Note: this does have some cheap parts in it so if that **** offends you then well... Idk. Most of them are replaced now so just keep reading.

So about a year ago, I wrecked my EF sedan and myself.


So after a few months I needed a new car. I wanted another Honda but wasn't too sure on what. I didn't want another EF because I associated that with my wreck so I just jumped up a generation. I was kinda antsy and jumped the gun a little and bought this car. It was pretty unfortunate really, the only thing it had going for it was the somewhat decent paint job and the front and rear DC strut bars.

Here it is when I got it





The sedan conversion. Its really rare. Be jealous.


Anyway so right off the bat you can tell its a piece of ****. Tinted taillights, corner light (The other one was busted) sedan bumper, cheap rims, missing interior pieces, broken exterior pieces, misaligned bumpers, rusted out exhaust and the list goes on and on.
My knowledge of these cars really only pertained to EF's so when I bought this car it was like something completely different (not anymore). I didn't know too much about cars to begin with, I had done a swap on my old sedan and an mpfi swap but that really doesnt mean anything. I checked it when I bought it to see if it was burning oil but I couldnt see any, come to find out its burning like a quart every two weeks. They cut the springs but of course they never bothered to get an alignment so it was burning through tires like nothing else. So at this point I knew I wouldn't get back what I paid (way too much) So I decided to keep it and just fix it up as I went. This is where the title comes in. I used to hate this car so much. It had so many problems and because I was out of a job from the accident I really didn't have much to work with. Anyway, on with the build:

The first few things I did (aside from ripping that damn angry birds stuffed animal off) to it were just to get it to pass inspection

First up was to get rid of the tail lights and corners. I found a kid parting out his civic and bought them off him for pretty cheap. I still wasn't in that great of a condition so junkyards were out of the question.



The inner passenger side had a small crack but I needed them so I bought them anyway.


Fixed: note the saggy bumper


Corners before:


After:


They're hideous but they did the job.

Now here's some pictures I took after:




I was messing around one day and had a valve cover from my old d15b2 laying around in my garage that was black. I figured it was better than the ugly stock one so i swapped it out.
Old one off

New old one on


It had some idle problems with it that was making it hard for them to test with the emissions so I pulled off all the sensors, cleaned them and readjusted the idle to keep it steady. I changed the spark plugs, fuel filter, and some other things I couldn't remember. It still wouldn't pass. The guy at the place I went to suggested it was the cat so I had him change it out and it finally passed.

I got sick of the ugly clear corners so I bought some yellow clear paint and painted them. Moar pictures:




I had a wink mirror in my old car and I loved it so my girlfriend bought me another one for my birthday. I stickerbombed it (you have to) and threw it on.


By this time i had started working part time and on my way to work one of my rear tires blew out on the freeway. It cracked one of the cheap rims so I had to find some replacements asap. Really didn't want steelies so I found these:



They're stock Toyota MR2 Spyder rims. I got 6 for 200 bucks. I later found out that 3 were 15" and the other 3 were 16" So I sold the 16's and found a new 15 on ebay for like 150 bucks.

When I went to put them on I found out the previous owner had cut the springs instead of putting lowering springs on as I had thought. I was short on money and needed to drive my car again so I went on ebay and bought some cheap coilovers for 50 bucks, to lift the car up a little


I also put some washers on the rear to help with camber. I still didn't know much about suspension dynamics at this point so I thought fixing the camber would fix the problem.

Then I started looking to make the interior a little better because If I have to drive it everyday I might as well make it enjoyable, right?
I found an arm rest out of a sedan and painted it because it was brown.


Then I started looking for a clock to fill in the empty hole from whatever the previous owner did to it. I dont even know how you let a car get so bad.



In this pic you can kinda see the cluster with the sticker the previous owner put over it to make it look cool? Idk but i hated it and it blocked the lights(more later)

After that garbage I was starting to enjoy the car a little.
I wanted to do something to keep me interested in the car but didnt have much money to spend, so I bought some spray adhesive and fabric and reupholstered the door panels and headliner:



I finally got to taking off the sticker on the cluster and kinda messed it up in the process because of the residue left over. I tried using goo gone and other things to get it off but it started to take the paint off so I just left it till I could find new faces.



After searching the junkyards for a while i found a new face for the tach and the speedo but not for the fuel and temp I figured i'd throw them on anyway

 

Then I just kept replacing missing things:
Trunk carpet and board was missing, I also got a spare after the whole tire blowout thing.


