mbish23

Updates:

Page 1: Background info, Before Pics, & Pics from Accident
Page 1 Post #16: Pictures of 99-00 Conversion after Accident

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Last Tuesday I got into a car accident on my way to school where the front end of my Civic went under the rear end of another guy's Saab and once he pulled away from my car to move to the side it pretty much ripped off my front end from the damage done to my car going under his.

My hood was all bent up and in a V shape pretty much, my driver's side fender had a nice dent on it, my front bumper was just about hanging on the ground (the only thing holding it up was that the support beam that runs inside it and attaches to the radiator support was still attached at the bottom, at the top it was ripped clean off on both sides) whatever the structural support that runs inside the bumper and attaches to the radiator support (I forget the name of it) was ruined and like I said at the top it was ripped clean off the radiator support, the top of the radiator support was bent up into an almost corkscrew shape on the driver's side, both side baffles of the radiator support were ruined, and maybe like one or 2 other things were broken too.

I'd never really dealt with any structural problems and fixing them before and I also wasn't 100% sure what structurally was ruined and what wasn't so I took it to the best auto body shop in my town (it's basically a 1 car garage owned by an older guy and looks like a piece of **** place but in reality the guy has over 40 years, if not more, of doing body work and is the best around) so I dropped it off at his shop and popped the hood and within 5 minutes he had already written out a list of everything I would need fixed and what he could salvage (that support beam that runs inside the front bumper for example) and what he couldn't. He also quoted me a price that was pretty fair and since I told him I'm a poor college kid he said he'd try to stay as close to that price (about $1000 including all parts and labor) that he could.

Obviously I also still need the front plastics at this point since I haven't addressed that yet but now I'm about to. I've owned my Civic for like a year now, maybe 1.5 years max, but before I ever owned it I always knew I wanted a Civic or an Integra and used to dream about what I would do to them if I owned one and had unlimited funds. Because of this I basically have a really solid foundation as to what I want to do to my car since I dreamed about it for a year before I even got the car. One of the things I wanted to do if I ended up getting a car made before 1999 was to get the 99-00 Front End Conversion.

So now I've had my car for a year. I bought a mainly stock 1998 with 100K on it, Enkei rims, a JVC radio, and tints. Besides those parts it's 100% stock. I've wanted that front end conversion since I bought my car and a couple times I've had more then enough funds to buy it but I could never bring myself to drop the cash on it. Well this accident finally gave me the push to get the front end conversion that I've been wanting for like 2 years now.

I ordered it from Password JDM and it should be here by Wednesday. In the meantime the guy at the body shop has been working on getting my car all set and ready for the new plastics to be installed once they arrive at my house. I'm really hoping that they'll arrive on Wednesday like they said they would because I can't wait to get my car back and also to see it with the new front end on it. Once I get it all put back together I'll post pictures of the new front end.

Here's some pictures from the accident. In these pictures I'd already bent the hood down some and the bumper back up as close into place as I could get it (then tied it with some string to hold it together) so that I could drive it back to my house, since the accident was 3 minutes from my house, and then later on once the auto body shop opened I drove it over there. The pictures don't do the damage justice because like I said I had already bent most of the stuff back into place. What you can't see in the pictures are that my passenger side headlight was in about 15 pieces and once I got to the auto body shop and popped the hood and moved the drivers side headlight it fell into a bunch of pieces too.

Anyway here's the pics...

Pre-Accident:



Accident Pics:









Once I get the new front end on I'll add new pictures of that with the body work done to it. Also since I wrecked my car and have had to drop so much money into it to get it fixed, and I got the front end I've always wanted, I decided that I'm going to keep my car now instead of selling it (before the accident I was on the verge of selling it for either a WRX or a Mazda3) and work on making it into the car I always wanted it to be since I'll be getting about $5000 come January from my school and that has the potential to be a lot of stuff done to my car lol

While I was doing some research I came across a picture of a car that's similar to how I want mine to look once I finally get everything done to it so here's a base picture of how I want mine to kind of look once I finish putting all of the work into the outside of it that I will, excluding any interior or engine work (I've been contemplating a swap eventually) that I'll do.



