Got2bskippy

Hey guys my name is Dalton and I recently just bought my first car. Well not my first car I previously drove a 92 Toyota Camry that was my sisters first car and had 300k miles on it but the title was in my sister and mothers name the entire time up until November 2014. It was then signed over to me and in December I got into a accident coming home from work when I got into a accident that was not my fault and ended up finishing off Catalina the Camry. After getting rides to work from my best friend/coworker, my awesome girlfriend and my supportive mother, I was able to convince my older but shorter sister (whom I call little sister) who had just recently graduated a nursing program and got a job offer at Duke Hospital where she would be making quite a bit of money that she should sell me her 2000 Honda Accord Coupe with 254k miles for $2000. Which brings me all the way to this awesome website and you guys. I know I may have talked a little too much about how I got my car but as a person who loves cars and driving I develop a love for the cars I own and get pretty attached to them so this stuff is kind of important to me.
Speaking of me I think I will introduce myself a little better, I am new-to-the-trade technician at Chevrolet dealership. I got the job because my best friend Micheal was able to convince the service manager that he should hire me even though I had no experience working on cars accept for helping him work on his clapped out 1972 Scout International Harvester (more on that latter). I was in community college for 2 years where I hated my classes and I had lost interest in becoming a Aerospace Engineer because I realized that the image that I had in my head of what having a career as an Aerospace Engineer would be like and what it would actually be like were totally different.
When I graduated high school with high honors and a 3.9 GPA I thought that becoming an Aerospace engineer was going to be pretty straight forward, even though I didn't get accepted to NC State's famously hardcore engineering program I didn't want to go right away and pay for 2 years at State just for general education. That would be like $30k of student debt right off the bat before I even started taking engineering classes so I elected to go to a community college that had a engineering program with NC State (basically all you had to do was pass all the classes with good grades and fulfill all the credit requirements for the program and you could transfer right to NC State and they would accept all the credits and you wouldn't be on a waiting list or anything). My community college tuition would be payed for with my Pell Grant (because I am poor) and I wouldn't have any student debt until I transferred to NC State. A smart move I think because I really really didn't want any debt like my Little Sister (whom as of this time has about $100k of student loans to her name) so I tried to minimize it as much as possible.
I did okay my first and second semester (3.2 GPA) but I began to really dislike my classes more and more as they had absolutely nothing to do with engineering and I felt should have been taught in high school. I mean come on I have spent 12 years of my life in the public school system and now college wants me to pay (with my grant) for more schooling that is just general education and has nothing to do with engineering!?! I expressed my frustrations with my friend Micheal (same one) while we worked together at Bojangles where we would always talk about cars and help our coworkers out with their car troubles. Micheal also went to the same high school as me but was a year above me and had also chosen to take a similar college path as me by going to community college first to avoid paying big university tuition fees and transferring into NC States (you guessed it) engineering program. He was in his second year in college and shared the same sentiment about college as me abet his dislike for college classes was now bordering on hate. So more time went by I grew to dislike college more and more and it all came to a head when in my 3rd semester at college I took Fundamentals of Engineering in which my professor told us what it was really like to become a engineer, 4 to 6 years of being the new guy getting the worst jobs just about and having to go to meetings almost everyday and very little hands on work like all that cool stuff you imagine engineers doing in a lab with lab coats on testing mini rockets and stuff or you may have to become an apprentice where you may not even get payed for your time just so you can get experience to put on resume to get an actual job.

On top of all that I did some research and read some stories of people getting degrees in Aerospace engineering and having to move to places like Cape Canaveral FL, Houston TX, or Mojave CA just to have the OPPORTUNITY at getting a job and then not getting a job and having to become bartender or something else to pay off the enormous debt from moving to that area and all their college loans just struggling to make ends meet. This shook me to my core and at point had me not being able to go to sleep just worried about what it would take to get a job and realizing that the one career that I had chosen I would end up hating. It felt like I had no other path to go down, I was depressed and at this point I was in my fourth semester and I was failing my classes miserably because I just couldn't get motivated to get the credits and pass the classes to transfer to State to then take on a boatload of student debt to get a piece of paper to then move across the country to just have a CHANCE of getting a job, there were no guarantees and I hated and feared that more than anything.

Then one day at work while on break with Micheal I once again expressed my worries about college and my future engineering career to him, He agreed with how stupid it all was and admitted that he had not even done any of the work for his classes and not even showed up to one at all he hated school so much now and then he told me that he had taken a class and got his ASE certification for basic mechanics or something along those lines, but I will never forget what he said to me next, he said "Dude screw college I hate my classes and I don't want to be a engineer anymore. Dude lets be mechanics just think about it no sitting in a stuffy office with a huge pile of college debt just working on cars and trucks all day." to which I replied; "Working on cars all day for the rest of my life? That doesn't sound like work that sounds like retirement." Two months later Micheal had gotten a job at a Chevy dealership and quit Bojangles. 7 Months later after much convincing on Micheal's part with the service manager I got a interview with the service manager where I admitted I didn't know very much accept how to rotate tires and change oil but I was willing to learn. A two weeks later I got a call from the service manager telling me that I need to go do the drug test before he can welcome me on to the team. I remember my hand shaking as I lowered my phone to end the call. So much weight was gone from my shoulders, so much relief! Oh man was I happy I just about cried! I was going to have a full time job in a career I would love at a place that would pay for all the training I could want working with my best friend. That night at dinner my mom mentioned that I looked very happy for the first time in a while and with a smile I told my mom that I was dropping out of college she was really angry first but then I told her that I had gotten a full time job at a dealership that would pay for all the training that I could want and in a career that I would love and she soon was crying and hugging me telling me she was happy that I had found my way.