Drivers side windshield trim was missing


The carpet was faded, nasty, and had holes in it so I got rid of it
Before:



After:


Bought a new stereo and speakers to replace the blown ones in the front and the (I dont even know what to call it piece of ****) head unit... stereo... thing...
Old

New:




I also made my clock red with some red binder tabs:


My gf bought me some foglights for my car so i threw those on. I pretty much had to make an entirely new harness because the one that came with it eventually melted.



Where I put the switch for it:


One of the many examples of the wiring I found in this car:

I also found a bandaid used as electrical tape. lol

I replaced the mess of a muffler that used to be on the car with a hatch muffler. It was way too short but it fit for now as a temporary solution. I painted it black and fixed the alignment of the rear bumper.


While I was working on putting the fog lights in, I took the bumper off and noticed my front tires were down to the threads.
I ordered a (Cheap) camber kit and had to buy new tires. Yes it is ebay however they haven't given me any trouble although the balljoints are already toast. I'm going to be putting the stock arms back on some day soon.



I also painted all my trims as they were pretty faded and some had primer on them from the **** job they did masking the car off:


The passenger side tail light was really faded and ugly so I polished it and it came out awesome:


Photo shoot!:



There was a meet coming up that I really wanted to go to out at Miller Motorsports park so I wanted to do something to make my car look a little better. I had wanted to paint my rims for a while so I finally got off my *** and did it.
Before:
(somewhere in this time I finally got the right bumper for the car)


During:



After:



During this time I started collecting parts for a mini-me swap. I put it off for a long time for a few reasons; for starters I couldnt have done a swap in the condition I was for the longest time (lots of medical conditions, couldnt walk, etc) and secondly I didnt have the money or time to do it.
I had heard about it and didnt want to go B-series because of the expenses and lack of knowledge so I decided that would be the best route for me.
A friend of mine had given me an LS motor for free. He gave me a cable tranny too but I later found out after some research and stuff that my transmission was hydro and that a b-swap would be hard (probably not knowing what I know now but whatever)
So I put it up for sale and a guy contacted me asking if i would trade it for anything. I had been doing research about the mini-me and said if he had any D parts I would trade him for that. He had an actual mini-me swap that had a spun rod bearing so I agreed to trade him the block for the whole engine. I disassembled the whole thing, got rid of the block for scrap and kept the d16y8 head.
I later sold the b18b head with an intake manifold for 100 bucks and then used that to buy a good d15b7 block.

Ordered a head gasket set and T-belt


After MUCH research and time I was finally ready to throw the two together and get it ready to swap.
I cleaned and painted the block


Threw the timing belt, headgasket and timing cover on and it was almost ready to go.


Cleaning the alternator for paint:


New clutch:


Then I finally had time to do it over Thanksgiving break since I had wednesday and friday off, that gave me almost a whole week to do it:



In:


After I got it running and all wired up for vtec and what not, I found the timing was way off. I had been eying an adjustable cam gear on the classifieds in my area that was only 25 bucks so I figured Id get it and just be done with the whole thing.



I did these two things somewhere in there I just cant really remember when. Haha

Ex door tweeters:


Ek center console:

 

Now that the engine was done It was time to sort out everything else.
I bought some new corner lights to replace the ones I bought when I first got the car. They were pretty much water containers at this point.
Old:


New:


Got my exhaust finally sorted out:
Ebay exhausts FTW. Honestly this thing is awesome. As long as you install it right the fitment is fine. I don't find it to be loud compared to other hondas around here driving around (I actually have a cat installed) at 40mph you can barely hear a hum (on the freeway its a little loud but I just turn the music up) Its not nearly as loud as the old 2.25 piping with dc sports muffler I had on my old car and honestly I've really grown to like the giant beast of the muffler it has.

Fistin it before I throw it on:

"Is it bad that I can fit my whole fist inside my exhaust?"

On:


Header that came with it: This thing is the one that causes fitment problems. It forces your whole exhaust to hang lower.
I'll eventually be replacing this with a turbo or something else.


After this I installed an integra rear sway bar and replaced my old rear trailing arm bushings.



Here's the old bushings:


And the brand new Moog ones:


Then I found some rear splash guards off a sedan at the junkyard. One of the fronts were missing so I only took the rears.