That car is Electron Blue Pearl, my all time favorite Honda color. I plan on putting different rims on it, keeping my stock spoiler, maybe doing something different with the hood, adding a couple of CF parts (like CF Fog Light covers, maybe a CF Aero Grille or **** like that) but that car is basically my inspiration for how I want mine to look.

If anyone knows who the owner of that car is and they're a member here then please let me know their username so I can point them to my thread and let them know how their car basically inspired me to take mine from becoming scrap to becoming a really amazing looking car.

Oh and like I said once I get my car back with all of the work done to it I'll post pics. I'll also use this thread to post new pics anytime I add new parts to my car.

Edit:

Here's a photo album of the pictures of my car. Ignore the ones of the blue Civics at the end. Those are just inspiration for future mods I want to do.

http://s233.photobucket.com/albums/e...uture%20Ideas/

Here's a couple examples:

steventrrr

I see the look you're tryna achieve. It's clean, no doubt. Gl!

steventrrr

http://passwordjdm.com/PasswordJDM-E...P1430C319.aspx
check out those fog lights, and basically, get sidemarkers, sunvisors, cf hood, spoon mirrors, and a type-r lip? (don't quote me on that one)

mbish23

Yeah those are the fog lights I want but PWJDM sells a kit that's like a lighting upgrade kit that includes the fog lights and bi-xenon HID's all in one kit so I'll probably just buy that instead.

I also want to get these CF fog light covers just to kind of go with the CF hood and a couple of other CF parts I want to get just to make it stand out a little more from the other Civics in my area. For example, I haven't ever seen one with fogs on their car so that alone will make it different then if I had the CF covers it makes it even more unique.

You basically got what I want to do for the outside with the stuff you said except my car is already coming with the sidemarkers installed on the new front end conversion because it comes with JDM front fenders, then the fog lights, CF hood, and instead of a Type-R lip I want to add the Spoon style front lip since I like the way it looks with the 2 holes cut out of it.

Here's pretty much a list of everything I want to add/do to the outside of the car...

- 99-00 Front End Conversion - already bought
- CF Hood
- CF AeroCatch Plus Flush Hood Fastener Kit (maybe)
- EK '99-'00 Civic Coupe/Sedan Rear Bumper
- JDM EK '96-'00 Civic Coupe/Hatchback Window Visors
- JDM EK '99-'00 CTR Grill
- JDM EK '99-'00 CTR Headlights (maybe down the road eventually)
- JDM Style Rear Window Visors 94-01 Integra / 96-00 Civic
- Password:JDM 96-00 EK Civic Lighting Upgrade Kit (includes the Password:JDM Yellow Fog Light Kit and the plug & play JD Lighting HID conversion kit w/ bi-xenon configuration)
- Password:JDM Dry Carbon Fiber Bumper Ducts 99-00 Civic
- Password:JDM Dry Carbon Fiber Fog Light Covers (EK 99-00 Civic)
- Spoon Style Urethane Front Lip
- JDM EK 96-00 Civic 4dr Sedan Power Folding Side Mirrors (Kit) or JDM EK9 99-00 CTR Power Folding Side Mirrors
- Buddy Club P1 Racing SF Challenge 16X7.0 White w/blue lip or Mugen NR Racing White 15x6.5, +45, 4x100 or Rota Slipstreams or Rota Grids, I haven't decided on rims yet but narrowed it down to those 4.
- Electron Blue Pearl paint job

I basically just want a clean, JDM styled (even though people think it's gay or fake or being a poser or whatever, I don't care what other's think I like the looks of the parts and that's what matters to me) Civic that I can drive around in, maybe take to the local car shows around my area, and just enjoy the look of it whenever I see it, as well as enjoy driving it each time I get into it. This car is also going to be my daily driver.