So three months later here I am I've learned a ton of stuff, I may still just be doing quick lube stuff and tire mounting and balancing but I do a lot of other things when I don't have oil changes and tire rotations to do and I help out the older guys in the shop while they teach me stuff. I am also making some pretty decent money too and though sometimes customers are annoying but I love every second of it and I am glad to not be backed into a corner. Sorry for that novel's worth of story telling I did about how I got to where I am but it is a story I have been wanting to tell and I feel it is important that I tell so you know that my car is not just a project but the first car I have ever modified and more importantly a learning tool.

So now on to the car. Anastasia is a 2000 Honda Accord Coupe EX (I think the badges were removed), my sister bought the car with 180k miles on it from guy on Craigslist who was kind of a tool if I am honest who had modified the car already and had lowered the car with new shocks and springs and had dropped it about 2 to 3 inches I think its pretty low, put a ridiculous dual exhaust that had massive fart cans on each end that sounded like crap and fortunately for me had put and pretty nice stereo unit in with a aux jack and a Memphis 12inch sub in a fairly nice box in the trunk. My sister during her ownership replaced the exhaust from the cat back with something that looks pretty close to what it might have looked like stock I don't know what muffler it is but it looks like it was robbed off a minivan.

So things that I don't like about my car
- The head lights are fogged with age and look bad
- The hood does not meet the front bumper and grill very well and creates a ugly gap.
- The splash guard/lower valence and part of the wheel wells are missing due to the car being lowered and I guess the guy damaged the splash guard and decided to remove it because there are a lot of scrapes on the underside of the bumper and the wheel wells look like they have been rubbed through by wheels that were too big when turning
- The car has tiny discs in front and drums in the rear
- The car has a 4 lug bolt pattern as well as ugly steel wheels with questionable hubcaps
- The car is lowered so much that the car has maxed out the suspension adjustments and is not aligned properly so it pulls to the right and eats the inside tread of tires
- The engine is seeping oil from distributor which is not uncommon on the F23A1 according to my coworkers
- The rear bumper has quite a few scuffs
- The seats are super uncomfortable and hurt my back


What I have planned for my car
- I am going to buy the front and rear hubs, sway bars and control arms off a same generation accord V6 model so I can have 5 lug hubs
-I am also going to buy the entire brake system from a Accord V6 so I can disc brakes all around and I will replace the brake lines with braided steel lines where I can
- I am going to buy some 1 to 1.5 inch lowering springs to replace the ones in the car currently so I can get my car on the alignment rack and get it aligned so it will stop pulling and eating tires.
- I am going to buy some new headlights for my car with the halo running lights in them
- I am going to try and fix that gap between the bumper and the hood I might ask the body guy at the dealership because I can't figure it out after looking at it 3 times and adjusting the hood latch down and everything
- I am going to buy some XXR 535 rims in gloss black for the 5 lug bolt pattern with my tax refund with some semi sporty tires (I want all weather grip including in the rain but I don't want ridiculously expensive tires it is on stock power after all) hopefully through my dealership parts department so I can get them at dealership price
- I am going to try and find some sporty seats that are more comfortable and supportive but I don't want to pay a boatload of money and I don't care if they are name brand or not as long as they do their job, don't fall apart, fit in the car and I can still move them up to allow people to get in the back
- I am eventually going to replace the entire exhaust from the headers back for better better performance, sound and appearance. But this is definitely the furthest one down on the list.

Advice and Answers I Really Need

- What suspension components do I need to do the 5 lug conversion
- What kinda problems might I run into when swapping the brake system for a 4 disc system
- What are good places to find the 1 inch lowering springs I need to raise the car for a fairly low price and will it still be high enough to be in adjustment for an alignment?
- What dimensions of rims should I go? 17s or 18s? I don't want the wheels to be too big and rub and can I go a little wider than 205?
- What is a good brand of halo headlights that will fit that have the led running lights in them that won't require me to go to HIDs because I don't want to have to put in HIDs because I think they are obnoxious and expensive
- Any ideas/suggestions for where to look or what seats to buy that meet my criteria for being able to slide them up, fit in my car, being supportive and relatively comfortable and no ridiculously expensive. ( I don't care if they are name brand or not as long as they don't fall apart.)
- Any suggestions for getting rid of that horrible glare from the dash that makes it to where all you can see sometimes is the reflection of the dash on the windshield?

I tried to add pictures of my car buy I am not sure if they were added or the insert image up loader was just trolling me.
Thank you guys for reading all the way through and offering advice thanks (:



all those miles





The head unit currently installed with AUX jack





The sub and box in the back, don't mind the rotors I brought home from work to sell for scrap haha scrap metal money for more tools.





A couple scuffs in the bumper and most of the badges gone





Some silly badge the first owner put on.





Those hideous wheels yuck.





The engine is in not that bad of shape. I sprayed it down good with good ol' brake clean to wash away most of the caked up oil and grime I already changed the oil and air filter I will probably go in this coming week and change the plugs, wires and distributor cap, and maybe take the valve cover off and paint it red for the extra 25 kilowatts





the rub through on the wheel wells





The aftermarket springs currently on the car currently





The gap between the hood and bumper annoys me as well as those foggy headlights





How low the car is, it currently has 15 inch steel rims and some super cheap tires my sister put on the car and it already fills out the wheel well completely