On:

 

Handling the snow like a beast:


Next up I had been researching coilovers for a long time. I had read mixed reviews about Racelands and some people hated them
others loved them. I found out they had another company called Rokkor and the difference between the two was their spring rates. I don't remember exactly what they were but the Rokkor's had slightly higher rate than the Racelands. I saved enough money to buy them and I honestly do not regret it. I've had them for going on 6 months now and have had zero issues whatsoever. I will say that if you plan to track your car, go with something else. This is my daily driver and they are perfect. I'm not slammed though and I don't plan to be either so keep that in mind.

Here they are as they were delivered to my doorstep


Out of the box:


When I went to install them I forgot a washer so this happened:


But I solved it the next day and got a picture of them installed:


This is really the only picture I got after I installed them. Nothing had really changed since the car was already lowered when I installed them except the ride quality of course Ebay coils and blown shocks are not a fun experience.


A few more random things I did:
Installed a foot rest:
If your car doesn't come with one, the provisions are there. Just lift up the carpet in the drivers side footwell and you'll see this:


Pull that up and you'll have this:


Then after you've pulled your foot rest out of a dc2 or eg that has one you poke holes in the carpet and bolt it right in


I got sick of not having power locks so I found this kit on ebay for pretty cheap:


Installed:

 

Then I finally quit being lazy and hunted down my idle problem... after almost a year of owning the car lol

After cleaning all the sensors I was left with only the throttlebody and FITV, I had already cleaned out the FITV once and screwed it in all the way once, but I think that was also causing part of my problem since I was idling at 500

So I pulled those two off


Scraped all the gasket off and cleaned both the throttle body and FITV with throttle body cleaner


I noticed there was a weird notch in the Intake manifold. I thought it was broken but I guess its supposed to be like that... Hahaha


I put on a new gasket with some blue RTV,
And finally after 9 months I have this:


It was very exciting for me!

Then I wanted to do something different so Here's the tow hook I made. let me know what you think!
I kinda tried to polish it but I didnt have a low enough grit so It didnt turn out that great but I still think its pretty cool. Haha

It's not ever going to be used to tow anything so dont worry :D

Custom brackets I made up for it. Painted them black.


And took some pictures
http://www.flickr.com/photos/92150342@N02/8448814111/[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/92150342@N02/8448814111/]
http://www.flickr.com/photos/92150342@N02/8449898344/[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/92150342@N02/8449898344/
[ame=http://www.flickr.com/photos/92150342@N02/8449898140/][/ame]

I went to the junkyard got some EK side skirts and threw them on. Love the way they make the car look!


I also rolled my rear fenders since they were starting to scrape after the springs settled.

Then came the wheels. It took me a long time to decide what I wanted. I went back and forth from diamond racing to dr-20's
but I finally decided on these dr-37's. I think they look classy. This was still with the old 195-60's so they looked kinda funny.
I don't feel like spending over 1000 dollars on something that can be stolen as easily as they can be put on. Reps are fine for me.



Got sick of the uncomfortable EG seats and scored a set of teg seats at the junkyard for 60 bucks.
I threw those on and also found a bumper that was ALMOST the same color as the rest of the car. I figured it was better than black so I got it anyway.

 

Then I took some more pictures

 

Still a ton more! I'll update if there is interest.

 

I'm glad to see you upgraded to full coilovers after the ebay coilover sleeves and stock shocks.

Looks like it has been a fun car for you and a good learning experience.

I've had two teal civics so far, though I never owned a coupe, only hatchbacks.

 

I would definitely agree with the learning experience. I think the car has very much grown with me and gotten better with my health. Here's the rest of the story.

 

God Damn that sedan was fucked. Its amazing that you are alive.

Anyway regarding the coupe, good job, interesting to see the build up. You seem to be doing your own thing, which lately doesnt happen much.

 

After buying the rims I drove around for awhile with the monster truck tires till I could afford something more low profile.

I finally ordered my 195-50 falken ziex's


The difference was amazing. Totally changed the look of the car:



The car always looked funny to me without a lip. I didn't want to get the same thing everyone else had and the oem one wasn't enough for me so I found this one and mounted it up. I will agree with everyone that ebay lips have poor fitment but with the right amount of effort they do fit.