I also plan on doing some interior work as well as some engine work (that'll probably be last since I have to decide between keeping the D-series and putting some stuff on it, turbo'ing it, or swapping it)

steventrrr

i like that jdm style you want, but the ebp is kinda played out imo. it would look clean though. GL.

acake em1

ebp is played out?...

mbish23

That's funny that you say that because in my area I have literally never ever seen one that color. In fact I've never even seen a blue civic at all and I go to school in Willimantic, CT where there's a ton of people that drive riced out Civics (there's like 2 nice ones) and even those ones aren't painted blue. The only color Civics I see are black (like mine), Cypress Green Pearl, the occasional Milano Red, Iced Teal Pearl, and that's about it.

Like I said I've literally never seen a blue (any kind of blue made by Honda) Civic in person. The only time I've ever seen them is in pictures online so I don't really see how it's played out if I've literally never seen any blue Civics, let alone an EBP Civic.

Edit:

I lied, I did have a 1990 Civic that was blue, not sure what blue exactly, but I only owned it for like 2-3 months since it was a POS and everything was rotted. It was my first car, kind of, and after the muffler fell off from being so rotted and the brake lines went (plus all of the rockers and the fenders were completely rusted out) I sold it for $300 to some kid that responded to my Craigslist add.

steventrrr

haha ebp isnt played out, let me correct myself, its just.. idk. i dont like it. it looks nice but it's like, if you see epb you automatically think si, right? i don't like that. ahaha

mbish23

That's just your personal opinion on not liking the color then. That is a far cry from it being played out. If it was played out then everyone and their brother would have their car painted that color.

steventrrr

i guess? well everyone has his own.

mbish23

I just found a picture I forgot I had taken of my car from before the accident and added it to my OP.

TwoFacedCustoms

There's about 4 of blue SI's within 15 miles of me...so I understand what steventrrr is sayin...

acake em1

that does not mean the color is played out. it was the only civic to be made in that shade of blue, and if not mistaken i think the only other honda made in that color was a crv. either way it is not played out. its associated with an si because thats the only civic with that color, so its easily distinguishable. if it was played out everyone would be doing it, and trust me there arent that many ebp em1s left.

anyways op good luck with your build

cloud17

Nice blue car...good luck with your project!

chatch82

cant wait to see the progress!!

mbish23

I finally got my car back on Saturday so here's some quick pictures I took of it in the driveway. They aren't the greatest because it was really sunny out and the glare kept screwing them up but I plan to get some decent ones fairly soon.

The guy that did the work did an amazing job. If anyone in the CT area ever needs body work done I suggest using Don at Tower Auto in Colchester, CT. He's about 50-55 and he's been doing body work since he was 15 years old so he knows his ****. On top of the body work he did for me he also replaced my radiator, my hood latch, my O2 sensor, installed a 99-00 radiator support so he didn't have to cut the bumper or brackets, and installed new eyebrows that mount the headlights because mine were bent. He also welded on the beam that goes across the inside of the bumper as well as removing a dent that got put in the hood when it was delivered to his shop. On top of all of the work he did he gave me a 10% discount since I paid cash for everything. It took him 25 hours of work but it was well worth the labor because my front end and engine bay look brand new now. It's amazing the work he put into it and how well it turned out. He also replaced all of the little plastic screw things with actual nuts and bolts so the gaps line up better as well as putting in new headlight and parking/blinker lights. The headlights he put on almost look like HID's actually but they aren't, the glow just resembles the glow of HID's. He also wired my headlights to have the blinkers act as daytime running lights, which my car never had before, and he wired my side markers to turn on when I put my blinkers on.

I didn't have him paint the front end because it would have been $800 to do it right and I was low on funds since all of the parts and body work cost me $3000 and I'm also still debating on whether or not to paint it blue in a few months so I figured I'd hold off on paint for now, plus the primer is close enough to the body color that I don't care.

