building a clean daily driver for as cheap as possible !

SO i bought a 97 DAP ek hatch from a friend over the summer for a daily driver. He only wanted 600$ for it, Considering he bought from a homeless man 2 years ago for 800$ when it was in good shape.. He didnt mind letting it go cheap and i didnt mind buying cheap.

this is what the car looked like after i picked it up (hx wheels i bought for decent tires) had bald *** steelies on it.



At the time i had no real plans for it. Just wanted something to beat around in for cheap that was good on gas but the drivers side door leaked really bad when it rain due to someone taken a crowbar to the door at some point.The carpet and drivers seat would stay wet for days and stink when it rained .



The car needed a ton of stuff when i bought it. Everything was broke and or shitty. So i started gradually picking up parts i needed at the yard when i would go or trade/buy parts online if i found a really good deal on something..

Things the car needed
glove box
antenna
tail lights
floor mats
carpet
sunvisors
headliner
door panels
hood latch cable
drivers side window regulator and sill
window crank
axle
fender liner
etc

One day i went to the yard and scored on some parts. They just pulled in a wrecked coupe and i was able to get a few things for really cheap
armrest, radio bezel ,floor mats ,glove box and decent condition sunvisors for 35$


Around the same time i was selling some extra drum stuff i had laying around and ended up trading some cymbals to my friend for some sir headlight he wasn't using, i sold a couple more things and found a guy parting out his hatch on a local forum. I got a sir lip with minor damage ,JdmShit "ctr" grill, window crank, fuse box cover and a tail light for i think a 100$


Well after a week of rain i got very annoyed with the leaky door and set up a time to take the car to a friend for body work , I went over there and he just started parting out his hatch and i coped a set of ctr power folding mirror for a good deal. not really practical for a "cheap daily" but i hate USDM mirrors and didnt want spoon knockoffs or anything like that.

While the car was getting the body work done i started on a few small projects. At some point the car had been repainted. They for some reason put what looks to be clear coat on the side skirts . So i stripped them down and trim painted them.


I went to a auto trim store to get fabric to redo the headliner and found some sweet cheesy fabric to redo my door panels in. I decided instead of replacing the door panels i would just replaced to cracked inserts and recovering them
test fitting back in the donar panel.


Then i got the car back from body work a couple days ago .Right side replacement fender i traded some speakers for.



test fitting the replica grill just to see how it fit, fits pretty decent but im getting the oem grill painted to. Also the better condition dap bumper i got off a guy on a local forum. got the bumper,window regulator, window sill and a door panel for 60$



immediately started striping the interior to put in the carpet i go from a member on NWP along with a set of black moldings,




Old carpet compared to the one i bought



While i had all the interior pulled i recoverd the headliner



installed and wired up the power folding mirrors


heres how the car sits as of this afternoon. Pulled the moldings and almost have it prepped for paint . taking it to maaco, kinda scared about it but i dont care enough about the car to dump a lot of money into paint and like i said Cheapppp build.

 

wow nice progress. Definitely gonna be a nice save

 

600 dollar ek? damn good find you have some really good friends lol.

 

hey. its snowing over here. is it snowing over there? lmk thx <3

 

nice!

 

it is snowing. it is.

 

Wow, just read through. Your doing some AWESOME work on this thing. Quality doesn't always mean spending a ton of money, as you have proven.

As for Maaco, don't be worried. I've had two (IMO) successful Maaco jobs in the last two years. It's all in the prep. Sand everything down to 400 grit. Buy some Dupont Plas-Stick and spray all of your rubber or plastic parts (mirrors, bumpers, etc...) to aid in paint adhesion.Tape everything for them. They just don't have the time to be the best quality tapers. Just tape around all your windows and junk. They can then back tape and add masking paper off of your existing tape lines when you get the car there. Take off all of your lights, moldings, and weather-stripping prior to paint as well, even if you have to do it in their parking lot (if your driving the car there). Most importantly, remind them that you want them to make sure that they get ALL THE WAY underneath the bumpers and rockers with the paint. Tell them to make sure and tape over your tires and nice HX rims. Basically, your just making them aware that you are not their average-joe customer who doesn't check up on the "little things" of the finished product. They should recognize this, respect it, and take care of you properly.