Next up was the trunk. It seemed to me that the previous owners prepped the whole car for paint but only painted the outside. The trunk was sanded down and looked like some kind of primer camo. There was lots of overspray including on some of the trims, bay, trunk, even door jambs. I got tired of looking at the trunk so I decided to put some underbody coating in there to cover it up. Color matched paint for bg33-p is extremely hard to find for some reason so it's seeming like my only option is online. Anyway here's the trunk before and after.



I also made a new trunk board up from some left over plywood i had in the garage and used some headliner adhesive to glue the carpet to it to keep it from moving around.


One of these days I'll get around to cleaning the carpet.

I also used the rest of the undercoating on the overspray in the wheel wells.

Before:


After:


I had seen somewhere someone had put griptape on their pedals so I thought that was pretty cool and was a much better alternative to ugly pedal covers so I put some on I had lying around:

I actually really like them and they do keep your feet on especially when its wet outside.

My homemade towhook began to rust. I guess I didn't put enough clearcoat on it or something so I decided i should just give in and paint it. I really liked the stuff I used on my block so I went with the same color.

Rusty Hook:


Clean hook:


Here's another testament to the bad work the previous owners did in general. I closed my hood and one day there was a crack on my hood. A few months later the crack turned into a hole. I didn't really wanna replace the hood just for a small hole so I did something I shouldn't and covered up.



In my defense though I like the bra and think it adds character to the car so its a win win for me.

The same day my antenna block off came in so I threw that on as well.


And my car went from R/C car


To Race car!


Here's some pics for your viewing pleasures

 

Phew almost there!

I had a few shoots when the weather was nice.


The great salt lake looks just like the ocean its crazy.






And a few with my friends dc2

 

You have no idea haha. I damaged every internal organ in my body. Destroyed my pelvis and was in the hospital for 10 days. I lied to get out. I couldnt walk for 3 months and was out of work for about 8 months.

Anyway thanks, that really means a lot. I dont want to have the same civic as everyone else and I guess i've accomplished that.

 

The car is still mostly the same as that now with a few minor additions.

My inspection is due this month so i bought some stuff to pass plus some stuff for me
I welded on a new cat (no pictures)
I bought this battery tie down for like 6 bucks


I Bought this wooden shift **** from a guy here locally who makes them. Its so nice!


Put these accord mudflaps on. I cant seem to find any ek flaps here at the junkyards so these are pretty close.


Picked up an nrg slim hub for a steal

Then ordered an nrg quick release and wood wheel to match my ****



Aaaand I know a lot of people will hate it but I bought a rack for this:




I've been riding drift trikes every night for the last month or so. It is unbelievably addicting.

Here is my most recent picture of the car


And what I just got done with yesterday


I ordered a basemap from phearable.net because I guess when using a p28 with a y8 head the car runs rich. Unfortunately I ran it that way a little too long so its burning a little oil now. I'm hoping its the valve seals so I'm planning on changing those soon.

As far as future plans go I'm hoping to boost it soon with goals of ~200hp. Probably gonna shoot for 190. If that doesn't happen I might swap it with a b20 or something cheap. I wanna do an overhaul on the suspension including ball joints, tie rods, and new cv axels, rear disks, and new brakes all around. Then I guess from there I'll see where things go.

 

I will hopefully go out for a shoot soon. I need to get ahold of my girlfriends camera since I don't have a fancy one like she does.

Well there you have it. The car I used to hate but now love. I've spent ridiculous amounts of time working on this thing and hopefully it shows. I'm pretty proud of it since i've done more to it than any of my past cars. Still needs a lot of work but I'm pretty happy with it now.

 

I'm digging the look of the car man...keep up the good work. And that bra really sets your ride off with those fogs where did you get it?

 

It took me a long time to find one that didn't cost an arm and a leg. I think I found it off of parts-geek but they didn't even have a picture of it on a civic, It was like a stock picture on a cavalier. Haha

 

Liking the progress, keep it up!

 

Very good stuff, shows that you don't have to spend ridiculous amounts of money to make a car look and feel good.

 

Good work on the car. From the first day you bought it til now, I like the improvements and minor additions you have done to it. Keep it up.

 

great pictoral!!!

 

Thanks guys! I'm always working on the car so I will keep updating this as things progress. As everyone knows, a project is never finished. I'm very happy with the car as it sits now but it's far from done!

 

Nice build. I use to do that a lot. Find a civic on craigslist and do a small project build from ebay, junkyards and where every I could find a deal..

 

Nice work. Glad your alive and well after that wreck