CivicSk8ter

Hey guys what's up. I'm new... I'm 16, and I'm about to get my license. I've never really been into cars. My life has basically consisted of skating and chilling with friends. Only recently have I had a strong interest in cars, maybe the last year or so. I found out about street racing and modding your car and all from watching Initial D, an anime series maybe some of you heard of. That's what really got me interested in it. I've been to other boards, but none seem to be as helpful as this one. I plan to purchase a 98 Civic EX coupe off a family member. It's got something like 40-50k miles on it. Would you consider this to be a good newbie car? I wanna learn as much as possible, I don't care if I make mistakes or what not cause I can learn from them as well. I wanna do alot of the modifications myself, and those I can't I have a few friends who work at a auto shop who said they'd help. Also I don't graduate until next year, and I'm on a limited budget. Right now I see myself doing modifications in this order:

Performance
Performance
Exterior
Suspension
Performance
Interior (maybe)
Audio (Maybe)
and the rest being whatever performance parts i can get my hands on. This a good order? I not only want my car to be moderately fast......If I get a small increase in HP i'll be happy....but i also want a nice looking car as well.
Also, when money and time permits I'd like to do an engine swap. I've been looking into it, did some searching on this board, and on some search engines, and have decided that it seems the B18c1 is probably the best choice for me......can this be done to a coupe? I know alot of you guys have HBs and I don't see alot of coupe stuff.

Anyway Thanks alot for taking the time out to read my post and poo poo....Sorry for the length...I just really want to learn. I know it sounds corny, and I know you all probably think I'm a ricer and just want to be one to the F&F kiddys, but that's really not my intent. See you around..

dirtySOHC's

welcome to H-T.....hope you find everything you need here.....its been very helpful for me..........

BERT-O

Welcome to the board.

Cheers

Moondoggie

Yeah, im 17

I've been driving for a year and a half and im still trying to decide on a car. Parents are co-signing a loan so i pretty much have enough for any type of civic.

I always thought performance was best to start off with, then you can 'earn' the looks part. heh. Coupes are sexy...


[Modified by Moondoggie, 2:52 AM 1/31/2002]

OR-G

Welcome to HT.

Well a 98 civic is always nice. It doesn't really matter what generation, you can mod the hell out of them.

I'd probably put suspension before performance. Suspension is also in the looks department, as you lower the car and get rims. I personally prefer to drive up really curvy roads going 50-70mph rather than stop light racing. I would say even if you are going to be drag racing all the time, still get some suspension done first, you don't want to kill yourself.

Is the car manual? Manual is much more fun than automatic. A Little bit harder, but you have much more control over the car.

Hope you have fun with your new money pit... I mean car

deepnite

yup, suspension buildup first..research first and dont nickle and dime urself to death with mods and upgrades till uve research d the topics..DON T STREET RACE!!, ull lose ur license, or worst..get urself kill d ..other wise have a good time with ur new ride

CivicSk8ter

Alright thanks for the welcomes guys. I didn't think I would be that welcome due to the fact that I'm new and young and whatever. Anyway, the Civic I'm purchasing off my family member is a manual. I'm still learning to drive them. I've been practicing on my dad's new ZX2. I'll pick it up by the time i buy it. And I'm trying to learn as much as I can. I've been reading alot about engine for right now, and turbos. Next I'll move onto researching suspensions like you guys told me. I heard Ground Control Coilovers are pretty nice and Koni or something like that. Which do you recommend? I could've sworn I saw a topic about this and someone said to do GC coilovers with Koni springs or something...I'm not to sure. Also any thoughts on the engine swap? I'm in no rush to get it, for right now I'm just gonna adjust to my car, learn it as well as I can....and then possibly in a year maybe year and a half do a swap. What do you guys think? Thanks again.

Subtle

Just take it slow bud. Dont start talking about swaps and turbo setups before you even know exactly how a cold air intake works. Start small with those mods, from the way it sounds you wont have the cash flow to do anything major for a couple of years anyway. Do the basic bolt ons like everyone says, AEM Cold Air Intake, DC Sports 4-2-1 Header, and a cat-back exhaust of your choice...there's a ton out there. I have the Apexi N1 and love it. That will give you a noticeable little pull in performance, then you can work on the other things you were talking about. Personally I'd do those engine mods before you worry about suspension. I've done the basic bolt-ons and kept my stock suspension only until now. When you do suspension Ground Controls are a good coilover set-up for the price. I'm getting KYB Adjustable Shocks tomorrow, got all 4 for $310 if you want a number I can get you one...thats the cheapest I've ever seen them. If looks are important there is a PLETHERA of body kits for the 6th gen civics. Projector lights, spoilers, RIMS, etc. Give me your email and I'll send you a wholesale list I got off ebay a while back with links to dozens of online shops that saved me big cash.

