I had a friend of mine lower it today, and it also received new lower balljoints that it so desperately needed. It was quite the process with all the mishaps and we had a pretty nice adventure both to and from.

I live just north of Detroit, about 5 minutes. Myself and a friend drove my Civic out to Lansing to work on it in his collision shop which has all the right tools for the job. It's about 2 hours from me/100 miles. Anyways we got there and put it on the hoist everything came off pretty smoothly until we were trying to pop the axle nut off the driver side, it took a very very extreme amount of heat and a very powerful snap on impact to break the axle nut free.



While on the hoist we were playing with the ride height in the rear and the driver side brake line snapped so I had to replace that while we were at it.



After all that it wasn't too bad just time consuming, and my friend scored a front lip for me from the junk yard and we made that fit properly which I'm really happy with how it came out.



I'm probably just going to zip stitch the gap in the front, it's not even noticeable in person on the ground though.

This is final ride height for now, it will be going lower once I get some wheels picked out here shortly. I had cash for wheels this week but I ended up buying an iPad instead. The wheels can wait another week or two.



After all of that, it was back together and I went to drive the car under it's own power, it wouldn't go anymore, motor was running, clutch engaged, not moving though, we noticed the axle had popped out of the trans on the driver side, no big deal right? Pop it back in! Still, won't move. Take off the driver side wheel, remove the axle nut, smack the axle with a hammer a few times and make sure it's seated to the transmission flush, which it was. Look at the splines in the hub... It's a 23 spline axle in a 26 spline hub. The reason the axle nut was torqued so tightly was to draw the two together and make the car able to move under it's own power. I drove over 1,000 miles like this and had zero issues.. Kind of scary. I called autozone at 10:56, they close at 11 p.m. They kindly agreed to wait for us to show up and purchase the axle which only took us about 6 minutes to get there. It was a little crazy how a simple lowering job turned into so much more.

We had one hell of a time bleeding the brakes and for some reason I still have barely any pedal... I think I may have to replace the master or use a vacuum pump possibly. I had to drive 3 hours home with pretty much no brakes, and 45 minutes of that drive with no exhaust

 

Your story is starting to sound like my own. Only difference...you have money for parts.

 

hahahah, wow man, one thing after the other. Glad you got it all straightened out (well, sorta, right?). Things never go as simple as they should.

 

Yeah it's parked today until I can get a buddy to weld the system back in but way higher up this time lol. I love how it looks but I already want more low. Just have to wait for rims now.

 

You have to pay to play, I've been on unpaid medical leave since June 1st 2011 and I have been living off savings and bartering. I guess I just manage money a little better than most?

 

Thought you said you own a vinyl decal company?

 

You are correct. Non operational currently. I can an will make stickers but it's not open to public like it was. I just beat cancer late 2011 so I haven't got back to work yet. I also worked in aerospace before I was diagnosed.

 

Raised the entire exhaust system from the header back almost 2 inches today. It's all back back together!

 

Today I went to a friends house, he has a stock ride height EF so I took a few comparison pictures.





Also, my passenger mudflap ripped off today and I didn't have any washers big enough to compensate, so I used a few beer caps :D.

 

I run 195/50r15s on my 90 CRX Si and love the 15" wheel. My ride is a little stiff, partially due to the low profile tires, partially due to the car being lowered, but I like it. I ran 16s for a minute and I didn't hate them, but I like the 15s better. One difference that I remember is w/o power steering, it was more effort turning the 16s with a slightly larger, bigger tire; and, more rim and more tire means more unsprung wheel weight and a greater rotating mass to stop, but the differences in stopping, acceloration and handling were minor. I only had the 16s on for about 2 months before changing back to 15".

 

Thanks for your input. 195/50 is about the biggest I want to run because it will be going even lower here shortly.

 

I vote bottle caps.. Cheap, fits well, and you can go plenty low depending on the tire size you run.. They also fit the time period and sharp angles of the car well IMO..

 

x2 bottlecaps are ill! wish i could find a set locally!

 

one of the better ef hatches i have seen with that high of mileage good body too

 

Thanks! Today was eventful. I drove back out to Lansing to pick up a passenger window glass and passenger crx si seat. Also picked up a set of $15" steeliness that I'm going to paint and hope they hold me over until I find wheels I love.



Just need the driver seat and I'm good to go. Had to modify the bracket but everything came out great.




The mark on the driver window was indentical to the passenger side. New glass was the only option.


He also rolled over 291,xxx on my way back from Lansing today.




I guess I have been cornering pretty hard as well.....

 

I'll just leave these here.....

 

Looks nice dropped. Any luck with the new wheels?

 

I just can't afford wheels currently so I'm rolling on all 13's again. I went and looked at a set of used slipstreams on Monday...... They were all curbed so I passed on the deal at $300 with SHOT tires.

So I may just order tires for my 15" steelies. I'm thinking 165/45/15's which of course are special order.

Currently my valve cover gasket is pissing oil on my transmission so I'll be replacing that this afternoon.

 

What front lip is that?

 

I wish I could tell you. It was a junkyard find. It looks damn good and handles all the abuse I give it though