Here's the pictures I have. The aren't the greatest but they at least show the work done and give a comparison of what it looked like before and from the accident. I made an album with all of my pictures because it's easier then posting 30 pictures here so here's the album with all the pics of my car. Just ignore the pictures of the blue Civics because those aren't mine, they're just ones I like and inspiration for what I want my car to potentially look like in the future...

http://s233.photobucket.com/albums/e...uture%20Ideas/

Today actually ended up being a nice day for me Honda wise. I spent all morning on the phone trying to find what tire shop could give me the best deal on 4 steelies with studded snow tires mounted, balanced, etc and then put on my car and after calling like 8 shops and them all ranging from $360 (for snow tires without studs) to $580 (for Glacier Grip II's with studs) my mom was lucky enough to make a call to the junkyard in town and they just happened to get a 1998 Civic in that day that they were scrapping that had 14 inch steelies on it. They said they'd sell them to me for $100 with the tires on them so my mom went down while I was at school and put a deposit on them then when I got home from class we went over and picked them up. My current summer tires are wicked shot from having a bad alignment that has destroyed the inside half of the tires so I was hoping the 4 tires on these rims would be good enough to use for a month until I could afford to buy winter tires and have them put on the rims I was buying today. Well when I got down there 3 of the tires were good but the 4th one had a huge cut in it.

We had to run to the Post Office so my mom could mail something before they closed so while she was inside I was standing outside next to my car on the phone with Town Fair Tire (who quoted me over $200 to have their 4 cheapest tires put on the steelies) when a kid about my age (21ish) walked up to me and said "hey did you just add the 2000 front end?" I was thrown off by someone recognizing it and started talking to him when he pointed out his Civic, about the same year and coupe style as mine, across the parking lot. We talked for awhile and I explained about my accident and how it finally gave me an excuse to get the 2000 front end. After talking for a few minutes he took me over to his car and popped the hood and showed me what he had done and I was telling him how I had spent all day trying to get a good deal on snow tires when he said his friend had just sold his Civic and was looking to get rid of 4 MasterCraft Glacier Grip II tires for $200. I jumped on the deal and once we both finished up I followed him over to his shop and got the tires so by the end of the day I got practically brand new Glacier Grip II studded snow tires and nice steel rims for the winter all for $300 when I was looking at a minimum of $360 to have that done anywhere else. The kid even offered to have me stop by tomorrow when I get out of class and he said he'll mount the tires for me since no shop will because in CT you can't mount studs until Nov. 15th or Dec. 15th and he invited me to some Honda car shows/races they go to every Friday night. I guess he's a member at CtVtec.com but I don't know his screenname on there, I only know his real name is Colton so if anyone knows his SN on that site let me know so I can let him know I signed up there.

I also found a wrecked 2000 EX for sale in the next town over from me and I've been debating doing a Mini Me Swap so I'm going to give the guy a call tomorrow and see if he'll sell me the head, exhaust manifold (I need a new one since mine has a crack in it and I can probably get it cheaper then the $250 everyone else wants for it) and the intake manifold so that I can do a Mini Me Swap in the near future.

Also as I'm sure you guys can see by my pictures one of my rims doesn't match the others. I have 3 16 inch Enkei RS6's but the other one is some other Enkei rim I don't know the name of. If anyone knows of anyone that's selling 1 RS6 please PM me or email me at mbish23@yahoo.com because I'd love to buy it because I plan on getting new rims and tires for Christmas and selling the RS6's and I figure it'll be easier to sell as a set of 4 then a set of 3 with a mismatched ri

mbish23

I just got some good news involving my car today. My mom informed me that since that 2000 EX with the motor and tranny I wanted to buy so I could swap them into my car then put my engine and tranny into that car, fix the body damage, and then sell it for like $7000 got sold already and we couldn't buy it and she knew I'd been saving all of my money towards an engine swap until I had to spend it all to get my front end conversion done/my front end fixed after I rear ended another car she told me that she's willing to buy me whatever engine I want for a conversion and is willing to spend up to $10,000 to help me get my car fully built up as my Christmas/Birthday/College Graduation present.