Krow

Welcome

Phil B

Welcome.

Looks like you've got your priorities pretty much in order. I agree, however, that suspension should be at the top. Taking it slow and easy is a great way to go. Especially since you're still young and just learning.

keep us posted on the buildup...

Sucka Free

subtle, can u hook me up with these shops too?
im quite the bargain hunter.
thanks

maniphesto@mail.com

sol-man

Can I get that list too?
I love a bargain
Its probably because Im broke


Sorry; where are my manners
Welcome aboard CivicSk8ter



[Modified by sol-man, 11:56 PM 2/1/2002]

deepnite

all of us have raced in the streets atleast once..and got a rise out of..specially if u win ..but to honest now, street racing is for idiots..if u really want to find out how big ur ***** are..hit the track

jjcivic_si

Hey do you think you could send me that list as well? I'm shopping around for my 99 civic EX right now. email: jac603@hotmail.com
Good advice!!!

BlackDeuceCoupe

Welcome newbie!

Look, my friend, I'm on Honda sites all over the web. I have a 138 I.Q. and I'm probably the smartest guy on this site, so you can take my word on this. Do yourself a favor and take this advice.

If you want to learn all about Honda CiViC's, and you want to do it quickly, buy this book and read it.

"Civic Duty: The Ultimate Guide to the World's Most Popular Sport Compact Car - the Honda Civic" by Alan Paradise



When you're finished with this book you will know more about Honda CiViC's then 90% of the ppl on the Internet, and 100% of Honda mechanics. This is required reading...

Kamin

ignore him, hese simple.
stick around youll learn alot.

Meth

bwahahah bdc your hilarious bro...yo is sho ever coming back? btw welcome civsk8ter

BlackDeuceCoupe

I dunno. I think I broke it. The last message I had on there had 7000+ views and 400+ replies. I think that hottie fried their database...

functionFiRst

WELCOME civic coupe is a great start...don't waste your money on little things...work on the big things first (performance)...stick to H-T...you will learn plenty!

BARF1

first off the list ..

get a helms/haynes manual ...
suspension
HP gains

and continue as you wishes ....

I am 17 here but I read alot and understand alot more about cars then most of my friends...

also .. check out http://www.howstuffworks.com ... i love it ... to learn the basic of stuff....

i am searching for my own car also ... but chances that it will be a civic is getting smaller and smaller ...


edit : BTW .. welcome ..... this site rocks ..


[Modified by BAR-F1, 9:40 AM 2/2/2002]

CivicSk8ter

Alright thanks again guys for the help. I'm heading on over to Barnes and Nobles today to pick up a Daily Bread (skate mag), and I'm gonna check out the books recommened here. I plan on getting the car in a few months...probably in Mid-April. Once I get it I'll keep you posted on any new news and mods.....hopefully I'll be doing them as often as I can.....probably gonna unload all my cash(which isn't alot) on my car, unless my skates are trashed.

Oh yeah....my email is sk8ter585@hotmail.com any chance I can get that list of shops and all? I have found a few shops in NJ, but I have yet to check them out, and was wondering where there might be more. Send me that if you could, I'd appreciate it dude.


[Modified by CivicSk8ter, 5:15 PM 2/2/2002]

DaNish

You remind me a lot of myself. I got my car in August right after I turned 17, 95 Civic Ex. It's definately a lot of fun, even though it's not the fastest car on the road. As you can see in my sig, most of the mods I've done are performance, but I would recommend upgrading your suspension first. I should've done that, but once you get one performance mod, you just have to keep buying stuff to make your car faster. My next couple of mods I plan on gettings are a Neuspeed Lower Rear Tie Bar, Eibach Sportline Springs and a set of Rota Slipstreams with some decent tires. My tires I have on my car now suck. Good luck with your car, it's a lot of fun building it up.

teknine

mang! that howstuffworks.com site is the shizzaa!~
you've just found another way for me to waste a poo pooe load of time here at work on this fine Saturday afternoon.