flowing from the center vents. I was not satisfied with the way the AC system was working after the repair. It was extremely cold, but still not 100%.

A few months later, I guess my 'ac blower' underneath my glove box started to go out. Made the craziest noise I have ever heard. Sounded like a weed eater was in my glove box every time I turned my AC on. I bought one used and installed it myself. The noise went away, but there was no noticeable effect on how the AC blew or felt. As it sits right now, my AC barely blows air. I can feel a 'faint' breeze coming from my side vents on the MAX AC setting and still nothing from my center vents. I can hear my AC working when its set the MAX AC setting but hardly nothing is coming out. My windshield defogger does not work either. I've had some pretty interesting commutes home trying to defog my windshield. I should mention that the heat has never worked.

I've never done a tuneup. Owned the car since 85k and it now has 185k and I've NEVER had a tuneup. It runs like ****. I replaced a faulty distributor that was preventing the car from starting after sitting for a few months. Right now, when I start the car, at a complete idle, the engine will pulse/rev to 1k and back down until completely warm; that **** can't be good. Timing issue? Idk. It leaks oil; not bad, but it does leak. When looking at the engine, there is oil covering the block. I believe it is coming from underneath the head. Blown head gasket? Probably...

My car just flat out looks like **** as well. The once glossy red paint has since succumbed to the Florida sunshine. It now resembles a low quality matte-red spray. The paint is chipping in places which signals to me that it was a poor quality paint job to begin with. After my front bumper was damaged, I got replacement head lights from eBay; the cheap kind. They were good for about 3 months but now they are yellow and barely emit ANY light. The terrible looking paint job, my yellow headlights + a zip-tied front bumper make my car look homeless. This needs to be fixed…

Other minor issues include windshield washers that do not work, carpet that is moldy that needs to be replaced, and a steering wheel that is on crooked…

I still really love this car and I WANT to keep it. With the afore-mentioned issues, would it just be cheaper to get another one? This car has never left me stranded. I figure my engine right now is my biggest concern. I'm getting the feeling that it is about to completely shut down; the warning signs are all there. I worked as a tire popper at Sears for a few years and although I do have intermediate at best mechanic skills, I HATE working on cars and the major work would be done by a shop. In my head, my engine requires basically all new of everything. If I decide to start fixing things, my budget for my engine would be about $1500. With that price, would I be able to get a shop to reliably rebuild the engine? I've read on various forums that I could get a new-used D16Y8 with 30-60k miles anywhere from $500-800? With that being said, do you think $1500 would cover the cost of the engine + installation at a local shop? Too rebuild or to swap, thats the question. I always wanted to boost it, but always wanted a bullet proof built engine.. ..forged rods + pistons, ARP studs, etc. A simple but sturdy D16 build. Goal would be around 200-250hp on moderate boost but SAFELY …is $1500 a realistic number to have a shop rebuild my current D16 under those circumstances? If I decide to swap the engine, can I assume whoever is doing the work would be able to diagnose my AC issue as well? I noticed that AC repair shops are normally limited to this type of work...

My bodywork issues I can take care of pretty cheap. It made me happy to find out that Honda body parts basically snap on like legos. Any websites to find cheap OEM Honda parts would be appreciated. I'll be looking on craigslist as well. Are the cheap OEM body parts from eBay even worth it?

Owning this car has been very easy over-all. I guess if I had spent more time in the Honda/Import social circles here in Tampa, I would've learned how to fix all this **** myself and/or got to know someone who does this kind of stuff for fun and would've done it for a few hundred dollars and a case of beer. But I didn't, so I'm going to be paying out the *** from a shop. So please, with all of that being said, let me hear your advice, opinions, questions, flames.

Originally Posted by grumblemarc

Wanted car. Didn't take care of car. Wanted to fix up car. Doesn't like working on car. Didn't do **** to the car except drive it into the ground. Wants NOW (pipe dream) to fix up car. Wants to boost it (pipe dream) like everybody else and has no serious budget like everyone else. Claims he still loves his car. Car now a falling apart POS and asks if it's worth it to put money into it when he never has before.

Originally Posted by Emeraldbomber

Title should have been edited to FRAT warning.

Cliff note for those who dont read :

My suggestion is to find something new because that poor car is long gone to me. Just my 2 cents

Originally Posted by 95ProjectEJ1

It baffles me how poorly people treat their cars.

Originally Posted by grumblemarc

Where do I start?
Wanted car. Didn't take care of car. Wanted to fix up car. Doesn't like working on car. Didn't do **** to the car except drive it into the ground. Wants NOW (pipe dream) to fix up car. Wants to boost it (pipe dream) like everybody else and has no serious budget like everyone else. Claims he still loves his car. Car now a falling apart POS and asks if it's worth it to put money into it when he never has before.