So now that I know that she's willing to buy me an engine and pay for some parts to add to it plus I know I'm going to be getting around $5,000 back from my school in January I have some massive plans involving my car coming up in the near future.

I'm trying to decide what I want to have done to my car. I have an automatic now so I know I need the parts to convert it to a manual and I also have to decide what I want to do with it engine wise. No matter what I do with it I'm converting it to a manual. I've narrowed it down to a few choices...

1. Build up and turbo my current D16Y7
2. Do a Mini Me Swap and put a Y8 head on my Y7 engine, this may also eventually lead to a turbo as well
3. Install a '98+ GSR motor, build it up pretty heavily, and then turbo it (This is what I'm leaning towards since it seems like it'll lead to the most amount of power. Hmotorsonline told me they have one in stock and they'd sell it to me for the same price as a complete 94-97 GSR swap and it would come to about $3000 shipped to my house, which is the best price I got quoted online and I know they have a great reputation). I want the LSD tranny and I'd order the Hasport mounting brackets through them so that'd be another $650 so the total would be about $3650 to get it.
4. The final engine I'm contemplating is going with a B18C5 because I rarely see anyone put one of those in their cars and it would really make it stand out IMO. If I went this route it would cost me $4500 for the 98+ year engine and then like $275 shipping plus $300 for the Hasport mounts so altogether it'd be $5075.

I'm honestly not sure what route to go. Part of me wants the mini me swap or to swap in a EX SOHC VTEC motor because it'd be cheaper and I'd have a lot leftover for other stuff but then part of me has always wanted a B Series for like 5 years now since I got my license and started getting into Hondas/Acuras. I really want the C5 because it's so rare to see installed, at least in my area, but I know logically the best route to take, and what the mechanic is most likely going to suggest, is to go with the GSR and turbo it because that'd be an easy way to build power pretty "easily". If I had a mild build I could most likely get it to 220 whp and then by turbo'ing it I could make it up to about 325 whp at around 10psi. If I decided to really build up the motor and run it at a higher psi I could make even more power.

The one thing I need to keep in mind in all of this is that it's going to be my daily driver so whatever route I go I need it to be really reliable because I plan on having the work done around December/January/February and after that I'll be driving it 5 days a week about 50 miles each day back and forth to college and then after that I'll either be working, going to grad school, or having an internship so I'll still be daily driving it then.

Out of the 4 choices that I want to go with, which does anyone suggest I go with because honestly I still don't have my mind made up?

Edit:

I forgot to add that I already talked with a mechanic that almost primarily works on Hondas in my area and he said the whole engine swap would cost me about $600 and the mini me swap with just putting the Y8 head on would only be $200.

I've also always wanted a wire tuck and he said he could do a complete wire tuck and relocate the battery to the trunk for me for $450 and all of the wires would be hidden in the fender then they'd have any wires that needed to come to the back of the block exit out the middle of the firewall and hook up that way so you couldn't see them. Here's some pictures of one wire tuck they did on a B series to get an idea of how mine would look for that price...

mbish23

I just got a can of VHT Wrinkle Red paint in the mail today from Jegs since no shop in my town carried it. Only one of them even had wrinkle paint and all they had was the black color so I had to order it online.

I'd planned on painting it Friday when I got home from school but my friend told me we're most likely going out to a meet/street races on Friday night so that means I'll have to wait until next weekend to do it because the paint takes 48 hours to dry and then you have to bake it in the oven afterwards and I won't have enough time to let it dry in time for Monday if I do it on Saturday. I want to make sure I give myself plenty of time to do it properly and get a nice paint job on my valve cover so I'll just wait until next weekend to do it.

I'll post pictures of the process and then the final piece after the drying, baking, and putting it back on the engine.

mbish23

I have an update...

I just got done talking with DC2kid21 and made a deal to pick up a set of red Recaro Speed seats from him on Saturday.

I'll post a picture of them once I get them. I've been wanting some Recaro's for a long time now so I'm pretty happy about finding these and getting a good deal on them too.