Go for their highest quality single stage paint. The whole deal should cost about $350 out the door, and be done in around 3 days. Best part, if there's any orange peel or runs, they will fix it for free. So, just tack on another 2 days of time in your plan/schedule. They will say it's done on day three. Stop buy, find the runs and flaws, if any, have them fix it, and come by on the 5th day for pick-up of a great car for cheap. Can't beat that!

Up-keep on the paint: You do have to be dilegent about washing the car. All dirt and debris WILL come out of Maaco paint, just like it would on more expensive paints. But, honestly, it takes a little more elbow grease. So, try to wash the car every 2 weeks, and when it's time, wax it regularly.

Just my two cents.

Here's a pic of each of my rides, each with Maaco jobs. I endorse them adamantly to anybody wanting a clean paint job on their daily. I get comments all the time at gas stations, etc...

Best of luck!

 

Cool build, I'm glad you're doing it right!

 

wow great progress

 

holy crap that wagon and 1g crx are nice. want to sell either?

 

Don't want to high-jack his thread. So, you've been PM'd.

http://hondamarketplace.com/showthread.php?t=2644598

 

Thanks for the info OG wagon.. I look it to the maaco in High point NC. It was recommended by a painter friend of mine. Said they do a lot of dealer work, I talked to the guy about what i wanted and he walked me around a hand full of cars that looked really good for the money. I sanded the whole car before i went and he said they would sand on it too, I taped off a few things i was worried about and pulled the rain guard roof sills ,tail lights, headlights and license plate frame,
I would have taped the whole car off myself, but i had to drop it off before the weather became bad on friday. I didnt want to let the primer set with snow on it and didnt have anywhere to store the car. you kinda got me worried about not putting and adhesive promoter on the plastics though. eh
i should get the car back at the end of new week..We'll see how it comes out. fingers crossed

BTW. like casey said. Awesome cars! its nice to see older cars done right. esp in NC

 

looking good man. i thought i got a deal on my car. 600 though is a steal. keep up the good work!

 

lookin real good keep it updated

 

yea. I seriously bugged him every couple weeks about getting it off of him. I think the homeless man like lived out of it. So dude deff took advantage of the homeless guys situation . Which sucks but it turned out nice for me..At the time he bought it i was actually looking to buy a DAP hatch. He wouldnt let it go and i ended up buying a shell from a guy i FL . Then i had more money and could afford to put more money in a daily driver.

heres a pic of it.


but yea. im stoked on the car for the price.

 

i got two tires for the HXs.. needed em badly.

sorry for the shitty cell phone pics

 

looks good tone. miss u

 

suscribed!

 

i didnt know that grey jdm front end ef was yours. i worship your car, its what im basing my build off if. keep up the good work man.

 

miss u too sweets.. we gotta get up soon... its been to long!

 

thanks man!

 

Looks like a really nice build, you really scored on the parts and the car too, cant wait to see it back from macco!

 

you still have those struts/springs?

and just throwing this out there, if you were still considering the b16 ill give yuo a good deal on it haha

i dont want it sitting in the garage anymore

 

I might get the car back tomorrow. We'll see .

I got a few more pics to post tonight.

Weaksi!! You're talking now. Haha. Hit me up via Pm with a price . If it's something I can work out I'll deff grab it.

 

heres a few things i have for it


christmas gift from my sister,
Depo fogs ( i cant tell if i like them or not. so i might rock em i might not)
and itr shift boot

then a
buddy club shift **** i had laying around i got off of morasso
ebay special replacement antenna
and a Egr bug shield i found on ebay for 20$. i dunno if ill put that on or not either.. but probably being i dunno how well the maaco paint will hold up . Couldnt hurt