I wouldn't recommend you buy another anything because it'll wind up another POS like this one. Your past history speaks for itself.

Can't make this **** up.

Originally Posted by PerfectionIsKey

I disagree SO MUCH. I don't know why people like this should even own a car. It's sickning that anyone would not do basic maintence and care of there care. I have 3 cars on my lot right now(That's including my parents), i do oil changed(Synthetic oil) every 2500 on ALL three and do all maintence. It doesn't take much time at all out of your day to work on your care. You've had the care since 07 even if you saved up 1 SINGLE DOLLOR a day you would have almost 2k to put into your car. Keep the car and get to work on it. Start with ALL the body work and learn how to do it yourself. Once your done fixing all the pathetic damage, you need to start looking for a good swap(Depending on what you want to do with it) and before you drop the engine in the car, clean up the engine(get it bored,hot tanked,ect) then clean up your engine bay and get a fresh new swap. There is no reason at all you should go buy a new car when you already ruined this one and that money can go into this car.

Originally Posted by HalluciDrummer

I KNOW you have better advice than 'I wouldn't recommend you buy another anything because it'll wind up another POS like this one. Your past history speaks for itself.'

Originally Posted by grumblemarc

Nope. That's about it.

It's not like you bought it in that condition and are trying to restore it. You let it get that way. You should know how much it has deteriorated, what needs fixing and what it should cost. Is it worth it to fix back up? That's a question only YOU can answer.

I cannot begin to answer this question because I wouldn't have let it happen were the situation mine to be in. Even when I was dead broke I owned a Prelude and I took care of my car because it was my sole means of transportation. Did that for nearly 6 years. Obviously your priorities were elsewhere.

It's unfathomable how someone can profess to love a car and treat it the way you have. It screams bullshit to me. Given your history with this car I can only guess what you'll do with a new one. Were this my story I wouldn't have revealed most of this story out of shame.

Find a car you want to buy and make a list of how much this one will cot to get to the point you claim you want it at and compare the two. Don't even see the reason for this entire thread.

Originally Posted by HalluciDrummer

I deserved that. The financial situation I was in THEN is no where near the one I am in now.. ..with that being said my budget is not an issue. There were things in my personal life that I was forced to deal with, and I was being drained financially. I'm not making any excuses, but restoring my car just was not an option.

It's obvious to me, that by reading your response, that you now have a general negative opinion about me. Putting that aside, with your join date and massive amount of posts, I'm sure you are a plethora of knowledge on the subject. I KNOW you have better advice than 'I wouldn't recommend you buy another anything because it'll wind up another POS like this one. Your past history speaks for itself.'

Originally Posted by HalluciDrummer

The bodywork isn't an issue. I've stripped my car multiple times just to figure out how to put it back together. Only thing thats keeping me from re-doing the body work is actually PURCHASING new body panels. I'd ideally like to get my engine issue taken care of; I would rather drive around a car that runs great but looks like **** rather than vice versa. To be honest with you, the car has been stolen 3 times and thrashed pretty hard, so I'm ok with it not looking so hot for a while. Sadly I know once I fix the bodywork and get a new paintjob, it's going to get stolen again. People in Tampa love stealing Civics.

Originally Posted by HalluciDrummer

"Find a car you want to buy and make a list of how much this one will cot to get to the point you claim you want it at and compare the two."

That was a great piece of advice. The decision to keep my car was made long before I made this thread. I hope in the next few months my hard work will have paid off and hopefully you'll have a better opinion.

Originally Posted by habanerored06si

So you didn't get a oil change for 100k? Going by the math...

100k driven. Assuming every 3k an oil change.

100k drive */* 3k oil changes = 33.3 oil changes skipped. 33.3 oil changes X $20? = so you saved more than $600. $400 would give you a full d16z6 swap. Remaining $200 for a/c unit + front bumper.

Everything is in retrospect and it seems to me there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Again, take the time to read the info off this site, do whatever you need to do to motivate yourself to get started.

Originally Posted by Ayee_drian

I agree 100% with what you wrote before you edited it.

Originally Posted by habanerored06si

Ron edited. I respect his work on this site, so I don't mind.

Originally Posted by habanerored06si

So you didn't get a oil change for 100k? Going by the math...

100k driven. Assuming every 3k an oil change.

100k drive */* 3k oil changes = 33.3 oil changes skipped. 33.3 oil changes X $20? = so you saved more than $600. $400 would give you a full d16z6 swap. Remaining $200 for a/c unit + front bumper.

Everything is in retrospect and it seems to me there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Again, take the time to read the info off this site, do whatever you need to do to motivate yourself to get started.